Come On Baby Ride With Me, Just Like You Did One Thousand Times Before

Come On Baby Ride With Me, Just Like You Did One Thousand Times Before

1st exhibition: Miami-Dade Transit System, New Music America, Miami, 1988

Installation on the MetroMover elevated train system in Miami, Florida. Each time a train pulls into a station, a 7-second snippet of sound is played over the train’s PA system to accompany the opening of the train door. There are a total of twelve train cars on the system and each train car has its own set of two sounds that alternately play back at each station. The sounds are 7-second long excerpts from a diverse selection of musical genres, including Country & Western, Easy Listening, Free Jazz, Inuit Throat Singing, African Drumming, TV Sound Effects, Sound Poetry, etc. The train system is fully automated with no driver, and one of the impressions created when an unexpected sound effect plays over the PA system is that something in the automated system is failing, or that someone in central control is screwing around with the PA system. The piece was banned, apparently due to these aesthetic problems, by the Assistant Director of Metro-Dade Transit after running for two days. This work was commissioned for the 1988 New Music America Festival by Dade County Art In Public Places.