nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (08/09/85)
["It wouldn't take me long to tell you how to find it"]
I managed to get a tape this morning of the 12-inch single version of
Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" from a great guy (thanks!). The
following is a review of this single. I'm told the 12-inch version is
somewhat different from the 7-inch version (the 12-inch is longer and
there are some lyrics missing), and that the 12-inch is not being
released in the U.S., except to radio staions, so what I describe may
not be exactly what you will hear.
I had already received yesterday via net mail from Hugh Maher the lyrics
to "Running Up That Hill" and thought they were just incredibly great.
The lyrics appear to be about wanting to know what it's like to be other
people and experience their experiences, among other things, and the
lyrics also have strong sexual overtones presented as metaphor (for
music? Art? Life? Whatever?). I was really psyched to hear the song.
Well, only moments after I was handed the tape, I rushed to my stereo to
play the tape, and as soon as the song was over I was filled with
complete despair! What I heard was a dance song with a somewhat
interesting but monotonous and overbearing drum machine beat that droned
unvaryingly throughout the whole song and an obnoxious four note
synthesizer hook. "This can't be the same Kate Bush that did
'The Dreaming'!" I thought to myself in panic!
How could she have sold out so?!? The drum machine and Fairlight that
were used so perfectly on "The Dreaming" were now totally abused! I
wanted to fly to England at that moment and take Kate's drum machine and
Fairlight away from her and break them into little tiny pieces.
But I wasn't going to do anything rash until I had listened to the song
several more times and let it sink in. And sink in it did! By the
fifth or sixth listen the monotonous overbearing drum machine beat and
synthesizer hook had faded into the background and all sorts of
interesting things were revealed! What had appeared before to be an
overbearing monotonous beat, now appeared to be more of a
silence-substitute -- a textured background upon which to hang the
interesting things.
Now I think the song is just great! And am looking forward to the album
"Hounds of Love" with renewed vigour. The song probably has lots of
commercial potential, because those cretins who like nothing but
monotonous dance beats, will probably be able to ignore the interesting
stuff. And people who like interesting stuff will probably be able to
see the great artistry, if they give it a bit of a chance.
I don't think the fact that it took me a little while to get used the
song a particular minus, because I have never liked a song by Kate Bush
before the fifth or sixth listen anyway. This time I was just a lot
more worried than before.
One of the very few other musical artists I have ever heard who is able
to combine superb artistry with "commerciality" in the singles market is
Peter Gabriel. His two songs "Games Without Frontiers" and "Shock The
Monkey" were very commercial yet artistically superb too. ("Shock The
Monkey" even made it to number one on the Boston disco radio staion --
and perhaps on the "Kick Ass Rock 'N Roll" station too (but I'm not sure
about that...)) They're not my favorite of his songs but they are still
excellent.
I think that Kate Bush has done at least as good a job encorporating
artistic success into something with commercial potential in the singles
market, and though I despise the forces that have caused Kate Bush to
feel she has to move back into a more commercial direction, I won't
complain too loudly if it still results in something this good, and as
long as this style only occupies a reasonable portion of her album.
The B-side to the single is a simple, but very emotionally moving and
sad piano ballad called "Under The Ivy". It's quite uncommercial, and
incredibly good, especially because of the lyrics, which are intensely
powerful. They seem to allude to the desire to obtain the lost
innocence of youth and they talk about some dark secret which is never
explicitly described, but might be the contemplation of suicide.
"Do you want to know how it feels?"
Doug Alan
nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)