United States Live

United States Live is the first live album and third overall album by avant-garde singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson. Released as a 5-record boxed set (later reissued on four CDs), the album was recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City in February 1983.

United States Live
Live album by
Laurie Anderson
Released1984
RecordedFebruary 7–10, 1983
VenueBrooklyn Academy of Music, New York City
GenreAvant-pop, experimental
Length261:57
LabelWarner Bros.
25192
ProducerLaurie Anderson
Roma Baran
Laurie Anderson chronology
Mister Heartbreak
(1984)		 United States Live
(1984)		 Home of the Brave
(1986)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Christgau's Record GuideA[2]
Pitchfork8.6/10[3]
Rolling Stone[4]

United States was Anderson's magnum opus performance-art piece featuring musical numbers, spoken word pieces, and animated vignettes about life in the United States. Segments ranged from humorous, such as "Yankee See," which gently chided Anderson's record label, Warner Bros. Records, for signing her in the first place, to the apocalyptic anthem "O Superman," which had been an unexpected Top 10 hit for Anderson on the UK music charts in 1981.

Originally, United States 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.[5] Anderson later performed a modified arrangement of the song in her 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.

Although Anderson has since created numerous other major performance pieces (i.e. Moby-Dick, 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 and her segment of the compilation You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With consisted of studio-recorded excerpts from United States.

Track listing

All tracks written by Laurie Anderson except as indicated.

Side one
  1. "Say Hello" – 5:01
  2. "Walk the Dog" – 6:45
  3. "Violin Solo" – 2:13
  4. "Closed Circuits" For voice and amplified mike 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

Side two
  1. "Cartoon Song" – 1:12
  2. "Small Voice" For speaker-in-mouth – 2:03
  3. "Three Walking Songs" For Tape Bow Violin – 4:19
  4. "The Healing Horn" – 3:01
  5. "New Jersey Turnpike" – 11:19 see New Jersey Turnpike

Side three
  1. "So Happy Birthday" – 6:23
  2. "EngliSH" – 2:08
  3. "Dance of Electricity" – 3:02 see Nikola Tesla
  4. "Three Songs for Paper, Film and Video" – 6:02
  5. "Sax Solo" For Tape Bow Violin – 0:55
  6. "Sax Duet" – 0:38
  7. "Born, Never Asked" – 5:16

Side four
  1. "From the Air" – 2:46
  2. "Beginning French" – 2:16
  3. "O Superman" – 11:05
  4. "Talkshow" – 6:57

Side five
  1. "Frames for the Pictures" – 1:08
  2. "Democratic Way" – 1:41
  3. "Looking for You" – 1:19
  4. "Walking and Falling" – 1:21
  5. "Private Property" – 3:04
  6. "Neon Duet" For violin and neon bow – 3:52
  7. "Let X=X" – 6:17
  8. "The Mailman's Nightmare" – 0:46
  9. "Difficult Listening Hour" – 3:10

Side six
  1. "Language is a virus from outer space – William S. Burroughs" – 7:55
  2. "Reverb" – 0:26
  3. "If You Can't Talk About It, Point to It (for Ludwig Wittgenstein and Reverend Ike)" – 0:33
  4. "Violin Walk" – 2:44
  5. "City Song" – 3:34
  6. "Finnish Farmers" – 5:13

Side seven
  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

Side-eight
  1. "I Dreamed I Had to Take a Test..." – 1:19
  2. "Running Dogs" – 0:38
  3. "Four, Three, Two, One" – 1:15
  4. "The Big Top" – 2:52
  5. "It Was Up in the Mountains" – 2:14
  6. "Odd Objects" For light-in-mouth – 4:03
  7. "Dr. Miller" (Anderson, Perry Hoberman) – 5:18
  8. "Big Science" – 7:20 see Big Science
  9. "Big Science Reprise" – 1:47

Side nine
  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

Side ten
  1. "Song for Two Jims" – 2:56
  2. "Over the River" – 3:30
  3. "Mach 20" – 2:47 see Mach number
  4. "Rising Sun" – 3:25
  5. "The Visitors" – 3:01
  6. "The Stranger" – 1:57
  7. "Classified" – 5:25
  8. "Going Somewhere?" – 0:55
  9. "Fireworks" – 2:46
  10. "Dog Show" – 0:48
  11. "Lighting Out for the Territories" – 3:13 see The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The four-cassette set has each part on its own cassette.
The four-CD set is almost as above, except that the last three tracks of Part One are at the beginning of CD 2 due to CD playing time limitations.

Personnel
Technical
  • Leanne Ungar - engineer
  • Dominick Maita, Richard Kaye - mixing
  • Lynn Goldsmith - cover photograph

Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1985 The Billboard 200 192[6]

References
  1. Dougan, John. United States Live at AllMusic. Retrieved April 8, 2006.
  2. Christgau, Robert (1990). "A". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved August 16, 2020 – via robertchristgau.com.
  3. Dorris, Jesse (July 4, 2021). "Laurie Anderson: United States Live Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  4. Pareles, Jon (February 14, 1985). "Laurie Anderson United States Live > Album Review". Rolling Stone. No. 441. Archived from the original on April 15, 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2006.
  5. Burroughs uses the phrase in two of his books: the novel The Ticket That Exploded and the essay collection The Electronic Revolution.
  6. United States Live – Laurie Anderson > Charts & Awards > Billboard Album at AllMusic. Retrieved April 8, 2006.
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