Re: Rec.stuff (Kate thread in music.misc & roller coasters)

[nrc@cbnews.att.com]

>From article <m0k6i7E-0002wlC@chinet.chi.il.us>, by katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris Williams):
> 
> Vickie here. 
> 
> Kate thread has been going on [in rec.music.misc](I missed the first 
> posts that must
> have been deleted sometime during the week) and what i want to know is,
> why hasn't anyone said anything about this to Love-Hounds. If we didn't
> have access to the newsgroups I never would have known about it!

It didn't really start out as anything worth mentioning and I
sort of expected it to die at any moment.   It just started with
someone asking for lyrics to _Wuthering Hieghts_ by Kate Bush.
Someone else asked if Pat Benetar hadn't done _Wuthering Hieghts_.
The obligatory opinions of whose version was better followed.  

This spawned two other threads.  The first was "are Kate Bush fans as
much a bunch of drooling zombies as Rush fans?"  Of course, that was a
completely rhetorical question.  It was probably intended only to give 
the "oh, oh, aren't my musical tastes just tooo tooo diverse" folks an 
opportunity to remind their readers of just how musically incorrect it
is to have discovered one artist that you enjoy a great deal more than
any other.  

For them, it seems inconceivable that we could be fully aware of the 
amount of great music out there and still like Kate as much as most of us 
do.  They really should go through some of the DID posts here before they 
start branding us as a bunch of musical myopics.

Of course, none of that is to say that some of us aren't drooling zombies.  

The second thread involved the question of whether Kate Bush's music
was "pop" and, later, whether one or more of her songs where examples 
of "lightweight pop" or even "sophomoric drivel".  The primary victim 
of this thread was the song _Feel It_.  Some people don't appreciate 
the wonderful style and grace with which Kate handles extremely...basic 
feelings.  If you look at the lyric, particularly the chorus, without 
feeling the passion of the performance then the song probably isn't 
going to work for you.  

> "silly" things I listen to I feel has some worth. I truly *LOVE* 
> Camper Van Beethoven, for instance. Chris hates 'em, and a lot of 
> people would roll their eyes, but hey, IMHO, they're brilliant (or were,
> anyway) and make me very happy. 

I agree.  But Camper Van Beethoven isn't always just "silly".  You 
can say a lot about something by taking a humorous approach to it 
(or so I've been told).  

Even when it is just silly, music is to be enjoyed.  It is just as valid 
to make it enjoyable by making it amusing as by making it profound.


"Don't drive too slowly."                 Richard Caldwell
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