jondr@sco.COM (Vole Lotta Shakin' Going On) (06/21/91)
>I'm not sure about the word "proselytizing" that's been thrown about or >how it relates to our recommending Happy's music. Check a dictionary, then. I think it applies. >Happy's music is absolutely >nothing like Kate's. Then I suggest you cease referring to her as "the closest thing we have to an American Kate Bush." It's like calling Inky Bloaters "dance music." (Remember that one?) >As far as "synth-padding" goes, here it comes again: >You haven't heard the songs. There is no padding or filler on her albums. I think Richard meant padding in the musical sense, where you play a chord and it fills out the background of the music. That's called a "pad." On the other hand, maybe he was just being mean. (You wouldn't do that, would you Richard? You're the kinder and gentler love-hound!) >Re your comment about "sales pitches" -- this makes no sense to me. If I >recommend an artist, and people are interested in that artist, how else >are they going to get that artist's work except by buying it? Richard, did >you steal those Caterwaul albums you have? Of course not! You're being deliberately or accidentally obtuse. Ever had someone come to the door who's trying to wheedle some dosh out of you? Did you ever think, "I'll give in my own sweet time, bucko." I hardly ever buy music without having heard any of it - it's sad that Happy is in a position where it's difficult to get the word out, but I'm in the same position and I haven't turned love-hounds into my personal pocketbook to plunder (I'm not talking about the Jon&Jenn stuff; that's made with the love-hounds in mind. Niche marketing, you might say.) Richard heard Caterwaul on a tape I made for him of about 20 different female vocal tracks. I just listed the artists and titles, he asked about the stuff that interested him. Quite different from logging in every day and seeing five new messages telling him to mail order all their stuff. Or, to use a rather apt metaphor: The first taste was free! Maybe someday in the future when the net.technology is a little more advanced we can digitise entire songs and upload them for others to preview. Unfortunately, even in 8-bit mono, it takes 15 megabytes for every minute of sound! (Nerd Note: that's at 44.1 KHz) It's just not practical at this point. Until it is, it's going to be the seriously rich and/or foolhardy who can afford to spend $12 on a cassette full of total unknown. I think the Kate comparisons have been rather devious, bordering on fraud actually, but caveat emptor... >Vishal writes: >> I am also tired of the endless postings by recent Happy convertee >> basically saying "I just got my Happy tapes and she is like *AWESOME*. >> I feel *so* cool now that I am a Happy fan. > >This is so *unbelieveably* unfair!!!! What a rude thing to say! Have you >never heard music that you liked so much that you wanted to tell everyone >about it? Those people who have heard Happy's music and do like it are >only expressing their opinions. To say that the people who are saying >they like what they hear are only doing so to be "cool" is an insult to >them and to Happy (a fellow Katefan, remember). Chill OUT! I think what Vishal is saying is, "please tell us WHY you like it rather than just saying `it's too cool, buy it now.'" >Happy's music is such >that, if you hear and like one album, you'll want to hear everything >else. The sad thing about all of this is that people may be wary of >posting any more "I got it/them and this is what I think" articles. I wish someone would start posting WHY they think what they think. My review may have seemed savage, but I explained the shortcomings in what I consider to be vivid detail. If you want more specifics, I'd be glad to provide them. >If you don't like it, that will be a viewpoint new to this newsgroup, >and your reasons for not liking it will be interesting to hear. As long as the reasons actually get posted and blind devotion/savagery is left by the wayside. >She's NOT just another good singer. You said it, not me! (Joke, calm down. Put the gun DOWN Vickie! No! Really! I didn't mean it! AUGHHHHHHHH!) Jon Drukman (space children intro mix) uunet!sco!jondr jondr@sco.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down.
nrc@cbema.att.COM (Neal R Caldwell, Ii) (06/25/91)
Jon Drukman had his Happy Rhodes fan club membership revoked when he wrote: > Vickie said: >>As far as "synth-padding" goes, here it comes again: >>You haven't heard the songs. There is no padding or filler on her albums. > > I think Richard meant padding in the musical sense, where you play a chord > and it fills out the background of the music. That's called a "pad." On > the other hand, maybe he was just being mean. (You wouldn't do that, would > you Richard? You're the kinder and gentler love-hound!) Kinder and gentler to some, hostile without the saving grace of your wit and sarcasm to others. All of these things, maybe, but mean? I hope not. It's certainly not my intention to be mean but I can't deny that I do suffer from fits of pique from time to time. In any case, the padding remark was a referring to what I find all too often in single person efforts with small budgets, not a criticism of Happy Rhodes (since I haven't heard it). At worst, you might say it's what I was afraid Happy might be. Oddly enough some people reacted as though I proposed to give them a root canal with an ice pick and a Daffy Duck PEZ dispenser. I wonder if I touched a nerve? > Richard heard Caterwaul on a tape I made for him of about 20 different > female vocal tracks. I just listed the artists and titles, he asked about > the stuff that interested him. Quite different from logging in every day > and seeing five new messages telling him to mail order all their stuff. Jon even put some '70s disco music on there as a joke. Um, that was a joke wasn't it Jon? "Don't drive too slowly." Richard Caldwell AT&T Network Systems att!cbnews!nrc nrc@cbnews.att.com
shane@inferno.peri.com (Shane Bouslough) (06/27/91)
>From article <9106201704.aa04642@fscott.sco.COM>, jondr@sco.COM (Vole Lotta Shakin' Going On): >> Happy's music is absolutely nothing like Kate's. > > Then I suggest you cease referring to her as "the closest thing we have to > an American Kate Bush." I'm not sure who wrote the first part of the quote, but I beg to differ. I found the similarity between Happy and Kate striking, indeed, it's the reason I bought all Happy's stuff. The epithet "the closest thing we have to an American Kate Bush" is pretty good, I wish I'd thought of it :-). >>Vishal writes: >>> I am also tired of the endless postings by recent Happy convertee >>> basically saying "I just got my Happy tapes and she is like *AWESOME*. >>> I feel *so* cool now that I am a Happy fan. >> >>This is so *unbelieveably* unfair!!!! What a rude thing to say! Have you >>never heard music that you liked so much that you wanted to tell everyone >>about it? Those people who have heard Happy's music and do like it are >>only expressing their opinions. To say that the people who are saying >>they like what they hear are only doing so to be "cool" is an insult to >>them and to Happy (a fellow Katefan, remember). > > Chill OUT! > > I think what Vishal is saying is, "please tell us WHY you like it rather > than just saying `it's too cool, buy it now.'" The similarities that immediately come to mind are the vocal range, the use of question/answer techniques where one (musical) phrase is high pitched, the other low, the use of uncommon/unusual musical ideas (i.e., not just 4/4 thumpa-thumpa music), and poetry based on personal experience. Thus, if you like those aspects of KaTe, I can't see how you would fail to like Happy as well. Now that I've given some reasons WHY I like it, I can say `it's too cool, buy it now.' I'm surprized at the posts here that say "I listened to some Happy stuff and I just don't see what the big deal is." I know people who find KaTe too "screechy" as in Violin Song. They catch on eventually though. Give Happy a chance, she's golden, just as KaTe is. > Jon Drukman (space children intro mix) uunet!sco!jondr jondr@sco.com > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down. -- Periphonics Corp. | Shane Bouslough is: shane@inferno.peri.com Ride Bike! 4000 Veterans Hwy. | or: ...uunet!mcdhup!inferno!shane Bohemia, NY 11716 | "Too slow, Chicken Marango! Too slow for *this* cat!" 516-467-0500 | -Cat, Red Dwarf
jondr@sco.COM (Jon Drukman) (06/28/91)
No one yet knows why shane@shane.UUCP (Shane Bouslough) said: >>> Happy's music is absolutely nothing like Kate's. >> >> Then I suggest you cease referring to her as "the closest thing we have to >> an American Kate Bush." > >I'm not sure who wrote the first part of the quote, but I beg to differ. Vickie said "Happy's music is absolutel nothing like Kate's." I said the second part. You said the last part. >I found the similarity between Happy and Kate striking, indeed, it's the >reason I bought all Happy's stuff. The epithet "the closest thing we >have to an American Kate Bush" is pretty good, I wish I'd thought of it :-). I still don't see more than a passing similarity in Happy's higher voice. >The similarities that immediately come to mind are the vocal range, >the use of question/answer techniques where one (musical) phrase is >high pitched, the other low, the use of uncommon/unusual musical ideas >(i.e., not just 4/4 thumpa-thumpa music), and poetry based on personal >experience. Thank you for actually listing CONCRETE examples. Now I'm going to take you to task for them! (Much as it pains me to disagree with someone with such a FINE Red Dwarf signature quote, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do...) First, the high/low question/answer technique. This is called "call and response" and the earliest example I know of it is in negro spirituals. It might possibly go even further back to tribal music, but my ethnomusicology isn't very good. Anyway, I can't think of any examples of Kate using this off the top of my head - what were you thinking of? The 4/4 thing I can't answer, because Vickie only gave me a narrow sampling of Happy's stuff, and none of it was in anything other than 4/4. Actually, there might have been a 3/4 in there, but that's not exactly groundbreaking rhythmatic insanity, like Sat In Your Lap (12/8 in the verse, 10/8 in the chorus). As for poetry based on personal experience, Kate has said dozens of times that very little of her music is autobiographical, so again I ask, what in particular were you thinking of? The thing I like BEST about Kate is how she writes stories that, despite their brevity, convey a whole world of character detail, emotion, place, time, etc. There Goes A Tenner - brilliant story, total attention to detail, completely NON autobiographical. >Thus, if you like those aspects of KaTe, I can't see how you would fail >to like Happy as well. Now that I've given some reasons WHY I like it, >I can say `it's too cool, buy it now.' Well, I can't say if I like those aspects of KaTe, because you have totally failed to demonstrate their existence! Sorry, thanks for playing, try again soon. >I'm surprized at the posts here that say "I listened to some Happy stuff >and I just don't see what the big deal is." I know people who find KaTe >too "screechy" as in Violin Song. They catch on eventually though. Give >Happy a chance, she's golden, just as KaTe is. I've given her a chance. She's tap water in a Dom Perignon bottle. "You can't have my shiny thing. It's mine and I found it. If you try and take it from me, I may have to eat you." -- Cat. -- Jon Drukman (jam the track) uunet!sco!jondr jondr@sco.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down.
jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.EDU (06/28/91)
Shane wrote: >>I found the similarity between Happy and Kate striking Jon replied: >I still don't see more than a passing similarity in Happy's higher voice. That's 'cause you know KaTe's voice too well. I don't know how many times I've been listening to something by Happy and had a friend walk in and ask what Kate Bush album I was listening to, but it's happened almost as many times as people walking in and asking what Gabriel album I was listening to when I was playing a Marillion (or Fish) CD. I would never listen to a song and wonder if I was hearing KaTe or Happy, though I've certainly caught the similarities, especially when I first started listening to Happy. Same thing with Fish though I've never thought he sounded much like Gabriel. That doesn't mean the similarities aren't there, though. I've even had people (two, as I recall), when told that they're listening to Marillion and not Genesis/Gabriel, ask, "Oh. Was Gabriel in the band?" [wrt call and response] >Anyway, I can't think of any examples of Kate using this off the top of my >head - what were you thinking of? "What could he do? Should have been a rock star, But he didn't have the money for a guitar. What could he do? Should have been a politician, But he never had a proper education. What could he do? Should have been a father, But he didn't even make it to his twenties..." Okay, so I might be hard-pressed to come up with other examples...;-) Jeff - -- |Jeffrey C. Burka | "At night they're seen | | | Laughing, loving, | |jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.edu | They know the way to be happy" --KaTe | ------- End of Forwarded Message
jondr@sco.COM (Dances With Voles) (06/29/91)
No one yet knows why nrc@cbema.att.COM (Neal R Caldwell, Ii) said: >Jon Drukman had his Happy Rhodes fan club membership revoked when he wrote: Oh no! And I just forwarded my $1000 order to the exchequer! >Jon even put some '70s disco music on there as a joke. Um, that was a >joke wasn't it Jon? That was **80's** disco music, you bonehead! -- Jon Drukman (jam the track) uunet!sco!jondr jondr@sco.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Always note the sequencer - this will never let us down.