MisK.

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick
 Subject: MisK.

     Sorry to hear of all Laura LaGassa's problems, and of course
she is forgiven for half-listening to Kate under the circumstances.
Only thing is, Kate is not usually very soothing background music...

 >Gad, IED, Sigue Sigue Sputnik did the exact same thing on their last
 >album and for their US 12" of "Love Missile F1-11", and I really doubt
 >than likely Kate was just worried about the nebulous nature of
 >copyright law as it regards sampling and didn't want to get into any
 >legal trouble . . .

 >I hate to be such a spoilsport, but it was probably done for the very
 >mundane reason of copyright infringment. Technically, all these...
 >
 >a lot of added noise, so maybe she was just trying to be Hi-Fi kind of
 >person...?

     IED thought of this too, of course, but decided that it was
very unlikely that copyright was a serious motivating factor in
using two lines from an old early-1950s film which is anyway now in the
public domain. Also, she has used other people's stuff in the
past, too, without actual copyright permission (the BBC speech
about A-bombs in _Breathing_, the chorale in _Hello_Earth_).
     Jon's second suggestion seems a good deal more likely, although
if Kate had wanted to she could probably have simply processed the
original enough to get rid of the slight hiss. On the laser-disk of
the movie the sound was excellent, with virtually no hiss.
     For these reasons, it seems almost as though she re-recorded
the thing simply to make it more her own work. (Anyway, IED was joking
when he said it was a reason for worship and reverence. Since it
apparently needs to be spelled out for this crowd, IED is _not_
_serious_ when he describes Kate Bush as God.)

 >>     The sheets are soaked by your tiny fish.

 >This has got to be the most embarrassing lyric Kate has ever written.
 >Far worse than "thighs like marshmallow" and it's also biologically
 >incorrect.

     IED totally disagrees with you about this one, Jon. Not only
does he see nothing "embarrassing" about those lines from _The_Craft_
of_Life_ and _In_the_Warm_Room_), he actually considers those
lines to be among Kate's most remarkable and powerful. Such explicit yet
simultaneously sensitive references to sex are extremely uncommon in
vocal music of any era, and they're even _more_ uncommon in the work of
_female_ popular musicians. Though they may be excruciatingly direct,
they are not the least bit trite. These lines may "embarrass" you,
but IED thinks they're totally wonderful. Perhaps your dedication to
the exigencies of the scientific process is what makes these images
(which are _obviously_ poetic and not subject to standards of "biological"
correctness!) so unpalatable to you, Jon. If so, it's too bad.

-- Andrew Marvick