This week in 1986...

[CLBECKWITH@aol.com]

Dear Friends:

The following piece was sent by a British penfriend.  It was written by Ian
Dooley, and was not identified as to source.  Perhaps a fellow Brit
love-hound could fill me in on this point.  I will in any event obtain the
relevant info within the month.  IED and Chris Williams will doubtless have a
field day picking apart the various inaccuracies in the piece, but I've taken
a non-judgmental approach in posting the following item for general
consumption.

Enjoy!--Chris B.

This week in 1986
At No. 12
KATE BUSH--Hounds of Love

      Following the critical mauling and disappointing sales returns for her
fourth album The Dreaming (1982), Kate Bush was ready to quit the music
business.

     But after a six month sabbatical, she returned to the fray, initially by
upgrading the home studio at the South London farmhouse she shared with
longtime boyfriend/backing musician Del Palmer.

     Shortly afterwards she began work on Hounds of Love, utilising the
rhythm-based writing structure she'd developed after working with Peter
Gabriel.

     Given Kate's perfectionist attitude, progress was slow.  It wasn't
unusual for her to record up to six slightly different vocal tracks or create
string arrangements on a Fairlight synthesiser only to replace them with
'real' strings on a final take.  Even the sound of waves between And Dream Of
Sheep and Under Ice had to be recorded repeatedly because EMI's FX library
didn't have 'the right kind of sea.'

     Much of Kate's lyrical inspiration came from books and films.  The title
track was contrived from the 1957 horror movie, Night Of Demons, Cloudbusting
from Peter Reich's novel about his inventor father and the decidedly
unfashionable 'concept' track, The Ninth Wave, was based on a surrealist
painting called The Hogsmith Ophelia which depicts a doll drowning in the
sea.

     On 5 September 1985, Hounds Of Love was launched with a party at the
Planetarium in London.  Seven days later, it debuted at Number One where it
stayed for the next four weeks.

     Despite record company opposition, Running Up That Hill was chosen as
the first single cull.  In Britain, it would hit No 3 to become Kate's second
biggest- selling single behind Wuthering Heights.  The song's orignal title,
Deal With God, had been jettisoned because of anticipated problems in
countries such as America, Spain and Italy.  Ironically, the song would give
Kate her highest US chart position to date--No 30.

     Further lifts, Hounds Of Love, The Big Sky and Cloudbusting would also
make the UK Top 40.  The latter named track also boasted an excellent promo
which featured Donald Sutherland and was later ingenuously sampled by the
Utah Stints...

IAN DOOLEY