kt: It Elevates the Dreary shells of 0ur Dull Xenophobic Mortality

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

IED, having found a proper parking space, has returned to
try sorting out the sheaf of phosphur crowding up his mailbox.

Again, allow IED to thank those who have taken the time to
post a sympathetic word or two. As for those who still persist
in criticizing him, IED KNOWS WHO YOU ARE.

By request, IED will resume his traditional form of self-identification.

By the way, could Doug please return to the tried and true
method of Love-Hounds dialogue (complete quotation followed
by response)? Recently, IED has noticed responses stitched into
the fabric of the earlier messages, and identified only by "#" signs.
This is a cruel editorial move, as it deprives the original posting
of whatever argumentative potential it might have had in its own
right, and gives the editor an unfair advantage. Incidentally, this
kind of editorial format has now begun appearing in the letters pages
of Break-Through -- as a means of blocking all ears to any
opinions other than those with which that publication's fanatically
religious editors are in agreement. It's a subversive habit to
get into, and has no place in Love-Hounds.

Speaking of which, Allen B. of Intergalactic Garage (the alias of
a highly exploitive, immoral, and much-envied Kate Bush
merchandise salesman in the D.C. area) has started publishing
nasty remarks about Break-Through's recent leanings in the direction of
Christian mumbo-jumbo; and in his latest flier, he proposes the launching
of a new U.S. Kate fanzine (presumably to be edited by him), one which
would apparently be motivated more by antipathy for Dale and
Robyn than by interest in the art of its purported subject.
Sounds like an unwelcome addition to an already too-competitive
market.

>Wednesday night (1/14) at 8 in the Coop.  Yo, IED! Are you ready,
>to be thrown down??
>            --John

IED received this communique in his mailbox today. Could someone please
tell him what it means, what spurred its creation, and why it was
sent to IED?

>   Some titles, e.g. 'Sat In Your Lap', deserve a larger format on
>their musical merits. I don't know what format that should be, but I
>felt disappointed at the (too sudden) end. There was more in it than
>could be expressed in a three minute title.

The last sentence in the above paragraph hints at an explanation for
your disappointment, and Kate's record-making aesthetic principles.
It is, however, incorrect. What you were trying to say is:

>There was more in it than I was able to absorb comfortably in a
>three minute title.

IED's point being not to insult you, but to point out that, as seems
almost always to be the case, criticism of Kate's art tends to reveal
far more about the critic than about Kate's art.

The fact is that "Sat In Your Lap" marks the first time Kate
was able to express herself with complete artistic freedom:
not co-incidentally, it is also more densely packed with musical
and para-musical ideas than any piece of popular music had ever
been before. As such it was, indeed, an experiment -- but it was
an entirely successful one. Several music critics have observed
before that The Dreaming contains enough musical information to
fill at least two LPs. The tragedy of such an observation is
that it evolves out of a too-great familiarity with and subsequent
tolerance for the comparatively low standards of the rest of
popular music, which Kate exceeds by such a margin that the
complacent are bewildered. And, bewildered, they re-act with suspicion.

>For somebody whose native tongue is not English, some of her lyrics are
>very difficult, ranging to impossible, to understand. And, recalling
>some of the contributions in this group, this seems to be true even for
>native English/American speakers. Frankly, I can't understand why EMI
>has chosen not to include the printed lyrics.

IED can't, either. A very good point, and a great mystery,
considering the care with which the compilation seems to have
been made -- and considering the title of the album, which
stresses the narrative orientation of Kate's songs.

RE: Biolek's German TV show
>Well, I have the show on video tape somewhere... but I can't remember
>what she sang.  Probably "Wuthering Heights".  All I remember is the
>guy asking Kate if she knew any German and Kate giggling and saying
>"Nien."  Kate is still fairly popular in Germany, I believe.  She's
>not nearly as popular there as in England, though. -- Doug

If IED remembers correctly, that's the show on which Kate sang
"Wuthering Heights" and "Kite", accompanied by a pre-recorded
instrumental backing. By the way, it's "nein".

>BTW, it is ironic that she was kicked out
>of a choir when she was young.