BIG SKY KATE QUOTES

[rhill@pnet01.cts.com (Ronald Hill)]

THE BIG SKY  
 
     The next song is called The Big Sky. Someone sitting looking at the sky,
watching the clouds change.  I used to do this a lot as a child, just watching
the clouds go into different shapes. I think we forget these pleasures as
adults.  We don't get as much time to enjoy those kinds of things, or think
about them; we feel silly about what we used to do naturally.  The song is
also suggesting the coming of the next flood--how perhaps the "fools on the
hills" will be the wise ones.    (1985, KBC 18)
 
     Big Sky was a song that changed a lot between the first version of it on
the demo and the end product on the master tapes. As I mentioned in the
earlier magazine, the demos are the masters, in that we now work straight in
the 24-track studio when I'm writing the songs; but the structure of this song
changed quite a lot. I wanted to steam along, and with the help of musicians
such as Alan Murphy on guitar and Youth on bass, we accomplished quite a
rock-and-roll feel for the track. Although this song did undergo two different
drafts and the aforementioned players changed their arrangements dramatically,
this is unusual in the case of most of the songs. That takes us to the second
side, which itself had two or three drafts.  (1985, KBC 18)
 
     HERE AGAIN WITH THE NEW ALBUM THERE ARE SOME SONGS THAT ARE FAIRLY
SIMPLE. [SILENCE.] DO YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?
     Yes...
     IN THEIR CONSTRUCTION.
     Yes.
     AND THERE ARE OTHER SONGS THAT ARE VERY COMPLEX, AS WELL.  CAN YOU FOR
EXAMPLE JUST TELL ME ABOUT THE BIG SKY-- THAT PARTICULAR SONG...CAN YOU
EXPLAIN THAT FOR ME? 
     Yes! The Big Sky gave me terrible trouble, really, just as a
song. I mean, you definitely do have relationships with some songs, and
we had a lot of trouble getting on together and it was just one
of those songs that kept changing--at one point every week--and,
um...It was just a matter of trying to pin it down. Because it's
not often that I've written a song like that: when you come up with something
that can literally take you to so many different tangents, so many different
forms of the same song, that you just end up not knowing
where you are with it. And, um...I just had to pin it down eventually,
and that was a very strange beast.
     A STRANGE BEAST...AND YOU WERE HAPPY WITH THE FINAL OUTCOME?
     Yes, and it was very different from the original song that was
written.
     IN WHAT WAY?
     In nearly every way possible.
     A COMPLETE CHANGE OF SONG?
     Yes, and that's very rare as well, but it was just one of those
songs. Maybe it's all to do with what the song is about, the fact that it's
changing all the time--the sky, always...changing!  (1985, Homeground)
 
     DEL: It was like that, too, with the big sky on the new album. That song
changed about three times. Originally it was radically different from the way
it's found on the album, the melody-line, the interpretation, everything. But
Kate scrapped it and then rewrote it, retaining only a few elements of the
original song.
     DID YOU GET IN THE GUY YOUTH ON THAT TRACK BECAUSE HE'S HIGHLY THOUGHT OF
AS A ROCK & ROLL BASSIST?
     Yeah, absolutely, the energy was right for the track, he
used to play with Killing Joke.
     DEL: Also he'd played on the original version and we thought it'd be
good, karmatically, to have him play on the later one too. And he plays that
particular style that's just perfect for that kind of track. That was very
much a case of getting the right person for the right thing on the right
track. Horses for courses...  (1985, Musician)
 
     SO WHAT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT SONG ON THE ALBUM TO GET DONE, YOU THINK?
     I think...[LONG PAUSE]... The Big Sky. That's the only one from a
songwriting point of view actually caused the problems. With all of the others
it was just a matter of patience and finding the right things; they were all
keyed quite instantly.  (1985, Homeground)
 
        It [VIDEOS] is very like making early albums: I feel a bit
disappointed with the results, not having enough rehearsal, a big enough
budget, etc., etc., but the shoots were so much fun. It's such a good feeling
to work with a big group of people. I seem to like working with such a crowds.
On both Hounds of Love and The Big Sky shoots there was a relaxed air--both
shoots involved crowd scenes, and The Big Sky was especially satisfying.
Besides a large number of performers to fill a stage and give the effect of a
live concert, we needed an avenue of people, from the Wright brothers to two
astronauts, to simulate aviation history. The Wright brothers looked
remarkably like Dave Cross and Peter FitzGerald-Morris, and one of the
astronauts looked so like
Jay...We also needed a large, enthusiastic crowd, so we asked  Dave Cross to
organise some members of the Club, and two hundred beautifully behaved people
arrived on the day of the shoot. It was very moving, they filled us all up
with energy-- It made it feel like a real concert.
     All the film crew remarked on how incredible everyone was. They had been
terrified with past experiences of invited audiences, but I told them they
hadn't met the right ones. Everyone left just as beautifully--nearly everyone
with a burnt thumb from being a star in the sky holding up lighters and
waving. I'd never been in the same room with so many stars before.
        DID IT TAKE LONG TO EDIT THOSE CLIPS?
     No, I worked with John Mister as film editor. On both those shoots we
worked to very detailed storyboards, and in both cases could give John a
photostat of the script beforehand so he'd know the gist of what we were
working on. Then he'd do a rough cut by himself, following the storyboard.
Then we'd work together until we were happy. He was great to work with, and
both edits were very quick: just taking them into the video suite for bits and
pieces. But it would have to be transferred to video for T.V. showings,
anyway, so all ads [SIC--DOES SHE MEAN 'ADDS' HERE, AS INQ. 'ADDITIONS'?],
etc., end up on video. 
     The Big Sky was a little more complicated. The beginning part on the
rooftops involves chromakey, where all the live action goes on in front of a
blue screen and then the various weather effects were put in at the edit. The
pieces of film with the weather were chosen beforehand and transferred to
video; they then replaced the blue screen.  (1986, KBC 20)
 
Ron Hill

UUCP: {hplabs!hp-sdd ucsd nosc}!crash!pnet01!rhill
ARPA: crash!pnet01!rhill@nosc.mil
INET: rhill@pnet01.cts.com