Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (04/01/87)
Really-From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu Innumerable thanks to Neil Calton, Love-Hounds' extremely reliable and highly valued British KorrespondenT, for his latest news report. Typically, the news here in America failed to list Kate among the vocalists for the Ferry Aid "Let It Be" single; nor was there any mention of her name in connection with the Third Ball show(s); nor has there been the slightest mention of the soundtrack to "Castaway", or even of the movie itself, here yet. Couple that with the fact that MTV again failed to show the "Don't Give Up" video (and chances are they never will, having opted now firmly in favour of a menu of 90% mindless and repetitive candy-floss pseudo-heavy metal pabulum "performance" videos to 10% even worse stuff...), and you'll see how bad things are in this horrid, benighted wasteland. If only Americans were a bit more tolerant of dumb-sounding voices! Anyway, your postings are as usual very much appreciated, Neil. To answer the query re the piKTure disks: there are two twelve-inch bootleg picture-disk interview records in American import record shops now. (All of this is a summary of earlier notices from IED.) The first features two old colour photos of Kate, ca. 1978, wearing her old white dove earrings. The second (apparently the one you saw) has two more recent photos: one from the European lip-synch of "Babooshka" (Kate in red leotard, bass viol by the throat), the other a close-up from her 1985 visit to America. Both feature "unofficial" "interviews" with Kate. The one with the old photos is a real interview, i.e. Kate is talking with the person interviewing her in a quiet room with good recording equipment. The interview is horrible: Kate is nearly as nervous as the incompetent interviewer (who sounds like a slightly over-the-edge fan himself), and it is a mystery how he managed to get Kate to agree to do the interview at all -- IED has a theory that she was led to believe the guy had come all the way from Australia, and that the interview would be published in "Dreamtime", or some such falsehood. He mentions Australia in the course of the interview. Anyway, it's a curiosity, since Kate sounds extremely uncomfortable throughout. The one with the recent photos is even more despicable. The interview is fake; that is, a tape of an earlier interview was played, with the interviewer (possibly the same twerpus who did the other one) interjecting imitations of the original interviewer's questions in between her pre-recorded answers. The sound is terrible, but the interview's content isn't without interest. This, incidentally, is not the same fake interview that appears on the infamous SEVEN-inch bootleg fake interview disk, which is the object of Homeground's venom; although the method of synching up pre-recorded answers from Kate with newly-posed questions from the "interviewer" is the same in both cases. The picture-disks themselves all come from the same group of U.K. bootleggers, and they are just two of a very long series of interview-disks, including similar product that features Peter Gabriel, Siouxsie Sioux, Marillion, Simple Minds, etc., etc. >>...Personally, he >>has always thought that Kate's Hammersmith vocals of "W. Heights", >>"James and the Cold Gun", "Lionheart", etc. were a little inhibited >>and careful;... >That's interesting, I don't think "James and the Cold Gun" or >"W. Heights" sounded inhibited. Personally, I think that vocal is >more powerful than the original, but still retains the haunting, ghostly >quality due to a slight echo in the theater's acoustics. IED agrees, in a way. The performances ARE highly emotional and fantastic to watch, especially the ending of "W. Heights", which can still affect IED even after 5,000,000-odd viewings. But her actual vocalizing, esp. on "W. Heights", is much more low-key and low-volume than on either studio version. That's not to say it isn't still terrific, and even "powerful", however. >It's not her voice. Her music is too fuckin' complex for the average yahoo. >Her music has to be LISTENED to. She doesn't use "hooks" that grab the average Aha! Signs of "elitism" from another L-H. besides IED! Ha-haaah! >To address IED's points, I honestly must confess that I agree with all the >points he made and am quite unable to shoot them down, especially as most >of his info came straight from Kate herself! This forum is getting to be unbelievably civil and polite. Aren't you people anxious to get back to the old nasty war of insults with IED? How long can we go on like this? >In my defense, I can say >that I was not attempting to come up with a "doKTrine" (as he phrased it) >but was merely trying to express a point of view. The best thing I can >think of to say is that the whole point of analysing literature is >trying to find things in it that the author never dreamed of putting in. Fine. Actually, IED was intrigued with your interpretation, and is currently re-evaluating the song himself in light of it. >Obviously, if Kate says that "the garden" refers to her old 8-track >studio and not to the classic trysting place, then that's what she >intended it to mean when she wrote it. It doesn't mean that that >interpretation is the only one. >It's very easy to fall back on interviews and say >"well, Kate said that she was referring to her studio so ipso facto that's >what it MUST be!" Right, esp. w/Kate. But wait! Kate never said specifically that the garden in her songs referred to her studio; IED only assumes that, because of the layout of the actual East Wickham Farm garden and because of the purported function of the little building out back. Your idea that it may have been a trysting place as well is by no means invalid: there is about as much evidence in favour of that theory in her songs and interviews as there is in favour of the "studio" theory. Except that the romantic experiences themselves seem to be imaginary, fictional. >I think it is all too easy to fall for >the "biographical fallacy", which is attaching too much importance to the >circumstances under which a work was written, rather than the actual text >of the work itself. It's very easy to fall back on interviews and say >what it MUST be!" If you consistently do this and don't leap to your >own conclusions, then your imagination will atrophy. OK. All IED meant to do was caution against going too far with a theory of interpretation if Kate has herself given a very different one. The lyrics are certainly vague enough, even WITH Kate's later explanations, and sexual connotations are probably more likely to be under the surface than are, say, |>oug's references to fans in "Hounds of Love", for four reasons: first, because it's a more universal and less specific subject than the rather mundane topic of Kate's relations with her fans; second, because Kate has certainly written about sexuality before ("Feel It", "L'Amour Looks Something Like You", "In the Warm Room", "Symphony in Blue", "The Infant Kiss", etc.); third, because Kate actually denied the validity of |>oug's interp.; and fourth, because Kate's relationship with her fans isn't, as far as IED can tell, particularly troubled or difficult, and her comments concerning them have always been affectionate and respectful, without a sign of anxiety, trepidation or dislike. IED does retain one reason for remaining skeptical of BOTH your "Suspended" interp. and |>oug's "Hounds" interp.: of all the lyrics which COULD be references to what you say, none of them COULDN'T be references to a great many OTHER subjects, as well. If you had even one phrase that could only be fully explained in light of the sexuality thesis, then you'd really have something. >So, glad you liked it, and maybe I'll be encouraged now to write again. >Thanks! Definitely! More, more! -- Andrew