O Superman : Laurie Anderson

I'm the first to admit that this is possibly the most tenuous 'robot' song so far on 101 Songs About Robots. O Superman was played on BBC 6 Music a few days ago and I'd forgotten just how much I like it. I also recalled it having a vague robot reference towards the end and figured it might just qualify as a robot song. As said, it's tenuous, but the lyric "So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. In your automatic arms. Your electronic arms." is near enough for me.

I take my hat off to the British 7" single buying public of 1981 as it is they who got this minimalist work of art to number 2 in the charts. If it wasn't for them, this song would most likely remain largely unheard. So without further ado, here is Laurie Anderson with O Superman: the unlikeliest of chart smashes.