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.

Machine Song : Mother Gong

Founded in 1978, Mother Gong rose like a pigeon from the ashes of the psychedelic pixie group Gong. With Harry Williamson and former space whisperer Gilli Smyth providing the backbone, Mother Gong also featured other ex-Gong members including Didier Malherbe, Daevid Allen and Mike Howlett, as well as appearances from Hawkwind's Nik Turner and Robert Calvert. Their 'Fairy Tales' LP is an excellent listen, as is the first part of their 'Robot Woman' trilogy, from which today's robot song is taken. It's a concept album about a robot housewife who seeks freedom from the daily drudgery of domestic doom. In this song she's being tended to by the Come-Quick Repair man after supposedly breaking down.

* apologies for the poor sound quality... it really is the best I could find.      

Helpless Automaton : Men At Work

"Do you come from a land down under?" asked the Aussie one hit wonders back in 1981. To be fair, Men At Work did grace the UK charts on a couple of other occasions, but nothing paralleled the global success of Down Under or its parent LP, 'Business As Usual', from which today's robot song is taken. Helpless Automaton is a punchy piece of pop which I suspect may be a love song disguised as a robot song... or maybe it's one of those human feeling humanoid type songs? Either way it's a cracking robot song and here it is...





Tune in tomorrow for another slice of '80s robotica :)

Marvin I Love You : Marvin The Paranoid Android

Alongside a fruitful yet ultimately depressing career in TV and Radio, Marvin the Paranoid Android also had a thoroughly fruitless stint as a pop-performer which depressed almost everyone. There's a time and a place for novelty songs but there's no time and no place for this clanger (except here of course!). Taken from Marvin's 2nd single, 'The Double B-Side' is Marvin I Love You, which features Kim Wong-O'Brien as the voice of a love letter found deep in Marvin's data banks. Being a B-side to a B-side, I hope your expectations are suitably low...



There are three further songs recorded by Marvin The Paranoid Android, namely Marvin, Metal Man and Reasons to be Miserable, which may well be posted here on 101 Songs About Robots the next time I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Rock 'n' Roll Robot

Two versions of Rock 'n' Roll Robot for your listening pleasure. The first, which I assume is the original is sung almost entirely in Foreign, apart from the words 'rock' and 'roll'... and 'robot' (and of course 'and'). I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for the cover of the single that features strongly in the 'video'... you might think you're 'eye candy' Alberto, but you're not... in fact, looking at you makes me love the eighties a little bit less. Nice robot song though.



The second is a cover version by Ustmamo', released in 2003*. I know nothing about this band/artist other than the fact they've turned Alberto Camerini's camp pop-lemon into a smooth and slinky slice of synthesised bliss cake. It's even got a nice video too. It'd be handy to know what the lyrics are, but that's my own fault for not paying enough attention in language class.



* This song appears on their 2003 compilation album UstBestMamo and was their final release before the group split. Their version of Rock 'n' Roll Robot may well be earlier than 2003, but I'm yet to find any evidence... please let me know if I've got my facts wrong :)