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From: klhoughton
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  • If ONLY Nixon had CONTINUED to play the piano!!!! It might have leavened his anger and made him more open to understanding the real needs of the electorate! It palliates even savage breasts as Shakespeare said... If only...

  • Not too shabby.

  • Comment removed

  • Mama, I just killed a man....

  • I didn't know Tricky Dick could play piano. Nonetheless, a politician does not belong on a television show. It seems like politicians and Hollywood people hobknob together because of their mutual obsession with being noticed. It doesn't matter whether they receive positive or negative attention, just as long as they're in front of a camera.

  • He wasn't bad when he did his job. He was just way to paranoid for the job. Always thinking people were out to get him.

  • @DrPoon Well, they did get him!

  • Nixon should have given up his day job.

  • Huh...well, whadda know. That wasn't bad at all.

  • Hey you know, maybe he wasn't a crook after all

  • How many other presidents played piano and composed thier own muski?

  • @corpbs1 Let's not forget that less government control was the reason we left Britain in the first place. .

  • Well now. Even our criminals were well rounded and educated back then.

  • He shoulda played the "Last Waltz" but unfortunately the FBI and a few honest people had already played it for him. A fine example of an upstanding, bible-bashing, small-minded, anti-govt pro-big corporation crook. An example the Republicans and Tea-Party continue to follow till this day. As in "ask not what you can do for your country, ask instead how you can rip it off massively and then insist the taxpayer bail you out in the name of free enterprise". Pass the barf bag. He was a crook.

  • @corpbs1

    What president hasn't been since? Especially in the last 20 years. Don't think that because Nixon got caught it's all republicans that are crooks and the Dems are squeaky clean. 

  • You can be the most evil person who has ever lived, but if you can play a piano well, you'll get acclaim.

  • @3rkid2 play it again sam.

  • Wow, he's so cool, he's my idol!

  • Please check out my tribute for Richard Nixon. It shows up in the search "Richard Nixon Tribute." Thank you.

  • a bit lame lol

  • Thumbs up if national geographic brought you here

  • Condoleeza Rice also plays very well

  • Not bad at all... For a Republican!

  • Thank you for uploading this video. I always enjoy seeing anything Nixon-related.

  • To all those who have posted negative comments about President Nixon: You are looking at his presidency through a very distorted looking glass created by the news media. The media of the day tried to crucify him - unjustly. History will remember him kindly.

  • @colt4667 Did "the media" force Nixon to prolong the Vietnam War, overthrow Salvador Allende, invade Cambodia and Laos, try to firebomb the Brookings Institute, sabotage Edward Muskie's Presidential campaign or break into the Watergate?

  • @AllenbysEyes You make some good points but I think all of them are debatable. One reason the Vietnam War was prolonged was because of the disposition of the POW's. The North Vietnamese kept making further demands every time a tentative agreement was reached. Le Duc Tho was being very difficult too. Did Nixon overthrow Allende? I thought Pinochet had something to do with it. As to the invasion of Cambodia and Laos: they were providing safe haven for the Viet Cong. I'm out of space. Bye

  • @AllenbysEyes all valid criticisms of a flawed leader. But on the scales of history, very minor compared to SALT, detente & China. In '52, Nixon stated his vision to defeat Communism without starting WWIII. Nixon cracked apart the Soviet-Sino coalition, setting up Reagan to bury the Soviets. That far outweighs his failures. But if you just take it for granted that WWIII never happened--i.e, that humanity still exists--I'd say your view of Nixon is unfairly warped.

  • @croussant I do not deny that Nixon had many legimate achievements and that he deserves credit for them. (Let's not forget the Nixon Freeze either.) I do think they are tarnished by the blatant criminality of his administration which gave the Presidency a greater blow in prestige and credibility than almost any administration in history.

  • @AllenbysEyes *legitimate.

  • @AllenbysEyes I'd also ask, did the media force FDR to inter Japanese Americans? Not even Bush went that far, locking up all Muslims without even a pretext of treason. That's what we mean by double-standard: FDR gets a pass for totalitarian actions in wartime far beyond anything Nixon did.

  • @croussant Apples and oranges

  • @croussant an active war after a surprise attack that devastates and levels a massive portion of what is considered the "military might" on the seas

    blowing up countries because of 30 people

    there is a difference

  • @croussant furthermore, we have about half of china being ripped apart by the japanese, in an age where wars were based on ethnic divisions explicitly nazism, japanese imperialism

    sure, the allies weren't perfect, but we didn't start it, and we worked to fix it after we won

  • @croussant FDR hardly gets a pass, but you need to understand the mood of the times. Just look at Lincoln's bigoted statements--yet nobody did more to help African-Americans. And FDR didn't lie to get us into the war.

  • @croussant intern, not "inter". inter means to bury a dead body.

  • Wish your were here Richard Nixon

  • Wow he must be honest he shooer can plai thu pianuuu derp a herp derp obvious not a crook.

  • This is my favortie scene in frost nixon they even play the same song

  • Nixon - a victim of his own paranoia and pride. If he had admitted his mistakes and apologized, Watergate would have been merely a historical footnote. Plus, if he had only "shared the wealth" and helped elect more Republicans in the '72 election, the investigation would have had a hard time even getting off the ground. Instead, he was determined to beat McGovern in a huge landslide and used up money that could have been used elsewhere.

  • Nixon, you were the greatest pres. ever!. I miss you!

  • If the president does it, that means it's not illegal.

  • Funny the media has kept this a big secret that he was piano player. One of the greatest presidents we ever had and many journalists who have careers that span 40 50 years said he was the most intellectual of all the Presidents that they had ever known. RIP Mr. President you were one of the great ones.

  • Your amazing Nixon! :D

  • I miss Mr Nixon and I wish he was here today just to see how things are ,but then again we wouldn't know in a nation with no news or media or no credence

  • as shitty a musician as he was president.

  • @12xanadu

    What are you talking about? He was a great president. He got us out of Vietnam and opened relations with China. He gets my thumb up.

  • @AGeekWithAShotgun He took years to end Viet Nam. I doubt you were alive during his presidency and know nothing of Watergate and his criminal acts to cover it up. He was a paranoid shithead, afraid of everyone in the country.

  • @12xanadu

    Richard Wilhouse Nixon was not directly involved with the Watergate scandal, and you'd be a fool to believe otherwise.

    I bet fucks like you exalt people like Jimmy Carter.

  • @AGeekWithAShotgun Ok douche nozzle. His middle name is Milhouse. I exalt no one you ignorant little boy.

  • @12xanadu

    Milhouse*, my bad.  I cannot type today.

    Have fun living off my tax dollars.

  • @AGeekWithAShotgun your taxes wouldn't support my dog.

  • Even better than Allevi..:))

  • i like Nixon as a guy alot.

  • What an amateur! A terrible composition, badly arranged and he plays like a dork.

  • @roparre He WAS an amateur, and it seems he was the first to admit that... Your judgement therefor is completely misplaced.

  • One of the worst Presidents... yet not a bad composer!

  • He may have been hated by the public AFTER the white house tapes were released and he resigned from office, but he won two terms, was the first President to negotiate with Red China, and he ended the war in Vietnam.

    Sure he was a paranoid nut, but it's a bit much to call him a 'bad' president.

  • CBS posted a Nixon tape in which they garble his voice.

    He speaks about ABORTION and says ''IT'S NOT BLACK AND WHITE as with rape. ''

    That was a common expression in his day.

    CBS manipulates and garbles his words and ''RE-WRITES'' over his face that he said abortion is fine ''as with black and white or rape''....painting him as racist.

    I posted a correction.

    They re-posted the video and cut off access for correction...so I can't post my correction.

    CBS LIARS...

  • thats was great!

  • @cjr3559 true to himself and not his country watt?

  • What a perrormance by the Big Dick. The crack about Repubs not wanting another piano player in the White House was great. But we know what happened ...... An astonishing political comeback from the dead

  • DEMOCRATIC VIOLINISTS?

  • The man knows how to play

  • The men who served as U.S. President after John Kennedy were all tragically, catastrophically flawed, and Nixon and LBJ are probably the most flawed. Some were just plain evil, and you know who I mean.

  • The men who serves as U.S. President after John Kennedy were all tragically. catastrophically flawed and Nixon is no exception; I think he and LBJ were the most flawed. Some were just plain evil, and you know who I mean.

  • im not a huge fan of his political endeavors, but this is great :)

  • Damn! This is sooo cheeesy!

  • Nixon may be a crook but, that is some serious skill right there.

  • the last liberal US president, according to Chomsky

  • I like this piece. Like movie music. Any Prez who can play the piano that well can't be all bad. :)

  • He wasn't a crook he was the most honest decent moral upstanding christian orthodox white president we ever had- next to Reagan of course.

  • I wish the beginning was here.Nixon refers to his loss to Govenor Pat Brown the previous November in California. He talks about how he and Kennedy started out together as freshman in the House. "Now he's in the White House and here I am talking to you." 'Yeah,' Paar replies, 'It's like my daughter Randi was saying the other day...Gee, I hope that man finds some work!'

  • Musical rubbish played by crook and a fraud – but apart from that, it's great!

  • Very elementary piano playing. Political theater only.

  • You think that after think that after this, Nixon would have been more wary about being taped.

  • Very impressed....

  • I can't believe it. It's almost like he's got charisma :)

  • I would never have pictured him as a pianist.

  • Nixon was a great President. Improved relations with China, the USSR, ended the Vietnam War...

  • @007rocksalotmann i agree, the only difference between him and every other president is that he got busted for his shit

  • @007rocksalotmann Great call dude. Escalated the war, 3.25 million Vietnamese Death, wiretapping, illegal spying on American people and a War On Drugs to top it off... Great President, what world do you live in?

  • @Xxchargers1 The problem is that you espouse typical liberal lies. The facts are the facts and Nixon ended a Democratic war with honor - something that no Democrat, liberal, Ivy-elite has any idea how to accomplish. As for "spying," FDR and Truman were shining examples, weren't they? Buddies with "Uncle Joe," to boot. Go back to your classroom, son.

  • @beachmenow liberal lies? Really, really YOU should go to YOUR Classroom, tiny little beachmenow. Johnson was democratic, ok... But he was a really hardliner, he was more republican than democratic in the way he acted. HE started the War in Vietnam. Kennedy said in an TV-Interview "It's there war, there'll gonna have to win or loose it". Great, because, the complete opposite did happening with american politics since then. They want to be in many wars (the politicians).

  • @beachmenow Apparently you are correct. Democratic Presidents are only good at ending Republican wars, finding and killing Republican boogeymen, and so forth.

  • @james0tucson Yes, sort of like Johnson ended the Vietnam War. oh wait...he escalated it and lied. then dropped out...like a coward.

  • @Xxchargers1 You're so right, man.

  • @007rocksalotmann haha, a geat President? That's ridiculous, he bombed the shit out of Vietnam, he's responsible for the death of Allende (Chile), an he was a member of the conspirators of the Kennedy-Murder... Do you wanna hear more? Like I said, really funny of you.

  • @ClaptonDennis sorry, that kennedy murder thing just makes you look like a hating idiot. so Nixon ended the war in Vietnam, set up the geopolitical alignment that defeated the soviet union and he saved the world when he prevented the USSR from attacking China in 69. and he will unquestionably be the most studied figure of the 20th Century by future historians just because of those tapes.

  • WTF sound cuts out at the end. FUCK THIS

  • lost the sound at the end fix it!

  • I love Nixon's line just before playing. Such a grasp of history and wit!

  • The days when Pianos were made in the United States.

  • Marshall McLuhan said that if Nixon had made this appearance on the Jack Paar show before the election in 1960 he would have been elected. It's probably true. It went so against the image of him that the country was given by a hostile press. The elite class in this country, even of his own party, never forgave him as a working class guy who proved one of theirs, Alger Hiss, a liar & traitor & put him behind bars. Nixon became paranoid later on & it was because they really WERE out to get him.

  • good player

  • Nixon stands out as an intelligent and refined character. Many of his peers in the White House look like political minoes next to him. Also, how many American presidents have a song based on their lives that is written and performed by the Manic Street Preachers? Answer - 1, and his name was Nixon "The love of Richard Nixob" on YouTube. Even the MSP acknowledge his many achievements. Sadly there are few people around in power these days with the qualities RN had. RIP, Dick.

  • Sorry, the title of the MSP song is "The Love of Richard Nixon" - small typo - oops!

  • I just began reading the Conrad Black biography of Nixon and it is related that he never learned to read music, but memorized and performed by memory. I appreciate youtube for bringing many of these clips as supplementary material for students.

  • I just gained alot of respect for Nixon.

  • Say what you will about Nixon, but that was a nice song.

  • @RockstarHunter Its a piece not a song!!!

  • @RockstarHunter Yeah, dude, I live in Corona Ca, real close to his library/museum and first home. After a day at his museum and home, I had a different view of Nixon, he actually did a lot of inspiring things that he doesn't get credit for, and seeing his actual piano, the one he played as a kid, it's amazing,

  • @RockstarHunter It's not a "song" : )

  • @RockstarHunter piece its called a piece.

  • @Vesivian snobbish ass it's called a snobbish ass

  • @franciz94 xD and its called ignorant bastard a ignorant bastard

  • @Vesivian and it's called I have ABRSM FRSM so I hope you're calling Rockstar ignorant and not me it's called I have ABRSM FRSM so I hope you're calling Rockstar ignorant and not me ;)

  • Nixons slim-tie rox!

  • Nixon is a funny man. I'll give him that much.

    I'm a communist, btw.

  • Thanks for posting this. It shows Nixon at his most genial and relaxed.

  • Pretty funny Pat Nixon recorded him!!!

  • Well for all the controversy that surrounded him as a politician, he appears to have had a genuine sense of humour and that is a blessing in this world. Remember "Sock it to ME?!" on Laugh-In? He was also a railway (railroad) enthusiast too, I believe.

  • Wow.... I don't think some of you realize what this means.

    He taught himself not only to play piano, but how to COMPOSE a major work in full score format, write out all the parts, etc.

    Nixon was a very sharp man!

  • Nixon didn't compose the orchestra score. At 0:42, Jack Paar clarifies that "Jose has made a concerto arrangement of this hinky-dinky song that you wrote." Presumably, Paar is referring to his orchestra director Jose Melis.

    Paar also indicates that Nixon's wife recorded the song. So it sounds like Nixon didn't write anything out at all.

  • Comment removed

  • what garbage we have today in office

  • Agreed.

    W Bush couldn't tie his shoes until the age of 45.

  • The man was a class act all the way! Bravo President Nixon! America still loves you.

  • so true!

  • @devilndeep ...really?

  • @devilndeep I'll tell ya what devil. If we could change history and insert Nixon as Pres instead of G.W.Bush, we'd be in a lot better shape than we are today. I'm a Dem, but readily admit the man was a Statesman, a leader. We would not have attacked Iraq or Afgh, 2 useless wars. He wouldn't have run the deficit from 5 to 11 tril as did Bush. Yes, looking back, Nixon deserves much more credit. He was a good President. A very intelligent man.

  • he was a good pianist, like Heath, who was also a fine sailor.

    politicos these days have no talents except for lying and killing, like tony blair

  • @robinoi Blair was in a rock band as a singer. See Christopher Hitchens article in the Atlantic. It was an Oxford band called the Ugly Rumours.

  • Lots of glissandos... I didn't like it very much, but it's good to see that some presidents are very talented!

  • His piano playing is just as stolid and opaque as his politics.

  • Stolid and opaque? Nixon was a criminal and for that he resigned...but he was a master politician. Knew how to manipulate with the best of them. Dominated in '72 and only lost two elections in his life - one to JFK. Give the guy his props. And I'm guessing he could outplay most of us on the piano as well.

  • Actually his technique was horrible.

  • haha yeah you're right. did u see his 5 finger technique? lol

  • Haha, yeah. Check out his pinky technique at 1:54-1:56.

  • yeah.... now we have criminals all over, and not only do they refuse to resign, they pardon themselves just in case

  • What?! Nixon invented the self pardoning mechanism. And yes, he had an illustrious career and was a good president, but not without some serious black marks.

  • he should have stuck to the piano and stayed out of politics

  • Lucifer me dio una g.

  • "mmm barooo. glad to hear it morbo. nixons pro war and pro family"

    Nixon's Head,

    Futurama

  • The 37th President was a pretty talented piano player!!

  • @592010

    Better pianist than Politician 

  • I wonder if he wrote lyrics to go with it ...

    'Oh the damn Jew-boys in Justice ... oh the Negros make poor spies ... oh Meathead is a gorgeous young bisexual ... oh yeah, jazz hands!'

  • thanks for making one of the wittiest comments that I have ever come across on this site. i'm laughing my ass off.

  • Finally, some recognition!

  • cool.

  • allmost steampunk!!!

  • gotta agree with boardslyder

    on the affirmative action

    thing...

  • First of all, fuck you. Second, all I was trying to say was that he wasn't that bad of a president. Third, fuck you.

  • He's a decent piano player and the tune's pleasant.

    His politics have nothing to do with it.

  • Nixon was one of the guys who started affermitive action and who got the U.S out of Vietnam

    he was a pretty good president

  • I grew up with Nixon. Loved the man.

  • Nixon was a great president...funded cancer research, put men on the moon, de-segragated schools, started the nation's first war on drugs and much more.

  • Oh for Christ's sake, as much as I was disgusted with Nixon, I respected him for the things he did achieve, and you know exactly ZIP about that. Put men on the moon?? How idiotic can you get?! That happened SIX MONTHS into his administration, and if you think he's responsible for that, I've got a lovely bridge in Brooklyn I'd be happy to sell you at a bargain price. De-segregated schools?? Oh yeah, he was a REAL forceful advocate for that! Study some history, Moron!

  • BobDylan1201- Nixon did do some good while in office but he did not put men on the moon. That was a project which took at least a decade or more of research and development. He just happened to be president when the landing occured. It was the Kennedy and Johnson administrations which made this project a priority and that's what got it off the ground literally and figuratively. At any rate, I was unaware Nixon could play the piano so well.

  • Oh, wow . . . that's awkward . . .

  • This is weird. I have an odd position on Richard Nixon.

    I don't really like what hey did as President and tarnishing the Republican party...

    ...but goddamn I would love to drink some beers with this man. He seems like such a funny cool dude to hang out with... just not the best politician.

  • So strange. It's a bit like finding out that Hitler was a vegetarian.

  • That's so un-Christian.

  • That's really screwed up buddy. The thing I judge this guy on is MASS FINANCIAL FRAUD. I think that shows what type of person he is.

    Oh by the way your comment should read "I hope one of your family members WAS lost in Vietnam" you fucking moron.

  • "Were" is correct here, he is writing in the subjunctive mood, hoping for something that can never be so. That's why one says, 'If I were you', not 'If I was you'.

    "MASS FINANCIAL FRAUD"? He left the White House poorer than when he came in.

  • Hitler claimed to be a vegetarian. He enjoyed the occasional slice of ham, turtle, sausages and dove among many other "vegetables".

  • @imrepohl Hitler dictated more humane standards for the boiling of lobsters . He liked Looney Tunes. Clark Gable was his favorite actor but then he was almost everybodies' favorite actor. His favorite film was Lives of a Bengal Lancer. He admired the Imperial zeal of Lloyd George and liked Churchill's paintings.The SS grew organic gardens

  • Hey that was pretty good. I bet if we got a federal supoena we could get the rest of the audio too.

  • mamma mia....!!!!

  • I like the way the clip starts out by saying Mrs Nixon "quietly" made a surreptitious recording of him playing the piano. Things that make you go hmm....

  • Erm... not to cut into the youtube comment war here, but check out Nixon's pinky-finger technique at 1:53 ! Hee hee hee.  I think it takes a fair amount of guts to get up and perform (your own composition, no less!) when it's clear you don't have a lot of formal musical training. It certainly would be for me, at least!

  • Actually, the great Mr. Nixon took some training from famed Scottish psychiatrist Dr. Charles Follen McKim Maloney, a behind the scenes mover and shaker in the music industry during these years. A quick google of the amazing Dr. Maloney may reveal this, however, I haven't checked yet.