Re: First Kate Song

[mahdavi@husc.harvard.edu (Andisheh Mahdavi)]

There is some Kate Bush songs that I love, and others that I
absolutely despise. It seems to me whenever Kate tries to be genuine
and tender, she fails miserably. This includes most of "The Kick
Inside."  A great exception is the line "Like poppies/heavy with seed"
from The Ninth Wave, in the song "And Dream of Sheep"; as well as
"There's a ghost in our home/just watching you without me" from the
namesake song. These are some her few truly tender moments.

Listening to the "sensuous" Kate, e.g. sensuous world, eat the music,
etc., is a totally un-sensuous experience because she tries so hard to
be sensuous and her trying too hard is transparent in a way that
totally does not become her.

The ironic/earthy/vindictive songs are Kate at her best, as well some
of the story-telling songs such as "Night of the Swallow." The first
song I really fell in love with was the ode-to-Satie, "Symphony in
Blue," but that was because I was young and the notion of a rebellious
female roaring up from a comfy soft and blue surface was very
attractive to me. After three years of fan-dom I must say I think
Kate's greatest achievement is the entire song-cycle, "Dreaming,"
which in my opinion you have to listen to straight from the beginning
to "Night of the Swallow." After that there's "All The Love," which is
a weak point though referred to much later in "Jig of Life." I rarely
decide to continue through "Houdini" and "Get Out of My House" because
I usually OD on the angst by midpoint of the latter song.

The album "Hounds of Love" (NOT including the Ninth Wave songs) feels
like it was written by a Kate completely different from the one who
wrote all her other stuff. I listen to it for different reasons than
those that would drive me to "Never for Ever" or "Dreaming" or "The
Ninth Wave."  Does anyone agree? If so why do you think it is we feel
this way.

							-AM