The 'Homeland' Zoo

Getting absorbed in the world of Laurie Anderson's 'Homeland' led me to the following fun revelation: that animals appearing in various aspects of the album almost could fill a zoo.


Take, for example, The Beginning of Memory, with the billions and billions of songbirds circling around in the sky, and the lark, whose father dies one day, and whose decision to bury the corpse in her own head marks the beginning of memory.


There's one more bird - another songbird - in 'Homeland': the robin that sings the song of long lost love in Strange Perfumes. Oh, and let's not forget the sky-flying birds at the beginning of Thinking of You.


Some mammals also pop up here and there throughout the album: right at the start, Transitory Life's mouse who realizes that he's in a trap, and, from then on, he is literally condemned to death. [Not really a vision for sore eyes.] And, of course, Lolabelle, who leaves her mark on Bodies in Motion by her barking and playing the piano in her sweet, eccentric way.


Then there's Only an Expert that not only mentions the Pet Solution, but its updated lyrics also contain fish poisoned by, and ducks and dolphins completely coated with oil that spilled out into the ocean.


... plus a bonus from Mambo and Bling (the first vinyl of 'Homeland'):

"[...] the classic problem calculating your odds for accidents that might happen. Like, you have more chance, for example, getting hit and killed in a car crash than dying in a plane crash. But things keep changing, so you have to keep re-calculating the odds and updating the list. You you have to keep adding things like [...] being crushed by a crane falling onto your building. And you have to keep crossing other things off the list, like [...] getting trampled by hordes of horses"

"Ghosts" Accompanying, Part One

Warning: this is going to be a pointless rambling on some of the "ghosts" that are haunting on various tracks of 'Homeland'.

Laurie Anderson has stated a few times during interviews that, during the construction process of Homeland, she'd taken fragments from certain songs and built them into others. Being an avid audio candy hunter myself, it was no surprise that soon I caught myself listening to certain segments of songs over and over and trying to find out what those unfitting-or-familiar-at-first-sight/hearing fragments appeared at certain points of the songs and why. Now I'm trying to enumerate some of the more obvious ones.


1. The Timeless Melody

One of the recurring fragments is the melody sung by Aidysmaa Koshkendey, the female singer of the Tuvan throat-singing group Chirgilchin. Both 'Transitory Life' and 'The Beginning of Memory' begin with the same tune. During the former track, Aidysmaa's singing continues with a second and third line, escalating the frenzy of the hair-raising beginning of 'Homeland' even further. The third line, though less prominently featured than in 'Transitory Life', re-appears at the end of both verses of 'The Beginning of Memory', perfectly nestling into the timeless texture of the song.


2. The Bell of Concentration

The next element is the bell tolling that can be heard twice during the first half of 'My Right Eye' and numerous times throughout the whole track of 'Only an Expert'. Its use in the latter song still needs some further explanation to me (maybe it's the mockery of experts' constant calling of attention to themselves). If one considers the first verse of 'My Right Eye' as some kind of Buddhist exercise,

Concentration. Empty your mind.
Let the rest of the world go by.
Hold your breath. Hold your breath. Close your eyes.

the bell toll leads to another story that Laurie tells in 'Delusion'. It's a practice of concentration: you hear a chime clinging and you have to follow the sound with your mind, and then there's a second cling of the chime but this time your mind shouldn't follow it.

UPDATE: The bell also echoes in 'Falling', the restful counterpart of its predecessor, 'Only an Expert' - similarly to 'My Right Eye', it rings during the part of introversion: "[...] I fall asleep".


3. The Ghost of Dark Times

The ending of 'The Lake' required numerous listenings until I found out what the "ghost" whispered (i. e. Laurie's voice burdened heavily by filters and FXs). The rhythm of the recital sounded too familiar to me but, since my auditory comprehension skills are desperately weak, it took a fairly long time to recognize that the "whispering" is, in fact, the last verse of the previous track, 'Dark Time in the Revolution':

And you thought there were things
That had disappeared forever
Things from the Middle Ages
Beheadings and hangings
And people in cages
And suddenly they were everywhere
And suddenly they’re alright
Welcome to, welcome to,
welcome to the American night.

... OK, now... what the WHAT? Lines like these, stuck at the end of the most intimate, most moving, most peaceful song on the album? How so? Was it Laurie's intention to posteriorly disguise the intimacy of the song? This one really puzzles me. (If you are reading this and have a better solution, feel free to e-mail me.)

(To be continued. Sometime.)

The Spirit of Motion

A couple years ago, Lolabelle, Laurie Anderson's rat terrier contracted an aggressive form of cancer and during the medical therapy she went blind. She has overcome the illness but her pep was gone. Her worried family finally found a trainer for her who taught her to play the piano ( = tap the keys with her paws and get treats for it) and this kind of mental and physical stimulation brought her vigor back.

Recently Lolabelle herself has made a few public appearances: her keyboard playing was an attraction at the 'Homeland' release party, and, besides her majestic 'parents', Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, she was the third royal person (the Royal Mer-Dog) reigning over the annual Mermaid Parade at Coney Island.

Poor little Lolabelle, though, looks kind-of resigned / disoriented / a little bit fat (right, she has overcome a serious illness and she might constantly get those treats) in some recent photos. I do hope she feels better than she looks like. I'm sure her loving family is 100% there for her. Laurie has just recently said something like Lolabelle was working on a 'Christmas record'-- sounds promising, right? :)

(original photo here)

But what I really wanted to say is that I honestly think 'Bodies in Motion' is actually a song written for/about Lolabelle, and featuring her 'playing' the piano on that very track of 'Homeland' is more than accidental.

Laurie has occasionally told about the personality of her dog-- being a rat terrier, she loves agility training, her main motivation is simply to have fun in life. Laurie has also mentioned something like this as her own life goal, too.

So, here they are, just like twin stars, furthermore: two fellow goddesses out of some ancient Greek myth who may have total command over the world, even over other worlds, too, they can get anywhere they want to, they could see into the future, they could create a religion but all they care about is to have as much fun as possible. (Even if the weight of the world lies heavy on her shoulder-- see the Atlas --> Greek mythology reference, right?)

And to move is to have fun. Moreover: to move together is to have even more fun. To move eternally: a thing only godlike creatures are able to do. So, these two gorgeous souls unite in constant synchronic motion and love and devotion-- a couple with enviable affection towards each other.

I do hope that the world will find delight in the heartwarming sight of this for a long time to come. Or, perhaps, they are going to be there eternally. They'll grace us only when they are in the mood. Blissful souls are entitled to do so. And they most likely are of that species.

I pretend that I'm happy, you pretend that you're there.

A hidden gem on Laurie Anderson's official site, prominent example of an enjoyable two-chord song - such a pity it did not make it to the 'Homeland' album: The Lost Art of Conversation.

She pretends she's a movie star

He pretends he's a king

She pretends she's a ballerina

He pretends he can sing.

The lost art of conversation

The lost art of conversation

She pretends she was in England

He pretends he's at home

She pretends she's a renegade

He pretends he's alone

The lost art of conversation

The lost art of conversation

I pretend that you love me

And you pretend that you care

I pretend that I'm happy

You pretend that you're there

The lost art of conversation

The lost art of conversation

If I ever covered this song, I'd stick to the duality of D major and D minor throughout the verses, just like Laurie sings at first and somehow appears to be disgruntled with it for a moment. It may be a fault but it's a creative one, IMHO it fits perfectly to the mood of the song, I'm glad they included it on the website anyway.

Keys of 'Homeland'

1. Transitory Life - elegiac C minor

2. My Right Eye - trist G minor

3. Thinking of You - thick C minor

4. Strange Perfumes - cyanide C minor

5. Only an Expert - furious G minor

6. Falling - mournful G minor

7. Another Day in America - somber C minor

8. Bodies in Motion - swinging D minor

9. Dark Time in the Revolution - restless Bb major / power chord

10. The Lake - soft Eb major

11. The Beginning of Memory - spare C minor

12. Flow - intimate C major

(Original photo by joeturn)