O Superman, Laurie Anderson

O Superman by artist Laurie Anderson from 1981. Some of the lyrics:

‘Cause when love is gone
There’s always justice
And when justice 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
Ah, ah, ah, ah

60 Minutes did a profile of Anderson a few years ago and she explained the meaning of the song (to her):

This is a song about how basically technology cannot save you. It’s about a lot of things: justice, safety, power.

As a kid growing up in rural Wisconsin, this kind of music wasn’t available to me, so I only actually heard this for the first time fairly recently. So I thought I’d post it in case you hadn’t really heard it either — that and the message & meaning it carries is relevant these days.

I also liked this rendition of it, slowed down and reverbed. There are also several O Superman remixes on Soundcloud of varying quality.

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