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From: nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: I Hate Kate Bush
Message-ID: <4548@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Jun-85 06:06:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.4548
Posted: Tue Jun 25 06:06:48 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 06:06:56 EDT
References: <2619@ihuxf.UUCP>
Distribution: net.music
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 157

[Reality is only a crutch for those who cannot handle good music.]

> From: russ@ihuxf.UUCP (Russell Spence)

> Enough, Enough, ENOUGH!!!!!   I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT KATE
> BUSH!!!!!!!!

Use your "n" key!  That's what it was designed for!

> Why don't you start up net.music.kate.bush, or set up a mailing list
> for Kate Bush fans???

I don't want to get Rich Rosen mad at me.  Besides, I (sort of) agree
with him.  Why don't you start up net.music.no-kate-bush, if you are so
upset?

> It probably wouldn't mind except that I heard all of the raves about
> Kate Bush and went out and decided to buy "The Dreaming".  I usually
> don't like to buy an album without some idea of what the music is like
> or if I will like it, but... the album got such good reviews on the
> net that I decided to take a chance.

Good for you.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

> So, I put down my hard earned money and bought the album and took it
> home and played it.  And then I played it a few more times, because I
> wanted to give it a fair chance and see if it improved with more
> playing.  Well, I don't like it.  In fact I think that Kate Bush
> sucks.  I'll never buy another Kate Bush album and I'm very sorry that
> I bought "The Dreaming" (although I like the thought that when I
> destroy it there will be one less copy of that album in the world).

Awww!  Poor poor Russel.  The big bad music hurt his ears.  And poor
poor Russel must cry to the net about his 7 bucks lost to the big bad
music.

Russel, I don't know what you were expecting, but the reviews I have
posted of "The Dreaming" have given more than adequate warning that this
is not music for those who want the boring saftey of formula trash.  All
of the following quotes that I have posted indicate quite clearly that
you have to be a somewhat adventuresome listener to appreciate this type
of music:

	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....

	....

	"The Dreaming" can't even be spotted in the hills.  It pulses
	with new shapes and guises, voices crawl over your ears and gnaw
	the brain like beautiful maggots.  ...  I don't care what they
	say, Kate Bush is a technicolor lighthouse in all the murky
	cover and boring crap.  She deserves more from many quarters.
	Maybe you." --Zig Zag 1982

	....

	"I must have been waiting all my life for Kate Bush.  She took me
	by surprise though, appearing unobtrusively in a pile of records
	-- played once and heard superficially as "weird noise"....
	I played the record ["The Dreaming"] again, it was perhaps, the
	most important musical decision I made all year....
	A question reared up in me and demanded an answer -- Who is Kate
	Bush and where has she been all my life?"  -- Rockbill

	....
	
	"This is what "The Dreaming" is -- a harrowing psychological foray
	into another world.... Kate Bush leaves no doubt that she is the
	master of this dream world that, frighteningly, has its roots
	firmly seated in reality.  This is not the woman-child of "The
	Kick Inside" (if she ever was that).  This is the mature and
	experienced artist...Her voice becomes a full orchestra,
	alternating between hellish choirs, ascending angels, and
	compelling exhortations...."  -- Keyboard

	....

	"There's a human element in that album, like a tormented human
	that has to sort out all these problems and pain."  -- Kate Bush

So what's the matter Russel?  You don't like voices crawling over your
ears and gnawing your brain like beautiful maggots?  You don't like
music that sounds at first like "weird noise" -- that takes a little
effort by the listener to decode because of complex layering and
counterpoint?  You don't like harrowing psychological forays into
another world that frighteningly has its roots seated firmly in reality?
You don't like an album that deals with problems and pain?

Then why did you buy the album???  What were you expecting?  "Asia Does
Barry Mainilow's Greatest Hits Vol. 2"?  "Madonna Wiggles Her Belly
Button For You Some More"?  "Lionel Ritchie Bores You To Death"?  "Phil
Collins Rips Off Prince"?  

That "The Dreaming" is an album that cannot be pigeon-holed into any
safe comfortable category of music was clearly stated!  Or is it that
you do indeed like having voices crawling over your ears and gnawing
your brain like beautiful maggots, but that you don't think the maggots
on "The Dreaming" are beautiful enough?  Or that Kate Bush just hasn't
done a good enough job at this?  (HAH!)

What do you want out of music?  I suppose you want your music to be a
tranquilizer that will make you forget all about what life is about.
Maybe you want to disappear into Madonna's navel?  Pretty pathetic if
you ask me!

Russel, you have a bad attitude.  Lot's of time people tell me that an
album Foo is the greatest thing since the vegomatic.  I often run out
and buy the album, and often my opinions are not the same as the
recommender.  But do I get mad at the recommender or the artist, if I
don't like the album?  No!  Quite to the contrary!  Even if I don't like
the album, but if I think the album has a lot of artistic merit, I thank
the recommender profusely for exposing me to something new!  XTC is an
example of this for me.  To some of my friends XTC is god!  I don't
enjoy their music incredibly (except "Respectable Street"), but am I
sorry I bought their albums?  No!  Because I respect them artistically.
They are doing something original and creative, and I am very glad to
have been exposed to it, even if I don't like to throw it on my
turntable every day.  If anything, it is MY problem and fault that I do
not fully appreciate them.

And Russel, in the future, why don't you include some thoughtful
criticism, rather than just a sample of oral diarrhea.  This is supposed
to be a forum for intelligent human beings.

But I'll tell you what Russel... I'll include right here some guidelines
about who should not bother wasting their hard-earned money on "The
Dreaming", so that no one else like you will get screwed.

Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" if creativity offends you.  Do NOT buy "The
Dreaming" if you like all your music to be easily dividable into nice
safe classifications.  Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" for background music.
Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" if you are unwilling to put some effort into
listening to it.  Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" if you want music to calm
you rather than stimulate you.  Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" if you do not
like intense experiences.  Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" if you think that
top-40 is what music is all about.  Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" if you do
not enjoy thinking.  Do NOT buy "The Dreaming" if you do not like to be
challenged!

> And in fact, Doug Alan, I'll take you up on your reward, if I find a
> copy of "The Dreaming" on CD, I'll gladly buy it and send it to you...
> in little pieces.

I'm sorry Russel, but my offer of a reward is not good for a CD that has
been broken into little pieces.

			"A foreign body and a foreign mind
			 Never welcome in the land of the blind"

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