The Happy Heretic

[nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R Caldwell, Ii)]

PBMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu (Peter Manchester) writes:
> 
> My fault:  I didn't mean to imply a conscious plan, and certainly not any 
> sort of scheme.  I was thinking along the lines of your analysis last summer 
> of Del Palmer's influence on Kate's 'ear' in the studio, which I took to 
> heart.  There too, what was manifestly a productive symbiosis early on, and 
> maybe a triumphant one in "Hounds of Love," is now perhaps closing in on 
> itself.

Well just how am I supposed to disagree with you when you agree with
me?  I think you're right.  The Sensual World was - it seems to me - 
beyond Del's capability as an engineer and perhaps beyond Kate's 
patience with her own working pace.  When a project bogs down even 
the closest working relationships are sorely tested.

I think that I probably felt much more pessimistic about all of this
earlier this year.  The Q/HMV interview and the convention have given
me cause to hope that Kate is about to take a positive step toward a
more manageable direction for her art.  

About the boxed set:
> It has a very small *rational* market.  We all know we are not a rational 
> market; up till now, like lots of others, I have paid *whatever* for 
> *anything*.  And it's still working, as evidence posted here daily shows.  
> But always before, there was something special to show for it, more than 
> sheer collectability:  a new song, a new mix.  And I am reading lots of posts 
> from people who wake up gloomy when they get the box home.  Maybe it is too 
> harsh to say one feels "shaken down," but it is still not a katelike feeling. 
> The very valid reasons you list for issuing the B-sides and remixes on CD 
> argue for a two-disk special, not this.

I think it's a no win situation.  First of all if it's supposed to be
an anthology of her collected works it simply doesn't make sense to
stick something in there just for the sake of providing something new.
This set has nothing to do with new music.   If she had put a few new
cuts in I don't think people would be complaining any less.  They
would have been forced to buy the whole set just to get those few new
tracks.  They wouldn't have the option of passing altogether and missing
nothing as they can now.

I can understand how many fans are disappointed that this is an anthology 
of collected works and not a collection of rare and unreleased
material.  But this is the set that Kate chose to put together and
we all know that up front.  To buy the boxed set and then feel
disappointed at the lack of new material is like buying a terrier and
being disappointed to find that it's not a gold fish. (Legs off, fins on,
simple metal tube through the back of his neck, bits of gold paint -
make good.  Lovely gold fish.  (You'd need a big tank.))

> >That's not what she did.  Instead she created an anthology, a
> >collection of what she evidently considers to be her essential works.
> 
> This is all too close to a valedictory gesture, which is why I asked, "this 
> woman's work; is it over?"  

And were it not for the Q/HMV interview I might be inclined to wonder
as well.  But if the collection marks an end it's an end to an era,
not the end of a career.  "I can't say what will be that different
about my work from now on," she says, "but it feels like a rounding up,
a putting to bed - putting all those little sheep in a pen!"

> I guess we need a clear attitude here:  Kate Bush 
> *owes us nothing*.  

Exactly.  Tote up your own personal balance sheet.  Just how much has
Kate Bush given you relative to what you've given her?   In my case
that assessment comes up heavily in Kate's favor.  Her work has given
me more pleasure than I could ever afford to pay for.  I'm just glad
I didn't have to pay by the hour.

> Though in context he is talking only about making videos, the trouble is, it 
> feels to me like the work itself.  If she never tours again, or even never 
> makes another album, that's her prerogative.  But I don't have to like it.

Right, and I don't have any problem with that but let's at least choose
not to like things for the right reasons.  The fact that the boxed set
is a different kind of collection than many wanted to see doesn't make
it a scam or a shakedown, just a product with a much smaller market
than we would have liked.



"Don't drive too slowly."                 Richard Caldwell
                                          AT&T Network Systems
                                          att!cbnews!nrc
                                          nrc@cbnews.att.com