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United States Live

United States Live

Overview
United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson is an American experimental performance artist and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

. Released as a 5-record boxed set (later reissued, slightly truncated, on four CDs), the album was recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...

 in February 1983.

United States was Anderson's magnum opus
Magnum opus
Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer.The term Great Work is also used in several...

 performance-art
Performance art
Performance art is art in which the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. It can happen anywhere, at any time, or for any length of time. Performance art can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the...

 piece featuring musical numbers, spoken word pieces, and animated vignettes about life in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Segments ranged from humorous, such as "Yankee See," which gently chided Anderson's record label, Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is also affectionately known as Warners or the Bunny, based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons released by Warner Bros. Pictures.-History:...

, for signing her in the first place, to the apocalyptic anthem "O Superman
O Superman
"O Superman " is a 1981 song by experimental performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. Part of the larger work United States, "O Superman," a half-sung, half-spoken, almost minimalist piece unexpectedly rose to #2 on the UK Singles Charts in 1981...

," which had been an unexpected Top 10 hit for Anderson on the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

 music charts in 1981.

Originally, United States (which was originally titled America on the Move) was presented over the course of two nights, running some eight hours.
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Encyclopedia
United States Live was the third album release by avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson is an American experimental performance artist and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

. Released as a 5-record boxed set (later reissued, slightly truncated, on four CDs), the album was recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...

 in February 1983.

United States was Anderson's magnum opus
Magnum opus
Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer.The term Great Work is also used in several...

 performance-art
Performance art
Performance art is art in which the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. It can happen anywhere, at any time, or for any length of time. Performance art can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the...

 piece featuring musical numbers, spoken word pieces, and animated vignettes about life in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Segments ranged from humorous, such as "Yankee See," which gently chided Anderson's record label, Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label that operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. It is also affectionately known as Warners or the Bunny, based on the Bugs Bunny cartoons released by Warner Bros. Pictures.-History:...

, for signing her in the first place, to the apocalyptic anthem "O Superman
O Superman
"O Superman " is a 1981 song by experimental performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. Part of the larger work United States, "O Superman," a half-sung, half-spoken, almost minimalist piece unexpectedly rose to #2 on the UK Singles Charts in 1981...

," which had been an unexpected Top 10 hit for Anderson on the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...

 music charts in 1981.

Originally, United States (which was originally titled America on the Move) was presented over the course of two nights, running some eight hours. The United States Live box set is a truncated rendering of the performance, omitting many segments that were solely of a visual nature.

Among the songs performed on the album was "Language is a Virus (from Outer Space)," a pop-like song based upon a phrase attributed to William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life...

. Anderson would later perform a modified arrangement of the song in her 1986 concert film Home of the Brave
Home of the Brave (1986 film)
Home of the Brave is a 1986 American concert film featuring the music of Laurie Anderson, who also directed the movie. The film's full on-screen title is Home of the Brave: A Film by Laurie Anderson. The performances were filmed in Brooklyn during the summer of 1985.The film included appearances by...

.

Although Anderson has since created numerous other major performance pieces (i.e. Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick is a classic novel published in 1851 by American author Herman Melville. Originally misunderstood by contemporary audiences and critics, Moby-Dick is now often referred to as "The Great American Novel" and is considered one of the treasures of world literature...

, Stories from the Nerve Bible, Happiness, The End of the Moon), United States Live remains, to date, the only serious attempt at producing anything approaching a full-length recording of any of these performances, although her previous album Big Science
Big Science (album)
Big Science is the 1982 debut album by avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson and the first of a 7-album deal she signed with Warner Bros. Records. It is best known for the 8-minute epic "O Superman", which reached #2 in the UK. The album is minimalist and monochrome in sound, and like a great deal of...

 and her segment of the compilation You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With
You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With
You're the Guy I Want To Share My Money With is a double album released in 1981. The album is a collaboration by Laurie Anderson, John Giorno and William S. Burroughs, recorded during their "Red Night" spoken word tour of 1981...

 consisted of studio-recorded excerpts from United States.

Disc one

  1. "Say Hello" – 5:01
  2. "Walk the Dog" – 6:45
  3. "Violin Solo" – 2:13
  4. "Closed Circuits" For voice and amplified mic stand – 6:03
  5. "For a Large and Changing Room" – 2:50
  6. "Pictures of It" For acoustic Tape Bow – 1:32
  7. "The Language of the Future" – 8:02
  8. "Cartoon Song" – 1:12
  9. "Small Voice" For speaker-in-mouth – 2:03
  10. "Three Walking Songs" For Tape Bow Violin – 4:19
  11. "The Healing Horn" – 3:01
  12. "New Jersey Turnpike" – 11:19 see New Jersey Turnpike
    New Jersey Turnpike
    The New Jersey Turnpike is a toll road in New Jersey and is one of the most heavily traveled highways in the United States...

  13. "So Happy Birthday" – 6:23
  14. "EngliSH" – 2:08
  15. "Dance of Electricity" – 3:02 see Nikola Tesla
    Nikola Tesla
    Nikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th...

  16. "Three Songs for Paper, Film and Video" – 6:02

Disc two



  1. "Sax Solo" for Tape Bow Violin – 0:55
  2. "Sax Duet" – 0:38
  3. "Born, Never Asked" – 5:16

Part Two



  1. "From the Air" – 2:46
  2. "Beginning French" – 2:16
  3. "O Superman
    O Superman
    "O Superman " is a 1981 song by experimental performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. Part of the larger work United States, "O Superman," a half-sung, half-spoken, almost minimalist piece unexpectedly rose to #2 on the UK Singles Charts in 1981...

    " – 11:05
  4. "Talkshow" – 6:57
  5. "Frames for the Pictures" – 1:08
  6. "Democratic Way" – 1:41
  7. "Looking for You" – 1:19
  8. "Walking and Falling" – 1:21
  9. "Private Property" – 3:04
  10. "Neon Duet" For violin and neon bow – 3:52
  11. "Let X=X" – 6:17
  12. "The Mailman's Nightmare" – 0:46
  13. "Difficult Listening Hour" – 3:10
  14. "Language is a virus from outer space - William S. Burroughs
    William S. Burroughs
    William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life...

    " – 7:55
  15. "Reverb" – 0:26
  16. "If You Can't Talk About It, Point to It (for Ludwig Wittgenstein
    Ludwig Wittgenstein
    Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language....

     and Reverend Ike
    Reverend Ike
    Reverend Ike was an American minister and electronic evangelist based in New York City. He was best known for the slogan "You can't lose with the stuff I use!"-Background:...

    )" – 0:33
  17. "Violin Walk" – 2:44
  18. "City Song" – 3:34
  19. "Finnish Farmers" – 5:13

Disc three

  1. "Red Map" – 1:57
  2. "Hey Ah" – 3:50
  3. "Bagpipe Solo" – 3:17
  4. "Steven Weed" – 1:07 see Patricia Hearst/Steven Weed
  5. "Time and a Half" – 2:14
  6. "Voices on Tape" – 1:28
  7. "Example #22" – 2:33
  8. "Strike" – 2:11
  9. "False Documents" – 1:59
  10. "New York Social Life" – 3:32
  11. "A Curious Phenomenon" – 1:06
  12. "Yankee See" – 7:58
  13. "I Dreamed I Had to Take a Test..." – 1:19
  14. "Running Dogs" – 0:38
  15. "Four, Three, Two, One" – 1:15
  16. "The Big Top" – 2:52
  17. "It Was Up in the Mountains" – 2:14
  18. "Odd Objects" For light-in-mouth – 4:03
  19. "Dr. Miller" (Anderson, Perry Hoberman
    Perry Hoberman
    -Biography:Perry Hoberman , is an installation artist who has worked extensively with machines and media. His career has included stints with Laurie Anderson and the USC Interactive Media Division....

    ) – 5:18
  20. "Big Science" – 7:20 see Big Science
    Big Science
    Big Science is a term used by scientists and historians of science to describe a series of changes in science which occurred in industrial nations during and after World War II, as scientific progress increasingly came to rely on large-scale projects usually funded by national governments or groups...

  21. "Big Science Reprise" – 1:47

Disc four

  1. "Cello Solo" – 2:44
  2. "It Tango" – 1:51
  3. "Blue Lagoon" – 9:38
  4. "Hothead (La Langue d'Amour)" – 4:47
  5. "Stiff Neck" – 1:33
  6. "Telephone Song" – 1:34
  7. "Sweaters" – 3:58
  8. "We've Got Four Big Clocks (and they're all ticking)" – 2:24
  9. "Song for Two Jims" – 2:56
  10. "Over the River" – 3:30
  11. "Mach 20" – 2:47 see Mach number
    Mach number
    Mach number is the speed of an object moving through air, or any fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance...

  12. "Rising Sun" – 3:25
  13. "The Visitors" – 3:01
  14. "The Stranger" – 1:57
  15. "Classified" – 5:25
  16. "Going Somewhere?" – 0:55
  17. "Fireworks" – 2:46
  18. "Dog Show" – 0:48
  19. "Lighting Out for the Territories" – 3:13 see The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Personnel

  • Laurie Anderson
    Laurie Anderson
    Laurie Anderson is an American experimental performance artist and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

    – mic stand, violin bows, Tape-bow violin, electric violin, Harmonizer
    Harmonizer
    Harmonizer is the fourth studio album by Norwegian futurepop band Apoptygma Berzerk. It was released on February 29, 2002 on Metropolis Records and WEA International.-Track listing:#"More Serotonin...Please" – 1:29...

    , pillow speaker, toy saxophone, voice, Vocoder
    Vocoder
    A vocoder is an analysis / synthesis system, mostly used for speech in which the input is passed through a multiband filter, each filter is passed through an envelope follower, the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated, and the decoder applies these control signals to...

    , neon violin, glasses, Oberheim OB-X
    Oberheim OB-X
    The Oberheim OB-X is an analog polyphonic synthesizer. It was the first Oberheim synthesizer that was created with internal prewired modules and not with the bulky SEM modules. Because of this, it was more functional for live performance, and therefore more portable. It was introduced in 1979 and...

    a, Synclavier
    Synclavier
    The Synclavier System was an early synthesizer and sampler, manufactured by New England Digital. First released in 1975, it proved to be highly influential among both music producers and electronic musicians, due to its versatility, its cutting-edge technology and distinctive sound.Originally...

    , tamboura, telephone, jew's harp
    Jew's harp
    The Jew's harp , jaw harp, mouth harp, or Ozark harp is thought to be one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; a musician apparently playing it can be seen in a Chinese drawing from the 3rd century BCE. Despite its common English name, and the sometimes used Jew's trump, it has no...

  • Peter Gordon – Prophet synthesizer
    Sequential Circuits
    Sequential Circuits Inc. was a California-based synthesizer company that was founded in the early 1970s by Dave Smith and sold to Yamaha Corporation in 1987. The company, throughout its lifespan, pioneered many groundbreaking technologies and design principles that are often taken for granted in...

    , voice
  • Geraldine Pontius – voice
  • Joseph Kos – voice
  • Chuck Fisher – clarinet, sax
    Saxophone
    The saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...

  • Bill Obrecht – flute, sax
  • Anne DeMarinis
    Anne DeMarinis
    - Sonic Youth Career 1981-1982 :Anne DeMarinis was in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, for a very brief period from 1981-1982 as a keyboardist. She contributed vocals, along with Kim Gordon, and Thurston Moore, on three Sonic Youth songs performed once, and only live on June 18, 1981. The...

     – Oberheim OB-Xa, Synclavier
  • David Van Tieghem
    David Van Tieghem
    David Van Tieghem is an American composer, musician, percussionist, drummer, keyboardist, art performer, video artist and theater performer, notorious for his philosophy of applying any available object as a percussion instrument and his collaborations with Experimental rock artist Laurie...

     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum set is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person . The term "drum kit" first became used in the 1700s in Britain...

    , percussion
    Percussion instrument
    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...

  • Roma Baran – accordion
    Accordion
    The accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...

  • Rufus Harley
    Rufus Harley
    Rufus Harley, Jr. was an American jazz musician of mixed Cherokee and African ancestry, known primarily as the first jazz musician to adopt the Scottish great Highland bagpipe as his primary instrument.-Biography:Although born near Raleigh, North Carolina, at an early age Harley moved with...

     – bagpipes
    Bagpipes
    Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of several varieties can be found in use...

  • Shelley Karson – soprano
    Soprano
    A soprano is a singing voice with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music...


Charts


Album
Year Chart Position
1985 The Billboard 200 192