The piece outraged so many people that there was a riot the first night it opened, and the collaborators were smeared all over the Parisian press, turning the 51 year-old Satie into a star overnight. From Parade until his death in 1925, Satie lived the life of a celebrity. He found himself surrounded by a group of young followers, Les Six, who revered the old man and carried out his advances to radical extremes. It's worth checking-out the work of Darius Milhaud, the most prominent of Les Six who uses a slew of jazz, mechanical, and world music devices in his compositions. Following Cage's premiere of Vexations , a flood of previously unavailable recordings appeared on the market to slake the 60s experimentalists thirst.
Today there remains an enormous amount of records around, both in print and used.
The best place to start is with Aldo Ciccolini's definitive set of Satie's complete piano works, Piano Music of Erik Satie, Vols. 1-6, on EMI Angel. Ciccolini's sound is warm and fresh, the playing magnificent and, in doing Satie's entire piano repertoire, many of the pieces make their first recorded appearances on these discs. Once you're hooked on the piano works, there's a bunch of great orchestral pieces to check out. The same goes for Parade -it's hard to make a lousy version of it.