PMANCHESTER@CCMAIL.SUNYSB.EDU (11/06/89)
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3725
Peter Manchester
Religious Studies
632-7312
05-Nov-1989 02:57am EST
FROM: PMANCHESTER
TO: Love-Hounds Digest ( _IN%love-hounds@gaffa.mit.edu )
SUBJECT: Playlist
Good question about changing the playlist on the album. I
did, but not the order. I would never change KB's order. (I see
that fan usage requires KT or the even more distracting KaTe.
I've been writing KB for years and like the feel of how it types
better. Besides, Kate Bush is not a logo. And I for one don't
think there IS any TK on TSW, at least not on the Columbia U. S.
releases. I have the vinyl and CD, and have looked all the places
I've been told.
I found this album yo be like a mountain, and ran up it in
stages. I got the single, CD, 12", and 7", at the Record Stop in
Ronkonkoma the Tuesday before the full moon, and played it all
week in constant rotation in the car. Saturday night Oct. 14,
moon full, I got the album, and after one listen I started just
doing a two-song set, "The Sensual World" and "Love and Anger."
Then I would take the first three, the first five. Even though it
was a CD, you could feel that "Heads We're Dancing" completes a
side, and DU starts a second. The next week I started doing
alternate five-song sets--1,2,3,6,9 was especially strong, I felt.
I filled in to 1,2,3,4,5,6,9. Even when I started picking up on 8
and, last of all, 7, I still stopped at 9. How can you go on?
Beside, I had been listening to 10 for years already, since the
release of the movie soundtrack album. And 11 isn't really on the
album. It is positioned like "Under the Ivy," as the rare B-side
of the single. But then it appears immediately as a tease toward
the cassette or CD--a new move by Kate. Notice that now the
vinyl, without WSDTM!, becomes the collector's item.
On the consternation over "Reaching Out": First time I
heard this, I could see we had to make a choice, whether to go
with this song. It helped me when I saw that the last name on the
first line of the "thank you" credits was "Melanie." This is
probably some monstrous fabrication of my ignorance (Melanie in
the KB circle probably being well known to the informed), but I
was put in mind of Melanie--the Melanie of "Lay Down, Lay Down
(Candles in the Rain)," from late 60s/early 70s, and later of
"Brand New Key." Both hers and Kate's songs are what somebody
called 'anthems', girlhearted to a nearly unbearable degree, but
both songs move me to affirmation. Rolling Stone gave "Lay
Down" the worst, most negative and hostile review I had seen in
months and months. I couldn't listen to it myself till much
later, after Melanie had buffered it with the strong album
"Stoneground Words."
"Reaching Out" is needed setup for "Heads". How sweet it
is after "Reaching Out" to get that kickoff into "Heads"... but
then, ambiguity. We need to bring in "Experiment IV" here and
Kate's strong awareness of the ambiguous power of pop music. Of
her own music.
Look, is everybody sure that the lines after DU start out
"I hate to leave you"? The last line "I hate to lose you" is
plain enough, but before that I have been hearing "I hate to leave
NOW" all these weeks, and I STILL do.
A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O A O
pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.edu >
pmanchester@sbccma.bitnet < "C'MON, WE ALL SIN"
Peter Manchester > --Not This Time