rate kate

[rjcooney@facstaff.wisc.edu (Bob Cooney)]

1.  Hounds of Love/The Ninth Wave
2.  Hounds of Love/The Ninth Wave
3.  Hounds of Love/The Ninth Wave
4.  Hounds of Love/The Ninth Wave
5.  Hounds of Love/The Ninth Wave.  My name is Bob and I have a Hounds of
Love/The Ninth Wave problem. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I wore
out my vinyl copy, I wore out the tape I made of it, and if it's possible
to wear out a CD, I'll do it with that disc. I scoured Madison trying to
locate a CD copy (the summer after the album came out, if I remember right
-- there weren't a lot of CDs around), but I managed to find an imported
Japanese pressing (with much better sound than the American-made discs I've
heard, btw). It was the first disc I bought after getting a CD player for
my birthday.  Auto-repeat!  What a concept -- I could play it for hours on
end without lifting a finger. I drove my wife nuts; she has forgiven me but
she's still not a Kate fan (jealousy, perhaps).  The music is narcotic and
hallucinogenic and still puts me into a trance. I love the synthesized
ocean of sound on many of the cuts and the incredible keyboard musicianship
throughout. I didn't think an artist was capable of perfection, until Kate
achieved it with Hounds/Wave.
 BTW, the rest of her stuff is pretty good too, but I've been spoiled by
HOL/TNW.
 BTW II, thanks quite belatedly to the tapetree people. Wonderful black-and
white brackets to the set (Rocket Man/Under the Ivy), and everything in
between is fun too.  I tuned into the Night Flight Kate special halfway
through back in 1986 or whenever, then spent the next 6 months taping Night
Flight for a rerun, to no avail, so seeing the unexpurgated interview was
quite a rush (a wrenching one, though). 
BTW III, I saw/heard my first Kate while visiting a friend in London right
after TKI came out. I seem to remember my English buddy saying there was
something scandalous about it; maybe it was just that it was such a
precocious first effort. Or maybe it was the album jacket and the fact that
Kate was, what, 17? at the time?  Or was there a scandal? 
 There. I've de-lurked at great length.
Bob Cooney