Kate-echism XV.7.xx: with a spoonful of sugar

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]

 > Subject: Dear IED, hope you got the letter..
 > -- jsd

     Huh? Sorry, Jon, he didn't, as far as he knows. What letter?

 > Question : Is the only difference between the two in the vocals?
 > Though the guitar sound/approach is certainly the same, I seem to
 > recall that the actual notes diverge quite a bit, especially toward
 > the end.  Haven't checked recently, so I wouldn't bet my life.
 > Anybody know for sure?

 >    [ The instrumental backing is the same, though it seems to
 >      have been remixed a bit.  -- |>oug ]

     Actually, it's been remixed a _lot_. The mix itself (especially
in the relative prominence of the drums) is quite different, and a
good deal of reverb-ish echo-delay stuff has been added. Most
important of all, however (aside from Kate's new vocal, of course) is
the long concluding guitar riff section, which though made from the
original recording, is lengthened by nearly a full minute, adding to
the guitar solo and to the long "ad lib" vocals at the end.  "Remixed
a bit" just doesn't describe it.

 >     Question : What's the first song (not limited to WH-I or -II) you
 > play for some-one interested in hearing Kate?  I almost always go
 > with WH-II or "Oh To Be In Love" as they seem to have the best mix
 > of accessibility and emotion.
 > -- Brian

 >> Gee, I play "Waking the Witch", because I want to scare
 >> their fucking brains out! -- |>oug

     IED shares |>oug's implied view that there's not much point in
trying to attract a novice to Kate's music by trying to choose
something relatively "accessible". If there's any hope at all of
turning a person on to Kate, it's going to be because that person is
receptive to really powerful, aggressive forms of art.  As Kate
herself said way back in June of 1978:

          "I think that anything you do that you believe
          in, you should _club_people_over_the_head_with_it_!_"

     For that reason, if it were a choice between "WHI" and "WHII",
the only choice that might really _hook_ a new listener would be "WHI"
-- not because the second version is "weaker", necessarily, but just
because it's more familiar-sounding, less _eccentric_ than the
original recording. A first hearing of "WHI" was then and can still be
today a _total_mindfucker_ -- especially if it's played on a really,
really powerful system, using a CD, at MAXIMUM CONCEIVABLE VOLUME.
     And if your friend is turned off by the excessive volume, you
might as well give it up right from the start -- there's no hope.
     IED agrees with |>oug that "GOoMH" is a good choice, too. But
personally, IED no longer attempts to perform any initiation rites
unless the candidate expresses a real willingness to sit down and
listen to the whole of _The_Ninth_Wave_ without interruption, without
speaking, and without fidgeting, in a dark room, at MAXIMUM VOLUME.
Otherwise, what's the fucking point? The way IED sees it, neither Kate
nor the world at large needs any more "casual" Kate fans. What we need
more of is FUCKING SERIOUS KATE MANIACS.

 > Date: Tue, 12 Jul 88 12:05:01 PDT
 > From: dhsu@SUN.COM (Dave Hsu)
 > Subject: Re:  Love-Hounds Digest

 > I'd be glad to oblige you with an analysis but you may have to wait
 > a bit, as (1) my hasty coast-to-coast translation has left me apart
 > from my stereo, (2) although I have just replaced my faithful but
 > late Sony D-5 with a D-15, I have only half of my Kate discs with
 > me, and (3) my modesT arKhives are back east.

     OK, Dave, just so you know we're waiting.

 >     That's putting it mildly. The _Ninth_Wave_ of science fiction
 > movies, really.  (Maybe _Brazil_, then, is _The_Dreaming_...)
 > -- Andrew Marvick

 >    [ Okay, so what is *Alien* translated into record albums?
 >      --|>oug ]

 >> _Alien_, I would venture, is the _PG IV_ aka _Security_ of SF
 >> films.  Stark, austere, but with a purpose, a depth of vision
 >> beyond argument.  And besides, the cover art is almost as weird as
 >> a Giger painting.

     Here are the movies that IED has long associated with Kate's
various albums (based entirely on personal experience of analogous
emotional reactions, this list being no attempt to present rational
arguments):

 _The_Kick_Inside_: _The_World_of_Henry_Orient_; _My_Man_Godfrey_
 _Lionheart_: _The_Three_Lives_of_Thomasina_
 _Never_For_Ever_: _Mary_Poppins_; _Ninotchka_
 _The_Dreaming_: _The_Hunger_; _The_Lacemaker_; _2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_
 _The_Ninth_Wave_: _Blade_Runner_; _Brazil_; _The_Incredible_Mr._Limpet_

     IED finds that the movies he saw while a small child still affect
his emotions in ways that recent films seldom do. Hence the
predominance of children's films in the above list.  It may be some
sign of Kate's power as an artist that her music, none of which IED
heard at so early an age, nevertheless is able to hit the emotional
center of his childhood consciousness in ways that almost nothing else
can.

 >  From: blblbl!henrik (Larry DeLuca)
 >  Subject: Watching You Without Me -- Hidden Messsages and the Like

 >     After a few minutes with my trusty four-track and a cassette
 > tape of _Hounds of Love_ I have the following (don't trust all of
 > it, as I don't 100%, but I believe the bulk to be substantially
 > correct): The "backward" section is longer than one might
 > anticipate.  First, there is the obvious one, which has all of the
 > funny vowel and consonant closures one associates with pronouncing
 > such things backwards ("So ni kloi, so ni kloi-ii...").  After that
 > is an obligato which is repeated three times and sounds much like
 > "Release Me").  Working backwards, the second ("Release Me") is
 > pretty clearly: "We see you here" Going back to "So ni kloi, so ni
 > kloi-ii..." - it is composed of three phrases which are similar, if
 > not identical.  Playing backwards, the first (the last you hear
 > when you play the album normally) is: "Falling asleep on me in
 > bed--(we're) neither working nor smoking" Now, one might say that
 > this has little relevance to _Watching You Without Me_, though all
 > sorts of tangents are possible.  However, having been in similar
 > situations, I have found that after putting in enough 26-hour days
 > on this sort of a project in a row makes the fatigue toxins flow
 > and suddenly your mind takes on a whole new creative bent. It
 > certainly says something about the way one feels after spending the
 > umpteenth hour overdubbing a single phrase or hunched over the
 > mixing console. (One will recall "We let the weirdness in" -- which
 > is really much more a blatant statement of how the end of the song
 > came about than directly connected with the rest of _Leave it Open_
 > (though it is possible to interpret it as well that when you "leave
 > it open" you "let the weirdness in").  Alternate ideas welcome --
 > I'm curious as anyone else (well, maybe not quite as curious as
 > some...).
 >
 > -- larry...

     IED read your ideas with great interest and care, Larry, and he
certainly agrees with you about the line "We see you here". That's a
definite. Heard forwards it's been identified variously as "Really
see," "We recede", etc., but all that becomes irrelevant when it's
heard backwards and its true meaning pops right out.
     The real mystery is the passage directly preceding "We see you
here", however, and in regard to that section IED cannot share your
confidence in a solution. First of all, it must be said right away
that your suggestion that the phrase goes something like "Falling
asleep on me in bed--(we're) neither working nor smoking" is
incorrect.
     Kate has already given several clues to KBC members regarding
this "mystery" section of "Watching You Without Me". First of all, the
message is a sentence. Second, it's twelve words long.  Third and
perhaps most important, perhaps, the first word of the message is
"Don't". So your theory simply can't be correct, although perhaps part
of it is accurate. After spending far more time than is good for his
health fussing over this passage, IED has come up with no firm
theories. With the help of Love-Hound MarK T. Ganzer he considered the
possibility that the words might begin with the words:
     "Don't ignore, don't ignore me. Let me in..."
     ("So  ni-kloi,  so  ni-kloi-ee...Et nee nong...")
As you can see, that solution is based on the very dicey theory
that the message is actually not a backwards-masked message at
all, but is rather intended only to _sound_ "backwards" while actually
containing a _forwards_ message that has been heavily "treated".
But MarK and IED can't be said to have any great confidence in this
idea -- it remains only a pretty theory.
     After four issues (over nearly a 3-year period), IED was
thoroughly disheartened to find that even in the latest issue (no. 22,
which arrived only after a more-than-ten-month delay), no solution of
this puzzle had yet been submitted, and no new clues were being
offered.  With luck someone will have come close enough to the real
answer by the time the next issue is due for Kate to put her fans out
of their misery and just plain _TELL_US_THE_ANSWER_. But IED has no
real hope...

     Regarding Michael Sullivan's query re KT videos, they are all
still in the current Japanese video calalogues both on VHS tape and on
laser-disk. That is, _Live_at_Hammersmith_Odeon_, _The_Single_File_,
_The_Hair_of_the_Hound_ and _The_Whole_Story_.  As |>oug said, _TSF_
is not the same as _TWS_, since _TWS_ has exclusively the video of
"Experiment IV" and a new version of "Wow"; and _TSF_ has exclusively
"Them Heavy People", "Hammer Horror", "There Goes a Tenner" and
"Suspended in Gaffa".
     However, also as |>oug pointed out, the prices of these objects
are extremely high. IED just picked up the laser-disks of _TSF_ and
_THotH_ for about $60.00 apiece -- very reasonable prices, especially
since the picture and sound quality of these disks is exceptional even
for laser-disks (_THotH_ is in CAV format and has mindboggling digital
sound). But the VHS video-tape versions must now cost at least $125
dollars apiece, perhaps as much as $200, and for that you get a much
poorer quality picture and sound. For the extra cost of buying the
four video-cassettes over the disks you could afford to buy a new 838D
Pioneer laser-disk player. Either way, though, you'll still probably
have to special-order them from your dealer, and then get set to wait
anywhere from six weeks to seven months.

 > From: Douglas Weiman <WEIMAN@SRI-NIC.ARPA>
 > Subject: KaTching up

 >     I hate to throw a wrench into the Suspended in Gaffa debate,
 > but as I remember my studies of British folklore, some people in
 > the 18th and 19th centuries believed that people passed from the
 > world of the living into the world of the dead via the path in
 > their garden.  Therefore, the way to heaven (even half-a-one) was
 > by going "out in the garden."  I think we can all agree that this
 > is _not_ what Kate meant by this reference, but since she, herself,
 > claimed the song is about a person encountering the Divine -- who
 > knows?  And I thought it was interesting...

 >      [    Who says Kate didn't have this partially in mind when she
 >    wrote the song?  Sounds like a perfectly plausible allusion
 >    to me.  -- |>oug ]

     It's possible, though it seems somewhat alien to the other
apparent meanings of the lyrics, certainly alien to |>oug's idea that
the "garden" refers to the life-affirming creative process of studio
work, rather than the passage into death. (IED is willing, even eager
to believe that Kate deliberately writes with many different levels of
meaning in mind, but _not_ multiple and _self-contradictory_
meanings.) If it _is_ true, however, the The Wickham Street Irregular
Press might have to reconsider the title of its book (_The_Garden_)...

      [	Why can't it have multiple and self-contradictory meanings?
	There is death in life and life in death.  Without death, life
	is impossible.  Without life, death is impossible.  Life and
	death are one.  Everything is one.  You are too immersed in
	Western culture, IED.  Study some Zen.  I'm sure Kate has.
	Besides, John Carder Bush says that Kate's writing is like
	religious writing.  All religious writings have multiple,
	contradictory interpretations.  -- |>oug ]

 > And by the way, after re-reading |>oug's interview with Kate
 > concerning donkeys and feet representing sexual organs and all
 > that, I must conclude that the big Mr. Moderator is totally correct
 > about everything.  So, IED, are you placated?

     You are kidding, aren't you? That stuff about the mule being
mainly understood "in our country" as a symbol of infertility, or
whatever? IED was as perplexed as Kate when he read that
interpretation, for although |>oug may very well be correct about the
sexual condition of the mule, such is _by_no_means_ its exclusive or
even its dominant symbolic association! It's as though |>oug had never
heard the expression -- as much American as English, and far more
widely associated than talk of castrated donkeys,etc. -- "Stubborn as
a mule..."

      [	Firstly, Andy, I *never*, EVER, *NEVER* said that "mule is
	mainly understood 'in our country' as a symbol of
	infertility"!  I merely said that the mule as a symbol of
	platonic love seemed like a likely interpretation with respect
	to the song, in that a mule *is* a symbol of infertility, the
	song is about being scared of being involved in a sexual
	relationship.  Thus, that connection makes sense.  Secondly, a
	mule is *not* a castrated donkey.  Thirdly, Kate said that the
	mule symbolized "stupidity" -- not stubornness.  Fourthly, at
	least in our country, Kate is wrong.  Mules don't symbolize
	"stupidity" -- they symbolize stubbornness.  Stubbornness and
	stupidity are not the same.  The symbol of a donkey (i.e.
	jackass) is one of stupidity.  A donkey is not the same thing
	as a mule.  A donkey's as close to being a mule as a horse is.
	-- |>oug ]

     As for |>oug's latest volley in the Gaffa Wars, it sounds more
and more as though his and IED's interpretations are perhaps not so
far apart as they seem. |>oug's description of the earliest KT songs'
having been composed "at her house" is based on the same imprecise
source information as IED's description of their locus of composition
as "an early outbuilding on the Farm's grounds".  The fact is that no
one has ever made it truly clear exactly which building was the
location of which songs' creation, nor how early on in her career Kate
began making recordings of her work. It seems very unlikely, however,
that she was not making some form of tape recording of her songs
almost from the very earliest months of her creativity (i.e., from as
early as 1969 or 1970). IED would be rather surprised, in fact, if
Kate was not routinely tape recording her songs in a building on the
Farm grounds from the age of twelve or thirteen.
     Whether they were recorded on tape or not, however, is not the
main issue. IED has merely been trying, all along, to point out that
the song _Suspended_in_Gaffa_ may be another in Kate's long series of
songs about (or at least in some way reflecting) _childhood_.  There
are at least three reasonably solid pieces of evidence to support such
a theory: first, the words heard in between verses, which are spoken
in a deliberately childlike voice, and which include the line "Mummy,
where are the angels? I'm scared of the changes"; second, the actual
presence of Kate's mother in the video, whom Kate embraces in an
obvious reference to the child's refuge in its mother's protective
embrace; and third and most importantly, Kate's singling out of
_Suspended_ as a song that contains the kernels of musical ideas from
one of her earliest "200-odd" songs. As IED has all along admitted,
these points don't constitute "hard evidence", but they are certainly
suggestive enough to create a "reasonable doubt" about |>oug's
dogmatic insistence that "half of a heaven" must and can only be a
reference to the eight-track studio of Kate's post-"Wuthering Heights"
years. It is still amazing to IED that |>oug can be so _certain_ about
the accuracy of his interpretations. There just isn't enough evidence
to be so confident one way or the other.

      [	Again you misquote me, IED.  I never, ever said that "half of
	a heaven" can "only be" a reference to Kate's 8-track studio.
	I only said that it *is* a reference to Kate's 8-track studio.
	This interpretation is merely one meaning among the many it
	may have. -- |>oug ]

 > As for the reliability of IED's information regarding release dates,
 > tours, etc., I can only say that I knew him long before I knew about
 > Love-Hounds, and he always had the right scoop.
 >   If he says she's gonna tour, I _believe_!  Alleluia!
 >   "She signed the letters,"

 > -- Douglas Weiman

     Where did you know IED from, Douglas? Curious. Your name is
familiar, but IED can't recall where from.
     As for IED's reliability, please don't ask for proof. His
prediction of a September "news-of-release" date is based entirely on
_faith_ rather than science. But if ye truly believe, then truly, ye
may cry halelujah with him.

-- Andrew Marvick