John Cage - Water Walk

Back


John Cage performing "Water Walk" in January, 1960 on the popular TV show I've Got A Secret.

via WFMU:


"At the time, Cage was teaching Experimental Composition at New York City's New School. Eight years beyond 4:33, he was (as our smoking MC informs us) the most controversial figure in the musical world at that time. His first performance on national television was originally scored to include five radios, but a union dispute on the CBS set prevented any of the radios from being plugged in to the wall. Cage gleefully smacks and tosses the radios instead of turning them on and off.

While treating Cage as something of a freak, the show also treats him fairly reverentially, cancelling the regular game show format to allow Cage the chance to perform his entire piece. "

Channel: Music
Uploaded: May 4, 2007 at 8:56 am
Author: holotone

Length: 00:09:22
Rating: 4.80
Views: 190285

Tags: music experimental noise johncage

Video Comments:
scriabinwasmydad (January 8, 2009 at 8:34 pm)
This is the greatest living proof of Cage's amazing original artistry and a mind that comes once in a century!
marmack123 (January 8, 2009 at 2:49 pm)
i think thats a very valid point, and although cage would not call himself a conseptual artist, he would probably be inclined to agree with you
tinsbor (January 8, 2009 at 12:39 pm)
Need more Views? More Attention? More Famous?

This site is the best solution for many Youtubers!

moreviews . n e t


P.S. This is how many famous youtubers became famous!
victotronics (January 8, 2009 at 9:09 am)
Oh for the days when this would be shown in prime time television.
rjm1009 (January 7, 2009 at 1:25 pm)
no one cares what your opinion is...Cage saw himself as a musician... therefore he is. the reason you claim the music is conceptual is because it is percussive and therefore visually stimulating
ambientgreg (January 6, 2009 at 2:21 am)
Awesome! The pushed radio precludes the smashed guitar(townshend OR Hendrix) by at least a few years...beautiful!
sapfirewand (January 5, 2009 at 5:51 pm)
Music will become as radical as the world allows it to be. In this case, it's gone a long, long way...
TVFREAKMAN (January 3, 2009 at 12:11 pm)
Here's my opinion on Cage

What Cage performed was a conceptual art piece not a musical piece, because the audience's reaction to it was both hearing and seeing.

A musical piece's results are alomost 90 per cent hearing. Sure we see the performer or the band with the instruments but the effect is not from the way they play but the sounds that some from how they play.

Therefore in my opinion Cage is more of a conceptual artist than a musician.

And a very original one at that!
bensparasite (January 3, 2009 at 1:42 am)
the first chuckle from the audience sounded like it could have been included in the composition
IM863 (January 1, 2009 at 9:14 am)
The might say that figuratively, but isn't art always a form of communication?