Touring and "Evolution"

["Rick Creighton" <rcreighton@smtpinet.aspensys.com>]

Rhys said, on Kate touring:



    >which is relevant to Kate, is one of having evolved so much in their 
    >music to be unable to give it justice on stage. What justice could be 
    >done to Cloudbusting or Big Stripey Lie on stage?

I believe what you mean is that they (the Beatles and KaTe) have become so 
reliant on the "tools of their trade" that their music could no longer stand on 
it's own in live, un-edited, un-tweaked performance...

As much as I love KaTe's music (and the Beatles!), the simple truth is that it 
is NOT the evolution of their MUSIC that prevents them from touring, it is the 
evolution of their STYLE of performing that music that prevents an effective 
stage performance. If Kate wrote music that was primarily acoustic, (or even 
just straight electric stuff that could played in one pass, without 128 tracks 
of mixing, and 64 sequence channels, and 16 drum machines, et.al....) her music 
would most likely be just as moving, AND it would be performable in a live 
setting. HOWEVER, KaTe, in her infinite freedom as an artist, has deemed it 
necessary to take advantage of every technological doodad and thingamabob at her 
disposal in the studio, in order to create the images and sounds she wants to 
record in her music...

As much as I dislike Tori Amos (and all the rest of her snivelling, "Oh, I'm 
such a poor victim" slacker contemporaries...) I DO like the fact that I can hum 
(or even sing) along with many of her songs, AND I can remember the melodies, 
and reproduce them when whistling in the shower (or humming on the train) 
without having to be a musical viruoso. You can plunk her songs out on a guitar, 
piano, or tin whistle. I would venture to say you couldn't do that with much of 
KaTe's work in the last 10 years...

Pink Floyd continues to perform publically, regardless of how "technically" 
complex and over-produced their music becomes. And they STILL manage to do their 
songs justice live. I've seen it several times.

Saying that an artist's music had "evolved" past the point of permitting live 
performance is a cop-out. Most likely, KaTe is tired of the BS involved with 
touring, she is getting a little too old for the road, and she doesn't want to 
give up the safety, security, and comfort of her studio...

Would you, if you had thousands of fans as rabid as us hounding you?

As a fan, I wish KaTe would just drop all the electronic gadgetry, play the 
piano, get a good rhythm section and a few acoustic guitars, and just SING!

But as a fellow human being, I can certainly understand why she stays at home 
drinking tea, smoking cigs, and occasionally writing a new tune in her nice warm  
study. Personally, I would probably stay at home too, and occasionally "press 
execute", much like what I'm doing now...

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|   Richard A. Creighton            |  e:mail: emerald7@his.com            |
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