I dunno, it’s a bit of a joke, a bit of art, a bit of provocation. I like it. Not sure if it’s good or not. Lennon got there first as a superstar knocking out avante garde noise (and silence). Love that there is a quad version of it.

i can still remember the first time i heard this. just absolutely blistering. i’m not sure what he was trying to accomplish but i know what it does for me.

not crap.

By the time Lou recorded this (I'm not sure of the dates, but it probably wasn't before 1974), Cage had already done Williams Mix, David Tudor was performing Rainforest, Xenakis had done his major electroacoustic works a decade before, similarly with Stockhausen's electronic works. These were all landmark pieces. (And I'm not even getting into what was happening in the various major European institutes like the Institute of Sonology, IRCAM, etc.)

By this time, La Monte Young had already done Poem for Tables, Chairs, etc. (surely known to Lou), and I wouldn't place that on the same tier as the other works. It may be the most like MMM, though: an innovative, talented figure making noise because he can.

There are charms in MMM, though: it's clear that Lou recorded it at multiple speeds, which comes out a bit if you play it at 1/2 and 1/4. There are blues licks in there--he's clearly having fun with it. But it's a once-every-few-years thing for me, and ultimately not as satisfying as, say, the Euro stuff at that time or later, or the later Euro and Japanese noise scenes.

As a piece of record-company- and rock-audience-annoying performance art, though, it might be the best of them.