Anyone game? Come on Soldierboy, this is your big chance. ;)
I just heard 'Hounds of Love' for the first time in years. Now, I do have a bunch of reservations about dearest KT, particularly wrt her squeaky first few albums, but this is quite an astounding album.
As far as the avant garde of pop goes, it's hard to think of many who have reached these heights of eccentricity and inventiveness in the past couple of decades.
On the A-side you've got a bunch of amazing pop songs, pretty killer singles or singles that should've been, with lyrical content as obscure as the arrest of Austrian psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich. Actually, that would be too obvious - the song's written from the perspective of Reich's son.
There's a bunch of weird instruments, a whole lot of funny Fairlight sampler action and the classic "gated reverb drum sound" made famous by Phil Collin's 'In The Air Tonight'.
Then on the b-side you've got a 7 song suite named after Tennyson's 'The Ninth Wave', which chronicles the last night of a drowning man, lost at sea, through 7 different perspectives.
Not to mention Donald Sutherland in the video for 'Cloudbusting'. Holy shit. He has the best smile.
Aaargh, had to go back to 'Cloudbusting'. Having one of those "FUCK, MUSIC IS THIS GOOD - IT REALLY CAN GRAB YOU THAT HARD" epiphanies. Semi-publicly. Sorry all. :)
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Best interest shown by Dave Gilmour ...
Best interest shown by Dave Gilmour eh?
The Prince collab's are pretty good to. "My Computer" indeed, alas not currently wearing Red Shoes.
I reckon "The Dreaming" is better than Hounds, I really rate Pull out the Pin, Suspened in Gaffa, and Get out of my House.
Any album with Rolf Harris and Danny Thompson sessioning on it is worth owning.
Another Album i like is "Never for Ever" featuring some pretty nice Fretless from John Giblin, particulary on "Babooshka" and "Breathing" which incidentlly, must be at the topend of Primo Anti-War Songs.
So lets hear it for BUSH.
I was thinking about Prince as a ...
I was thinking about Prince as a comparable artist, with regard to how damn individual and avant they both are while both being clearly "pop". Obviously they sound very different, but that's sorta my point - so clearly individual, while being heavily engaged in the pop machine and making these super catchy songs amongst all the madness.
The Dreaming is a really impressive album, but there's something about her voice that I reckon really came into full effect on Hounds of Love. Nothing I can articulate.
Hounds of love is MY FAVOURITE ALBUM IN ...
Hounds of love is MY FAVOURITE ALBUM IN THE WORLD!!! excuse my excitement, but it's true. Hearing it for the first time was very much an epiphany for me too. Cloudbursting is a gem - the whole Wilhelm Reich/Organon story is quite fascinating - Patti Smith also based her song Birdland (from Horses) on it.
Each track on "side one" is a mini-masterpiece. The 9th Wave suite is a stroke of genius - though I think it's about a drowing girl, rather than a man - "liiiiittle liiiight"
Did you get the expanded edition with the bonus tracks? They just make an already perfect album better - especially the painfully beautiful Under the Ivy.
Her first album "The Kick Inside" is my ...
Her first album "The Kick Inside" is my favourite, songs like "Moving" and "The Saxophone Song" are loaded with feel as is "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" and of course her most famous song "Wuthering Heights". You can see why Dave Gilmour helped her get going, i actually like what i refer to as her Witchy poo voice.
The Kick Inside is good too - very much ...
The Kick Inside is good too - very much a teenage girl's album - I mean that in a good way, of course - it's a little precocious, but that is it's charm. I first heard it when I was in 7th form, so when I hear it today, it brings back memories of doing remedial biology at Manukau Instite of Technology among other things. Wuthering Heights is one of the most perfect pop singles of all time.
I first heard all this Kate Bush stuff ...
I first heard all this Kate Bush stuff in 5th form, I guess, and got completely immersed in it. I had this rather intense 'Heavenly Creatures'-minus-murder type friendship with a guy at school, who was obsessed with Kate. I was obsessed with Peter Gabriel. Lucky they did a few songs together. ;)
Anyway, Mr Bush-obsessive was very clear at the time that the 9th Wave was about a man. He collected clippings of interviews, read her (unauthorised, of course) biography and so on, so I trust that he's right. I'm sure we could dig around on the web for evidence... A song like 'Watching You Without Me' makes sense to me as describing the wife of the man.
I'd unfortunately tied up all this Kate Bush stuff in my head with a great deal of teen angst and turmoil (my own, not in her music), so it's quite interesting to come back to it almost 15 years later with a bit of a clear head. Although I was just as intense about Peter Gabriel back then, I now reckon the sum of Bush's efforts seem way more interesting. Gabriel's done some great songs, but sometimes that seems more to do with who he was working with...
Hmm, so maybe the character is male. ...
Hmm, so maybe the character is male. It's difficult to tell, what with Kate's voice (espcially on Morning Fog - that's meant to be a guy's voice?). This might change my perception of the whole 9th Wave saga, but hopefully not too drastically ;)
//the classic "gated reverb drum sound" ...
//the classic "gated reverb drum sound" made famous by Phil Collin's 'In The Air Tonight'.
On a bit of a tangent, has anyone seen the live video of that song they always play on J2?
I feel really sorry for the no-name touring drummer. He gets to sit there playing fuck all for ages, maybe a little hi-hat tap every so often, and then he thinks 'oh my god, here it comes, the classic fill that brings in the emotionally powerful part of the song that makes the crowd go wild... this is why i love this job' and then out of nowhere a kit rises from below the stage, phil hops on and plays exactly the same beat as the other dude.
he tries to keep a smile on his face but you can tell his heart's just been ripped out.
Haha, that's genius. Random ...
Haha, that's genius.
Random anecdote:
Peter Gabriel started out as the drummer for Genesis, but couldn't keep time, so became the singer. Phil came in on drums. Then Pete left to do the solo thing.
On Pete's third self-titled album, Phil came in to play drums on a track called 'Intruder'. This was the first record that had that gated reverb effect, which is part of that big sound in 'In The Air Tonight'. Supposedly this started an ongoing dispute between the two, because both of them insisted in interviews that they came up with the sound. Great thing to argue about, eh?
Another random tidbit: Sinead O'Connor said one of the things she admired most about Kate Bush is that she was the only woman to work with Peter Gabriel and not sleep with him... Suggesting that he was a bit of a sleaze, given he was married up until the mid 80s, from memory. This was after Sinead sang on one of his albums, tho, so I'm not sure if she was saying she'd joined the notches on his bedpost. ;)
I tryed to promote an interest in Kate ...
I tryed to promote an interest in Kate Bush in our house, but He of Better Taste than I, would only play a couple of tracks then put on Nina Hargen instead
i sang karaoke 'babooshka' last night....
i sang karaoke 'babooshka' last night.
I remember an end of year party in 7th ...
I remember an end of year party in 7th form, watching a bunch of stoned bogans (myself included) staring at the floor and playing "Wuthering Heights" over and over again with tears in their eyes.
Kate Bush is a genius.
First album I ever bought with my own ...
First album I ever bought with my own money was the Hounds of Love LP.
Just about wore the stylus out listening to it.
Ahhh, Kate.
I think <I>The Hounds of Love</I> was ...
I think The Hounds of Love was about the second CD I got, right after the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Before then it was off my sisters' dubbed copies.
Gave Hounds of Love another run last ...
Gave Hounds of Love another run last night... was thinking that what I find impressive about it is that she's so damn un-self conscious in her fruitiness / literariness etc. Like it's very much intellectual subject matter, strange things going on (eg. Twin Peaks dwarf backwards singing), etc. but I really don't think it's pretentious. Just huge ambition and genuine enthusiasm for pursuing it. Or something.
"I'm looking at the big sky, now"
// what I find impressive I mean, ...
// what I find impressive
I mean, apart from how it sounds. ;)