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[rael@mvuxe.att.com (C Daniel Vanevic)]

Path: cbnews!rael
From: rael@cbnews.ATT.COM (c.daniel.vanevic)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa
Subject: NPR's Kate Bush's "The Sensual World" Article
Date: 26 Oct 89 01:28:58 GMT
Reply-To: rael@cbnews.ATT.COM (c.daniel.vanevic,54131,mv,3b039,508 960 6346)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 89


Love-Hounds,

   Here's a transcription of an article on "The Sensual World" that National
Public Radio aired in "All Things Considered" today (10/25).  Since a lot of
people are posting interviews, I figured I should do my part.  Oh, and before
I forget, I'm glad to hear that Northern California Love-Hounds have made it
OK through the earthquake (at least as far as I now ... I'm 50 or so articles
behind).


NPR's article follows ...

NPR:  Hers is a voice that people either love or they don't. A
distinctive, powerful _silvery_ sound.  The voice of Kate Bush.
She's just released her sixth album.  It's called "The Sensual
World".  Here to talk with us about it is Anthony DeCurtis (sp?),
senior writer at Rolling Stone.

NPR:  Now, the title song "The Sensual World" is aptly named.  It's
layers upon layers of sounds which make it sensual.

ADC:  Exactly.  One of the things that Kate Bush does on "The Sensual
World" is she uses Uillean Pipes and the Bouzouki, which is kind of a
Greek mandolin.  Kind of folk instruments that she weaves into essentially
a song that's based on Molly Bloom's soliloquy (sp?) at the end of James
Joyce's "Ulysses".  That's very characteristic on her part.  She's
kind of a highly literate romantic with a capital "R".  Her first
record was called "Wuthering Heights".  So, in "The Sensual World" we
get this kind of very layered, highly literary, very internal kind
of world of womanly emotions and feelings and sensuality.

NPR:  And that refrain that we get from "Ulysses": "yes, yes, yes"

    < portion of TSW is played >

NPR:  You mentioned Davey Spillane's Uillean Pipes, Donal Lunny on
Bouzouki.  These are traditional Irish musicians.  It's a sort of a
fad, I guess now, to use international musicians on albums.  Like
Paul Simon and his African musicians.  On this one she has a trio of
Bulgarian women singers: "The Trio Bulgarka", and I must say that
it's a really beautiful combination with her voice on, well ... the
song "Rocket's Tail" for example.

    < portion of RT is played >

ADC:  It is a bit of a fad to use foreign musicians, musicians from
other countries.  But Kate Bush does it, I think, with a great deal of
appropriateness and it's something that works very well.  And "The
Trio Bulgarka", again ... you know ... from Bulgaria, lend a kind of
_keening_ quality to "Rocket's Tail", which is a song that is
characteristic of what Bush does in that it seems, in a way, to
interweave almost ... you know ... rocket technology and witchcraft
as this very sort of modern contemporary feel to it at the same time
as there is this older folkloric (sp?), almost kind of mystical feel.
In addition to "Trio Bulgarka" we have Dave Gilmour on guitar. 
Gilmour is the guitarist for "Pink Floyd" who discovered Kate Bush
when she was 16 years old in 1977 and ... you know ... along with
some of these other more exotic elements, there's a strong electric
guitar presence that Gilmour provides on "Rocket's Tail".

    < Gilmour's RT guitar solo blasts out >

NPR:  Anthony DeCurtis ... Kate Bush has a big following in England.
She's sort of a _cult_ figure here.  I mean, she does have her fans,
but it's not a large group of people on this side of the Atlantic.
Why do you think that is?

ADC:  There are a couple of factors, I think, that contribute to
that.  One is that ... there is a very strong Anglo-Irish _folk_ quality
to her music that's a little difficult to translate here in the US.
But I think the main issue is: Kate Bush doesn't like to travel.  She's
afraid of flying and I think that that limits her audience.  A third
factor is: her music doesn't sound like what you hear on commercial radio
and ... you know ... you just don't hear those "pumping beats" that
characterize most of what you hear on pop radio and so it's hard for
her to find a place to get heard.  If Madonna say is "the material girl",
we might think of Kate Bush as "the ethereal girl".

    < "Never Be Mine" starts playing >

NPR:  Anthony DeCurtis is a senior writer at Rolling Stone.  He
spoke with us about Kate Bush's newest album: "The Sensual World".

    < NBM continues playing through NPR's ATC closing credits >


					Dan Vanevic
					rael@cbnews.ATT.COM
"I press Execute"