[mod.music.gaffa] A walkman gives its all in the name of Kate Bush-ology, Part 1

Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (04/18/87)

Really-From: ganzer%trout@nosc.mil (Mark T. Ganzer)

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For some reason I haven't received a love-hounds digest since this
past Tuesday, so I'm a little late in responding (Did you know that
we've generated 930K in material since Feb 26? Do you know how long
that takes to FTP?). Anyways on with the discussion:

>>I haven't had a chance to listen to the backwards tracks in "Watching
>>You Without Me", but I did stumble upon something interesting. When I
>>slowed down the "scattered" or "chopped" voices something comparable
>>to say, going from 45 to 33 rpm, the voices were much more understandable.

>That's the problem. How do you get a 33 1/3 RPM record to
>play at a slower speed, unless you're an electronics genius
>with a bunch of unneeded Walkmans?

Actually, I'm not an electronics genius, but a mechanical engineer in 
which the word "kludge" is part of my job description. All I have done so
far is drill a hole in the back cover to give me access to the speed 
control potentiometer. On the walkman I'm using (an old Sanyo MG7), this 
provides control over a fairly broad speed range. When listening to the
X4 track, I also had the turntable speed set as low as possible and
provided some light finger drag on the edge of the LP to further slow
it down. Then I used the speed adjustment on the tape player to find
the "optimum" listening speed. You can also run your turntable by hand
at a slower speed (ouch!)...

>>         ... The best transcription I can get is "I get blasts from
>>too many instruments" although the "blasts" could be "laughs"...

>Well, hmmm...Needless to say, IED is very skeptical so far,
>since he has placed a lot of faith in his
>"I bet my mum's gonna..." interpretation. He
>will study the issue tonight, and deliver his judgment in this
>courtroom tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. Court is adjourned. All rise.

There are actually 10 syllables present (I mis-counted in my previous
posting). When slowed down, this becomes very apparent as the echo
pattern becomes clearer. The "I get ______ from too many instruments"
is pretty clear. The rest requires a little guesswork.
There is no way I can fit in your phrase "I bet my mum's
gonna give me a little toy" . I can't fit 12 syllables into the pattern
of echos I hear! But then you really have to listen to it yourself. Perhaps
I can make a tape for you...

>>the comparison I would make would be if TD were "Sgt Pepper" and HoL were
>>"Abbey Road", then NFE would be "Rubber Soul". Anyways, for what my
>>opinion is worth...

>                                    .... If that's so, then
>The Dreaming is analogous to Revolver, not Sgt. Pepper; which would
>make HoL analogous to Sgt. Pepper. Which means Kate's next LP
>will be a double album with a loose, non-thematic structure and
>a bunch of outtakes;...

I haven't listened to these for so long I had forgotten about Revolver
(although I will probably pick up it and Rubber Soul on CD when they are
released this month).  Anyways, before her next album, Kate will have to
go study TM under what's-his-name, come back disillusioned but with lots 
of material that will end up as a loose, non-thematicaly structured
double album.:-)

The "Don't Give Up" video could still show up on the MTV New Video Hour
on Monday. As I mentioned previously, the show doesn't only show videos
that are debuting that week. I haven't seen the video yet, but I'm watching
for it.

"Breathing the fall out-in, out-in, out-in..."

MarK T. Ganzer   
Internet: ganzer@trout.nosc.mil   UUCP: {ucbvax,hplabs}!sdcsvax!nosc!ganzer
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