Suddenly a Whole Lot of Tigers Came In

People tend to think that alternative rock's commercial breakthrough came in the early 90's, when Nirvana's ??Nevermind?? became a surprise smash, but no one seems to recall the early 80's, more especially '82-'83, when The Plasmatics and The Clash were suddenly filling stadiums, XTC actually got into heavy (if brief) MTV rotation with "Sense Working Overtime," frat boys across the country were rocking out to Talking Heads and, most improbably of all, Laurie Anderson actually had a hit.I can't seem to find anything on the web to confirm it (which actually seems rather appropriate), but in an interview with MUSICIAN magazine (remember that?) after the release of ??Big Science??, Laurie Anderson related what remains one of the funniest anecdotes from a musician I've ever heard - and musicians are full of funny anecdotes.Having studied sculpture and art history at Columbia University in the early 70's, Laurie Anderson began her career as an avant-garde performer with admirable tenacity, but that's a hard way to make ends meet in New York, and she decided to put her education to use, teaching at the City College of New York, where she had, to her understanding, been hired to share her wisdom regarding sculpture. As it turned out, however, there were two other women who shared the (decidedly quotidian) name "Laurie Anderson" applying for teaching positions that year. One had already been given the sculpture job, and the other, who was going to teach Egyptian history, had been hired by a more prestigious school and declined the job without going to the trouble of informing anyone. This confusion might have cost Laurie a job she rather needed, but luckily, she recognized the mistake before the administration did. With a natural survivor's aplomb, she accepted a job teaching Egyptian history, about which she knew nothing. She would begin teaching her class in two days, she was told.Well, there was little hope of learning Egyptian history in that span, of course, so she made it up. She knew about the Pyramids, no doubt, and what a "Pharaoh" was, and that sort of basic stuff, so she told her students there would be no text - her lectures would be sufficient. She was careful to keep it plausible and self-consistent, but it was plausible and self-consistent rubbish.The course was quite popular with students, and she wound up staying on and teaching it for several years. By the time the next semester rolled around, she'd given herself a crash course in Egyptian history, and began teaching the factual version. I don't know how many people were in that first class she taught, but they're likely wandering about somewhere thinking they know Egyptian history, and not realizing it's all the product of an avant-garde artist's imagination. For some reason, I feel a certain envy when I think of them.MORAL: There's no such thing as fraud in art, only good and bad, and art can show up in unexpected places.In the meantime, enjoy this delightful Laurie Anderson rarity - more a bizarre micro-story than a piece of music, but a treasure nonetheless.