Big Science (Laurie Anderson album)

Big Science is the 1982 debut album by avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson and the first of a 7-album deal she signed with Warner Bros. Records. It is best known for the single "O Superman", which unexpectedly reached #2 in the UK. The work is a selection of highlights from her eight-hour production, United States Live, which was itself released as a 5-LP box set and book in 1984. United States Live was originally a performance piece, in which music was only one element. After Big Science music played a larger role in Anderson's work.

Although considered her debut album, Anderson had previously recorded one side of a 2-LP set titled You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With, a collaboration released on Giorno Poetry Systems with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno. She had also contributed two pieces to a 1977 compilation of electronic music.

Track 8, without the tango or the horns, was released as a flexi disc in the February issue of Artforum earlier in 1982. A sleeve for the disc could be cut out from the magazine and assembled.

A newly remastered version of the album was released on 18 June 2007 by Nonesuch/Elektra Records with new liner notes, and, in the data portion of the CD, the bonus track "Walk the Dog" (B-Side of the original "O Superman" single) and the "O Superman" video.

The album has been sampled in a number of hip hop songs:
 * "From the Air" was sampled by Mr. Lif in the song "Home of the Brave" on his Emergency Rations EP. The song deals with political repercussions of September 11, 2001, playing off the original song's description of a plane crash.
 * "Raspberry Fields" by Cannibal Ox contains a sample from "Sweaters".
 * "This about the City" by cLOUDDEAD contains a sample from the song "Big Science".
 * Brief snippets of "O Superman" were used by Cut Chemist in the introduction to his song "Spat".

Slant Magazine listed the album at #44 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".

Laurie Anderson enjoyed a surprise popular hit in the United Kingdom with O, Superman, in 1981. Her subsequent albums Big Science and Mister Heartbreak each sold between 100,000 and 125,000 copies domestically, and even the five-record United States - Live sold 40,000, according to Elliot Abbott, Miss Anderson's manager and the executive producer of Home of the Brave. As of 1983 the album has sold 150,000 copies worldwide.

Track listing
All tracks by Laurie Anderson.
 * 1) "From the Air" – 4:29
 * 2) "Big Science" – 6:25
 * 3) "Sweaters" – 2:18
 * 4) "Walking & Falling" – 2:10
 * 5) "Born, Never Asked" – 4:56
 * 6) "O Superman (for Massenet)" – 8:21
 * 7) "Example #22" – 2:59
 * 8) "Let X=X/It Tango" – 6:51 ("Let X=X" – 3:51; "It Tango" – 3:01)

Personnel

 * Laurie Anderson – vocals, vocoder, farfisa organ, percussion, Oberheim OB-Xa, sticks, violins, electronics, keyboards, handclaps, whistling, marimba
 * Roma Baran – farfisa bass, glass harmonica, sticks, handclaps, casiotone, accordion, whistling
 * Perry Hoberman – bottles and sticks, handclaps, flute, sax, piccolo, backing vocals
 * Bill Obrecht – alto saxophone
 * Peter Gordon – clarinet, tenor saxophone
 * David Van Tieghem – drums, rototoms, timpani, marimba, percussion
 * Additional personnel
 * Rufus Harley – bagpipes on 3
 * Chuck Fisher – alto and tenor saxophone on 7
 * Richard Cohen – b-flat clarinet on 7, e-flat clarinet on 7, bass clarinet on 7, bassoon on 7, baritone saxophone on 7
 * Leanne Ungar – backing vocals on 7
 * George Lewis – trombones

Charts

 * Album