Laurie Anderson in the morning

I was thinking of the spiritual mothers and fathers of experimental bands of today, and while Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart get their due, Laurie Anderson gets completely passed over. I tried to pick an easy introduction song for anyone who never heard her. Really, where to start on a Sunday morning but Sharkey's Day. I have always thought L.A. is the ultra shiznit when it comes to music and invention. She created a violin with recorded analog tape for the bow "string" and a playback head on the instrument. She was the first performer to use contact mics placed on her body and turn herself into a drum kit. She kept an eerie green light in her mouth so all you could see when she turned the lights out was her lips moving, way before ravers thought of something similar. That's Adrian Belew's famous "elephant guitar" you hear screaming on the song; she also worked with Peter Gabriel (they co-wrote "Excellent Birds" and placed on each of their next albums). She was friends with William S. Burroughs, Andy Kaufman. She's been photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe and Annie Leibowitz. She dated Lou Reed...you really can't get much more New York than that.I'm a longtime Laurie Anderson fan, ever since gifted kid camp in high school. If I could pick an artist slowly fading from public awareness to reinvigorate, it would be her.