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Four Minutes and Thirty​-​Three Seconds

from Down The Allotment​/​Waltzing EP by The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra

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about

Written as part of Pierre Huyghe's show at Tate Modern, London.

lyrics

The purpose of music, so the great Frank Zappa reckoned
Was to decorate time with it's ebbing and flowing
John Cage's Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds
Is a decoration so sublime it's worthy of the great Llewellyn-Bowen

But John Cage's decorations would make a room seem like a cage
There's no denying his Feng Shui's a little sparse
And four and a half minutes are a long time in this frantic day and age
So here are some suggestions as to how that time might otherwise be passed...

You could give an acceptance speech for a BAFTA
Go to a bookshop for a browse
You could read a short story by Franz Kafka
Or twenty-nine aphorisms by Karl Kraus

You could read the introduction to Ulysees
Or any novel of great renown
You could read one percent of War And Peace
Or the complete works of Dan Brown

Four minutes and thirty-three seconds
Is a much longer time than you think
You try to sit and listen but the outside world beckons
Come out for a drink

You could spend those four minutes and thirty-three seconds listening
to a different song
How about Pulp's 'Disco 2000' or Luke Haines's 'How Could I Be Wrong'
'After the Fireworks' by The Birthday Party, 'Papa Jack' by Morrissey
Hall & Oates's 'Maneater' or 'We Are All Made of Stars' by Moby

Four minutes and thirty-three seconds
Is a much longer time than you think
You try to sit and listen but the outside world beckons
Come out for a drink

In the time it took John Cage to play absolutely nothing at all
Robbie Fowler in 1995 scored a hat trick against Arsenal
You could watch somebody juggle until you start to get quite bored
You could play a game of Boggle and still have time to do the scores

Four minutes and thirty-three seconds
Is a much longer time than you think
You try to sit and listen but the outside world beckons
Come out for a drink

You could try to chat up that girl you've fancied for years until she
says 'let's just be friends'
You could marry Britney Spears and be divorced before the end
You could get an Anglican minister to brew the perfect cup of tea
You could run a mile if you're Roger Bannister, or half a mile if you're me

You could eat a fruit pastille without chewing it, or eat a greasy chicken leg
Or a donut without licking your lips, you could boil the perfect egg
You could teach yourself the ukulele, fail to get the hang of it
You could try to read the Daily Mail without wanting to tear it to bits

Four minutes and thirty-three seconds
Is a much longer time than you think
You try to sit and listen but the outside world beckons
Come out for a drink

credits

from Down The Allotment​/​Waltzing EP, released August 16, 2013
Words and music by Martin White
Recorded and mixed by Jonathan Clayton at Onecat Studio, Brixton, London

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The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra image

The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra London, UK

Orchestral novelty-prog.

No! Wait! Come back!

Based in London, we've been going since 2007. The line-up is around twenty four players.

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