Re: The "Rocket Man" single--some opinions and suppositions

[aruss@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Andrew Russ)]

	I got the 12", which has all three songs.  Generally sounds
fine to me.  Only one picture of KaTe--on the front.  Face and hands.  
Smile.  Back cover credits the art to the Mercury art staff (and photo
to John Carder Bush).  Also includes the "Villean Pipes" misspelling.  
Back cover also has a very small picture of the Two Rooms album  cover
and the brief statement by KaTe included in the booklet.  (and not
the one by Sinead O'Connor ... :-))

	How do i   like it?  I like it just fine.
	Sure, you would all typecast KaTe to sing "Rocket Man", and she
does, but not in the way you would expect, which is what i like about
the song.  The reggae arrangement is interesting, and works for me, but
it's not overdone (i.e. no deep space dub mix).  "Candle In the Wind" is
interesting too because the instruental backing really doesn't follow the
melody of the song, which is instead carried by the voice.  The ambient
backing vocals are particularly nice to me, but the keyboard fills (the little
cadences similar to those used in "This Woman's Work") are trite--my only
complaint.  When i first heard the CD single all the way through, i was
really surprised at how different the instrumental version sounded from the
vocal, merely with the subtraction of the vocals.  This instrumental is
almost as interesting to me as "Dreamtime", because it also functions
well in opposition to its vocal nonidentical twin.  At first i was reminded
of Wire's "It's a Boy"--another song with a vastly different instrumental
mix (but KaTe doesn't get quite so extreme).  For me the reaction on first
hearing the instrumental version was one of noticing something that i hadn't
noticed in the vocal version because i was paying attention to the vocal
track.  I like that.  
	Not a major work, but a thoughtful and interesting one.  
	I'll also point out that KaTe didn't change the gender in "Candle
in the Wind", either.  You might also want to check out Sandy Denny's cover
of "Candle In the Wind", from her 1973 album Rendezvous (reissued five
years ago by Hannibal).  Again the voice carries the melody, but the 
instumentation is much more standard.  

	Note that the 7" only has the two vocal tracks, th 12" is generally
less expensive than the CD single (i paid $7.49 versus $9.99), but do
ask to look at your copy of the 12" before leaving the store.  The first
store i went to had 4 copies, all of which were messed up:  two had a serious
mark on the instrumental "Candle in the Wind" and a third had some junk
glued in a line across the disc.  The third just had some discoloration, which
i'm told comes from putting hot vinyl into the sleeve without letting it cool
first.  The copy i eventually did get has this discoloration, and sounds
excellent.  I did make a point of getting the 12" since i read here that
KaTe (or maybe Del or maybe both) are analog freaks.  Maybe we can start
a thread of record versus CD quality for this release (also--email me--has
anyone compared record versus CD copies of The Sensual World LP that everyone
has complained about?)
  

					andrew