Tuesday, May 1, 2007

John Cage Has a Secret

Since John Cage has made an appearance on this blog a few times the past month, I thought I'd give you a chance to see the man in a rare television appearance.

In 1960, at what could arguably be the height of Cage's infamy, the composer appeared on the hit show "I've Got A Secret." Running from 1952 to 1967, the show featured a panel of four who took turns questioning and then attempting to guess the contestant's secret. I'm sure American audiences weren't quite prepared that Wednesday night on CBS when John Cage appeared and performed his "Water Walk." In fact, my favorite part occurs when Garry Moore attempts to prepare Cage for the audience's reaction. Cage's response? "Of course I consider laughter preferable to tears."


Thanks to WFMU for finding this and making it available.

2 comments:

Taliesin said...

That was very cool. You've played some of his works for me before, but seeing it was very different. Good find :)

alicia said...

In the immortal words of Mr. Spock, fascinating! I didn't expect him to be so mild-mannered.