Reminder; complete text of IED's letter to Sidgwick & Jackson

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick
 Subject: Reminder; complete text of IED's letter to Sidgwick & Jackson

     First, a reminder: Kate Bush is still God.

           *                            *                             *

     Now, here is the text of IED's letter to Karen Hurrell, an editor
at Sidgwick & Jackson.

                                                                 Andrew Marvick
                                                           10499 Wilkins Avenue
                                                          Los Angeles, CA 90024

                                                                  April 5, 1989

Karen Hurrell
Editor
Sidgwick & Jackson
1 Tavistock Chambers
Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2SG
England

Dear Ms. Hurrell:
     I am moved to write this letter after reading your own
letter to the editors of _Homeground_ magazine,
which was reproduced in their 34th issue. In it you
expressed a wish to receive further comments from me concerning your recent
publication, _Kate_Bush:_The_Whole_Story_, written by Kerry Juby.
     First let me say that I found your letter very sympathetic, and
I applaud your willingness to improve Mr. Juby's text for future
editions. I understand your natural reluctance to believe the book
to be as bad as it was made out to be in my review (and in others'),
and the tone of your letter was so appealing that I have
taken the book down again and given it another chance, so to speak.
     Before continuing, I would like to request that, whether or not you
decide to follow any of my suggestions as set forth in this letter, you
do _not_ mention my name in future printings of Mr. Juby's book. I am
relying on you and on Sidwick & Jackson
to respect my request for privacy in this matter.
     Although I did acknowledge several of the book's redeeming
qualities in my review for _Homeground_, the text of my
article was abridged by Peter and his staff, and so my views may have
appeared more severe than in fact was the case. I do feel
that the book has some excellent features, not the least of which
is its fine layout and design. The collection of
"candid" photographs is also praiseworthy, and there
is much to be said for the trouble which Mr. Juby took to
interview some of the musicians and other people who have had
the experience of working with Kate in the past. Those passages--which
are more numerous than I had noticed upon first reading the book--are
of real value, I think, and I am grateful to Mr. Juby for them.
     I would also like to admit here that my tally of 111 errors
was harsh. Although the number is technically correct, it includes
literally every substantive mistake of fact--no matter how small--which Mr.
Juby makes in the course of his lengthy text; as well as those statements which
I believe are exaggerations or distortions of fact. Appearing as they do
without qualification, such distortions constitute errors in my
view.
     In addition, I encountered a number of peculiarities of punctuation
and grammar. I will not bother to itemize these here, because
I assume that you are aware of them already.
I am sorry for having been so punctilious in totting up these
mistakes, some of which I will not mention in this letter because they
now seem relatively unimportant to me. Please
communicate my regrets to Mr. Juby for whatever distress my numeral
"111" may have caused him!
     Apologies and qualifications having been duly made, here are
the errors which, as a devoted fan and student of the work and
career of Kate Bush, I feel should be corrected or at the very least
defended by Mr. Juby before his book goes to a second printing.

     Pages xi-xx, 2:
Kate is referred to as "normal" no fewer than _five_
times (and several more times throughout the text).
Since this thesis is probably false, or at the very least a gross
simplification of the truth, once would be more than enough. I can
appreciate the honourable motivation behind such statements, but
it might be helpful to Mr. Juby if he remembered that the appeal of
Kate Bush lies as much in the _complexity_ of her
music and persona, as in its superficial accessibility. Her
background, childhood experiences and present character are therefore
interesting for their _abnormality_ as well as for their points of
convergence with the norm.
     Page 3: Another sign of Mr. Juby's unfortunate tendency
to repeat himself unnecessarily. After Kate is "remembered,"
in paragraph 1, "as always having a great deal of pocket money,"
Mr. Juby adds, in Paragraph 2, that "Dr. Bush...<found>...plenty
of pocket money for his children..." Why rehash such information
needlessly?
     Page 7: "Sharply, iron pierces flesh, and the shake is
raised on the hill." The word "shake" should read
"shape".
     Page 10, Paragraph 3: "School who becoming" should
read "School was becoming".
     Page 13: "Ricky Hooper" should read "Ricky Hopper".
     Page 14: "Kate recorded her first demo at Gilmour's
home studio...They chose _Passing_Through_Air_ and _Maybe_
and the new tape was circulated..." This is misleading. The
"first demo" at Gilmour's home included far more than
two or three tracks. What I believe Juby may have meant to say was that
_Maybe_, _Saxophone_Song_ and _The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_
(but not _Passing Through_Air) were chosen
from among the songs recorded at Gilmour's home, for _re-recording_
under more professional conditions. In other words, it should be made
clear that there were at least three stages in the
"demo"-recording process: the first consisting of many recordings
of songs (Kate has put the number at "about two hundred") which
were made alone at home, or with the family's help; the second
consisting of a recording of perhaps a dozen or fifteen songs at
the home of Mr. Gilmour; and the third consisting of only three songs--
_Maybe_, _Saxophone_Song_ and _The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_--all
of which were executed in a professional context and submitted
to EMI, with a successful result.
     Mr. Juby actually says as much in the last paragraph of page
14, but the preceding misstatements put the later accurate ones in
doubt.
     I know that this is rather dry material for a biography of
a popular figure like Kate Bush, but it is nonetheless very important,
especially in view of the fact that some of these early
demo recordings are now finding their way into collectors'
hands.
     Page 25: Andrew Powell is quoted at length expressing his opinion
that the extreme speed of the recording process for _The_Kick_Inside_
"helped immensely." Wouldn't it be appropriate to point out that Kate's
own view is on record as being quite opposite to Mr. Powell's?
     Page 28: Mr. Juby identifies James in _James_and_the_Cold_Gun_
as "James of the James Gang". Here's what Kate herself had to say
(this is from an old issue of the _Kate_Bush_Club_Newsletter_):

              Q.: In _James_and_the_Cold_Gun_ did you refer to
         anyone in particular?
              A.: I've had lots of letters about this, many from
         people called James, with plenty of suggestions for
         identities of the "James", but the answer is: nobody.
         When I wrote the song, James was the right name for it.

     Page 31: Mr. Juby says that Keef MacMillan directed Kate's "first"
video for _Wuthering_Heights_. It's quite well known and amply documented
that Keef's video--the one included in Kate's official video compilations
--was created _after_ the "field" or "moors" video, which was made by a
fledgling video company called Rockflix very early in 1978.
Mr. Juby confuses matters even more--and shows that he had not actually
seen either of these videos--by saying that the early "moors"
video featured Kate in a white gown _in_a_meadow_. In fact Kate wore a
_red_ dress in that video.
     Page 33: Mr. Juby says that "later <U.S. editions of _The_Kick_
_Inside_> featured the U.K. design". This is false. There have
been two different U.S. cover-designs, but neither one is even
remotely like the "official" U.K. album design--which,
incidentally, is the only one sanctioned by Kate.
The first of the "U.S." designs was actually the same
as the Canadian design (still in circulation there). It features a
close-up photograph of Kate with her hand against her face. The
second U.S. design (still in use here) features a shot of Kate
crouching, and wearing blue jeans and red socks. Both of these
designs were decided upon at the regional offices, and Kate had
no part in their selection.
     Page 33: Also on this page, Mr. Juby describes the Efteling
film (a film of videos Kate made in Holland in 1978) as having
seven songs. It has only six.
     Page 61: Mr. Juby interprets "BVs" in _Violin_
as an abbreviation for "Beata Virgo"(!) In fact, Kate
has several times explained that "BVs" is just short for
"backing vocals". The Blessed Virgin never enters into
it, as far as I know.
     Page 62: "Roy Harper was another of EMI's aspiring
musicians, less successful in the long run than Bush, but a close friend
with whom she later worked on a number of albums..." This is
highly misleading. Kate only worked on _one_album_ of Harper's: the
_Unknown_Soldier_ LP; and furthermore, her only real contribution
was to a single track on that album. This is the kind
of statement that causes considerable damage, because, as I
know from experience, many newer fans will now be searching for
more than one Roy Harper/Kate Bush collaboration, based solely upon
Mr. Juby's inaccurate report. Collectors are plagued by more than
enough distortions and false rumours as it is, without being led further
afield by a supposedly "authoritative" new resource.
     Pages 68-69: Mr. Juby twice refers--wrongly--to the governess in
_The_Infant_Kiss_ as the _mother_ of the children.
There is no familial relationship between the children
and the woman in either the song or the sources for the
song (the film _The_Innocents_; and Henry James's novella _The_Turn_
_of_the_Screw_, which served as the basis for the film).
For this reason Mr. Juby's criticism on page 69 ("It is
a distinct juxtaposition of unmotherly, unnatural feelings and
maternal love that Kate is describing, and it doesn't quite
fit her description of how she sees it.") is unjustified.
     Page 73: "<Apart from bicycling...> any exercise
that <Kate> gets is in the form of the movement that
accompanies her music." Actually, Kate has
practised kyudo, an East Asian form of archery, for several years.
She has also been known to roller-skate on occasion.
     Page 49: Alan Murphy is quoted as saying that Kate kept
"buckets of tea...and Kit Kats and things" in the studio.
Fine. But it is quite unnecessary, not to say suspicious, to
use this statement again on page 73 by claiming that
"_most_musicians_ <my italics> remember there being buckets of tea
and biscuits and Kit Kats about during every session."
     Page 61 (writing about _Violin_):
"It is a coy, devilish attempt to breathe a little fire into a
staid violin, but in many ways it fails because of the song's
lack of melody." This statement is so silly and demonstrates
such colossal ignorance of music that I am sure I needn't argue
further for its deletion from future editions.
     Page 75: "Kate reads a great deal." Kate does _not_
read a great deal! She has explained many times that she seldom
reads, because she is a slow reader and feels that it takes up too
much of her worktime (though she has also admitted that her attitude
is "silly, really"). I believe Mr. Juby was aware of this
fact, but for some reason chose to ignore it. It would certainly
be accurate to say that books have had a powerful influence on
Kate's work. But she has not read widely or deeply, and has said
as much on several occasions.
     Page 76: "...she expressed a great deal of interest in
the latest cult of New Wave artists." It is very misleading
to make this statement without dating its source, since Kate's
enthusiasm for virtually any kind of Western popular music has
been minimal since about 1981 or so--hardly contemporaneous with
the "latest cult".
     Also on page 76 is the statement: "A sixties child by heart,
she appreciates the Beatles, but finds most inspiration in Billie
Holliday <sic>...Gene Kelly and Judy Garland." This
sentence is not only illogical (Holiday, Kelly and Garland were
scarcely typical role models for a "sixties child by heart"),
but false. To my knowledge her only mention of Garland and Kelly were in
reference to their inspiring influence upon her _as_a_child_. By
contrast the later work of the Beatles, and of John Lennon
in particular, have remained a very powerful source of inspiration for
Kate throughout her career.
     Page 81: "The eroticism of Kate Bush is undeniable,
however..." Assuming that Mr. Juby means the eroticism of
her _work_ or _performance_style_, this statement is fine. But the
sentence continues: "...and no virgin, even one as imaginative as Kate,
could write a song like _Feel_It_, or _L'Amour_Looks_Something_Like_You."
This is not only highly debatable (does Mr. Juby know of Anais
Nin's erotic juvenilia, written while she was unquestionably still
a virgin--to name just one example--?), but it also constitutes a rather
embarrassing lapse in taste, I think. Surely idle speculation about the
date of Kate's loss of virginity is not something the author or
his readers benefit from.
     Page 82: I'm afraid I found this paragraph particularly offensive.
"Kate is afraid of flying. She is slightly miffed, however,
when the subject is brought up, hotly denying that she is afraid,
but rather explaining that it just isn't her favourite manner
in which to travel..."
     Then, on page 135, Mr. Juby writes: "Overcoming her
fear of flying, Kate agreed to fly over..."
     Mr. Juby is assuming, in other words, that the _rumours_ that
Kate is "afraid" of flying are true, even when he
himself is fully aware of Kate's flat denials! That's really
irresponsible. Especially since we have far more than just Kate's
say-so on this issue: Kate has made literally _dozens_ of
flights between England and Europe, England and North America,
England and Japan, England and Australia, all of which she undertook,
one may be very sure, without complaint. Mr. Juby has no business denying
the facts in favour of silly, unsupported gossip.
     It is at about this point in the book that
Mr. Juby plunges into a low celebration of similarly ridiculous
rumours:  exhuming stories about Kate being pregnant at
a Peter Gabriel concert in 1987; having an affair with Gabriel; and even
being a drug addict! And as in the case I cited above concerning
the false rumour about a fear of flying, Mr. Juby dwells on these bits of
nonsense with a fascination that implies they are somehow more true than
Kate's _denials_. And he does this even when he himself has already
printed those denials in his own book!
     Also on page 82: Mr. Juby quotes at length some uncredited hearsay
attributed to Kate by the writer Fred Vermorel--a far less responsible
author than Mr. Juby himself, as I'm sure Mr. Juby would agree. The
context of this dubious citation is the subject of the importance of
dream states as a source of inspiration for Kate. Yet even Mr. Juby
expresses doubt about the authenticity of the quotation. His text
would have been stronger if he had looked for more solid support for
his ideas. Sorely missing are any of Kate's several statements
to the effect that her works--and particularly _The_Ninth_Wave_--
deal with the character's _resistance_ of sleep, and with the conflict
between dreams and the real-life problems of her songs' characters. Also
missing is Kate's interesting and relevant opinion (expressed
in the course of more than one televised interview) that dreams
are as much a part of "real life" and the "real world"
as wakefulness, and that her work should not be misinterpreted as
less "realistic" or more "escapist" because of its
exploration of parallel states of consciousness.
     Page 83: "She is a truly sweet woman, with a high,
consonantless mode of speech betraying a cross between a suburban
South London accent and some sort of contrived innocence." Mr.
Juby's attitude toward his subject seems confused in this
statement--as in many other parts of his text. Kate's
"sweetness" wouldn't seem to be supported by her
"contrivance" of innocence. On the other hand, it is possible
that Kate's speech patterns, and even her accent, may have
undergone some changes over the years, and Mr. Juby might
have considered the possible implications of those changes at
greater length.
     Page 88: "The family are able to control to a certain
degree any publications concerning Kate and ensure that her career
is recorded with complete integrity." I don't wish to sound
callous, but Mr. Juby's text, which was unauthorized and
obviously not edited by anyone in the Bush family, and which
appeared with all the errors enumerated in this letter, is a manifest
contradiction of his statement above.
The unfortunate fact is that the family are _unable_
to control the publications concerning Kate, and have had only
very limited success in ensuring that her career is recorded
with "complete integrity." Witness not only Mr. Juby's
unauthorized text, but also Mr. Vermorel's two execrable
"books", Paul Kerton's empty biography, and the more recent _Kate_
_Bush:_A_Visual_Documentary_ by Mayes and Cann--not one of which was
ever "controlled" by the Bush family (more's the pity), except insofar
as their non-participation may be construed as "control".
     Also on pages 88-89 Mr. Juby remarks upon the difficulty
of obtaining interviews with Kate, and in general of breaking the
barrier of privacy which guards her personal life from the prying
eyes of journalists and biographers. As a matter of fact, similar
observations litter the pages of _The_Whole_Story_, creating an
almost bewildering impression of redundancy and sour grapes.
     Page 89 includes a fussy account of Kate's
corporate earnings over a five-year period. Such information is presumably
accessible through public records. I do wish, though, that Mr. Juby had
stopped to consider whether this kind of idle consideration of Kate's
personal fortune serves any useful purpose, and whether his standards
of propriety regarding his intrusion into the private life of his
subject should really be limited solely by their legality. Sidgwick
& Jackson, too, might weigh the importance and dignity of the artist
whom Mr. Juby contracted with them to write about, against the
kind of sleazy sifting through rubbish-bins which this sort of
documentation resembles.
     Page 91: "...Annie Lennox specifically incorporates
Kate's style of exaggerated vocals into her repertoire."
This statement, which is phrased so as to resemble fact, is actually
a personal opinion which I for one find absurd. Ms.
Lennox's vocal stylings are almost completely based upon Blues and
other American popular vocal traditions. If Mr. Juby has found a
statement by Ms. Lennox herself attesting to Kate's influence,
why not include it? The same criticism can be made of Mr. Juby's
likening of the vocal style of Susan "Sarendon" <sic> in _The_Rocky_
_Horror_Picture_Show_ to Kate's. I am unable to detect any hint of a
connection between the two styles, and I look in vain through Mr.
Juby's text for a justification of his peculiar analogy.
     From the bottom of page 92 through the end of page 94
Mr. Juby does nothing except repeat, almost verbatim, statements
which he has already made. I would have expected Sidgwick & Jackson
to have made at least some effort to put a rein on Mr. Juby's
chronic habit of padding his text.
     Page 96: "Just prior to this, Kate had recorded _Warm_and_
_Soothing_, which was also never released." In fact, as Mr. Juby would
soon have learned had he done some basic homework, _Warm_and_Soothing_
_was_ released, as the b-side of Kate's _December_Will_Be_Magic_Again_
single, in 1981.
     Page 97: "She appeared on two Radio BBC-1 programmes with
Paul Gambaccini where she played her music..." Kate didn't play _any_
of her own music on either of those programmes. She played only other
people's music--that was the point of the broadcasts.
     Also on page 97: "It is obvious that the Gabriel influence
was increasing, as her creative process was now including the
district <sic> use of the Fairlight." This statement
is unfortunately typical of music critics' view of Gabriel's
connection with Kate Bush. It implies that Kate's deep and longtime
fascination with the Fairlight CMI is somehow primarily a function of
Peter Gabriel's "increasing" influence. Actually Kate
began using the Fairlight during the _Never_For_Ever_
sessions, and its growing role in her composition and performance
techniques is more or less co-incidental with her infrequent
and rather minimal collaboration with Peter Gabriel. The influence
of Gabriel's own music on Kate's, though real,
has often been exaggerated.
     Page 101: In a paragraph detailing Kate's activities at
the end of 1981, Mr. Juby writes: "Finally, after an exhausting
interview lasting several days for a US production, _Profiles_in_Rock_,
Kate took a well-deserved break..." Several days, perhaps, but
not a whole year. The _Profile_in_Rock_ interview was filmed in December
_1980_, not 1981. This error appears in Peter FitzGerald-Morris's
chronology for the book _Kate_Bush_Complete_, which
is how I suppose Mr. Juby came to repeat it. Mr. Juby really
should have studied Peter's superlative fanzine _Homeground_, however,
wherein he very promptly acknowledged this mistake of dating in a list
of errata.
     Page 102: "Kate left for Jamaica...coming back to work with
Zaine Griff on _her_ tribute <my italics> to Kemp's _Flowers_." Either
Mr. Juby believes that the song was written by Kate, or he is under the
impression that Zaine Griff is a woman. The song _Flowers_ was not
written by Kate, but by Zaine Griff, who is a man. Mr. Juby
would have known this had he taken the trouble to listen to Mr. Griff's
album _Figures_, on which the song in question appears.
     Also on page 102, Mr. Juby describes Kate as "flushed and giggling"
on the occasion when her dress-strap broke during the Prince's Trust Gala
performance in 1981. This sounds very quaint, but it is
utterly false. In fact, the trifling incident is memorable primarily
because of the extraordinary sangfroid which Kate showed
during a small emergency on stage. There wasn't a hint of
a flush or a giggle.
     And again on page 115 Mr. Juby writes:
"...she came out from hiding flushed and girlishly
enthusiastic about her 'man'." This statement is distasteful
and--of course--completely untrue. I am surprised that Sidgwick &
Jackson were willing to go forward with it.
In fact Kate demonstrated a reserve and dignity on that
occasion which contrasted markedly from the churlish, leering
attitude of the Press.
     Page 104 (writing about _The_Dreaming_): "The
overuse of percussion and synthesized <sic>
becomes repetitive to the point of annoyance. She put a label
on the sleeve requesting that the album be played loud, but
the result of obeying her wish is a throbbing headache..."
     Remarks like these unwisely draw attention to Mr. Juby's shallow
understanding of Kate's work, and indeed, to his pedestrian
musical taste in general. He peppers his text with this kind of
nonsense more and more often as the book progresses.
     To wit (page 104): "It is an ambitious, even overproduced,
album..."; and (page 107): "She was just beginning to
grasp hold of the tools that the studio and various instruments
had to offer, and _The_Dreaming_ displays an
overabundance of stimuli; it is an overproduced album
with far too many external effects _marring_ <my italics> the clean
lines that shaped _Never_For_Ever_."
     When asked (in an issue of the _Kate_Bush_Club_Newsletter_),
"Do you mind if the press label the new album 'over-produced', or 'even
weirder'"? Kate replied: "I don't mind 'even weirder', but I don't like
'over-produced'." Her point was well taken. Kate's introduction of
production techniques into all aspects of her music-making process during
the recording of _The_Dreaming_ is a milestone
in modern musical history, and constitutes a very large
part of her art as a whole. The casual dismissal of _The_Dreaming_
as "over-produced" shows a woeful ignorance of the nature of the
work. Further, Mr. Juby's naive hankering for what he calls the "more
infantile and commercial _Never_For_Ever_" leads him to describe the
production of The_Dreaming_--a pervasive aspect of the album of which
Kate was by 1982 already a supreme technical master--as "marring" the
"clean lines" of her earlier work. With this word Mr. Juby reveals his
sad inability to appreciate not only the progression from _Never_For_
_Ever_ to _The_Dreaming_, but also the linearity of Kate's aesthetic
progress, beginning with her earliest recordings and continuing steadily
through _The_Ninth_Wave_ and _Experiment_IV_.
     Pages 104-105: "The lyrics range from utterly confusing to
obsessively dramatic..." In fact, every word in _The_Dreaming_
makes eminent sense within the context of the music--providing
the listener is willing to take a little time to study them.
     Page 105: "She claims _Get_Out_of_My_House_ and _Leave_It_Open_
are attempts to analyse very complex personal emotions, _but_ <my
italics> they are harsh and unmusical numbers, replete with slamming
doors and bawdy, hoarse hollering." Mr. Juby apparently feels that
the sounds which he so crudely describes are incompatible with Kate's
"claim". They are not, of course. Mr. Juby is simply unwilling or unable
to appreciate the musical expression of "complex personal emotions"
unless they are limited to soft, sweet sounds; whereas Kate has a broader
and more enlightened view of music's potential range of expression.
     Similarly, on page 106, Mr. Juby betrays the narrowness of
his musical taste and understanding by saying: "Perhaps the _most_
typical_ <my italics> Kate Bush numbers on the album are _All_The_Love_
and _Houdini_ where she uses her voice at its haunting best." As
though the success of Kate's expressive efforts could be measured
in direct proportion to the _volume_level_ of her songs!
Needless to say, these two songs are no more "typical"
than any of the others--Mr. Juby simply likes them better.
     Page 108: "_The_Dreaming_ is of an autobiographical nature..." In
fact Kate has said (more than once) that virtually _none_ of _The_
_Dreaming_ is autobiographical, except insofar as every artist's
work can be said to reflect aspects of their own consciousness.
     On pages 124-127 Mr. Juby repeatedly refers to the protagonist
of _The_Ninth_Wave_ as a man. In fact, if he had taken only minimal
care in listening to the music, he would have realized that the
protagonist is a _woman_. And if a study of the work had not set him
straight, a simple reading of Kate's highly detailed synopsis of the
story, published in an issue of the _Newsletter_, might have helped
him. She begins:
     "It's the trial of this girl who's in the
water; and all she wants to do is survive and keep her head above water."
     Page 126: Mr. Juby here deliberately misquotes Kate in order to
reconcile her statement with his own misconception. He quotes her as
saying (from the Tony Myatt interview): "The concept <of _Hello_Earth_>
had been in my head for a couple of months and I watched this film
called _Nos_Feratu_" <sic> "by Friedrich Murnau..." (Incidentally, the
title is again misspelled--as "Noseratu"--on page 76.) Kate's actual
words--unmistakable on the recording--were: "...this film called
_Nosferatu_, directed by Herzog..." Kate is referring, of course, to Werner
Herzog, and his _re-make_ of Murnau's silent film of the 1920s. It's a bad
mistake to  make, because again, Kate's fans might very well go to
some lengths to find the choir music in question in the soundtrack to
Murnau's film (which doesn't even _have_ any soundtrack!), rather than
seeing Herzog's movie, which features the relevant music prominently
in its final scenes.
     Page 128: Mr. Juby refers to a "disco beat that runs through most of
the A-side of the album." In fact the first and the last tracks of the
album employ strict _military_march_ tattoos as their rhythmic bases; the
second track uses stark, aggressive, cymbal-less rhythms with a 'cello
obligato--as far from "disco" as can be imagined; and the fourth
track's rhythm is slow, irregular and highly unsettling, in
reflection of the song's depiction of a psychotic murderer.
That leaves only one song on Side A, _The_Big_Sky_, the
rhythm of which follows a very loose, basic rock pattern
which could be described as "disco" only in the broadest
possible sense. Perhaps, more than Mr. Juby's laxitude with the
facts, it is his ill-considered remarks about musical style such as this
one on page 128 which have most annoyed his readers, and which have
succeeded in alienating so many of Kate's fans from his book. Mr.
Juby must realize that a thorough understanding of the music is
_paramount_ in any book which attempts to deal with an artist of
Kate's calibre and importance.
     Pages 129-130: "<_The_Big_Sky_> is less serious
than anything else on the album, portraying
a whimsical philandering mood in which she simply gazes at
and appreciates nature and the grandiose spectrum of the sky. It
probably isn't a bad thing to loosen up on imagery: to allow
music to take precedence at times over lyric can only emphasize
the rounded nature of her talents."
     These comments will astonish any serious fan of Kate's music.
(Not to mention anyone who takes the time to check "philandering"
in the dictionary--which I advise Mr. Juby to do!)
They demonstrate a failure on Mr. Juby's part to look
beyond the most superficial veneer of Kate's work--a failure which
undermines many other passages in his book. There are many subtle
undercurrents in the lyrics of this song which put the lie to Mr.
Juby's suggestion that their meaning is simple and
insubstantial. Beyond that, however, the implication that in general
Kate would be better off "allowing music to take precedence"
over lyrics is as ignorant as it is patronizing.
     Page 130: "The video for _Running_Up_That_Hill_
was considered too risque for the States (it featured her dancing
apparently too erotically) and thus her performance on _Wogan_
was used in its place for promotional purposes."
This statement (which incidentally was lifted almost verbatim from
Peter FitzGerald-Morris's chronology) invariably induces
surprised laughter from Kate's American fans. Too "erotic"
for MTV? The idea is frankly absurd.
     It is far more likely that MTV did not wish to air a video which
did not feature lip-synching. They therefore asked EMI to send along
an alternate clip with lip-synching, and Kate obliged by offering
her on-air performance from the _Wogan_ programme.
It will no doubt disappoint Mr. Juby to learn that there
is no Page Three innuendo to be gleaned from this trivial incident.
     Also on Page 130: Mr. Juby twice more refers to passages of
"strong percussion without cymbals" as clear signs of
Peter Gabriel's increasing influence. Mr. Juby evidently has
never taken the time to make a study of the recordings of Rolf
Harris or of Captain Beefheart, many of which offer early
examples of percussion similar to the kind he describes. Since
Kate has often referred to the influence which these artists'
work have had on her own recording techniques, such
percussive sounds in and of themselves are by no means necessarily
a sign of Mr. Gabriel's influence.
     I believe Mr. Juby is struck more by the similarity of _tuning_
in the two artists' drum-sounds from this period. (He should also have
acknowledged Phil Collins, the drummer on Gabriel's
third solo LP, and Hugh Padgham, the engineer, who were certainly
as instrumental as Gabriel himself in developing the distinctive
sound in question.)
     Page 131: "The video <for _Running_Up_That_Hill_> features
Kate and dancer Michael Hervieu, clad in grey,
simple leotard..." Actually the costumes are notable for
their differences from the "simple leotard" which Mr.
Juby describes. In actuality both Kate and Mr. Hervieu wear
_hakama_, the traditional culotte-like garments traditionally
worn in the practice of _kyudo_. This is a typically
Bushian subtextual reference to Kate's interest in
and respect for aspects of Eastern philosophy.
     Also Page 131 (in reference to Wilhelm Reich): "...who
was sent to prison for creating a rain machine." The "rain
machine," the primary alleged function of which was not to bring
rain but to control a theoretical property of nature known to Reich as
orgone, had in fact nothing at all to do with the psycho-analyst's
arrest and subsequent imprisonment. Reich fell afoul of U.S. law
for selling boxes, known as orgone accumulators, across state
lines. The experience of his son as a child is
limited by a child's understanding of the events--which is a
large part of Kate's theme in the song _Cloudbusting_. Such a
limited understanding should not have been shared by Kate's
own biographer, however.
     Page 132: Mr. Juby refers to Terry Gilliam as "Terry Guillia".
Also on the subject of name misspellings, Kate's dance instructor for
Running Up That Hill, Dyane Grey, is identified as Diana; Jon
Kelly is also called John Kelly; and on page 29 Gurdjieff
is spelled Gurdjiff. Conifer is referred to as Canifer.
Reference is made to both a Stewart Arnold and a Stewart Avon-Arnold.
On page 43 Leif Garrett's name is spelled Lief Garrett.
On page 65 Kate's brother John Carder Bush is referred to
as Jon. (Since there are many Johns and Jons connected with Kate's
career, it's important to keep them straight.)
On page 97 Paul Gambaccini's name is spelled Gambicini, and
on page 158 Donal Lunny's name is spelled Donnal.
     I hope you have the text on computer-disk, so that these problems
can be resolved easily.
     Page 133 (in reference to the song _Mother_Stands_For_Comfort_):
"If one is to go by her previous autobiographical themes, then
perhaps one could take this track to mean that her mother (her
family) will protect her from anything, good or bad, from herself
and from anyone who comes to get her." As attractive as such a
reading of the song is for Mr. Juby's biographical purposes,
there is absolutely no indication of any kind that an autobiographical
message was intended. As a matter of fact, there are scarcely more
than two or three songs in Kate's entire published oeuvre which
can definitely be said to have a significant, direct link with her own
personal experience, so unlike the usual confessional
singer-songwriter is she. She has _often_
said that she does not feel her own life experience merits
a place in her lyrics. Mr. Juby should take her at her word--especially
when considering a song like _Mother_Stands_For_Comfort_, which
deals explicitly with the subject of a psychopathological murderer!
     Page 137: "EMI were furious with Kate..." What is
Mr. Juby's source for this very implausible statement?
Certainly neither Kate nor EMI.
     Page 138: "_Under_the_Ivy_ sounds more like Kate's pre-_Dreaming_
recordings, with simplified lyrics..." If the lyrics are
"simplified", again Kate's fans invite Mr. Juby
to explain them. Their simple surface conceals a very mysterious
collection of riddles and double meanings which have fascinated and
confused her fans for nearly four years.
     Page 141: "To date, _The_Whole_Story_
still remains on the bestselling albums and the bestselling
compact discs lists." This information was already out of date
when the book first went to press.
     Page 142: "...Kate appears very young and quite unpolished in
_Wuthering_Heights_ and _The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_, while
the extraordinary successful <sic> _Cloudbusting_
illustrates her budding dramatic skills." Mr. Juby is
judging Kate's mime-and-dance performances of the late
1970s by the standards of a short film in which Kate acted
alongside Donald Sutherland in a very realistic dramatic
context. He therefore sees Kate's _acting_ in the earlier work
as "quite unpolished". If he had taken the time to make a careful study
of the narrative eloquence of Kate's _movements_ in those earlier
performances, rather than considering them only by the irrelevant
standards of film-acting, he would not have made such a criticism.
     These are the most glaring errors in Mr. Juby's book. You may
be inclined to treat some of them lightly. Given the importance of Mr.
Juby's subject, that would be a mistake.
     Before closing, I want to say again that I do not consider _The_
_Whole_Story_ to be entirely meritless. It contains much new and
interesting information. If Mr. Juby addresses all of the points I have
made above before re-printing the book, and if, in addition, he
can revise the overall text such that the contradictory and harmful
attitudes which pervade it are brought into some kind of
reconciliation, I am sure that his book will find many advocates.
     Finally, Ms. Hurrell, I take the liberty of reminding you of my
wish that my name should not appear in any revised edition of the book.
     Thank you very much for your interest in my comments regarding
_Kate_Bush:_The_Whole_Story_.
                                     Sincerely,



                                     Andrew Marvick