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From: bonbo
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  • It's a shame so many people write such cruel and callous things when examining Derek's guitar playing. From the age of fourteen I have been in completely overwhelmed by how wonderful his playing is. His rhythmic density, attack and unparalleled comping. I am a guitar player myself studying a jazz degree in Leeds and I am still terrified of attempting to play like Bailey. I will defend him to my grave and I hope some people will reserve their judgement and endevour further into understanding him.

  • @freejazzandcheese1 I really want to understand how Bailey's music makes sense from a theoretical POV. I neither like nor dislike his stuff, but I'm intrigued by it. I know a fair bit if music theory, but I'm not at a level high enough to analyse/understand the workings of Bailey's music just by listening to his stuff. Can you give me some link whereby I can understand how his music 'works'? (not being sarcastic here)

  • @akrotirifry9 Being intrigued is a good place to start. I certainly don't recommend you analyse it from a theoretical POV, at least not harmonically. Try and see rhythm as a non metronomic concept. You have to see Bailey's music as very rhythmic. If you can understand this then you may start to see what makes him so good. Free improvisation is strictly about rhythm and tone. In a way jazz is too and harmony counts as just a mathematical rule book. It is not specifically what note..

  • @freejazzandcheese1 ..is played but how it is played. This is not a "free for all" "play what you like" music. It is a language and should be treated as such. I suggest to keep a wide open view of what you hear and look at how players interact and how ideas are developed in group improv. In solo just listen to Bailey (Lot 74 is a good one) with the lights off alone and concentrate. I can of course tell you much more but I think it only needs time and patience. Also...

  • @freejazzandcheese1 ...Domonic Lash (musician) did a PHD on Derek Bailey and uncovered Bailey's huge private study of the guitar. It certainly holds a good defence of Bailey when you see how he conceived the instrument in such a different way. Most people who play guitar are extremely backward and self concious to have such courage and ingenuity. Its a shame really. Go on the INCUS RECORDS site and search writings section. It is the second one down. Fascinating stuff!

  • @freejazzandcheese1 Reading it now. Thanks!

  • 1:07 is it me or does that sound like a mastodon lick? haha

  • @totalinformation I'd call Metal Machine Music a work of art. Further, I think it's a damn good work of art. As for Aida, that one is a contender for my top 10 albums.

    I'm opposed to all snobbery, and I sure wouldn't say I have "supreme knowledge in music". I'm just a fan of free improv and avant-garde. There's nothing wrong being a fan of that stuff, and there's nothing wrong with hating it, either.

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  • Hehe! I love these "shreds" parodies :) ..... seriously though where can I check out this guys playing??

  • He is my go-to musician to accompany a (re)reading of Sokal's 'Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermenuetics of Quantum Gravity' and eating a sandwiche du merde.

  • Amazing... how can people hear noise and chaos when its a solo and its very clear very structured and not noisy at all? No he cannnot play the same thing again and again... but hello!! thats the point, he doesnt want to...

    The human mind is conditioned through culture to rythm harmony and melody... so its actually more dificult to play out of the rythm the harmony and the melody (But hey, I think this is actually very rythmic and melodic!)

  • @HipHopkins09 Take chances on sounding like a pile of shit br0wski

    comprehend what? that it sounds like a pile of fucking DOG SHIT... there ain't shit to comprehend right here..

    You know what's more fucking sad than this pile of shit derek bailey manages to shit is his followers who think he's a fucking "genius"

    YEAH BRAH I'M A PICK UP MY GUITAR AND JUST HIT RANDOM ASS HARMONICS AND OPEN STRINGS AND TUNE MY GUITAR OUT OF TUNE CUZ IM GENIUSSSSSSS GENIUSSS

    ^_^ Steve Vai is a genius

  • @NiggerAnus steve vai is a showman

    

  • @NiggerAnus a very rewarding comment darling brah. your adherence to the cult of very fast pentatonic scales is evident in your last endorsement. Perhaps this proclivity for (dare I say) shit music has precluded any appreciation on your part for the slightly more interesting musical forays of our friend mr bailey. May lord vai keep your dreams brief, to the point and private.

  • @NiggerAnus "Steve Vai is a genius" - absolutely. Steve Vai is one of my favourite guitarists.

    Derek Bailey is a genius too.

  • espectacular ,gran video

  • i never really "got" derek bailey... most of the time he's just tedious.

    saying that, fred frith is my hero

  • touché

  • Why would a talented guitar play practice playing bad?

  • And it's amusing how many people won't say something is nonsense because they're afraid of not being hip to new stuff.

  • @sbejelkane Do you know what actually is even more amusing... is that you think "liking" this is being hip and new.

  • To be fair, I've experienced and perceived my oversoul in the fifth dimension, and I still consider to be complete toss. To me it is utterly rubbish randomness masquerading as art, but I'm aware that my opinion doesn't make me definitively correct on any level. I know to other people this is enjoyable and meaningful, so fair play to you, listen with your heart and not your mind. I'll be listening to something else while being thankful that I encountered this, so I know what I don't like.

  • @twenkmcwanzer That's the best YouTube comment I've ever read. You took the words right out of my mouth; rubbish masquerading as art.

  • isnt this part of the derek bailey shreds parodies?

  • You should watch the "Transmutations" video in the related area, with Bill Laswell... Derek Bailey being Derek Bailey, while an amazing funk/dub/jazz thing is going on... made me appreciate him a lot more. He's not easy listening, that's for sure... it is pretentious snob music, I suppose, but I genuinely appreciate what he does... it evokes moods not possible in tonal music. There is music there, if you broaden your definition of music.

  • @SpaceRitual I don't think that Bailey is 'pretentious snob music'. If there is such a thing as 'pretentious snob music', I think it's things like so-called 'smooth jazz', where players play totally banalities and the audience thinks it's great because there are no words, or something. Or else it's stuff like Allan Holdsworth, flashy emulation of pretentious early 20th century tonal music. Bailey is doing something much more down-to-earth.

  • @lexo30 I do think the overview of people who like/create atonal music from an outsider point of view, is of pretentiousness. I remember reading an overall description of the band Throbbing Gristle as "not even their fans appreciate their 'music.'" Not sure if I phrased it right, but that was the gist. Like, you can't possibly appreciate how that sounds, you are just pretending to like it so that you think it makes you look smart. People don't believe anyone could possibly like anything abnormal

  • @SpaceRitual Well, I can't speak about Throbbing Gristle fans, not being one myself. I know enough about Bailey to know that he was trained as a totally conventional musician, and he thought of himself as one; if you've listened to much Anton Webern, for example, his playing seems well within the boundaries of 20th century music. I am aware of the 'You can't possibly enjoy that music, you're just pretending' claim, and I consider it arrogant, ignorant and insulting.

  • @SpaceRitual I'm not accusing you of being arrogant, etc. But I do think it extremely arrogant of some people to think that others can't possibly like the music that they claim to like. I know people like music for lots of different reasons, but I enjoy listening to Bailey's music. It's not like I belong to some snobbish clique of Bailey lovers; nobody else I know likes his work. It's different with pop, where people identify themselves as 'fans' in a way that involves lifestyle choices, etc.

  • @SpaceRitual Steven Pinker, who I usually admire, says something similar to what you're saying in one of his books: he says that since studies have shown that babies prefer tonal music, anyone who claims to love, say, Schoenberg, doesn't really love the music but loves the elitism of being a Schoenberg fan. All I can say is, bullshit. I don't know anyone else who loves Schoenberg and I wish I did, because then I could share the pleasure with someone. I just like the sound of his music.

  • @lexo30 I'm in a similar situation, truthfully, I wouldn't say I dig someone like Derek Bailey for the elitist reasons, it's not something I brag about. In fact, I would say that I'm often mildly embarrassed of my experimental music listening. Like, if I'm not playing it through headphones, someone might hear it and think I'm a weirdo. I guess I'm too self conscious, don't want attention drawn on me... that's why I'm a bass player, ha.

  • @SpaceRitual I've spent my life as a music lover learning to have no taste. 'Taste', by which I mean identifying with one particular class of music lover as opposed to another, interferes with my ability to appreciate music for itself. So one day it'll be Derek Bailey, another day Deep Purple, or Brad Mehldau or Ani Di Franco, or Albanian folk music or Charlie Parker or Talking Heads or Rammstein or William Byrd or whoever. I refuse to feel embarrassed about liking any kind of music.

  • It's a shame that if music doesn't contain melody, rhythm or tempo, it must be crap. This is interesting for the simple fact that it's music without a specific direction, and so creates an entirely different mood than that of "normal" guitar music. Of course, you can just sit there and watch the lack of rhythm and ignorantly assume he doesn't know what he's doing.

  • Nice to see StSanders back on youtube, always hilarious.

  • hahahaa  has this been overdubbed with some shit music?

  • one of the better bailey pieces I have seen. not really into this bloke's style, but he does know what he's doing. i'm just too spoiled with fred frith and the like

  • Well, it takes talent to keep on going, I guess...

  • What's this one called? "Rabid Mongoose in a China Shoppe"?

  • You say Bruno Mars, I say Derek Bailey

    You say Hannah Montana, I say Eugene Chadbourne

    You say Owl City, I say Henry Kaiser

    You say Jonas Brothers, I say Fred Frith

    You say Taylor Swift, I say Keith Rowe

    You say Justin Bieber, I say Keji Haino

    95% of teens these days listen to the same formulaic, crappy pop over and over! you're one of the 5% who still listens to real music, thumb this up, then copy and paste it to at least five videos. Don't let the spirit of rock and roll die!

  • @frankryte You sir should really listen to propagating tree fungus at the arena of ainsley harriet

  • @frankryte This isn't real music. This is somone who never learned to play the guitar. I could hand a guitar to a 4 year old, teach them how to fret it and get the same result. Ridiculous.

  • @WildWillys how do people like you even figure out who derek bailey is? the same folk scoff at stan brakhage, try to urinate on the work of jackson pollock.... if you think a four year old could get the same result, why dont you try to make a video simulating the same sound found in this video? I bet you can't... really.

  • @frankryte Derek Baily, Henry Kaiser, all of these "improvisational" guitarists are just tasteless, talentless hacks who couldn't be bothered to take the time & energy necessary to practice and become a real musician. Kaiser's grandaddy was a bazilionaire so little Henry has plenty of money and zero talent. Why on earth would I ever want to duplicate this shite? I've spent years working on learning to play guitar licks that are pleasant to the ear, that make people want to sing & dance.

  • @WildWillys If you tried to freely improvise, with a serious intent at discovering something new... as a musician, as a listener, as a person... you might be able to open up a whole door you didn't even know existed. I like boogie-woogie as much as the next guy, but this sort of music, the stuff derek, henry, etc typically do is tied a lot more to traditional Eastern music than Rock... though they use similar instruments

  • @WildWillys you don't even have to record yourself doing it--- but i really want you to try... just to know how it feels. You probably like people like Hendrix, Pink Floyd... maybe you don't but, hey... those guys were surely influenced by noisy and freely improvised music.... maybe you can be too :D

  • @WildWillys I like Derek Bailey and the whole Incus Records scene. The musicians aren't talentless. Derek Bailey used to teach guitar. They could play just as good as any musician but they chose to oppose conventions of music. Free improvisation is about pure expression, it's not about having a sing and dance.

  • A 4 year old could never do this. As for this not being real music........we have learned all we need to know about you from that statement.

  • @scopaz Exactly the kind of thing I'd expect to hear from a bass player.

  • @WildWillys Proudly.

  • @scopaz I know...6 strings is a little complicated sometimes. It's OK...man's got to know his limitations.

  • @WildWillys Do some research and then we will talk. I have played bass and guitar for over 25 years, have recorded and performed with major label artists, and play many other instruments beyond 6 strings. Which really doesn't mean anything anyway if you don't know how to listen anyway. Lets see some of your videos. Oh that's right, you don't have any. Be a man and send me a PM when you are sober and we will talk about your inadequacies.

  • @scopaz Evidently I struck a nerve there Scotty but let's not forget you were the one who started taking shots at me. I guess I'm supposed to be impressed with your resume but franky I'm not...sorry but to me you're just another wannabe that I've never heard of and honestly if you think what Derek Bailey does passes for music then I could care less about your opinion anyway.

  • @WildWillys Best of luck to you Willy....

  • @HipHopkins09 it seems like what they try to do is take what sounds good in music and do the opposite. although its difficult to play off rhythm and off key, it still sounds bad.

  • This is music, music was first created through improvisation, not notes... This is about sound, the colour of it

  • This is music, music was first created through improvisation, not notes... This is about sound, the colour of it

  • Everybody is improvising all the time, every child, animal. Artists can improvise and have radical works in major art gallery's, why can't innovative original musicians be rewarded. There wouldn't be music without originality, notes didn't just appear, they were made up, a great invention, but now new music is created that's not predictable and you can go places, with the musicians (who ablsolutely enjoy the sounds).

  • @HipHopkins09 no i comprehend it, its just not my type(or most people's type) of music.

  • idiot

  • You want to know why we listen to it...I'll tell you...because some of us we try to understand when somebody is trying to fool us or not...I got my opinion about this "piece" of "music"....

  • i can't believe i'm getting to see this - he was this mystery to me for years, wondering what he would be like live - i just had his records, which i was introduced to because of fred frith and henry cow - love his playing - he never toured where i was living

  • I want tabs for 0:55

  • Nice one Derek, I love the way an Englishman makes utter shit and still finds a load dumb yanks to make money from. my cats arse makes a better tune when has a crap.

  • @Sirbeefyness It's a small world, I just happen to have bought a ticket for the concert in Madison Square Garden...where your cat's arse is doing the opening number for a Cher concert!

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  • I'm gonna be honest: this is freakin' awesome! I can see Fred Frith drooling!

  • A man who could teach Sonic Youth a few tricks. Bravo.

  • Clearly a man who wants to be self directed

    Without regard to the instrument he selected

    Needs only to be internally corrected without

    Kneading to be internally corrected without.

  • i can understand the rhythmic and hartmonic freedom thing (well, no, i can't actually, but that's not the point...), but i could even partly appreciate this stuff if it wasn't pure noise. i mean, if he had the slightest touch and expressivity and didn't just make fake scales, fret and dull string noise i could call it music, even if it hadn't a structure. but that' sounds too similar to the random bullshit i played when i was 6 to mimick i was a guitar hero... so i guess it's nothing different.

  • @dh3im It may sound the same, but the whole point is different.

  • @dh3im "i can understand the rhythmic and hartmonic freedom thing (well, no, i can't actually, but that's not the point...)"

    ...maybe that IS the point!? Either way, I'm not into it. Reminds me of how I sound when I try to play stoned.

  • i don't know why, but i like what i'm hearing

  • Also, Jimmy Page's violin bow solos and Jimi Hendrix's experiments with feedback were far more powerful and effective (and concise) explorations of sound than this. Of course, however, the typical supporter of Derek B would rather die than listen to those guys as they never sat down and learnt how to blow round the usual lame collection of standards which confers 'jazzness' on artists and gives them carte blanche to bore the arse off everyone.

  • What gets me about Bailey is the nonsense often spouted that a more 'sophisticated' musical ear will appreciate or 'understand' him. I'm willing to listen to anything, and have, but this doesn't work for me. And as for his jazz chops - well being able to blow round the old II-V-Is is no guarantee of being creative in any other sense. Maybe a single piece on these lines would have said something, but for a whole evening there are not enough possibilities in what he does.

  • this is abit silly really.

  • I'll explain what this is... This is a guy trying to convince people that this is music. It's like painting some colored lines and convince people that´s a woman suffering. This is pure shit and this guy can't play the same thing again. This is improvisation... Now, i wonder if i can improvise some shit like this and earn some money with it...

  • is he trying to learn how to play guitar???

  • if he can play the exact same thing every time again and again at every show then ill be amazed. but i honestly think he is just fooling around. if this is improvised then this is just crap cuz i can play those stupid harmonics and string scrapes too.

  • It takes real courage and imagination to play this kind of music.

  • lets just hand him a theory book and see how much he really knows

  • @guitar7901 DB was a very acomplished jazz guitar player and earned his life playing clubs and dancehalls since since the late forties i think. So he probably knew a lot of music theory, harmony, chords and stuff. Then, one day in 1965 he just decided to play free improvisation.

  • @blefusku honestly he does not know theory at all

  • this is just noise with no observable meaning just cause some one does something different does not mean that it should be considered good with that being said it is still good that he tried to do something different

  • so...this is the guitarist that blew Thurston Moore's mind...

  • I think perhaps that people are intrigued by difference, yet do not always know how to overcome their conditioning when they first encounter it.

  • lol deaf person playing guitar.

  • i dont hear music god damn hipsters

  • Everyone who likes this, go watch the video "Interior Semiotics". It's right up your alley.

    Someone really should tune this poor man's guitar, it seems he cannot tell that it doesn't work correctly.

  • This is the musical equivalent of Tracey Emin's 'My Bed'. It's technically art, but it's just fucking shit.

  • What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is some top-notch comedy. This is the kind of stuff that makes me glad to be alive.

  • Exordium by Harry Partch*

  • It's avant-garde... Check out Exordium if you don't like this and then come post back on this video. I want to see more stupid comments.

  • Modern Art became too intellectual for it's own damn good. These aren't artists they are politicians.

  • @Danman917

    Or argueably they merely worked in creative advertising, marketting, etc etc etc

  • how did all the haters even find their way to this video?

  • lightgun105 etc.. loosen up man... think Picasso (he could paint as well as Michelangelo).

  • Anyone who thinks that sounds good must be insane! That's not music!

  • @lightgun105 That's your opinion, not everyone is one person.

  • Anyone who thinks that sounds good must be insane! That's not music!

  • Im gonna be honest, I just don't get this...

  • @4Polfag At least you're nice about it.

  • @4Polfag

    Then it's probably either art, jazz ... or both :)

  • hole wrote this

  • I'm sorry.but this is terrible

  • @greyreview

    You're a fucking moron

  • @billhicksisdead what because I don't buy into this pretentious rubbish? yeah I'm the moron..... ha

  • crap

  • Woulda sounded better if he'd hacksawn the strings.  The applause is because he fucked off... Derek Bailey simply couldn't be arsed to learn how to play. Too many twats out there pretending to like the 'textures'. I would bet that less than 1% of Derek Bailey fans actually sit and listen to the noise he produces. They just like to harp on about the man, rather than listen to the unholy scraping. It makes them feel 'above' the rest of us... You all know I'm right. Sorry Degs.

  • @drcatuk Far too often, people who diss avant-garde music go as far as to say those who listen don't actually like it. How pathetic.

  • @drcatuk He actually could play very well traditionally. He was a session player back in the '60s.

  • RIFFEROLA!

  • The thing is.... if he would be at least consonant and rhythmic sometimes, I could see this as deliberate. If he was not able to play conventional music, then this to me is just fucking bullshit. Playing randomly implies that you don't have enough skill to make music happen on purpose. Anybody can play randomly.

  • @ubustang Actually, not everyone can play randomly. The average person off the street would not have the creativity to go this random. It would sound like someone who doesn't know what they are doing. This actually sounds like he knows what he's doing. 

  • @fryBASS How can you know how do something randomly. Randomly implies explicitly that you have zero control; like a roll of the dice. There is no skill in that, only luck, BY DEFINITION.

  • @ubustang True. Which is probably why it's not as random as it appears to be.

  • @fryBASS Which makes it merely a lack of control or skill. And regardless of the note choice there is a decided rhythmic continuity, which means its not random. Even flamenco music has more rhythmic uncertain than this; its just a mess. I mean is there free art where people randomly scribble on a page and put it on a pedestal to?

  • @ubustang Well, I still find it interesting to listen to either way. I still get a feeling out of it, which is a feeling of confusion and uncertainty. Now, I can't say I know a lot of about Derek Bailey, but I do enjoy this style of playing thrown into the mix of everything else.

  • @fryBASS I actually don't have a problem with it as sound; its just pushing it as music. If this is music, then why can't spoken word be music to? I think there has to be some degree of organization, otherwise the classification doesn't even make sense. I actually think this is kind of cool, sort of as a refresher from our structured music.

  • @ubustang Maybe spoken word is a form of music? If it is sound presented as art, is it not music?

  • @ubustang there is a lot of organization it's just in a different way from popular music.

  • @ubustang Spoken word IS music, as far as I'm concerned.

  • If this is music then the term has become meaningless. It may be unique or individual, but that does not imbue it with any intrinsic artistic merit. Detuning a guitar and strumming atonal chords and harmonics does not contribute anything to the sum total of human intellectual accomplishment. It simply sits on the fringes as a pointless exercise in unlistenable, avant-garde hokum.

  • Most epic troll in the music world ever.

  • I see some old crazy faggot making a money and stupid people that finds godlike things in shit.

    Such guys can eat a crap and call it an "art"

  • @DremDC It is literally mental that you actually believe that, although you sound american(so it is not unexplained how you could have come to be this ignorant). Just the choice of words alone you have used to describe prove that everything you have ever learnt is either from a television programme or slang you have seen used in blogs on the internet. Not only that, but besides the comment being barely understandable, there is simply no grammatical structure to how you have phrased it.You Moron.

  • Gooddammit. It's just beautiful. There's nothing to understand, just listen. And if you hate it so much, then don't listen. What's the problem with those people?

  • I don't care if people find this all "artsy" and "mind-expanding" and crap, and I also don't care about these people who are saying that this is an "epic fail." He's obviously doing what he's doing on purpose.

    But, simply, it's not pleasing to the ear. The point of music is to please the ear, is it not? I can't find any value in listening to this other than letting some guy wax weird-as-can-be.

  • @oeddawg No, the point in music isn't just to please the ear. It extends to more than just the 'pleasure' factor. Moreover, someone may value this 'artsy crap' as equally as you value 'consonant, pleasurable' music, no opinion trumps the other.

  • @danohrly What does it extend to beyond the basic idea of hearing something pleasing to the ear? It appears we use music for different things...

  • @oeddawg Hahaha fair enough. It isn't the nature of experience to just find everything that appears 'beautiful', it's to find everything and SEE the beauty in it (even if it looks bland, ugly etc). If you listen to a late piece by Schoenberg or Boulez (or even Ornette Coleman) it might sound bad as hell, but their pieces are so heavily ruled by guidelines it's unbelievable, they have their own order. Idk, if all you experienced was 'nice' things in the world it might be a bit unfulfilling.

  • I can play that song by plucking my pubes.

  • because its hilarious

  • epic fail!!!

  • Yes, he could "play the guitar well" as it happens....

  • beautiful...

  • hahaaahahhaahhaahahaahahhaahah­

  • Rockrules4ever1 you can just go and die this is music and it is great music

  • @asslove1212 hilarious!

  • Derek Bailey "got nowhere else to go"? He's already been there... if you want to listen to blues rock or whatever for the rest of your life then fine, but don't knock people who experiment... he didn't just convince "a couple pseudo-intellectual monkeys that his attempt at playing guitar is art"... is Pat Metheny a monkey? Is Thurston Moore?

  • guitars were made to make music not this shit this sounds like somebody is trying to kill a guitar...so sad

  • would be interesting to know if this guy can actually play guitar well.

    Deliberately going outside to push sonic limits is one thing. Doing it because you've got nowhere else to go is lame.

  • Well, considering that he played in dance bands / jazz bands throughout the fifties and until the mid-sixties, yes, he can play in the conventional way too.

  • Did they clap for the song, or the fact that it ended so quickly?

  • Thanks for posting this clip of my teacher Derek from 1983. He was an inspiration for those of us who are trying to get beyond style and get further into sound. If anyone doesn't enjoy or understand this stuff, why are you listening to it?

  • @booksteve ANYBODY can make sound, its about how sound if crafted that makes something special, not hitting random notes and hoping to capture something you never meant to do on purpose, totally up its own ass bullshit

  • @booksteve

    Derek Bailey was your teacher?

    I think DB was a god - but I can't imagine being taught by him.

    Please tell more.

  • @booksteve because its very funny

  • He's great and people just don't get it, but that doesn't mean the emperor's new suit of clothes isn't in there. It's everywhere. Doesn't matter about theory, style, sound - what we are hearing is Bailey's confidence to do it. Explore the guitar in front of people or on your own. I think this is about him, his guitar and his ability to convey this to others. You going to tell me you listen to full albums of his stuff? It's him and his being. Try it at home. It's unique and everyday. Like, life!

  • This Bailey guy is a genius. He convinced a couple pseudo-intellectual monkeys that his attempt at playing guitar is art. Genius!

  • What drug does one have to be on to understand this?

  • When Steve Irwin, the millionaire television star / bestiality fan, got poked in the ticker by a stingray and they frantically hauled his limp Aussie carcass up to the surface and onto the luxury yacht / research vessel and then hightailed it to the marina in a futile though valiant effort to save that golden-egg-laying goose, THIS was the sound collectively uttered by the Animal Planet executives as they watched their Xmas bonuses dissolve in a pool of stingray poison.

  • lol listen to all you artsy farsty knobs debating politics on a derek bailey video. i bet you think you're really progressive.

  • Yeah sure pal, and you just ended up here by accident.

  • lol fair youve done me there. pretty ironic cz i was actually into proper pretentious prog when i was 16. haha safe

  • I love a bit of avant garde but this is whack!

  • @adamsp8 It´s spelled Wack, you freak!

  • Watching this video makes me more than ever convinced that Bailey's approach to improvised guitar is so much more valid than Keith Rowe's. I quite like the sound of some of Rowe's music, but his reasons for playing the way he does are to me incoherent. Whereas Bailey thought of himself as a conventional player, and watching this, you can see just how conventional he is - the only unconventional thing about his style is his choice of notes. Everything else in his music could come from Webern.

  • ...Well, not everything. But we know that a good bit of it did.

  • Agree...I think Rowe's playing and everything about AMM is a sham.

  • I wouldn't go as far as that, but I don't like listening to them.

  • that was horrible

  • You can tell he used to play backup for Morecambe and Wise.

  • Love the way this stuff STILL winds-up the conservative guitarists who ALL practice & practice and ALL end up sounding just like someone else.

  • I remember when all my pals were learning Knopflers 'Sultans' solos note-for-note, and then they heard Knopfler doing it live, and he just played whatever the fuck he liked, (brilliantly) and DIDN'T stick religiously (anally?) to the single version.

  • It's really liberating to listen to Bailey, ...So come on you borin' blues/metallers, detune, touch some open-string harmonics, and freak the fuck out..., Who knows, you might actually enjoy yourselves. Oh, I forgot... guitar playing is a dull repetitious macho competition isn't it...Fun is furthest from your grunt-like fucking minds...