The beginning of memory

Laurie Anderson
Homeland
The Beginning of Memory


There's a story in an ancient play about birds called The Birds
And it's a short story from before the world began
From a time when there was no earth, no land.
Only air and birds everywhere.

But the thing was there was no place to land.
Because there was no land.
So they just circled around and around.
Because this was before the world began.

And the sound was deafening. Songbirds were everywhere.
Billions and billions and billions of birds.

And one of these birds was a lark and one day her father died.
And this was a really big problem because what should they do with the body?
There was no place to put the body because there was no earth.

And finally the lark had a solution.
She decided to bury her father in the back of her own head.
And this was the beginning of memory.
Because before this no one could remember a thing.
They were just constantly flying in circles.
Constantly flying in huge circles.

Le miroir aux alouettes

Jean Ernest Aubert (1885)

freefall

The Wild Blue Yonder, Werner Herzog

FreeFall, Laurie Anderson (clic sur l'image)

you're out on the ocean and you get pulled down

freefall to the bottom

like when you're drowning or falling asleep

you get turned around

and when you think you're swimming to the surface

you're swimming straight down

down to the bottom

all the way to the bottom

secret codes and cryptograms

I'm lost in your words

I'm swimming

we're going down to the bottom

all the way to the bottom

rapture of the deep

I got your letter

I couldn't read it

it was a cryptogram

did it say take me with you or take me as I am?

we're going down to the bottom

all the way to the bottom

we get turned around

there is another world spinning inside of this one

I remember where I came from

there were tropical breezes

and a wide open sea I remember my childhood

I remember being free

we're going down to the bottom

all the way to the bottom

we get turned around

there is another world inside of this one

rapture of the deep

we're going down to the bottom

there is another world spinning inside of this one

Maybe If I Fall (Laurie Anderson)

Maybe if I fall. Maybe if I fall asleep.
There'll be a party there.
Maybe if I fall. Maybe if I fall.

Americans unrooted blow with the wind
But they feel the truth if it touches them.

Maybe if I fall. Maybe if I fall asleep.
There'll be a party there.
Maybe if I fall. Maybe if I fall.

Americans unrooted blow with the wind
But they feel the truth if it touches them.
Maybe if I fall. Maybe if I fall asleep.
If I fall.