My Top 1000 Songs #934: Sharkey's Day

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Laurie Anderson was one of those new-wave-era artists who helped me get outside my classic rock comfort zone back in the 80s, probably a little more in the abstract than in terms of actual time she spent on my turntable, the sort of artist I might not turn to a whim, but when I did I felt I was in on something truly new and noteworthy. I made a cassette with 1982's debut Big Science on one side, and 1984's Mister Heartbreak on the flip. The former made a tremendous impression on me (as it seemingly did for everyone who heard it), songs like the title track and "From The Air" and "O Superman" pooling art-exhibit theatricality with colorful spoken-word narratives and bracing electronica. It was fascinating and eye-opening, but not necessarily "songs" with the sort of musicality that compelled me to listen with any frequency. Whereas the follow-up, while maintaining the same oddball creativity (this time with a bit more of a world music beat) occasionally slipped into something almost resembling pop hooks. 

Or at least that was my impression of "Sharkey's Day," as much a left-field electronic narrative as anything on the debut, yet gradually shifting into something approaching "traditional" (such as it were) new wave art rock. It still felt ridiculously different from everything else in the musical universe, but I could play it on my radio show and have it slot in nicely alongside artists like early Jane Siberry or Martha & The Muffins.

Live 1985--just fucking incredible (and yet another appearance of an always magnificent Adrian Belew):