Y Kant Tori Read, story

[woodruff@cadence.com (Ken Woodruff)]

This article is in response to a recent review
of a number of albums, notably including the 
so-called 'apocryphal' Y Kant Tori Read.

Let me begin with a story, starting some five years ago.
When I got to college, I had been exposed to a very limited
range of music.  I knew of Peter Gabriel only because of Sledgehammer.
I had never heard of Kate.  I liked Tiffany (still do, but that's 
beside the point...) and had never even listened to Dark Side 
of the Moon all the way through.  In short, I was musically
illiterate. 

Fortunately for me there was a guy down the hall who not only
had an amazing CD collection, he had a portable CD player that
he loaned to me.  Over the course of my freshman year I came to 
know Pink Floyd, Genesis, Gabriel, Kate Bush, and Jane Siberry.
(and many others.)  This same friend worked at the college radio 
station and I even went in a listened to LP copies of Siberry's 
early albums.  I became an avid reader of rec.music.gaffa.  By 
the end of the year I considered myself if not musically educated,
at least somewhat enlightened.

Before leaving for home for the summer I purchased about
two dozen blank tapes and dutifully recorded all this great new music from
my friends CD collection. (I later bought CD's for almost all this stuff)
I took these home in hopes of having a more enjoyanble summer than the
last and also in hopes of enlightening some of my friends in the same
manner as I had been.  Oh, one more thing.  I also took home a demo
copy of a tape from the radio station (which had several of them) which
caught my eye because of the rather odd cover, some attractive woman
in a rather uncomfortable looking outfit.  The tape (and band?) was called
Y Kant Tori Read, and I enjoyed the music, though since I enjoyed
Tiffany as well, no body thought I was serious.

When I arrived home that summer I set to work educating my friends.
"Listen to this," I said, popping in Never For Ever.  "Uggh," they 
said.  "How about this?" I responded, pooping in the Dreaming. 
"Eww," the replied.  "Well fine," I said, and stuck in this silly
looking tape.  "Hey this is cool!" they said.

By the end of the summer I had made 5 copies of Y Kant Tori Read,
and couldn't get a single friend to listen to and entire side
of a Kate album.

By now you may asking me why the long, convoluted story?  Well it's
because I take some umbrage at the people in this group who are 
dismissing Tori's first album with such haste because it doesn't
fit in with the image they first learned from her newer album.
It is a fine album, it was very accessible, and I never quite
understood why it never received note in the group.  (I posted
about the album several times my sophomore year and never got 
more than a "Oh, yeah, I've heard that.")  What is it about 
Kate and other "erudite" musicians that inspires among their most
avid fans this utter contempt for music which might be appreciated 
by those with more mundane tastes?  Why is it that music must have
an aura of "inaccessibility" before it is discussed in this group?
Have any of us stopped to think that if we could open ourselves
somewhat to more mainstream music, more mainstream folks might listen
to Kare et. al.  People are offended by our pretense, and close
their minds to music they might otherwise enjoy simply
because we make such a point of telling them what garbage they are
for not liking our kind of music already.  I learned an important
lesson that summer, which I can sum up as follows:

If you take the view that your tastes are superior to someone
else's, they will almost never accept what you're trying to
expose them to.  However, if you introduce something new, and
intriguing in a non-threating manner, it will be evaluated without
prejudice, and is much more likely to have a lasting effect.

--Just some thoughts,
--Ken

---------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Woodruff            "Bom di di bom di bom bom bom a dang
woodruff@Cadence.COM     a dang a dinga dang dang a ditty 
                         dom dang Blue Moon"
                                        --The Marcels

Disclaimer: All my thoughts a beamed directly into my head by aliens.