KT NEWS; mailbag

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: KT NEWS; mailbag

 From the September 16th issue of _Melody_Maker_:

                      KATE'S SENSUAL WORLD

     Kate Bush releases a new single, _The_Sensual_World_, on EMI
on September 18. Details are also emerging this week about her
forthcoming album, also titled _The_Sensual_World_, which is due
for release on October 16.
     The single, written and produced by Bush, is backed with
_Walk_Straight_Down_the_Middle_, a non-LP cut which may, however,
appear on the album's cassette and CD formats. The cassette single
is the same as the seven-inch, while the 12-inch and CD versions
contain an instrumental version of _The_Sensual_World_.
     Bush, on vocals and keyboards, is joined by boyfriend Del
Palmer on bass, Charlie Morgan (drums), Davey Spillane (Uillean
pipes), Donal Lunny (bouzouki), John Sheahan (fiddle) and Paddy
Bush on whips! The accompanying video was directed by Kate Bush
in tandem with Peter Richardson.
     Other musicians on the album--her first since _Hounds_of_Love_
four years ago--include Alan Stivell on Celtic harp and backing
vocals, Mick Karn, who supplies bass on one track, and Pink Floyd's
Dave Gilmour on guitar on two tracks--_Love_and_Anger_ and _Rocket's_
_Tail_. Another track, _This_Woman's_Work_, will be heard on a
film soundtrack <sic>, although details on this are so far not
being issued.

     Obviously someone goofed up on the last bit (about _This_
_Woman's_Work_): it should have read something like: "Another
track, _This_Woman's_Work_, has already been heard on a film
soundtrack (to the movie _She's_Having_a_Baby_)." IED suspects
the details that have not so far been issued on this are in
respect to whether the U.S. IRS-label soundtrack LP will be
released in the UK or not, or whether _This_Woman's_Work_ will
only be made available in England on Kate's own _The_Sensual_World_
album. It's pretty much certain, though, that _TWW_ will be taking
up space on _TSW_.
     Mick Karn, erstwhile fretless bass-player for the now-long-defunct
band Japan, has played with Kate once before--on bass during Kate's
live performance of _The_Wedding_List_ at the 1981 Prince's Trust
Gala concert. IED is especially pleased to learn that these two
have collaborated again.


 > From: timelord%TARDIS.CS.ED.AC.UK@mitvma.mit.edu
 > Subject:    gaffa
 >
 > Gaffa (or more formally, "gaffa tape") is a wide sticky tape, usually black
 > black or green...<Further description deleted.)...Mystery solved?
 >
 > -- Rick

     In a word: no. There's a lot more to Kate's "Gaffa" than just the
surface meaning.

 >tought about what a measly few dollars in postage could do for our collective
 >cause. If anyone could post the addresses of a few central points of contact
 >(ie. CBS Records, MTV, etc), I'm sure at least a couple of us would spend the
 >25 cents to let them know how we feel about Kate.  I plan to contact the Post

     OK. IED will try to rustle up some addresses for you folks, though
frankly he was hoping people could find the motivation to dig up a few
addresses for themselves just this once. Look out for some addresses
in Love-Hounds soon.

 > >Thematically, the song (Oh To Be In Love) seems to IED to be very
 > >similar to _Hounds_of_Love_, in that both seem to be about having
 > >fears of or misgivings about love.

 >   Interesting.  I would consider them almost opposite of each other --
 >Oh To Be In Love expressing the desire for the perfect love, and
 >Hounds Of Love expressing the desire to run from anything resembling
 >love.

     Well, IED doesn't see _Oh_To_Be_in_Love_ that way at all. It's
obviously about the seductive power of romantic love, but the refrain
"Oh to be in love--and never _get_out_ again" is interpreted by IED
as a "kicker": not "never fall out of love again" but "never _get_
out". Love is great and everything--but it's also a _trap_ to be
wary of. That's IED's reading, anyway, and judging from the theme of
_Hounds_of_Love_, we know such an attitude toward romantic love is
quite consistent with Kate's views on the subject, so it doesn't seem
far-fetched at all. Especially when one notices that, if she _doesn't_
mean to be making that last line of the refrain a "punchline", so to
speak, then the whole song is nothing more than a typical paean to
love--something Kate has _never_ written in her life, not without
at least some kind of anomalous accompanying theme.

 >   Speaking of which, anyone got any theories about the lines:
 >
 >"Take my (your) shoes off and throw them in the lake,
 > and I'll be two steps on the water"

     Our Pseudo-Moderator, !>oug Alan, got an answer out of Kate for this
question during his interview of November '85. Here is
the exchange:

 !>oug: In the song _Hounds_of_Love_, what do you mean by the line
"I'll be two steps on the water," other than a way of throwing off
the scent of hounds, or whatever, by running through water. But
why "two steps"? <Notice how !>oug, true to type, provides his own
self-approved interpretation--quite illogical, too--as a given, then
asks Kate to explain a second point as though she agrees with his first
point already?>

 Kate: Because two steps is a progression. One step could possibly
mean you go forward and then you come back again. I think "two steps"
suggests that you intend to go forward.

 Doug: But why not "three steps"?

 Kate: It could have been three steps--it could have been ten,but
"two steps" sounds better, I thought, when I wrote the song.

 Doug: Okay.

    <Since Kate clearly explains that the steps are a symbol for the
character's determination to _advance_and_face_ her feelings--to
plunge into the danger, so to speak--!>oug's notion about the steps
being a way to _evade_ the hounds <love> is obviously wrong. But since
he didn't even _ask_ her whether his idea was correct or not, she
naturally said nothing about it.>

 >   Of course, if ever asked, Kate would probably say - "Well, umm, it
 >doesn't mean much of anything, it just sort of fit the music..."
 >
 >-- Douglas MacGowan
 >   MACGOWAN@NIC.DDN.MIL

     As you have read, she does basically say this was the reason for
the choice of two steps over three or more. But she also explains her
real reason for choosing two over one. Remember, also, that by this
stage in !>oug's interview, Kate had basically started saying "no,
there was no real reason" in answer to every weird question he was
asking her. But the song definitely follows the character from her
doubts and fears, and her attempt to escape love, to the moment where
she makes a decision to deal with those fears, and stop running away.
This is borne out very explicitly in the video, as well: in the first
encounter the man links him to her with his handcuffs and drags her
along with him. But in the final scene it is the woman's hands that
_re-attach_ the cuffs to both her and his wrists, and it is _she_ who
smilingly leads them in their final escape.

 >>   P.P.S.: About Jim A.'s request for a biography of Kate--Naturally, you
 >>are to disregard the moronic crap someone posted about your query yester-
 >>day.
 >
 >  I assume you're referring to Mr. Maroney's send-up.  While I thought it
 >a little too typical of the old-hand/new-hand attitude so prevalent on
 >the net, I also found it pretty funny.  Maroney may be an asshole at times,
 >but he's *our* asshole, by KaTe!
 >     Adios.
 >
 >-- Steve Williams               ...!cs.utexas.edu!halley!steve

     Yeah, that may be so, Steve. But then, you wouldn't have wanted
IED to admit Tim was capable of being funny, would you? After all,
Tim may be *our* asshole, but IED is *our* curmudgeon.

-- Andrew Marvick