Art is not a mirror, art is a hammer...

June 10, 2015 10:29 PM

… a solid gold sledgehammer, that Liberace uses to destroy a piano.
posted by flapjax at midnite (30 comments total)

It is an utterly horrific crime that they left this out of Behind the Candelabra.
posted by koeselitz at 10:44 PM on June 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

I haven't seen The Monkees since I was a kid, but I have this memory of it as having at least moments of absurd brilliance. This would be one of those.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:48 PM on June 10, 2015

I had no idea that the Monkees and Liberace, of all people, were years ahead of the Art of Noise.
posted by xil at 10:57 PM on June 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

Liberace + Monkees = absurd
Liberace + Batman = camp overload
posted by mosk at 11:14 PM on June 10, 2015 [3 favorites]

I think, I have always thought, that a Chinese erhu case would be more suitable for carrying my gold sledgehammer piano smasher than a tombone case would.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:43 PM on June 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

In other news about things getting smashed on the Monkees, Frank Zappa showed up. Zappa as Nesmith interviewed Nesmith as Zappa, and then Zappa as Zappa beat an old car.
posted by honestcoyote at 12:35 AM on June 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

I like the one shot of Mike Nesmith completely losing it in the background. The quality of the brief shot is odd, as if it was an outtake that got thrown back in.
posted by Spatch at 1:58 AM on June 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

And his hair was perfect.
posted by three blind mice at 2:01 AM on June 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

Nesmith was great in that. I love the editing; Monkeys just don't give a shit about continuity.
posted by octothorpe at 4:09 AM on June 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

I remember watching this as a kid and thinking yep, those network people are trying to have some fun with the whole rock-n-roll instrument-smashing thing, and as usual they've got it wrong, especially the impassive audience part. It seemed a bit weird--making fun of youth culture in a program targeted for young viewers.

That said, Lee must have had a ball doing this, even if the props people had to actually pre-cut holes in the piano to make it look like he's doing more damage than he actually is. And the added-in sound effects (boing! sproing!) are sooooo 60s TV.
posted by kinnakeet at 4:11 AM on June 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

Hmmm... Guessing this was written was after the Monterey Pop Festival where the Who and Jimi Hendrix played/destroyed their guitars?
posted by Captain Chesapeake at 5:41 AM on June 11, 2015

Nesmith was great in that. I love the editing; Monkeys just don't give a shit about continuity.

Such a wonderful fever dream of a TV show in parts. I've really got to get around to watching Head.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:58 AM on June 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I remember watching this as a kid and thinking yep, those network people are trying to have some fun with the whole rock-n-roll instrument-smashing thing, and as usual they've got it wrong, especially the impassive audience part. It seemed a bit weird--making fun of youth culture in a program targeted for young viewers.

Someone else will come along and say this better, but they're not making fun of youth culture here. They're making fun of olds culture; these pompous asses will not only be not even a tiny bit excited by this performance, but also will politely applaud at the end of it for reasons mostly unknown. If you show up in a tux like everybody else, your responses will likely be just as encoded as your clothing. Unlike, you know, my tie dyed T and my totally free military surplus trousers, because they have a lot of pockets and I can store an opinion in each one and never run out, so sweeet.
posted by Wolof at 6:08 AM on June 11, 2015 [5 favorites]

I hate that we didn't have the technology at the time to put this clip on Voyager's Golden Record.
posted by Ian A.T. at 6:13 AM on June 11, 2015 [5 favorites]

I've really got to get around to watching Head.

Here you go...it's...something.
posted by Optamystic at 7:31 AM on June 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

One word: Fluxus
Two words: Piano Activities

In 1967, I dug the absurdities.

Today, I dig the fact that the fellow with red hair -- the first man to congratulate Lee on his performance -- is a dead ringer for Van Cliburn (who would have been in his thirties and at the height of his fame).

Worth noting that decades later, The Chameleon didn't think much of modern art either.
 
posted by Herodios at 8:00 AM on June 11, 2015

I like the one shot of Mike Nesmith completely losing it in the background. The quality of the brief shot is odd, as if it was an outtake that got thrown back in.


I'm glad someone else noticed this too! I had to go back and rewatch that shot to make sure I saw what I saw.
posted by flyingsquirrel at 8:10 AM on June 11, 2015

Nesmith has sort of a Ross Geller-like affect here. I can easily see Schwimmer making those same faces.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:42 AM on June 11, 2015

I think the shot you're talking about is an optical blow-up of the wider shot that immediately precedes it. Most of Nesmith's close-ups were actually shot as close-ups, but for that one clip, they really wanted to zoom in on something that was shot wide and fixed it in post.
posted by RobotHero at 8:50 AM on June 11, 2015

kinnakeet: "That said, Lee must have had a ball doing this, even if the props people had to actually pre-cut holes in the piano to make it look like he's doing more damage than he actually is."

Its just a show, and I should really just relax, and I'm fine with them pre-cutting the piano to make it easy to demolish, but somehow it bugs me that he doesn't have a bigger sledgehammer. From the moment he pulled it out of the case I was just like "Oh, come on!"
posted by Reverend John at 9:16 AM on June 11, 2015

I want to say that at the end of that episode, there's more of him hitting the piano, including a bit where he swings at the leg, lets go of the sledgehammer and has to go off-screen to retrieve it.
posted by Lucinda at 9:43 AM on June 11, 2015

It was during the Randy Scouse Git romp.

now I want to spend the rest of the day watching Monkees episodes
posted by Lucinda at 9:55 AM on June 11, 2015

Water-proof. Moisture-proof. Dampness-proof.
posted by lagomorphius at 10:18 AM on June 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Reverend John: "it bugs me that he doesn't have a bigger sledgehammer"

Judging from the size of the head, let's say that it's a 6 to 8 lb. sledgehammer painted gold. How much would it weigh if it really were solid gold? Well, some brief googling suggests that gold is around 2.5 times as dense as steel (19,000 kg/m³ vs. 7,000 - 8,000 kg/m³). So, this would be more like a 15 to 20 lb. sledgehammer, which puts you up into the range of those heavy-duty sledgehammers.

But here's the funny thing: what about the handle? Let's say it's around 3 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. A solid gold rod of that size would weigh just under 80 lbs., three or four times as heavy as the head!
posted by mhum at 11:48 AM on June 11, 2015 [4 favorites]

But that's a priceless Steinway!
posted by Devonian at 1:37 PM on June 11, 2015

Fantastic. Except for the boing-boing noises and the laugh track. Somewhere on a shelf is the raw footage. Some day it will be discovered, and the perfect version of this will be set free. (Or so one can hope.)
posted by eotvos at 5:17 PM on June 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

I could have gotten into the groove except for the cartoon sound effects.
posted by idiopath at 5:42 PM on June 11, 2015

That was pretty good.
posted by latkes at 7:55 PM on June 11, 2015

Semi-relevant. I can't ever even think about The Monkees without thinking about this.
posted by valkane at 4:59 AM on June 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

mhum: "Judging from the size of the head, let's say that it's a 6 to 8 lb. sledgehammer painted gold. How much would it weigh if it really were solid gold? Well, some brief googling suggests that gold is around 2.5 times as dense as steel (19,000 kg/m³ vs. 7,000 - 8,000 kg/m³). So, this would be more like a 15 to 20 lb. sledgehammer, which puts you up into the range of those heavy-duty sledgehammers.

But here's the funny thing: what about the handle? Let's say it's around 3 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. A solid gold rod of that size would weigh just under 80 lbs., three or four times as heavy as the head!"

There ain't one hammer in this tunnel got a ring like mine, got a ring like mine. Well it rings like silver, and it rings like gold.
posted by Reverend John at 3:19 PM on June 16, 2015