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Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Laurie Anderson is a multimedia artist, director, composer, and inventor. She's also a friend of A.M. Homes, our October Get-Lit with All Of It book club author. When we asked Laurie to join us as our musical guest for our event on October 27th, 2022, we were thrilled she said yes, but what we didn't realize at the time was that the 27th was the ninth anniversary of the death of Lou Reed. Laurie's late husband.

Laurie chose to honor her husband that evening with an incredible performance that incorporated some vocals from Lou. It was an emotional and moving moment. We'll air that at the end of the interview. First, let's hear another part of her performance. Laurie Anderson decided to share with us an improvised composition based on the words and characters from The Unfolding by her long-time friend A.M. Homes. Here's a little bit of that performance

[MUSIC - Laurie Anderson: The Unfolding]

Yes, it's true

More and more things in nature urges veering out of control

But then again maybe control is different

For men than for women

This go out of control for men

And they have to fix it

They have to do something

But things go off the rails for women

And they have an option that men do not have

Because in a pinch, women can always start to cry

Yes, they got that card to play

Things go out of control and out come the crying cards

It's like it's, let's say, it is kind of acceptable

I would never burst into tears

It's awkward

It's a rare thing.

I have a small jar of men's tears collected during the last war.

Alison Stewart: That was Laurie Anderson with a special improvised composition based on the words from October Get Lit with All Of It selection The Unfolding by A.M. Homes, something that might never have happened if we hadn't gotten these two amazing women in the room together. It was truly a special Get Lit moment. 2022 was a milestone year for Laurie Anderson. It was the 40th anniversary of her first solo album Big Science which produced the hit O Superman.

An exhibition titled The Weather, the largest US show of her artwork, ran in the first half of 2022. She was also a New York Public Library 2022 Library Lion. It's when the library honors several outstanding achievements in the arts. We also happen to be speaking to Laurie on the ninth anniversary of her husband Lou Reed's death. In just a bit, you'll hear a very emotional and intimate performance she shared with us at our Get Lit event. That includes recorded vocals from Lou Reed, but first here's my conversation with Laurie Anderson. Violin was your first instrument. Is that true?

Laurie Anderson: Yes. We had a family orchestra and they were short on a violin. There were lots of us. We were eight kids and so we all played something.

Alison Stewart: Is it an instrument you still pick up just because it moves you?

Laurie Anderson: [unintelligible 00:04:51] , I pick it up. Yes.

Alison Stewart: What I'm trying to get at is if you are having a day and what moves you to pick up your instrument and just play for you, not necessarily to make or--

Laurie Anderson: Yes, a sense of loneliness, sometimes, I play for that and just to have some sound in the room, or sometimes I might have some half of an idea. I love music. I don't know, I play, just love it.

Alison Stewart: Your debut album Big Science was released in 1982, 40 years ago, and there's an anniversary vinyl edition. That's so cool. How do you respond to anniversary? Some people anniversaries are a big deal. It's a marker. For some people, not so much.

Laurie Anderson: Anniversaries can be very intense. Today is the ninth anniversary of my husband's death. It's always an amazing day for me to feel his presence, although I do feel like he just walked out of the room a minute ago [chuckles], but it's always a great day to think of him and hear his voice a little bit.

Alison Stewart: There was that wonderful exhibit this summer.

Laurie Anderson: Oh, yes. Right here at the library.

Alison Stewart: Yes, right there at the library.

Laurie Anderson: At the Library for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center is a show called Caught Between the Twisted Stars. It's a lot of loose instruments and writing and a lot of things. If you haven't seen it, check it out. I think even if you're a musician, if you're a writer, I'm sure a lot of you are one of those two things, I think you'll find it interesting. We also put a lot of things in that were about, really, the struggle of writing and making music.

Also, a lot of the failures as well. I get very encouraged when I read a book about somebody who's trying to do something and just failing. That person failed. That just gives me heart. I really like to hear that it's not that easy to do.

Alison Stewart: Thank you for sharing today with us. Really appreciate it. You have your own work at Pratt Gallery on 14th Street, it's a virtual reality exhibit. Could you explain to us what we'll see when we go or what we'll experience when we go?

Laurie Anderson: This was with my collaborator, Hsin-Chien Huang, who really did most of the work, I have to say. He's a wonderful visionary, let's say. We actually, we made a lot of stories together. Then I just drew a lot of things because I don't really like skin in VR. It looks very creepy. It never looks real. It's really rubbery. I said let's make something that has no-- it's all of my drawings, actually.

They're animated, and it's called a chakram. There are two of them there actually. There's one called chakram and on To The Moon. It's like getting lost in a world of words. You walk through giant three-dimensional library. What I like about VR is really, that you have to use your body. That when you see a film, especially if it's a really good film, at the end you're looking for your coat, you're getting your purse [unintelligible 00:08:32] , and you've been like paralyzed for the whole thing.

What's my name? I don't know. You stumble out of theater. In VR, you need your body, you're not like this at all. I'm not saying it's preferable to just be on a journey in your mind, but I really like being able to turn around and having to do things and touch things and moving. I think that's a really interesting future for film. That kind of language is to use the body because we're getting out of the habit. It's really nice to have something that you can dance around in a little bit rather than just go, "I'm absorbing it, the product."

Alison Stewart: Be participatory in the art.

Laurie Anderson: Yes.

Alison Stewart: You seem to always be embracing technology. Some people run from it or get overwhelmed by it. How do you stay curious about technology and how do you stay open to it?

Laurie Anderson: I wouldn't say embracing. It's a pretty chilly thing to embrace. It's like, I like it. I'm a geek, for sure. I don't trust it, really. I don't think it makes anything particularly better. My all-time favorite quote about it is from a cryptologist who said, "If you think technology is going to solve your problems, you don't understand technology, and you don't understand your problems." Is it just your problem that you're just not fast enough, or what? That'll make it faster. Better? I don't know. At the same time, I think it works at a different speed and other things, so it can be very interesting to use.

Alison Stewart: That was my conversation with multimedia artist Laurie Anderson from our October Get Lit with All of It book club event. As you heard in that interview, we spoke with Laurie on the ninth anniversary of her husband Lou Reed's death. For the second half of her performance, Laurie chose to honor Lou with a composition that includes a recording of Reed himself. It was a moving moment. We were so honored Laurie shared it with us and our live audience, and that we are now able to share it with you.

Laurie Anderson: We're going to hear from Lou because this is a song he wrote about his father and there's so many amazing parents and children in The Unfolding.

[humming]

Laurie Anderson: Here he is, singing about his father.

[MUSIC - Lou Reed: The Unfolding]

Would you come to me if I was half drowning?

But I'm above the last wave.

Would you come to me?

Would you pull me up?

Would the effort really hurt you?

Is it unfair to ask you?

The window broke the silence of the matches.

The smoke effortlessly floating [unintelligible 00:13:46]

Pull me up.

Would you be my lord and savior?

Pull me up by my hand.

Now would you kiss me on my lips?

Burning fever burning on my forehead.

The brain that once was listening now shoots out its tiresome message.

Won't you pull me up?

Scalding my dead father has the motor and he's driving towards an island of lost souls.

Sunny, a monkey then to monkey.

I will teach you meanness, fear, and blindness.

No social redeeming kindness or state of grace.

Alison Stewart: That was a special performance of a new composition by Laurie Anderson from our Get Lit with All of It October book club event. The performance was in honor of Laurie's husband Lou Reed who died nine years ago on the day of our event. That's All of It. All of It is produced by Andrea Duncan-Mao, Kate Hinds, Jordan Lauf, Simon Close, Zach Gottehrer-Cohen, L. Malik Anderson, and Luke Green. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. Our engineers are Juliana Fonda and Jason Isaac. Luscious Jackson does our music. If you missed any segments this week, catch up by listening to our podcast available on your podcast platform of choice. If you like what you hear, please leave us a great rating. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. Meet us back here next time.

 

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