Over an eight month period I would go to Cage's loft on Wednesdays, bring scores, recordings and something to drink.
Secondly, "Listen to what you like, see what you like about it, and do something different with it."
Thirdly, "Listen to what you don't like, find out what it is, and don't do that."
And finally, "Get with people who have similar interests" to which he gave me John Lennon's address...Wow!!!
Mr. Cage and I were listening to a piece of my music that night called “First Movement” (See one page score below). It was a screaming solo electric guitar piece, strings tuned in perfect fourths, recorded at midnight in Cabell Hall, a domed auditorium that Thomas Jefferson had designed. It was actually the piece that Dr. Milos Velimirovich had listened to which had prompted him to recommend that I study with Cage.
Cabell Hall
As we listened, Cage got that ‘struck‘ look. The one he always got when he had a new idea (which was often). I liked being around him when that happened. It looked partially like a child’s wonder and playfulness and partly like he was being possessed, in an avuncular sort of way. More the former.
But while each idea was new, neither he, nor I, were afraid of what was about to rush from his head...more eager than anything else.
That's the thing about genius. Schoenberg postulated about that a good bit. What I saw in Cage, and other geniuses, was that 'new information' looks more revealed than anything else to the 'carrier', than derived from really hard work from rugged individualists...
First Movement