Re: The Sensual World: maturing or icing?

[jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka)]

Jonathan Whitcomb responds to some of my responses:

>>Where has she written a song that contains any sort of "literary commentary"?
>>Are you saying that she should use no allusions in her lyrics?  Or only 
>>allusions that *you* are educated enough to understand?

>Did you read all of my original posting?

Yes.

>Education really has nothing to
>do with being familiar with an obscure reference, unless you are insinuating 
>that being educated means having read every book and seen every film that 
>Bush writes about.

No, I'm merely pointing out that what you've written has implied that you
can't seem to enjoy songs with literary references, no matter how obscure
or mainstream, unless you understand that reference.  

>My comment was that when the fundimental theme
>of a song requires the listener to be familiar with a specific, not well
>known piece of fiction, many listeners will be alienated.

And *I'm* saying that the fundimental [sic] themes of the songs in which
KaTe makes literary references are quite obvious in the songs, regardless
of whether or not you know what the allusions are.   The fundamental
theme of "Cloudbusting" is not that Peter Reich had a scary-weird father
who believed in Orgone energy, thought he could make it rain, and believed
that the UFOs were coming.  The fundamental theme of the song is the father-
son relationship, and that relationship is clear whether or not you've ever
heard of _A Book of Dreams_.  Likewise, I doubt that many people on r.m.g
have read _Ulysess_.  This is irrelevant; the fundamental theme of "TSW"
is the beauty of sensuality, of "mere" physical existance.  This theme
vibrates throughout the song's lyrics, vocals, and even the texture of the
music.

"Wuthering Heights" is a passionate love song full of love and cruelty.
In a sense, this isn't one of Kate's obscure literary references, not 
because the novel it refers to is not obscure, but because she does a 
pretty good job of reducing the Cathy-Heathcliff love-hate-passion-obsession 
relationship into a four minute pop song.

>[wrt The Ninth Wave]

>The album credits list the titles of the tracks in TNW as segments of a
>larger piece, not as individual songs.

Where did you get this idea?

On the three HoL CDs I've owned (EMI-America, EMI-Manhattan, EMI-UK), the
back cover listed, on the left, "HoL" followed by 5 song titles, and 
on the right, "TNW" followed by 7 song titles.  Within the two editions that
include lyrics, each song's words are listed, followed by the musicians on
that track.  The "TNW" songs do not begin with a title proclaiming that
they are a suite.

>It seems valid to consider them as elements of the concept, rather than 
>songs:  I believe that is how Bush intended them to be recognized.  

Sure, it's valid to consider them as elements of the concept--but you're
assigning rigidity that is not necessary.  I don't particularly have any
interest in listening to any one movement of Genesis' "Supper's Ready,"
a conceptual piece of roughly the same length as TNW.  Those pieces fit
nicely into a post-appocalyptic vision, but lose much on their own.  The
pieces of TNW, on the other hand, work well outside the framework of
the concept, and even better within that framework.

>Wonderful!  Perhaps I would have been more interested in the concept
>if the music had been able to draw me in.

You gush over "Night of the Swallow" (one of my favorites as well) but
complain about "Jig of Life"?  Musically, I feel that "Jig of Life" is one
step over "Night of the Swallow" and I'd love to have an instrumental version
of it; I don't think I'd enjoy an instrumental "NotS" nearly as much.

>>c) why shouldn't we accept it as "High Art"?  Opera is accepted as such, 
>>yet the themes running through them tend toward exhaustion through overuse.
>
>That's a pretty hefty comparison!

Yes, but is it invalid?

>Most of the examples you site are by 60's and 70's artists who have 
>carried over into the 80's.

But there are obviously still people interested in the music and in the
concept albums that are released.  And those concept albums do spawn
pop singles that do quite well.  Witness "Another Brick in the Wall pt 2"
and "Face the Face" (from Townshend's _White City_).

>I don't know much about about Queensryche or
>Marillion, but considering that they are Metal bands

Marillion isn't metal.

>different and they take themselves much more seriously), I'll lump them 
>in that category.

Overgeneralizing is bad for your state of mind, if not your health.
 

>But I will stand by my premise that the concept 
>album peaked in the 70's, and was out of style by the 80's.  Just because 
>something has gone out of style doesn't mean that some people don't still 
>do it.  But I think that people who wear bell-bottoms and leisure suits
>look a little silly, don't you?

What about Exreme's _Extreme II Pornografitti_?  Yup...a concept album--
by a sometime heavy metal band--which has spawned two acoustic hits sending
the album up in the charts.  They don't look in the least bit silly.
And for your clothes metaphor?  Name a designer that's actively trying to
market bell bottoms or nylon leisure suits...


>You took my comment out of context.  I was referring to TNW.  The reason
>that none of those songs work as singles is because they were never intended
>to stand on their own.

But according to the public's reaction, only one of the TD songs that were
released worked well as a single..."Sat in Your Lap" which reached 11 in
the British pop chart.  The song "TD" reached 48 and "There Goes a Tenner"
didn't do much of anything.  Mind you, I'm not referring to the album,
which did well enough (#3), but to the singles.  Out of curiosity, wasn't
"Night of the Swallow" released in Ireland?  How did it do as a single?

>Under Ice is a pretty sorry excuse for a song on its own.

That's funny, I always liked the mood it induces, the cold, lonely, 'white'
feeling mixed with graceful speed.  I'll gladly play just this one song from
the album side and then turn off the CD, and I often find myself singing
this song as I ride my bike.  The "It's ME!" at the end may not make much
sense out of context of TNW, but the rest of the song does well enough.

>have been intended as a transitional piece.  That drawn out wail at
>the end makes me cringe.

It should.  Imagine the terror of seeing your own drowned body through a
crack in the ice of the frozen river along which you're skating.  I *hope*
you'd at least cringe!


>Most of the songs on TD had been recorded as home demos before Bush went 
>into the studio, and then re-recorded.  It's amazing how much a second
>draft can improve a song.


>I know
>the temptation to write a song that directly relates to a book you 
>have just read,

"Cloudbusting" was written roughly 8 years after KaTe first got Peter
Reich's book.

>but the real skill lies in writing a song that
>evokes the same feelings from the listener that the songwriter got
>from the book without requiring the listener to have also read the
>book.  Bush used to be able to do this.

For many of us, she still can.  "Cloudbusting" does this; so does "TSW."
For that matter, so does "This Woman's Work" which does an admirable job
of conveying the emotion expressed in the corresponding scene in _She's
Having A Baby_--the song was an emotional tour de force for me long before
I saw the movie.

In case it's not obvious, I'm not trying to change your mind, to make you
enjoy music you simply don't care for.  What I am doing is defending my own
views.  Everything you've complained is missing from Kate's music of late
I'm still able to find.  I guess it's interesting to see where our
opinions diverge....

Jeff
-- 
|Jeffrey C. Burka                | "At night they're seen                 |
|                                |  Laughing, loving, 	                  |
|jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.edu          |  They know the way to be happy" --KaTe |