"The Visitors" lyrics - LAURIE ANDERSON
A group of American minimal artists were on a goodwill trip to China. Near the end of their visit, they stopped in a remote province where few Americans had ever gone. One of the Chinese hosts seemed to be very confused about the United States. He kept asking questions like: "Is it true that Americans ride airplanes... to work?" "Is it true that all your food is made in factories?"
One of the artists was a conceptualist whose specialties was theories about information and truth. He decided to try out one of his theories on the host.
So when the host asked, "Is it true you have robots in your houses?" he said, "Yes, yeah. We have lots of them. It's true."
The host asked, "Is it true that Americans live on the moon?" The artist said, "Yes, it's true. A lot of us live there. In fact, we go there all the time."
In this province, however, the word for moon was the same as the word for heaven. The hosts were amazed that Americans traveled to heaven. They were even more amazed that we were able to come back-that we went to heaven all the time.
They look like us.
They act like us.
Remember us.
They are not us.
United States Live (1984)
- Say Hello
- Walk The Dog
- Violin Solo
- Closed Circuits
- For A Large And Changing Room
- Pictures Of It
- Language Of The Future
- Cartoon Song
- Small Voice
- Three Walking Songs
- The Healing Horn
- New Jersey Turnpike
- So Happy Birthday
- English
- Dance Of Electricity
- Three Songs For Paper, Film And Video
- Sax Solo
- Sax Duet
- Born, Never Asked
- From The Air
- Beginning French
- O Superman
- Talkshow
- Frames For The Pictures
- Democratic Way
- Looking For You
- Walking & Falling
- Private Property
- Neon Duet
- Let X=X
- The Mailman's Nightmare
- Difficult Listening Hour
- Language Is A Virus
- Reverb
- If You Can't Talk About It, Point To It
- Violin Walk
- City Song
- Finnish Farmers
- Red Map
- Hey Ah
- Bagpipe Solo
- Steven Weed
- Time And A Half
- Voices On Tape
- Example #22
- Strike
- False Documents
- New York Social Life
- A Curious Phenomenon
- Yankee See
- I Dreamed I Had To Take A Test...
- Running Dogs
- Four, Three, Two, One
- The Big Top
- It Was Up In The Mountains
- Odd Objects
- Dr. Miller
- Big Science
- Big Science Reprise
- Cello Solo
- It Tango
- Blue Lagoon
- Langue D'Amour
- Stiff Neck
- Telephone Song
- Sweaters
- We've Got Four Big Clocks
- Song For Two Jims
- Over The River
- Mach 20
- Rising Sun
- The Visitors
- The Stranger
- Classified
- Going Somewhere?
- Fireworks
- Dog Show
- Lighting Out For The Territories