Laurie Anderson's Language Is A Virus video
Cory's post about the Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, one of my fave concert films too, reminded me of Laurie Anderson's fantastic Home Of The Brave movie. I distinctly remember seeing it for the first time when I was 14 at a midnight showing in my town's art house cinema and feeling very... avant garde. That was my first exposure to William S. Burroughs, whose quote "Languags is a virus from outer space" inspired the song performed in the clip above. Unfortunately, Home of the Brave never saw an official DVD release, just VHS and laserdisc. But according to Anderson's site, a DVD film/video box set collection of her work is on the horizon.
Home of the Brave (MP3 soundtrack)
Home of the Brave (VHS)
the latest
latest episodes
Both of these great posts (Stop Making Sense and this one) underscore what a fantastically musically fertile place NYC was in the 1970s, especially for experimental jazz, punk, and the rich crossovers between "avant garde" and "popular" art. I blame Andy Warhol.
I have very fond memories of being introduced to Laurie Anderson's performance art during college. I still have a couple of her songs bouncing around in my head!
Wow David, we had very similar experiences with Laurie Anderson. I was 14 when this came out and a cool mentor introduced me to it...and it was the same thing, I felt so damn 'avant garde'...too cool for you. Fun post.
Thanks!
Is that Adrian Belew playing guitar?
might be of interest here,
a rap track titled Word is Virus
which samples Burroughs as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0wL2F1JEKg
Dan@~5: Indeed, it is Adrian Belew, and David Van Tiegham on percussion. I caught this tour and it was amazing!
Yes it is! And David Van Tieghem on drums!
Awesome! I will be checking this out. Great post, Dave. Thanks for introducing me to something new!
Nosehat:
No, don't blam Andy Warhol. NYC was the birth of...
Bebop
Modern Dance
Minimalism
POp Art
Punk
New Wave
No Wave
Graffitti
and, arguably, the Beats.
Actually, when a friend of mine got "Oh Superman" on a 45 I was like, "what is this pretentious silly crapola?"
But I admit now that I just couldn't really see what Laurie Anderson was doing at the time.
I saw this film at an Art House Cinema in NYC, and I remember they had a HUGE shirt on the flag pole out front, with the flag pole going through the sleeves. It was an amazing movie, and I was introduced to her work on either Letterman show on NBC, about the same time as Brother Theodore... She had a rack of 'stuff' and played 'walk The Dog'... I'd attach a YouTube clip, but i'm on a cellphone at the moment...
It lead me to Adrian Belew's Mr. Music Head, and the great song "oh daddy"...
When I was growing up in Australia I used to watch the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) after school and, because they were non-commercial, they were always having to fill in the gaps due to showing shows from international commercial networks. They seemed to always be screening this, or Tusk by Fleetwood Mac, or Fanfare for the Common Man by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. So I seem to have known it for as long as I can remember.....
Links:
Laurie Anderson - Walk the Dog (audio only)
Adrian Belew - Oh Daddy
More great Adrian Belew classic action:
with David Bowie
with Frank Zappa (Warning: Intro is NSFW.)
with Talking Heads
with King Crimson
One of the nicest guys in the biz.
@Keeper #9:
Don't forget Abstract Expressionism, and Rap/Hip Hop.
I'm doing my I-have-that-LaserDisc happy dance. :-)
People ask me why I have a LaserDisc player, and when they do, I offer to screen 'Home Of The Brave.'
Nosehat:
Thanks. I always seem to forget about rap and breakdancing.
I grew up thinking that urban life everywhere was like NYC in the 70s and 80s...
Phikus:
Are you into recent Crimson? Here's Belew at age 50+ playing Level 5 (does any band sound this heavy?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXhDUKcdlfs
one of my favorite songs and quote from her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56LtP4N4a6M
"The bullet doesn't kill you, it's the hole"
She signed a powerbook for us in the 90's. Put a little cartoon balloon coming out of the apple logo saying "HEY!"
We should have put it up...after the years the ink has worn off.
Actually, Adrian plays with my kiddies now in the Adrian Belew Power Trio and they start a U.S. tour in two weeks..here's a great video clip...(and yeah, he is one of the nicest/coolest people ever)
http://blip.tv/file/1805509?filename=Abpt_fan-TheAdrianBelewPowerTrioAtRockpalast701.flv
Cool, I saw this concert a few times on TV, I think our local PBS station may have shown it. I always wanted to see it again.
I'm not typically an avant-garde person, but Laurie Anderson is one of my fave artists, with "O Superman" being one of my top ten favorite songs. Saw her perform in the early '90s in Dallas (at SMU -- no, I wasn't a student) and was blown away.
Really appreciated Cory's _Stop Making Sense_ post, too. I saw it in Dallas when it first opened. David Byrne made an appearance with the movie to answer questions. Tres, tres cool.
But, like I said, I'm really not an avant garde person. I just likes what I likes.
Laurie Anderson is one of my personal deities. I was lucky enough to see this in a theater back in 1986, after having seen some of her work on MTV and PBS for a year or two. It blew me away, and I still love it. I've since bought everything she's ever released, and seen her live five times.
Unfortunately, her website has been promising that DVD set for at least a couple of years. I've heard nothing about an actual release date. I wish they'd hurry up and bring it out already; I have it on both a secondhand VHS and a high-quality bootleg DVD, but I would really like to pay her for the privilege.
(No, I won't tell you where I got the bootleg; I feel guilty enough as it is.)
b.
Laurie Anderson was in Houston doing her United States tour on my high school graduation night in 1984. A harder decision I've have never had to make...
I would totally go straight for Laurie Anderson.
I learned to trance-talk by listening to her.
All that and she married Lou Reed to boot. What must dinner be like?
"Hi, honey, how was your day?"
"Excellent. You know, I wrote 'Sweet Jane'?"
"I know you did. And my body of work rivals that of John Cage."
"We're certified geniuses, babe."
"You betcha."
are they married? thought they were just in relationship mode.
Laurie Anderson is awesome.
I was 7 when my father and i would listen to Wierd Science on night car trips. on top of that, he had some of her stuff sitting on VHS, as he ended up recording USA network's various Night Flight shows. very cool. Got to see her in all her multimedia glow during strange angels concert. of course my dad and i went. I also was able to see her in all her minimalistic glow recently in Iowa City during her post-NASA moon show she did.
always an awesome show.
Please, oh please, David: if you ever discover that Home Of The Brave has been (finally) released on DVD, please post about it here -- I've been waiting for a couple of years, ever since Laurie's website first promised that it was pending...
wow... memories... I was mad crazy for Laurie Anderson when Big Science came out back in the highschool days. I knew only one other person who actually liked her stuff. Thanks for posting this...
Noooooo! I literally just yesterday gave my copy of Home of the Brave to the GoodWill, expecting to pick it up on DVD sometime in the future! Darn you, you miserable stingy copyright holders!
Robin:
Those are YOUR kids? Given the level musicality I somehow thought they were Earl Slick's kids or something.
The previous tours with Ade have gotten good reviews...talented kids! (Though I'd bet they practice a hell of a lot if Adrian Belew's going to play with them.)
Oh, what a nice surprise, Keeper of the Lantern.
Yep, they are my kids and their Dad is also a guitarist...their grandfather was in Buddy Rich's band...so I guess they are genetically predisposed. Or, it could be that we are total music fanatics and they grew up hearing the very music they are now playing all throughout their youth.
They've been in Adrian's band for three years now - already have a live CD out and the first studio CD, e, will be out later this month and they'll be touring extensively. Adrian, who is in his fifties, hired my then 19 year old son, Eric and 20 year old daughter, Julie, practically on the spot after doing a guest professorship with the School of Rock - Julie and Eric were the first 2 students there in 1998 and the first graduates in 2004. Paul Green, the school's founder, had Julie and Eric come up to a Rock School/Belew show in NYC to show of his graduates, never dreaming Adrian would hire them as his new band. And the rest is history.
But what is so cool is the history repeating itself factor...Frank Zappa stumbled on Ade in an out of the way club and yep, hired him on the spot as a young unknown and taught him much of what he knows...Ade has...okay, cliche coming...paid it forward.
My blog contains many photos, tales from the road, and, as of yesterday, a You Tube of Julie and Eric recently joining the California Guitar Trio for a concert. http://www.inherownwrite.blogspot.com
And thank you!
xo
Robin
http://www.robinslick.com
OK - what I'm wondering is - are those the Blind Boys of Alabama doing backup vocals?
Thanks
Keeper@~17: Indeed I am. I love all incarnations of the Crims and Ade's solo work. Thanks!
Robin: Saw your kids in action in Austin last year. They were quite amazing. Love the live album. Thanks for the back story! =D
Love LA for what seems like decades, one of my favorites.
Phikus and 2/3 Mom, I saw Adrian and kids on what must have been their first tour together. I think Mom was in back selling t-shirts and it was great! They were too young to be in the joint.
Keeper, thanks for the Level 5 link!
Starless from Red, for the impatient ones, zoom ahead to the 4:20 mark, turn it up and hold on!
Hey, thanks Phikus and Foetusnai! (now those are two names I'd never think I'd be typing...)
I worked the merch stand at a few shows in Florida in 2006 - is that where we met? And yep, they had to stay back in the green room because they were under 21...three years later now I am just so proud to say you can find them both knocking them back at the bar after the show with fans and friends.
All kidding aside - the trio is made up of the three sweetest, most talented people ever and I hope some of you get a chance to meet them on tour this year.
laurie is da bomb! remember trippinballz and seeing big science back in the mid 80s. a life changing xperience! great post, kids!
Love Laurie Anderson! Did you guys see this interview with her in FLYP? http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/plus/08/#1/1
She's amazing.
Thanks to everyone for the heads-up about Adrian Belew. For what it's worth, there's some free and legal (if low-bitrate) music available for download on his site, as well as concert info.
http://www.adrianbelew.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=66
He also has a mailing list.
DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with Adrian Belew, although in the late 80's a) he frequently rocked a joint I worked at called "Mabel's" b) he signed my Mr. Music Head t-shirt, and c) I delivered pizzas to his family. All of which did indeed prove him, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be nice, cool, kind, and humble. When speaking between songs, he'd always express his wishes that his audiences would find some of his noises acceptable.