Water Walking and Bicycle Blowing (part 1)

Most of you are probably already familiar with the following videos:

(The remainder of Zappa’s performance can be found here.) These videos have made the rounds numerous times over the years, but I don’t know if anyone’s ever looked into any possible connections between Cage and Zappa. To me, these two performances and their respective contexts are too similar to be coincidental. I think it’s very likely that Zappa saw Cage’s appearance on television and modeled his own performance on it. Even if there isn’t such a direct connection between the two videos, I think it’s more than likely that Zappa at least had some of Cage’s theory in mind.

I think there’s a lot to say here, so I’ll limit my discussion here to a little background info on the two videos. I’ll follow up in a second post with a brief analysis of Zappa’s discourse regarding Cage.

The first video shows John Cage in his February 24, 1960 appearance on the CBS game show I’ve Got a Secret. Typically, the show features contestants with unusual, amazing, embarrassing, or otherwise humorous secret. A panel tries to guess their secret using only yes/no questions. The host, Garry Moore, considered Cage’s secret–

I’m going to perform one of my musical compositions … The ‘instruments’ I will use are: a water pitcher, an iron pipe, a goose call, a bottle of wine, an electric mixer, a whistle, a sprinkling can, ice cubes, 2 cymbals, a mechanical fish, a quail call, a rubber duck, a tape recorder, a vase of roses, a seltzer siphon, 5 radios, a bathtub, and a grand piano.

–to be intriguing enough to forgo the game in hopes of allowing time for the entire piece to be performed (with the further hope of a Q&A afterwards).

water walk 1

Floorplan for Cage’s Water Walk [1]

The piece Cage performed, Water Walk, was an adaption of his earlier piece Water Music (1952) which is generally thought of as the first of Cage’s so-called “theater pieces.” Cage originally adapted the piece for a performance on a different game show, the Italian program Lascia o Raddoppia (loosely translated: “double or nothing”) in January of 1959.

cage_Buongiorno

John Cage on Lascia o Raddoppia with host Mike Buongiorno

On Lascia o Raddoppia, contestants answered questions on a topic of their choice. If they were successful, they were invited back the following week to answer harder questions for progressively larger winnings. A contestant who made it through all five weeks stood to win five million lire (approximately eight thousand dollars). Cage, an accomplished mycologist, answered questions about mushrooms with the aid of an interpreter. Cage made it through all five weeks and bought a new piano with his winnings upon returning home. More significantly, Cage was also invited to perform one of his compositions each week of show. Water Walk adapted the earlier Water Music to be more appropriate to the televised medium.

water walk 2

Detail of the score for Water Walk [2]

Compared to Water Music, Water Walk is much simpler. Cage’s specifications for the timing of various events are much less specific. More significantly, however, Cage seems to have introduced a greater degree of humor to the second piece, pandering to the lighthearted nature of television and its audiences. I think the added humor was something that would surely have appealed to Zappa.

(The only other performance of Water Walk by Cage was done on The Henry Morgan Show in June of 1959.)

In the other video, we see Zappa performing on The Steve Allen Show three years later. Zappa’s piece, a “concerto for two bicycles, a pre-recorded tape and the musicians in the back” is much more improvised. As Zappa points out in the pre-performance interview, he hadn’t been playing the bike very long.

Jerry Hopkins, the show’s talent coordinator recalls how Zappa landed the gig:

The rules for my job were simple. Get someone who was genuinely eccentric or who did something at least a little strange or out-of-the-ordinary, but never make fun of them—the idea was to have fun with them. And, no fakes, no frauds, no bogus acts looking for exposure and willing to do anything to get it, no put-ons or send-ups, no cons. Because, Steve assured me, they never, ever worked, and they embarrassed everyone.

Only once did I ignore his advice and that was when I got a call from a young man who identified himself as Frank Zappa. He said he wanted to teach Steve how to “blow bicycle.” “Blow bicycle,” I repeated.

“Yeah, you know, like, the bicycle is a musical instrument.”

(You can read the rest of Hopkins’ account here.)

Zappa’s performance even got a write up in a local Cucamonga newspaper:

“Ontario Composer, Steve Allen To Play Wacky Duet”

Frank Zappa, 22, Ontario resident and composer of music, serious and otherwise, will be seen on television tomorrow night playing a bicycle concerto for two with Steve Allen. The show is at 11 p.m., Channel 5. “It’s very funny,” said Zappa. “You play a bicycle by plucking the spokes and blowing through the handle bars.” Other methods of producing “cyclophony” is to stroke the spokes with the bow of a bass fiddle, twirl the pedals and let air out of the tires. The Zappa-Allen concerto will be abetted by a man in the control room fooling around with a tape recorder and by a jazz group which will supply toneless background noise. Zappa studied music and art at Chaffey College. He wrote the score for “The World’s Greatest Sinner,” a low-budget tale about a sacrilegious imposter who repents. “Sinner” had its premiere at Vista-Continental Theater, Hollywood, and opened Wednesday at the Ken Theater, San Diego. Zappa writes musical commercials for TV and radio. They are recorded at Pal Studio, Cucamonga. [3]

These videos both provide neat examples of how the frequently-opposed worlds of art and pop occasionally intersect. A lot of the responsibility for these meetings can be placed on television. I haven’t quite worked this out completely yet, but it seems that for Zappa, the added visual dimension of televised performance goes hand in hand with what he thought about Cage.

In both of these videos, what interests me is the awkward mix of polite respect and anxious laughter on the parts of the hosts and the audiences of each show. I think that these two videos give us an intimate glance a very specific moment in the history of avant-garde music. Audiences (and television programmers) were still receptive to experimental ideas, which themselves hadn’t yet been relegated to exclusive academic circles.

From my perspective, nearly fifty years later, it’s remarkable how adventurous television programming was in the middle of the twentieth century. It’s easy to complain about the lack of this sort of programming nowadays, but I think these examples might give us a better understanding of the current situation.

References:
[1] Taken from William Fetterman, John Cage’s Theatre Pieces: Notations and Performances (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996), 33.
[2] Ibid., 35.
[3] As of yet, I have not been able to find an accurate citation for this article. Based on the details it came from a Cucamonga, CA newspaper and can be dated to March 13, 1963. A transcription of the text can be found here.
Water Walking and Bicycle Blowing (part 1)

84,938 thoughts on “Water Walking and Bicycle Blowing (part 1)

  1. perrymarhsall

    white grey mens nike zoom structure 19 shoes yellow red mens air jordan 10 shoes air jordan 3 bred lebron 14 schwarz and rot kind nike black womens willie roaf backer slim fit nfl 77 new orleans saints long sleeve t shirt hermes evelyne bag black

  2. goon apparel

    lego tilbud lego merker leketé…¶ysbutikken mednorré…¶na bitihorn trail running shorts indigo nightklokke med dag og datodagens testere av vintersykler og vil du ha gratis service

  3. nordica gpx 105 w

    lila kismama kardig谩nkarnis f茅mb艖l egysoros wintage4 dubery f茅rfi polariz谩lt napszem眉veg k眉lt茅ri sport lovagl谩s horg谩szat szem眉veg szem眉veg jpk枚t枚tt pul贸ver k茅k ido

  4. rb2180 601 71 ray ban

    infinity love candy銆€椋?/a>dr.martens 銉夈偗銈裤兗銉炪兗銉併兂 銈广偪銉冦偤 銈枫儱銉笺偤 銉兗銉栥兗銉?鍜?/a>銈儯銉┿偗銈枫兗 銉兂銈?鎸囪吉 銉°兂銈?銉┿儵銈儶銈广儐銈c兗adidas 銈儑銈c儉銈?銈广兗銉戙兗銈广偪銉笺偣銉儍銉濄兂 銉涖儻銈ゃ儓銇€氳博銇?/a>

  5. cool baseball jersey designs

    men t shirt camisa long sleeve barcelona rick and morty grand rick auto men neymar da silva santos junior brazil t shirts male innike cr7 chapter 7 mercurial superfly 6 elite ag pro football bootsworld football stars go laceless marksman styleatletico…

  6. fid stikalo inæ‹§talacijski odklopnik 2 polni 16 a 0.03 a 230 v siemens

    卸械薪褋泻邪褟 褉褍斜邪褕泻邪 锌芯写 蟹邪锌芯薪泻褍 谐芯谢褍斜芯谐芯 褑胁械褌邪 懈蟹 褎邪泻褌褍褉薪芯泄 褌泻邪薪懈 芯泻褋褎芯褉写 7481adidas originals v day 褋胁懈褌褕芯褌 regular fit 褔械褉薪褘泄写懈薪邪屑芯 泻懈褩胁 谢褜胁褨胁 芯薪谢邪泄薪 褌褉邪薪褋谢褟褑褨褟 13 褌褍褉褍 褍锌谢. live屑芯写薪褘械 锌谢邪褌褜褟 斜械蟹 褋锌懈薪泻懈 写谢褟 卸械薪褖懈薪 泻褍锌懈褌褜 胁 懈薪褌械褉薪械褌 屑邪谐邪蟹懈薪械 锌芯 褑械薪械 960 褉…

  7. 褔邪褋褘 baosaili bsl1041 gold 斜邪芯褋邪懈谢懈 薪芯胁懈薪泻邪 屑芯写褘 写谢褟 写械胁褍褕械泻 懈 卸械薪褖懈薪 泻胁邪褉褑械胁褘械 薪邪褉褍褔薪褘械

    写懈褌褟褔懈泄 泻芯褋褌褞屑 200 谐褉薪. 芯写械卸写邪 写谢褟屑芯写薪褘械 卸械薪褋泻懈械 褉褍斜邪褕泻懈 2014褍褌褞卸芯泻 philips 泻褍锌懈褌褜 胁 褋邪薪泻褌 锌械褌械褉斜褍褉谐械 薪邪 avito7 屑褍写褉懈褏 锌褉邪胁懈谢 胁懈褏芯胁邪薪薪褟 写褨褌械泄 褍 写芯屑邪褕薪褟 褑械褉泻胁邪

  8. upgradeurlife

    pandora beads sports katz air jordan6 grigio gituttio nike hyperdunk 2010 hombres rosado and negro basketbtodas zapato ralph lauren polo shirts uk xl nike zoom pegasus 31 flash femmes fonctionnement chaussures jordans blomsterprint designer kjole

  9. 泻芯褋褌褞屑 泻褍泻谢褘 写械褌褋泻懈泄 鈩?3

    褋械褉邪褟 褌褉懈泻芯褌邪卸薪邪褟 褞斜泻邪 泻邪褉邪薪写邪褕褋锌谢邪胁 褉芯蟹械 50 谐褉 rexant 泻褍锌懈褌褜 薪械写芯褉芯谐芯 胁 懈薪褌械褉薪械褌 屑邪谐邪蟹懈薪械褉邪褋锌褉芯写邪卸邪 卸械薪褋泻芯泄 芯斜褍胁懈 mango 泻褍锌懈褌褜 褋芯 褋泻懈写泻芯泄 mango屑褍卸褋泻懈械 褋邪薪写邪谢懈 ecco 芯锌褌

  10. new balance 996 acciaio

    women wearing tight leather pants brunette modelnew style african women clothing dashiki fashion print elastic cloth short sleeves sexy long dress size s m l xl 2xl 3xlbuy arm chain extender alloy chain women hand braceletunusual fashion jewellery doub…

  11. d臎tsk谩 idle koupit online m belix

    as mais lindas histè´¸rias chap茅uzinho vermelho as mais lindas histè´¸rias chap茅uzinho vermelho pagina. as mais lindas histè´¸rias chap茅uzinho vermelhofootjoy golf sandalspuzzle factory people annie anahi portillabrave men even can wear bright leotards by ni…

  12. table salle a manger 2 metres

    k谋rm谋z谋 tommy hilfiger 莽izme modelleri fiyatlar谋 trendyolstivali in microfibra con gambale nella parte superiore e tacco bassomoda koleksiyonu g眉ne艧 g枚zl眉kleri toptanhurley advantage plus 5 5mm f茅rfi magassz谩r煤 cip艖 v铆zhatlan

  13. csinos kismamè°©k a karè°©csonyfa alatt anyakanyar

    black wedding 褔械褉薪芯械 锌谢邪褌褜械 褋褌懈谢褜薪邪褟 褋胁邪写褜斜邪 褋胁邪写褜斜邪 胁vestido elisa same no more atelierwomens grey coat grey crew neck sweater yellow lacela federica falda que te quiero larga

  14. goldiumgroup

    free 3.0 v5 gris corriendo zapatos quality nike kobe 9 purple yellow nike slouch knit hat mens 2016 air jordan 3 wolf græ°“ gs cheap fake hermes belt mackage macy coat sale

  15. 泻褉邪褋薪芯械 锌谢邪褌褜械 褋 写谢懈薪薪褘屑 褉褍泻邪胁芯屑 泻褍锌懈褌褜 胁 懈薪褌械褉薪械褌 屑邪谐邪蟹懈薪械

    胁褨褕邪谢泻邪 写谢褟 芯写褟谐褍 谢褍褑褜泻 320 谐褉薪 写芯褕泻邪 芯谐芯谢芯褕械薪褜写懈褌褟褔褨 褋薪褨泻械褉褋懈 蟹邪 200 谐褉薪. 褕邪褎邪卸褨薪芯褔邪 褌褍薪褨泻邪 锌谢邪褌褌褟 胁 褋械褉写械褔泻邪 胁褨谢褜薪芯谐芯 泻褉芯褞蟹邪谐芯褌芯胁泻邪 胁懈褕懈胁泻懈 锌谢邪褌褌褟 锌褨写 斜褨褋械褉

  16. 转讬拽 诪转拽驻诇 诪诪讜转讙 cool media 诪讜爪专讬 驻专住讜诐

    crocband vivid blooms clog k girlss childrens clogspeplum wrap shirtpanda i am a warrior awesome graphic2019 new autumn winter plus velvet warm leather jacket women fashion short biker leather jacket women size leather in

  17. michael kors eva tote

    the best leather tote bags for workivsta pilot sunglasses 3025 58mm mens sunglasses men polarized lenses high quality day night glasses driving sunglasses women inbest tifosi sunglasses for golfseek optics jawbreaker asian fit replacement lenses blue b…

  18. 谢械褌薪褟褟 泻芯褎褌芯褔泻邪 泻褉褞褔泻芯屑. 褋褏械屑褘 胁褟蟹邪薪懈褟 泻褉褞褔泻芯屑 泻芯褎褌芯褔泻懈 写谢褟

    褍屑薪褘械 褔邪褋褘 smart maxi water 5066 uwatch black 褋 锌褍谢褜褋芯屑械褌褉芯屑屑邪谐薪懈褌 芯褌屑械褔邪械褌 25 谢械褌懈械 薪芯胁芯褋褌懈 褉芯蟹薪懈褔薪芯泄 褋械褌懈 屑邪谐薪懈褌泻芯屑锌褉械褋褋懈芯薪薪褘泄 褌褉懈泻芯褌邪卸 胁 泻褉械屑械薪褔褍谐械泻褉邪褋懈胁芯械 泻褉褍卸械胁薪芯械 薪懈卸薪械械 斜械谢褜械

Comments are closed.