That's Cool! She should come out with a full length album version of It only takes an Expert right now, it would be a guaranteed Grammy! Hahahahahahahaha! !!
@@justicekrista5665 I knew who Laurie Anderson was before I knew who Lou Reed was. And she established her place among the avant-garde over a decade before she even met Reed. She was #2 on the British Charts in 1981. She composed the soundtracks to Spaulding Gray's films "Monster in a Box" and "Swimming to Cambodia" in the mid-80's. And she was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1982 (again, 10 years before she even met Reed), but I guess none of that counts, huh? Oh, and did I mention that she has a Grammy? Forgot about that.
@@justicekrista5665 According to her Laurie met Lou Reed in person in 1992, although she was well aware of him before that. I just posted my response to you to point out that Laurie Anderson was a visionary on her own, and owed nothing to Reed before her triumphs in the early '80's. I hope I didn't come across as callous or condescending. My apologies if I did. I met Laurie Anderson in 1987 on a flight in coach. She seemed very surprised that any random person would have even recognized her back then.
@@jan-martinulvag1953 You should realize there was no need to expose your ignorance and lack of imagination like that. Anderson is one of the cleverest, insightful and adventurous lyricists of our age. And Dave, while no dummy, could and can still often be a butthead.
I love that Dave had on many artists of non-commercial "avant" or complex ideas like LA, Beefheart, Zappa & Tom Waits almost as regulars for awhile, a nod to NYC, true art & beauty
Laurie mentioned this performance in her book *Stories from the Nerve Bible* and said she was never asked back again... until 2010 that is! *Right there on stage is greatness, and no one noticed!*
@@justicekrista5665 you are so unaware it’s embarrassing. Better to remain silent and be taken for a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. You have removed all doubt. And Laurie has had an acclaimed and successful career. Just because you don’t understand something, don’t project it on others. And don’t be so eager to show your ignorance The entire album this song is on is fantastic.
Who would want to catch up with her? Brilliant artist? Have you lived in a cave and haven't heard any real brilliant artists cuz this broad is very very far from it if she wasn't married to Lou Reed and riding on his name people would laugh her off the stage if not throw Rotten Tomatoes
@@rree9550 yeah she married Lou Reed that's the only reason anyone listens to her I would have liked to seeing how far she got with that nonsense if she weren't riding on Lou Reed's name
@@justicekrista5665 au contraire. she was there long before lou and still is after him. laurie has the long view. lou was just this "cool" kid bowie built.
I worked as the Flyman and Rigger on the Technical Rehearsals for her "Nerve Bible" and "Moby Dick" Tours. I looked forward to every 16 to 20 hr work day!
I have not seen this until now...but I've heard about this performance. Dave just didn't know what to say to her or really how to take her...although she really didn't give him a lot to go on. I've been a huge fan of Laurie Anderson ever since I saw the video to 'O Superman' when it was released in 1981. The song and video have been permanently embedded in my memory and will not ever go away. One of my all time favorite songs. Thank you for posting.
Mr. Heartbreak is a fine record indeed with some heavy hitters on it - Adrian Belew, Bill Laswell, David Van Tieghem, Peter Gabriel, not to mention William Burroughs.
However saw that than and bought the album Mr. Heartbreak would be very surprised about what was actually on that record. One of the greatest art-pop-avantgarde albums of all time!! With outstanding musicians....
She has a way of getting people into a sort of trance. It's a very different type of art. It's sort of an escape into a dreaminess. Art doesn't exist if no one experiences it.
what's uncanny is a little sideways Google rabbit hole let me to Laurie Anderson and I wanted to hear Walk The Dog... The full studio version. then RU-vid serves up Laurie on Letterman and this was her choice !!?!! wonderful stripped-down rearrangement, but ya' kinda still want the drums & that sax riff to come in near the end.
Yes, it's almost a whole niche genre in itself. Host treats margin artist as if she's either insane, from another planet, or can barely understand English.
@@joechill1 agreed. he had lou reed on a bunch too (though i wish it had been at least once as a guest) one of my all time favorite videos is the band future islands doing their first ever televised performance on his show, which was absolutely legendary and dave was over the moon and talked about em for months afterward
I owned this song on 12" EP. I don't remember it being on the album Mr. Heartbreak. She might have chosen a catchier tune to promote the album--if that is what she wanted to do.
Behold what made Letterman a legend in the day. He'd bring this on, brother theodore, terri garr taking a shower, richard simmons. He gave not a single fuck whatsoever, and it was glorious.
I don't know how to feel about the audience laughing and Laurie still being so confident, even though I find Walk The Dog to be a bit of a parody of herself. I'd like to think there's a meaning to it aside from that, but this being the most absurd of all the tracks from her I've heard (not just lyrically but also in terms of vocals and composition) it make me think she just doesn't care about being on late-night TV. I think that she's just taking the piss out of the audience and David knowing that if she played a more meaningful track they would still be just as confused. (jesus christ this is worded so poorly)
United States Live was the tour she did where she performed her first three albums all together, plus other material. Well over four hours. I was fifteen, in 1984, when I went to that concert, talking a friend with a car into going with me. I was already a fan of her music, but was completely blown away by the show, with the multiple screens with recorded images animation and primitive computer graphics, choreography, self-invented instruments (Magnetic tape bow and violin, playing "Listen to my Heart Beat"), spoken and recorded word -- so Dry, philosophical, poetic, enigmatic and funny. My friend didn't know what to think. lol
I think it's interesting that Laurie Anderson performed a song from her prior album (Big Science) and not a track from Mister Heartbreak. Perhaps she knew how the message would be current 37+ years later. Timeless talent.
Regarding those not in the mainstream appearing on Letterman; Eugene Chadbourne has mentioned that Dave Thomas of Pere Ubu was asking people for money to travel to New York to appear on the show. It's not pay to play, but they don't help you to get there.
So this song probably is intended to provoke some of the afore mentioned questions, and art that operates thus is IMHO sometimes interesting, and I actually think that such an intellectual scaffold can be sufficient to the creation of a work that is "good", if it is indeed good (again, in my opinion). This is also, I think, just a good song, featuring some fine pizzicato and strummed fiddle work (she is I think a remarkable violinist). Her concerts are both aurally and visually extraordinary. One may think this song, her work, her approach unsatisfactory; your loss, IMO. And as for any and all contemporary art = a bucket of shit, I have found that whenever I've written off a whole category of something, I've usually missed out on some very good shit indeed. Feel free, however, to miss out all you want; I'd rather not.
She could donate Intelligence in copious amounts and still remain one of the brightest humans on the planet. I was expecting a bit more from ''masterful speaker'' Letterman, but then i saw ''7.18'' on the time counter. But I have to reckon that after such an in-genius song, one may as well fall short of words...
i heard that Dave was annoyed with her because it was agreed that she would perform O Superman. And that this wasn't aired. But it seems it was aired? maybe not replayed.
She wasn't high. Look at her expressions. She is fully aware of what she is doing and loving every second of it. She was fucking around with every single person in that studio.
She was pretty square when it came to vices. I'm pretty sure she mentioned that she tried a few things and it wasn't for her. She smoked, that's about it. She does have a certain intense energy while performing though, so it's a common assumption.
Your mode of interpretation has to be sharpened. Or you have to get out more with interesting people who have various ways of thinking so you can develop it more . If an artist who is Not mainstream or predictable, then those who are only use to a that type of person will have limited and knee-jerk reaction to them, to the Way they express themselves. They might be more complex and also subtle where it might not reach you.
Knowing a little more of her life from the film Heart of a Dog, this song is makes more sense. Not as famous as Dolly but still found time to walk the dog, and let him play piano.
I think ... as parties go, this party is better than like walking the dog because these days there is the pooper scooper law., can I mention that I want to be Laurie's dog. bark bark.
omg, loved that. I love Dave but he used to be rather square. (He has become cooler and more embracing of the 'weird' as he has gotten older.) Wonderful Laurie is the geek/genius from another planet and Dave is just trying to be respectful and engaging but I think he really has no idea what is going on here.
not sure what she intended but what hit me was when she was talking about Dolly, she was pointing out how the songs are from a characters perspective. Shes not gonna go back home shes fabulous dolly parton. So Id say it was a comment on art and artifice.
I stopped watching Letterman a couple years later because of Laurie Anderson. Commercials all through primetime announced that she would be on the show, so I stayed up through the news, through Carson, then all the way through Larry "Bud" Melman and Stupid Pet Tricks only for him to say at the end that they didn't have enough time for her. That was it, I was done. And my dislike for his show's "humor" turned to hate. What bothered me the most, though, was his show was recorded before the first commercials even started airing, so they should have/must have known she wouldn't actually be appearing, but decided to promote her appearance, anyway.
Explain why Dave should be held responsible for NBC’s promotion screwup? Also, there were no Stupid Per Tricks the night she was bumped, August 19, 1986.
