Re: Love-Hounds Digest

[harvard!topaz!jerpc.PE.UUCP]

The following is the reply to a whole day's digest which Doug
sent me because of some problems with Harvard's mailer... please
forgive the lengthiness of it.  

> The vocals on "Watching You Without Me" sounded to me like they might be
> forward vocals sung in some foreign language and processed a little to sound
> backward.  That would explain why they still sound backward when played
> backwards.  
	...
> There are some forward vocals on "Watching You Without Me" and/or "Waking The
> Witch" that sound like they are combined with a square-wave or something, and
> they are somewhat intelligible, so she has definitely processed forward vocals
> to make them sound weird elsewhere on the album.

I think both of these effects are produced just by
amplitude-modulating the vocals.  On an analog synthesizer like
mine, you would do this by running the vocals through a
voltage-controlled amplifier and applying an appropriate signal
to the control voltage input: a square wave to produce the
chopped vocals, and an envelope generator (triggered on the
original vocal envelope) set to produce a slow attack and abrupt
release to make the "backwards vocals" effect. People usually
recognize backwards vocals because they have a slow attack
(amplitude wise) with an abrupt decay, which is backwards from
normal. The same is true of string instruments, which is how
Steve Howe produces all the strange guitar effects (e.g., the
organ-like chords accompanying the words "Will continue") in the
song "Sound Chaser".  It sounds likely she would do this sort of
thing, since she apparently also runs some of her vocals on "The
Dreaming" through a guitar sound processing device (a "Flanger"
or "Phlanger", or something like that.  However, I don't know
how those work.).

Of course, with these modern, digital synthesizers like the
Fairlight, it's probably called the "Page 198, Option 57"
or something, instead... I've always felt a little disappointed
to encounter all these people who only know how to work the
options on digital synthesizers...

I always thought the square-wave sounds were supposed to be an
obscure reference to drugs, like on the Firesign Theatre
albums... (at least that's what someone told me once).

>      OK.  I give up.  Just *how* does one listen to albums (or CD's...)
> backwards?  (I need to know about all these evil things that I am being
> programed with!  :-)  ) 

It's even worse if you have one of these linear-tracking
turntables where if you open the lid it stops playing (and there
doesn't seem to be any way to just make the motor run backwards,
because it is some strange unconventional motor in there).  I
wonder if someday, the super-deluxe CD players will have a "play
backward" option!

> I've  seen  a lot of discussion on interpretation of HoL songs. While I 
> find this interesting (and certainly educational), it fails to pinpoint 
> the  aspect  of Kate's music that intrigues me most. For me, lyrics are 
> much less important than 'music' content. While I can and do  sometimes 
> appreciate  a  song  primarily based on its lyrics, it's the rythym and 
> melody, the arrangement, texture, the dynamic range,  strange  uses  of 
> effects  gear  (strange uses of Kate's vocal chords...) etc. that hooks 
> me. The emotional impact of Kate's music is not derived from considered 
> study  of the lyric sheet, but from emotional response to the sonics of 
> the performance.

That's your opinion!  Personally I think the lyrics are
extremely important.

> Also, after the emotionally draining 
> Hello Earth, it's annoying to be bombarded with heavy drum beats...

Hello Earth is really interesting musically (as vs. lyrically),
why didn't you mention that?  Gee. :-)  I have only listened to it a
couple of times, and so am reluctant to get into a lengthy
discussion of it yet, but (obviously) it contains restatements
of a number of themes from other songs on both sides of the
album... it would be interesting to see how many there actually
are, since there seem to be a number of "variations" on earlier
themes in there as well.

Actually the musical structure of The Ninth Wave is amazingly
good, far beyond that of most rock music (even, I must admit,
beyond Topographic Oceans).

[Now, if only she'd done that little scene with the fox a little
better... :-)  But that's on the other side, so I guess it is
sort of a compromise in the interests of commercial success.]

> Remember, I'm not taking lyrical content into consideration when I make 
> these complaints. It may well be (and I'll be interested to hear)  that 
> the  'meaning'  of  these  songs necessatates their being programmed in 
> this manner, but aurally they just don't seem to fit.

Actually I think that musically (again, as vs. lyrically), "And
Dream of Sheep" and "The Morning Fog" serve a very important
purpose... unfortunately, I have forgotten what you call it,
once again!  They are a sort of prelude and postlude (though
that is not the correct pair of terms) to the remaining songs:
the first one provides the overall setting for the series of
images that follow; "Hello Earth" is a sort of finale, with its
tying-together of the other songs; and "The Morning Fog"
provides sort of an "After" image, leaving the listener with an
overall sense of optimism.  It is somewhat analogous to a
closing chapter in a novel, in which the loose ends are tied up
and the dynamics of the story wind down: not much happens,
necessarily, in comparison to the intensity of some of the
preceeding chapters, but it provides a conclusion to it all. 
Comparing it to "Topographic Oceans" again, it is like the "Nous
Sommes du Soleil" song at the end of Ritual (although that album
ends with that long instrumental passage Rich Rosen is so fond
of, which sort of eliminates the triteness of a traditional
ending.  In Kate Bush's album, I don't think that would be a
good thing to do.).

> Big Sky is especially annoying. No amount of neato backup vocals (which 
> really *are* neat!) can cover up  the  fact  that  this  is  a  boring, 
> repetative, fairly unimaginative song.

Isn't that the whole point of the song?  I mean, it goes along
well with the meaning of the lyrics...

> I  like  Cloudbusting  too.  (or  at  least  until  she  falls into the 
> repetition trap again...) The cellos remind me of  early  ELO  and  Mid 
> period  Beatles.  Speaking  of  Beatles,  don't  the last lines in RUTH 
> remind you of Beatles? I could swear I've heard the same technique (the 
> inflection  in  the  last 'could') on a Beatles tune, but I can't place 
> it... Actually, a lot of Kate's music seems Beatles inspired.

I agree with this!  There are a number of passages on this album
that remind me a *lot* of some of the Beatles' more bizarre,
John-Lennon-inspired songs.

> 	A dragon wing'd, and all from stem to stern
> 	Bright with a shining people on the decks,

Soundys like an UFO to mee...

> 	Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep,
> 	And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
> 	Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:
> 	And down the wave and in the flame was borne
> 	A naked babe, and rode to Merlin's feet,
> 	Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried "The King!
> 	Here is an heir for Uther!"...

This makes a lot of sense in the context of the KB album!  An
image of rebirth (as vs. birth in the Tennyson poem).  This is
very like Kate Bush, it seems to me, to leave off the key lines
of the poem, so you have to go find them...

> 	I was unable to find the Tennyson-sounding verse spoken by
> John Carter Bush near the end of Jig of Life. Does anyone know where
> it is from?

Who is John Carter Bush, by the way?

> 	If anyone is able to make a better case for The Ninth Wave being
> based on Tennyson's Idylls of the King, please post it. I was 
> disappointed in what little I found, but of course that does not
> diminish my enjoyment of the album.

Well, the waves in the Tennyson poem are very obviously a
birth-metaphor.  In the Kate Bush album, the protagonist
experiences a re-birth via her experience with the sea... I
think this in itself ties the two together, though I guess there
could be other connections too...

> Well, you don't play your CDs backwards unless you transfer them first
> to reel to reel tape.  

As Marjory put it on "You Can't...", "Hey, wow, that's a great
idea!"  You could wire your cassette tape player to run
backwards... well... assuming the left spindle pulls hard enough
to take up the slack in the tape...

> 
> .

On my copy of this message (which I am reading with an IBM PC),
the above line from Doug consists of a double-exclamation-mark,
a heart, and a period.  Could this be a secret message, like in
Kate Bush?

---------
Shyy-Anzr: J. Eric Roskos
UUCP-Addr: Ofc: vax135!petsd!peora!jer
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