Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site uwstat.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!uwvax!uwstat!ramirez From: ramirez@uwstat.UUCP Newsgroups: net.music Subject: Re: Kate Bush's "The Dreaming", the best album ever or ever to be Message-ID: <222@uwstat.UUCP> Date: Sun, 13-Jan-85 22:07:22 EST Article-I.D.: uwstat.222 Posted: Sun Jan 13 22:07:22 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jan-85 21:15:48 EST References: <3408@mit-eddie.UUCP> Distribution: net.music Organization: U of Wisconsin Statistics Lines: 146 > [We let the weirdness in.] > > Hi! Do you like artistic rock such as Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, King > Crimson, or Laurie Anderson? If you do please read on. If on the > other hand you think that Michael Jackson, Asia, and Culture Club > represent the ultimate in musical experience, please swallow two > cyanide tablets (not enclosed) or just skip to the next message. Both > actions will violate the true meaning of life. > > My purpose here is tell you about the best album recorded or that ever > will recorded. It is "The Dreaming" by Kate Bush. I am spending the > time to tell you about this album because unlike the Pink Floyd, Peter > Gabriel, etc., Kate Bush is little known in the U.S. and needs the > advertisement. I am also spending the time because unfortunately if > "The Dreaming" does not get more success, Kate Bush may never produce > anything nearly as good as "The Dreaming" ever again. > > "The Dreaming" is Kate Bush's fourth album. She became very popular > in England with her first three albums "The Kick Inside", "Lionheart", > and "Never for Ever", which are on a bizarre fringe of Pop. With "The > Dreaming", though she totally departed from Pop to create her own area > of music. Unfortunately, "The Dreaming" was not well-received at all > in England, but strangely enough has created a small but incredibly > dedicated cult following in the U.S. It seems likely that if "The > Dreaming" does not gain in popularity, Kate Bush's record company will > pressure her to produce again more commercial stuff. > > "The Dreaming" is a perfect album. That is why I said it is the best > album recorded or that ever will be recorded. You can't get any > better than perfection. Perhaps there is an album I don't know of or > an album yet to be that is as good, but there is none nor will be none > better. > > The biggest influence for "The Dreaming" seems to be Peter Gabriel's > third album (which is also a great album). In fact Kate Bush sings > background vocals for two songs on the album, "No Self-Control" and > "Games Without Frontiers". (Kate Bush hangs around with a good crowd. > Besides being a good friend of Peter Gabriel, she is also a good > friend of David Gilmour, who "discovered" her and also does some > background vocals on "The Dreaming".) Though similar in some ways to > Peter Gabriel's third album, "The Dreaming" is also very different. > The lyrics, while being even stranger than Peter Gabriel's, hit closer > to home. > Man: Woman, let me in > Let me bring in the memories > Woman, let me in > Let me bring in the Devil Dreams > Woman: I will not let you in > Don't you bring back the reveries > I turn into a bird > Carry further than the word is heard > Man: Woman, let me in > I turn into the wind > I blow you a cold kiss > Stronger than the song's bit > Woman: I will not let you in > I face towards the wind > I change into the Mule > Hee-Haw > Hee-Haw > Kate Bush's voice is amazing. It ranges from a piercing > high to a powerful bass, and she uses it perfectly. The music is all > very layered. Every song with the exception of one required two 24 > track tapes to record. The album takes two or three listenings at > first to overcome the sensory overload, but after that listening to > the album is bliss. Every time I listen to the album, I can hear > something new that I didn't hear before. Every time I like the album > even more. This is opposed to most albums, which I get tired of after > listening to them for a while. > > Here is a review of "The Dreaming" by Kurt Loder from Musician > (Copyright 1983) included without permission: > > This is what progressive rock might have become had it > actually progressed, rather than congealing into the massed, > lumbering cliches that came to distinguish its latterday > forms. Oblivious to all fashions, Britain's Kate Bush has > advanced into a musical area that's unquestionably her very > own -- a kind of mystic and semi-inscrutable artsong that > slowly draws you in and keeps you marvelling at her unending > invention and oblique, multilayered meanings. > > Although well appreciated in her homeland, Bush has been a > source of continuing puzzlement for her American record > company: how to promote a female performer who's neither a > chirrupy sex doll nor a punked-out doom-shrieker? Her > problems with popular acceptance -- aside from the fact that > she's a gifted musician, songwriter and producer who happens > to be a beautiful woman to boot -- are once again apparent on > "The Dreaming", as is her extraordinary artistry. "Sat In > Your Lap", the lead song here, is a furiously percussive track > that considers -- of all things -- the difficulty of obtaining > true wisdom without work ("Some say that knowledge is > something sat in your lap," she trills). Likewise, when was > the last time you heard a surreal, faintly political song > about bank robbery ("There Goes a Tenner") or a Vietnam War > retrospective written from the point of view of a stalking > guerrilla ("He's big and pink and not like me / He sees no > light / He sees no reason for the fighting")? > > "Night Of The Swallow" considers another clandestine > operation, this one airborne and apparently ill-fated ("Wings > fill the window / And they beat and bleed"); "All The Love" > considers life's eternally underpondered transience ("All the > love we could have given / ... 'I needed you to love me too. > I wait for your move'"). And on "The Dreaming", the albums > most startling and unsettling track, Bush brings in Rolf ("Tie > Me Kangeroo Down, sport") Harris on digeridu [an aborigine > instrument] for a frightening rumination on the rape of native > culture in Australia: "Bang' goes another Kanga / On the > bonnet of the van / ... Erase the race that claim the place > and say we dig for ore." > > Throughout all of this, Bush layers dense musical textures and > elliptical catch-phrases into an elsewhere unexampled work of > disturbing art. The production is thick and rich, her > high-pitched vocals often astonishing in their wayward > inspiration, and her arrangements -- based largely on her own > keyboard playing [Piano, Fairlight, and CS80] -- offer > surprise at every turn. > > You're not likely to see "The Dreaming" much advertised or > otherwise promoted in these days of parlous record-company > finances -- even though this is her first LP to be released in > this country in four years. My advice to seekers after artful > rock: get her while you can. > > So, now you have no excuse. You can't say that you never heard of > Kate Bush. Go buy the album! If you don't won't you feel empty > knowing that you haven't listened to the best album ever or ever to > be. > > Remember to treat the gelignite tenderly for me, > > Doug Alan > genrad!mit-eddie!nessus > Nessus@MIT-MC *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Hi Doug!!!!!! I'm glad to hear that there is still someone making good music. I really like Laurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel, King Crimsom and I looking for something new. I tried to find the album you mentioned but I couldn't find it. Do you know where I can get