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Date: 19-JUN-1986 12:16:30
From: SSUD3%UK.AC.SUSSEX.VAX2@AC.UK
Subject: Record Mirror June 21st 1986
Here's the latest news from today's new issue of RECORD MIRROR (June 21):
"The Hair of the Hound" video compilation has just been released here. It turns out that Kate directed both "Hounds of Love" and "The Big Sky" on her own. The inside of the cover has a great photo from the CB video. The cover artwork is basically exactly the same design and set-up as the album, except that the album title has been replaced with the video title. The back has a photo from the video for "Running up that Hill."
Hugh
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 90 09:06:27 +0100
From: Andreas Bjorklind <abj@IDA.LiU.SE>
Subject: MusikDramatik (4/89) article
Article from the Swedish "serious" magazine MusikDramatik's (Musical drama) fourth issue 1989. It is written by Ola Stensson. The translation is mine, with help from Ms. Carina Skytt.
Preamble:
"Much can be included in the conception of musical drama --eg rock videos. Might this be an art form belonging to the future? Ola Stensson have studied one rock artist with artistic ambitions -- Kate Bush."
The article:
"There is one enormously vital art form that have been ignored in Swedish arts pages during the eighties -- the rock video. It is possible that this means of expression already has changed our perception, our view of a dramatic course of events, our sense of rhythm, and also our view of man.
The rock video is nothing new -- it's nearly as old as the form of music itself. The interesting thing is that while this music has stepped back after the reshaping years of 1966-1971, rock, in it's capacity of visual medium, has developed and is at the moment most creative, vital, and often experimental. The situation today is really paradoxal. Sometimes it can almost be as if Harry Kupfer should produce Laurel & Hardy film.
There are exeptions where music, lyrics, and visuals are a synthesis, and where we are at the Complete Work of Art. An example of an artist with ambitions as well as means of creating something like this is Kate Bush. It's not a question of comparing her to Wagner, Alban Berg, Karl-Birger Blomdahl, or someone else with their ambition. But, she is an example of what could be done and what always can be done. Most of the innovation remains.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Kate Bush is English, and was born in 1958, made a hit in 1978 with "Wuthering Heights", a song based on Emily Bronte's novel. She has since released six albums. The music is sometimes superficially very difficult to access, with complicated arrangements and dared shifts in rhythm, especially on the LP "The Dreaming" form 1982. This dosen't hinder a strong influence from folk-music, not the least the Irish, like in "Hounds of Love" (1985) or the Bulgarian as in "The Sensual World" (1989).
If you go through Kate Bush's videos from the beginning you find a development that pretty well correspond to the one her music has undergone. Here follow some examples.
...
These songs about no contact and ignorance about the reality, were in some sense exchanged by sturdiness in her next album, "Hounds of Love". The perhaps most famous video from this production is about "a deal with god" and is called "Running Up That Hill". Is it possible to make a deal with God -- a deal implying that the Man and the Woman in a relationship change places, change identities? The answer is of course no, and is first illustrated by an intense dance between Kate and a man. Then she leaves on her own, but wherever she walks she is met by her opposite -- people with her beloved's mask. She gets desperate and soon meets people wearing masks identical with her own. Humans may change identity, they might even look like her, but she herself cannot change with anyone.
HOUNDS OF LOVE
In the video for the song "Hounds of Love" she works as a guide in a factory, where she finds a man who draws her to him. They flee into the forest, but the "Hounds of Love" hunts them. They come to a house in the woods, where a merry party is going on. Kate chains herself to the man, they dance out, but it's not a question of love, the "Hounds of Love" get tired and give up hunting them. She's afraid of love as a frightful possibility, and attach herself to a man only to be able to renounce.
A video with a lot more hopeful tone in it is illustrated by "Cloudbusting", based on a novel by Peter Reich which deals with the child and the father -- the father has built a rain-making machine. Everything is seen through the eyes of the child. The father (played by Donald Sutherland) is caught by brutal police men in civilian clothes. The child (Kate) sees him being taken away, but runs to the machine and makes it start raining. She rejoices -- the machine is working -- and the peoples creative power is stronger than the oppression. The sky opens and the water pours down over Cornwall.
Thus can Kate Bush's world look -- anyhow in the video version, even if she sometimes herself expresses a fear that it might seem too narcissistic. It would carry to far to deal with all the details around colouration, choreography, and cutting rhythm. But the rock video surely opens new perspectives, and also a multitude of interpretation possibilities, at least when it's in the hands of very gifted people. And we have seen far from the end yet.
The conclusion is: Don't be afraid of the rock culture, and, particularly, don't be afraid of the Bush lass. She has much to give us, regardless to which generation we belong. And the rock video, as has been said, is a very vital part of musical drama which we now must not look down on. Don't content yourselves with reading about this: See it and form your own opinion!"
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 90 10:46 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: re the Musik Dramatik article
Sincere thanks to Andreas for transcribing the Musik Dramatik article on symbolism in Kate's videos. Some of Ola's observations were very interesting, though several were unfortunately flawed by a mis-interpretation of the English lyrics of the song. The setting of the video of Hounds of Love is not a "factory", but some kind of natural science museum, or perhaps a kind of wartime interum-museum which combines art collections with industrial exhibits.
IED disagrees with Ola's interpretation of the entire Hounds of Love video, in fact. No mention is made of the fact that the man is on the run from the law (and the attendant symbolism of the handcuffs, which are first placed on the heroine's hand, and finally placed on the man's hand by the heroine), or of the very deliberate references to Hitchcock (talk about symbolism!). IED's conclusion is that, as welcome as Ola's article is, it barely scratches at the surface of Kate's symbolic video imagery. For a "serious" article, it is disappointingly brief, superficial and haphazard.
Having said all this, it would seem only fair that IED should attempt to do better. He will try to post a supplement to Ola's article about Kate's video imagery sometime in the near future.
Date: Tue, 22 May 90 09:38:46 -0400
From: juli@carr.dartmouth.edu
(Julian West)
Subject: Kate and homeopathy (Hair of the Hound)
The title of Kate's video compilation The Hair of the Hound is a variant of the well-known phrase "the hair of the dog that bit him". This is defined in Chambers (1983) as "a smaller dose of what ails one: a homeopathic remedy " (emphasis ours). More grist for the Kate and homeopathy debate?
j'n'j
ps Chambers gives "him" but not "her"
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 85 10:17:10 edt
From: Tim Wicinski <wicinski@nrl-css.ARPA>
Subject: Kate Bush on MTV: RUTH
Believe it or not, during last friday night on the MTV top -20 video countdown they showed 1 complete minute of Running up that Hill!!!!!! Unbelieveable !! It was when they were running down the english top 10 (right before the 5th video), and they showed what looked like the video Kate made and not the one EMI banned or whatever those bozos did. It looked really well done, and it did not look 'provacative' and 'sexually suggesting' as EMI says. For the short time it was on tv, it looked good. The Sex Pistols were right about EMI.....
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 85 04:38:36 edt
From: Doug Alan <nessus>
Subject: Kate Bush on Empty-V!
"Running Up That Hill" is now on Empty-V as a full video! I haven't see it yet (I don't have cable), but a friend of mine has. Empty-V is *not* showing the actual promotional video that Kate made up, instead they are showing (I infer from the description the friend gave me) a film of Kate's live performance of the song on the Terry Wogan show. Paddy Bush is in the video, and Kate comes out dressed in a cloak and at the end of the song loads an arrow into her bow.
-Doug
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 85 05:46:15 edt
From: Henry Chai <chai%utflis%toronto.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: KB on Canadian music channel
The equivalent of MTV in Canada is called MuchMusic and is available only on cable. Every day they do a spot light on an artist, and they've done KB at least twice already, but since I don't have cable I missed every single show. Sigh.
The other day I was shopping in Eaton's, one of the largest department chain stores across Canada. Suddenly I heard familiar but strange sounds (if that is not a contradiction in terms!) and I quickly hunt for the source... Aha! it's coming from one of the numerous (~15) TV sets they place around the fashion departments, all of which are showing MuchMusic. And what could be playing but "The Dreaming"! I've only seen this video once before so I just stood there entranced. After it finished, I was starting to turn away, but decided to see what was coming up next. Hmm, a woman's hand reaching out to a man's hand.... WHAT??!! IT CAN'T BE... YES IT IS!! it's RUNNING UP THAT HILL!! I've only seen bits of it in the "New Music" interview, and this time I got to see it from beginning to end. The first half was mainly `modern ballet' between Kate and the male dancer, but I like the latter half better, where Kate starts to run away and is grabbed by the man, and especially the ending, where the crowd wore paper mask of the male dancer's face, then wore masks of Kate's face, and finally Kate `sinking' into the sea of people.
So, fellow loyal `Lionhearts', be content that the original (?) version of RUtH has been shown to the naive public, though they may not recognize ART even if they see it!
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 85 05:42:23 edt
From: Doug Alan <nessus>
Subject: Bitter-Sweet Ecstacy: RUTH
I just saw both videos for "Running Up That Hill"! A friend who gets cable told me that they were showing RUTH on MTV, so I lent him my VCR to record MTV at night, while everyone is sleeping. A couple days later, he called me back and said he got it. So I went over to his house and we watched the video for RUTH that they are showing on MTV four times. Then we turned off the TV and I disconnected the VCR. As soon as I had finished disconnecting the VCR, I turned on the TV to make sure the cable connection was hooked up right.
When I turned on the TV, I heard the music for RUTH, so I started to wonder how the VCR could still be hooked up. But the VCR was unplugged. So then I wondered if MTV was showing RUTH again, but when I looked at the channel, it was on a different channel. So then I eventually got around to looking at the TV, but what I saw on the TV wasn't the video for RUTH. Then finally I realized that what I was seeing is the *original* video for RUTH. And then I nearly fainted, because I had just disconnected the VCR!!!!!
V66, a music video TV station in Massachusetts, showed the original promo video!
In any case, both videos are excellent, though Kate's promo video just totally blows away the clip from the Terry Wogan show that MTV is showing. It's the best video I've ever seen! Even better than Gariel's "Shock The Monkey" and "I Don't Remember". I don't understand why MTV doesn't show the promo video, because from what I saw of it, it isn't overly erotic, as I had previously thought. Not nearly so much as the "Hammer Horror" video, which is extremely erotic. My guess is that they think it is too "artsy fartsy" with Kate doing her wonderful dancing. I would also guess that when the song becomes a big success in the U.S., MTV will show the original video too. There are some promblems with RUTH doing well in the U.S., though. Apparently, EMI-America didn't expect the song to do as well as it is, and they didn't press nearly enough copies. Every place is sold out of them, and they can't restock until EMI finishes pressing more.
The original promo video is just as Henry Chai described it, except that *all* of it is equally amazing! The dancing is completely wonderful.... I could gush for hours....
The video on MTV is definitely a clip from the Terry Wogan show, where Kate performed the song live (though no one is *really* singing or playing their instruments) in front of an audience on August 5th. It starts off with a a guy saying something like "And here's Kate Bush!" Then there's clapping, and the guy fades to a shot of two flags. Then we see military drums, and then the camera zooms out to reveal the whole stage. Kate is standing at a podium, wearing a cloak and an archery bow. Behind her are a small and strange marching band standing in a semi-circle. There are two drummers with miltary drums. There are two guitarists. There is Kate's brother, Paddy, with a balalaika, and there is a guy with a Yamaha KX keyboard that he's wearing with a shoulder strap. Behind the marching band are two guys holding flags.
Kate does not dance at all in this performance (it's one of the very few where she does not). Instead she stands at the podium and gestures with her arms and with her head as if she is a preacher in a church, preaching to a large congregation, as she sings about making a deal with God. As the performance goes on, the podium gets shorter and shorter until Kate is kneeling at the podium, and looks like a Bible thumping Baptist minister kneeling in front of his congregation.
At the end of the song, Kate removes her bow and pulls an arrow from Paddy's quiver. She loads the bow, draws, and aims it at the sky (At heaven? At God? At the "killer storm"?)
I think I'm going to buy a color TV today... Boy, I sure wish I could see the original promo video again.....
-Doug
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 85 03:13:49 edt
From: Doug Alan <nessus>
Subject: RUTH video
Here is a description of Kate's original video for RUTH that I posted to net.music, but neglected to send to love-hounds:
The original promo video is largely a work of modern ballet that Kate choreographed and performed with a male dancer. It is completely wonderful. Both Kate and the male dancer are dressed exactly the same, in blue-grey shirts and strange blue-grey skirts. Parts of the dance seem to symbolize being scared of love, which is the theme of the A-side of "Hounds of Love". At one point in the dance, Kate and the male dancer become symbolically crucified on each other. There is also mimed archery. Later, a croud of people all dressed like Kate and wearing masks of the male dancer's face separate Kate and the male dancer. Later Kate struggles through and tries to climb over the same croud, but this time they are wearing masks with *her* face. Eventually, she seems to drown in the croud of Kate Bush's -- symbolizing how we are forever trapped within ourselves.
"It breaks the cage, fear escapes and takes possession
Just like
a croud rioting inside"
Doug
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 86 18:25 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: RUTH
The "Running Up That Hill" film is fraught with NARRATIVE details; has everyone else already realized that? Also, with the inferior copy I had before, I had never noticed the apocalyptic clouds in the crucifixion scene. Has everyone noted the explicit reference to Dali, as well, in the God's-eye view of the cross? Or the male womb symbolism in the choreography of the first half?
...
Bear in mind that Kate Bush, as the greatest living human being, should always be considered in the context of that overwhelming truth.
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 89 16:47:52 PDT
From: dhsu@SUN.COM (David Hsu)
Subject: videos
Running Up That Hill
Where did they get the Kate picture on the masks? She looks like a refugee from an old Vidal Sassoon commercial :-)
From: Doug Alan <nessus@mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 91 13:50:36
EDT
Subject: The final word on the censorship of the RuTH video
I'm afraid I'm responsible for starting this misguided rumour that the "Running Up That Hill" video was too erotic for the U.S. market. I made this assumption years ago before the video was released in the U.S. when an acquaintence of mine, who had seen the video long before I was able to see it, told me that it was like the "Hammer Horror" video (which is far more shocking in its eroticism than the "Running Up That Hill" video). This comparison of the RuTH video with the "Hammer Horror" video, combined with the knowledge that EMI-America had told me that there were problems with "suitability" of the RuTH video, led me to conclude that the video was too erotic for the American market. I passed on this news and my assumption (though I told him it was only my assumption, and not a proven fact) to Peter Morris of Homeground via a phone conversation. He has apparently continued to pass on this rumour ever since.
The truth of the matter, however, was told by John Carter Bush at the Kate Bush convention in November of '85, so Homeground should also be aware of the accurate reason for the U.S. consorship of the real video for RuTH. It *is* true that MTV refused to play the real video for RuTH. Their refusal to play the real video lasted for the period of time that the song was in rotation on MTV. During this time they played only the Wogan TV clip. Once the song was taken out of rotation, they started playing the real video in altrenation with the Wogan clip. The reason for their refusal to play the real video, however, was not due to any eroticism in the video, but rather due to the fact that the video was not lip-synched.
MTV has (or at least had, at the time) a policy that "breaking" artists who have not yet achieved popular success in the U.S. market, must appear to sing in their videos. MTV took this complaint to EMI-America, which took the complaint to the Bush family, which decided to send EMI-America a tape of the Wogan appearance to placate the philistines in the U.S. MTV, now happy with a video which fit nicely into their pigeon-hole for "breaking" artists, promptly put it into rotation.
EMI-America distributed both videos to other TV stations, giving the stations the choice of being either philistines or bastions of taste and culture. A year later, MTV, in their infinite wisdom and hypocracy, nominated for best video by a female artist Kate's real video that they had previously refused to show.
I hope this sets the record straight!
|>oug
Date: Mon, 16 May 94 15:45:47 EDT
From: KonvenTion_Fan <vickie@pilot.njin.net>
Subject: Videos at the Convention
Scott Telford writes:
> Yes, I noticed the different ending to RutH
when I saw TLTCTC at the Edinburgh UCI last Tuesday.
Interesting. I wonder when and why the ending was changed. Peter? I forgot to ask you about it. Had you heard anything?
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 91 14:13:43 EDT
From: Andrew B Marvick <abm4@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>
Subject: HoL
As IED interprets the video of "Hounds of Love", Kate (who directed the clip herself) wanted to make a tribute to Hitchcock's British films of the 1930s, particularly "The Thirty-nine Steps". Far from having no story, "Hounds of Love" is an organized little tale of love and trust.
In the beginning Kate's heroine is a demure and withdrawn loner, visiting a museum (of a rather odd sort--perhaps a museum of science and industry?). (By the way, keep an eye out for Hitch himself in this early scene.) The hero, who plays Robert Donat's character (or a parallel thereof) in "The Thirty-nine Steps", comes in looking for a way to escape the clutches of the law. He clamps Kate's character to his wrist with handcuffs and rushes off into the night with her, with the authorities hot on their heels.
The reference here is to Richard Hannay's ploy of fettering Madeleine Carroll to him with a pair of handcuffs, whereupon he takes her off with him into the night, on the Scottish hills and dales. They take refuge at a pub (or dance hall of some kind) where a conga dance is taking place--a typical Hitchcock crowd scene. By the end of this scene Kate's character, who was initially resentful of the dangerous stranger, has warmed to the freedom from solitude and convention that he represents, and (following the hero's recapture and momentary second escape from the police) she herself snaps the handcuffs back on between them before she leads them out into the darkness to renew their flight.
The video also recalls (at least in the outdoor scene and the first few seconds of the video itself, before the song begins) the introductory reference to the movie "Night of the Demon" (aka "Curse of the Demon"). Also note Paddy's dual role (at the museum and in the public house), and a great many other fascinating little details worth discovering. IED's personal view is that this video has been badly underrated, and it's about time it got the attention it merits.
-- Andrew Marvick
..."It is happening again. It is happening again!"
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1991 14:46:00 -0800
From:
IED0DXM%MVS.OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: HoL
There have been several remarks in Love-Hounds recently to the effect that Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" video is "muddled" and vague. IED disagrees. The story that Kate tells in her self-directed video for "Hounds of Love" is, superficially at least, simple. Referring to several early (British-made) movies by Alfred Hitchcock, as well as to the movie "Night of the Demon" (aka "Curse of the Demon"), a British-made horror film of the '50s starring Dana Andrews, Kate depicts the romantic adventure of a demure, spinsterish and scholarly young woman who, while visiting some sort of museum in England during the 1930s, is swept off her feet by a mysterious, dramatic adventurer who is in the custody of undercover police agents. The man clamps one end of his handcuffs over the woman's wrist, escapes the clutches of the police and whisks the woman away with him into the wilds at night. On the run in the woods she begins to perceive the man's generous inner nature, and she accompanies him even after her wrist is freed from the handcuffs. (All of this is lifted from Hitchcock's "The Thirty-nine Steps"--look very carefully at the first few seconds of the video and you'll even spot Hitch's trademark cameo walk-on appearance.)
The couple seek anonymity in a public-house crowd, where they dance. The woman struggles with the two sides of her nature during this scene: watch her expression shift between aloof, passive acquiescence in the dance to sheer joy in the moment. When the authorities catch up with them, they begin to take the mysterious outlaw with them, but this time it is the woman who snaps the handcuffs on the stranger, and off they go into the night together again.
The story is told without dialogue in three and a half minutes, yet (in IED's opinion) with great clarity and power. All the details that are needed to follow the story are there to be found, if you look for them. But as with virtually all of Kate's stories (both in the songs' lyrics themselves and in their video illustrations), the narrative events are not exaggerated--they can be missed unless watched for closely. There are some other wonderful details in this video, which IED will let viewers discover for themselves. But remember that, as is true of most of Kate's works, the video of "Hounds of Love" tells a second and perhaps larger story than meets the eye...
Date: Thu, 1 May 86 20:08:23 EDT
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: How to be in a KB video, etc.
I talked to Peter Morris (in Kent, England) on the phone today. He runs "Homeground: The International Kate Bush Fanzine".
...
Peter also told me how he got to be in the video for "The Big Sky". They called him up to ask him if he could get together 200 fans who would like to be in the video and play an audience. Peter and David Cross (another "Homeground" editor) and someone else got to play airoplane pilots in the video! Kate directed the whole thing.
GODDAMN IT!!! WHY THE FUCK DON'T *I* LIVE IN ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How do I get a visa?
-Doug
Date: Mon, 19 May 86 11:49 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: IED IN MTV SOS
For self-therapeutic reasons I have decided to let everyone know that, in hopes of recording "The Big Sky" promo film, I have now watched nearly 13 hours of MTV.
This has been a thoroughly depressing experience even in fast scanning speed. I know it sounds naive, but I simply cannot understand how the people who run that station can go to sleep at night, knowing what they do, how much bad taste they are responsible for. I don't mean to imply that I have any moral objection like the senators' wives, or anything like that -- but can someone explain to me how any self-respecting teen-ager (I assume the large majority of their audience are in their mid-teens) can submit to video after video of these bands of beefy men with elaborately coiffed hair and ludicrous electric guitars, strutting about in striped or leopard-spotted tights and wiggling in front of paid models? How many garish orange-and-blue lighting effects will the audience take without objection? For how long will they tolerate the exhibition of an endless succession of mindless, preening, narcissistic morons? And how many viewers have been really deluded into a belief that lip-synching is actually a live performance? If none, then why does lip-synching continue?
I assume that Kate continues to do it out of an obligation to satisfy the demands of her business, but who in the business could still be convinced of the efficacy of lip-synching? It seems to me that whatever advantage gained from letting the original recording substitute for a potentially imperfect live performance of the music is more than offset by the ridiculous visual effect of lip-synching itself. Half the time now the performers don't even go through the minimal attempt at deception of holding a microphone. I'm down, L-Hs, I'm really down. And it's going to get worse as the days go by, as long as I have to keep watching that crud.
Date: Sun, 25 May 86 17:18 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Big Sky
I finally picked out Peter Morris in Kate's "Big Sky" film, thanks to Doug's hint that he plays a pilot. In fact there are at least three pilots, all wearing fighter pilot caps and goggles, and Peter is recognizable for an instant on the far left, as the camera pans by the group.
Now, the only crucial question is whether one of the pairs of goggles is the same as that worn by Kate during her performance of "Lionheart" in the Hammersmith video. (You will remember that one of that pair's lenses was cracked...) Doug has already noted a reference to the Lionheart LP in the film, and I see an allusion to the "Dreaming" film in the falcon sequence from "The Big Sky".The astronauts, of course, can be seen as an echo of "Hello Earth." Perhaps there are more references to be found.
Does anyone know of any previous reference in Kate's work to either Superman or Napoleon? I assume they are merely references to flight --Napoleon's symbol being the eagle -- and thus to the sky.
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 86 19:30:04 edt
From: Bob Krajewski <lmi-angel!rpk>
Subject: The Big (Budget) Sky Video
Well, I saw the thing on MTV's ``120 Minutes'' which has been moved up an hour (starting 00AM Monday). Very uncharacteristic in a lot of ways; here are a few observations:
* Makes no sense at all
* KT looks mahvelous in that jumpsuit
*
What's Superman doing there ?
* Lots of random action
* People with
Real Rock Instruments doing Real Rock Moves
So, perhaps it's a self/MTV-parodying attempt to get onto MTV. If it isn't, somebody's got a lot to answer for...
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 86 20:44:30 EDT
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: Re: The Big (Budget) Sky Video
I think that someone pointed out to Kate that Empty-V seems to have a strong dislike for her style of video, and so she sat down and watched nothing but Empty-V for a week. And then thought to herself, "Pphah! I can do that *much* better!" She then proceeded to make the silliest Empty-V-like video possible, throwing in every single Empty-V cliche that ever existed or ever will exist and lots of other stuff just for good measure, all the while having a fun time. It worked too! This is the first video of Kate's ever to be in rotation on Empty-V (it's only in light rotation, however).
"That cloud looks like one of those brown shiny things"
Doug
P.S. By the way, I think it's brilliant! Way Postmodern....
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 89 23:09:45 -0500
From: Jon Drukman <jsd@GAFFA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Big Sky
I just noticed that on The Whole Story videotape, "The Big Sky" ends slightly differently than the "Hair Of The Hound" release -the Kate-silhouetted -against-moon shot fades into negative, as is usual, but then that image vanishes and these stars go scrolling down the screen! Neat stuff...
From: boris%monsoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Boris Chen)
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1991 09:11:41 -0700
Subject: Re: Join The Big Sky
Support Group : )
Yes! I'd like to join.
>1. The video is Kate's most *fun*.
Yes. And I wonder if her hat falling off in the video was intentional, or did it happen, and they figured it was okay.
My favorite lines:
"sky-aiaiaiaiaiaiaiblaeeiei"
"eeeyo-eeeyo-eeeyo-eeeyo"
"ohoo-ohooo-ohooo-ohooo-"
"bleh-bleh-bleh"
--Boris
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 10:39:28 -0700
From: MTARR@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU
Subject: KaTe The Elf
Hi!
> Yes. And I wonder if her hat falling off in the video was intentional, or did it happen, and they figured it was okay.
I figure it was unintentional, and they just left it- which I'm glad they did, because it, and the shot of KaTe standing with the umbrella in the rain, are my two favorite moments in the whole video!!!
"Okay Kate, let's see how many times you can bob your head back and forth before the damn elf hat falls off... four? Right-o, that fits with the beat, do you wanna keep it in?" :)
From: jerome@ee.fit.edu (Jerome Chan)
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1991 06:28:08
-0700
Subject: Brazil
I just noticed the flag of Brazil near the ending of 'The Big Sky Video'. Does this mean anything?
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 01:05:39 CST
From: Simon_Booth@fcircus.sat.tx.us
(Simon Booth)
Subject: A most unusual Kate video seen over the
holidays.....
Hello everyone- my first posting here! :-)
Over the Christmas holiday, a few days before Christmas, I was at a party, and someone was giving a sneak preview of what is supposed to be an upcoming (but as yet unaired) public access cable TV show. The show is called 'Projekt: X-Treme' (yes, that's how it was spelled)
One episode shown was a series of music videos, and among them was Big Sky, but not the version I remembered from several years ago. For one thing, the audio seemed out of synch with the opening sequence of the video, and during the part where she's looking up with binoculars, she points them upward, a jet fighter appears swooping in low. From that point on, the video was a montage of aircraft war footage, mostly Gulf War bombing footage, leading up to a scene of a B-52 squadron's scramble takeoff, and ending with shots of nuclear missiles launching, all synchronized with the song 'Big Sky'. The running time must have been at least 6 minutes, alot longer than the original. Obviously a parody of some sort.
I know this can't be an official video, but is it a bootleg? I mean, has anyone else seen this? One other video on the tape seemed to be a similar parody: Enya's 'Sail Away' sychronized with a montage of submarine war footage.
If it's not a bootleg in circulation, then it's something the producer himself put together. I didn't get a chance to ask about it, but if it is something he made himself, it would have been relatively easy to do.
From: COBLEY A (on DUNDEE DEC-10) <A.Cobley%dundee.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa>
Date: Tuesday, 15-Oct-85 11:04:03-BST
Subject: Cloudbusting
hello all
just to say that Kate was on the tv over here [UK] the other night (a programme called Whistle test), she said that the next single would probaley be cloudbusting. They showed a video of it with Kate and Donald Sutherland in it. She said that it was about a man who invents a rain machine, apparently its based on a book called
"A Childs Book Of Dreams " by Peter Ryke (sp?)
Kate plays a small boy? and Donald the childs father and the inventor of the machine, I thought it was really exellent and rather charming.
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 85 01:14:57 est
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: "Cloudbusting" on Empty-V!
I was talking to someone on the phone tonight at about 11:45, and in the middle of the conversation he said "Oh my God! There's Kate on Empty-V!", and then he hung up on me. Damn, I wish they had cable in Cambridge. In any case, I called him back later and he said they showed a five minute interview with Kate and the seven minute video for Cloudbusting (starring Donald Sutherland as Wilhelm Reich, Kate as Peter Reich, directed by Terry Gilliam.) The version of the "Cloudbusting" music is different than either the album or 12-inch single version.
"On top of the world, looking over the edge"
Doug
From: michael@auck.irl.cri.nz (Michael Rygol)
Date: 19 May 1993
02:08:20 GMT
Subject: Re: Cloudbusting
For those that are interested, the Cloudbusting video outside scenes were shot in the Vale of the White Horse just outside Swindon, not far from Bristol, England. I haven't ascertained this offically but on a visit there several years ago, there was a stunning familiarity about the place. Checking the video when I got home verified my hunch.
For those that get a chance to visit this place it's quite obvious they made a good job of hiding Swindon in the background. The hillock on which the Cloudbuster is filmed is actually the corner of a raised dyke that surrounded an old castle (now gone), or something like that.
FYI, the Vale of the White Horse is the place where an ancient (and humongous) highly stylised white horse has been etched out of the surface of the chalk hill and is visible for miles around. Well worth a visit.
Michael Rygol
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 89 16:47:52 PDT
From: dhsu@SUN.COM (David Hsu)
Subject: videos
Greetings again, all. And special thanks to Tracy and Andrew for making the Santa Cruz bash such a success.
At long last I've started acquiring copies of the official videos on laserdisc for careful perusal. Those discs at the party, Corey, were Andrew's, not mine, and our gratitude should be rightfully be his.
At any rate, I present installment #1 of Dave's Excessively Trivial Observations On Kate's Video's.
Cloudbusting
I think it's clear that Peter does see Wilhelm pointing at the hill from within the car; he begins gesturing even as Peter runs into the road not 5 feet after the car passes, and continues as it disappears around the bend.
There is a partial excuse for the rapid jet contrail in one time-lapse scene, and it can be found on page 20 of the Obelisk edition "Book of Dreams". Peter describes how the Air Force would fly overhead to indicate where there were high concentrations of DOR to be found, and that DOR caused their exhaust streams to dissipate rapidly. However, the long, wide, straight cloud farther to the right looks like a second, older contrail and it dissipates only slightly. Perhaps the cloudbuster has already been applied there.
In a rare lapse of continuity, we see the sun overhead in the path of the cloudbuster. Both before and after, we see the sun near the horizon.
Note that Kate is actually wearing women's clothing throughout the video; the shirts and sweaters all button on the left side.
Reich's office contains an unusual assortment of paraphenalia for a psychoanalyst, but consistent with his interest in pseudo-biochemistry. The glassware is typical for a chemist, but he also has two microscopes and a small centrifuge on the bench. The walls sport anatomical diagrams, and he is growing at least one vine-like plant in a long glass column (but not hydroponically...it grows in dirt).
There are two old (non-glowing) yo-yo's in the in tray on his desk.
Reich picks up a paper from the lower right of his desk, studies it, then crumples and discards it. There are only three words on it, barely visible; viewed with a mirror I think they say "My Final Paper". IED -you have a CAV copy, perhaps you can read it more clearly.
Although the car leaving the farmhouse is clearly right-hand-drive, later we see that it sports a license plate the correct size and shape for an American one.
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 89 02:21 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Hair of the Hound LD: CB
OK, enough of that. Let IED bore his readers on some other Kate Bushological topics now.
First, let IED commend and thank Dave Hsu for taking the time to study the recent videos again and alert IED to a number of remarkable details of which he had been unaware. IED did get out his CAV Hair of the Hound laser-disk and check Cloudbusting, and yes, the page that Sutherland crumples up, when inspected via a mirror, does indeed have " My Last Paper " written on it: not simply a title, but a regretful comment on Reich's part. Interesting to learn that in this moment Reich is not thinking about his imminent separation from Peter (as IED had assumed), but about the end of his intellectual career. Very sad. IED now sees the yo-yos, too. Amazing eyes you have, Dave!
IED would like to say to all those who attended Tracy's marvellous party that sometime they should see the Cloudbusting CAV laser video on a Sony XBR monitor (or one of similar resolution), because not only is the text of the Oregon newspaper article much easier to read on such equipment, even the first two lines of the smaller type under the first paragraph is legible, as well.
Thanks again for your observations, Dave. Fascinating stuff.
From: sbailey@uoguelph.ca (Sharon M Bailey)
Date: 10 Aug 1994 23:39:30
GMT
Subject: Under the Ivy
Hi, you've heard it before, but I just got my tapes and after a cursory glance (far too many essays just now), I have decided that whenever I am blue I am just going to find Kate's performance of Under the Ivy, sing along with her, and then let my heart burst out of my chest when she smiles like she does at the end of it. I could die, now, happily. Sigh.
written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland
Willker
Sept 1995 June 1996