United States Live

by

Laurie Anderson

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I remember seeing this performance series being advertised in The Village Voice & wanting desparately to go...but at 17, spending $35 + $20 round trip bus fare into NYC for each of the parts (and getting permission from mom to see a concert in Brooklyn by myself, as no other kid I knew was interested) made it out of the question. This missed concert opportunity has always been the one I've regretted most. So when the concert first appeared on vinyl, I didn't hesitate to shell out the $$$ for it. The LPs crammed quite a bit of time on to each side (I think there were as many LPs as there are cd's), and so the sound was very thin (you had to crank up the volume, making the pops & crackle very disruptive, deafening if listening on headphones). So, I upgraded to the cd box set a few years after having bought the vinyl. Contrary to another review, these recordings are from several different shows of the same piece "United States I - IV" which was a sort of anthology of the work Laurie Anderson had created up to February 1983 (when this performance series took place @ The Brooklyn Academy of Music). Many of the pieces are not available on any other recording, and that makes this box set essential. Her better known pieces are also presented in different (usually more sparsely instrumented) ways. The actual performance did also include visuals (projected video, laurie playing various "instruments" that she devised herself...). So you have to imagine what else was going on in each piece (audience laughter usually clues you into the fact that you are missing 1/2 of the performance).

The sound quality of the cd's is a definite step up from the LPs. The cd's are louder without as much tape hiss. However, if you listen to the cd's on headphones, it is quite noticeable that the cd's were mastered from vinyl, which I've always found rather annoying (hence the deduction of a star), but the surface noise is quite a bit less noticeable than what had existed on my own vinyl copy.

If there is any Laurie Anderson release that needs a digital remastering (24 bit/192 Khz) from the original tapes (and issued on SACD or DVD audio), this is it. With all the second rate artists doing the remaster thing, it is more than a bit disappointing that first rate artists on big labels (like Laurie, Philip Glass, etc..) still haven't remastered their back catalog using the latest technology to optimize sound quality (I don't care as much about 5.1 channels, as I do seeing that as much detail in the recording is available). It is really surprising that someone who was been at the vanguard in using technology in her music, has fallen so far behind others in using technology today. Now with Blu Ray discs capable of holding gigabits of info, the sound should not only be remastered, but the entire performance (visual too, which I do believe exists) should be put onto Blu Ray, so we can experience it in its full glory. However, until that day comes, this release is still highly recommended over any of her other recordings (except Big Science).

I saw Laurie Anderson perform "United States" in London shortly after this recording was made, and it stayed with me as a very special event, so I was very excited when I got these CDs. After a while I was struck by how much is missing: the concert was a very visual experience, and on the CDs you sometimes are reminded of this when you hear the audience respond to something you can't see. Also I feel that most of what's best here is done better on "Big Science", so unless you're a Laurie Anderson-obsessive you're probably better off with that. Still... I'm glad I have "United States".