Excruciating

[Peter Byrne Manchester <PMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu>]

       A single word runs like a kind of meta-thread through the many posts 
this week about the unedited Night Flight interview:  *excruciating*.

       Yes, it is, isn't it?  Chris Werner Schwarz <cschwarz@icaen.uiowa.edu> 
has me in his corner when he confesses:

> Oh the pain!  Here, before you all, I must confess my lack of emotional
> fortitude and willpower.  I got about three minutes into the interview
> before screaming "it hurts!" and punching 'FF' on my trusty remote.  I
> repeated this procedure about three times until the evil vision had
> passed.  I probably won't be able to watch it completely until I am
> surrounded by the support and encouragement of other lovehounds.

I've put myself through longer patches, but they don't add up to the whole 
thing even piecemeal, and I can hardly imagine withstanding the whole 
experience in one take.

       Yet Kate Bush not only had to *live through it* in one take, she had 
to retain enough composure and marshall enough professionalism to give them 
editable product!

       I remember seeing the Night Flight hour and a half on Kate several 
times in early 1986 (it first showed in late January, I believe) and have it 
on tape.  The half-hour interview segment seemed a little reserved and 
lacking in enthusiasm at the time, but it is incredible to discover from the 
session tape itself just how much she had to mask.

       The reason this tape is important and deserves to be part of The 
Lovehounds Collection--excruciating as it is!--is historical.  That single 
day in November, 1985, goes a *long* way toward explaining what so many of us 
have been decrying since last fall:  Kate's tendency toward playing mind-
tapes in interviews, serving up canned comments, closing her face against 
spontaneity or enthusiasm, and flashing the Ultimate Barrier...that ~smile~.

       How far she has closed the door can certainly be seen by contrasting 
the Night Flight interview with Profiles in Rock, for example.  While the LH 
Collection is not arranged chronologically, it makes a lot of history very 
visible.  It gives me a lot to think about in understanding the somewhat 
formal and reserved and all-too-brief appearance Kate made for this year's 
Convention at the Palladium.

............................................................................
                                                            Peter Manchester
            "It wouldn't take me long,         pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.edu
            to tell you how to find me"             72020.366@compuserve.com