Re: Jewel Bush?

[chrisw@wwa.com (Chris Williams)]

>I went and bought the single so as not to take a chance on the album,
>the single being "God" as all those familiar with Tori have probably
>gathered by now...well, she played the piano, as Kate also does, true,
>but Tori's playing really
>BLEW ME AWAY(to put it lightly). It was nothing less than stunning...she
>had actually just written a couple of short suites and included them on
>the single...and they had their own flavors, emotions, and stories to
>tell...to be frank with you, Kate's piano playing never had the same
>emotional impact on me...but anyways...

   This shows why such comparisons are pointless. Tori was a child prodigy,
trained at the Peabody Conservatory and is one of the best players in
pop music. Kate, on the other hand, is self-taught. She had music lessons...
on the violin. She learned the piano as an escape from the violin.

   You'd have a hard time finding two more different approaches to the
same instrument in pop. But still people want to compare. Tori is obviously
the better player. You could argue that her chops affect her songwriting.
Personally "Boys For Pele" is Tori trying to *escape* her superior 
technical knowledge of music. 

   Kate learned to play the guitar to write "Big Stripy Lie". The result
is completely unlike anything she has ever written. "Sat In Your Lap"
was composed on the Fairlight, and was a breakthrough to a new style.

   One other *major* difference; Tori writes songs she can play live.
Kate, sadly, doesn't even consider this.

   I've been a Kate fan since 1979. I've been a Tori fan since "Little
Earthquakes" (though we owned a copy of "Y Kant Tori Read"). I've seen
Tori in concert well over a dozen times. I've never seen Kate in concert.
That's the biggest difference of all.


Chris Williams of
   Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago
      chrisw@wwa.com
"How perfectly goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" - C. Crumb