You Want Alchemy

[billy@briarpatch.ness.com (Billy Green)]

Purple Rain meets Deeper Understanding meets Rocket's Tail.

That's not necessarily saying I don't like it, rather that it seems a
touch derivative.

And here's why I say that:

Purple Rain -- I played YWA for someone who knows little about Kate, starting
       past halfway through the song (at the screechy part).  I asked, 
       "Who's this?"  She insisted that it was Prince.  I told her it was
       Kate, and she said, "Hunh-uh!  It's Prince."

Deeper Understanding -- This song is about isolation and loneliness that
       leads to a deep (and unhealthy) attachment to something as a
       substitute for human companionship.  Our beekeeper friend who 
       says, "I don't meet many people/I'm very busy with my hives," 
       seems to have reached a Deeper Understanding of the bees instead of
       a computer (except that his Understanding doesn't seem to be 
       unhealthy for him, and no one carts him off to the loony bin).

Rocket's Tail -- Someone expresses a wish to fly like a rocket.  The
       singer says that this is the craziest thing she's ever heard.
       Then she examines it for herself and decides that maybe it's a
       pretty neat idea after all.  "Was it me said you were some kind
       of nut?"

Not a bad song at all, but my all-time favorite B-sides are still "Under
the Ivy" and "My Lagan Love."

I still say that Kate's worst songs are miles better than the best of 
what's played on Top-40 radio.  (When I say "worst," I simply mean "relative
to all her other songs."  Kate hasn't yet written anything bad or 
uninteresting.)

By the way, I've seen no one mention that "The Red Shoes" is in six, but 
"Shoedance" is in four.  There are a couple of spots where it seems like
there might have been some time editing to try to make some of the singing
fit into this four.  Then there are places where the voice, solidly in six,
totally fails to meld with the newly created instrumental background,
thumping along in four.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Billy Green                           briarpatch!billy@lever.lever.com
San Francisco, CA                or   billy@briarpatch.ness.com
(415) 552-1289

"This cloud is nothin' but trouble."