More on Rocket Man

[nbc%inf.rl.ac.uk@mitvma.mit.edu]

More about Rocket Man - 4 mins 56 secs track 2 on Two Rooms.

I previously posted the musicians on the track.

There is a small photo of Kate attributed to John Carda (sic) Bush
which is from the TSW photo sessions.

Amongst the Special Thanks section at the back of the CD leaflet
there is a mention for Dr. John Bush.

The Music?
I have had a few more listens to Rocket Man and still find it very hard
to describe. It is very much TSW style Kate rather than any new direction
or a step back. On first listening to it it seems very simple. A closer
inspection on headphones reveals that as usual with Kate there are a hosts
of things going on in the background - multitracked instruments, backing
vocals. strange unidentifiable (by me) twangin noises etc.

Kate sings the lyrics unchanged i.e. from the man's point of view.
She manages to get great feeling in her voice especially an amazing
tremor on the word "long" during the "I think it's going to be
a long, long time" phrase. There are many changes in tempo during the
song - even within a single line of the lyrics e.g. moving up tempo with
backing vocals rising to a crescendo then almost stopping dead (like the
fuse burning out), followed by a few gentle guitar notes. The uillean pipes
feature most strongly towards the end of the song, but are used in other
places as well which gives a strange feel to the song during the bits where
there is almost a reggae beat. The song begins slowly sounding like a lament
(similar in some ways to This Women's Work) though it builds up speed
a litle which is when the (only) slightly reggae feel comes into the song.
It never becomes upbeat in feel for more than a few bars though
and the overall impression is of sadness - this comes out much more
with Kate's voice than it did with John's.

Interestingly, all the tracks bar Kate's and Phil Collins are dated 1991
while their's are 1990. So they must have been the first to be approached
or at least to have accepted (we know Kate recorded the track some time
ago). I have only listened to a few of the other tracks and I find them
of variable quality. I doubt whether I would have bought the album if Kate
had not been featured.

Neil
--
Neil Calton                          UUCP:   ..!mcsun!ukc!rlinf!nbc
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