There’s those little moments in songs, the ones that grab hold of your entire being and send it to the stratosphere. The examples I always give are in New Order’s Age of Consent, at 2 min 39 seconds, when Bernard starts freaking out on that one chord, and Minnie Riperton (as Andrea Davis)’s breathy repeated ‘baby don’t stop’ at 2:32 in the fade-out of You Gave Me Soul. In recent years I’ve come to think of Hounds Of Love as possibly the best song ever recorded. Besides everything about it being awesome, it has at least 4 of these moments for me. Each time she goes to the ‘Oh here I go’ part, that held ‘hold me down’, the ‘yey yo yey yo’ (I get chills just thinking about this one), and the inflections of her voice on the repeated ‘do you know what I really need’
The ‘Alternative Mix’ is really interesting, to hear how the song progressed. The not-quite-there-yet melody, different lyrics/chorus/backing vocals, parts in unfamiliar places, and the total absence of the ‘oh here I go’ section.
I always thought I didn’t know that much about Kate Bush so I decided to rectify that by listening to the 18.5 hour audiobook of Graeme Thomson’s excellent Under The Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush and now, well, I know quite a bit. I really enjoyed the book, so comprehensive, and of course she’s such a singular artist, one just marvels at her career and how she’s handled it, Thomson doing a great job of presenting it all to us. Looks like there’s a new edition coming out in July and I’l have to pick that up for completist’s sake.
I took my time with the book, listening to each album before the relevant chapter so it would be fresh in my mind while Thomson discussed the tracks. I’ve long considered The Sensual World to be such a great album sleeve (and often mistake her for Jane Wiedlin when I catch it out of the corner of my eye), though, aside from Love and Anger and This Woman’s Work, the record doesn’t do much for me. And neither, apart from the last two songs of A Sky Of Honey, does Aerial.
Thomson makes the case that this latter album opens up to one over repeated listenings, so I’ll just have to give it time. And despite The Red Shoes seeming to be ranked below these two outings, I rather like it better than both. Especially the slinky Lily, which also rocks as it rumbles along. The song is a banishing ritual, and it makes sense she opened her 2014 Before The Dawn shows with it. If you’re performing live for the first time after 35 years, you want conditions as perfect as you can get them.
Thomson points out too that had Not This Time been released as a single in the US, it would have been one of the biggest power ballads of the 80s. Instead it was the b-side to The Big Sky. She would’ve been perceived radically differently over here forever after had it been, though I’m surprised DJs didn’t do what they did with Depeche Mode’s Stripped and simply flip the record over, which gave But Not Tonight so much airplay here. Still, killer tune. One I’ve had on my stereo pretty much non-stop these past couple weeks. I would have loved to have found it as a b-side back in the day.
Another thing too is Bush’s sense of humor. Even after all these years, I still marvel at how funny that second round of ‘doo-doo-doo…’ backing vocals on Hounds Of Love is when it morphs to the dog arfs. And without taking anything away from or pulling us out of the song, which is very hard to do. Listening Stephen Fry intone the very words of the title track of 50 Words For Snow, I was struck by just how wonderfully funny her ‘Come on man, you've got 44 to go’ goading bvs are
I’ve been hearing such great things about Mike Nagel’s books this year, I was psyched to finally get them a couple weeks ago. And they live up to what everyone is saying. These are masterworks of Existentialist Comedy, frequently approaching Zen. I laughed all the way through, though often stopping to appreciate how Nagel succinctly cuts to the core of this crazy conundrum we call Existence. “It seems to me that the goal of life - one of the goals - is to stay alive as long as possible. I can’t always remember why.” Highly recommended, buy them both and save $4
The book launch for Sporting Moustaches in Brooklyn last week was a blast. The weather was quite prohibitive, but the intrepid five who braved the monsoon and I had a fantastic time. Ben suggests that perhaps my next book should be about all the accidents I’ve sustained over the years. Still dealing with this most recent concussion. If you want a signed copy - of Sporting Moustaches, not the concussion - and I don’t believe in charging extra for signatures, get one at my Bandcamp. Or ask your local indie bookstore to order it.
If you’re still deciding about buying Sporting Moustaches, you can read the football story, First & Mane, at The Emigre. Set in Jupiter, Florida, it was inspired by the thought ‘what if Burt Reynolds listened to Sun Ra?’
Psyched that Sporting Moustaches is one of April’s Books Of The Month at Vol.1 Brooklyn - “like nothing you’ve read before.” And:
"so exuberantly madcap are the stories that when read continuously, Sporting Moustaches feels like being gently bludgeoned by a tender lunatic." A good review in Cyprus Mail
If you’re in Nashville next week, I’ll be opening for the lovely dream-pop band Taxiway, reading and talking, and joining them to sing a song. April 19th at Random Sample.
Us covering Shivers last November at Pete’s Candy Store
Another great newsletter. Agree completely about Age of Consent, one of the greatest songs of all time. Thanks for sharing your insights.