Bath water, Roy Harper, etc.

[Doug Alan <nessus>]

> From:     Susanne E Trowbridge <ins_aset@jhunix>

> * "Wow" was about a failed homosexual actor

That's pretty obvious from the song....

> and a starlet who sleeps her way to the top.

...but I see no evidence of this in the song.  Did Kate say this, or was
it someone else's interpretation?

> (Does KB in fact have an SO - significant other?  Anyone heard
> anything about her love life?  Just curious.)

Yes, Del Palmer for the last seven years.  And people won't leave him
alone.  The British music rags have quoted Youth as saying several
unkind things about Del at the "Hounds of Love" release party:

	"Ask her what she sees in that wally," snarled a certain
	Brilliant Youth....  -- Sounds 21 Sep 85

	...we emerged to encounter an ebullient Youth telling anyone who
	would listen that Brilliant were brilliant and that he'd been
	hauled in on the album because Kate's bassist and "live-in
	lover" Del Palmer wasn't quite up to all of it.  -- Melody maker
	21 Sep 85

Maybe Youth was drunk, but one wonders if Kate will find this all such a
killing joke and if Youth will ever have the opportunity to appear on
another KB album in the future.

Rumor says that Kate was recently touring around Europe doing her
performance of RUTH on TV shows, and that on one someone said something
unkind about Del and that Kate got *very* upset....

> * One fan offered to skin himself and roll in salt in exchange for a
> gift from her.

This is from a letter to Record Mirror in 1978 that said

	You, yes you, reading this letter, buy Kate Bush's single.  God
	she's ace.  I'd crawl a million miles backwards over broken
	glass to gargle with her bathwater.  I'd peel off my skin and
	jump in a bag of salt for a pair of her panties.  Print a
	quadruple poster of her in the nude please.

This was at the time when the original huge KB publicity poster was
posted all over London and on busses, etc.  This is *quite* some poster
-- it is *not* a safe poster to see.... the photographer who took this,
sure understood how to manipulate men's minds....

> * "Army Dreamers" is Kate's favorite of her videos.

That might be out of date, though.

> * Kate doesn't listen to contemporary music - she didn't know who
> Madonna was until Live Aid.

Kate refuses to insult anyone.  Whenever anyone asks her "What do you
think of Foo?" she always says "I think Foo's great!"  I bet she knew
perfectly well who Madonna is (she says she watches lots of videos, so
how could she not?), but just couldn't bring herself to say something
good about her.

> A query: I had never heard of Roy Harper until he was mentioned on the
> net.  However, the song "Another Day" on This Mortal Coil's lp is so
> beautiful,

It sure is!  And so is Roy's original and Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel's
cover!

> I would like to know more about him, i.e., what sort of
> music does he do, what LPs are recommended.  For some reason, my radio
> station doesn't have any of his records...odd, since we have the
> complete works of Leonard Nimoy!

You've probably heard Roy Harper and didn't even know it.  He did the
vocals on Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar".

His records are *very* difficult to find!  You might be able to find his
latest album "Whatever Happened To Jugula?" though, because it is being
carried in lots of record stores because Jimmy Page's name is in big
writing on the cover.  It is also his best album.  Other great albums
include "The Unknown Soldier" (1980) and "Come Out Fighting Ghengis
Smith" (1967).  Kate does a duet with Roy on "The Unknown Soldier" and
in the runoff groove is scratched "To Kate with love Roy".  Roy does a
very interesting and original brand of folk-rock, and his songs range
from extremely tender love songs, to intense erotica, to craziness, to
vicious and powerful attacks on the things he does not like.

			"The lemmings push their pens and rush
			 In hoards of crashing stupor
			 Towards the farms of babylon
			 To scramble mother nature
			 Where unrelenting drudgery
			 Is all there is to nurture
			 And life and death are by consent
			 And love is for oppression
			 Welcome to my nightmare
			 It's the one in which I always press the button"

			 Doug