sounds like Kate

[WATSON2@AppleLink.Apple.com (Allen Watson III)]

It seems as if I've heard someone say  "<X> sounds like Kate" about a
zillion times.  When I give a listen, <X> usually sounds superficially like
KaTe, but--to be succinct--just doesn't get to me.  I could go into a long
discourse about the sounds of other people's voices, but that's not really
the central issue.  What I think are central and might be of interest to
other KaTe fanaTicKs are the reasons why I take exception to such
comparisons.  

* Conversly--not.
Whenever I hear the expression "<X> sounds like KaTe Bush," I can't help
inferring  "and conversely," that is, "Kate Bush sounds like <X>."  The
statement "<X> sounds like Kate" seems fairly innocuous, but "Kate sounds
like <X>" is a whole nother thing. 

I find myself positing a set of all the singers who sound like KaTe and
wondering whether two members of the set sound like each other.  If they
do, and if KaTe is a member of the set, then my converse inference is
valid.  Because most people don't seem to agree with that, I suppose either
the members of the set don't sound like each other, or KaTe isn't a member
of the set.  Thinking about the idea of KaTe's not sounding like herself, I
envision B. Russell materializing out of a cloud of smoke. %-)  

* KaTe is God
I have had the good fortune to discover a few musicians whose music affects
me deeply.  I made most of those discoveries during a period of
concentrated musical exploration while I was in college; since then, the
discoveries have been fewer and have come at longer intervals. (Not that I
haven't been looking--but the box is finite, and I've already made the easy
discoveries.)  By the time I discovered KaTe's music, it had been many
years since the last discovery, and I had begun to think I wouldn't find
any more musicians who had the kind of weirdness that gets through to me. 
Feeling as I did, discovering KaTe's music came as something of an
epiphany. 

What I'm after trying to explain here is the intensity of my fanaticism
about KaTe.  Most people who say "I like Kate Bush" mean it in a casual
way--they like KaTe's music, but not more than that of a host of other
musicians (possibly even less than--blasphemy even to conjecture).  To
avoid disappointments, I try to discern early on whether someone who says
"I like Kate" is a casual fan or a true fanaTicK. The expression "KaTe is
God" is a way of cutting through the small talk; anyone who can say such a
thing obviously puts KaTe in a category all her own and acknowledges her
superiority to other musicians. 

* What Did You Expect?
Harking back to my earlier thoughts about the set of singers who sound like
KaTe, I find no paradox because the set has only one member: there isn't
any other singer who sounds like KaTe (IMHO). But--just for the sake of
argument--even if some other singer did have a voice just like KaTe's, it
wouldn't necessarily qualify that person for promotion to Kate's exalted
level.  KaTe's music has it all: a voice that is flexible and plangent,
lyrics both subtle and provocative, a way of making sounds musically
meaningful, and underlying everything else, a musical imagination that
surpasseth all others. 
 
- Allen

+-----------------------------+     "Queremos genios en vida..."
| Allen Watson III            |                        - Mecano     
| WATSON2@AppleLink.Apple.com |     "Get the bow going,
| Apple Computer, Inc.        |      Let it scream to me!"
| Cupertino, California       |                     - KaTe Bush
+-----------------------------+