Let X=X

Happy Friday, everybody! Don’t know how it seems to you, but it seems to me that of late Robert Frost’s Banjo has been very focused on poetry somewhat to the exclusion of music (& other topics!)—with the publication of The Day’s of Wine & Roses & the ongoing Helix sequence, poetry is at the creative forefront for me, especially since I haven’t been performing music this winter.

But I’m starting a new series, with posts at irregular intervals, that may redress the music dearth a bit, while still allowing me to indulge my current poetic spree. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I often listened to music while composing poetry in both my San Francisco & Charlottesville phases, & I thought I’d periodically post some songs that are representative of what that background music was. I won’t be adding any commentary to speak on on the Robert Frost’s Banjo posts—pretty much just a quick howdy & the song, but I will be writing about each song in more detail on the Just a Song blog. Since I seem to have had brainlock during the scheduling process for today's song, the post is already up on Just a Song, & has been for awhile. You can read that post here.

First up: Laurie Anderson—huge influence. I don’t know that a song has moved me before or since in the way “O Superman” did when I first heard it. However, I think her song “Let X=X” was an even more important poetic soundtrack. The verson below is from her Big Science album, tho there’s also a great version on her United States Live. Note: the ending of the song is a bit abrupt in the video—a fade out might have been better. Otherwise, tho, the sound quality is good. Hope you enjoy it.