Meaning of O Superman by Laurie Anderson
O Superman is the signature song and only hit single of Laurie Anderson, a multi-faceted artist who was born and grew up in Illinois. The official release date of this track was on 1 February 1981, with it originally coming out under a small label called One Ten Records. However, it caught on well enough (in the United Kingdom) to lead to Anderson signing a multi-album deal under Warner Bros. So the following year, under said label she proceeded to drop her debut album, Big Science, of which O Superman served as the lead single. As such, this is also the lead single in Laurie’s discography.
Throughout the years Anderson has remained musically active, dropping her most-recent album (to date), a spoken word project titled Heart of a Dog, in 2015. But to reiterate, O Superman stands as her most-notable musical achievement (as far as the industry is concerned). And with that said, it should be pointed out that Laurie, beyond being a singer, is an instrumentalist and even invented a couple of instruments on her own. Moreover, though primarily being known as a musician, she has made a name for herself in other parts of the arts’ world.
Other Facts
O Superman charted in a few countries in Europe or of the European variety but most notably peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. It isn’t as if the entire British populace were feeling this track, with this reportedly being the only UK Singles Chart hit to date to have been rendered via a performance artist. But that said, its virality was buttressed through being supported by John Peel (1939-2004), a legendary DJ in BBC Radio 1’s history. Furthermore, Anderson did go on to later admit that her heart was never truly for the music industry or chasing paper, which may explain why she never had another hit.
The Village Voice also ranked this as the ‘Top Single of 1981’ back when it was released, and it also came in at number 8 on NME’s ranking of the ‘Best Tracks of 1981’.
Laurie Anderson wrote O Superman, being inspired by an aria called “O Sovereign, O Judge, O Father” from a 19th century opera Le Cid by the late Jules Massenet (1842-1912). In fact the official, full title of the track is O Superman (for Massenet).
This song was both mixed and produced at Laurie Anderson’s own home in New York City, being the studio she still works out of to this day (or at least up until as recently as 2017).
O Superman also serves as part of much larger performance arts’, multimedia project, which apparently stands as Laurie Anderson’s seminal work, titled United States.
Analyzing the Lyrics to O Superman
The song starts off with the vocalist repeating the lines “O Superman, O Judge, O mom and dad”, as inspired by the aforementioned Massenet work. Laurie Anderson has described the lyrics of her piece as being “a one-sided conversation, like a prayer to God”. So it may be that the “Judge” she’s referring to is the Most High.
It becomes obvious pretty much from the onset that this is an unconventional piece. The motif of the lyrics revolve around the vocalist with another person who apparently calls her on the phone. And this person or entity that is communicating with Laurie does go on to refer to itself as “the hand that takes”, and that designation may be a roundabout way of referring to the Lord.
The songstress did go on to further reveal that this track was also inspired by the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-80. For readers who may not know, that was a messy international affair whereas a number of Americans were successfully held captive in Iran by a group of militarized activists for over a year. In the eyes of many, the event was highlighted by a clandestine, botched rescue attempt on the part of the US military, which resulted in two of their aircraft crashing into each other, killing eight servicemen (as well as an Iranian civilian). Symbolically, that would seemingly be the “American planes, made in America” that Anderson is referring to.
So what some analysts have concluded is that this song serves as a critique of technology, particularly of the communications’ variety. That would also be why the answering machine, which was considered pretty high-tech back in the early 1980s, also plays a prominent role in the lyrics.
But reading in-between the lines, it can also be suggested that Laurie is indirectly criticizing the United States. Here we have what is viewed by most people as being the most-powerful military in the world, serving a country that’s also a leader in technology. That may be what Anderson is getting at by naming this song so, i.e. “Superman” being a symbol of American might.
Yet during the Iran hostage crisis, the US screwed up a mission against a much-weaker foe. And all things considered, it may be that what Anderson is saying is that in the grand scheme of things, God is the ultimate power, one that, when he so chooses, even mocks or spoils the plans of the Americans. But then, the piece seems to close out with the vocalist alluding to how yet and still, people prefer submitting to an authority, i.e. “Mom”, that they can actually see and touch and be impressed with in its innovations, i.e. the (American) government.
That said, it should be reiterated that this is a relatively-complicated piece as far as music hits go, and there’s obviously a whole lot being relayed in this song. Therefore, all of the above is more or less theoretical, and it may take a deeper delving into Anderson’s United States project, as well as the works of Massenet himself, to fully understand O Superman.
