"A Book Of Dreams" and Electronic Musician

[Connie Lofton <Connie_Lofton@sonymusic.com>]

RE: "A Book Of Dreams"  for those still hunting for it, you may want to contact 
the publisher directly.  The correct address for the publisher, however, is 
Penguin USA, 375 Hudson Street, NY, NY 10014.   The Park Avenue address given 
is about 5 years out-of-date;  I know this because I was an editor for 
NAL/Dutton at the time the offices moved.  To order by phone, the number is 
1-800-526-0275.  I'm not sure that the ISBN number is still correct either as 
all the old Dutton paperbacks are now published under either the Penguin or 
Plume paperback imprint, so if they can't find it under that number, ask them 
to look up the new one for you.  My good deed for the day....:-)

FYI, Kate is mentioned, albeit briefly, in the latest (Dec. 1994) issue of 
"Electronic Musician" magazine in an article on women producers.  A very 
interesting article, BTW, for any recording enthusiasts out there, male or 
female.  It starts off by belittling the "Rolling Stone" issue on women in rock 
and its failure to really discuss music (instead of favorite perfume) with any 
of its contributors.  Anyway, Kate is mentioned at the end of the article as 
being an example of a producer who exercises total control over her music but 
is still subject to speculation as to how much of it she, as a woman, *really* 
handles.   Rather than paraphrase, I'll transcribe it:


"Unfortunately, even though many women are out there making marvelous records, 
boorish musicians continue to devalue their efforts.  It's not uncommon to hear 
that a woman producer had a man lurking behind the scenes, secretly doing all 
the work.  Even an artist as talented as Kate Bush falls victim to these 
rumors.  Besides being an evocative singer and songwriter, Bush is perhaps one 
of the most fearlessly creative producers working today (I'll second that!! -- 
C.L.).  But the sonic majesty of her recordings doesn't stop misguided fans 
from assuming that her longtime engineer Del Palmer is the man behind the 
curtain.  

"'People will come up to me occasionally and say, "Well--wink, wink--I'm sure 
that you're the one who *really* does the producing,"' admits Palmer.  'Of 
course, I always tell them that Kate is in complete and total control of her 
work.  I'm probably a little too sensitive about it, but no matter what I say 
to one of these doubters, I always feel like a hint of skepticism remains.'"

-- Excerpted from "The Gender Gap" by Michael Molenda.  "Electronic Musician", 
December 1994. 


I wish they could've interviewed Kate, but she warrants an entire article on 
her unique production style.  I remember one of the best interviews with Kate 
that I've read was in "Musician" magazine around the time of HoL that explored 
her studio techniques in great depth; it went through the album on almost a 
track-by-track basis highlighting different "tricks" and unusual 
orchestration/arrangements she used.  I'd love another one along those lines.   
She could teach a lot of producers and musicians out there quite a thing or 
two!  

Alright, enough already from me for today--happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

--Connie