Erotic Kate

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

	Chris Williams flashed the Batsignal in the Gotham sky.  Replying to 
Ann Cahill, a young woman here at Stony Brook professionally involved in 
feminist studies, he wrote:

> PS, you have access to the best, and most mature of all the Love-Hounds,
> Peter Manchester. He's also at SUNYSB. Drop him a line sometime.
> Tell him his wise council is sorely missed here.

	If I'm supposed to say anything in that kind of context, you will 
allow me to begin with a disclaimer.  I've seen my name turn up in lists of 
`old-timers' that were part of recent threads here, that I will not attempt 
to reconstruct because they are hilarious.  Me a senior love-hound?!

	I found the lh digest in late 1988, about six months before the 
release of "The Sensual World."  At the time I was a Great Expert about Kate 
Bush--in my own eyes for sure, and for real, at least in the context of the 
East Setauket fan club, which consisted of me and my friend Margaret.  My 
first encounter with our then HPsM (humble-pseudo-moderator) |>oug /\lan 
consisted of provoking him to scorn and derision over my expressed admiration 
for "Not This Time," which I quickly proved I deserved (but not the song!) on 
account of *several* blunderheaded mis-hearings of lines in the lyrics that 
|>oug had to correct.  About the same time I got run over by a truckman--
pardon:  Mr. Drukman--for making pronouncements about how many videos had 
accompanied pre-TSW albums that proved to be confused and ill-informed.  And 
in that connection, I was also corrected from on high by this astonishing and 
appalling character IED.  I had thought I was the ultimate fan, checking 
Billboard weekly, but then I began to read Ed Suranyi, who was listening to 
every radio station in the Bay Area simultaneously all the time.  I had 
thought I knew all about kb, and had everything.  I had Kerton, Vermorel, the 
Musician interview, stacks of reviews.  I had all the albums, all the import 
12" and 7" releases since HoL, the Single File box, the Hammersmith Show, the 
EMI Japan Singles File video, and indeed, a letter from Kate Bush herself.

	But as I continued to read the digest, I realized that I had seen 
nothing, had nothing, and knew nothing.  No, not an old-timer here; just 
old.

	And so busy lately that I must confess to sin:  I had piled up 
*eleven* unread lh-digests that I only caught up with this morning.  While I 
have often enough been beaten down into a silent lurker, I have never before 
fallen so far behind in at least keeping current.  But there was a plus side 
to this:  I had been alerted to check for potentially worrisome heat in a set 
of threads about Kate and feminism, in which discussion of porn had also 
gotten involved.  So I screen captured all that stuff, have read it through 
again, and have some comments.

	Let's do some elementary phenomenology.  Why is there a thread about 
Kate and feminism?  Well, ostensibly because there is some quote from Kate 
somewhere, distancing herself from `feminism'.  Not so much distancing as 
ambiguating.  <da: brutal neologisms like this are part of what you were 
asking me about.>  That's a lawyer's defense:  Kate Kontent because Kate said 
thus-and-so.  No, the real reason lies deeper.

	We get some guidance from the last thread that got flamey in a similar 
way, over an arguably sexist reference to Kate's female physical presence in 
her work that used to be in the FAQ.  This was about a year ago.

	Let's take it from the top.  In her classic phase (roughly NfE, TD, 
and HoL), Kate was (and forever is) a definitive instance of what was then 
being called `performance art'.  In my view, Kate Bush took this the farthest 
of any of them (Pink Floyd, Genesis with Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel solo, 
Laurie Anderson) because she made herself impressario of her own `darshan' 
<Sanskrit for `presence', appearance>.  A Kate Bush album release was an 
extraordinarily orchestrated event.  HoL was perhaps the peak of this.  The 
single (RutH, UtI); the album; the videos.  KB had more artistic control by 
the time of NfE than the Rolling Stones attained until their mid-70s contract 
with Warner Bros., ten years into their career.  When she came to NYC in late 
1985 as part of the promotion of HoL, there was an article in Billboard 
introducing her as performer and producer of her work, and her own agent for 
interviews, guest appearances, etc.

	Her work as keeper of the gate for her own releases, videos, and 
promotional appeaances was clearly an extension of the role she had played in 
developing the concept and execution of the Tour of Life in 1979, her one 
live performance tour.  Because KB Live at Hammersmith Odeon is how I first 
was smitten by her, I tend to orient all my thinking about her from the point 
of view of what she accomplished in that production.

	The point I want to get to is that KB has plainly always used all of 
the tools that nature has given her as elements of her work, and this 
includes not just her voice (as she developed it) but her female beauty.  She 
has explored this resource by seeking professional training in dance and in 
mime, but above all she has become knowing about it because of her family.  
Her oldest brother Jay (John Carder) Bush worked with her in her childhood, 
but mainly between the ages of 9 to 12, as a photographic model.  The 
published result is the overwhelmingly collaborative and beautiful  Cathy 
book, which really must be seen to be believed.  And all through there she 
and Paddy were listening and groving and playing together.

	In the KB and porn dimensions of recent threads, there has been 
serious and valuable comment on the role of media commonplaces, cartoon 
targets, and PC attitudinizing.  There has been some hollering that will 
shortly quiet down because it is simply out to lunch and silly.

	The single biggest transformation of lh-digest/rec.music.gaffa over 
the six years I have been reading it has to do with our arrival as one of the 
most balanced and healthy of all newsgroups in regard to male/female matters. 
We have as balanced a cast of characters with regard to gender as any 
newsgroup I know anything about.  We have acerbic women, ironic women, 
magical women, silly and confused women, tested and true women, and just 
about the same measure as we have women as men.  I have the impression that 
this has become a resource for us; that flamewars get aborted sooner than 
they would have if only male egos were involved.

	I think that we are, and should be, a positive resource to the world 
in regard to man/woman questions, precisely because Kate Bush sings out of so 
healing a context in this regard.

	There is a whole disquisition that I could try to write out for us, 
about why the man and the woman frighten each other.  And about why we become 
furtive and evasive and unable to speak to one another about what we know and 
admit about ourselves.  It has to do with Genesis 2 and Genesis 3, with the 
woman's answer to the serpent, with the ancient Mesopotamian contexts for the 
image of a woman whose name is Life (Eve) giving to a man his wisdom and his 
mortality.  Let me just tell you tonight that this whole area is a problem 
deeper than morality and politics.  Let bleeding dead Jesus redeem you from 
your sins, but this next area is still wide open.

	Do please let us all be kind and considerate if we want to make these 
topics prominent in this newsgroup.  Maybe we have to.  Vickie achieved a 
synthesis of her testimony this past week that enobles us all.  Please you 
newbies here, stand aside on this one.

	p

............................................................................
                                                            Peter Manchester
       "a deal with God!"                      pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.edu
                                                    72020.366@compuserve.com