# Anyone Remember This Weird News Story (Song Played Over Several Years) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468 "2008-09-20T19:14:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/21 "2008-09-24T17:41:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, the same could be said of Pink Floyd who… Yes, they did all of those things, but they’re hardly their most famous compositions. There’s a reason most folks remember _The Wall_ a lot more than those other gimmicks. With Cage, though, there really isn’t anything _but_ the gimmick pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/22 "2008-09-24T18:00:17Z")
You have to wonder if the organ will last that long. i hope they screw up half way through the song and have to start over. ---
**Author:** ![goodie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@goodie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goodie)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/23 "2008-09-24T18:03:23Z")
“We, a group of theologians, musicologists, philosophers, composers and organists, met during a couple of years solely to discuss this question. It was rather wonderful to have one topic to discuss at length.” Wow, as we all know, usually when you get people from those five professions together, it’s nothing but hair pulling and throwing chairs. We need to just be thankful that a productive and peaceful result was achieved at all. It’s not like it was a bunch of trapeze artists, glass blowers, urologists, dog-sitters and oyster divers that was involved. From THEM we should have expected something that would make sense and be useful. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/24 "2008-09-24T18:17:50Z")
I have listened to it. Years 1 - 35 are very moving but years 102 - 318 are boring to be frank about it. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/25 "2008-09-24T18:30:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > With Cage, though, there really isn’t anything _but_ the gimmick pieces. This is really, really not true. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/26 "2008-09-25T02:56:22Z")
[quote=“1920s Style “Death Ray”, post:16, topic:464468”] Well, the same could be said of Pink Floyd who have compositions featuring someone making themselves breakfast … [/QUOTE] Now now, by the time Alan’s Psychadelic Breakfast came on it was all a great reminder that we were in fact quite hungry and eggs were available in the fridge. I call that serious musical intuition. Who would actually guess that after listening to the entire Atom Heart Mother Sweet followed by all that stuff in the middle, people would have this strange urge to each just about any combination of things scrambled with eggs? . ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/27 "2008-09-25T04:01:35Z")
> [@](#): > > This is really, really not true. OK, then, enlighten us. What else has Cage written, that isn’t just a gimmick? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/28 "2008-09-25T04:56:00Z")
Listen to it [here](http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de/new/index.php?seite=cdundtoene&l=e) ---
**Author:** ![Labor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Labor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labor)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/29 "2008-09-25T14:37:57Z")
Gimmick, John Cage? You’re missing the point. When Cage came on the scene music had come to a point where the rules of harmony and organization had been so changed, violated, twisted and sometimes ignored that their meanings and functions were no longer valid. There was no reason to write the exposition of a sonata in one key and then follow the rules to create a second theme (feminine) then modulate in certain ways in the developement. Cage decided that these rules were so broken as to be pointless and started listening to music in different ways. The ultimate decision is that all the sounds heard during a performance were music, including coughs from the audience, foot shuffling, dropped mutes, etc. He began to think that even highly organized music (pretty much anything from Bach through Schoenberg) was completely random because there were so many extra sounds occuring. So he began to exploit this. The big piece most people know is 4’ 33". This is the famous piece where the performer does not play for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The audience listens to everything that is happening. Cage found all sounds to be interesting and therefore, music. A college friend told me about a performance of 4’ 33" on a college campus where the fraternity boys parked a fire-truck outside the venue honking horns and running the sirens. Cage would have found this fascinating. His later pieces involved snipping up books and pasting them back together, the performer reads the nonsence. I met John Cage once, interesting guy. I also entered the lobby of a perfomrance venue as people were leaving muttereing things about hard-earned money and nonsensical gibberish. Exactly the kind of responce Cage wanted. The point isn’t to like the music or hum the tune. The point is to listen to everything and relize all the ramifications or this performance. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/30 "2008-09-25T15:12:54Z")
> [@goodie](#): > > Wow, as we all know, usually when you get people from those five professions together, it’s nothing but hair pulling and throwing chairs. We need to just be thankful that a productive and peaceful result was achieved at all. It’s not like it was a bunch of trapeze artists, glass blowers, urologists, dog-sitters and oyster divers that was involved. From THEM we should have expected something that would make sense and be useful. I’d love to hear the kind of music that group would make. I’d even oyster shell out the cash for the full CD. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/31 "2008-09-25T15:39:20Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > What else has Cage written, that isn’t just a gimmick? > [@Labor](#): > > Gimmick, John Cage? You’re missing the point. […] > > I also entered the lobby of a perfomrance venue as people were leaving muttereing things about hard-earned money and nonsensical gibberish. Exactly the kind of responce Cage wanted. He was sort of the Andy Kaufman of the music world then? > [@](#): > > The point isn’t to like the music or hum the tune. The point is to listen to everything and relize all the ramifications or this performance. Yes, the human sense of hearing is a wonderful thing. I’m sure we don’t take the time to appreciate sound as much as we ought. (If that comes across as sarcastic, it’s honestly not.) There is a _kind_ of music to be heard in things like rainstorms, wind blowing through a woods, fire engine noises, helicopters, and maybe even an audience coughing and fidgeting in front of a silent stage for four and a half minutes. On that last one I’d have to take other peoples’ word for it, for now. But, I’m not sure I need John Cage to help me appreciate the marvels of hearing simple sound, or any of these stretched definitions of music that he offers. I think I’d rather go for a walk in the woods, find a nice log to sit on, and meditate. Which — in my neighborhood — means listening to fire engines and helicopters. ---
**Author:** ![Eegba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Eegba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eegba)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/32 "2008-09-25T16:48:04Z")
> [@Labor](#): > > His later pieces involved snipping up books and pasting them back together, the performer reads the nonsence. I saw him do that some years back at Sanders Theater at Harvard. It was interesting, because after the 45 minutes of it was done, you got sort of an idea of what the original text was about just because of what the words were. That said, 45 minutes of it was really very long. But the best part was about two thirds of the way through, when a woman from the audience walked up on stage, took Cage’s water glass, drank the entire thing in one long gulp, then went and sat back down. Cage just kept talking, but he had a huge grin on his face… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/33 "2008-09-25T17:36:03Z")
True or false: I could replace John Cage with some Markov chain software running in a ‘quiet’ room. ---
**Author:** ![Apophenia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Apophenia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apophenia)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/34 "2008-09-26T00:21:54Z")
Replace? Ho ho no, you are merely adding to an existing Cage performance in so doing. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/35 "2008-09-26T07:19:57Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I have listened to it. Years 1 - 35 are very moving but years 102 - 318 are boring to be frank about it. I used to think this- but try listening to it again, knowing now how it goes during years 400-460 ---
**Author:** ![Westrogothia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@Westrogothia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Westrogothia)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/36 "2008-09-26T15:59:19Z")
> [@Labor](#): > > I met John Cage once, interesting guy. I also entered the lobby of a perfomrance venue as people were leaving muttereing things about hard-earned money and nonsensical gibberish. Exactly the kind of responce Cage wanted. “But he’s not wearing any clothes!” ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/37 "2008-09-26T19:46:42Z")
> [@Labor](#): > > I met John Cage once, interesting guy. I also entered the lobby of a perfomrance venue as people were leaving muttereing things about hard-earned money and nonsensical gibberish. Exactly the kind of responce Cage wanted. So he was a pre internet troll. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/38 "2008-09-27T22:32:06Z")
I just checked google earth and it turns out I only live a couple hours away. AND… the next note change is scheduled for November 4th. ROADTRIP!! ---
**Author:** ![jimigorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@jimigorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimigorilla)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468/39 "2008-10-03T09:24:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yes, they did all of those things, but they’re hardly their most famous compositions. There’s a reason most folks remember _The Wall_ a lot more than those other gimmicks. With Cage, though, there really isn’t anything _but_ the gimmick pieces. Where do you think the floyd got the idea for their gimmicks? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-remember-this-weird-news-story-song-played-over-several-years/464468.md?page=1)