"Wuthering Heights"...Old and New (was Re: Rolling Stone)

[emx.utexas.edu!ut-emx!slh@cs.utexas.edu (Susan L. Cecelia Harwood)]

In article <9002282240.AA26871@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> MTARR@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU writes:
>And finally, although I've already e-mailed my reply to Ed, the two songs that
>simultaneously turned me into a Lovehound were "Running Up That Hill" and the 
>version of "Wuthering Heights" on _The Whole Story_.  After three years that
>song still puts me into near-convulsions, as any of my dorm-mates will tell 
>you whenever I crank it up and introduce all of Wesleyan to Kate's incredible 
>voice. The original version doesn't do the same thing for me, although I still
>like it, and it's the reason I bought TKI in the first place.

How interesting that someone should bring this up, because I was about to
make a posting on the very same subject.  I just bought _The Whole Story_
two days ago, and I admit I spent fifteen dollars for two tracks.  I
was especially looking forward to the new vocal on "Wuthering Heights."
The original version I first heard after having *only* heard _The Dreaming_,
_Hounds of Love_ and _The Sensual World_, so I was a little nonplussed by
the nineteen-year-old Kate.  However, I quickly grew to love her, and
"Wuthering Heights" became one of my favorites.  So.  I was all excited
with the prospect of hearing this new vocal, and went straight home from
the record store.

It's a shame I let my anticipation build up like that.

It started out okay, but the impression I got, the longer it went on, was 
that Kate was singing through the motions, so to speak.  Parts of it were
very good, yes, but the part that nearly made me throw the CD case across
the room was "You know it's me, Cathy."  The first syllable of "Cathy"
was a miss.  She didn't hit it.  She overshot it by a mile.  Now, this
may seem like nitpicking to some, but I have this image of Kate as a
perfectionist-- a well-deserved image, and not one I consider an insult.
But this!  I was awfully disappointed.  Live, I could understand.  But
if they could go to all the trouble of editing some of the celesta parts
and beefing up the drums, they could have had a voice track that was
better than that.

Furthermore, the strident voice of the original recording seems much
more appropriate to the little virago that I've perceived Kate's
Cathy to be.

Anybody else out there feel the same way?  I'm not trying to start a
flame war; I guess I've just discovered that even Kate isn't perfect.
Unless... did the record company make her re-record it so that they'd
have another new track?  Just a small glimmer of hope...

>Meredith Tarr               "Living in the gap between past and future..."
>mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu                                         -KT



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--------Susan L. Cecelia Harwood-----------------------------------------------
The whims that we are weeping for our parents would be beaten for. --Kate Bush
-----------(slh@emx.UUCP)------------------The University of Texas @Austin-----