Big Shipbuilding Science

not a huge fan of her's -- but liked Big Science

Edited by twosteves - August 16 2017 at 09:27

twosteves wrote: not a huge fan of her's -- but liked Big Science maybe because I met her a few times and she used to go to my gym with Lou Reed---funny to see Lou trying to work out---she seemed to take it more seriously what she was doing on this album was typical of what downtown NYC performing artist were doing at the time

Big Science is really the only album by Laurie Anderson that I love. NYC had a very cool performing arts scene at the time, wish I could have experienced it in person.

Very cool seeing Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson working out at the gym, I used to dream of seeing Kate Bush work out.

As for my vote, although I love all three and so probably won't vote, I lean towards Shipbuilding. I love the intimate, jazzy sound. It makes me feel like I'm in a very cool club. It was written during the Falklands War. Not long ago I was listening to the radio and the hosts were talking about their favourite songs and they played the Shipbuilding version Costello sung.

Man With Hat wrote: I guess Wyatt, but none are favorites.

It makes for kind of a creative title, I thought. If I were to list a particular favourite of each act, I might have gone with Cardiacs' "Foundling" or another off Sing to God such as "Dirty Boy" -- which is the song that turned me into a Cardiacs. I still think it's a great Cardiacs' song and may be my favourite of theirs from the 80s.

And, well, with Wyatt, I adore Wyatt and I love so much of his stuff he wrote and/or performed, but maybe something off Rock Bottom such as "Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road", or "Forest" off Cuckooland --too many albums of his I love to ever be satisfied with limited choices. And with Laurie Anderson, maybe "O Superman" or "Let X = X" off the album Big Science. I do tend to give too much weight to the style of the title and post over substance too often, which is rarely as clever or as amusing as it sounded in my head.

Ugh, Captcha doesn't want me to post. One day with smart AI, it might not seek to just see if you are a robot, but perform quality control. And being AI, it might favour the perfection of "robots". Kind of strange having a program worrying about if you are a program. Maybe we are all just programs residing in a computer simulation.

Big Ship - on top 10 songs of all time list for me.

And this is a live video as good as any you'll find:

I'm with you on Robert Wyatt, Cemego.

And Lewian, yeah, I think it's a great song. I like that live version, hadn't seen it, thanks. When there was that other Cardiacs' song poll and you listed that one, I really fell big for Big Ship -- you could say it was the start of a big and beautiful relationship even.

Incidentally, I thought of "Big Ship" first for the poll and the Anderson and Wyatt songs were chosen to fit with song title in aid of that not very snazzy title (from what came to mind). Glad I chose "Big Science" over "Big Willy Rides Again". :p And contrary to what I seemed to say in response to Man With Hat, as I seem to have somehow confused myself, of course I chose it as a favourite, else I would have done another topic, such as cAIRdiacs "Dirty, Sexy Boy" (a combo of Air and Cardiacs) -- I did actually consider that one.

That said, I do love all three of these tracks, and Wyatt is super special to me.

Funny I just listened to all three of those and definitely liked the middle one the best(the one with the fewest votes lol). Figures, probably means I'm not a 'true prog fan' or something like that lol. Anyway all of them were good though, for sure.

Robert Wyatt takes my vote.

The thing about Big Ship is that it didn't appear on any of their regular studio albums. Therefore it is less known than it should (it seems there's a certain disregard on PA forum for live albums). Live it has always been a favourite, as far as I know.

I love Wyatt, too, by the way, but the Big Ship is a very tough opponent indeed.

Logan wrote: YESESIS wrote: Funny I just listened to all three of those and definitely liked the middle one the best(the one with the fewest votes lol). Figures, probably means I'm not a 'true prog fan' or something like that lol. Anyway all of them were good though, for sure. I don't think this really needs saying, but.... I'd say if anything it shows that you're more of a prog fan as that is the "proggiest" (oh, how some people hate that term) track of the three. I thought that the Cardiacs song would get a fair number of votes here, even though that particular song is not as well-known as various others by them (but hey, got the youtube vids, although I'm not sure what percentage of people actually take the time check out all the music before voting). I pretty much knew that Lewian, unless not around, would vote for it, as I have him to thank for really paying attention to Big Ship, but we have had quite a few who are into the Cardiacs at the site, and quite a few who I though would dig them. My predictive capabilities are not nearly as good at this forum as in past forums I visited, which makes setting up jokes hard amongst other things. Robert Wyatt is pretty legendary around these parts for his involvement in Soft Machine, Matching Mole, solo and other projects, and I could put him singing The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" up there and it would get votes (he sung that for Top of the Pops the year after his accident that left him wheelchair bound). Anyway, total legend of Canterbury Scene and Prog personality I'd most like to meet at a pub or meet period.

Ok good, I feel better. I thought maybe there was something in the other two that I just wasn't hearing.. couldn't understand why the one that sounded best to me was in last place. And Soft Machine is another band I've been getting into. Started when I was recently going through my pretty big obsession with Caravan, the name Soft Machine kept coming up. So anyway now I have their first three albums plus Bundles on my mp3 player. Definitely on my short list of favorite bands atm.. very pleasing musically.

Cardiacs!! love the mares nest versión of big ship