O Superman

"O Superman (For Massenet)" 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. Prior to the success of this song, Anderson was little known outside the art world.

[edit] Structure and release

Anderson constructed the song as a cover of the aria "O Souverain, o juge, o père" (O Sovereign, O Judge, O Father) from Jules Massenet's 1885 opera Le Cid. She got the idea after listening to a recording of the aria made by African-American tenor Charles Holland, whose career was hampered for decades by racism in the classical music world. The first lines ("O Superman / O Judge / O Mom and Dad") especially echo the original aria ("O Souverain / o juge / o père"). (Susan McClary suggests in her book Feminine Endings that Anderson is also recalling another opera by Massenet; his 1902 opera, Le jongleur de Notre-Dame. The opera is one in which the arms of the mother—the Virgin Mary—embrace/bless the dying Rodrigo. In this way, it may not have been simply a "cover" of the Le Cid aria.)

Overlaid on a sparse background of two alternating chords formed by the repeated spoken syllable "Ha," the text of "O Superman" is spoken through a vocoder. A saxophone is heard as the song fades out, and a sample of tweeting birds is subtly overlaid at various points within the track.

As part of the larger work United States, the text addresses issues of technology and communication, quoting at various points answering machine messages and (what is falsely perceived to be) the United States Postal Service creed: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." This line is in fact the inscription over the entrance of the James Farley Post Office in New York and is derived from a line in Herodotus' Histories (8.98), referring to the ancient courier service of the Persian Empire.

All of this is in the context of an attack by American planes and arms. Several times, including in an interview with the Australian magazine Bulletin (22 January 2003), Anderson has claimed that the song is connected to Iran-Contra affair occurring when she wrote it ^[1]. However, because the song was released in 1981 and the first public reporting of the weapons-for-hostages deal happened on November 3, 1986, this could not be true. It is also possible that Anderson simply used the wrong term for the original Iran hostage crisis which took place in 1979-1980, a time frame which does more closely fit Anderson's description.

The lines "Cause when love is gone, there's always justice / And when justice is gone, there's always force / And when force is gone, there's always Mom" derive from the fourth sentence of Chapter 38 of the Tao Teh Ching: "When Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is kindness. When kindness is lost, there is justice. When justice is lost, there ritual. Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion."

"O Superman" did not appeal to all listeners. According to the 1982 book The Rock Lists Album, compiled by John Tobler and Allan Jones, polls conducted by several unidentified British newspapers saw "O Superman" voted readers' least favorite hit single of 1981.

First released as a single by B. George's One Ten Records, the song's popularity led to Anderson signing a distribution contract with Warner Brothers, who went on to release Anderson's album Big Science in 1982; the album included "O Superman" and Warner also reissued the single. A live version of the song also appears in Anderson's 4-disc box set United States Live (1984). The song was also covered by David Bowie during his 1997 tour for the album Earthling and is featured in a sketch on the Swedish TV show NileCity 105,6 first aired in 1995, then mimed by two stuffed Garfield toy animals.

Although Anderson had, almost two decades before, dropped the song from her performance repertoire, she revived the piece in 2001 during a concert tour that included a retrospective look at some of her older pieces, an idea conceived by her companion, Lou Reed. A live performance of "O Superman" was recorded in New York City the week following the 9/11 attacks. In this context, certain lyrics appeared to many to take on a more topical significance: "This is the hand, the hand that takes / Here come the planes / They're American planes. Made in America / Smoking or non-smoking?" The 2001 live performance appears on Anderson's 2002 album Live in New York.

The B-side of the original single was an eccentric spoken word piece called "Walk the Dog", which would also be performed in a live version on the United States Live album. Unlike "O Superman", this studio version of the track had never been issued on any album until the 25th Anniversary re-release in 2007 of Big Science, where it was included as a bonus track in MP3 format.

The Canadian hip hop group Brassmunk sampled "O Superman" in their 2002 single "O Supaman".

In 2003, Staalplaat released a remix album of "O Superman," limited to 500 copies.

In 2005, the German electronica group Booka Shade along with the group M.A.N.D.Y. (both from the Get Physical label) created a mix of Anderson's piece, entitled "Oh Superman" (note spelling), in two versions.