Tape in Hand

[halley!halley.mp3!steve@cs.utexas.edu (Steve Williams)]

This was written and submitted several days ago but never appeared.
Part of it is out of date, but my recommendation for the tape and
trivial question for IED are not, so I'm reposting.

Please excuse the portions of this that are of interest only to IED,
but because some of what I wrote might be of interest to the group at
large I decided to just post the thing.  A true Love-Hound will read
through megabytes of fluff to glean a few new bits of KTrivia.
[As some of IED's longer postings prove :-)].

In a recent article IED wrote:
>                                         He is himself amazed that this
>group numbers so few truly serious enthusiasts of Kate Bush's work. It
>is a depressing but unignorable fact that the large majority of the
>readers/contributors to Love-Hounds are not even sufficiently involved
>in the One True God to go to the minimal trouble of packing off an
>order for these recordings.

Some of us are just lazy.  Some of us have already found copies of the tape.
In my case it's both.  I *have* a copy of the tape (I'm listening to it now)
but I still intend to send IED the money/envelope for a copy of his tape.
Partly because I want to hear whatever else IED adds to the tape, partly
because I'm curious about possible content/quality differences between
IED's tape and the one I've got.

In fact, IED, the friend in Northern CA who found/copied the tape for me
has also already mailed you a copy of his tape for your comparision.
He sent it obligation-free, of course, but he mentioned to me that he
hoped you might send him one of your dups when they're made.

Now, about the tape.  It's as good (or better) than IED described.
Some of the songs are truly wonderful.  Some are even better than that!
And for those concerned about sound quality -- even though my tape is
a copy of a copy of who-knows-what generation the sound is completely
acceptable.  Better than just acceptable.  As good as some other Kate
boots (vinyl, tapes) I've heard.  If you're a Love-Hound, YOU WANT THIS TAPE!

Finally, a question for IED about the tape.  At the end of Hammer Horror,
in the runout of the last word and piano note, I very distinctly hear
a couple of seconds of birds chirping in the background, as if outside
a window during the recording.  After I mentioned this to the guy who
found the tape, he heard it, too.  You may need to listen on headphones
or at max volume in a quiet room, but there's something there.  This has
nothing to do with the music, of course, but if true it does say 
say something (charming) about the recording session.

One thing that this tape does is make me wish Kate would record such
an album today.  That is, just her voice, her songs, and a piano.
Not in *place* of her annual [ :-) ] album release, but in addition.
Something for herself and her devotees.

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Steve Williams               ...!cs.utexas.edu!halley!steve
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