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From: ruppen@graunt.qal.berkeley.edu (Mr. 30-second Attention Span)
Subject: Did you ever feel you've been cheated?...
Message-ID: <1990Dec19.024538.17978@agate.berkeley.edu>
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 90 02:45:38 GMT
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Derek Langsford writes in "Survey results and draft letter to EMI":

>...but with the "This Woman's Work" CD set you have all but destroyed any 
>respect fans may have had for EMI.

Respect? Surely you are jesting. Please don't flatter them with the idea
that anyone had any respect for them in the first place. TWW is a rip-off
of grand proportions, a swindle that would do many a thief proud. What does
one get for the hard-earned bucks? Not a damned thing that one hasn't heard
before. It is the _only_ boxed set that I know of that has _no_ unreleased
material (unless you count the John Lennon set, but that's because _another_
boxed set of all unreleased material is coming). Think about it - Kate's boxed
set has these 3 distinguishing characteristics: a) just about the only boxed 
set there is with absolutely no unreleased material, b)  highest per disc
price, and c) cheesy stickers. Hardly a winning combination, unless one
is really into stickers.

Whatever they said about not including previously unreleased material
because they couldn't get the rights to it is a _lie_. Either they were 
too lazy to bother digging it up or Kate did not want _any_ of it released.

And of course the box set is a "limited" edition. But only in either the
sense that the songs made available are limited to those that have previously
been released, or the appeal of the box is limited to Kate's loyal following,
who will buy anything and everything she does. 

The whole thing is either shameful or embarassing, depending on whether 
one would like to believe that she condoned the rip-off, or simply didn't 
know about it. I'm willing to believe that she didn't know about it. But that
means the bit about the project bearing her imprint or being under her control
is a myth.

The box set is a case of fan-abuse.

EMI is after the money, pure and simple. They saw an opportunity to
milk Katefans with a minimum of effort.  

(The Sex Pistols had it right 13 years ago in their poignant little paean
to their record label, "EMI". (On _Never Mind the Bollocks..._) )
==============================================================================
Andy Ruppenstein               |
ruppen@qal.berkeley.edu        |"Did you ever feel you've been cheated?..."
    or  maybe                  |                Johnny Lydon
ruppen%qal@jade.berkeley.edu   |  
==============================================================================