Kate-echism XVIII.12.iii

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Kate-echism XVIII.12.iii

     IED devoted the day to a careful annotative reading of the
newest of KT biographies, called _Kate_Bush:_A_Visual_Documentary_.
This time, mindful of his embarassing lapse in judgement in the
Kerry Juby Affair (a lapse which he attributes to the dizzying
effect that the release of any book about Kate is likely to
have on his critical faculties), he took his time, read the whole
book cover to cover (taking punctilious notes the while), and
then went out for a calming dinner with friends (yes, IED _has_
friends!) before commenting. He will report on the book's specific
contents in a future posting. For now, however, IED will say
that this latest book is the best of any unofficial biography
to have emerged so far. First, as a visual record, it's a great
package. The photos are very well reproduced, with good colour
and sharp resolution. And there are lots and lots of them, from
every stage of Kate's adult career. (No photos of Kate as a child
are included--with the exception of the same old blurry school-photos;
but the years 1978-87 are well covered.) Naturally, the authors had
absolutely no personal communication of any kind with Kate herself, but
then that is nothing new. And naturally, as a result, all testimony from
"former school-friends", etc., remains as suspect as ever. Still, the
text--which has very little padding--has fewer errors of fact than any
of the others; is less annoying; is both less unfairly critical and less
sycophantic; and is better written than the others. This is not to say
it's perfect. There are errors, and many of them; it is not without its
irritating points, foolish and ill-founded judgements, and moments of
indecorous gushing; and it's not Shakespeare. Also, with the
exception of one new source (the make-up effects team for the
_Experiment_IV_ video-shoot) the new book contains almost literally
_no_ hitherto unknown information.
     Nevertheless, IED can safely say that (excluding John Carder Bush's
_Cathy_, of course, which is on an altogether different level) no book
has yet appeared that can compete with _A_Visual_Documentary_.
It's filled with facts, the preponderance of which are accurately
recounted; and its authors have more than one or two interesting
and plausible ideas about the meaning of Kate's work. (They also
have a few silly ones, but that's not so terrible.) All in all,
IED gives this book a grade of (gulp) A-. Which is damn high
by his standard. For what it is--a general record of Kate's
_public_ life story, without many new insights but with a higher
standard of factual precision-- _Kate_Bush:_A_Visual_Documentary_
is really very good, and IED recommends it to all new but loyal fans.
And he is very relieved to be able to do this, because now he can
officially _rescind_ any and all recommendations he may ever have
made, in a moment of weakness, of any other unofficial Kate Bush
biography. With this new option in the bookshops, IED can advise
with an easy conscience: "DON'T buy the Juby book--save yourselves
$10 and get _A_Visual_Documentary_." (IED paid about $20 for his copy).
     Too bad Love-Hounds didn't get a mention at the back, but
Robyn's _Still_Breathing_ and Erni Heramia's ever-improving
_Watching_Storms_ both did--with the addresses spelled correctly
and everything.)

 >   Sorry to differ, but as I recall the songs were "The Man With The Child
 >In His Eyes" (performed in trenchcoat and fedora while seated on the
 >piano) and "Wuthering Heights".  I distinctly recall Kate's full use of
 >her vocal range on "Wuthering Heights", and since the vocal style is so
 >different between WH and THP, I don't think it could have been THP.
 >
 >-- John E. Welch

     IED hopes this won't undermine your self-confidence or
anything, John, because everyone suffers an occasional mix-up in
memory. However annoyed IED gets with Doug at times, he has a
healthy respect for our pseudo-moderator's knowledge of Love-Hounds'
primary subjeKT; Douglas is, in fact, absolutely correct. There is
no mystery or question about it, IED is afraid, John: Kate performed
two songs on Saturday Night Live, December 9, 1978. They were:
_The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_, which Kate sang atop a
baby-grand piano in her gold-lame body-suit, with Paul Shaffer (note
correct spelling) at the keyboard (and mimicking Kate's simple style
quite well); and _Them_Heavy_People_ (which, to confused Love-Hounds
who are new to the Katedom, contains the oft-repeated chorus,
"Rolling the ball, rolling the ball, rolling the ball to me"), which
Kate performed solo (with offstage backing from unidentified
musicians, probably including Paddy and a couple of female backing
vocalists chosen by Kate), dressed in a trench-coat and Fedora hat.
Whether you remember her singing _Wuthering_Heights_ on _SNL_ or not
is really immaterial, since she didn't, in fact, do so. Perhaps
you saw her _Wuthering_Heights_ video, which happened to be shown
once (and once only until several years later) on national TV,
on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (IED believes) at just about the same
time as the _SNL_ appearance; then grafted one image onto the other.
     Serge's efforts are much appreciated even though they turned
out, in the event, to have been superfluous (Neil Calton,
Love-Hounds' UK KorrespondneT eKsTraordinaire, already posted
the Len Brown interview a couple of weeks ago). Please don't
let that discourage Serge from making contributions of like kind
in future. With luck, now that we're all back on our fragile little
Love-Hounds high (thanks to the miracle known as auto-pilot),
such mix-ups, created mainly by unnecessary delays in distribution,
will not recur.

-- Andrew Marvick