“I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it”

He broke free from the constraints of rhythm, melody, or sense.

Henry is fucking awesome. Teaching to "play like yourself" jesus christ what a deep quote. I see no ironic enjoyment in him, only real, pure joy and excitement.

He was Kerry King’s childhood inspiration.

Doctor D’s explanation for electrons digging the free space over the crystal lattice was pretty good

John French, the drummer in the video, drummed for Captain Beefheart. The bassist Andy West played in the Dixie Dregs. Henry, Andy, Prairie Prince of the Tubes and Mike Keneally had a band called The Mistakes which released one very awesome album.

Wang Report: I remember reading an article back-in-the-day written by Joe Satriani, probably in 'Guitar for the Practicing Musician,' where he described different whammy bar techniques. He used the term "wang bar" throughout the article and even closed the article with this proverb: "Sometimes the best way to wang is not to wang at all." (Basically concluding that wanging can be lots of fun, but don't overdo it.) I distinctly remember the line and being so impressed that I used it for my high school yearbook quote.

This is like something you’d see on Adult Swim at 3am in 2010. I love it. I admire this (I guess you could say) postmodernist style of music every now and then.

I’m reading all these comments waiting for someone to explain who Henry Kaiser is. He’s on a LOT of records, written film scores, and is a knowledge ethnomusicologist. Read the Wikipedia page, but don’t accidentally read the entry for his grandfather, the famous industrialist. Sure, he’s weird AF, but he’s pushing boundaries, and believe me, it was influential to some serious players. He was part of a wave of avante garde musicians at the time Ex: Herbie Hancock had him on not one, but two of his albums

That electrons can survive line is GOLD.

I loved when Buckethead played bass for Henry Kaiser. Henry gave Buckethead a guitar that was dubbed "Kaiser's Gift".

Listening to Kaiser, not just his music but his words, makes one ask why we create music in the first place. Are we "following rules" or "playing the right thing" or are we doing something else. Maybe expressing our spirit the best we can through a musical medium.

You did a great job of highlighting the uniqueness of Henry's playing, without being dismissive or trying to ridicule him. Thank you for being so fair and open-minded. I'm sure Henry would be appreciative as well.

I appreciate your sincerity and open mindedness. Most KZfaqrs would just goof on this video. You are a true musician and while amused, seemed to be able to glean useful techniques from this unique guitarist.

In the late 80's early 90's a lot of players in print would call a whammy a wang bar. In Guitar For The Practicing Musician magazine it was like the trendy term or something

He reminds me of Adrian Belew. There is this video him playing Psycho Killer with Talking Heads and he bends the guitar to get a lower pitch, uses feedback like a theremin. It totally blew my mind the first time i saw it. It's taking an electric guitar and using it as a sound machine rather than a traditional western instrument. Here is a link to the video I'm talking about, Adrian Belew starts the solo around 3:57 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nceci7yTyta7j6c.htmlsi=T1aFgq6dr9mtQfR5

I remember a lot of interviews and references to Kaiser in the 80's and 90's. He actually went to Antarctica and took photos underwater that were used in Herzog films that he scored as well. His brilliance and genius are (admittedly) beyond my comprehension, but he is still widely respected in the music community. Good find.

"Wang bar" was a pretty common variation used for whammy bars back in those days. I'd see it in these old guitar player magazines

Henry Kaiser, Fred Frith, and the group Henry Cow were a late '70's Avant Garde group. This has been going on a very long time: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Friends_Like_These_(album)

As a big prog fan (Dream Theater, Rush, Yes, King Crimson etc.) I really really really enjoyed his playing. There's definitely big moments where I question his musical sense/skills but that could be chalked up to him just improvising on the spot and not having a planned arrangement, the segment where he sounds like Rush blew my mind, I wonder if he has experimented with psychedelics. Honestly he would slay soloing for Meshuggah.

So I grabbed my Kaiser bar. Some people calls it a whang bar, but I calls it a Kaiser bar. Mmm hmm

I remember this video. Henry Kaiser is one of my favorite guitarists. He’s got a lot of videos on KZfaq and still going strong. The guys got a huge discography including stuff with Nels Cline, Fred Frith and Richard Thompson and of course Drumbo (John French) who was Captain 😅Beefheart’s drummer and arranger among many others. Henry was lucky enough to be born into a rich family and so could truly dedicate himself to art. He’s a fixture in the Bay Area improv scene.

This video is a true goldmine. Thanks for bringing this UFO to us. His entire instructional video legitimately makes question reality 😂🤯 and that's part of the beauty of it. I think you gave it a fair, honest and generous take, which is so enjoyable. Cheers !

The thing to remember with Henry Kaiser is that he is incredibly skilled and wants it to sound like that.

There really needs to be more empathis on the genius of experimental guitar. This whole video is so cool

I'm old enough to remember when there was no guitar center. I got my guitar tab from sheet music stores and Guitar World magazine from the grocery store.

I am blown away. I think he would be a terrible teacher, but he can play and is unique. Unique is the hardest thing to do.

You actually convinced me to love this guy. His praise of other musicians and musical cultures is admirable and they sound surprisingly tight as a band!

He reminds me of a person who doesn’t play and picks up a guitar and just plays noises up and down the neck? Dudes out there!

Never heard of the guy, but boy - not only does he have a Dumble amp, he actually has Alex Dumble on site. That digital fart sound @8:30 is the stuff of legends! Thank you for unearthing this rare gem!

The amazing thing about this video is that he got Andy West to play bass for him. Andy West is one of the finest bass players on the planet; why he would play with Henry Kaiser is beyond me. As a matter of fact, I wrote to Andy West some years ago after seeing this video to ask him what the hell he was doing in the video. I remember he wrote me back right away and was extremely diplomatic with his answer, but for the life of me I cannot remember whether he actually answered my question.

He reminds me - in some way - of Adrian Belew (of one of "King Crimson" variations fame)...

I may not care for his play, but I really love that he’s out there owning some chaotic playing. Does it make sense, no. It’s like the Joker on lead

This is what it sounded like when I first picked up the guitar. Guess I was on the right track until I learned what a key was.

Robotic Asian Allman Brothers had me rolling

Sounds like he was inspired by Beefheart and Zappa, plus the Dumble bit is awesome! Didn't think it was awkward, it's awesome, it makes me want to reconnect with why I started playing guitar. Wow! Free improvisation, absolutely great. But then both Skip James and Derek Bailey are familiar names, Bailey was born right here in my home city, Sheffield, England.

I spent a lot of time listening to his records back in the 90s. You have to sift through which ones are for you as not all experimental hits the same, but there’s some really beautiful music that he’s created

Wow! That guys playing is what you hear when you walk inside ANY Guitar Center. I now have the confidence to make my own instructional video.

There’s a definitely a method to his madness. I can’t understand it from watching but I do admire the ability to “imagine a new color” type of thinking. I think that’s incredible

That's nuts. His playing is so out there, but he seems to be a genuinely cool guy too...

Henry Kaiser is great! I was a big fan of his back in the eighties...saw him live once back then, I had a front row center stage seat about 5 feet away from him. (and you should definitely check out Skip James!... I saw Derek Bailey once too, strange stuff! Almost forgot about him)

@13:55 hey it's Tim Henson!

Nice video bro. You gave the dude the proper respect and didn’t just shit on the guy for being different. It takes all kinds! Thanks for highlighting this mad genius

When you were explaining the VHS i sat here and was like yeah I know what a VHS is. Then I realize that most people nowadays probably don’t lol 😂

Always a good day when a demon plays with my wangbar.

Extremely weird and unintentionally hilarious, but just shows that with enough conviction you can make your style anything you want it to be. I wouldn't want to see a gig of his, but fair play to him for following his muse.

Kaiser's ability and creative forethought should be clear immediately upon hearing the first performance of this instructional video. The use of extended technique to get that faux reverse-tape sound requires incredible determination and knowledge and the creative choice to do such a thing to begin with was tasteful and surprising in a way only an expert could come up with

How is this man not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

There needs to be a movie made about these guitar lesson videos.

I have seen this before and was wondering when he was going to break character. He still hasn't. I never knew you could play in Q, X and Z-minor either. He also uses a tuning of RSFHJN most of the time.

Andy West! The great bassist with the Dixie Dregs. Also, check out Henry’s film about the music of Madagascar with David Lindley.

i remember seeing that Paul Gilbert one for the first time!!! The Cheerleaders helped him tune his guitar "Give me an A...." ya super cool I downloaded it from Napster

Of course that picture is gonna turn into a bird and fly away. This Henry Kaiser is obviously operating on a totally different plane of logic. I thought "atonal" meant some of A. Holdsworth's excursions- this Kaiser's all over the place!! Good to see you Mike- thanks for the video.

Yeah I have watched him. I always believed that anything was possible. He does it with total confidence and with that monster backing him up makes him even more legit. R.I.P. most expensive amp guy in the world.

I think you can retitle this episode “I watched this old video so you don’t have to”

Well, I give him a shit load of credit for having the "wait, theres a box?" style of thinking (referring to the phrase "think outside the box").However, the sounds coming out of my sound system has a different opinion on the matter lol

You know how sometimes in movies or TV an alien trying to seem human will talk saying actual words but with really stilted and weird syntax? This guy is like that but for guitar.

I came here for mindbending guitar playing, and stayed for you shirt. This is honestly really cool. New players could use some of this to see what new wonders await.

That dude is legit insane.

I've never heard of Henry Kaiser, but I see how all music I love now has flowed through him. -The Playing -The attitude towards making music -The Dumble Man -The Beefheart drummer -Awesome bass pick-playing -The Derek Bailey call-out -Our humble host, (Art, of Guitar), laughing uncomfortably and slowly coming to appreciate the mind blow This is my new favorite youtube vid. Move over, David After Dentist!

Thanks. Takes guts to talk about purely experimental music

-Owns a Dumble -Has Alexander Dumble in the room -Tells us tubes are better -Plays through an eventide harmonizer

One of those clips at the beginning is him playing a fairly accurate rendition of Albert Ayler’s Ghosts I think

I loved PGs old clips. They were so awesome. Helped my legato so much!!

This is amazing! I grew up with mainly influences from British psychedelia, acid jazz, prog and classical (I was the weird kid as this was like 2009 haha) but I hear a lot of the stuff I used to try and do and learn in this but done a lot better!

Love this! Congrats on 856k Subscribers! 🤘🏻🔥 Love his big yellow list. As a list writer myself I can appreciate that. haha.

thank you for fixing the mono audio in the majority of the video, so few youtubers seem to notice when a clip is mono in just one channel

That second live clip where he's singing in that deep voice is a ZZ Top song, "Manic Mechanic" from Deguello. I think Billy Gibbons' vocal on that recording was recorded to a sped up tape playback to make it much lower when played back and mixed at normal speed. Anyway Kaiser is a legend of the NY avant garde scene. I'm sure Nels Kline was very aware of Kaiser. He and especially Glenn Branca were huge influences on Sonic Youth. Skip James wrote the song "I'm So Glad" which Cream famously covered on their debut album, though their version is quite different. You should check out a guitarist named James Blood Ulmer for some slightly more conventional but still quite out jazz/blues playing.

He reminds me of Adrian Belew. He uses wilder effects and pushes experimentation so far.

I feel like most of the instructionals were/are more on the technical…this is how to shred!..flavor, so I give this guy some props for going in a more philosophical route. A lot of the ads I get sent on KZfaq/etc. are like that. Of course there are techniques and things to learn, but it’s all about making what you need work for you vs. trying to “master” guitar.

Hey, just a little information about the two pieces of music you used to introduce Kaiser with. They’re both covers. The first is a piece by Albert Ayler - Ghosts - and the second is a VERY faithful cover of a ZZ Top song - Manic Mechanic.

Damn dude. That was insane. And i was dying during the credits when you had enough time to read, talk on the phone, play 3 different guitars, that crazy keyboard/guitar thing, read again a book again and then get out and read what looks to be an Iron Maiden tab book. 😂😂

So now we know what Tom Morello watched as a kid...

One of the best teachers I ever had once told a kid, "You have to be incredibly smart to act so incredibly stupid on purpose". Same idea here. This guy has to be incredibly great at guitar to play only the wrong notes…or should I say, the right notes at the wrong time lol.

I always enjoy your videos but this is my favorite. I am crying. 😂 I worked in a guitar store in the early 90s, and we had so much fun with harmonizers when no one was around. This brought back some great memories.

This was a legendary video. He’s got some wild ass music. Still plays today.

Captain Beefheart would have loved this guy :)

Wow. Thanks for sharing. I would've never found him if you didn't introduce him.

I found the way you skirted subtle mockery and wonder in your commentary for this video quite intriguing

Oh the outsider! Love seeing content done about this place where you're free to explore whatever feeling you have and do some kind of art to communicate it. Doesn't matter what the world says it is or it is not music.

When I was about 17, a band I played in had a guy like this. I played drums and he played guitar. But he bank rolled the hole band, so he did what he wanted. This reminds me of that time about 25 years ago.

Oh man, it was a big mistake to be drinking tea watching this 😂

Why am I just now hearing about this guy? I am a huge Ween and Zappa fan. This should absolutely be on my radar for that reason alone. He is the dictionary definition of “Brown”. Ween fans will know what I mean.

That second song with the pitch dropped voice is a ZZ Top song called Manic Mechanic

I'm legitimately impressed by Henry. art is expression and this man expresses himself through guitar perfectly.

Henry Kaiser is one of those people that likes to make weird music. Although he shares the weird zone with Captain Beefheart, and Yoko Ono... it's a completely different kind of weird.

Yoko's dream guitarist!

The Kim Jin-hi jam has a very curage the cowardly dog vibe to it, manic, spooky, and surreal - i love it! As a musian who's first influences were world music, jeff beck, and experimental noise, this guy's worldview really speaks to me.

I will admit to owning several Henry Kaiser CDs. Not everything he does is "out there" but some really is. I prefer him playing more composed "ordinary" pieces. The big influences on him are Beefheart and Grateful Dead. Beefheart seems to give him permission to be weird and Grateful Dead the permission to be weird for a very long time. I think it's fair to be horrified by what he does provided we remember that some very tasteful and capable people rate him and have worked with him.

I kind of like the guy

I saw on a church sign once, "Be yourself, everyone else is taken" and that stuck with me. Be yourself. Play guitar how you want to play. Don't be afraid to be different. Don't try and be like other people.

That was really something! I think your takeaway at end is spot on. Be creative! (Btw, I think the term "wang bar" might be an age thing. I'm 66 and have heard it pretty commonly over the years.)

Not trying to offend anyone, but watching him "jam" is like being an outsider going to one of those churches where people speak in tongues and roll around on the floor.

Check out his video - Henry Kaiser - Radio Flyer here on KZfaq. He plays along to his childhood story and his guitar style immediately has context and makes sense.

The world wasn't ready for Henry Kaiser or his Wang bar. I think we are now ready. I am now a fan.

Very interesting video. I looked up this guy, because he has some amazingly expensive stuff, and also "Henry Kaiser" is a pretty famous name, and yup, he's the famous multi-millionaire's grandson. Henry Kaiser Sr. was a builder and industrialist. He helped build the frickin Hoover Dam, and when World War II broke out, his Kaiser shipyards cranked out "Liberty ships" (cargo/transport) along the West Coast to get men and materiel across the Pacific. To attract workers during wartime, when wages were frozen to prevent rampant inflation due to labor scarcity, Henry offered company-sponsored medical care to his employees, and this eventually became the insurance company Kaiser Permanente. (This is literally the reason most companies offer their employees health insurance today) He also started a car company, Kaiser Motors, which later made Willys Jeeps, the consumer ancestor to our modern Jeeps. Henry the Guitarist's cousin, Edgar, was a Stanford grad and Harvard MBA, and he owned the Denver Broncos for 3 years, earning almost $50 million profit from the sale in 1984. So yeah, I guess Henry the Guitarist could afford to play Jerry Garcia Space music on a Dumble, and have Dumble there to tune it for him. (By the way, this is one of the last times Dumble was seen on camera until 2021, when Eagles guitarist Don Felder showed him working on his Fender amp, Dumble passed away aged 77 in 2022, a great age considering how obese he was in Henry's video). As mentioned elsewhere, Henry himself is a film producer, videographer and photographer, and he has been all over the world filming, especially on land and under water in Antarctica.

There's a lot to digest here. Henry makes a Freddy Krueger voice towards the beginning. The drummer is dressed like Freddy Krueger at the end. Maybe it's all just a nightmare. Can you imagine your parents getting you this tape to go along with your first guitar? It's an instructional video for people who own eventide equipment, which is almost nobody. You wouldn't learn anything directly from this tape, but it does deliver a message of freedom in doing unconventional things. The guy's playing the Dumble with the purity of the electrons in the vacuum and has a processed through all this digital crap. This kind of reminds me of the Adrian Belew tape, which is also about odd noises that you can make with your guitar and effects.

Mate, HOW did he GET that Dumble amp from Dumble? OMG! LOL!

What a find :D Wild how it's like half guitar lesson, half Tim & Eric sketch comedy. Also kind of wild this even got made and distributed in the first place. It's not like today where any one can shoot a video and upload it. Like, they had to hire a crew to film it, rent the set, and then get a distributor to make the VHS tapes. Wild.

It's....annoying that so many people act like he is a joke. I'm glad you took it seriously. There is a joke in all of it, but it is just as serious as anything else. He is ... very Him. He didn't go around asking for anything or making any demands. Interesting that people turn cruel if someone does what they want to do. As if he showed up in your house and forced you to only listen to him.