Oh Baby

[katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Kansas City)]

Chris here,

    I'd like to address one of the few things about Kate's music I
dislike. Now I love almost every song she's written and have infinite
respect for her. I admire her intelligence, her musicianship, her voice,
her sense of humor, her beauty, her sensitivity, her friendliness, her
mysteriousness; all these things and more. One thing that bothers me,
constantly nagging and out of place, more bothersome than the fact that
she smokes is this:

   WHY DOES KEEP SHE USING THE WORD "_BABY_" IN SONGS !?!?!!!

  I mean _REALLY_! Ke-rist! 

I know that the word "baby" when used as a non-gender-specific term of 
endearment has a long and honorable history in pop, rock, and country,
and can increase the marketing appeal of songs to that sort of person
who likes to identify a song as relating to they're own relationship.
Most words of that type (baby, darling, honey, lover, sweetheart, sugar,
dearest, angel, etc.) are two syllables and have alliterative qualities
making it easy to toss one at the end of a line of lyrics and make rhymes.
(I know of some one syllable words; "boy," "girl," "love" and "babe" but
these didn't fit my thesis.) I know the word "baby" is one of the only words that rhymes with "maybe". I know these things. I don't have to like them.
  
 The word "baby" reminds me of Chevy Chase on SNL as "Barry White" (Ohh
baby, baby, baby...right-on,right-on, kick me baby, right-on..) or Spike
Lee as "Mars" in "She's Gotta Have It" (ohbabybaby,obaby,obaby,babybabybaby)
Maybe it's the pedophilic aspects of calling an adult that you love an 
infant. It's possible that I'm being overly touchy on this subject, but
Kate uses the language so carefully in her lyrics, choosing words so 
expertly, it's distressing when she uses such a cliched device.
 
  Vickie said that she agrees with me on this. The following is a short
list of "baby"'s, "babe"'s, "honey"'s, "darling"'s, and "love"'s in Kate's
work.  

I'm Still Waiting (baby)
James and the Cold Gun (baby)
Not This Time (baby)
Burning Bridge (baby,babe)
Running Up That Hill (baby,darling,angel)
The Infant Kiss (baby; but it dosn't count as she was referring to a child)
Saxophone Song (honey,boy)
Get Out of My House (honey)
Warm and Soothing (darling)
This Woman's Work (darling)
Hounds of Love (darling)
Wow (love)
Feel It (my love)

  Some artists have built entire careers on the word "baby," (although in
Paula Abdul's case it's pronounced "BAY-Bee".)

P.S. I must apologize for a transcribing error in the "Audio" magazine
article. I typed "tail" as "tale." All I can say in my own defence is
1: It (like most of what we post) was typed at 2 am;
2: You should _see_ what my posts would be like if I didn't have a spell
   checker on my editor;
3: I had read Chris Miller's classic story "Cat's Tale" that day;
4: I have a small amount of dyslexia;
5: I didn't have a good breakfast that morning;
6: The dog ate it.
  For anyone keeping score I misspelt verbal in my first post in which
I flamed Drukman and mis-identified a Sarah McLachlan song. I would like
to assure all concerned that unlike some correspondents in the Boston
area I take responsibility for my typing and transcription errors.
 

                                    Chris of,
                                      Chris'n'Vickie .
                                        of Kansas City