woiccare@PEBBLES.SCT.CLARKSON.EDU (the element of laughter) (04/23/91)
hello all...just got back from germany and am slowly readjusting to the grind again. i've got a few tidbits to share first though: - meredith says hi to chris, vickie, andy, ed and everybody else. - there seem to be two new bootleg cds available. one apparantly is a double cd set that duplicates the two already released demo cds. i am not yet sure what the exact set list yet, but i will know wednesday and fill you all in on title, track list, etc. the other cd has been listed in the past two issues of goldmine as _london 1979_ in the ad from cd connection in heidelberg (unfortunately, i was only in munich and prague, so i didn't get to look into this while over there). i do not know if this is another hammersmith cd or if it might be one of the london palladium shows. i will try to find out though as soon as i can. - in munich, i met the guy who owns the #00 hounds of love jersey (the jersey of which 100 were made numbered from 00-99). the guy is not a KaTefan at all. he's just saving it for a day when he needs the cash. - however, said guy is not a total asshole as he kindly gave me a copy of what he said was a promotional cassette that KaTe recorded for the release of _the kick inside_ (in germany, i would presume). the most interesting thing about this tape (besides KaTe's utter idealism which i will transcribe for you momentarily) is that the songs that are on it *are not* the same versions that were released on the album. the differences are subtle, but they are there: different instrumentation, diffrent mixes, etc. so for you reading pleasure, i now produce a transcipt of said tape: ----- [a stripped down version of "the kick inside" is played. KaTe's voice seems less full than it does on the lp - i haven't fully compared them yet. it fades after the first verse and is used as a backing track for the following words.] "hello everyone. this is KaTe bush and i'm here with my new album _the kick inside_ and i hope you enjoy it. the album is something that has not just suddenly happened. it's been years of work because since i was a kid, i've always been writing songs and it was really just collecting together all the best songs that i had and putting them on the album, really years of preparation and inspiration that got it together. as a girl, really, i've always been into words as a form of communication. and even at school i was really into poetry and english and it just seemed to turn into music with the lyrics, that you can make poetry go with music so well. that it can actually become something more than just words; it can become something special. "the way i've always worked is to be with the piano. i never write songs without the piano - it's always me and it and we communicate. and i always write the words with the tune - they seem to come together and it's very much a thing of moods. if the chord i'm playing is telling me something, then the words will come from that. if it is a minor feel, it will be a sad song because minor chords are very sad things. if it's a major chord, it will be a slightly maybe, rockier, happier song. "what happens is that i sit down and i start playing the piano and it's the progression of chords that comes out that actually leads to the song. until i sit down at the piano and have no idea what's going to happen. sometimes, before i go there, maybe i'll have an idea that i've picked up from a film or just from talking to someone about something i've never known about before. you can find inspiration can click in so many different ways: it can be something completely out of the blue that you'll suddenly think 'i really want to write a song.' i think that's how it works though. i think art is about spontaneous feelings and feedback of people, objects, whatever. it's just a continuous process of creation. "the song 'the kick inside', the title track, was inspired by a traditional folk song and it was an area that i wanted to explore because it's one that is really untouched and that is one of incest. there are so many songs about love, but they are always on such an obvious level. this songs is about a brother and a sister who are in love and the sister becomes pregnant by her brother. and because it is so taboo and unheard of, she kills herself in order to preserve her brother's name in the family. the actual song is in fact the suicide note. the sister is saying 'i'm doing it for you' and 'don't worry, i'll come back to you someday.' this is it." ["the kick inside" is played.] "'i'll send you love to zeus oh by the time you read this...' "that was the song 'the kick inside' off my new album released on emi. i hope you liked it. this is KaTe bush speaking" [commercial break?] ["feel it" begins and fades] "this is KaTe bush again. i think maybe the reason i write songs is maybe i need to my express myself. that i need to be heard by people, maybe just to feel that i am someone for some reason. but i don't really think it matters why as long as what i'm doing has some purpose and if it, in any way, makes other people feel happy, which is all i'm into. i really hope that listen to the song will enjoy it and have fun. "for me, age is very nebulous concept. it's something you can't really label on people. you meet people are maybe sixty years old are like a kid. "i think life is all about your attitudes and how you actually see things. i was lucky enough to be born into a family that consists of very observant people. they're very aware of people's motivations and why they do things. i think i'm very lucky because a lot of that has rubbed off on me. since i've been a kid, i've always been aware of observing people and trying to observe myself and why i do things. it's such an incredibly fascinating process the way people work, i can't help but be inspired by all that goes around me. it's just incredible. "i think i was very lucky cos when i was a small child, my brothers were extremely musical. they were into traditional music: english and irish folk. they were always playing stuff on the record players and had their own bands and go around the clubs. i got quite involved with it. i would sing along with them and sing harmonies. i think it was important cos when you are very young, your mind is so open for new stimulus and direction. i think it was given to me then, so i didn't really have to spend maybe ten years finding out what i was here for. i think that's been an important part of my life. "my other musical influences really have been things from the radio, ob- viously, because what you listen to are the things that are going on. and again, what my brothers were playing on the radio. at a later stage, i started seeking out my own stimulus and that came from people like, um, especially billie holiday. she was a really important thing to happen to me. her voice just really did things to me. so emotional and so tearing. i still can't get over how incredible her voice was and her presence. i'm into more progressive people, i guess, like david bowie and roxy music and steely dan. i think they are a very underestimated group, especially in england. they really are an important musical influence. and nearly anything really. i love so much music. i think that's the amazing thing about it: music can go into every corner of every room. there's so many different styles of music. everyone is great in their own right - it's just a matter of personal taste, really. "i think also one of the most amazing things about music, especially for the last twenty or thirty years, is the fact that we've been able to pre- serve it on record. so it's no longer someone jamming in a little club in the thirties in a little smoky place. it's an eternal process. you can lis- ten to people that have died maybe twenty years ago. you can see them on the television. you can see them moving and young. they are no longer there. you've captured that moment, purely through mechanical things, which is really quite ironic because music is such a pure emotional thing to be captured on such a mechanical modern contraption. but it's the only way we can do it. "this next song's called 'wuthering heights' and it's my single in england. it's from the novel called _wuthering heights_ - you probably might know it better as the film. it's about the end of the film where cathy has actually died and she's coming back as a spirit across the moors to come and get heathcliff again. and it just struck me very strongly because it shows alot about human beings and how if they can't get what they want, they will go to such extremes in order to do it. this is exactly what she did. she wouldn't even be alone when she was dead. she had to come back and get him. i just found it really amazing." ["wuthering heights" is played.] "well, that song was 'wuthering heights' and this KaTe bush talking to you and i hope you're still with us and having a good time. that was from my new album, _the kick inside_ on emi records." [commercial break?] ["feel it" begins again and fades again...] "this is KaTe bush again. "i think probably one of the most amazing things about the music scene today is the fact that music is purely one aspect of it. it is in fact a very large commercial business. this is why it is so hard for new unknown people to get into to - because it's a money-making business. a lot of companies are into creating formulas that will actually make the money for them and it's hard for people who have got something new to get through. but then again, there are the people in the companies who are aware of this and i think that that's where the magic lies because if you get through to them then you're all right. "for me, the most important thing is my music. that's what i'm here for. i think it's important that you realize that it is a business because you can't just play your music and shut yourself away becasue you have to communicate with your audience becasue they're the people that you're doing it for. you just have to compley with all the rules." "i think an interesting thing i happening in the music scene at the moment - i think from the beginning of this year, especially in england. it was purely because of punk. it was a very quick dynamic thing that happened and i think its purpose was in order to bring new things out of it. we now have a sort of thing called new wave, which has come from punk, but it's not like punk at all. it's rich in interesting lyrics, completely different attitude towards music. there are very interesting lyrics that are based a lot more on reality than a lot of things have gone before. i think that's the trouble with a lot of music that was happening: things were becoming purely romantic bubblegum. just talking about boy meets girl. the great thing about music is that it's a message. you actually have the power to convey a message to people to let them know about something they didn't know about before. i think that's an incredible responsiblity on behalf of the artist. i find myself very aware of that and i often wonder if i am doing any good, but i know it's my purpose. it's what i must do. "i do love singing other people's songs. i have done. but i feel that that is in fact cheating becasue there are so many good singers around who sing other people's songs and there aren't as many songwriters in comparison. for me, my only reason i sing is becasue i write the songs and i feel because i've written them and i know what they're about, i'm the one that can convey the message the best. but, i don't really consider myself a singer. i'm a singer/songwriter, but only because i write the songs. "maybe another interesting thing about this album is that two of the tracks, 'the man with the child in his eyes' and 'saxophone song' were recorded about three years ago. this was in fact my initial plunge into the business, as they say, with the help of dave gilmour from pink floyd. i managed to get through to him through a contact of my brothers' and at that time he was looking around for unknown talent. he came along and heard me and we put some things down and he put up the money for me to make my first demo in a proper recording studio with arrangements. i owe to him the fact that i got my contract and that i'm where i am now. two of these original tracks that we had on the demo are on the album, so maybe that helps with the variation. "the inspiration for 'the man with the child in his eyes' was really just a particular thing that happened when i went to the piano. the piano just started speaking to me. it was a theory that i had had for a while that i just observed in most of the men that i know: the fact that they just are little boys inside and how wonderful it is that they manage to retain this magic. "i, myself, am attracted to older men, i guess, but i think that's the same with every female. i think it's a very natural, basic instinct that you look continually for your father for the rest of your life, as do men continually look for their mother in the women that they meet. i don't think we're all aware of it, but i think it is basically true. you look for that security that the opposite sex in your parenthood gave you as a child. ["the man with the child in his eyes" is played.] ["l'amour looks something like you" is played and faded.] "this is KaTe bush again with my new album, _the kick inside_ on emi. there are thirteen tracks on this album. when we were getting it together, one of the most important things that was on all our mind was, that because there were so many, we wanted to try and get as much variation as we could. to a certain extent, the actual songs allowed this because of the tempo changes, but there were certain songs that had to have a funky rhythm and there were others that had to be very subtle. i was very very greatly helped by my producer and arranger andrew powell, who really is quite incredible at tuning into my songs. we made sure that there was one of the tracks, just me and the piano, to, again, give the variation. we've got a rock'n'roll number in there, which again was important. and all the others there are just really the moods of the songs set with instruments, which for me is the most important thing, becasue you can so often get a beautiful song, but the arrangements can completely spoil it - they have to really work together. "i think one of the really interesting things was compare live work with actually recording. it's such a completely different process, because when you're gigging, which i did for a little while with my band, the KT bush band, we were just doing pubs around london. we were singing other peoples' songs - rock'n'roll songs. it's really different because you feedback off the audience. you can see their faces. you can tell if they hate you or if they love you. all you're trying to do when you're on the stage is to excite them, get them to have a good time and enjoy it. with the album, it's a very different thing because that's a piece of plastic that people, hopefully, will listen to again and again. so you have to make it a very different kind of thing, it has to be purely for the ear, to allow people's imaginations to just move on their own. we just tried to do this by the arrangements and harmonies. there are so many of those things that you can't do live because you, obviously, can't overdub your own voice three times when you're singing live. you can't put harmonies in - you get other people to do it. the thing actually about playing it live is that in fact we weren't doing any of my songs - we were just doing other people's rock'n'roll numbers, becasue in fact, in the pubs in london, unless you're well known that's the only way you get people to listen to you. they need to know the songs and they need to be able to drink their beer and dance. and with the album, i was trying to initiate my songs, which is a completely different thing, and i was amazed at how lucky i was getting people to listen to me. i've been very lucky. "this next song is called 'strange phenomena' and it's all about the coinsidences that happen to all of us all of the time. like maybe you're listening to the radio and a certain thing will come up, you go outside and it will happen again. it's just how similar things seem to attract together. like the saying 'birds of a feather flock together' and how these things do happen to us all the time. just strange coincidences that we're only occasionally aware of. and maybe you'll think how strange that is, but it happens all the time. "well, i hope you've enjoyed all the tracks we've been listening to. it's been great to be with you all - i hope that you're all well and happy. they're the tracks of my first album and i'm working on my second one at the moment in france. i hope you like that one too and maybe i'll come back again sometime and tell you all about that one." ["strange phenomena" is played.] [there follows a number a short bits that are separate from the main interview. probably there were to be used as shorts between songs on the radio or as intros to her songs when they were played...] "this is KaTe bush speaking. on the whole, i listen to very few lady singers. i identify myself much more with male singers, especially male songwriters. but the people i really admire: billie holiday, she's in a right of her own. david bowie, i think he's an incredible songwriter. bryan ferry i think is an imnportant writer. the other people i do listen a lot ot are steely dan. and i think the main common denominator for the people that i like are that they are songwriters. they all seem to be either male groups or male single personalities who write their songs and sing them. and i think this is why i tend not to listen to females as much becasue the few that do get this together i don't find particularly interesting. joni mitchell stands on her own. i think joan armatrading too - she's special. but on the whole, i think i just identify more with male songwriters." "hi everyone - this is KaTe bush. the things that i hope for the future are that i continue to write songs and sing and that they progress. that they become more purposeful - that they have a purpose there all the time. one of the most important things to me is that i expand as a human being. so really any other sort of other levels that would take me onto a different plane, i'm welcome to if it's right. i'd love to get into the film media sometime, but i don't know if i as an actress can act. i don't think i could. i don't know. i'll just wait and see what comes and hope that i can expand and grow." ----- - my fingers hurt. - recall that this was recorded sometime in 1978 or so. keep this in mind when reading what she said. it's most interesting to compare it to what she says now - or how she acts now (especially with reference to paying attention to her audience and reacting to them...). -- woj zengineer/dj for hire/goofball "one of the band told me last work: rewoicc@erenj.bitnet night music was all that he's play: woiccare@pebbles.sct.clarkson.edu got in his life" -KT -- society of dark birds: fegmaniax-request@pebbles.sct.clarkson.edu --