Laurie Anderson - Dance of Electricity lyrics

A while ago
I got a call from the Tesla Institute in
Belgrade, long distance the voice was
Very faint and it said
"Understand do we that much of
Your work has been
Dedicated to Nikola Tesla and do we know the
Blackout of information about this
Man in the US of A and so we would like to
Invite you to the Institute as a free citizen
Of the world as a free speaker
On American Imperialist Blackout of
Information capitalist resistance
To Technological Progress the Western World's
Obstruction of Innovation so think about it"
He hung up i thought: Gee, really a
Chance to speak my mind, and I
Started doing some research on Tesla
Whose life story is actually really sad
Basically, he was the inventor of AC current
Lots of kinds of generators and
The Tesla coil his dream
Was wireless energy and he was working on a
System in which you could plug
Appliances directly into the
Ground a system which he
Never really perfected
Tesla came over from Graz and
Went to work for
Thomas Edison edison couldn't stand
Tesla for several
Reasons one was that Tesla showed up for work
Every day in formal dress
-morning coat, spats
Top hat and gloves -and this just wasn't
The American Way at the time edison
Also hated Tesla because Tesla invented so
Many things while wearing these clothes
Edison did his best to prevent
Conversion to AC and did
Everything he could to discredit it
In his later years
Edison was something of a showman
And he went around on
The Chautauqua circuit in upstate New
York giving demonstrations of
The evil effects of AC he
Always brought a dog
With him and he'd get up on stage and
Say: "Ladies and gentlemen! I will
Now demonstrate the effects of
AC current on this dog!" And he took two
Bare wires and attached them to
The dog's head and
The dog was dead in under thirty seconds
At any rate, i decided to open the series
Of talks in Belgrade with
A song called "The Dance
Of Electricity" and it's
Beat is derived from an actual
Dance -an involuntary dance
-and it's the dance you do when one
Of your fingers gets wedged in
A live socket and
Your arms start pumping up and down and your
Mouth is slowly opening and closing
And you can feel
The power but no words will come out