[net.music] Kate Bush cover versions

nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (08/05/85)

> From: nax@cornell.UUCP

> Wonder if Kate has had cover versions -- Oh no! Now I've done it!

On Pat Benetar's debut album, there is a horribly butchered version of
KB's "Wuthering Heights". (Kate's version was one of the biggest hits
ever in Europe).  Of course, almost no one in the U.S. has ever heard of
Kate Bush, and everyone knows who Pat Benetar is -- there is nothing
more annoying than when you're playing "Wuthering Heights" on "The Kick
Inside" and someone walks by and says "Hey, you like Pat Benetar too?"
(Well, there's one thing that comes close: it's when you're playing Mike
Oldfield's "Family Man" and someone comes by and says "Hey, who's this
covering Hall and Oates?")

There are some other covers I know of, but I've never heard any of them.
There's a rock version of "The Kick Inside" by Julie Covington and
there's a supposedly very strange version of "Wuthering Heights" by Jah
Wurzel.  Does anyone know who he is?

Also, there are two comedians in England, Faith Brown and Pamela
Stevenson, who nearly made their entire careers out of doing parodies of
Kate Bush songs (accompanied, of course, with parodies of her dance
routines).

Kate was once asked what her favorite cover version of one of her songs
is, and she replied "Poor Old Flea" by Madame Maria Nanky.  Now Kate has
no song entitled "Poor Old Flea", so I really wonder which song this is
a cover of.  Does anyone know who Madame Maria Nanky is?

Kate Bush has only recorded one cover herself.  The B-side to the single
for "Sat In Your Lap" is a wonderful version of Donnovan's song "Lord of
the Reedy River".  Kate and Peter Gabriel did a wonderful duet version
of Roy Harper's wonderful song "Another Day" (which was also recently
covered by This Mortal Coil), but it was only on a BBC TV show and was
never put on record (unless of course you're willing to buy bootlegs).

			"Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away"

			 Doug Alan
			  nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)

jcjeff@ihlpg.UUCP (Richard Jeffreys) (08/05/85)

> > From: nax@cornell.UUCP
> > Wonder if Kate has had cover versions -- Oh no! Now I've done it!
> 
> ...there's a supposedly very strange version of "Wuthering Heights" by Jah
> Wurzel.  Does anyone know who he is?

There is a band in England called the Wurzels, (who come from Somerset)
they sometimes do parodies of hit songs in their own style. For example, one
of their songs was a parody of Melanie's "Brand New Key" which the Wurzels
entitled, I think, "Brand New Combine Harvester". If Jah (I question the
name, as they do have very strong "West Country" accents, the name could have
easily been misinterpreted) Wurzel is from this group, then it would indeed
be a very strange cover of "Wuthering Heights"

> Also, there are two comedians in England, Faith Brown and Pamela
> Stevenson, who nearly made their entire careers out of doing parodies of
> Kate Bush songs (accompanied, of course, with parodies of her dance
> routines).
> 			 Doug Alan
> 			  nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)

Wrongo!!
Faith Brown has made her career from doing impersonations of Margaret
Thatcher, and she's very good at doing that. Though it is possible she has
impersonated KB, once or twice, she certainly did not (even nearly) make it
an "entire career" 

Pamela Stevenson ("Not The Nine O' Clock News"(BBC), but now on "Saturday
Night Live" (NBC)) has also impersonated KB a few times, but is probably 
better known (in England) for her impersonation of Toya Wilcox, (a lisping
singer/actress) on NTNOCN. Pamela Stevenson, like Faith Brown, DID NOT (even
come close to nearly) make impersonating KB an "entire career".

-- 
 [ I'm bitten by the Rock and Roll disease;
                    Oh, won't you help me make a record ?  Please ? - Fanny ]
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||              employed by North American Philips Corporation              ||
||              @ AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, Illinois              ||
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
||  General disclaimer about anything and everything that I may have typed  ||
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boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (08/09/85)

> From:	mit-eddie!nessus	(Doug Alan)
 
> On Pat Benetar's debut album, there is a horribly butchered version of
> KB's "Wuthering Heights".

Oh, give me a break. I really think that your fanaticism for Kate Bush is
interfering with your critical judgement. I will grant that the *music*
for "Wuthering Heights" as played by Kate Bush is superior to that as by
Benetar's band, but I think that Benetar's *singing* of the song is far
superior to Bush's. First of all, Benetar (in my humble opinion) puts far
more emotion into the song than Bush does. Secondly, the lower register
of Benetar's voice is much more palatable. "The Man with the Child in His
Eyes" (which precedes "Wuthering Heights" on THE KICK INSIDE, as you well
know) proves that Bush can sing quite well in a lower register. That she
then chooses to sing "W.H." in a shrill falsetto which is high enough to
give one nosebleeds is especially irritating.
	There's certainly nothing wrong with you preferring Kate Bush's
version over Pat Benetar's, but to call the latter "horribly butchered" is
silly. Besides, it served what you might consider a useful purpose --- it
was one of the reasons that tempted me to try one of Kate Bush's albums. :-)

> there is nothing
> more annoying than when you're playing "Wuthering Heights" on "The Kick
> Inside" and someone walks by and says "Hey, you like Pat Benetar too?"

Yes, I can agree on this point, and I'm willing to bet that this helped
color your opinion on Pat Benetar's cover of "W.H."

--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA)

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