The Stash Dauber: i've got a secret

Thursday, September 25, 2008

thisun's for you, herb...garry moore introducing john cage.

Herb Levy said...: Yeah, that's a fun clip, & a great instance of the Nam Jun Paik attitude: "day of concert, law of jungle", but its depressing for lots of reasons. Can you imagine what it would take for a mainstream TV show these days to acknowledge the existence of any kind of music (not just avant garde music) that's not already assured of attracting an audiences of millions?

And I wish the audio were better too. Tech/union issues aside, Cage's music is about sounds & you just don't get to hear as much as you get to see here. For instance, the sound of a gong lowered into water is really fabulous (try it at home), but not on this clip.

And it's odd (especially in light of Cage's union troubles) to see the "celebrity" panelists move their part of the set out of the way of the cameras for the performance.

If you haven't seen the John Cale clip from I've Got a Secret (also Cage-related), here's a URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYHIqMmtS-0

I think the clip of Frank Zappa on the Steve Allen show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9P2V0_p6vE are musically incredibly dull, but demonstrate the limits of Allen's hipness to exploitation ratio.; 6:02 AM

The Stash Dauber