"O Superman", also known as "O Superman (For Massenet)", is a 1981 song by

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

and musician

Laurie Anderson Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work encompasses performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting,Amirkhanian, Cha ...

. The song became a surprise hit in the United Kingdom after it was championed by DJ

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

, rising to number 2 on the UK Singles Chart in 1981. Prior to the success of this song, Anderson was little known outside the art world. First released as a promotional single, the song also appeared on her debut album '' Big Science'' (1982) and as part of her live album '' United States Live'' (1984). In the 1981 ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

poll, critics voted "O Superman" the best single of the year.

Music

In writing the song, Anderson drew from the

aria In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

"Ô Souverain, ô juge, ô père" ("O Sovereign, O Judge, O Father") from

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884 ...

's 1885 opera '' Le Cid'', that she had heard in the voice of tenor Charles Holland. The first lines ("O

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

/ O Judge / O Mom and Dad") echo the aria. Susan McClary suggests in her book ''Feminine Endings'' that "O Superman" may also have been inspired by Massenet's 1902 opera '' Le jongleur de Notre-Dame''. Anderson's lead vocals are overlaid on a sparse background of two alternating

chords Chord or chords may refer to: Art and music * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord, a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * The Chords (British band), 1970s British mod ...

formed by the repeated spoken syllable "ha" created by looping with an Eventide Harmonizer. A

Roland VP-330 The Roland VP-330 is a paraphonic ten-band vocoder and string machine manufactured by Roland Corporation from 1979 to 1980. While there are several string machines and vocoders, a single device combining the two is rare, despite the advantag ...

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

was used on Anderson's voice to sound "like a

Greek chorus A Greek chorus () in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, is a homogeneous group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the action of the scene they appear in, or provide necessary insight into action which ...

". A saxophone is heard as the song fades out, and a flute line and sample of bird calls appear at various points within the track. The two chords of the song are A major and C minor, the repeating "ha" syllable acting as a harmonic drone on C.

Lyrics

The song's introduction consists of a repetition of the "O Superman / O Judge / O Mom and Dad"

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...

. The rest of the song's lyrics are loosely structured around a one-sided conversation. At first, the voice leaves a message claiming to be the narrator's mother, and asks the narrator if they are coming home. 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's always justice / and when justice is gone, there's always force / and when force is gone, there's always mom", with the narrator pleading to be held in her mom's long

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable s ...

, military, electronic arms. As part of the larger work ''United States'', the text addresses issues of technology and communication, quoting

answering machine An answering machine, answerphone, or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the United Kingdom, UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), ...

messages and the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

motto " Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". In a 2022 ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

'' interview, Anderson summarized the song as being about how "technology cannot save you". 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 The ''Tao Te Ching'' () or ''Laozi'' is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation are debated. The oldest excavated por ...

'': "When ''

Tao The Tao or Dao is the natural way of the universe, primarily as conceived in East Asian philosophy and religion. This seeing of life cannot be grasped as a concept. Rather, it is seen through actual living experience of one's everyday being. T ...

'' 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." In an interview with the Australian magazine ''

Bulletin Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * ''Bulletin'' (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin De ...

'' in 2003, Anderson erroneously stated that the song was connected to the

Iran–Contra affair The Iran–Contra affair (; ), also referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the Iran Initiative, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitat ...

, but she had meant to refer to the earlier

Iran hostage crisis The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...

and the failure of

Operation Eagle Claw Operation Eagle Claw ( Persian: عملیات پنجه عقاب) was a failed U.S. Department of Defense attempt to rescue 52 embassy staff held captive by Revolutionary Iran on 24 April 1980. It was ordered by US President Jimmy Carter afte ...

in 1980.

Release

The song was first released as a single by One Ten Records at the encouragement of its owner, B. George. 1,000 copies of the single were initially pressed, which Anderson sold from her apartment by individually wrapping the single and distributing it via mail.

frequently played "O Superman" on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

and a British distribution company asked to press 80,000 copies of the single. The song reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and was ranked among the top ten "Tracks of the Year" for 1981 by ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

''. After the song's unexpected popularity, Anderson signed an eight album record deal with

Warner Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

, which would reissue the single and later release her debut album '' Big Science'' in 1982. A live version of the song also appears on Anderson's 1984 live album '' United States Live''. "O Superman" did not appeal to all listeners. According to the 1982 book ''The Rock Lists Album'', compiled by

John Tobler John Hugen Tobler (born 9 May 1943) is a British rock music journalist, writer, occasional broadcaster, and record company executive. With Pete Frame, he was one of the founders of ''ZigZag'' magazine in April 1969. The magazine focused on the ...

and Allan Jones, polls conducted by several unidentified British newspapers saw "O Superman" voted readers' least favourite hit single of 1981. Although Anderson had dropped the song from her performance repertoire almost two decades earlier, 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 romantic partner

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

. A live performance of "O Superman" was recorded in New York City shortly after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, which some, including Anderson, felt gave the song's lyrics a new topical resonance. This performance would appear on Anderson's 2002 album '' Live in New York''. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of the original single was a

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

piece titled "Walk the Dog", which would also appear on ''United States Live''. The studio version of the track was included on the Warner Bros. compilation ''Attack of the Killer B's'' (1983), but was never issued on any Anderson album until the twenty-fifth anniversary reissue of ''Big Science'' in 2007.

Recording details

Words and music written by Laurie Anderson.

Musicians

* Laurie Anderson – vocals,

* Roma Baran –

Farfisa Farfisa () is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professional and VIP ranges, and later, a se ...

organ,

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

keyboard *

Perry Hoberman Perry Hoberman (born 1954), 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. He has taught at the Cooper Union School of ...

–

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

Technical

* Producer: Laurie Anderson and Roma Baran * Assistant producer: Perry Hoberman * Engineer: Roma Baran * Lacquer Cut (

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

): Bill Kipper at

Masterdisk Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production. Their clients include such n ...

* Recorded and mixed at The Lobby (Laurie Anderson's home recording studio),

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, 1981

Charts

In popular culture

The Italian Ministry of Health used the song in a series of public service announcements on

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

prevention from 1988 to the early '90s. The 2018 interactive film '' Black Mirror: Bandersnatch'' includes an ending scored by "O Superman". In November 2023, an audio clip from "O Superman", centered on the lyrics "Well, you don't know me / But I know you", went viral as a sound on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

. The song debuted at number 12 on the TikTok ''Billboard'' Top 50 and was the highest debut for the week dated 9 December 2023.

References

Listening

Laurie Anderson Record Release Party for "O Superman" 7" 1980-04-28 at The Kitchen (NYC)Laurie Anderson interview (Speaking of Music 1984-12-06)

External links

Laurie Anderson - "O Superman" (Official Music Video) by Nonesuch Records on YouTube

Laurie Anderson - "O Superman" - John Peel documentary
{{Authority control 1981 songs 1981 debut singles Warner Records singles Experimental pop songs Art pop songs American new wave songs Avant-pop songs Songs written by Laurie Anderson Popular songs based on classical music Jules Massenet