Bright Red Lyrics: Bright Red

Words and Music by Laurie Anderson @Difficult Music BMI (c)1994 Warner

Bros. Records

Tracks:

Speechless

Bright Red

The Puppet Motel

Speak My Language

World Without End

Freefall

Muddy River

Beautiful Pea Green Boat

Love Among The Sailors

Poison

In Our Sleep

Night In Baghdad

Tightrope

Same Time Tomorrow

Speechless (The Eagle and the Weasel)

An interesting part of this album are the references to other artist's works. In this song, for example, the whole thing, practically, is based on some Annie Dillard Story. And then in the Beautiful Pea Green Boat song it happens again. The whole song just tells the story. What's up with that? -JimDavies

It was August. Summer of '82.

By saying that it was in the Summer of '82, I get the feeling that this is a true story. I have always been fascinated by the fact that some of Laurie's stories are true and some are made up, and some are probably a combination of both, but when you are listening to it it doesn't seem to matter. I am always a bit struck when people ask me whether a certain Laurie story is true. I think that starting with Strange Angels she started telling stories that are so personal sounding that I doubt they are made up. IMHO, her more abstract stories that don't have to much to do with her better suit her talents. If I want expressinism in music, I'll listen to Sinead O'Connor or something. -JimDavies

You had that rusty old car

And me I had nothing better to do

The rust and the weak motivation show this is a lower point in the narrator's life. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

You picked me up. We hit the road.

Baby me and you.

We shot out of town

Drivin' fast and hard

Leaving our greasy skid marks

I interpret "greasy skid marks" as descriptive of the sort of wat-clay-slime that would be revealed when the skids peel the lawn off the yard. Only applies if you live where there is high clay content in the soil. Where did Laurie live when this song could be taking place? And is there "greasy" clay-based soil there? David Priest

In people's back yards.

Taken literally, this is quite a statement. Driving in someone's back yard whether or not skid marks are left is pretty nasty. Perhaps she means it in a metaphorical way, taking advantage of the ambiguity of the term "back yard." Recall the expression: "Not in my back yard" can mean the same neighborhood or even the same state, depending on the context. Skid marks are understandable. But skid marks are not greasy. This too, may be metaphorical in that the skid marks in people's backyards are the things they do that the people don't like, and "greasy" is the term that the people use for them and their acts. Aside from all this, I prefer to think about this passage literally, and appreciate the image. Laurie and some guy peeling through yards, knocking down fences, leaving skid marks all over the place, inches deep and constant, over trees and porches and lawns, with a little pool of grease at the bottom. -JimDavies

We were goin' nowhere.

Just drivin' around.

We were goin' in circles.

And me I was just hanging on.

Like in that Annie Dillard book

The Annie Dillard story is "Living Like Weasels" from her collection of essays Teaching a Stone to Talk (good book, too). Dillard herself doesn't actually see the eagle, but rather reads about it somewhere, I believe. Kathryn (SharkyzDay@aol.com)

Where she sees that eagle

With the skull of a weasel

Hanging from its neck

And here's how it happened, listen.

Eagle bites the weasel.

Weasel bites back

They fly up to nowhere.

Weasel keeps hangin' on.

If the weasel opens its mouth the ride stops. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Together forever.

Laurie is symbolized by the weasel in this story, and the guy with the car is symbolized by the eagle. The eagle is the one who is taking them both somewhere, and the weasel is along for the ride. -JimDavies

We were goin' nowhere.

Just drivin' around.

You did all the talking and me

I didnt' make a sound

If I open my mouth now

I'll fall to the ground

The weasel will fall to the ground if she opens her mouth. LAurie, like the weasel, will "fall" if she opens her mouth. To say anything you must open your mouth. To carry the analogy further, Laurie's silence in the car is analagous to the weasel biting the eagle. So Laurie is hurting the guy with her silence. The weasel must keep biting for her own survival. Why must Laurie keep silent? What will happen if she speaks up? -JimDavies

If I open my mouth

There's so much I'd say

By not speaking, the narrator lies. The driver (let's assume it's a he) assumes he can trust her, there's a profound attraction, and that she loves him. This is pure speculation - nothing like this ever happened to me ;) CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Like I can never be honest.

Like I'm in it for the thrill.

Like I never loved anyone.

And I never will.

Eagle bites the weasel.

Weasel bites back.

They fly up to nowhere.

Wesel keeps hanging on.

Together forever.

The image of the weasels biting each other's tail in a circle always reminds me of the mythological snake that is eating its own tail.
I found the following references about it in the Encyclopedia Mythica:
-- Jormungand: In Norse mythology, Jormungand is one of the three children of the god Loki and his wife, the giantess Angrboda. The gods were well aware that this monster was growing fast and that it would one day bring much evil upon gods and men. So Odin deemed it advisable to render it harmless. He threw the serpent in the ocean that surrounds the earth, but the monster had grown to such an enormous size that it easily spans the entire world, hence the name Midgard Serpent. It lies deep in the ocean where it bites itself in its tail, and all mankind is caught within his coils. At the destruction of the universe, Jormungand and Thor will kill each other.
-- Ouroboros: Ouroboros ("the tail-devourer") is the symbolization of concepts such as completion, perfection and totality, the endless round of existence, etc. It is usually represented as a worm or serpent with its tail in its mouth.
M.C.Plath@cs.bham.ac.uk

I remember that old coat.

My grandma used to wear

This is the first of two references to her grandmother in the album. The second is in a dream with her grandmother selling cotton candy out of a little shack. The family is one of the main symbols in this album. -JimDavies

Made of weasels

Biting each other's tails

A vicious circle

And endless ride

On the back of an old woman.

Let's assume this little part has something to do with the rest of the song (not always a safe assumption when it comes to Laurie's works). The chorus singing along with the "made of weasels" part lets us know that this is important. Notice the pun with "viscious circle." A viscious circle goes on endlessly, getting worse, which goes with the "we were going in circles" above. But weasels might be viscious, and the coat wraps around somewhat like a circle. The car ride is symbolized by the coat, going around and around, and the fact that the coat is made of weasels ties in with the symbolism in the Annie Dillard story symbol. Very clever! I like the image of "on the back of an old woman" but I don't know what it means. -JimDavies

...isn't this simply another version of the "endless ride?" The weasel is either in death biting the neck of the eagle, or in death biting its own tail on the back of her grandmother? Wonder if she wore the coat when out to convert the heathens... Mike Wadeuk 2005

Eagle bites the weasel.

Weasel bites back.

They fly up to nowhere.

Wesel keeps hanging on.

Together forever.

And me? I'm goin' in circles.

I'm circling aruond.

And if I open my mouth now

I'll fall to the ground.

Bright Red

Did she fall or was she pushed?

The lyric in "Bright Red" "did she fall or was she pushed?" is most likely a reference to Ana Mendieta. In Ana Mendieta, a Cuban born performance artist and sculptor, fell from the 34th floor Manhattan apartment she shared with her husband Carl Andre. Andre was rather evasive about what happened, and the general feeling was that he murdered her. Anderson would have been very aware of this scandal. Mendieta was known for Silueta^Ò (silhouette) works, in which imprints of her own body merged into landscapes and still lifes - these became posthumously notorious for the way the works echoed her own death by impact. It also might be a reference to photographer Francesca Woodman - a New York photographer who was known for various self-portraits of herself as an angel or rehearsing to be an angel. In 1981 she committed suicide by jumping from a window. Greg g.

Right here. -> Fall <- Concerned Adult "Where did you get that nasty bruise?" Abused Child "I fell" { "Dad/Mom/Uncle/Whoever pushed or beat me" } CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Your shirt on my chair

Your shirt on my chair

A real question for me on this is the use of the two voices, alternating almost every other word. Initially I thought it might have been only a studio technique to achieve a certain "texture" (after all, she was working with Eno on this album); however, after seeing this live with her doing both voices, one high, one low, I've changed my mind. I think the effect of duplicity is what's important; the primary voice (Laurie's) is countered with a new, lower, somehow more dangerous voice, as though there were some element of the malice of a molester rising through the honeyed tones that he uses to entice the child to approach him.timothy_jarrett@mail.amsinc.com

echoes lyrics from Sweaters. Greg the G.

I'll be with you. I'll be there.

I'll never leave you

Your shirt on my chair.

Come here little girl. Get into the car.

Sounds like a kidnapping or something, because of the car and the fact that "little girl" is used instead of a name. "come here Jenny. Get into the car." just doesn't have the same feel. -JimDavies

It's a brand new Cadillac. Bright red.

Here the expression "bright red" is used to describe the cadillac. The car in this context is dangerous. -JimDavies
I agree that the implication is supposed to be that of molestation--the molester in his pretty bright red Cadillac (anyone else reminded of Tori Amos here?)--but I don't think that's _all_ that's implied here. The promises "I'll be with you. I'll be there. I'll never leave you" don't strike me as those that a molester would make to his victim, but rather those that a man would make to his lover. Is Laurie drawing an analogy between dishonest lovers promising eternity but delivering betrayal and child molestation? She certainly appears to be suggesting that they're part of the same pattern of behavior.timothy_jarrett@mail.amsinc.com

Your words in my ears.

I'll be with you. I'll be there.

I'll never leave you.

Wild beasts shall rest there

And owls shall answer one another there

And the hairy ones shall dance there

And sirens in the temples of pleasure.

This is actually quite interesting. The liner notes say it's from Isiah 13:21, so I checked, but my translation is somewhat different (Jerusalem Bible). The quoted section comes at the end of a fairly bloodthirsty chapter in which Yahweh promises the destruction of Babylon in his anger. It goes like this:

But beasts of the desert will lie there, and owls fill its houses. Ostriches will make their home there and satyrs have their dances there.

It goes on:

Hyenas will call to each other in its keeps, jackals in the luxury of its palaces... Its time is almost up, its days will not last long. (Isiah 13:21-22)

Hmm. What can it all mean? Gerard McMahon, ICL, Bracknell, U.K. gerard@bra01.icl.co.uk

Isaiah 13:21. It appears to be a slightly wonky translation. The King James reads: But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. The next verse reads: And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. The whole of chapter 13 is describing the burdens of Babylon. Whether this is past description, or prophecy I am not sure. I've never studied this particular book. This sounds to me like a chunk of the bible that LA would be drawn to. She was, after all, all of those rabbis in previous lives. daves@atl1.america.net (Dave Hubble Slusher)

Just a reminder: King James is the wonkiest translation out there. e.g. "Thou shalt not kill" is a mistranslation of "thou shalt not murder." Big difference, eh? JimDavies

The quotation from Isaiah is the hardest part to make fit here, but contextualizing it in Babylon makes it easier. The illicit revels of the satyrs and sirens of Babylon are going to bring down the wrath of the Lord, says Isaiah. Laurie's implication appears to be that the behavior of her Caddy-driving molester is going to draw down Armageddon. Certainly the Apocalypse is lurking somewhere in almost every song on this album--here I think it raises its beastly head almost to the surface. "Are things getting better or are they getting worse?" The implication appears to be that not only are things getting worse, they're getting _finally_ worse. Is this Laurie coming to terms with the legacy of religion left her by her grandmother?timothy_jarrett@mail.amsinc.com

Your shirt on my chair.

I'll be with you. I'll be there.

I'll never leave you.

Your shirt on my chair.

I wonder if Laurie has a kind of love-hate relationship (probably just an interest) with the shadow side of the human psyche, as she seems to have with the computer/technology? I cannot help but notice the shirt and the hairy ones. As Laurie always, it seems to me, walks on the edge, so will I. Hair shirt is worn for repentance. your shirt on my chair: chair can be like a skeleton, a firmament upon which your shirt remorse rests. your shirt is the closest thing to you, your flesh, in your absence...Could it be her fathers remorse may rest on Lauries strong skeleton, frame, art? reijo@ix.netcom.com (reijo koski)

The Puppet Motel

This song is a critisism of the computer culture. I find it rather ironic that Laurie would make a song like this, especially with her interest in electronics and all. I have heard her complain that the information superhighway isn't so great because not everyone will have access to it. But I imagine that things like the internet will be available to public libraries all over.. I wonder why she thinks this will not happen. JimDavies

I live on the highway

the computer is the automobile of the Information Superhighway and you are in the driver's seat. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Near the Puppet Motel

Puppet = A figure of a person or animal controlled by an operator (puppeteer) = your online identity controlled by keyboard and mouse instead of strings and wires

Motel = A public establishment providing lodging, entertainment, and other services for motorists = Web site, Online service, Newsgroup, WOO or MUD.
CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

I log in every day

This indicated that we are talking about a computer syetem. -JimDavies

I know the neighborhood well.

No about the residents

Of the Puppet Motel

They're more than a little spooky

Maybe computer guys are spooky, but mean?-JimDavies

And most of them are mean.

Maybe 'mean' in Puppet Motel refers NOT to computer guys but the computers themselves. Have you ever tried to log on to a system to which you were not supposed to have access? Type in a guess for the name and password and what you normally get is a message like, "Access Denied! Disconnecting!" or sometimes even, "Alerting computer security!" These messages are not exactly polite.
'Spooky' implies unfamiliar territory, somewhere you've never been before. So if you have just hacked a system which you really shouldn't have, would it not seem a bit spooky?
-Dwayne Kennemore Dwayne_Kennemore_at_ASTENGFW@ccmailsmtp.ast.com

They're runnin' the numbers

They're playin' cops and robbers

Down in the dungeons

This is a reference to the games software that computer people play. "Dungeons" is a doubly good word to use. The stereotypical computer freak stays inside all the time with the computer, making the atmosphere dungeonlike. Also, Role playing games like "Dungeons and Dragons" are popular among this crowd. -JimDavies

a lot of old mainframe rooms are very dungeon like. Usually in the basement, usually dank as they have been put below water pipes because the buildings weren't meant for them, etc..Shane McDaniel flamesplash@yahoo.com

Inside their machines.

Cause they don't know

What's really real now

they're havin' fourth dimentional dreams

Their minds are out on bail now

Is this a suggestion that the minds of the puppets are like people out on bail? Pending trial, only out of jail because they paid some money? Serious accusation. Perhaps she is not referring to computer users in general. -JimDavies

And real is only what it seems.

A reference to Virtual Reality. Computers are getting so complex with their simulation of real world experiences and communication, some people could have a pretty good life just sitting there at the computer. -JimDavies

This makes me think of some type of exetensionalism that is reached through computers. Like the jail isn't so much computers but real life, and the computers are the being out on bail. Still attached but slightly freer. Almost like getting lost in the ether is like getting lost in meditation and a way to reach beyond. ie the 4th dimensional dreams, and real being only what is seems. This line of thought doesn't work in the scheme of the whole song, but is very interesting in these couple lines. Shane McDaniel flamesplash@yahoo.com

And all the puppets in this digital jail

So the puppets are in jail. But they are there willingly. Her point is that they have imprisoned themselves and they don't even know it. JimDavies

They're runnin' around in a frenzy

In search of the Holy Grail.

I used this song in a 7-8th grade Sunday school class. This line crystallizes the overall impression of this song that people are seeking some ultimate satisfaction from being on-line (or other obsessive behavior). Like the midevil knights, they are trapped in search of something that they cannot even identify or name. God can release us from the frenzy in this jail/motel and let us be ourselves. Of course, all the kids noticed is that Laurie sounded like a man. David Jung.

They're havin' virtual sex.

They're eatin' virtual food.

Quite a few of the computer guys I know like to get fast food for something to munch on while surfing the net for extended periods of time. Hacker Kevin Mitnick was famous for this sort of thing. Fast food is, in many ways, 'virtual food' in that it is not fast nor is it really food.
Perhaps this is what LA means with 'they're eatin' virtual food' in "Puppet Motel."
-Dwayne Kennemore Dwayne_Kennemore_at_ASTENGFW@ccmailsmtp.ast.com

No wonder these puppets

Are always in a lousy mood.

So if you think we live in a modern world

Where everything is clean and swell

Take a walk on the B side of town

Down by the Puppet Motel

Take a whiff. Burning Plastic.

Only those with credit cards can afford to get wired. Maybe a joking reference to William Gibson's Burning Chrome. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

I drink a cup of coffee I try to revive

My mind's a blank I'm barely alive

My nerves are shot I feel like hell

Guess it's time to check in

At the Puppet Motel.

Boot up. Good afternoon. Pause.

Oooo. I really like the way you talk.

Sexual harassment online. Let's go to a private room and chat. Online service = virtual meat market = The motel where you "rent rooms by the hour" with your rent-a-girlfriend. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Pardon me. Shut down.

Speak My Language

Daddy Daddy, it was just like you said

Here is another family reference. This never used to happen in her old albums. JimDavies

Now that the living outnumber the dead.

In article 0011D897@ppsw.rug.nl, pc40@ppsw.rug.nl (PC STUDENT) writes: >The "living that outnumber the dead" cannot be a way of describing a new >better world, because she seems not so very pleased at all with it. At >least I interpret the sentence "I'm one of many" in a negative way. >I think it's meant negative, because a recurrent theme throughout all >her work ("Oh no! Another Laurie Anderson Clone") is drowning or >dissapearing without identity. One of the songs where you can find that >theme is - of course - tightrope.
Surely "living that outnumber the dead" is just a reference to the world's human population crisis? I forget the exact numbers, but it will not be long before the living do outnumber the dead. I agree with you that this ties into the alienation theme. Of course, alienation is quite a common theme in modern artwork, but Laurie has managed to put her own perspective on it: I particularly liked the one about the ferris wheel in the ocean. Charles King

Where I come from it's a long thin thread

Across an ocean. Down a river of red.

"Where I come from" is a reference to her ancestry, so "down a river of red" refers to a bloodline. "Red" is a mojor symbol in this album. JimDavies

Now that the living outnumber the dead.

Speak my language.

Hello. Hello.

Here come the quick. There go the dead.

Here they come. Bright red.

So the quick are bright red. JimDavies

it struck me that "quick" also means "alive," which is a more likely intepretation since it stands opposite to "dead." For example, the living part of a horse's hoof is called the "quick," and somebody can be "cut to the quick" (also an equine metaphor) and when a baby is first felt moving in the womb is it called "quickening." Laura Carey-Anniballi lauraca@cattell.psych.upenn.edu

Speak my language.

World without end

World Without End has some treatments in the beginning that are right out of Brian Eno's Apollo. And the beginning of Freefall there are treatments that are right out of Music For Films. I dunno if Brian just opened up his briefcase and plugged in the tape of the effect that he made over a decade ago, or if he actually re-composed them and they just happened to sound just like the stuff he did in the late 70s and early 80s... Initially I was disappointed to hear the re-hashed stuff. "Oh, theres Brian!" I said when I first heard them. Later, listening again, I decided that he put them there because ovbiously he thought they would be cool. But I do still wonder if he just brought them in, or if he actually re-created them. Personally I think he brought them in. -wave@u.washington.edu (David Lee)

I remember where I came from

There were burning buildings and a fiery red sea

I remember all my lovers

I remember how they held me.

World without end remember me.

East. The edge of the world.

West. Those who came before me.

In Indian mythology, "the Western Lands" are where the dead reside. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

When my father died we put him in the ground.

When my father died it was like a whole library

Had burned down.

This is a very moving passage. Everyone likes it. Laurie's father was actually alive when she recorded this, but died sometime about a year after the album came out, I think. --JimDavies

World without end remember me.

The description of Laurie's bereavement is one of the most amazing things she's ever written here, moving from clinical description to metaphor effortlessly, the whole thing steeped in grief. Then comes "World without end remember me".... First, whose voice is this? Her father's? Her own? One of Laurie's principal themes here is an awareness of mortality brought on by the deaths of others (her father, her grandmother). That the reaction to her father's death is "remember _me_" struck me first as odd. The issue raised here seems to be the old old one of artistic immortality--will the artist best death, his memory perpetuated by his works? The speaker's fear expressed here is that the "library" of a life perishes along with the living, and that there is no immortality, not even this attenuated fame, for humanity at all. timothy_jarrett@mail.amsinc.com

In an interview for a German radio station, Laurie Anderson said she regretted that she had written "When my father died ..." because he was alive and well - and she wasn't sure what his reaction to it might be.
M.C.Plath@cs.bham.ac.uk

Freefall

There seem to be lots of references to falling on this record. JimDavies

You're out on the ocean

And you get pulled down

Freefall to the bottom

Like when you're drowning

Or falling asleep

You get turned around

And when you think you're

Swimming to the surface

You're swimming straight down.

Down to the bottom.

All the way to the bottom.

Secret codes and cryptograms

I'm lost in your words I'm swimming.

We're going down to the bottom

All the way to the bottom

Rapture of the deep.

I got your letter. I couldn't read it.

It was a cryptogram.

Did it say take me with you

Or take me as I am?

We're going down to the bottom

All the way to the bottom.

We get turned around.

There is another world spinning inside of this one.

I remember where I came from

There were tropical breezes

And a wide open sea

I remember my childhood

I remember being free.

We're going down to the bottom

All the way to the bottom

We get turned around

There is another world

Inside of this one.

Rapture of the deep.

We're going down to the bottom

There is another world

Spinning inside of this one.

Muddy River

The harmony of this song never ceases to intrigue me. I love to listen to it in the car and try to sing with the male's part. JimDavies
This is the most apocalyptic track on the album (except perhaps for "Night in Baghdad") and most of the imagery suggests the failure of all humanity's structures (religion, civilization, technology even words ("all the towns and cities and signs") against the power of night and nature.timothy_jarrett@mail.amsinc.com

Rain keeps pouring down

Houses are cracking. People drown.

Cars are rusting here. A church floats by

Washed in the blood of the lamb.

The lamb? The only thing I can think of that this could mean is some sort of reference to the "sacrificial lamb," from the story of Abraham and Issiac (?) JimDavies
The "lamb" reference here could be to the Abraham and Isaac story, but more likely it's to the Christian image of Christ as the sacrificial lamb whose blood redeems the sins of humanity. By extension this is an Isaac image, since the Isaac story is one of the preludes in Genesis to the story of Christ. The reference is ironic rather than redemptive, though, because the image of the floating church is juxtaposed with rusting cars, cracking houses, drowning people, disappearing superhighways, and other failures of human effort. The implication is that compared to the awful cleansing power of flood to redeem the land from humanity, the power of Christ's blood to redeem humanity from sin is insignificant. The double irony is that baptism, the "washing in the blood of the Lamb," which is meant as an act of salvation, is confronted by the true cleansing power of water and provides no salvation against it. timothy_jarrett@mail.amsinc.com

And all the superhighways have disappeared

One by one. And all the towns and cities and signs

Are underwater now. They're gone.

We're going down my the muddy river

We're walking down by the muddy river

Somebody tell me please:

What happened here?

Mud is everywhere.

Fish are swimming in the fields.

Everybody's running arund, they're yelling

Is this the end of the known world?

Men and women in their boats

Try to save what they've lost.

They're yelling, It's all gone now.

We're never gonna find it again.

But when the muddy river starts to rise

It covers us all. And when I look into your eyes

Two tiny clocks two crystal balls

We begin again. We try

We begin again. Down by

We're going down by down by the muddy river.

We begin again down by the muddy river

We're walking down by down by the muddy river.

We're going down by down by the muddy river.

Bright Red: Tightrope

Beautiful Pea Green Boat

I'm lying in the shade

Of my family tree

I'm a branch that broke off

What will become of me?

Dear Mom, I'm lying here

In this queen sized bed.

I don't know if this is supposed to mean something or if this is a true story and it happened in a Queen sized bed. If the symbol is intentional, it seems that as a child she felt too small for the bed, and too small to be a queen, which, perhaps, is how she saw her mother. JimDavies

I'm thinking back

To all the stories you read to me

About those little animals

Who went to sea

In their beautiful pea green boat.

But I can't remember now.

What happened then?

Dear Mom, how does it end?

A child's ploy to get the parent to tell a favorite story again. Maybe it's a favorite because the owl and the pussycat get to live happily ever after, unlike the narrator who has had bad experiences with eagles, weasels, wild beasts, owls, black cat nights, and enough old boyfriends to fill a ferris wheel. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

So far this song is perhaps typical for this album. But from now on the entire thing is her retelling this story. I get the feeling that this story has some significance, but I can't see any connection with this story and anything else.. Could it be that this song is meaningless except for just the recollection of a childhoood event and a favorite story? And what's up with not knowing the ending? JimDavies

The owl and the pussycat went to sea

In a beautiful pea green boat.

They took some honey and lots of money

Wrapped in a five pound not.

The owl looked up to the stars above

And sang to a small guitar,

O lovely pussy! Pussy my love!

What a wonderful pussy you are.

The word "pussy" has such connotations in this culture that it's use like this must be intentional. Maybe it's just a joke. I kind of laugh when I hear it. JimDavies

Let us be married

Too long we've tarried

But what shall we do for a ring?

What shall we do for a ring?

Hey! Hey!

They sailed away for a year and a day

To the land where the bong tree grows

And there in a wook a piggy wig stood

A ring at the end of his nose

A ring at the end of his nose.

And hand in hand at the edge of the sand

They danced by the light of the

By the light of the, by the light of the moon.

And hand in hand at the edge of the sand

They danced by the light of the

By the light of the, by the light of the moon.

The moon, the moon.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

These "hey"s are fairly innocuous in the song, but when looking at the lyrics, there are four of them right in a row. Maybe she is just being accurate with the lyric sheet, but I can't help but think that they are written as such to draw attention to them. JimDavies

Love Among the Sailors

This reminds me of "The Dream Before" on Strange Angels, but somehow even more boring and less interesting. Laurie Says on an interview that this is about a friend of hers that has AIDS. JimDavies
Perhaps, this song performs some motifs on Jean Genet book "Querelle De Brest" (I mean, last Reiner Verner Fassbinder`s film was based on that book and has the same name). So, just like the motifs in Berlin-Alexanderplatz appears in White Lilly song, it goes this way.
There is a hot wind blowing
It moves across the ocean and into every port.
A plague. A black plague.

Well, according to the book, seas and oceans and sailors and water itself is something that always reminds murder, crime, homosexual relationship etc. The black plague here is a metaphor, or the common idea for all that stuff..
And you've been sailing.
And you're alone on an island now tuning in
They like to whistle, sailors. Genet`s commonplace: solitude.
And if this is the work of an angry god
I want to look into his angry face.
Some metaphysical stuff. Ancient ideas sometimes taught, just from Heraclitus tradition, that the world began by the work of a cruel god or by the chance-operations. At least, this excerption from existential philosophy could be compared with Sartre, Genet works etc.etc.etc. Simulacre, sofronyi@mailru.com

There is a hot wind blowing

It moves across the ocean and into every port.

A plague. A black plague.

It's about AIDS. It's too obvious, IMHO. JimDavies

There's danger everywhere

And you've been sailing.

And you're alone on an island now tuning in.

Did you think this was the way

Your world would end?

Hombres. Sailors. Comrades.

These are quite obviously, referring to the same group of people, but in three different languages. Yes, that's right Jim... this song is about AIDS, and this reference here refers to the way this devastating disease knows no ethnic boundaries. I guess you could say that, no matter the nationality, all the victims of AIDS are... er... in the same boat.
From your comments you seem to not like this song too much. In its defence, I think it is the most CREATIVE song and social commentary I have heard on the matter.
It IS very alleatory, isn't it?
Dwayne_Kennemore_at_ASTENGFW@ccmailsmtp.ast.com

There is no pure land now

No safe plave

And we stand here by the pier

Watching you drown.

Love among the Sailors.

Love among the Sailors.

There is a hot wind blowing

Plague drifts across the oceans.

And if this is the work of an angry god

I want to look into his angry face.

There is no pure land now. No safe place.

Come with us to the mountains.

Hombres. Sailors. Comrades.

This reminds me of a book by William Burroughs. I think it was "Cities of the Red Night", and one of the subplots involved an anarchist multicultural utopian island populated by pirates and governed by love. This must be how it ended. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Poison

LA talks about what I will assume is her character's husband in this song being 'just one floor and a shout away.' Now, if YOU were having an affair with someone, SURELY you wouldn't fool around with the 'other woman' in the same house when you're wife was home. This is a ridiculous concept.
Rather, I think that her husband just failed to try to hide the affair, perhaps by explaining the 'long hours undoubtedly spent at the office doing extra paperwork' in a particularly unconvincing way, or maybe he just would come home late with no explanation whatsoever. His wife's problem is that, up until the time she apparently did something very nasty to him involving glass and/or a bullet, she was afraid to do anything.
-Dwayne Kennemore Dwayne_Kennemore_at_ASTENGFW@ccmailsmtp.ast.com

It was one of those black cat nights

This is the kind of lyric that will stay with me forever and go through my head at strange times during the day. I love it! I also like the way the voice is presented. It's done with no vibrato and is much louder than one would expect lyrics to be (relative to the music). I love to crank this part up. It sounds like she's right there in the room with you. JimDavies

Every time I listen to "Poison" ('It was one of those black cat nights...') I am reminded of the Mr. Heartbreak "Gravity's Angel" -- 'Look, look, look; you forgot to take your shirt...' David Priest

The moon had gone out

and the air was thin

It was the kind of night

that the cat would drag in.

I'll never forget it, we had a fight.

Then you turned around

turned on the light. You left our bed.

Then you moved downstairs

to live with her instead.

Yeah just one floor and a shout away,

I guess I should have moved

but I decided to stay.

just like "weasel keeps hangin' on" ? CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Did I drink some poison

Before this line is the same line sung quiety in the background. I like the contrast between the little line with the up-frontness of the rest of the vocal track. JimDavies

that I don't remember now?

And every night I open all the windows

I let a cold dark wind blow through.

I play loud organ music and I talk to myself

and dream of you.

Uh oh! I hear voices coming up

through the pipes

through all the springs in my bed

and up through the lights

The volume goes up

then it drops back down

I can hear the two of you playing records

moving furniture and fooling around.

Did I drink some poison

that I don't remember now?

Is there blood on my hands

No, my hands are clean.

Did I do something in another lifetime

that was really really mean?

Yeah, I'm hearing voices.

Am I losing my mind?

Think I'm going crazy, I gotta get out.

I run into the street and I start to shout

Get out of my way! Get out! Get out!

Did I drink some poison

that I don't remember now?

Is there blood on my hands?

This is the only time in the song when she asks whether there is blood on her hands and doesn't give herself a reassuring answer. It is also the last time she asks, indicating that she finally admitted, realized, or faced the fact that there is blood on her hands. JimDavies

Did I do something in another lifetime

that was really really mean?

A small bullet, a piece of glass

And your heart just grows around it.

Another one of those neat lines! This symbol I find particulary good and powerful. It indicated that the pain is there, in calling it a small bullet or piece of glass. And by saying that your heart just grows around it, she means that your heart recovers, but the glass or bullet is still there-- it doesn't go away, and the pain is not forgotton. -JimDavies

In Our Sleep

The guitar sustain and the drums sound so good in this song. In her Empty Places tour, Laurie talked about some people's voices (Hitler's) sounding like drums and music. This song could be about talking in your sleep, and speech sounding like drums. JimDavies

In our sleep as we speak

Listen to the drums beat

As we speak

In our sleep as we speak

Listen to the drums beat

In our sleep

In our sleep as we speak

Listen to the drums beat

As we speak

As we speak in our sleep

Listen to the drums beat

in our sleep

In our sleep as we speak

Listen to the drums beat

As we speak

In our sleep as we speak

Listen to the drums beat

In our sleep

In our sleep where we meet

In our sleep where we meet

Night In Baghdad

On the "Stories From the Nerve Bible" tour, she explained that this song was written as her reaction to what she called the "football coverage of the Gulf War" on CNN. -snickell@students.wisc.edu (Scott Nickell)

And oh it's so beautiful

It's like the fourth of July

In keeping with her United States theme, the fourth of July has been mentioned here and before. Recall, from Home of the Brave: "Sounds like the fourth of July.. Nope, wrong again." JimDavies

It's like a Christmas tree

It's like fireflies on a summer night.

This reminds me of the part in US live where the near deaf woman says to her near deaf husband about their stuck car alarm: "It sounds like faraway bees on a summer day." And the man said: "What?" JimDavies

And I wish I could describe this to you a little better.

But I can't talk very well right now

cause I've got this damned gas mask on.

So I'm just going to stick this microphone

out the window and see if we can hear

a little better. Hello California?

What's the weather like out there now?

And I only have one question:

Did you ever really love me?

One question: Where the hell did this come from?? JimDavies

It's like when you're talking with your ex-girlfriend and she's going on about a perfect and special time you two spent together and you remember that same exact time as some kind of endless nightmare. CHAZ@c230_acs_mailserv.edmonds.ctc.edu Charlie Campos

Only when we danced.

And it was so beautiful.

It was like the fourth of July.

It was like fireflies on a summer night.

Tightrope

Last night I dreamed I died

and that my life had

been rearranged into

some kind of theme park.

And all my friends were walking

up and down the boardwalk.

And my dead Grandmother was selling

cotton candy out of a little shack.

Anyone else picture this grandmother with a coat made of weasels? JimDavies

And there was this big ferris wheel

about a half mile out in the ocean,

half in and half out of the water.

And all my old boyfriends were on it.

With their new girlfriends.

And the boys were waving and shouting

and the girls were saying Eeek.

This is a magical image. I love it. It's also very funny. The most interesting thing about Laurie's personal life as expressed in her lyrics is her dreams,IMHO. JimDavies

Then they disappeared under

the surface of the water

and when they came up again

they were laughing

and gasping for breath.

In this dream I'm on a tightrope

and I'm tipping back and forth

trying to keep my balance.

And below me are all my relatives

and if I fall I'll crush them.

Another family reference, common on this album. JimDavies

Alluding to the story of her near death in the Himilayas, this could refer to her walking the tightrope between life and death. She is thinking of her relatives and the effect her falling [dying] will have on them. Tipping back and forth could be the literal motion of her travel and her mental state, between conciousness and delirium. Scott Teesdale stgrcd@comcast.net

This long thin line.

"This long road" about 2:50 & 5:40 into Gravity's Angel, and "This long thin line", the shirt and the shirt & chair, why these mountains and those mountains for the characters to jump from in another CD/track. Her vocal tech.is the same in several parts of the 2 cuts that you find similar; also, parts are in the same key I think. michael, mreilly@arl.mil

This song line. This shout.

The first clue that the tightrope has to do with her music. "Song line" is obviously music, and "This shout" is Laurie shouting out to the world through her music. JimDavies

The only thing that binds me

to the turning world below

The only way she directly communicates with the rest of the world is through her music. JimDavies

and to all the people and noise

and sounds and shouts.

This tightrope made of sound

The next clue. The tightrope is the aforementioned line, and it's made of sound. Another clue is on the cover. There is a laser shining into her hand. It's bright red. A CD uses a laser to read the music. I think here it all comes together. Her music is her connection to the world, and the music is communicated through a laser. The laser is red because that's how we usually think of lasers, and because it is her life, her own blood. It carries the sound information, so one could say that it's made of sound. It's a shout in the sense that she wants to be heard. JimDavies

This long thin line made of my own blood.

Remember me is all I ask

And if remembered be a task forget me.

The poem is by the great Irish poet, painter and songwriter, Percy French, a contemporary of Whistler and Turner, best know to the popular culture as the author of Abdulla Bulbul Ameer! Obviously. Laurie is a fan. eric baldwin, ecbaldwin@earthlink.net

Remember me is all I ask

And if remembered be a task

This long thin line. This long thin ine.

This long thin line. This tightrope.

The association of "this long thin line, this tightrope" with Laurie's music that Jim makes plays nicely into my earlier thoughts about immortality in "World Without End." Here again we have supplication for immortality in close juxtaposition with a reference to her music. I'm not sure that it's as neat as that though. In her stage show in Washington she told the story of almost dying in the Himalayas, and remaining alive because one of the members of her expedition walked down with her, talking to her for some thirty hours so that she would have a human voice to focus on and cling to. It was this, the sound of a human voice reaching her on the brink of death, that she called the "long thin line" connecting her to life. In this context, her plea to "remember me" is a cry from the tightrope, a request to keep her memory should the long thin line fail her and she fall. timothy_jarrett@mail.amsinc.com

Remember me is all I ask

And if remembered be a task forget me.

This long thin line. This long thin ine.

This long thin line. This tightrope made of sound.

Same Time Tomorrow

Last piece, 'Same Time Tomorrow', contains the LA trademark sound which never fails to grip my heart.
something like "UUUUUH-AAAHHHH' - it's un-natural
I suspect the effect is very studied, and wonderfully applied. Somewhere in all her works a juxtaposition of sound manages to reach some primeval part of me. ghawkins@news.seattleu.edu (N. Greg Hawkins)

You knwo that little clock, the one on your VCR

the one that's always blinking twelve noon

because you never figured out

how to get in there and change it?

This always makes people laugh. Laurie is often like a stand up commedienne in the way she presents things we are all familiar with in a different way. What makes it so special is that this funny line is also a symbol in the song, not just a one liner disconnected from everything. This is one of the reasons I like Laurie so much. JimDavies

So it's always the same time

just the way it came from the factory.

Good morning. Good night.

Same time tomorrow. We're in record.

So here are the questions: Is time long or is it wide?

And the answers? Sometimes the answers

just come in the mail. And one day you get that letter

you've been waiting for forever. And everything it says

is true. And then in the last line it says:

Burn this. We're in record.

And what I really want to know is: Are things getting better

One of the framing stories was about her meeting John Cage when he was about 87. Instead of talking to him about music theory, etc. she asked him if we (that's a collective ALL people, we) were getting better or worse? and John Cage answered, "Better. slowly, gradually, perhaps imperceptibly, but better." And I think that's what I like most about Laurie Anderson's work. She asks questions about the puzzling predicament we find ourselves in as human beings at the end of the second millennium. Surrounded by technology and victims of our own innate human behaviors, she shows us that we are puzzling, humorous, awe-inspiring, and in spite of our problems, getting gradually "better". mrmuster@pacificrim.com

or are they getting worse? Can we start all over again?

While listening to US Live and listening for themes to LA's music (falling, driving), I came to realize that cyclic events are another popular theme: Walking and Falling; Closed Circuits; "This is the time, and this is the record of the time"; and even the opening and closing SFX... And this stretches right into Bright Red, which opens with the vicious circle of eagle and weasel, and ends with Same Time Tomorrow, which contains the lines "Can we start all over again?" And Ferriswheels, and Sharkey's day and night, and "you've been on this road before" and ... Is there any chance that LA puts faith into reincarnation? Or would that be too neat a tie-in?priest@fraser.sfu.ca (David Priest)

I don't hear reincarnation in this. I hear a sort of realism--day in, day out, things are pretty much the same. No closure. Things that happened years ago pop up next week. No matter how we try to wrap up everything in neat thirty minute segments, things keep coming back. It's as though life were syndicated, and since we'd already seen it all before, we flip past it, except that some part of it has hit us and stays in our head. That's how I see (?) her music, anyway.... charles padgett cpadgett@moe.coe.uga.edu

Last time Laurie was in Chicago (the Park West) she gave an informal show and had a question & answer session after it. Well, I asked her, regarding women in the art world, "Do you think things are getting better, or are they getting worse?" When I met her afterwards she said, "that was a very insightful question you asked me..". Imagine my surprise when I bought the album and there was my question! I found out when I saw her Chicago show last friday (3/18) that she asked that question of John Cage when she interviewed him *shortly after leaving Chicago* the first time. Do you think she really used my question, or is it just a coincidence? I didn't get to meet her this time, I wish I could have asked her. Anyway, those of you who have'nt seen the show yet, you are in for a real treat. Bye. JEssica

Stop. Pause. We're in record. Good morning. Good night.

Now I in you without a body move.

This is good, but it sounds like something she might have lifted from somewhere. JimDavies

And in our hearts we fly. Standby.

Good morning. Good night.