Re: Unidentified subject!

["Alan Chamberlin" <abckid@ix.netcom.com>]

Karen Newcombe <kln@staralliance.com> wrote in article
<3.0.32.19970318144139.006af128@pop.sirius.com>...
> Peter,
> 
> Having thought about it for a few days, I think there are some points
that
> can be made about HOL that I'd personally hate to see overlooked in favor
> of EMI gushing about sales numbers  after all, what's important to us
> isn't whether an album sells a billion copies, but how it makes us feel
and
> what it makes us think.
> 
> HOL is not only one of the most ambitious popular music undertakings of
the
> 80's, it is one of the most successful.  The success is layered and
> multi-leveled, like the album itself.
> 
> First there is the juxtaposition of the Apollonian and Dianic influence 
> the bright, driven, outgoing and nearly anthemic Side A placed opposite
the
> occluded, benthic, inward focus of The Ninth Wave.  A brilliant pairing,
> the two sets of music reflect and complement each other.
> 
> Secondly there is the sheer genius of musicality: Kate is at a brilliant
> point in her mastery of composition. Drawing on the varied musical
> traditions she has been exposed to she has distilled an entire world of
> music, voice, natural sounds into a sequence of coherent works that tap
> directly into the listener's emotional center.  Our hearts soar into
orbit
> with Kate's voice when she sings "Hello Earth, hello earth, watching
storms
> start to form over America . . ." One cannot listen to the thrum, thrum,
> thrum-thrum-thrum of Cloudbusting without marching forward, so how
> appropriate that this song is about the ability of a child to witness the
> terrible treatment of his father by the government yet find a way to
> continue his own life.  
> 
> Which bring us to the content of HOL/TNW.  Kate's content is vastly
> ambitious, from the "Side A" exploration of relationships with others
such
> as love, murder, misunderstanding and negotiation, to the Ninth Wave's
dive
> into the realms of one's own soul.  No other popular album of the 80's
> dared address the depth of content that Kate did.  But it is unfair to
> compare other albums with HOL; they simply can't hold up.
> 
> Two aspects of HOL deserve more recognition: The Ninth Wave and the
> "B-Sides" Kate produced to accompany the singles.  I can't think of
another
> piece of music in the popular music realm as complex, unified, and
complete
> as The Ninth Wave.  The Ninth Wave holds up as a remarkable
accomplishment
> that has always left me wishing Kate would work on more long pieces. 
> 
> The "B-Sides" that accompanied the singles for HOL were gems in their own
> right: The Handsome Cabin Boy was humorous, My Lagan Love was lovely a
> capella, Not This Time had us all tooriyah tooriyoh-ing in time, and then
> she hit us with what is possibly the most beautiful song in existence,
> Under the Ivy.   As if that wasn't enough, several remarkable remixes of
> the singles were made available, including the nearly seven minute
> Meteorological Mix of The Big Sky which begins with an Australian
> digeridoo, blows a passing kiss at the clouds of Ireland, and ends with
> Native American rain chants.   
> 
> You almost could not remove a song, a note, a word from the entire album
> and have it still hold together.  Like a poem, it is self-contained and
> perfect, and the remarkable thing is that Kate has gone on to give us The
> Sensual World and The Red Shoes, albums very different in scope and
> objective from Hounds of Love, but ultimately informed by what Kate
learned
> in making Hounds. 
> 
> My two cents worth . . .
> 
> Karen  
> 
> P.S.  Any chance of encouraging EMI to also make the B-sides available?
> I'd still like to have a better recording of that RUTH instrumental
version.
> 
> 
> 
> Karen Newcombe  kln@staralliance.com
> 
> I am not this steeply sloping hour in which you see me hurrying -- Rainer
> Maria Rilke
> 
> 

Karen,

I love Kate's music also and count HOL among my favorite Kate albums.  For
your own good I do believe you should put down that copy of the Jim
Morrison biography you're reading.  The sooner the better.  It will rot
your brain out.  :-)

Appolic and Dianic indeed!

Where's Ray Manzerak when you need a truly pedantic lecture on the
Dionysian heroes in R'n'R?

-- 
Alan Chamberlin
----

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Santayana