Kings over Aces

[MJM <MJM@ZYLAB.MHS.CompuServe.COM>]

David Koehler:
  I've always known that I deviated from the mean, but the Kate Poll (tm)
  was a real shocker!  "Fullhouse" finished third from last (of 98 
songs),
  just ahead of the dud (IMHO) "Candle In The Wind".  Fullhouse is, IMHO,
  quite brilliant, so I gave it a 10/10 score.  Apparently so did three
  other people (out of 30).
  I think we need to form a support group to console each other.    ;-)

Sign me up.  Actually, I am a great fan of Lionheart.  Although
these songs may have been written the same time as TKI songs were
I see a common motif in a number of them that is distinct from other
motifs (musical motifs, that is) in Kate's work.

In particular, Fullhouse and Heart Brake are, in a way, unlike any
other songs Kate has penned, with the exception, perhaps, of
December WBMA.  Perhaps I should say exemplary rather than 'unlike'.
They exemplify the way Kate uses what I call "Jazz-sensibility"
to take unpredictable chord changes and paste them together into
an intertwining patchwork that in the end, after much listening,
pieces together into a strong whole.  I know, it's not really
Jazz ("Jazz is totally predictable," a Jazz-congnizant friend of mine
once told me), but someone used to traditional harmonies and 
chord changes (Occidental, that is) would react similarly to Jazz,
or perhaps more violently to Jazz.

I guess I'm a sucker for stuff that departs from normal, expected,
predictable patterns just enough to make it fresh and interesting.
This is a if not the primary reason I (\/) kate.
                                       \/ 

But hey, Lionheart (another LH, indeed) gets a bad rap on Gaffa
and continues to be, in my mind underappreciated, which is why
I did not expect many or any of its songs to do exceedingly well
in the polls.

BTW, I think the poll was *very* interesting.
Thanks to the person who conducted it, whoever you are (it's
hard to tell from that cryptic sig.

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