O Superman

Song of the Day 08/29/2022

O Superman by Laurie Anderson

The conversation in O Superman is a vague, loosely structured dialogue between a narrator and a mysterious voice. The mysterious voice first leaves a message on an answering machine claiming to be the narrator’s mother. It soon takes this back, saying, instead, that she’s someone the narrator doesn’t know but who knows the narrator, the unknown known personified. When the narrator finally responds—who is this really?—the voice identifies itself as ‘the hand that takes.’ The dialogue continues in a back-and-forth that consists of abstraction, confusion, and an attempt at discovery.  

Laurie Anderson’s most famous song has always stood out to me as an essential form of communication between a person and themself, two disparate internal identities at odds with each other, fighting to find a sense of truth in perceived reality, or reality in perceived truth. The song can also be seen as a search for one’s executive function, a quest for the part of oneself who is really in control, or who really should be. I love this form of literary, cognitive dissonance, so rarely achieved in contemporary music. 

If this song is new to you, and anything about it sounds familiar, then yes, you’re correct, it is without a doubt the source material and inspiration for Imogen Heap’s ultra-kitsch Hide and Seek, a track adored by fans of Jason Derulo and The O.C. alike.