MisK.

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: MisK.

S  H  E     M  A  Y     B  E     H  A  V  I  N  G     A     T  O  U  R  !

     Dave Steiner: A sincere thankyou for your amazing tidbit
of information re the possibility of Kate touring. This is the
kind of timely information that IED most appreciates about
Love-Hounds. IED would never have learned about Fish's comment
without Dave's eagle-eye reporting. And ISN'T IT AMAZING?? KATE
MIGHT BE PLANNING A TOUR AFTER ALL!
     Nothing would explain the extraordinary (even by Bushian
standards) delay between _HoL_ and KBVI better than the possibility
that Kate has been preparing for the Tour of Life II. This is fantastic!
Yikes. IED had better calm down and change the subject.
     Again, IED wasn't making himself clear, judging by the nature
of people's comments. He never meant to say (nor, in fact, _did_ he
say) either that Kate was the first to produce her own music or that
she was the first to use the Fairlight CMI! Nor did he mean to say
(or say) that Kate was performing "alchemy" by the mere use of
synthesizers! Nor did he mean to say (or say) that Kate used _only_
synthesizers (unlike much of Tangerine Dream's music, which was
an example one L-H gave). It should go without saying that none of
those propositions is true. IED doesn't believe that these misunder-
standings would have arisen had readers paid closer attention to
IED's words--but on the other hand IED will admit that his words
are not of a type that inspires people to read them with excessive
care. They're more likely to make people hit the 'scroll down' key
with a vengeance. So no offense is taken.
     About the comparison with Wagner. Yes, in some respects Kate's
efforts are similar to Wagner's, though IED would never dream of
trying to suggest that any kind of qualitative comparison between
these two artists' work is warranted. The technical differences
between the two musicians' methods are enormous, however. That's
one reason why IED used the term "modern musical history" (by which
he had post-WWII music vaguely in mind). Anyway, the likeness
of Kate's work to Wagner's is more sensible when considering her
overall performance concepts of her music--either the stage shows or
the videos, and perhaps a few of the television lip-synch performances.
IED isn't so sure that Wagner's orchestration techniques--the actual
sonic "fingerprints" of his music--are in themselves the result of
quite the same attitude that IED sees behind Kate's creation of
_The_Dreaming_. But again, it's all subjective, and all a matter
of degree.
     He also wants to reiterate that he was only stating a very
personal view of how Kate fits into musical history. He realizes
that it's relatively easy to provide examples of music which, at
least by objective comparison, seem to have preceded Kate's in terms
of the innovative approach which IED has ascribed to Kate's work.
Ah, but if only you could all make such comparisons after listening
through IED's hopelessly Kate-obsessed ears! There'd be no argument.
     IED honestly didn't want to start a fight over this nebulous
question as to which artist was first with this or that innovation, much
less which artist is "better or worse". That's been done in this
group in the past, and IED still smarts from the tanning he got
for sticking to his guns. Also, his comments about musical alchemy
were not intended to stand as an intellectually defensible argument.
They were merely impassioned expressions of IED's more or less spiritual
conviKTions. That's why they were admittedly vulnerable to rebuttal.
     IED is not quoting Love-Hounds when he places certain characters'
names in quotation marks. But you're right--he shouldn't really do
that, it's not nice.
     Deb Wentorf: far from attacking your summary of _The_Wedding_List_,
IED greatly admired it. Absolutely correct, so far as IED knows.
Perhaps it's worth adding that the story behind the song is based,
in part, at least, on Francois Truffaut's film _La_Mariee
_etait_en_noir_ (_The_Bride_Wore_Black_), which is something
of a tribute to Hitchcock by the French director. It stars
Jeanne Moreau, and in it there is one scene which Kate copies almost
frame-for-frame in her video for _The_Wedding_List_: the part where
the bridegroom (Anthony Van Laast) is shot, and falls on his back on
the stairs, and the bride (Moreau/Kate) drops down by his side. However,
in Kate's story the setting is changed from present-day to the Old
West.
     Nou: Do you mean you had personal encounters with Yanka Rupkina
_and_ an interpreter of Bulgarian, and yet you didn't ask them
dozens of prying questions about the Trio's experience of working with
Kate Bush???

-- Andrew Marvick (K4735r)