Experiment IV, Hounds of Love

[ed191-bq%violet.Berkeley.EDU@BERKELEY.EDU (Taylor)]

In response to rajit's posting, I don't think Experiment IV is all THAT bad,
especially since my expectations for "extra songs" on greatest hits albums
tend to be around the level of a good B-side.
On the other hand, I think she's really risking becoming a parody of herself
if she keeps insisting on using that same "menacing helicopter passing 
overhead" sound at the end of her songs too much. She already used it to
close out "Pull out the pin" and "Waking the Witch," so couldn't she come
up with something a bit more original here? It's beginning to reek of formula.

Also, she really goes in for those grand, (overblown? Bombastic?) endings
to her "heavy" songs (The big gong at the end of "Hammer Horror", the 
echoing bass note at the end of "Breathing," etc). They're fine for these
songs, but using them over and over can get sort of annoying, since I'm
in the mood of the song, but then I hear these things and cringe and 
think, "oh, there goes the helicopter again" ... makes me wonder if her
Kent recording studio doesn't lie directly under the flight path of
some nearby army base or something...

As far as the "fan" interpretation of Hounds of Love, although Andrew
Marvick says that "there isn't a shred of evidence in the song to support"
the interpretation that the pursuing hounds are her fans, I think that
Doug's interpretation is really accurate. Judging from her behavior in
the past, Kate consistently has been very skittish about letting her
fans get too close to her, which is totally understandable, since she's
a really private person and deserves to be left alone, without thousands
of fans from all over the world "hounding" her down with requests for
locks of hair, personal advice or what have you. So although she is too
polite to come right out and say, "Lay off!" I think the song contains
a really strong (even subconscious) message to her fans to give her some
room to breathe.

Of course, this doens't invalidate the fact that the song can also be
applied to a one-on-one relationship type of situation.

I think a good example of her fear of fans was seen in last years (first)
convention in Romford/London, where she only poked her head 'round the
curtain, and several hundred rabid fans rushed to the stage. I wonder
what it must have looked like from the stage?

Hugh