_ne_t'enfuis_pas_; Trio bularKa on american television

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 subject: _ne_t'enfuis_pas_; Trio bulgarKa on american television

 >     I just recently heard "Babooshka" and since then I have picked up
 > never for ever
 > the whole story
 > lionheart
 > hounds of love
 >and I remember the video for hounds of love when it came out on MTV
 >but at that time I had never heard of KATE BUSH and although I loved
 >the video, I never saw it again or heard of or from KATE BUSH after
 >that.
 > I plan on getting the two other old albums (the kick inside and one other??)
 >and I have the picture disk (and record ) interview...
 >any info?
 >Love-Hounds (is that your name? )
 >
 > Subject: Ne T'enfuis pas
 >
 >   Please let me know where this *best work* song...
 > not out on CD!  arrrrrgh!
 > anyway, is there anyway to get this?
 > do you have to import it?
 > help a newcomer!
 >
 > -- Scott

     First, IED commends you on your assiduity in buying up all
the Kate Bush you could find. That seems to happen often: someone
hears one of her songs, and ends up going
out and snatching up all her albums immediately. Good job.
     You saw the video of the song _Hounds_of_Love_ on MTV?
Must have been the one time they showed it, then, because it's
the first IED has heard that they showed any videos of Kate's
other than _Running_Up_That_Hill_ (the Wogan Show lip-synch version
four times and the official video three times), _Cloudbusting_
(once) and _Experiment_IV_ (four times over two days). As opposed to
the four-hundred-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-seven times they've
shown "Whitesnake"'s latest video. The bastards.
     There have actually been _six_ vinyl picture-disk interview
records, Scott. Three were twelve-inches, and three were seven-inches.
All of these were unauthorized (IED insists on calling
them bootlegs, though technically they're legal). There have been
only two official picture-disk releases: _The_Kick_Inside_, which
came out as a pic-disk in 1979 (re-issued in 1983); and the pic-disk version of
the fourth _HoL_ single, _The_Big_Sky_. In addition to the four
interview pic-disks, there have been two picture-disk music-bootlegs,
both U.S. pressings.
     As for _Ne_T'enfuis_pas_, happy hunting. Unfortunately,
this song was the b-side of Kate's poorest-selling single ever:
_There_Goes_a_Tenner_. That single was never released in the U.S.,
and in fact not all that many copies were put out in the U.K., either.
     Shortly after releasing that single (the third and final UK single
to be released in support of the album you couldn't remember the name of,
_The_Dreaming_) Kate decided to release a special single for the
French markets of France and Canada. For this, she used _Ne_T'enfuis_pas_
for the a-side (after re-mixing the track slightly to make her lead
vocal track more audible), and for the b, a re-mix of _The_Infant_Kiss_
(from _Never_For_Ever_) with a new French-language track for the
lead-vocal part. This did quite well in France, and it was released
in Canada with a slightly different sleeve. Finally, the _There_Goes_a_
Tenner_ single was included in a boxed set of thirteen of Kate's singles
called _The_Single_File_, which came out in 1983.
     _Lord_of_the_Reedy_River_ was the b-side for the first single
from _The_Dreaming_ (_Sat_In_Your_Lap_). Those two tracks are as good
as the actual album tracks on _The_Dreaming_, and are must-buys for
any Kate fan. If you can find it, you might save money in the long
run by buying a bootleg 2-LP set called _Passing_Through_Air_,
which has most of Kate's b-sides (transferred illegally from her
singles with OK but not great stereo sound). IED hates to suggest
such a thing, but since EMI UK has had the incredible idiocy to
delete most of Kate's singles anyway, and since they recently
decided to postpone plans to put out the b-sides on CD (the jerks),
IED figures they deserve it if new fans settle instead for a boot.

     On another Kate-related note: Trio Bulgarka, the trio of
female Bulgarian folk singers who are currently on tour in the
U.S. with their parent-group, the Radio Sofia/Bulgarian National
Women's Choir, appeared tonight on the NBC late-night show
_Michelob's_Sunday_Night_. The three women (Yanka Rupkina,
Stoyanka Boneva and Eva Georgieva) joined the tour directly
following their work in London where they recorded a solo album by
Yanka and collaborated with Kate Bush on two of Kate's new
tracks, at least one of which will be included on KBVI (which
is now promised for April).
     The three women are of different ages. Eva is a strapping
white-haired woman who sings in the lowest range; Stoyanka,
a soloist in her own right in Bulgaria, sings the middle parts
usually; and Yanka, who is at least a few years younger than the
others (i.e., about forty to forty-five), sings most of the "lead"
or high parts. Yanka is also a very beautiful woman. They performed
in their usual full Bularian traditional dress (complete with
wind-chime-laden headdresses that tinkled on Yanka's head quite
audibly during their otherwise unaccompanied performance). They
sang three songs, including _Strati_Angelaki_, of which Kate
recently said: "If they sing _Strati_Angelaki_ to me I can't
take it. I have to leave the room. It just makes me cry; and there
are very few things musically that affect me like that."
     It was great. And on _American_TV_! Amazing how the music of
a sophisticated popular culture like Bulgaria's can go unnoticed for
centuries in the West, and then with a little clever yuppie marketing,
it suddenly becomes chic. But it really doesn't make any difference how
it came to click here. Just to be able to see Yanka Rupkina sing a single
song on U.S. TV is compensation enough for all the hype.
     Incidentally, the Trio Bulgarka's latest album (and their
first on their own in the West), called _The_Forest_is_Crying_, is
out on CD (the Hannibal label). It is incredibly neat.

-- Andrew Marvick