Re: "Watching You Without Me"

[btd@carina.cray.com (Bryan Dongray)]

IEDSRI@aol.com [Sun, 14 May 1995 02:22:18 -0400] sort of wrote:
> It sounds more like "Zwoh-nikh-noh, zwoh-nikh-noh nee, et-nee
> nong-widz-aw nee noy" than the actual words Kate Bush is singing.
	...
> "Talk to me, listen to me, talk to me, talk to me, baby..."
> These words apparently were recorded within the momentary gaps
> which break up the forward-directional recording.]
	...
> fractured by some sound-treatment process known only to Kate.

AND

Walker, John [Mon, 15 May 1995 11:27:02 -0400] wrote:
> I might be able to shed some light on this.  One very
> simple way to achieve the "fractured" sound of these
> passages would be to use a switch, either on the microphone
> itself or by routing the signal through a switch after it was
> recorded, and just turn the vocal signal on and off while recording it
> to an open track.

I'd just like to point out that the two versions you hear in the song,
sound as if they could be cut and "magically" put back together, they
would each be the gaps of the other. Listen the the T in talk in each
version, or the L in listen.

One way to achieve this is to have two tracks recording, and quickly
keep switching the input between each.
Here it is as a picture:
				 /------Recording 1 (on blank)
				/
	Words being spoken ----< switching at about 10 times/second
				\
				 \------Recording 2 (on blank)

Listening back to each recorded track individually will give this effect,
I believe both tracks were used (sequentially) with the rest of the
instruments. Sounds excellent, I wonder who had the idea to do this?

One thing I have noticed about the differences between the HOL LP and CD,
is the the four pictures on the LP:
	1 Front Cover:	Kate with eyes open and two dogs
	2 Back Cover:	B/W Kate posing (I suppose as a witch)
	3 Sleeve A:	Kate with eyes closed and two dogs
	4 Sleeve B:	B/W Kate posing closer (but different) shot
The CD, also has four pitcures, but have duplicated 2, and lost 3.
Anyone suspect this is a mistake?

On the subject of reverse sounds, did you know that the word "puella",
which is Latin for girl (pronounced poo-el-a', short a) when played
backwards sounds like "hello". I once saw a 30 or 45 min "play" on TV
where someone dressed like Alice (as in Wonderland) and her father were
talking about "Why do things always get in a muddle". It was completely
played backwards, including things like tidying up (obviously they
untidied everything at the start), and including the soundtrack.
That MUST have been hard to learn, anyone else seen it?

			Bryan Dongray