Kate Bush vs. the Dutch Magazine 'Oor' [long]

[leo@duttnph.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart)]

A month or so ago, I posted a translation of an article in a Dutch 
music magazine, in which Kate Bush was accused of falsely taking 
writing credit for the song 'The Sensual World', and ... oh heck, 
I'll repeat the translation further on in this posting. I didn't get 
much response from the Love-Hounds, except - of course - for IED, or 
rather Andrew Maverick, who (at my suggestion) composed a letter, 
which I subsequently send to the editors of the magazine. I 
had already forgotten about it when a few days ago I got a reply 
from the journalist who wrote the original article. 
Just for completeness' sake, I thought it might be interesting to 
let this group know the final outcome of this matter. I will now 
give, in order, my translation of the original article, IED's 
letter, and the translation of the reply from the original author 
(which is addressed to me, because I put a brief explaining note 
along with IED's English letter). All translation errors are, of 
course, mine:


* JAN LIBBENGA's ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN MUSIC MAGAZINE 'OOR' *

BUSH FRAUD ?    [In Dutch: 'Bush Bedrog?', a nice alliteration] 

'The Sensual World' is the name of the new single by Kate Bush. Although, 
'new'? I have known the melody which her accompanist Davy Spillane plays in 
this song on bagpipes for years. 
In the fall of 1985 I was going to interview Kate Bush in England. Because 
she then already had shown her love for (Irish) folk music, I had brought 
a cassette of my folk favourites. The interview first was cancelled, but 
after a few days La Bush called me after all at home (collect). The 
interview was never published (too thin), but I did send her the tape 
afterwards. On that tape was the from Yugoslavian Macedonia originating 
'Antice, dzanam, Dusice', performed by the Haagse [i.e. from The Hague] 
ensemble Calgija, conducted by etnomusicologist Wouter Swets. Originally 
a song about a poor girl who had to take care of her younger sister, and 
therefore couldn't get a husband; in Swets' (instrumental) version almost 
as beautiful as 'Mother Nature's Song' by the Beatles. According to the 
booklet of the LP and CD 'The Sensual World' the title song was written by 
La Bush herself: not true. Was this traditional melody suggested to her 
by the Trio Bulgarka, guests on the album, or did my cassette reach her 
home address in Kent, after all?  


* IED'S REPLY TO THE MAGAZINE *

     In regard to Mr. Libbenga's accusation that the English recording
artist Kate Bush was deceitful in failing to identify the traditional
source of a part of her recent record, "The Sensual World": I would like
to make several important points.
     First, Mr. Libbenga seems to have been
primarily upset because he had not received any personal
credit on Ms. Bush's album, even though he himself apparently did
nothing more than make her aware of a piece of traditional
Macedonian folk music. Second, Ms. Bush has in fact been more than
forthcoming about the traditional elements in the record--in a
recent interview in England's music journal "New Musical Express"
she expressly identifies the record's counter-melody as a Macedonian
folk tune. Third, Ms. Bush's use of this folk music (which is, of
course, entirely in the public domain) occupies a minimal role in the
overall effect of her recording: only the most basic melodic cell
is retained from the Macedonian source, and this is confined to an
instrumental countermelody which never assumes dominance over--and
in fact is drastically altered to accomodate--Ms. Bush's original
vocal melody-line. And as if these substantive changes to the music
were not themselves enough to explain the crediting of the recording to
Ms. Bush, she re-arranged the Yugoslavian motif for a unique
combination of Irish, Greek and electronic instruments.
     Finally, I would like to point out that, in an article written
by Ms. Bush's brother Paddy and published (before Mr. Libbenga's
sour-toned, petty article ever went to press) in the most recent
issue of the "Kate Bush Club Newsletter", a special appeal was made
to the "Dutch person" who had sent Ms. Bush the tape of the original
Macedonian melody to let them know his identity, so that they could
give him credit for the service he did them. It seems that Mr. Libbenga
never properly identified himself to the Bush family in the first
place!
     Taking these facts into account--and considering that Ms. Bush
has always been scrupulously honest and generous in crediting any
and all musicians and sources for their help in creating her own
indisputibly original and masterful music--I think Mr. Libbenga
ought to be ashamed of himself for having accused this supremely
honourable British musician of deceit. He owes Ms. Bush an apology.
 
-- Andrew Marvick
 

* JAN LIBBENGA'S LETTER TO ME *

Dear Leo,

Thanks for sending the reactions of Andrew Maverick from Los 
Angeles. I should answer his letter personally, but I get the 
impression that he has never read the article in question himself 
and that you must have translated it (I am assuming that you are 
corresponding Bush-fans).

My article got somewhat of a wry after-taste because an editor put 
"Fraud?" above it, much against my wishes (I only saw it after the 
issue had been printed). Read the article without that heading and 
it gets a lot more friendly.

Strictly speaking it should have been mentioned on the album that 
the melody originated with the group Calgija. The melody in question 
is *not* in the 'public domain' as your acquaintance suggests, but 
is an instrumental interpretation of a vocal (!) piece by Wouter 
Swets from The Hague. Copyright exists just as much for arrangements 
of folk music. The arrangement has been used un-altered (I only 
noticed this later). This is not necessarily 'negligence' on the 
part of Kate Bush; the responsibility belongs in the first place 
with her record company EMI.

Meanwhile, I now know about the Kate Bush Club Newsletter, and there 
has been contact with the management. Accompanying my cassette was a 
letter (send via EMI, as requested by Kate Bush) and they lost it. 
That I did not receive 'credit' on the record is not important, if 
you had read (and translated) my article well, you would have seen 
that I leave it open from whom she got the melody. It was not out of 
spite, but out of pure astonishment that I wrote the article. In 
short: I was pleasantly surprised, and play 'The Sensual World' with 
joy.

Greetings,

Jan Libbenga


* SOME FINAL COMMENTS OF MY OWN *

- I think this is a *very* reasonable letter. What he says makes 
perfectly good sense to me, and does not ring false. In fact, it was 
a nice surprise to actually receive a reply from 'the man himself', 
because I was expecting nothing more than a form letter.

- He only allows himself one sly dig at the end: "If you had read 
(and translated) the article well...". I can say nothing else than 
that he is right, and very smart as well: IED indeed did *not* see 
the original translation. At first he had written a longer and much 
more vicious letter, purely based on a verbal account someone gave 
him of the article  (we all know how IED gets when Kate is done an 
injustice!). I pointed out some mistakes to him, and he rewrote the letter 
accordingly. However, the part about Jan Libbenga wanting credit for 
himself was indeed still wrong, and it is my mistake that I did not 
1) tell IED this, and let him rewrite again; or 2) send him a 
transcript of the original article, so that he wouldn't have made 
the mistake in the first place.
This was completely my responsibility, and Jan Libbenga correctly 
does not fault IED for this.

- Afterthought. At first I thought it would be nice to return the 
courtesy to Jan, and write him a personal letter as well, explaining 
the context in which all of this has taken place (i.e. Usenet & 
rec.music.gaffa). On second thought, seeing as how the discussion is 
actually about the unauthorized use of copyrighted material, I think 
it might be wiser not to tell him that I translated his article, 
without any kind of permission whatsoever, and distributed it for 
hundreds if not thousands of people to see...

:-)

Once again going back into passive Gaffa Watching Mode,

Leo Breebaart (leo @ duttnph.tudelft.nl)