The 5 Most Unusual Musical Performances Ever on TV
For people who lament the state of popular culture, or think that television is entirely devoid of interesting, unpredictable content, I write this post to demonstrate that occasionally, something truly fascinating appears. These five musical performances all appeared on major broadcasts (sure, some were late at night), and though most people probably viewed them with a raised eyebrow, some of the audience probably found themselves amazed at something they never even knew existed before.
So in this post, I’ve put YouTube videos to what I think are the five most unusual musical performances ever shown on television; I encourage submissions of other weird or outré videos, or even anecdotes about crazy stuff you saw that blew your mind.
| 1. Philip Glass Ensemble, “Rubric” on Saturday Night Live, 1986
This video has since been removed from YouTube. View it here. Before it started plucking musical guests from only the tip top of the top forty, Saturday Night Live actually took some risks. This clip from a 1986 episode hosted by Cheers’ George Wendt features minimalist composer Philip Glass, interspersed with video clips from Koyaanisqatsi 2. John Cage, “Water Walk” on I’ve Got a Secret, 1960 This is probably my favorite of all the videos. Cage is pleasant, affable, and most importantly unpretentious. He asks the audience to put their faith in him as he pops balloons and knocks radios off of tables, demonstrating that avant-garde and experimental music can be amusing, participatory, and have broad appeal. 3. Sun Ra Arkestra, “Retrospect” on Night Music, 1990 DAVID SANBORN: Can you tell us a little bit about [how you conduct the orchestra]? SUN RA: I’m trying to get the planet ready for space beings, cause they are sure to land soon DAVID SANBORN: Who are some of your early influences? SUN RA: Well, the planets. The creator. Mythical gods, and real ones. Flowers. 4. Yoko Ono, “Fly” on The Dick Cavett Show, 1971 Yoko Ono never really embodied the unpretentious quality that John Cage demonstrated above. “Fly” is a short experimental video following a fly as Ono contorts her voice to resemble a free jazz saxophone. 5. KLF feat. Extreme Noise Terror, “3 A.M. Eternal” on The Brit Awards, 1992 The pinnacle of KLF’s subversion, turning their techno stadium house hit into a thrash metal diatribe against the music industry live on television. It’s hard to make out because of the YouTube video’s low quality, but at the end of the track amidst the explosions, KLF’s Bill Drummond fires a machine gun over the heads of the audience. It was full of blanks, but only Drummond knew that. According to the KLF: “We thought it an excellent jape to disembowel a dead sheep too, but Extreme Noise Terror (all vegetarians) refused to take part if the slaughter was carried out. Weeds.” |
(though “Rubric” is from 
5 Comments Add your own
1. MarkTa | August 12th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
I think Frank Zappa’s performance of his piece for bicycle should be on here. It was on the Tonight Show with Steve Allen. I think Zappa was 17 at the time and a virtual unknown.
2. mpb | August 12th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I should give an honorable mention to PiL’s performance of “Poptones” and “Careering” on American Bandstand in 1980:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WmS548i0LMk
3. Paul H | August 13th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Christian Marclay also performed on Night Music, but I have been unable to find the video anywhere. The audio of the performance is available on Marclay’s Records release on Atavistic.
4. Tony Rimbaud | August 25th, 2007 at 6:40 am
My vote goes to Jimmy Pursey doing his avant garde dance routine in the 80s on the UKs arts magazine Riverside - you can see on item on You Tube here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR-W-uGcMRA - I seem to remember he also did a dance to a Peter Hammill number with tasteful lasers if anyone can find it.
5. mpb | August 27th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
That Pursey/Riverside video is fantastic. It’s pretty hypnotic for a little while.
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