Laurie Anderson | Speechless

One of my favourite Laurie Anderson lyrics is partially illustrated by the incredible photograph above, taken recently in a London park (if you substitute woodpecker for eagle).

Speechless starts out as a bit of a cliched road song, with a rusty old car shooting out of town and leaving skid marks in its wake. But it veers off course and introduces a synopsis of this passage from the Annie Dillard story Living With Weasels:

"And once, says Ernest Thompson Seton--once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth to neck, and nearly won. I would like to have seen that eagle from the air a few weeks or months before he was shot: was the whole weasel still attached to his feathered throat, a fur pendant? Or did the eagle eat what he could reach, gutting the living weasel with his talons before his breast, bending his beak, cleaning the beautiful airborne bones?"

Anderson works it into a complex metaphor for dependency and glossophobia:



It was August
summer of ‘82
You had that rusty old car
and me
I had nothing better to do

You picked me up
We hit the road
Baby me and you

We shot out of town
drivin' fast and hard
leaving our greasy skid marks
in people's back yards

We were goin' nowhere
Just drivin’ around
We were goin' in circles
And me?
I was just hanging on

Like in that Annie Dillard book
where she sees that eagle
with the skull of a weasel hanging from it's neck

And here's how it happened, listen:

Eagle bites the weasel
Weasel bites back
They fly up to nowhere
Weasel keeps hangin’ on
Together forever

We’re goin’ nowhere
Just drivin' around
You did all the talking
and me
I didnt' make a sound.
And if I open my mouth now
I'll fall to the ground

If I open my mouth
there's so much I'd say
like I can never be honest
like I'm in it for the thrill
like I never loved anyone
and I never will

Eagle bites the weasel
Weasel bites back
They fly up to nowhere
Weasel keeps hangin’ on
Together forever

I remember that old coat
my grandma used to wear
made of weasels
biting each other's tails
A vicious circle
an endless ride
on the back of an old woman.

Eagle bites the weasel
Weasel bites back
They fly up to nowhere
Weasel keeps hangin’ on
Together forever

And me? I'm goin' in circles.
I'm circling around
and if I open my mouth now
I'll fall to the ground.


The song is available on the Brian Eno-produced LP Bright Red, and can be heard here.

Also: A song by Belly, written about the punishment for adultery in ancient China - a dog carcass strapped to the back of the adulteress until it decomposes - called Slow Dog.