Laurie Anderson: “Sharkey’s Day” (1984)

Sharkey has his day, and night, on this German single.

Kronomyth 2.1:<0

Laurie Anderson created this character, Sharkey, for her album, Mister Heartbreak. (The album’s title is taken from a line in Sharkey’s Day.) I’ve always imagined this Sharkey to be a modern-day film-noir private eye type, stable in his instability, a man who has drunk himself sober to the invisible reality of our repetitive lives, above judgment, beyond salvation. A fascinating guy, to my mind, although the NY Times concluded he was “a man with a desk job.” Anderson gives us both sides of Sharkey, from the inside and outside, while broken guitars and sterilized electronics present Sharkey in sharp relief. The edited single version shaves a few minutes form the album version, but I don’t believe time was the biggest barrier to commercial acceptance; it’s a lot to swallow even in a four-minute capsule. The B side is Sharkey’s Night, essentially Sharkey as painted from the perspective of William Burroughs, himself a sort of model for Sharkey. The music video for “Sharkey’s Day” is interesting, although I don’t know what Anderson was trying to say with the green-screen head. Maybe it’s the “white courtesy telephone” line, but this has always reminded me of Talking Heads’ “Mr. Jones” from Naked.

Original 7-inch single version

A1. Sharkey’s Night (edit) (Laurie Anderson) (4:07)
B1. Sharkey’s Night (Laurie Anderson) (2:29)

The Plastic

Released on 7-inch single in 1984 in Germany (Warner Bros., 929 435-7) with picture sleeve.