Laurie Anderson - The Language of the Future lyrics

Last year
I was on a twin-engine plane coming from
Milwaukee to New York City just over
La Guardia, one of the engines conked out
And we started to drop straight down
Flipping over and over then
The other engine died:
And we went completely out of control new
York City started getting taller and taller a
Voice came over the intercom and said:

Our pilot has informed us that we are
About to attempt a crash landing
Please extinguish all cigarettes place your
Tray tables in their upright
Locked position

Your Captain says: Please do not panic
Your Captain says: Place your
Head in your hands
Captain says: Place your head on your knees


Captain says: Put your hands on your head
Put your hands on your knees! (heh heh)

This is your Captain have you lost your dog?
We are going down
We are all going down, together
As it turned out
We were caught in a downdraft
And rammed into a bank it was, in short
A miracle but afterwards I was terrified
Of getting onto planes the moment I
Started walking down that aisle, my
Eyes would clamp shut, and I
Would fall into a deep, impenetrable sleep

(you don't want to see this
You don't want to be here
Have you lost your dog?)

Finally, I was able to remain conscious
But, I always had to go up to
The forward cabin and ask the stewardesses
If I could sit next to them: "Hi! Uh, mind if
I join you?" They were
Always rather irritated -"Oh, all right
(what a baby) " -and I watched their
Uniforms crack as we made nervous chitchat
Sometimes even this didn't work
And I'd have to find one of the other
Passengers to talk to you can spot
These people immediately there's one
On every flight
Someone who's really on your wavelength
I was on a flight from LA
When I spotted one of them
Sitting across the aisle a girl
About fifteen and she had this stuffed
Rabbit set up on her tray table
And she kept arranging and
Rearranging the rabbit
And kind of waving to it: "Hi!" "Hi there!"
And I decided: This is the one
I want to sit next
To so I sat down, and we started to talk
And suddenly I realized she was speaking
An entirely different language computerese
A kind of high-tech lingo
Everything was circuitry, electronics
Switching
If she didn't understand something
It just "didn't scan"
We talked mostly about her boyfriend
This guy was never in
A bad mood he was in a bad mode
Modey kind of a guy
The romance was apparently kind of rocky, and
She kept saying: "Man oh man, you
Know, like it's so digital!" She just
Meant the relationship was on again
Off again

Always two things switching
Current runs through bodies and
Then it doesn't it was a language of sounds
Of noise, of switching, of signals
It was the language of the
Rabbit, the caribou, the penguin, the beaver
A language of the past
Current runs through bodies and
Then it doesn't on again
Off again always two things switching
One thing instantly replaces another

It was the language of the Future

Put your knees up to your chin
Have you lost your dog?
Put your hands over your eyes

Jump out of the plane there is no pilot
You are not alone

This is the language of
The on-again off-again future
And it is Digital

And I answered the phone and I heard
A voice and the voice said:
Please do not hang up we know who you are
Please do not hang up
We know what you have to say
Please do not hang up we know what you want
Please do not hang up we've got your number:
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