Re: anAmosity

["Stuart M. Castergine" <scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us>]

On Tue, 23 Aug 1994 IED0DXM@aol.com wrote:

> Despite the claims by Cindy Palmano regarding the cover shoot quoted by
> Kevin, it is simply unreasonable to argue (as Palmano nevertheless does) that
> there was no influence, particularly when one acknowledges, as any reasonable
> person must, the many other obvious signs of direct and indirect influence of
> Kate Bush's songs, vocal inflections, vocal stylings, piano arrangements,
> performance demeanor -- even clothing and hairstyle! -- that are evident in
> those of "Tori Amos".

... {clip} ...

> It's a matter of the
> honesty of the artist, not the integrity of the art.  If it should turn out,
> however, that Ms. Amos has indeed fully credited Kate Bush as the paramount
> influence on her own work, then IED will humbly apologize to her and to all
> her fans, and wish them all well.

#include "flame.h"

Sigh. Need I bother with the rebuttal that claims of Tori's supposed 
influence by Kate are dishearteningly shallow and superficial? As has 
been said before, about all they have in common are the facts that they 
are female, unconventional and play the piano.

Their music is *very* different. their voices are *very* different. Their 
whole approach to their work is *very* different.

The fact that they both appear inside a crate on their first albums *is* 
possibly a coincidence, you know? Two crate shots in all of pop music is 
not unbelieveable, and one doesn't have to be influenced by the other. 

Kate Bush as the "paramount" influence oh her work? Sheesh! You are much
more likely to hear her credit Robert Plant or some such as the paramount
influence. If you listen to Tori next to some classic Zep, there are a
Whole Lotta Similarities in their vocal styles. 

I adore Kate. She is absolutely the best. There will never be anyone like 
her again. I also like a lot of Tori Amos's stuff, and I would be happy 
to claim I saw the influence if it was so strong. I have no reason to 
deny it. But it just ain't so.

IED, much as I respect his Kate Fanaticism, sometimes makes the mistake of 
seeing the whole world through Kate-colored glasses.

Clothing and hairstyle? That tousled, carrot-topped hippie who is so fond 
of old jeans and one-piece swimsuits? You gotta be kidding!

Peformance demeanor? I *wish* I ever got to see Kate writhe on a piano 
bench like that! Kate behind a piano is very reserved, very British. She 
had her chance at Hammersmith when she did _Feel It_ solo. A song to 
writhe to if there ever was one. No dice. I think she deliberately 
avoided the performance aspects of that song, because she couldn't figure 
out a way to put it to dance and mime that would not have raised the 
temperature in the hall by about 200 degrees.

(Granted, I got to see her writhe on *top* of a piano to TMWTCIHE on SNL, 
but it hardly amounts to the same thing. And the writhing was very 
different. Sniff.)

Their songs? Kate is a sensual faery tale. Tori is group therapy. 

--
scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us == Stuart Castergine            ---
"The night comes every day to my window.                    |/
The serious night, promising as always,                     |\
age and moderation. And I am frightened" -- Jack Gilbert