Re: Which demo ???

[Richard Bensam <rabensam@earthlink.net>]

Grifone inquires:

>Hi,
>do you have any opinion about Cathy's demo song ? Which one you think is
>the greatest, almost as great as songs of her album.
>I put a new topic here because for many days, we don't have any new
>topic, everyday is just thesame : left-hand drive, six degree of Kevin
>Bacon, Love-hound digest......

Ha!  You left out "I just heard Kate's new album is coming out soon!  Does
anyone have any details?" and "When is Kate's next tour?"  Both invariably
followed by a lot of mean-spirited and sarcastic (but funny) responses from
jaded Lovehounds who really should know better.

I've heard about 25 to 30 unreleased songs or demo versions, which is by no
means all of the songs available, but for some reason the one that always
stays with me is "Keeping Me Waiting" a.k.a. "Keep Me Waiting" a.k.a.
"Stranded At The Moonbase."  I have no idea why this one should stand out
the way it does, but it is the one unreleased demo song that I'll hum to
myself constantly and try to imagine what it might sound like in a finished
version.  That said, I don't think it's as good as any of the finished,
officially released songs; none of the demos are.  Kate's instincts about
what songs were worth continuing to work on and develop seem to have been
very sound.

(Apart from the Lovehound's natural compulsion to possess everything
related to Kate, hearing the demos offers a very useful insight into the
creative process.  As a wee lad, I used to get *very* discouraged in my
writing because of the huge amount of unusable work I was producing in
proportion to the tiny percentage which was actually worthwhile...until I
heard writers I admired talking about how much time they spent on failed
attempts and false starts.  I've since realized this is the same for any
creative field.)

My number two choice of favorite demo song, if I get a second choice, would
be "Passing Through Air" which Kate herself could tolerate well enough that
it enjoyed an official release as a b-side, although it stayed in the
original demo form.


RAB

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