|
"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 rose to #2 on the UK Singles Charts in 1981.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chart Stats - Laurie Anderson - O Superman )〕 Prior to the success of this song, Anderson was little known outside the art world. First released as a single, the song also appeared on her debut album, ''Big Science''. The song topped the 1981 ''Village Voice'' Pazz & Jop singles poll. ==Structure== In writing the song, Anderson drew from the aria "Ô Souverain, ô juge, ô père" (O Sovereign, O Judge, O Father) from Jules Massenet's 1885 opera ''Le Cid''. She got the idea after seeing the aria performed in concert 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 ("Ô Souverain / ô juge / ô 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. Overlaid on a sparse background of two alternating chords formed by the repeated spoken syllable "Ha" created by looping with an Eventide Harmonizer, 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. The two chords of the song are Ab major and C minor, the repeating "Ha" syllable (a C note) acting as a pedal point. The song's introduction consists of a repetition of the "O superman/ O judge/ O mom and dad" stanza. The rest of the song's lyrics are loosely structured around a phone conversation between the narrator and a mysterious voice. At first, the voice leaves a message claiming to be the narrator's mother but, upon not receiving a response, reveals itself as someone who the narrator "doesn't know" but who "knows" the narrator. The narrator finally responds, asking "who is this really?" The voice then identifies itself as "the hand that takes" and informs the narrator that the "American planes" are coming. The song concludes with the stanza "When love is gone, there is always justice/ and when justice is gone, there is always force/ and when force is gone, there is always mom", with the narrator pleading to be held in her mom's "long", "electronic", and "petrochemical" arms. As part of the larger work ''United States'', the text addresses issues of technology and communication, quoting at various points answering machine messages and the slogan "Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". That line is inscribed 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. This line is also interpreted in the accompanying music video into American Sign Language by Anderson wearing white gloves, white sunglasses and a white coat. 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 Te 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 is ritual. Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion." All of this is in the context of an attack by American planes and arms. In an interview with the Australian magazine ''Bulletin'' in 2003, Anderson said that the song is connected to the Iran-Contra affair,〔 〕 but she meant the Iran hostage crisis which took place in 1979-1980. Anderson appeared as a guest co-host on WFMT Chicago〔()〕 to say the song is directly related to the crash of the military rescue helicopter outside Tehran — a disheartening incident where U.S. military technology essentially let down the government. This equipment or pilot failure, she continued, was her primary impetus for the creation of the song/performance piece. When it became an emerging hit in the U.K., she was as surprised as everyone else, and the need to press more singles to meet emerging U.K. demand was what led to her first multi-album record deal. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「O Superman」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|