interview stuff

[rhill@netlink.cts.com (Ron Hill)]

Bob says:
 
Given all of the interviews that have been postend over the past few 
months, I thought it might be interesting to discuss what we would 
do if *we* were given the opportunity to interview her.  Doug Alan 
is the only love-hound I know that has had such a chance.  So, to 
start the ball rolling, these are some of the questions I would ask: 
 
1. I heard that Klaus Kinski is your favorite actor [this was mentioned 
   in one of the love-hounds digests around 1985].  Have you ever thought  
   of writing a song which could incorporate him into a video? 

I says: 
        I've actually never read Kate saying this, does anyone know the 
source?  Of course he's dead, so it's unlikely! :-)

Bob says:
 
2. In one of your interviews ([in Pulse, around Dec 1985]) you mentioned  
   that Hounds of Love is "your lightest album, and the easiest for you 
   emotionally".  What did you mean by that?  [I can understand why she 
   would consider The Dreaming to be emotionally draining (it's a 
masterpiece),  
   and I can also understand it for The Kick Inside since that was her 
first.   
   I'm not sure why she would consider Hounds of Love easier for her than 
   Never For Ever or Lionheart]. 

I says:

        This is really interesting as I've never even heard of that Pulse 
interview, I don't have a transcription of it and it's not in any of the 
interview lists I have.  Any chance of you (or someone else) transcribing it 
or sending it to me so that I might or sending me the transcription if it 
already has been transcribed. 

        The reason it's interesting is that I can't find ANY interviews 
where she describes HOL as "easier." Most of the time she says something 
like this: 

        On this album I wanted to get away from the energy of the last one - 
at the time I was very unhappy, I felt that mankind was really screwing 
things up.  Having expressed all that, I wanted this album to be different - 
a positive album, just as personal but more about the good things.  A lot 
depends on how you feel at any given time - it all comes out in the music.   
(1985, Now)

        ...which is quite different from saying "easier"! 

Bob says:

3. You've sung several traditional songs on your albums (e.g., My Lagan 
Love, 
   The Handsome Cabin Boy).  Do you have any favorite traditional songs that 

   you haven't recorded yet? 

I says: 
        
        She's recorded "Another Day" with Peter Gabriel and performed in on 
the Kate tv special in '79.  Following is a list of her favorite songs from 
a 1980 interview. 


Traditional and "Classical" recordings

"The Kinead" from the album From Celtic Roots, by Alan Stivell
"Do-me-a-ma-ding" by A. L. Lloyd and Ewan Maccol
"Song To Be Sung Of A Summer's Night On The Water," from a suite of three 
songs for A Cappella choir, by Delius
"The Contest of the Ashoks" from Meetings With Remarkable Men, a film made 
by Peter Brook. 
"And Spake Sodroc" from "Piper's Rock.  
A tape of a morning prayer that's being sung by a man from a temple combined 
with "Kyrie Eleison" sung by a choir of nuns.
"The Handsome Cabin Boy." by A. L. "Burt" Lloyd.
"Complainte pour Ste. Catherine." by Kate and Anna Mcgarrigle.
"Miserere," by Allegri, The Choir of Kings College Chapel, in Cambridge. 
"Oh Willow Waley." from the film The Innocents.
"Farewell to Erin," by The Bothy Band,

"Popular" songs

"Another Day." by Roy Harper. 
"Tropical Hot Dog Night." by Captain Beefheart.
"Sun Arise", by Rolf Harris.
"Number Nine Dream." by John Lennon.
"Quiet Departures" by Eberhard Weber, from the album Fluid Rustle. 
"Lord of the Reedy River." by Donovan.
"Babylon Sisters. " by Steely Dan, from the album Gaucho
"The Smell of Home." by Jules and the Polar Bears, from the album Phonetics. 

"Montana", by Frank Zappa, from the album Overnight Sensation. 

Bob says:
 
4. Have you ever thought of recording a Jazz album?  Maybe something in 
   collaboration with Donald Fagin? 

Kate says:

        [LAUGHING] And--and we have just heard Steely Dan from their Gaucho 
LP, and Babylon Sisters.  Now, Kate, this brings us right up to date, 'cause 
this is an album that's out right at the moment.  And this is a, a funky 
little track by these two chaps, Becker and Fagin.  And they're monstrous 
stars in America - not so here.
        No, that's again why I played them.  I think they're very 
underestimated.  They're the most incredible musicians.  This is it.  They 
are here - a musician's band.  I mean, all the musicians in this country 
just rave about them technically, and as songwriters.  But you know, they're 
not really played on the radio, but they're just incredible - really good 
jazz [??? INDECIPHERABLE].   (1980, BBC)

Bob says:
 
5. You've mentioned in earlier interview that you don't really know what 
   the song "Love and Anger" is about.  I think the juxtiposition is a very 
   interesting one.  We sometimes feel that greatest anger at the people  
   we love.  They are the ones who know our feelings most closely, and  
   can hurt us the most if they want to.  But love also involves a sense 
   of trust and allowing yourself to be vulnerable.  Do you have any  
   comments about the relationship of these emotions? 

Kate says:

        "The Fog" (lyrics of trust?)
        Trust? That's nice.  It's paralleling being in a relationship with 
learning to swim.  You're too scared to put your feet down but if you did 
you'd find the water is only waist high and you needn't have been frightened 
at all.   (1989, Tracks)

Bob Says:

7. Which Beatles songs are your favorites? 

        I says: she sang "Let It Be" at a benefit concert in '79, and also 
in Japan where she also sang "The Long and Winding Road and She's Leaving 
Home."  (though I am not sure is she actually got to choose which songs she 
sang).  Ironically, though she has been photographed with Paul once, she's 
mentioned only John specifically: 

        This is Radio One, on new year's eve.  And we're playing Kate Bush's 
favourite songs of all time, and here's one by John Lennon, who was killed 
in the most appalling way earlier this month, and Kate I'm wondering if you 
are too young at the age of twenty-two to have fully understood what all of 
the media fuss was about.  So many people were affected so traumatically for 
so long.  Could you really understand what Lennon and The Beatles meant to 
them?
        Yes, absolutely!  I think probably people of about sixteen or 
seventeen, that's the age where it wouldn't really mean that much.  But even 
at my age they really meant so much.  I wasn't aware of them first happening 
and then being the "new thing".  But I was aware of them as the most 
incredible source, and of Lennon being the most fantastic songwriter.  He 
really was one of my favourite artists - not as The Beatles, but as Lennon.  
And in fact, in compiling this list a couple of months ago before the news, 
I'd chosen this track as one of my favourites.  So it wasn't meant as a 
tribute, it was genuinely planned as one of the tracks.
        Why this of all his songs?
        For me it's just magic.  Um, his voice; the production - it's the 
most incredible production; uh, little backwards voices.  They're really 
things that I love.  And just, the song and everything - it's wonderful.  
And I - I'm really sad, because he's left the biggest hole in the business 
that we've known yet, I think.
        Here's John Lennon's "Number Nine Dream."
        [The record is played.  In my opinion there is no single record that 
Kate's music reflects the influence of more clearly than this track.  All 
references to Peter Gabriel's influence - even as regards production - pale 
beside a comparative listening between "Number Nine Dream" and any of a 
dozen of Kate's recordings. -IED]
        One of the dozen or so most important human beings of my lifetime so 
far: John Lennon and "Number Nine Dream."   (1980, BBC)

        Kate, the time has now come for me to spring on you that question: 
what is your all-time favourite single?
        My all-time favourite single.  Very, very difficult question, it 
really is, because just, just trying to compare songs, you know, let alone 
trying to put one higher than all the others... I think I would say at this 
point in time John Lennon's "Number Nine Dream" - for lots of reasons.   
(1980, BBC)


Bob says:

12. How do you feel about bootleg recordings?  Some artists don't seem to 
    mind them very much (e.g., Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney).  There  
    has been a lot of discussion over some bootleg recordings of yours 
    called "The Cathy Demos".  Many of your fans feels have mixed feelings  
    about these songs being bootlegged.  On the one hand we feel the 
    songs are terrific, but we also don't want to make you upset.  

I says:
        Kate let it be known, though one of her brothers through Homeground, 
that she was highly upset about the release of the "Cathy demos."  I don't 
know, but I image the release of private material like this is more 
upsetting to artists then the release of "Live" material. 

13. Finally, What is your favorite colour?  
    [asked with the proper intonation, i.e., the emphasis on "what"!] 
 
 
I says: 
        Perhaps Blue, as in "Symphony in Blue"?

--                    
 rhill@netlink.cts.com (Ron Hill)  
NetLink Online Communications * Public Access in San Diego, CA (619) 435-6181