Kate-echisminim

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: Kate-echisminim

     Susan L. Cecelia Harwood writes:
 >     ...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...
 >------Susan L. Cecelia Harwood-----------------------------------------------

     Whether the timbre of Kate's new vocal seems more appropriate to the
subject of the song to you or not is not IED's concern. The false
contention that Kate sings in error in the re-recorded version is,
however, of _great_ concern to this reader.
     Kate does _not_ sing a "wrong" note here! She has simply
embellished--very deliberately--the F-natural of the earlier
"Cath-" syllable so that it begins with a grace note of G-flat.
     There is _no_ question that she did this deliberately. Not only
does it _sound_ good (_not_ "wrong"); but she has actually sung the
phrase with the exact same embellishment, and with equal precision, on at
least _six_ occasions in live performance. Listen to the end of
the _Hammersmith_Odeon_ performance (on CD or video), and you will
hear the same embellishment. It is also found in the "Bio's Bahnhof"
version, the Manchester version, the London Palladium version, the
Paris version and several others!
     In fact, this treatment of the syllable "Cath-" in the song
is so much more common in Kate's performances than the LP version's
treatment, and appears so early on (February 1978), that IED would
venture to suggest that it was the LP version which was affected
by the influences of outside pressures from producers, etc. Whether
or not that is so, however, one thing is certain, and that is that
Kate did _not_ "overshoot" her note!

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)