A forerunner of performance art?
One of the most vivid pictures painted [by Richard Burnett in “Company of Pianos”] is that of the huge bonfire on the beach of Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1904, when a thousand square pianos were burned to a crisp. The main manufacturers got together to put on this show in order to declare the “square” dead.
That quote, from a review of the book in The Times Literary Supplement, sent one of our tireless conscripts reeling: “Can’t lay down a riff on da square, no way mama!”
— Tireless Staff of Thousands
