Re: Love-Hounds digest V12 #198

[krys.thomas@wmcmail.wmc.ac.uk]

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Love-Hounds digest V12 #198
Author:  love-hounds@gryphon.com at internet
Date:    19/06/96 09:51


     
Love-Hounds digest         Tuesday, 18 June 1996       Volume 12 : Number 198
     
In this issue:
Irish Press bits
RE: Kate Bush fans should love Enya
     
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From: "SEAN TWOMEY (ARCHAEOLOGY) PG" <TWOMEYS@acadamh.ucd.ie> 
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 15:20:56 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Irish Press bits
     
I have been meaning to pass on these bits from Irish mags so here 
they are !
     
Donal Lunny ( the producer of Common Ground ) , has been very active 
in promoting the album in this country . Even in the week after 
release when on tour in Hong Kong , he was doing phone interviews on 
Irish radio .The most prominent media item has been a large three 
page feature in Ireland's biggest music paper Hot Press in their 29th 
of May edition .
     
Liam Fay , the writer of the article comments that the album is 
"arguably the most unblemished and cohesive of the star-studded 
co-operative musical ventures which have become so ubiquitous of late 
.........a strenuous contender for Irish album of the year ."
     
In the interview  there is much mention of Kate and the following 
passage is lifted direct off the feature :
                      .......................................
     
" For Lunny , the agreement of Kate Bush ,with whom he had laboured 
before ( most notably on her Hounds Of Love album ), to come aboard 
was crucial to the realisation of the whole undertaking . "Kate had, 
via Bill Whelan, assembled a group of Irish musicians to play on a 
number of her albums," he asserts. "I know Bill developed a close 
friendship with her which is more than I've had time or opportunity 
to do. But Kate and I did have a couple of very nice phonecalls since 
we last worked together. When I rang her up about this, her interest 
was immediate. That was very gratifying. She had taken a year off 
from work of any kind and this was bang in the middle of it. she 
opened herself to several weeks' work by taking it on, maybe more 
than she bargained for. I knew she'd be good and she didn't give up 
until it was right. She's a real joy to work with. She is 
exceptionally considerate and thoughtful with people. Add to that how 
much she cares about what she does and the fact that she will not do 
something unless she feels she can give of her best. Hats off. She's 
a wonderful woman " Ms. Bush's contribution - a fiery interpretation 
of Mna na hEireann - as gaeilge ( IN IRISH - Sean ) - may well prove 
to be among the most contraversial cuts on Common Ground .
"She was very excited with the idea of singing the Irish in a way 
that Irish speakers would understand," explains Lunny. "And of 
conveying the meaning of the song through the sounds of the words. I 
helped as much as I could. She had Sean O SE's recording of Mna na 
hEireann as reference. She was as faithful to the pronunciations as 
she could possibly be. It was with characteristic care and attention 
that she approachhed it. She did not stint one bit. Of course you'll 
get people saying , `Oh ,you'd know she doesn't talk Irish straight 
off '.You wouldn't  know it straight off. I would defend her efforts 
as being totally sincere. No matter how perfect she gets it, she's 
not an Irish speaker .This may rankle with some people ."   
     
                 ...........................................
     
Indeed in another recent review Kate gets slagged ( there's always one 
!!! ) for exactly the same reasons which Lunny  suspected she might 
but this review seems to be a reactionary piece to the Hot Press 
feature :
     
        " There is too much hype surrounding this album, in which I 
probably originally participated, interviewing its producer Donal 
Lunny, for this newspaper. Then we had the Late Late Show special, a 
three page feature in Hot Press and claims that it is a contender for 
title of "Irish album of the year ". As a musical mix of artists who 
allegedly are equally at home in the "common ground" of rock and 
Irish music, it is, at best, richly resonant along those lines, at 
worst ,mediocre .Bono and Adam Clayton setting Tomorrow in a more 
acoustic setting than their previous recording of the song is the 
former and Kate Bush fumbling her way through Mna na hEireann, is the 
latter .Likewise, Andy Irvine's My Heart's Tonight In Ireland which is 
as clumsy as it's title , while Maire Brennan, Sharon Shannon, 
Christy Moore and Paul Brady occasionally rescue a project that was 
obviously full of good intentions but finally falls far more often 
than it soars."               JOE JACKSON - The Irish Times
     
        ..............................................
     
I can assure you that this was the only bad review I've come across 
of Kate's song and as a reasonably fluent speaker of Irish I can 
totally back up everything Donal said about the job Kate did with the 
lyrics !
Hot Press officially reviewed the album two issues after the feature 
and while it had some reservations about the project, it describes 
Kate's track as " impressive ". The Late Late Show TV special was very 
good featuring many of the artists BUT NOT KATE ! . The highlight was 
Sinead's stunning Raglan Road .
     
If anyone didn't get the info on the history of the track I will 
gladly forward it to them !
     
I will try to dig up something nice I have at home that Larry Adler said 
about Kate on SKY TV when The Man I Love came out !I'm not sure if 
anyone has it ...... it's a short but sweet quote that I didn't read 
in Homeground !
     
PHEW ! I am not used to typing so I'm going for a cuppa !!!!!!
     
SEAN : )
     
     
     Thanks Sean for reproducing the press items re "Common Ground" and, 
     particularly, Kate.  It's lovely to be able to read stuff in papers we 
     don't get here and good to read Kate getting mentions yet again.  It's 
     a bit of a shame there was some slagging off; I can't judge her 
     pronunciation myself as I am not an Irish speaking person, but I 
     imagine she had to work very hard to get it right - it's not an easy 
     language.  I have a rough tape 9from a friend) of most of the album 
     and for me Kate's track stands out a mile.  I was particularly 
     impressed with the overall production - of course we have come to 
     accept that Kate's productions are always superb - but what most 
     delighted me is that she seems to have used some gentler effects on 
     the vocals than has been in use of late, the hard and often brittle 
     edge (too much compression?) found on The Red Shoes has apparently 
     been dispensed with here and the softer sound of the vocal compliments 
     the beautiful backing wonderfully.  
     
     As a footnote, has anyone noticed the remarkable likeness of the 
     melody to parts of the soundtrack for the last film of "Wuthering 
     Heights"?  I have listened to that soundtrack back to back with Kate's 
     song, and the two are remarkable similar.  I now the song is a 
     traditional Irisk folk song, so evidently the composer of the 
     "Heights" soundtrack has heard the song in one of its forms and been 
     inspired to lift it!
     
     Looking forward to the quite from Mr. Adler re. Kate!
     
     Bright Blessings,
     
     
     Krys
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From: Kelley.Hays-Gilpin@nau.edu
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 1996 14:52:27 +0000 (GMT) 
Subject: RE: Kate Bush fans should love Enya
     
I appreciate Enya, too, but at different times and with much less 
intensity than I appreciate Kate.  When I'm listening to Kate, 
she grabs my attention, so it's hard to do anything else--except 
data entry, because that's mindless!  In fact, listening to
Kate, Loreena, Connie Dover, Peter Gabriel (but no Beatles 
except George Harrison solo), Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, 
and Sarah MacLaughlin keep me sane doing data entry.
     
Now for report writing, which requires thought, my listening 
pleasure turns to Enya, Clannad, Steeleye Span, traditional 
Irish music, Dead CAn Dance, and Indigo Girls.
     
For editing, which takes real concentration and is boring 
nonetheless, I am really distractible and irritable and need 
the relaxing sounds of Celtic Twilight and other Hearts of 
Space thingies, Hildegard von Bingen, and matters classical.
     
when it's all over, I sometimes rock with the Pogues or Bowie 
(but still, no Beatles).
     
I used to have Tori in my data entry routine--love to type to 
the piano!  But so far I really hate Boys for Pele.  I have 
heard that it grows on you but thus far it isn't.
     
cheers,
Kelley
     
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End of Love-Hounds digest V12 #198
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