Mailbag

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick
 Subject: Mailbag

     Jessica wrote asking about the possibility of an East Coast
Katemas party, which reminded IED to pass on a message given him
by Boston-area Love-Hound Joe Turner when Joe was visiting L.A.
last week. He told IED to announce that he _would_ host a Katemas
party at his home on Katemas. So now it's up to you.

 >   Me! Me! I happen to be on this coast this year, so hell yes I'll go.
 >Let me know if you could use another laserdisc player.
 >   cogito, ergo KaTe
 >
 >-- dave

     Well, well! IED may actually make the acquaintance of veteran
Love-Hound KorrespondenT Dave Hsu after all this time. What's going
on here? First Joe Turner, now Dave...Are all you East Coast Katefans
finally coming to your senses? No, Dave, one laser-disk player will
be enough. There don't look to be many people at this party. It may
end up being just you and IED.
     About a party: Things are getting kind of confusing. IED will not
be able to visit Santa Cruz or anywhere near there this Katemas. There-
fore, IED can only reiterate his offer to host a party for anyone who
really wants to see, hear and talk Kate Bush for an evening, at his
home in West Los Angeles. It begins to look as though Tracy will be
hosting her own party in S. Cruz instead of joining IED's in L.A. (and
IED doesn't blame her, it's not a simple little drive to make for
one evening's chat). So what of the group who were considering
car-pooling down from the north? Any progress?
     At this point it appears that the number of attendees will
be minimal this year. For one thing IED has not made up or sent
out any invitations to non-KompuTerized fans, as he did on past
occasions. So if anyone wants to show up, just let IED know your
intentions by July 25 or so, ok?

 >   Thankyou for piqueing my interest, Love-Hounds! As my budget
 >allows, (or my desire overcomes such constraints), I will wish to
 >try others. Any suggestions for an album that shows KT in a contrasting
 >style or mood? Also, I dont have access to the archives, as far as
 >I know- who else has done covers of her material? Excuse my ignorance,
 >please.
 >
 >-- Tom Coleman

     Well, the first two albums are in about as contrasting a mood
from _The_Dreaming_'s as any two albums can be. _Hounds_of_Love_
is perhaps a bit closer to _The_Dreaming_, overall, than it is
to the first two albums. As for _Never_For_Ever_, it's hard to
classify. Actually, it's not easy to classify any of them, so
disregard this paragraph.
     Cover versions? There have been surprisingly few over the years,
considering how well known Kate is in Europe. Ray Shell did a cover
of _Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_ with Kate on backing vocals in 1979.
It was just a single, and IED has never heard it. He has also never heard
of Ray Shell anywhere before or since. Then there was Pat Benatar's
_Wuthering_Heights_. Julie Covington (of _Don't_Cry_For_Me_Argentina_
fame), who had been a longtime friend of the Bush family, recorded
a version of _The_Kick_Inside_ which turns the song into a rather
conventional kind of American folkrock-tinged ballad. And there was
an abysmal Reggae-inflected _Wuthering_Heights_ around 1981, group
unknown by IED, and not recommended. Then there were the parodies:
Faith Brown did very funny (because painfully accurate, though
exaggerated) versions of _Wuthering_Heights_ and _Wow_, and Pauline
Yates (or is IED getting her name mixed up, |>oug?) did an original
song called _The_Leotard_Song_ which is a pastiche of several Kate-ian
chord progressions and instrumental cadences which suggest some of
the early hits (it was done about 1980), and which has some quite
witty (though undeservedly cruel) lines in it. Finally, Hue and Cry
recently put out a cover of _The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_
as a b-side to a recent single. IED hasn't heard it.
     Yes, Andy Gough, IED had heard of Kate's song from _Castaway_,
as well as its inclusion in Showtime's schedule. This does not mean
your notice wasn't much appreciated, however. Actually the version
of the song which is heard at the opening of the Nicholas Roeg
film is cut in two places, to make it fit the length of the credits
sequence. The full-length track appeared on a soundtrack album
which became available in England last year (for a brief period,
anyway). It came out only on cassette and vinyl, so far as IED has
ever been able to ascertain. It is kind of hard to find these days,
especially in the U.S., but check your best soundtrack importer.
     The movie is very good, too.

 >Does the logo appear in any other videos? I just started
 >looking on the album covers as IED suggested, and couldn't find the logo on
 >_Lionheart_. I'll have to look a little harder I guess. _The_Kick_Inside_ was
 >easy enough.
 >
 >-- Mike

     _Lionheart's_ is a bit of a purloined letter, apparently.
The logo does appear prominently in _The_Big_Sky_ video,
on the flags that are carried around in the latter part.
(It is a little hard to recognize because it's seen
on both sides of each flag, and the flags' translucence
makes for a kind of mirror, double-image of the insignia.)

 > Has anyone ever heard any of Enya's
 > early albums (I have heard of two)
 > I haven't however been able to find them.
 > Someone once saw them at Tower but I couldn't
 > find them there.  Anyone have any info?
 >
 > --Ken

     Enya's first long piece of music was the soundtrack to the
film _The_Frog_Prince_, which IED has never heard of an album for.
(If anyone has information about the existence of Enya's
soundtrack album for _The_Frog_Prince_, please impart it to him!)
After that she did the soundtrack for a BBC television series called
_The_Celts_. That soundtrack has been released in the U.S., and is
even available on CD domestically. It is sometimes simply called
_Enya_. Also, although Enya loves to claim that she never listens
to anyone's music and has no influences at all (which is absurd),
the cover of _The_Celts_ is extremely similar to Kate's cover for
_Hounds_of_Love_. It shows Enya kneeling, with two wolves flanking
her. Those who remember Kate's and John Carder Bush's descriptions
of the difficult sessions they had with Bonnie and Clyde (the
Weimeraners on the cover of _HoL_) will understand why Enya's
wolves are stuffed rather than live. But no-one will ever convince
IED that _HoL_'s cover didn't directly influence Enya's. The photo
is even placed in the center of a blank white field, as in _HoL_.

 > Since the rest of his typically long-winded and flatulent posting is at
 > the same microcephalic level, I see no reason to respond to it in
 > full.  (Or should I really explain in full the meaning of an idiom like
 > "Kate can't dance", explaining as if to a child that it does not mean
 > she can't pick up her feet, but that she is lacking the talent
 > generally considered neccessary to be a professional performer?  What
 > would be the point of responding to such moronic drivel?)
 >
 >-- Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

     Well, IED can understand Tim's annoyance, since IED did fail to
notice his "smiley" symbol--for which he has already abjectly apologized.
     How this mistake on IED's part (after all an understandable one,
given Tim's recent improbable remarks about the _Hammersmith_ CD being
legitimate) negates his carefully composed and amply supported
response to Tim's inflammatory, ill-considered criticism of Kate's
live performances is not clear. The fact is that the only remark
to have appeared thus far in the recent series of exchanges between
IED and Tim Maroney which could _accurately_ be described as "moronic
drivel" is Tim's statement that "Kate can't act, she can't dance,
and she certainly can't choreograph." IED has already gone to far
more trouble than such nonsense merits to show exactly how
foolish these statements are.

 >Could some eKsperT ouT There give The resT of us some hinTs as To where The
 >oTher logos may be found?

     IED doesn't want to give anything away, but in regard to _Never_For_
_Ever_'s KT symbol, you might try contemplating a certain Katemas item
which has been the subject of some discussion in Love-Hounds recently...

 >i resist the temptation to
 >interpret _wow_ as KaTe's reflections on her own career
 >("we're all alone on the stage tonite, we've been told
 >we're not afraid of you..."); but rather, an insightful
 >look from an actor's perspective (KaTe being the mistress of
 >empathy that she is).

     A perfect example, in fact. Kate has acknowledged that _Wow_
is not about her, but about (at least in part) a homosexual
actor. Of course, there is much in the lyrics which describes
experiences Kate herself had had by that time, so in a very general
way it could be called autobiographical. Not only the description
of the stage performance, but the chorus with all the "wows" and
"amazings" and "incredibles". By mid-1978 the British public had
noticed that Kate tended to pepper her own conversation with these
three words, and it had even become something of a joke at her
expense. Kate's use of it in the context of the song could be seen
as a way of poking fun at herself. However, as time wore on and
the press still made fun of her use of these words (which she
was using, in fact, less and less), Kate eventually became
a bit defensive about such remarks. No one really ever took the
time to consider the serious philosophy that had created this
unusual quirk in Kate's vocabulary. IED finds it extemely interesting
and important.

 >and what can i say about _oh england my lionheart_?  i only
 >know a lump forms in my throat when i hear it.  i haven't been
 >able to analyze it any further than that.  has anyone else
 >experienced this response?

     Absolutely. IED has. He'll never forget the day _Lionheart_
finally showed up in the import bin at Moby Disc Records in Sherman Oaks,
California in November, 1978. A lot of criticism (some of it
justified) has been leveled at the MOR-ish sound of _Lionheart_
in subsequent years, and Kate has said some pretty disparaging
things about the album herself (though she has also defended some
things about it, too). But there are still some devastating moments
on that album, and it's not just the songs themselves. Yes, the produc-
tion is tame, the arrangements are somehow a little too safe, etc. But
there's still an atmosphere and a _sound_ that the term "MOR" doesn't
encompass. _Lionheart_ may be the black sheep of the family, perhaps,
but it possesses its own undeniable magic.

 >someone told me once that _lionheart_ is the collection of songs
 >that were rejected for TKI.  is this true?  hard to believe these
 >are rejects of Any kind...

     All but a couple were indeed older songs which had not been
included on _The_Kick_Inside_. But remember that Kate had written
(and recorded solo-piano demo versions of) dozens and dozens--
perhaps more than _200_--songs prior to recording _The_Kick_Inside_,
and if you hear the 22 demos that have started to leak out, you'll
realize that "reject" is a highly misleading term. With equivalent
production values any of the 22 songs in the unreleased collection
could have made as strong an entry as anything on _TKI_ or _Lionheart_.
The fact is _TKI_ could have been a _triple_ album without any
degradation in quality. That could probably be said of any of Kate's
subsequent albums, too.

-- Andrew Marvick