Cathy, etc.

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU]

I reluctantly agree with Hugh that the new
picture disc seems a pretty routine affair.
Not much inspiration behind it; but who cares?
It's still another brick in the great edifice of art
and persona that is Kate Bush, and as such is welcome.

Musician magazine includes a capsule review of So
in the new issue, the one with Peter Gabriel on the
cover. In it Kate is singled out not as a high-point
but as a low-point on the album. "Absurdly mannered"
are the words used. Some other U.S. magazine (forget which
now) called her singing "creamy" -- almost as dumb
a term, though not meant as a criticism.

Just depleted life's savings on the top-of-the-line Sony
8mm table-top VCR. Now recording record collection (1700
plus and a real pain in the neck at this point) onto
cute little 8mm video-cassettes -- used as an audio-recorder,
this model can fit 24 hours of music onto ONE cassette; amazing
quality, too, and virtually no machine or tape noise; nearly like a CD.
The thought of putting every audio shred of Kate Bush on one
cassette (including every bit of interview and every cover version)
was too hard to resist. Hoping to make up the capital loss by
selling record collection (save for KT) when it's all
transferred.

Received the notice for John's new book on Kate, entitled
"Cathy". Sounds very much as expected: great care taken
over the printing, binding, paper, color processing ("duo-tone"
prints of black and white photos); highly personal, hermetic
shots of the little girl -- all very Victorian/Aestheticist/
Arts and Crafts movement/quasi-Pre-Raphaelite/Lewis Carrollish.
In short, it sounds very promising. About 30 Pounds including air mail.

In the process of re-recording her complete works I was able to hear the
EARLINESS of her first LPs much more clearly (having been so caught
up in Hounds of Love and The Dreaming for so many months now).
Even Never For Ever is absurdly YOUNG-sounding Kate Bush.
There is absolutely no question that,to date, The Dreaming and
Hounds of Love constitute, collectively, the greatest achievement in 20th
century Western music.