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Re: Oh boy! TSW flamewar brewing!

From: as010b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (andrew david simchik)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 92 17:41:41 GMT
Subject: Re: Oh boy! TSW flamewar brewing!
Distribution: usa
Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York
References: <1992Dec2.042700.25995@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> <1992Dec2.080202.4395@bradley.bradley.edu> <1992Dec2.172700.9347@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> <1fl56pINNgb9@smurf.sti.com>
Sender: news@galileo.cc.rochester.edu

In <1fl56pINNgb9@smurf.sti.com> stev0@sti.com (Steve Berlin) writes:

>Just to add yet another opinion (in this case, the correct one), of TSW:

>I like it.  I really, really like it.  But unlike any other of Kate's
>works, it does not have any sort of thematic whole.  It's just a bunch
>of songs (albiet good ones) strung together.  So we have to take this
>one in a song-by-song basis (here's the Reader's Digest version):

>Great songs: Sensual World, Love and Anger, Deeper Understanding,
>Rocket's Tail (anyone disagreeing with this one can step outside...),
>and, of course, This Woman's Work

Agreed.

>Good songs: Reaching Out (even if it is the Kate Song most likely to
>be covered by Niel Diamond), Heads We're Dancing (lyrically, Kate's
>all-time dumbest song, but catchy as hell.)

Agreed, but I don't agree that it's Kate's dumbest song.  I find the lyrics
to "Kite" much dumber, although I like the song.  Perhaps you just find the
lyrics to HWD weird; there's a distinction between dumb and weird here that
must be maintained.

>OK songs: Between a Man and a Woman, Never Be Mine (biggest waste of
>Trio Bulgarka

That's the truth.

>Lame songs: The Fog (a Ninth Wave outtake), Walk Straight Down the
>Middle.

Yep.

>If anyone's interested, I can say how I arrived at the above, but
>just remember anything anyone says here is JUST OPINION.  Except
>for Jon Drukman, of course, who's word is LAW.

>Oh, I almost forgot, ALL the videos for this one suck rocks.  But
>then, almost all her videos (except the HoL-era ones) do, but that's
>the subject for another thread.

Well, I wouldn't say they suck rocks, but I will say that they should have
been much much much more.  Kate has the visual sense and the ingenuity to
make videos that really complement her songs, yet she seems content to stage
them rather than craft them.  Video can be more than just a taped
performance, and should be to support Kate's music.

Example: "The Sensual World" is a really nice video, but it's a fantastic
song.  Kate dancing through a forest could have been performed on a stage
somewhere; not only is it unnecessarily minimalist to do something so basic,
it also fails to capture the emotion.  Is this sensual?  It's kind of nice,
even evocative, but not really sensual.  Kate seems to enjoy making
representations of her songs rather than actually evoking the mood of those
songs, and thus the music and the vision don't unite.

>- Stev0 the carton of spite


>-- 
>Steve Berlin    .     +I * .o   o.* ` `B +.   |"I just know that something
>stev0@sti.com  ' K *  . ' ' |\^/|  `. * .O *  |good is gonna happen!"  
>.sig (c) 1992 by Mike Jittlov [for all the protection that affords] 
>.sig re-mixed by Stev0 (c) 1992 - Four line unwarlordable dub mix

Drewcifer
-- 
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* Andrew David Simchik, a.k.a. Drewcifer ***************  SCHNOPIA! *******
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