image by Matthias Wassermann

Oh it breaks my heart to see those stars
smashing a perfectly good guitar.
I don’t know who they think they are
smashing a perfectly good guitar..

John Hiatt’s lamentation about the instrument-smashing Kurt Cobains of the world can apparently now be applied to performance art as well – witness the controversy over Annea Lockwood’s performance piece, “Burning Piano” that originally premiered in 1968 and the tribute to it performed at Carlton College. For further insight, here’s a New Music Box interview with Annea Lockwood about her “Piano Transplants” series.

Japanese jazz pianist Yosuke Yamashita has also apparently done this kind of thing before. The comments under this Youtube video echo the polarization seen in the Star Tribune arguments:

As an aside, NASCAR driver Kyle Busch managed to stir up a lot of controversy when he tried to smash a painstakingly customized Gibson guitar within seconds of receiving it. Ouch. Dude, you’re not Pete Townshend. You’re not even Trent Reznor.