Kate Bush---re-mixes, originals??

Gardo,

Never, EVER buy any American CD versions of any Kate Bush album; Always go for the English(or Japanese)versions. Any question of remastering for me is pretty redundant, as these sound great to these ears anyway. "The Dreaming" is her wildest, and for me, most rewarding album. One of the most challenging albums you will ever hear.

Look for the 12" singles as well, since these will give you different mixes and often, otherwise unreleased songs. The "Experiment IV" 12" has one of my fave KB songs, "December Will Be Magic Again".

Good luck!
MM

 

Thanks. The KB CD I've got is THE WHOLE STORY, and it's a Made in USA CD, copyright 1986 EMI AMERICA. Catalog CDP 7-46414-2. No mastering credit beyond "Cut By Ian Cooper," which I'm confident is an LP credit only. Does the UK version of this CD sound better? How in general (or specifically?) would you describe the difference between the American CDs and the UK or Japanese versions.

Haven't pulled out that CD of THE WHOLE STORY. The cover photo is ravishing. Good motivator for listening to the music again.

I've got the 12" of "Running Up That Hill."

 

The EMI America CD of The Whole Story sounds...awful. If you go online a English copy should not be hard to track down. The difference is immense.

 

I just gave my US copy a listen yesterday. Great music, but everything sounded bright, bass-shy, shouty, two-dimensional. I KNOW the drums on "Running Up That Hill" should have more ooomph. I'll watch for the UK CD. Thanks, MatrixMan.

 

One reason may be that the original UK CD was an ADD, while the US version was AAD. I noticed that back when the discs were originally released. The UK version came out about six months before the US, and I bought the import, even before I had a CD player (the collector in me). I never heard the US version, but if the tracks that wound up on The Whole Story were any indication, there had to be a big drop off in sound between the two masters (or three in this case).

 

I guess I stand corrected on the Hounds of Love re-issue with bonus tracks. The standard issue of this CD says it was remastered. I saw it yesterday for the first time. The limited edition version with the slip cover and booklet doesn't say anywhere that it was remastered. I didn't think it was, because when I compared it to the regular 80s master of the CD, I didn't sound much different.

One year ago Kate Bush appeared in public for the first time in years at the Q Magazine award ceremonies to receive an award in the classic song writers category. While there, Kate managed to get John Lydon to pose for a picture with her. Here's what Lydon had to say when asked about Kate.

"Kate Bush is a true original. It's not nice that she's been imitated - Torrid Aimless, sorry, Tori Amos. But Kate Bush is a genuine talent. She went through the same **** I did when she started, "Oh that's not singing". Who the f*&k wrote the rules about music?."

Has anyone ever seen Kate's performance of "The Wedding List" at the Prince's Trust concert in 1982? Her band was Phil Collins on drums, Gary Brooker keys, Pete Townsend guitar, Midge Ure guitar (Ultravox), and Mick Karns (Japan) on bass . Near the end of the song both straps on Kate's gold lame top snapped off a few seconds apart. She finishes the song with her left arm gracefully holding everything up. Very cute. The concert also featured Jethro Tull and Madness.

Kate Bush and friend. Who'd a thunk?

 

Mike, seeing that photo reminded me that Kate did take a lot of critical slanging early on, which didn't really let up until HOUNDS. That she'd find a kindred spirit in Mr. Rotten--I mean, Lydon--shouldn't really surprise us. There is more, after all, we all have in common than separates us, and what we all have in common with these artists is a pathological love for music. Remember what Dave Marsh once wrote about her, describing her voice as "Patti Smith mated with a Hoover vacuum cleaner"?
Clever line, but missed the point. As usual.

ED

 

Really. I had a lot of respect for Dave Marsh. He's just moved down a small notch in my books.

For those new to Kate, or old here's a link to the longtime fanzine of Kate Bush, HomeGround. Still going strong.

I once thought I had one of the more extensive Kate Bush collections. Gary, you have me beat in terms of your LPs. (Don't know about your 7 and 12 inch collection.) Where do I find these Japanese and U.K. vinyl pressings besides the overblown prices on eBay? I do have "The Kick Inside" as previousl mentioned, U.K. and Japan pressings along with the U.K. "The Red Shoes". Everything else is Canadian pressings. I though my "The Sensual World", "The Whole Story", and "The Dreaming" were U.K. "The Dreaming" is EMI America . "The Whole Story" and "The Sensual World" are on that gawky Canadian Purple Capitol label. Oh well.

At a local record convention in 1990-91 someone nicked a part of my Kate Bush collection including the "The Dreaming" Japanese pressing and all my U.K. twelve inch singles. (I brought them there for display.) A couple of years later the then owner of an import/used record/CD shop in Western Canada sold me the U.K. 12 inch singles from his private collection to replace my stolen ones, and some 7 inch records from various countries. He was unable to find me a Japanese pressing of "The Dreaming".

I have "The Red Shoes" promo box given to me directly by EMI Canada in the fall of '93. The box contains "The Red Shoes" domestic CD, the U.S. video mix of "Rubberband Girl" and a Kate Bush "facts sheet". I guess there were no shoes in the Canadian version, as was the case with a couple of the diferent U.K. versions.

 

I have the video of the 1982 performance at the Prince's Trust concert, with Pete Townshend, etc. She did "The Wedding List", among others. A great performance. It's nice to see the pic of Kate with John Lydon. Naturally, she looks quite a bit older than when last seen, but still a great beauty. That hair looks dyed, now.

It's great to see Lydon say good things about her, and he is absolutely correct in his assessment. "Torrid Aimless", indeed!

 

Thanks Gary. Let me think about it for a sec, yeah OK. If you stumble across a Japanese pressing of The Dreaming, first edition with OBI strip, please let me know.
Here's a description of that pressing from the excellent Kate Bush discography Web site. The site covers all formats and just about every country you could think of complete with cover and label scans where possible.
Kate Bush Illustrated Discography
Kate Bush - The Dreaming LP - Japan
EMS 91044
Front sleeve: Same as UK release. Catalogue number in top right corner. Japanese wrapper with Kate Bush discography on the back.
Back sleeve: Same as UK release.
Sleeve opens on the right. Plastic inner. Ivy labels. Insert with biography in Japanese and Japanese and English lyrics.

BTW, I also have the gold Canadian 7 inch of Wow w/ pic sleeve, as well as a promo 7 inch of Symphony in Blue mono/stereo on blue vinyl. I think the mono version is just a fold down. Interesting that Capitol was still releasing mono singles in the late 1970s. I thought that practice stopped in around 1973/74. Maybe the mono singles were just for radio by then. I also have the Canadian and U.S. coloured vinyls of Hounds Of Love.

I hit pay dirt two days ago at Recordland. I found a mint U.K. vinyl copy of Hounds of Love, first pressing. There are 6 different U.K. pressing of Hounds actually, including the release in 1997 for EMI’s centenary and the 2000 Simply Vinyl limied edition 180 gram virgin vinyl. I also found a mint copy of the EEC release of The Whole Story. Got them for $15. and $10. Pretty good prices. Recordland also had a U.K. pressing of The Dreaming, but the front cover has one of those freakin' huge budge price/mid price stickers on it. So I passed.

If anyone else is looking for Kate LPs, there are some very good deals on eBay right now as Gary mentioned. I'd snap up what you can today, while the lull is still on. When wind of her new album surfaces, and EMI starts advertising the remastered CDs, the collector prices will skyrocket again, I'm sure. At one point in the early 1990s Kate was ranked, in the top 5 or 10 collectable artists according to Record Collector magazine. But she has probably dropped since then, so now's a good time to get her LPs and 12 inch singles at a reasonable price.

Isn't this a gorgeous album cover?

 

I'm glad to see this thread getting into the KB vinyl end of things. I'm another guy with lots of stuff including the vinyl box set Japanese pressings of Hounds, Dreaming, Never, and Kick as well as UK originals of all of them. I collected them at stores during the 80's. Anyway I have a question for the KB fanatics. How many different covers of Kick are there? I have 4 different ones (UK,Jap., US, Can) all completely different covers. I'd bet there are some more different covers that I've missed.

The other real collectible (and listenable) items are the UK 12" 45s. I'm sure that I don't have every one, but I must have around 15-20. Some of the versions are just awesome. The one I always loved was the alternate version of Running Up that Hill, there is the album version also on a 12" with the picture of Kate shooting a bow. The other great 12" is the Elton John cover of Rocket Man.

John

 

Maybe

All the best - Andrew

 

I never had any respect for Dave Marsh. I generally respect opinions different from my own, but Marsh really irritates me. He wrote a very snide, disdainful pan of Bruce Springsteen's first album for Creem, which he conveniently forgot to mention later when he became the Boss' drooling fanboy biographer. In Rolling Stone, he called Queen "fascist" and said that their ideas were "polluting." (I'm no Queen fan myself, but it sounded to me like Marsh had been watching too many B-movies portraying Nazis as cross-dressing perverts.) The tone of his writing also seems to imply that he truly believes that you can't truly understand or love rock music if you're not from the wrong side of the tracks.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

I have a fair amount of respect for Dave Marsh, but some of these criticisms are justified IMO. He's a bit too proud of his politics, and a bit too condescending and judgmental; he can also be puerile in an irritating way (I think he thinks he's being "radical" or perhaps charming). OTOH, he's a perceptive listener and usually a good writer. Some of his stuff in the Who biography Before I Get Old is annoying, but some of it is absolutely right and beautifully said. Again, IMO, of course.

 

I cannot respect any critic who has his head as firmly up Springsteen's butt as Marsh does; Plus, don't forget what he said about Kate in the Rolling Stone Record Guide(he compares her voice to a Hoover vacuum cleaner)!

 

Yeah, that was a cheap shot, but I still think he's usually worth reading. BTW, that Hoover vacuum slam reminds me of what someone (Lester Bangs?) once said of David Bowie's voice: "it sounds like an electric eel expiring on a rotisserie."

 

Don't get me wrong: I think Marsh is usually an insightful and oftentimes brilliant writer and reviewer; It's just the Springsteen thing does not make me too respectful of him as a music fan. He makes the reader think that if he does not share his(Marsh's)opinion of a certain artist(say, The Doors, whom he writes condescendingly about), then one is a loser. At least, that's the feeling I get when reading his writing. On the other hand, his writing has made me rethink my opinions on some artists I never really gave a chance to. So, there!

 

Three great rock writers: Peter Guralnick, Greil Marcus, and Lester Bangs(r.i.p.). Marsh has his moments, and in his 'great 1,001 rock songs'(or whatever the title was)he did pick Peter & Kate's "Don't Give Up." So he's not exactly hopeless, and in the RS Record Guide, he was reviewing KB's earlier work. Naughty boy, DM.

ED

 

And a couple more to add to the great list (which I agree with, BTW):

Nik Cohn
Steve Simels

 

NBC runs original SNL episodes overnights on Saturday. Last night, they reran the Eric Idle hosted show from December, 1978, with Kate! It was pretty cool, dressed in a trench coat singing "Them Heavy People". Her band was there, but for some reason was not shown until the show-closing "good nights". She looked great in her 20-year-old glory!

 

Wow, wish I'd have know about it, I'd have rolled tape. The last time I saw that one was when it was originally broadcast back in '79.

 

The Kick Inside is a wonderful LP and I'm pleased with the US CD.