Album: Big Science (1981)

Charted: 2

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• O Superman.
  O judge.
  O Mom and Dad.
  Mom and Dad.
  O Superman.
  O judge.
  O Mom and Dad.
  Mom and Dad.
  Hi.
  I'm not home right now.
  But if you want to leave a message, just start talking at the sound of the tone.
  Hello?
  This is your Mother.
  Are you there?
  Are you coming home?
  Hello?
  Is anybody home?
  Well, you don't know me, but I know you.
  And I've got a message to give to you.
  Here come the planes.
  So you better get ready.
  Ready to go.
  You can come as you are, but pay as you go.
  Pay as you go.
  And I said: OK.
  Who is this really?
  And the voice said: This is the hand, the hand that takes.
  This is the hand, the hand that takes.
  This is the hand, the hand that takes.
  Here come the planes.
  They're American planes.
  Made in America.
  Smoking or non-smoking?
  And the voice said: Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
  'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice. And when justive is gone, there's always force. And when force is gone, there's always Mom.
  Hi Mom!
  So hold me, Mom, in your long arms.
  So hold me, Mom, in your long arms.
  In your automatic arms.
  Your electronic arms.
  In your arms.
  So hold me, Mom, in your long arms.
  Your petrochemical arms.
  Your military arms.
  In your electronic arms. Writer/s: LAURIE ANDERSON
  Publisher: Downtown Music Publishing, O/B/O DistroKid
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 3

• Josh from Champaign, IlThat last passage about "Mom" struck me as profound (as I'm sure it's intended). Realizing that as much as we'd like to separate ourselves from technology, war... the artificial and evil activities found on Earth, perpetuated by human beings... without those things, it's quite possible that many of us wouldn't be alive. I often think about the American "Civil War" (which was really a war of secession) and the multitudes of generations of humans that were never born because of the war, how different our society would be. Not only might there have been more great inventors, but also think of the people our ancestors didn't have to compete with for survival later, maybe a murderer wasn't born that would have stopped the lineage that you or I came from. In the same way, technology enables greater resources, such as food, to expand civilization in ways that it couldn't have been otherwise and so we may very well have been born as a result of these advances technologically. In some very real way, these things are our kin, as uncomfortable as it may be to think about.
• Karl from Ingatestone, United Kingdomi love Laurie Anderson, O Superman is a really good song and the dance crew Legs N Co were really good on TOTP performing this song.
  David Bowie's 1997 version was horrendous
• Mark from London, EnglandThis song became a hit in the UK after being championed by late-night DJ, the late great John Peel. At that time, it was available on the indie One-Ten label as an import but Warner Bros. later re-released it due to the proverbial popular demand. Note: the album track, exactly teh same as the single, is called: "O Superman (For Massenet)".

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