"Leaving My Tracks"

[ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi)]

Gather around, folks, and I'll tell you the story of Kate's
autobiography that never was -- or was it?

Back in the early days of her career (around 1980, I think)
Kate was asked if she'd like to write her autobiography, and
she agreed.  The book was to be called _Leaving My Tracks_.
It soon became obvious that Kate didn't have time to write,
so by 1984 this project had been shelved indefinitely like so
many other Kate projects (the Ninth Wave film, for example.)

Then, in Homeground 31 (from 1988), the editors said that a mysterious
review of this book has turned up!  They said that the following
review appears in the book _Lives And Works_:

Bush, Kate
     _Leaving My Tracks_/Kate Bush. -- London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1982.
     144 pp., 8p. of plates: ill. (some col.) ports (some col.); 30 cm.
     ISBN 0-283-98698-7 (cased). ISBN 0-283-98799-5 (pbk.)
In this beautifully illustrated book Kate Bush gives an account of her
approach to her work, techniques, inspirations and lifestyle.  An
interesting, unselfconscious attempt at autobiography, it does not
appear to be written with the aid of a ghost writer and is 
surprisingly fluent.

Homeground was flabbergasted, as you can imagine.  A copy of this
book, if it really exists, would be incredibly desirable.  But
they could apparently not find anything more about it than this
paragraph.  Well, I might be able to get one step closer to
the truth now.

You see, I've actually found a copy of this book in the Livermore
Public Library, of all places!  (Not _Leaving My Tracks_, but _Lives
And Works_).

To start with, the book is in fact NOT called _Lives And Works_.  That's
the name of the chapter!  If Homeground only saw a photograph of the 
relevant page, the chapter name is at the top, so maybe that's why
they thought that that was the title.

The book is called _Popular Music Since 1955_, written by Paul Taylor,
and published in 1985.  Our library has the American edition published
by G. K. Hall & Co.  It was originally published in Britain by:

Mansell Publishing Limited
6 All Saints Street
London N1 9RL
England

So now what somebody in England should do is write to Paul Taylor, 
care of this address.  I'd do it myself but it would be much faster
and cheaper if somebody there would do it, since both the publisher
and author are there.  If the Homeground people read this, they
might want to try this.  It's my experience that most authors
contacted in this way will eventually respond.

The question that should be asked is:  "Did you have some sort
of copy of that book?  If not, what's the story about the review?
If yes, WHERE IS IT NOW?"




Ed
ed@das.llnl.gov