rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

NOVEMBER WILL BE MAGIC AGAIN: CAUSE FOR HOPE

     My habit of checking amazon to see what new releases might be forthcoming has finally been rewarded. According to the venerable site November 7, 2005 marks the return, after a 12 year absence, of the truly wonderful Kate Bush. The CD's entitled 'Aerial' and will mark the 1st time since the 1999 release of '1965' by the Afghan Whigs, that I will wake early and run to the record store to buy a CD the day it comes out. '1965' was, to me, something of  a disappointment as Dulli had gotten treatment for his depression * in the year or so between 'Black Love' and '1965' and the music had, again - to me - lost much of the blood and frenzy that made them the last great rock and roll band to me. It was also their swansong so maybe even they knew the magic was gone.

( * I guess it says something disturbing about me, or at least my taste in music, but it seems I've been time and time again drawn to the work of artists w/serious alcohol, drug and/or emotional problems and always lose interest in the work after the artist gets clean. sober and/or therapy. This list includes the aforementioned Greg Dulli, Paul Westerberg and Lou Reed. Now of course I'm happy for the actual people, having enjoyed the benefits of sobriety myself, but I guess happy people don't make, to me, great records. At least not anymore. I know it's one of the lies I mentioned in the Costello post, but I never promised to be consistent. In any event, this bears further investigation.)

     But magic, that is indeed the purview of Kate Bush. Beautiful in person and voice, her work always stood above whatever pack of modernity wrestled over fame and chart positions at her feet. Stand back, I'm gonna romanticise the bejesus out of this woman's work, because it's always been one of the few things in this mess of stewed humanity we call the world that I've even considered defining as holy. Longtime readers know that me and God don't see eye to eye, but when I listen to Kate Bush, I know that there is good in the world.

     Springing forth fully grown from the brow of David Gilmour in 1978 w/'The Kick Inside', Kate brought beauty and a decidedly Victorian, old world charm into a punk besotted summer of hate. Now keep in mind 'Victorian' can mean both pomp and useless circumstance as well as mad aunts held prisoner in attics. Kate embodied both extremes at once and at will. Songs with actual storylines, not easily reveales upon 1st listening, at a time when pop music was rife w/slogans and chants on it's way to today where half of the folks penning lyrics refuse to (or can't?) write a complete sentence. A perfectionist in the studio, which accounts for the length of time between records - although 12 years is an unprecedented stretch for her - or even Boston - Kate combines everything from ancient Celtic instrumentation to ultramodern sampling/synthesis to quasi operatic swoops to drunken shrieks to what I consider one of the most beautiful sounds in the world ; the mysterious voices of Bulgaria. Her most recent CD, 1993'S 'The Red Shoes' featured the Trio Bulgarka, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour (he was an early mentor and supporter, so I guess I could cut Old Floyd Face some slack, huh?), Prince and my hero, Jeff Beck playing one of his most sublime solos on 'You're The Only One I Want' a love song of such heartbreak and yearning as to bring tears to this old reprobate's eyes EVERY TIME I HEAR IT!

     There's a video available of a rare 1979 Hammersmith Odeon performance that is at turns both embarrassing and prescient in the production numbers Kate mounted replete with male dancers tossing her to and fro and stage sets that presaged the Madonna/Janet Jackson extravaganzas of today but no, I repeat, no lip synching!  Kate early and wisely decided to forego live performances in order to concentrate on honing the art of the studio and as a result has released some of the most sonically stunning CDs to come down the pike lo these 25 years.

     If you've never heard her work I'd suggest starting with either 'The Dreaming' or 'The Whole Story', the former being perhaps her most dramatic and varied work and will serve to seperate the men from the boys, so to speak, while the latter is something of a Greatest Hits collection that offers a strong overview to Kate's body of work. Blessed (?) with some of the most rapid fans EVER (Morrissey's flower totin' disciples can't hold a lovelorn candle to Kate's uberfans), Kate Bush has never failed to reward the often startling adoration she receives with one phenomenal record after another. I have no doubt (and how often does THAT sentence leap from my keyboard??!!) that 'Aerial' will stand tall in that most wondrous of catalogues. So expect a review that I'm sure will glow on November 8th.

     Although I'm sure I'll be back many times between now and then w/torrid tales of punk rock sociology and just plain gibberish.

COMING SOON: The writing debut of Bleeker and MacDougal. The piece should be done as soon as Bleeker convinces MacDougal that Def Leppard isn't really a disabled jungle cat. 'So noble' say Mickey. 'So stupid.' says Bleek.

Posted by: timbyrnes at 16:10 | link | comments

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