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Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1993 16:27:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: King o' Pain <labspm@emoryu1.cc.emory.edu>
Subject: Eat the Music Single
Scott asked:
>OK, so what does the Eat the Music single look like?
Well, having just driven all over town to get it, I can tell you!
The cover is a picture of various pieces of fruit (watermelon, pomegranate, etc.) arranged "artistically" with a pair of hands splitting a watermelon open over them. On the back is a small picture of The Red Shoes album. The album cover is black with a circle taking up most of it. Inside the circle is a black and white tinted photograph of a mountains, clouds, etc. Over the photo are two legs doing a dance step. They are wearing red stockings and (of course) red shoes.
Anyway, back to the single. The CD itself is half red and half black, with fruit on the red half. As for the songs, there is "Eat the Music," "Eat the Music" (12" version), "Big Stripey Lie," and "Candle in the Wind." The remix of "ETM" is not very exciting. Just longer with a long percussion break. I don't know what to think of "BSL" having only listened to it once. I think it will grow on me more than "ETM" has, though.
From: davisg@ava.bcc.orst.edu (Glen Davis)
Date: 7 Sep 1993 21:20:12
GMT
Subject: new single (ETM)
Well nobody else has said anything about the US single, so here goes. I just ran out and bought the Eat the Music single and listened to it on my lunch hour.
The cover is a bit unexpected. Its a color photo of two hands (Kates?) digging into an opened melon (maybe a small watermelon). This melon is surrounded by many other opened (cut in half) melons and fruits (pomegranites, guavas, mangoes, and the like). The back of the jewel box is the same photo only its done through a polarizing filter or something so its very dark and reversed densities (light is black).
Inside, there is no booklet but the words to Eat the Music are printed as are the musicians names. The cd itself is half black and the other half has yet more melons and this time bunches of grapes also.
First impressions of the music; Eat the Music is, IMHO, mediocre. It has a calypso type beat which is not too bad, but I must say, I didn't care much for the chorus about 'like a banana, want a guava, etc.' The 12" version of this song is pretty similar but with a faster tempo and more dance-mix type percussion.
Big Stripey Lie, I liked much better. It would be a great song if Adrian Belew had done the guitar solos. They're in the same vain as his stuff and he could have just ripped it up!
Candle in the Wind is also on this single.
Cheers. Glen
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 93 12:58:44 PDT
From: steve.b@TQS.COM (Steve Berlin)
Subject: Eat me!
Well, I have in my sweaty little hands the CD for "Eat the Music". Unfortunately, my CD player is at home, so you'll have to wait a day for my review of this single (The ONLY review that matters!)
However, I can give my review of the cover:
It's completely disgusting. I love it! Freud would have a heart attack if he saw it.
Also, to throw my voice into a couple of the sillier discussions right now going on here:
The drum machine is the most evil piece of technology invented. Synthisizers are a tool so powerful they can only be used for good or evil (quick! spot the reference!). Good uses of the synth: The Dreaming, Hounds of Love. Evil uses of the Synth: Most everything else.
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 3:39:48 EDT
From: WretchAwry <vickie@pilot.njin.net>
Subject: My Own Humble Opinion
1) Eat The Music
Lots of fun, very bouncy and cute. Trivial, but I like it. I think it might be the first song on the album that I get tired of, but for now I don't mind hearing it over and over again.
2) ETM (extended)
Extended triviality, but I like it too.
3) Big Stripey Lie
*Very* cool! Even though I don't much care for the drum machine sound, I'll get over it, just because everything else about the song is interesting. I especially like the violin. I assume it's Nigel Kennedy....sighyummy.
4) Candle In The Wind
I *LOVE* this version!!! I've loved it since I first heard it on the "Rocket Man" CD single. I could listen to it over and over and over again. The music, the keyboards, remind me of Tony Bank's first solo album A Curious Feeling and maybe that's why I love it so much. The background vocals are lush and ethereal, and the forground vocal is plaintive and poignant. When Kate sings "...all the press were hounding you" it's sung with such empathy and force that it gives me chills.
Kate knows all about being hounded by the press (before Di came along Kate was the most photographed woman in England) and yet she didn't have it a fraction as bad as Marilyn. I definitely hear this as a tribute to *Marilyn* rather than just a tribute to Elton John's song. I love listening to this song on headphones because the music and background vocals swirl around and fade in and out in an almost disorienting way. That slightly edgy yet lush arrangement, plus Kate's alternating melodic/clipped way of singing adds up to (for me) a very haunting and disorienting song, which seems quite perfect since Marilyn's life was haunting and dis-orienting. I love it, I simply, honestly, love it.
Vickie
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 93 10:59:59 PDT
From: steve.b@TQS.COM (Steve Berlin)
Subject: Indigestion after eating the music
...
Big Stripey Lie:
YAAAY!!! Brilliant!! The most uncomfortable song Kate's done since, well, Waking the Witch. Is it me, or does this song kind of remind you of Bowie in his non-ambiant "Heroes" era?
Candle in the Wind:
Hey, I *LIKE* this song. On the other hand, I am thinking of starting a support group for folks like me who like "Reaching Out".
Stev0: (walking slowly to podium, his eyes watering) Hello. (pause) My name is Steve...and I...I love...th-th-the s-s-song..."Reaching Out" (breaks down and cries)
Vickie: Amen, Brother!
Jorn: Let it out! We're with you!
Anyway, this has always been my favorite Elton John song, and Kate's voice has never been better, and if you don't like it you can go back to your Vanilla Ice albums and leave this work of UTTER BRILLIANCE to me!
- Stev0 the Rocket Man
Date: Mon, 13-Sep-93 01:58:18 PDT
From: briarpatch!billy@uunet.UU.NET
(Billy Green)
Subject: New Singles--some thoughts
EAT THE MUSIC is about emotional exposure. As with most Kate songs, the biggest clue about the song comes near the end: "What am I singing?/A song of seeds/The food of love/Eat the music." I suppose you could consider it emotional violence if you don't want people to know what your feelings are, but the intention of the song seems to be good natured.
What splits the speaker open? Devotion. Closeness (in a relationship, one could assume) requires intimate knowledge of one another. Her emotions are not difficult to find. His, it seems, have to be ripped out of him. Notice that the fruits depicted on the cover and in the song are almost exclusively seed fruits--melons, mangoes, papayas, pomegranates--that are used traditionally as feminine images (both literally and figuratively). The only "male" fruit mentioned in the song is a banana, which is split to reveal that "He's a woman at heart/And I love him for that".
The song's premise is the old stereotype that women's emotions are easily seen, while men don't want their feelings to be known. She is willing to dig beneath the surface to find a feeling, caring person underneath. There are also some sexual overtones--the standard sensual associations of the fruits mentioned and shown, the reference to "sticky fingers".
One problem with this song as an American single is that you will be hard pressed to find an American who will know what a sultana is. "Sultana" is a primarily British reference. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what it is myself--I think it's a raisin or a grape. (On the other hand, you'd also be hard pressed to find an American radio-listener who pays enough attention to lyrics to notice a reference like this....)
Musically, yes, it's very repetitive. I want to avoid calling it Latin music until I find what a Valiha is (an instrument played by Paddy and someone else). I will remind those who've been calling this song, "bad Gloria Estefan", that Kate's always been ready to play with and blend musicalities in her songs.In some of the songs on "The Sensual World", it was often hard to tell whether the music was Bulgarian-based or Irish-based. Remember that the 12/8 time of this song is very Irish. Adding brass on top of that doesn't necessarily make it "Latin", although I will admit that the repeated trumpet duet has a decidedly mariachi feel to it--but I wouldn't tag the song as even vaguely "Latin" until the trumpets start.
I also suspend final analysis until I see how this song fits into the context of the story of "The Red Shoes" (which is a film I fell in love with in high school, and which I think Kate, with her flair for the melodramatic, should do wonderful things with).
From: estephen@netcom.com (E. Stephen Mack)
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993
10:52:53 GMT
Subject: Re: KontempT tempered by eKsTacy
Eat the Music:
With all the criticism, one point that hasn't been mentioned about this song is how catchy it is. After I hear it, it stays in my mind for hours. If you didn't like it, I suppose this could be a problem...
-- E. Stephen
From: lore@ucscb.ucsc.edu (Lore Christian Sjoberg)
Date: 16 Sep 1993
17:12:51 GMT
Subject: Eat The Music is GOOD
This is my opinion, of course, and I CAN see why others might not like it: it is repetitive, and the composition, while interesting is somewhat shallow.
I didn't like it that much the first time I heard it, but now I LOVE it, and I play it again and again, including the extended mix.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you WANT to like Eat the Music, but you just can't get into it. Here's what you do.
I must admit that one of the reasons I love it so is the words: "He's a woman at heart/And I love him for that."
It's a love song, to me. A complicated, difficult love, certainly, but a love song.
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 93 17:38:48 EDT
From: Andrew B Marvick <abm4@columbia.EDU>
Subject: Eat the Music cassette
Just a note. The U.S. "Eat the Music" single has finally shown up in stores on cassette. It's selling for $5.44 at Tower, not $2.99 (the price of most cassette-singles). Since there are plenty of $2.99 cassingles that contain as much material as the cassette-EPs that sell for nearly twice as much, the whole enterprise smells pretty fishy. However, it's a good product, in a hard plastic cassette case, with a four-color cover (the same as the CD), and it contains both versions of the title track plus BSL and CitW. It still hadn't appeared on the Billboard charts as of the week ending Sept. 25; perhaps it'll show up in the next one -- especially if the way the CD-single was sailing out the doors of the Greenwich Village Tower is any indication.
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1993 23:46:09 +1000
From:
GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@BHPMELMSM.BHP.bhpmel04.telememo.au
Subject: EtM in Oz
Hi all,
I just got my copy of EtM yesterday in Sydney. Here is where I stick my neck out... I LIKE it. There, I've said it... Sure it's different, I'm GLAD it's different. There is still that ineffable KaTiness about it all and as a song it's very listenable (is that a word?) Anyway, the important thing is, and here is the crux of the matter, many of my friends who are in no way KaTe fans have come up to me as I have played it and RBG asked "Who is that!? ... I like it!!" and isn't that what we all want! You know, spreading the word!!
Last night when I put it (EtM) one for my other flat mates as we were doing the washing up Jaquie asked who it was. When I explained it was my new KaTe EtM CD single. I've kept all my friends up to date with the ongoing hubub on gaffa with the new releases. She listened for a bit more and said "I don't know what they're talking about I like it!" I felt like we were in some sort of weird Coke Ad since we ended up dancing around the kitchen to it whilst washing up. :-)
From: P D Fitzgerald-Morris <s0pdfm@assam.exnet.com>
Date: Thu,
28 Oct 1993 07:46:32 GMT
Subject: EtM
Why all this slagging off of "Eat the Music"? I like it; It's Kate in a fun mood, and god knows after the last few years she needs all the fun she can get.
Peter
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 17:22:10 +1000
From:
GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@msm.bhp.com.au
Subject: Scratch and Sniff???
Hi ho,
I've just got a very interesting fax from EMI informing me that in late April early May EMI Oz will be releasing another EtM CD Single here (third release of that single here) but that this one will be... get this... 'Scratch & Sniff'!!! Yes, you too can have either an orange or a lemon scented single from KaTe. Is this for real?? I can't wait if it is!! 8-) <he he> See ya later.
PS: Why not just KaTe scented instead?? ;-)
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to Moments 2.2c. - "Big Stripey Lie"
Written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland Willker
August 1995