| Kate Bush – Pull Out the Pin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The documentary KaTe refers to is FRONT LINE (1979), featuring the Australian cameraman, NEIL DAVIS, who worked in Southeast Asia from 1964 until his death in 1985. Davis was eventually killed by a burst of shrapnel in a street in Bangkok on 9 September 1985. | |
| Kate Bush – Pull Out the Pin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Neil Davis' Vietnam Part I http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/29474723 I've seen the coat for me I'll track him 'til he drops Then I'll pop him one he won't see He's big and pink, and not like me He sees no light He sees no reason for the fighting... ND: "I've often seen soldiers who pick a target. They get it in their mind that they're gonna kill that man because there's something about him. And he'll track him and track him and track him in an engagement. And that happened to me a couple of times. When a man is actually targeting and trying to kill you it's quite frightening, something you have to be very wary of..." I had not seen his face 'til I'm only feet away Unbeknown to my prey I look in American eyes I see little life See little wife He's striking violence up in me... ND: "I would always try to go to the extreme front line because that's where the best film is. You can't get the spontaneity of action if you're not there. You can't get it if you're a hundred meters behind the soldiers trying to get it with a telephoto lens. You don't see the face, the expressions on their faces. You don't see the compassion that they may show for their wounded comrades or their enemy, for that matter. I wanted to show all those things, and the only way to show them was being in the front line, the real front line." Just one thing in it Me or him And I love life! (Pull out the pin) ND: "I was covering a grenade thrower, the man I knew as the grenade thrower... South Vietnamese... and I'd known him before... It was a big action, overall... but the big action is like a small action - you're only concerned about what happens to you... And we're in a village in an overgrown graveyard... and the V.C. were in that graveyard... And he had a little plastic sewing pack in which he carried his grenades... he crawled out to the closest tombstone which gave him some cover and then he would just pick them off one after the other quickly and spray them where he knew the V.C. were..." ND: "I liked to work alone because I didn't want to be responsible for the life of any other person. I felt that I had enough to do just to stay alive for myself. If you have to make a decision just for yourself, right or wrong, you stay by that decision. I was never afraid of being killed because that's that..." ND: "I preferred to go with the South Vietnamese forces because it was their war. It meant a great deal to them, and they were fighting it on their own terms. I know it was fashionable for the Americans and the other allies to blame the South Vietnamese army for the losses in Vietnam over the years, but in fact they fought very well and the Viet Cong acknowledged that..." Who need radar? We use scent They stink of the west, stink of sweat Stink of cologne and baccy, and all their Yankee hash... ND: "The Americans, they used to call 'The Elephants'. They said they bumble around, you can hear them coming a mile off... and they could smell them too - smell their shave-cream and toothpaste, cigarettes and things like that..." (I'm pulling on the pin,) Ooh, I pull out, pull out the pin (pulling on the pin, oh...) ND: "Americans were burdened down with about 70lbs of equipment... On one occasion I suddenly heard an American yelling out in great fear as he was because his hand grenades he'd attached to his pack... and a twig went through the pin of the grenade and he went on and it pulled the pin out and he had no hope to get to it and he was clawing around trying to get to it, and of course it blew up and killed him." Neil Davis' Vietnam Part II http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/29474722 Cambodia was a peaceful country before it was dragged into the war. For years, the Cambodian leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, had tried to be neutral. He knew that favouring one side or the other would invite disaster. President Johnson's administration had ignored the Viet Cong sanctuaries in Cambodia, but President Nixon thought clearing the sanctuaries could shorten the war. Within five years, Cambodia lay in ruins. Twelve hundred years of Cambodian culture and civilisation had been destroyed. ND: "When the war started, the Cambodian army only numbered thirty thousand... they were thrown straight in against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong... but there was a great feeling of patriotism because they were fighting against their traditional enemies, the Vietnamese... They had no need to draft their soldiers. They had too many volunteers, including young boys and girls... Cambodians, they wanted intelligence of just where the Communist forces were. The soldier put on civilian clothes, tucked a couple of grenades into his belt and cycled off down the road to the Communist positions. If he was lucky, he escaped and came back... they were fighting an enemy who paid scant regard to the old-fashioned way of fighting..." You learn to ride the Earth When you're living on your belly and the enemy are city-births... ND: "As a cameraman, there was only one position to be in this type of fighting and that was right up with the soldiers - you were much more likely to be hit if you were waiting fifty or a hundred yards behind them. The only way across open paddy fields is to run across them - you can't stand in the middle, you must get to that next paddy field dug, even though it may be only twelve or eighteen inches high, and you get to it in any way possible - slither like a snake if you have to..." With my silver Buddha And my silver bullet... ND: "When danger threatens, their Buddha idols that they all wore round their necks went straight into their mouths, to bring Buddha as close as possible to them, to protect them, or to lead them into a new life..." Just one thing in it Me or him And I love life! ND: "I was only ever twice put in a position where I had to use a weapon. I fired some shots on one occasion, the situation was in Cambodia and our position was being over-run by the Communists. At least one third of the defending troops were killed, many more were seriously wounded. And four or five Cambodian soldiers and myself were cut off and there was no way but to pick up a weapon and help defend the position, which we fortunately did successfully, or, to be more exact, it enabled us to escape. I always thought that such a situation would pose a moral question. In actual fact, there was no moral question in my mind - it was either be killed or defend myself. I chose to defend myself." |
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| Kate Bush – Pull Out the Pin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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FRONT LINE (1979) and The Sensual World The documentary KaTe refers to is FRONT LINE (1979), featuring the Australian cameraman, Neil Davis, who worked in Southeast Asia from 1964 until his death in 1985. Davis was eventually killed by a burst of shrapnel in a street in Bangkok on 9 September 1985. Tim Bowden, a close friend of Davis, wrote a biography of Davis called One Crowded Hour: Neil Davis, Combat Cameraman (1987). The foreword of this book begins with lines from The Call: "SOUND, sound the clarion, fill the fife! Throughout the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name." The lines are by Thomas Osbert Mordaunt (1730 - 1809), written during the Seven Years' War of 1756 - 1763. Bowden's biography states that Davis wrote the last two lines of Mordaunt's verse in the flyleaf of every work diary he kept in Southeast Asia. Davis told Bowden it was his motto, and summed up his philosophy. So it is possible that KT went on to read Bowden's biography and took THE SENSUAL WORLD (1989) album title from Bowden's forward. Maybe JCB's interest in camerawork - and war? - led them to the book? Pull Out The Pin is about the Front Line (1979) documentary. The song absorbs the Neil Davis documentary, and reflects the multi-sided nature of the Cambodian—Vietnamese War. The lyrics are a killing field of fighting South Vietnamese, Việt Cá»™ng, American, Cambodian and Khmer Rouge soldiers. KaTe describes POTP as "looking at the Americans from the Vietnamese point of view." So, until I saw the Davis documentary for myself, I'd assumed POTP was an American versus a Viet Cong soldier. But the documentary shows that it was the Cambodian soldiers who wore the silver Buddhas. So, POTP draws on the many layers of the Cambodian—Vietnamese conflict, as featured in the Cameraman's documentary. Writing on POTP in the KBC article about The Dreaming, it is clear that KaTe approached the song with the determination of a method actor. Pull Out The Pin is a distorted and subversive war poem, packed and explosive as a hand-grenade - full of the psychosis of war and its violation. The song conveys, with existential intensity, the life-and-death living of the jungle battlefield. For the Asian soldier, the war is purpose, definition, violation. All his senses are elevated and involved, like he's never felt alive before. Beyond fear, he has reached an historical, spiritual, life-through-death determined necessity. Psyched up, he can smell the west, smell their fear and mistakes, sniff them out like an animal riding the earth to hunt its quarry (or a 'deer hunter' after a trophy "coat"). This man's 'hit' is as deadly as it is Godly. The song seems (dis)located late in the war. The American Outsiders (pink-faced conscripted teenagers) are scared, mistake-prone, purple-hazed, out of their depth. Survival dominates pursuit. They don't understand the terrain or the 'why' of the war. They hit the ground, while he hits the high. The poetry emphasises the ugliness and screwed-up nature of war. The Asian soldier has 'never been so happy'. He smells the child and learns to ride the Earth. The identification with the Việt Cá»™ng suggests a Rejection of Americanism and 'Westernity'; and the violation theme seems to run through The Dreaming. Contempt and disdain strike violence. There is no 'cult of honor' restraining the ferocity. The American represents the cologne-stinking, alien, charmed life of the West. And traditionally, the silver bullet is the only bullet effective against a person living a charmed life (wiki). Pull Out The Pin also expresses the East/West and Buddhist/Communist spiritual divide. The American's 'Western' life will end, whereas the Asian soldier's 'Eastern' life will not: In Buddhism, life does not end, it merely goes on in other forms. The Cambodian soldier has no fear of death for it leads to Karmic rebirth. Hence, the 'I LOVE LIFE' chorus is both a War Cry and a 'chant' to generate rebirth in a higher realm. The 'I love Life' affirms his acceptance of death in order to love life again. |
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| Kate Bush – Hello Earth Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The Ninth Wave Suite is like a jigsaw puzzle, or multifaceted cinematic jewel, cut with many thematic and narrative aspects. And here are some more pieces! Hello, Earth. Hello, Earth... KT seems to have taken the title for Hello Earth from the astronaut, Alfred M. Worden. Alfred Merrill Worden is an American astronaut who was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 moon mission in July-August 1971. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. In 1974, Al published a volume of poetry titled *Hello Earth*, composed of his post-flight reflections: "Astronaut Warden's experience of being alone in the universe as the command module pilot for Apollo 15 changed his life and his view of reality on earth. Now he shares it with the world in a remarkable collection of poems." Peek-a-boo, Peek-a-boo, little Earth... APOLLO 8: "In the closing days of 1968, all mankind could exult in the vision of a new universe. For all its upheavals and frustrations, the year would be remembered to the end of time for the dazzling skills and Promethean daring that sent mortals around the moon. It would be celebrated as the year in which men saw at first hand their *little earth* entire, a remote, blue-brown sphere hovering like a migrant bird in the hostile night of space." Nation: MEN OF THE YEAR, Time, Friday, Jan. 03, 1969 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900486,00.html And there's something bright, Travelling fast. Look at it go! Look at it go! APOLLO 12: "After locking the nose of their craft into the Agena, they fired its rocket, propelling themselves about 675 miles higher. A jolt of acceleration and the gravity it created interrupted their weightless state. "Whoop-de-doo!" laughed [Pete] Conrad. *"Look at it go!"* They climbed so fast, in fact, that he later commented, "...we just had the impression that we were...going straight up...." And Gordon added, "We were wondering if we were ever going to stop...." The new orbit attained an apogee, or highpoint, about 853 miles above earth. Its perigee, or low point, was 185 miles. The craft speeded up at the low end of the orbit to nearly 18,000 miles an hour–the greatest speed yet attained by man. ~ Man's Conquest of Space, William Roy Shelton, 1968, p.66 Watching storms Start to form Over America... "Meteorological investigations included the study of cloud features and tropical storms. Photographs of cloud features showed Benard cells, Von Karman vortices, mountain waves (rotor clouds), atmospheric bow waves in the lee of islands, and cumulonimbus buildups (Figure 81). The crew also obtained photographs of *a developing tropical storm in the Caribbean Sea* that "doesn't seem to cover so much area, but it does have a rather swirling 'V appearance. I don't see an eye, but I can see where an eye would be" (comments by astronaut Vance Brand in NASA, 1975b:1051)." |
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| Kate Bush – Hounds of Love Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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On "The Red Shoes" album credits, KaTe thanks *Joseph Campbell*. KaTe says that when she was writing 'Hounds of Love' she came across a line about hounds and the whole idea of being chased by love as something terrifying. The imagery of being hunted by love made a marked impression on her. KaTe: "When I was writing the song I sorta started coming across this line about hounds and I thought "hounds of love" and the whole idea of being chasing by this love that actually gonna... when it get you it just going to rip you to pieces, [raises voice] you know, and have your guts all over the floor! So this very sort of... being hunted by love, I liked the imagery, I thought it was really good." Radio 1, Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love, aired January 26, 1992 http://gaffa.org/reaching/ir85_r1.html So could the inspiration for Hounds of Love have been Thompson's poem, "The Hound of Heaven"? Thompson's poem is quoted in *The Hero with a Thousand Faces* by Joseph Campbell, p.50. It's in the trees! It's coming! ... In the 1999 book Paradox, author Richard Patterson suggested that Francis Thompson was Jack the Ripper! |
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| Kate Bush – Pull Out the Pin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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^ Thank you :) KB: "I saw this incredible documentary by this Australian cameraman who went on the front line in Vietnam, filming from the Vietnamese point of view, so it was very biased against the Americans. He said it really changed him, because until you live on their level like that, when it's complete survival, you don't know what it's about. He's never been the same since, because it's so devastating, people dying all the time. The way he portrayed the Vietnamese was as this really crafted, beautiful race. The Americans were these big, fat, pink, smelly things who the Vietnamese could smell coming for miles because of the tobacco and cologne. It was devastating, because you got the impression that the Americans were so heavy and awkward, and the Vietnamese were so wbeautiful and all getting wiped out. They wore a little silver Buddha on a chain around their neck and when they went into action they'd pop it into their mouth, so if they died they'd have Buddha on their lips. I wanted to write a song that could somehow convey the whole thing, so we set it in the jungle and had helicopters, crickets and little Balinese frogs." ~ ZigZag, "Dream Time in the Bush", Kris Needs, 1982 http://gaffa.org/reaching/i82_zz.html The documentary KaTe refers to may have been by John Richard Pilger. Pilger's Vietnam films include: "The Quiet Mutiny" (1970), "Vietnam: Still America's War" (1974), and "Do You Remember Vietnam?" (1978). So it could have been one of these films which KaTe saw and which inspired POTP. John Richard Pilger (born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist. "The Quiet Mutiny" in 1970 was the first of over 60 documentary films by Pilger. Filmed at Camp Snuffy, the film presented a character study of the common US soldier during the Vietnam War, revealing the shifting morale and open rebellion of Western troops. Pilger described the film as "something of a scoop" because, he said, it was one of the first pieces to demonstrate the low morale of US troops in Vietnam. "When I flew to New York and showed it to Mike Wallace, the star reporter of CBS' 60 Minutes, he agreed. "Real shame we can't show it here"", Pilger said in an interview with the New Statesman. |
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| Kate Bush – Hello Earth Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Heaven gazing on the earth... Hello, Earth. Hello, Earth... "The two great Antipodes had met face to face ; – heaven, in its unutterable splendour and serenity–the bright, ever-cherished picture of the mind's eye, the solace to which we cease not to turn in moments of pain and depression – nay, even in our hours of deepest bliss we look upward with a trembling glance, for there happiness is permanent – the far-off land of peace and sunshine glimmering in the distance, beheld through blinding storms and dreary mists,–heaven, the calm, the consolatory, the loadstone of prayer, the support to which fervently clings the shattered mind and sinking frame : there was heaven gazing on the earth – earth, our prison-house, our tread-mill – the insatiable devourer of our energies, the mighty murderer of calm and reflection – the great grinding-mill into which humanity is thrown and crumbled into dust, from which springs up, like the perfume from crushed flowers–the ethereal spark that soars upwards, and on through azure spheres, till it reaches its native mansion, and finds that peace denied by its much-loved although corroding earthy tenement." ~ The New monthly magazine and universal register, 1849, p.196 |
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| Kate Bush – Jig of Life Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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THE SOUND OF ONE HAND Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand? ~ Hakuin Ekaku A koan is a story, dialogue, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet may be accessible to intuition. A famous koan is: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" (ignoring the fact that by folding your hand you can clap with one hand.) (oral tradition, attributed to Hakuin Ekaku, 1686-1769, considered a reviver of the koan tradition in Japan). One Hand Clapping (1974) (film) is a television special featuring Paul McCartney and Wings. One Hand Clapping (1961) (book) is a work by Anthony Burgess published originally under the pseudonym Joseph Kell. The line, "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" is a traditional Zen koan, and the novel takes its title from this. Burgess justified the title as follows: "The clasped hands of marriage have been reduced [by the novel's end] to a single hand. Yet it claps." |
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| Kate Bush – Hello Earth Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The message which can be heard immediately before the start of the song is as follows: 1. voice: "Columbia now at nine times the speed of sound." 2. voice: "Roger that, Dan, I've got a solid TACAN locked on, uh, TACAN two and three.[?]" 3. voice: "The, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned trajectory are all one line on the block." 4. voice: "Show your block decode..." |
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| Kate Bush – Hello Earth Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The song's introduction ("Where were you (?) now at nine times the speed of sound...") is communication between Nasa and the Columbia space shuttle. Hounds Of Love was released on 20 September 1985. At that time, Space Shuttle Columbia had flown 6 flights. Dan Brandenstein flew four space shuttle missions, but only flew with Columbia once, and that was STS-32 (January 9-20, 1990). However, Dan Brandenstein was CAPCOM for STS-1, the first mission of Space Shuttle Columbia, and STS-2, its second mission. So the Hello Earth message could be segments of Mission Control/air-to-ground commentary and conversation from Columbia STS-1 or STS-2. If the Hello Earth message comes from Mission Control conversation during Columbia STS-1 or STS-2, can we then date The Ninth Wave tragedy to between April 12-14, 1981 or between November 12-14, 1981? Probably not! But what spacey, icy, or watery events did take place on those days in history? THE NINTH WAVE: A Night to Remember... April 14 1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and sinks the following morning with the loss of 1,503 lives. So could the protagonist of The Ninth Wave Suite have gone down with RMS Titanic? And could she have come up with Kate Winslet? ... :) |
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| Kate Bush – Hello Earth Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Hello Earth is a bit of a "Space Oddity"... Hello, Earth ("Hello Earth") Hello, Earth ("Hello Earth") The song's introduction ("Where were you (?) now at nine times the speed of sound...") is communication between Nasa and the Columbia space shuttle. Previously, on The Ninth Wave, we have heard deep sea submarine sonar; and now we are hearing human communication from deep space. The stage of The Ninth Wave is becoming wider and wider; an ever-increasing circle, taking on cosmic dimensions and the vast perimeters of human endeavour. Each of the opening "Hello Earth" calls are echoed by a voice seemingly from space. A strange synchronicity? The shuttle talking to Nasa oblivious of our protagonist? Or perhaps they are used to indicate that our protagonist is still of the human race. I imagine that our protagonist, whether floating in the sea or hallucinating from a view looking down on the earth, makes the two opening "Hello Earth" calls. It is just her and Nature in personal communication... With just one hand held up high I can blot you out Out of sight... "Out of sight" is also out of mind. Our protagonist is wanting to 'make it go, make it go away'. The stress of the situation gets too much and she regresses. Regression is a defense mechanism leading to the temporary reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way. The defense mechanism of regression, in psychoanalytic theory, occurs when thoughts are temporarily pushed back out of our consciousness and into our unconscious. Regressive behavior can be simple and harmless. A person may revert to an old, usually immature behavior to ventilate feelings of frustration. For example, an adult saying "I want to throw water balloons" is temporarily regressing to childlike behavior. So, in Hello Earth, playing peek-a-boo with little earth suggests a stress-induced regression. [The Big Sky (video and song) also suggests elements of regression; and so does Hounds of Love.] Peek-a-boo Peek-a-boo, little Earth... Peek-a-boo is a game played with babies. In the game, one (child, teenager, or adult) hides their face, pops back into the baby's view, and says — to the baby's amusement — Peekaboo! I see you! Peekaboo is thought by developmental psychologists to demonstrate an infant's inability to understand object permanence. Object permanence is the term used to describe the awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible. Without object permanence, it is "Out of sight, out of mind!" The protagonist next uses her imagination to free herself from her situation. With just her heart and her mind she can transport herself to a visualized better place. A meditation... A flash-back... With just my heart and my mind I can be driving Driving home And you asleep On the seat I get out of my car Step into the night And look up at the sky And there's something bright Travelling fast Just look at it go! Just look at it go! Maybe, in her dream visualization she sees a satellite tracking the night sky. Tracking storms and bringing her back into the immediate situation. KATE: “The song after that is Hello Earth, and this is the point where she's so weak that she relives the experience of the storm that took her in the water, almost from a view looking down on the earth up in the heavens, watching the storm start to form - the storm that eventually took her and that has put her in this situation…” Hello, Earth. Hello, Earth. Watching storms Start to form Over America. Can't do anything. Just watch them swing With the wind Out to sea. Maybe at this point she is reliving the panic of radio emergency and the storm that eventually took her and that has put her in this situation. Or maybe she has left the human race to become something higher, greater, cosmic. After all, the second set of "Hello Earth" calls are not echoed back. Hence, it could be that some of the lyric is from the perspective of the weather or even a Ghostly Other... Go to sleep, little Earth. I was there at the birth, Out of the cloudburst, The head of the tempest. Murderer! Murderer of calm. Why did I go? Why did I go? And is this her tale before she drowns/disappears without a trace? Go to sleep little Earth... |
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| Kate Bush – There Goes a Tenner Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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KATE BUSH: A star in strange ways... There Goes A Tenner: Petty crooks with IRA sympathies? KB: "It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they just freaked out, and paranoid and want to go home." 1982, Picture Disk, The Dreaming Interview The song opens in the act of remembering, and we are transported back in time to the start of a crime... We're waiting... Are they waiting for the safe to blow? Are they waiting for political change vis-a-vis Ireland (as perhaps suggested by the video pendulum)? Are we back in the present, with them 'doing time' and waiting for their heavy prison sentence to end? KB: "One of the bits in the song is all about waiting, and how the first time they're just waiting for something to go wrong, and the second time they're just waiting for the guy to blow the safe up, because when he blows it up, there is so much that could go wrong. It's a dance routine that's based on waiting. - It's just all these ideas of people waiting. And the rest of the dancers are all acting out what the story says, really. It's not so much a dance at all." 1982, Picture Disk, The Dreaming Interview Three beeps means trouble's coming... 'The Troubles' consisted of about thirty years of recurring acts of intense violence between elements of Northern Ireland's nationalist community (principally Roman Catholic) and unionist community (principally Protestant). The years 1970-1972 saw an explosion of political violence in Northern Ireland, peaking in 1972, when nearly 500 people lost their lives. I hope you remember To treat the gelignite tenderly for me... Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin, is one of the cheapest explosives. Gelignite was used by the Irish Republican Army in Ireland's fight for sovereignty during the Irish War of Independence. Years later it was also used by the Provisional IRA during the early years of their revolutionary campaign against British forces and Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. (wiki) Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft played mobsters, gangsters, crooks and tough guys wise to the ways of prison. In their flicks, heroes were criminals. In Shake Hands with the Devil (1959), James Cagney played Sean Lenihan, an Irish Republican Army commander. The government will never find the money... In your typical robbery, the police do the investigating. So KaTe's use of the word "government" (and her later use of "vote") is clearly a strong, loaded political reference. Responding to the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Thatcher famously declared "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political." But in TGaT, KaTe very much links the crime with politics through the use of "government" and "vote". Indeed, the final line, "That's when we used to vote for him", might also reference Thatcher; i.e. That's when we used to vote for him and not her! . . . I've been here all day, A star in strange ways... Strangeways and the IRA: The Black and Tan War began in January 1919; within months, the British had captured a number of what they considered to be 'diehard' Republicans, and decided that it would be safer for them to hold those prisoners in England. Thirteen IRA prisoners, under the command of Austin Stack, found themselves incarcerated in Strangeways Prison. Maybe the protagonist became a notable inmate, a la Austin Stack or Bobby Sands? They'll get nothing from me... Interrogation; intelligence about other operations/activists? Strangeways Prison has a central dodecagonal hall, with wings A to F radiating off from it. So the "A1, A2,..." whisperings on TGaT could count 'A' Wing cells? Ooh, I remember That rich, windy weather... There Goes A Tenner is a remembrance of things past and present; and these lines might suggest a childhood memory of "home", i.e. Southern Ireland/Eire... There's a ten-shilling note... The Famous 'Lavery' 10 Shilling (10/) Note (10/9/28-6/6/68) In 1921 the Irish Free State was established. After several years it was decided to reform the currency issued in Ireland. A portrait of Lady Lavery’s head and shoulders appears on the 10-shilling, 1- and 5-pound notes. Remember them? ... The 'Lavery' 10 Shilling (10/) note? And could the line also refer to forgotten 'heroes' of the Irish cause? KaTe could be subverting the "Ode of Remembrance". Or she could even be quoting Patrick Pearse's The Mother. That's when we used to vote for him... Mosley? Chamberlain? ... or "and not Thatcher! . . . " Does KaTe conceal her intent behind comic treatment? There Goes a Tenner was only issued in the UK and Night of the Swallow was an Ireland-only single; again suggesting a political subtext of a divided/violated Ireland to The Dreaming. TGaT became the only song by Bush not to chart in the UK. If TGaT is really a tale about an IRA job prior to The Troubles, imagine seeing Maggie Thatcher's face had it reached Number One . . . |
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| Kate Bush – Under the Ivy Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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KB: "One of my favourites is by Millais, The Huguenot..." UTI could also be interpreted in reference to one of Kate's favorite paintings, The Huguenot, which also deals with tyranny and oppression; and which may have inspired The Dreaming album cover. Maybe UTI reflects the moments leading up to the embrace depicted in the painting, with allusions to the symbolic white-scarf and white rose... Millais: "It is a scene supposed to take place (as doubtless it did) on the eve of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. I shall have two lovers in the act of parting... The girl will be endeavouring to tie the handkerchief round the man's arm, so to save him..." The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre was a wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion. The exact number of fatalities is not known, but it is estimated that anywhere from ten thousand to possibly one-hundred thousand Huguenots died in the violence throughout France. |
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| Kate Bush – Leave It Open Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The first part of Leave It Open seems to tap into the maxim, "Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil". The protagonist has learned to keep her mouth shut, her ears closed, and her eyes wide shut. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" is also present in the video for Sat In Your Lap. At 2:29-37, KaTe plays with 'see no evil', and the two jokers behind her play with 'hear no evil' and 'speak no evil'. So maybe Kate is after forbidden knowledge, the knowledge of the alchemist, the initiate, the angels, the devils! The phrase, "Leave It Open", also suggests the advice her Doctor or Nurse might have given regarding a wound. Leave it open and let fresh air dry and heal... It seems that part of herself is weeping, festering, going crazy; and she must learn to Leave It Open; to channel emotions into creativity rather than self-harming destructivity (addictions, psychoses, paranoias, phobias, etc.) so that she can begin to heal her emotional self. "Harm in us...": This brings to mind Thanatos, a primitive impulse for destruction, decay, and death, postulated by Sigmund Freud as coexisting with and opposing the life instinct, Eros. The "Harm in us..." also brings to mind the "I am my enemy Mowing me over" and the "My silly pride Digging the knife in" from Fullhouse. "Harm in us" also suggests fearing the harmful intentions of others. "but power to arm...": And this brings to mind Sat In Your Lap, Gurdjieff and Jesu, and the knowledge quest. Through philosophy, psychology, art, the paranormal, etc. we find the power to arm against the harm... |
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| Kate Bush – Pi Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Kate has had many cats. The first two were called Zoodle and Pyewacket. Zoodle died in 1987, and then she adopted a stray cat who had three kittens. She named them Rocket, Sparky and Torchy. Rocket's Tail, from the album The Sensual World, was named after Rocket and dedicated to him, but otherwise the song has nothing to do with the cat. KaTe actually called Pyewacket "Pye!" ... or "Pi!" ... :) Pye/Pi was part of her family. Calling out Pi, feeding Pye, watching Pi play would have happened every day. And KaTe would certainly have become familiar with the language of Pye! Pyewacket can mean "a witch's familiar". So KaTe could have dedicated Pi to her cat Pyewacket, giving the song the witch's dimension... :) |
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| Kate Bush – King of the Mountain Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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KGB: CAGEY BUSH! The KOTM video begins in what could be Citizen Kane's "Castle" at San Simeon, full of his priceless antiquities. Indeed, William Randolph Hearst purchased the San Francisco Evening Post in 1913; and at 0:39 in the video, the "San Francisco Evening Post: Goodbye Elvis... We'll Always Love You" flies by! (A fictional or factual headline? On the same cover is the headline: "Horror Crash Kills 5"!) At 0:43-0:53, what looks very much like a bust of Prince Albert remains in frame... Prince Bertie? At 0:55, the video moves to Elvis' bedroom. In his later years, divorced from Priscilla Presley and obese, Presley barricaded himself from the public gaze in Citizen Kane-like isolation at Graceland, his Memphis mansion and present-day shrine for millions of Presley fans. And at 2:22, a figure seems to strangely rise from behind the billowing red sheets... At 2:38-45, KB and Elvis are in the center of a poppy snowstorm. And why do KB (2:34) and Rolf Harris (3:49) both cradle the famous white jumpsuit? And why is the famous white jumpsuit so happy to see Rolf Harris? (or William Randolph Hearst? or Citizen Kane?) At 3:13, Rolf Harris arrives on 'Rosebud' and at 3:35 is clearly featured dancing with the famous white jumpsuit! Rolf Harris had a UK Top Ten Hit in 1962 with 'Sun Arise', a song that celebrates the reassurance the Sun brings, rather like a mini Australian A Sky Of Honey. The song was written in 1960 after Harry Butler played Rolf tapes of the first Australian Aboriginal singing he'd ever heard. The original version sold badly, and in 1962 was revised, incorporating suggestions by George Martin. As Rolf couldn't play the didgeridoo at the time, and didn't know anyone in England who could, the didgeridoo sound is simulated by eight bass fiddles! The song reached number 2, beaten to number 1 the following week by... Elvis Presley! A Sky Of Honey features Rolf Harris playing the didgeridoo on one track as he had done on KB's 1982 single "The Dreaming". Harris also provides vocals on 'An Architect's Dream' and 'The Painter's Link'... The co-writer of Sun Arise becomes the Great Painter of the Universe! An honor and homage! And so A Sky Of Honey has its origins in The Dreaming and the Dawning of Aboriginal Culture... The King Is Dead (0:03) ... Long Live The King (4:12) At 0:03 in the KOTM video, The New York Echo flies by with the headline, "The King Is Dead!". The Echo also has the cover story, "Courtroom drama in Mafia case". At 1:51, a newspaper flies by with the headline, "Elvis Face Spotted On Moon". This newspaper also covers the previously spotted, "Courtroom drama in Mafia case". At 2:15, a Chicago Record Herald flies by with the headline, "I had Elvis' Alien Baby". The Chicago Record Herald was purchased by William Randolph Hearst in 1918, merged with the Examiner, and renamed Herald-Examiner. Are these headlines KB fiction? ... Are they by K. G. Bush? Are they by cagey Bush? ... To promote KOTM, KB wore a KGB-style Russian winter red star hat. KB... KgB... "Cagey Bush"! At 4:12 in the KOTM video, a Chicago Post flies by with the headline, "Long Live The King". The headline is accompanied by the Bertie KOTM cartoon that features in the Aerial booklet... The King Is Dead. Long Live King Albert, all noble and bright? And at 4:31, Kate gives a crazy grin! ... And at 4:37, KB quotes the burning of Rosebud from Citizen Kane (1941). In fact, like the pheonix, 'Rosebud' has arisen from the ashes and is now enjoyed by Kate's happy, little man, Bertie, in the snow with Rosebud and king of the mountain... |
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| Kate Bush – Eat the Music Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| The ETM video is ritualistic, trancelike, and tribal. Kate sways her hair and dances with a group of African women, while the Red Shoes - the demonic, possessed Other - crush the fruit. The whole experience brings to mind the African Zar ceremony. | |
| Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights' has the wild, windy moors; its inhabitants possess the same characteristics; and Cathy and Heathcliff oscillate wildly! And the wild moors are indeed wily - they entice, disarm, seduce, and ensnare. And Cathy and Heathcliff w[h]iled away many a happy childhood afternoon over the moors. For the December 1980 Paul Gambaccini Radio Programme, KaTe selected "Oh Willow Waly" from the film The Innocents (1961) among her choice selection. The Innocents is, of course, the inspiration for KaTe's The Infant Kiss. And KaTe had seen the film years ago, when she was very young... Just as she had seen Wuthering Heights (1939)... And both films inspired KaTe to write spooky songs... Emily Brontë used the background of the Yorkshire moors as the setting for her great and only novel, Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, a foundling living on the streets of Liverpool, is brought to Wuthering Heights by the then-owner, Mr. Earnshaw, and raised as his own. Earnshaw's son Hindley, resents Heathcliff, seeing him as an interloper and rival. His sister Catherine, however, becomes Heathcliff's inseparable friend, haunting him from beyond the grave... Out on the wiley, windy moors... KaTe turned Brontë's ghostly novel into a 1978 Number One hit. And who knows, maybe KaTe's Wuthering Heights inspired another ghostly song from over the moors: Suffer Little Children by The Smiths - a song that was included on their eponymous debut album (1984)... |
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| Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Is Running Up That Hill "Wuthering Heights Revisited"? ... A much darker version of her classic original? ... Maybe RUTH is Cathy's ruthless, dual nature teasing Heathcliff! ... It has the perverse cruelty, the tormented passion, the defiant obsession, the torturous disregard, and the eternal love for the Moors... Revenge is also a major theme of Brontë's Wuthering Heights... 'It doesn't hurt me' because life without Heathcliff and the Moors is no life! ... The defiant 'won't be unhappy' ... The wicked 'tearing you asunder' ... The eternal longing to 'be running up that hill' ... Her shocking deal even disturbs the dead, unleashing ghostly, purgatorial voices! ... Yes, Hate and Love tore them both asunder... And if she only could, Cathy would have made such a deal for her beloved moors! ... And Heathcliff would have obliged her! ... But, as Nelly remarked: "The greatest punishment we could invent for her, was to keep her separate from him" ... So 'with no problems'? Even God couldn't manage that! Cathy: 'I wish I could hold you,' she continued, bitterly, 'till we were both dead! I shouldn't care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn't you suffer? I do!' Heathcliff: ''WHY did you despise me? WHY did you betray your own heart, Cathy? ...nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, YOU, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart - YOU have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine!' The "Come on, Baby..." is Heathcliff! ... These are his words as he embraces the dying Cathy, desperate to grant her wish... Such is the power of deluded love! ... Unfulfilled, her 'If I only could' continues to torment Heathcliff... amidst the cries of her own tormented spirit... |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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REVERIES OF THE AERIAL ALCHEMIST SECOND WALK: The Black Sun and The Golden Dawn Sol niger (black sun) is the name of the result of the first stage of the Opus Magnum in alchemy, the blackening (nigredo). The complete Opus magnum (Great Work) ends with the production of gold. And the "Kate and Peacock Design" for the completing photograph accompanying 'Aerial' uses a gold soundwave! The philosopher's stone (Latin: lapis philosophorum) is a legendary substance, supposedly capable of turning inexpensive metals into gold; it was also sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For a long time it was the most sought after goal in Western alchemy. In the view of spiritual alchemy, making the philosopher's stone would bring enlightenment upon the maker and conclude the Great Work. AERIAL is KT's Great Work, twelve years in the making! KT et al have found the philosopher's stone! They have been working secretly, turning base metal and ideas into Gold... the Golden Dawn cover, the Golden soundwave of 'Aerial', the Golden Sea of Honey, the Golden Sky of Honey... Pure Alchemy! ... Pure Gold! ...a Golden Egg... All Noble and Brite! ... Within Thelema, the Great Work is generally defined as those spiritual practice leading to the mystical union of the Self and the All— Crowley: "The Great Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with the macrocosm, of the female with the male, of the ego with the non-ego." According to Aleister Crowley, this is first represented by what he called the "Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel." From another perspective, he also considered the Great Work to be the pursuit of self-knowledge, to "obtain the knowledge of the nature and powers of my own being." Although Crowley often discussed the idea of "succeeding" or "accomplishing" in the Great Work, he also recognized that the process is ongoing: "The Quest of the Holy Grail, the Search for the Stone of the Philosophers—by whatever name we choose to call the Great Work—is therefore endless. Success only opens up new avenues of brilliant possibility. Yea, verily, and Amen! the task is tireless and its joys without bounds; for the whole Universe, and all that in it is, what is it but the infinite playground of the Crowned and Conquering Child, of the insatiable, the innocent, the ever-rejoicing Heir of Space and Eternity, whose name is MAN?" In the snow with Rosebud And king of the mountain... Inside the AERIAL booklet is a photograph of Katie and Bertie seemingly taken underwater in a swimming pool. Bertie wears green goggles and Katie wears purple goggles. Green is the color of nature, fertility, life. Green symbolizes self-respect and well being, balance, learning, growth and harmony. Green represents the life force. Purple is the color of good judgment and of people seeking spiritual fulfilment. It is said if you surround yourself with purple you will have peace of mind. Being the combination of red and blue, the warmest and coolest colors, purple is believed to be the ideal color, and has been used to symbolize magic and mystery. The scarcity of its shellfish dye, meant that purple became a symbol of royalty and riches. ...'Is that a storm in the swimming pool?' ...Or is that a Prince? AERIAL is a Ray of Light, a Body of Light, and the realisation of KT's Thelemic mysticism! There is much magic and mystery in the 'Washing' Photography by John Carder-Bush. Some people believe there is a red devil hidden within the 'Washing' photograph accompanying the lyrics to 'Mrs Bartolozzi' in the CD/Vinyl booklet. Look at the center, out-of-focus red image of trees. A nose, lips and two hollow eyes can just be made out. This may well be just the light and shade in the foliage or the red devil may be an Occult sign, a hint at what is about to happen, The Omen... "It's in the trees! It's coming!" "Woman let me in! Let me bring in the memories! Woman let me in! Let me bring in the Devil Dreams!" Then there's that sexy red dress... The Devil Wears Prada! On the album/CD cover, the Magician changes whites into doves. In Biblical tradition, the dove is a symbol of purity, simplicity, peace, harmony and re-found happiness. Pagans associate the dove with Aphrodite and with physical love. In both views, the dove stands for that imperishable part of the human being, the vital principle or soul. The Dove also represents the feminine power of giving prophecy, and the hope of a new beginning. The Dove shows and reveals the veils between the spiritual and physical worlds, e.g. as Holy Spirit or as bearers of the ambrosia for the immortal gods. Their symbolism stems from their grace and beauty, spotless white feathers and gentle cooing. It is said that the Dove’s nature is so pure that even Satan himself cannot shape-shift into its form. The dove also has strong esoteric connections to alchemy in partnership with the Phoenix. In her Magician aspect, Isis is associated with the spiritual-alchemy of the dove. In The Alchemist's Dream, there are many symbols for albedo, such as the white swan, the rose, the white queen, and the white dove... Now take a look at the following book cover - it is just like PB in the 'Delius (Song of Summer)' video... Ooh, ah, ooh, ah Delius Delius amat Syphilus Deus Genius, ooh... The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Marlan, 2005) http://www.alchemylab.com/8935332.jpg Book Description "The black sun, an ages-old image of the darkness in individual lives and in life itself, has not been treated hospitably in the modern world. Modern psychology has seen darkness primarily as a negative force, something to move through and beyond, but it actually has an intrinsic importance to the human psyche... "He draws upon his clinical experiences and on a wide range of literature and art to explore the influence of light and shadow on the fundamental structures of modern thought as well as the contemporary practice of analysis. "An important contribution to the understanding of alchemical psychology, this book draws on a postmodern sensibility to offer insight into modernity, the act of imagination, and the work of analysis in understanding depression, trauma, and transformation of the soul." The Black Sun, the Raven, the Crow, and the color black also symbolize the Nigredo stage. The Peacock is sacred to Satan and represents the multi-colored stage of the Magnum Opus following the Nigredo. This is a song of colour... ‘Cauda Pavonis’, the peacock’s tail, or the peacock itself, is a phase in which many colors appear. Many alchemists place this phase before albedo, whiteness, although some of them place it after albedo. Bright, white coming alive jumping off of the aerial... The peacock’s tail can have two meanings in the Great Work. It can be the collection and totality of all colors in the white light (KaTe sing Pi to 137 decimal places. The Number 137 corresponds with light, the ONE WHITE or Whole light that consists of THREE primary rays, the red, green and blue, or SEVEN spectrum colours). Remember, the white light refers to the second stage, albedo, or whiteness. The alchemist is seeking unity, expressed in the white light. In this sense the peacock was seen as a royal bird in ancient times, and it corresponded with the phoenix. Lucifer, Lucifer, stretch your tail, and lead me away full speed through the strait passage, of the valley of death, to the shining light, the palace of of the Gods - Isanatha Muni The second meaning is that it represents the failure of the alchemical process. When the conscious enters the unconscious "each part of a thought can take shape and become visible in color and form", according to a Chinese text about yoga exercises. One starts seeing all kinds of forms which look real and which look like they have an independent life. But one cannot go into it as it leads to discord of the mind, and possibly to schizophrenia. I want to be up on the roof I’ve gotta be up on the roof Up, up high on the roof Up, up on the roof In the sun! The photography and artwork accompanying AERIAL very much suggest that magic and spiritual alchemy were at play in creating the Great Work, and that Kate obviously felt a need to cryptically inform us fans that this was the case. |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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THE ALCHEMICAL WORK Mummy... Daddy... The day is full of birds Sounds like they’re saying words... Alchemy endeavours to produce noble metals, precious stones, the panacea, and above all the Philosopher's Stone. On the one hand, it seeks to do this by finding the right mixture (Eukrasia) of natural substances according to the ancient doctrine of elements and qualities. Alternatively, it adds the Philosopher's Stone, usually a powder or elixir prepared from an unknown substance, to the base metal. But first of all this unknown substance must be reduced to the prima materia (first matter). This occurs in the alchemical process, the "Great Work" (opus magnum) which passes through various stages. According to the colours that appear, these are called nigredo (black), albedo (white), citrinitas (yellow), rubedo (red) among others. This change of coloration may be observed when an amalgam of copper and mercury is heated. According to the amount of evaporating mercury, white, yellow, red, gray and black colors are seen, described by alchemists as the cauda pavonis ("Peacock's Tail"). The color booklet accompanying AERIAL shows the 'soundwave of blackbird song' (?) in several colors: gray, black, white, sun-yellow, and maroon-red. So could the gray, black, white, sun-yellow, and maroon-red soundwave colors represent ALCHEMICAL WORK? Nigredo (black), albedo (white), citrinitas (yellow), rubedo (red) among others? 'Kate and Peacock' (?) chose the maroon 'soundwave of blackbird song' to compliment the Luciferean lightbearing yellow, sun-drenched album cover (Lucifer means "Light Bearer")... And Rubedo (redness) represents the marriage of sol and luna... I will come home again, but not until The sun and the moon meet on yon hill... Nigredo, or blackness, in alchemy means putrefaction or decomposition. The alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter. In psychology Carl Jung interpreted nigredo as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development. Nigredo is sometimes called ‘blacker than the blackest black’. "Help this blackbird!" "She's a witch!" "There's a stone around my leg" "Uh! Damn you, woman!" "Help this blackbird! There's a stone around my leg" Psychologically, nigredo is a process of directing oneself to find self-knowledge. A problem is given full attention and reduced to its core. This is not done so much in an intellectual way, but especially by feeling the emotions. By really going into it, one causes putrefaction, the decomposition of that in which one had been stuck. Split me open With devotion You put your hands in And rip my heart out Eat the music... All emotion And with devotion You put your hands in What ya thinking? What am I singing? A song of seeds The food of love Eat the music... The confrontation with the inner reality is often painful, and can lead to depression. But once in the depth of the darkness, with the discovery of the seed of the problem, the seed in the ‘prima materia’, the white light is born (=albedo, whiteness, the next phase). A state of rest arises. Insight into the problem has been gained, it has been worked out emotionally, and knowledge arises on how to handle it in a more positive way and to build a more pure attitude. "Tiefer, tiefer Irgendwo in der Tiefe Gibt es ein licht" Being deep in nigredo, a white light appears. We have arrived at the second stage of the Great Work: albedo, or whiteness. The alchemist has discovered within himself the source from which his life comes forth. The source is one: male and female are united. When man descended into the physical world his body entered a world of duality. On the bodily level this is expressed by the sexes. But his spirit is still androgen, it contains duality in unity. When male and female are united again, one will experience his true self. Conscious and unconscious are totally united. Albedo happens when the Sun rises at midnight. It is a symbolic expression for the rising of the light at the depth of darkness. It is the birth of Christ in the middle of the winter. In the depth of a psychological crises, a positive change happens, ‘the hour of gold’. "Come here with me now" Albedo is also symbolized by the morning star Venus/Aphrodite. Venus has a special place in the Great Work. Aphrodite was born from the foam that arose when the genitals of Uranus (cut of by Chronos, out of hate and jealousy) fell into the sea. The cutting of the genitals represents repressed and tormented love. The sea, symbol of the soul, however will bring forth the love goddess. Liberation will happen when we become conscious again of the contents of the soul. As Aphrodite is born from the sea, she is the guide through the fearful world of the unconscious (the sea, or the underworld). The alchemist descends into these depths to find the ‘prima materia’, also called the ‘green lion’. The color green refers to the primal life forces. Venus also has the green color. An important characteristic of Aphrodite is that she helps us in our human shortcomings. She gives ideals and dreams to fulfill. But she also gives frightening images in order to make man aware of his lower nature. Liberation can only happen by becoming conscious of the lower nature and how we transmute it. It's wonderful Everywhere, so white... There are many other symbols in alchemy for the second phase, or albedo: the white swan, the rose, the white queen, the white dove, and so on. As lead is the metal of nigredo, silver is the metal of albedo, transmuted from lead. As silver is the metal of the moon, the moon was also a symbol for albedo. Alchemists also talk about the white stone or white tincture. Being born again Into the sweet morning fog D'you know what? I love you better now... The further steps of the alchemical opus are citrinitas (yellowness) and rubedo (redness)... The AERIAL cover is full of yellowness and redness... citrinitas and rubedo? |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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REVERIES OF THE AERIAL ALCHEMIST FIRST WALK: The Great Work and Thelemic Mysticism I will come home again, but not until The sun and the moon meet on yon hill... I'll send your love to Zeus Oh, by the time you read this... Amen is the Egyptian equivalent of Zeus Amen (Amon, Amun, Ammon, Amoun) Amen's name means "The Hidden One." Amen was the patron deity of the city of Thebes, and was viewed (along with his consort Amenet) as a primordial creation-deity by the priests of Hermopolis. When the Thebans had established their sovereignty in Egypt, Amen became a prominent deity, and by Dynasty XVIII was termed the King of the Gods. His famous temple, Karnak, is the largest religious structure ever built by man. Amen, by Dynasty XIX-XX, was thought of as an invisible creative power which was the source of all life in heaven, and on the earth, and in the great deep, and in the Underworld, and which made itself manifest under the form of Ra. During the New Kingdom, Amen's consort was Mut, "Mother," who seems to have been the Egyptian equivalent of the "Great Mother" archetype. The two thus formed a pair reminiscent of the God and Goddess of other traditions such as Wicca. Their child was the moon god Khons. Mut (Golden Dawn, Auramooth) The wife of Amen in Theban tradition; the word mut in Egyptian means "mother", and she was the mother of Khons, the moon god. Khons (Chons) The third member (with his parents Amen and Mut) of the great triad of Thebes. Khons was the god of the moon. The best-known story about him tells of him playing the ancient game senet ("passage") against Thoth, and wagering a portion of his light. Thoth won, and because of losing some of his light, Khons cannot show his whole glory for the entire month, but must wax and wane. The main temple in the enclosure at Karnak is dedicated to him. My Pussy Queen Knows all my secrets. I'll never fall in love again... The cover to THE RED SHOES is predominately black and red (as is the video and TLTC&TC film). The colors BLACK and RED date back to Ancient Egypt. Egypt was known as the "Black and Red Land" - a "Black Land" because of the rich black soil; a "Red land" because of the desert that protected Egypt on both sides from enemies. Where sands sing in crimson, red and rust... Egypt was also the center of Alchemy. Lucifereans regard alchemy as the transformation of the human soul into the godhead, a transformation which completes Satan's unfinished work! I'm busy chasing up my demon... The true meaning of the "Temple of Solomon" is the TEMPLE OF THE SUN. "Sol" "Om" and "On" are all words for the Sun. "Sol" is the Latin word for the Sun and is close to the English word "soul." "Om" is a name given by the Hindus to the Spiritual Sun, and "On" is an Egyptian word for Sun. During dynastic Egypt Ra's cult center was Annu (Hebrew "On", Greek "Heliopolis", modern-day "Cairo"). And this curve, is your smile And this cross, is your heart And this line, is your path... The Chi Rho (the line, the cross and the curve) originates from the skull and crossed bones. The Skull and Bones is symbolic of the Nigredo stage of the Magnum Opus (the transformation of the soul into the godhead). This is the death stage in the work, before the soul is purified into the godhead. The dross is separated from the pure. |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The AERIAL album cover also kinda reminds me of the Teletubbies' Rising Sun with baby center! ... And KT's hysterical Aerial laughter also makes me think of the Teletubbie Sun! ... Flick between the front cover and the Bertie photograph accompanying 'Bertie', and Bertie could be the sun center! ... Maybe Katie and Bertie watched the show... TELETUBBY SUN http://blogs.elcomercio.com.pe/santalima/teletubbies_01.jpg A prominent feature of each episode is a radiant sun that has an image of a smiling baby superimposed upon it. The baby in the sun occasionally laughs out loud in short bursts. To adults the laughter does not seem to be in response to any stimulus or humorous developments in the plot line of the episode. The Teletubby Sun's laughter brings to mind Katie's hysterical Aerial laughter! And the Teletubbies go "Eh-Oh!" teletubbies intro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuiynIn-g9s 'Io' is a Greek Goddess. Her name is pronounced "ee-oh", not "eye-oh". Io was identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis, and her son Epaphos with the sacred bull Apis. Moloch - the sun god & god of war - went by many names including, Ba'al, Golden Calf, Chemosh, and the Apis Bull. Moloch was widely worshipped in the Middle East and wherever Punic culture extended. Baal Moloch was conceived under the form of a calf or an ox or depicted as a man with the head of a bull... as in KaTe's SIYL video? In magickal usage, Io is generally considered a "hail"... as in Crowley's Io Pan!, meaning Hail Pan! So when the Tellytubbies say "Eh-Oh!" they seemingly Hail the Sun... or perhaps Moloch! And when we play AERIAL, we seemingly Hail the Sun... or perhaps "Bertie, The Sun" ... or perhaps Moloch! The Teletubbies characters have been analysed as representing: Tinky-Winky - Hermes. Dipsy - Dionysis/Pan/The Green Man. La-La - Lilith. Po - Kaios. Po is the Maori word for the void that exists before creation. Noo-Noo - Shiva. The windmill - a Swastika. Occult Symbolism in Pop Culture http://www.thephora.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28470&page=3 |
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| Kate Bush – Heads We're Dancing Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Kate Bush on HEADS WE'RE DANCING KB: "It's the darkest track on the album and not the sort of song I'd write now [Defensive Pessimism?]. The devil's task is to tempt and temptation has to be attractive. Hitler is the closest personification of evil and I mention him not to glorify but to point out he was a man who fooled a tremendous amount of intelligent people and there's no way you could blame anyone for being fooled by that man..." "Love, Trust and Hitler" (1989) http://gaffa.org/reaching/i89_tr.html ...Nuremberg found a way! ... The Trial of the Major War Criminals sentenced twelve defendants to death by hanging. The Doctors' Trial sentenced seven defendants to death by hanging. THE ULTIMATE ONE: Kate Bush or The Devil? "That's a very dark song, not funny at all! ... I wrote the song two years ago, and in lots of ways I wouldn't write a song like it now. I'd really hate it if people were offended by this...But it was all started by a family friend, years ago, who'd been to dinner and sat next to this guy who was really fascinating, so charming. They sat all night chatting and joking. And next day he found out it was Oppenheimer. And this friend was horrified because he really despised what the guy stood for. "I understood the reaction, but I felt a bit sorry for Oppenheimer. He tried to live with what he'd done, and actually, I think, committed suicide.* "But I was so intrigued by this idea of my friend being so taken by this person until they knew who they were, and then it completely changing their attitude. "So I was thinking, what if you met the Devil? The Ultimate One: charming, elegant, well spoken. "Then it turned into this whole idea of a girl being at a dance and this guy coming up, cocky and charming, and she dances with him. Then a couple of days later she sees in the paper that it was Hitler. Complete horror: she was that close, perhaps could've changed history. "Hitler was very attractive to women because he was such a powerful figure, yet such an evil guy. I'd hate to feel I was glorifying the situation, but I do know that whereas in a piece of film it would be quite acceptable, in a song it's a little bit sensitive." "In the Realm of the Senses" (1989) http://gaffa.org/reaching/i89_nme2.html * Oppenheimer, "the father of the atomic bomb", died from throat cancer in 1967, at age 62. His daughter, Toni, committed suicide on the island of St John in the US Virgin Islands in 1977, at age 33. Despite Oppenheimer's remorseful, or at least conflicted, attitudes, Oppenheimer was a vocal supporter of using the first atomic weapons on "built-up areas" in the days before the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (wiki). |
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| Kate Bush – Under the Ivy Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Under the Ivy and Love and Anger It lay buried here. It lay deep inside me It's so deep I don't think that I can speak about it... And it's not easy for me To give away a secret It's not safe... It could take me all of my life But it would only take a moment to Tell you what I'm feeling... It wouldn't take me long To tell you how to find it... 'Our life is basically practically nothing but an infinite number of unfinished situations-incomplete gestalts.' writes Perls. 'No sooner have we finished one situation than another comes up' (1969/1971:15). The neurotic 'individual somehow interrupts the ongoing processes of life and saddles himself with so many unfinished situations that he cannot satisfactorily get on with the process of living' (1973:23). The basis of gestalt therapy is looking at the moment - the whole moment and nothing but the moment. Gestalt therapy seeks to free the "dammed-up psychological process" so that it flows naturally... to Run Wild, Run Free... L&A opens like a Gestalt counselling session, that is interrupted by the entry of a loved one (real or imagined). The narrator cannot confide in a sister (because she hasn't got one?) and cannot confide in a priest. The institution of confession permits all to be said, but the narrator seems mute. Indeed, the album cover to TSW shows Kate's mouth concealed by a flower and in the Aerial photograph to 'Joanni', Kate's mouth has disappeared... In L&A, her muteness leads her to explore other philosophies of freedom. These seem to include Buddhist principles of rebirth and karma: "Karma, meaning action-reaction, governs all existence, and man is the sole creator of his circumstances and his reaction to them, his future condition, and his final destiny. By right thought and action he can gradually purify his inner nature, and so by self-realization attain in time liberation from rebirth. The process covers great periods of time, involving life after life on earth, but ultimately every form of life will reach Enlightenment." http://www.budtempchi.org/12prin.html So, in Love And Anger the narrator seems to be breaking through of personal limitations and "busting through" constricting forms. A 'spiritual cleansing' to let a 'new house' of the future rise up. And I agree that the end of the song is a real triumphant feeling... But in Under The Ivy she seems to be retreating deeper into her sanctuary... This little girl inside me Is retreating to her favourite place... Under The Ivy feels like a dangerous regression, a compulsion to repeat something forbidden. Maybe the noise and pressure of the party get to her and she is tempted by secret love... But will her lover join her? ... |
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| Kate Bush – Under the Ivy Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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KATE on Under the Ivy: "It's very much a song about someone who is sneaking away from a party to meet someone elusively, secretly, and to possibly make love with them, or just to communicate, but it's secret, and it's something they used to do and that they won't be able to do again. It's about a nostalgic, revisited moment." DOUG: Is there any reason why it's so sad? KATE: "I think it's sad because it's about someone who is recalling a moment when perhaps they used to do it when they were innocent and when they were children, and it's something that they're having to sneak away to do privately now as adults." http://gaffa.org/dreaming/doug_int.html UNDER the ivy bush One sits sighing, And under the willow tree One sits crying. — Under the ivy bush Cease from your sighing, But under the willow tree Lie down a-dying. ~ Christina Rossetti Ivy - Immortality, Friendship, Faithfulness. Because it is an evergreen that clings while climbing, it signifies the need for protection. Since it grows quickly, it also symbolizes regeneration, sensuality and revelry. The Greco-Roman god Dionysus, or Bacchus, had an ivy cup and wore a crown of ivy leaves. As a symbol of immortality, it provides hope of salvation and deliverance. In Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, the garden door is hidden under the ivy. Ivy was often used to symbolise the notion of gendered spheres for men and women in the Victorian period, where the ivy (woman) needs the sturdy oak (man) for support. This idea derives from Christian doctrine, as does the association of ivy (an evergreen plant) with the notion of resurrection. Ivy also has associations with melancholy and decay; the image of ivy covered ruins was a popular motif of the Romantic movement. Of course, Kate enjoys spelling puns on her name (Kate Bosch [NFE], BaBUSHka, the Pull of THE BUSH, etc). And 'Under the Ivy' is another example of Bush Topiary... White Roses - Purity, Innocence, Sympathy, Spirituality With its pristine appearance, the white rose has come to symbolize purity, innocence and secrecy. Early traditions also used white roses as a symbol for true love, an association which would later become the hallmark of the red rose. However, white roses continue to endure and retain their symbolism of innocence. Also known as the bridal rose, the white rose is a traditional wedding flower. In this sense, they are a representation of unity, virtue, young love, and the pureness of a new bond of love. White roses are also associated with honor and reverence, which makes them a fitting memorial for a departed loved one. As a symbol of remembrance, the white rose represents heavenliness and is an expression of spiritual love and respect. White roses have been symbols of reverence and humility ever since Medieval Christian Europe. In those times, Mary was often represented by a white rose to represent her purity. In Wales, white roses are seen to mean innocence and silence, and are often placed on the grave of a young child. Meanwhile, some native American cultures see the white rose as representing security and happiness, so this is why they are traditionally worn at weddings. In Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête, the white rose is symbolic of the Beast's inner character. Cocteau reinterprets Villeneuve's story and theme of love's power to redeem ugliness. He uses the white rose as a symbol of love and purity. The Beast may appear to be a hideous creature, but on the inside he is a loving and caring person. And of course, in La Belle et la Bête, the father goes into the garden, under the ivy, under the leaves, away from the party, right to the rose, right to the white rose and picks one of the white roses for his daughter. The White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany that called for active opposition to Hitler's regime. The group's first pamphlet decried the horrors of the T4 'euthanasia' programme. The six core members of the group were arrested by the Gestapo, convicted and executed 1943. The symbol of the white rose was intended to represent purity and innocence in the face of evil. A 2003 German poll, "the ten greatest Germans of all time", placed Hans and Sophie Scholl of the White Rose fourth place, selecting them over Bach, Goethe, and Albert Einstein. "Since the conquest of Poland three hundred thousand Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way ... The German people slumber on in their dull, stupid sleep and encourage these fascist criminals ... Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!" — From the second leaflet of the White Rose. In the modern occultism of Madeline Montalban (died 1982) Lucifer's identification as the Morning Star (Venus) equates him with Lumiel, whom she regarded as the Archangel of Light, and among Satanists he is seen as The "Torch of Baphomet" and Azazel. In this modern occult teaching, an obvious appropriation of Christian soteriology, it is stated that it is Lucifer's destiny to incarnate in human form at certain key times in world history as a saviour and redeemer for humanity. A symbol for this process is the Tudor Rose. The Tudor Rose can be red, representing Lucifer, or white representing Lilith. The Tau cross is also a symbol of Lumiel/Lucifer and his role as an avatar for the human race. |
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| Kate Bush – Cloudbusting Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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CLOUDBUSTING - A Book of Dreams Kate Bush: "It must have been nearly ten years ago, when I used to go up to the Dance Center in London, that I went into Watkins' Occult Bookshop for a look, and there was this book and it said, A Book of Dreams, by Peter Reich. I'd never heard of his father, Wilhelm Reich, but I just thought it was going 'Hello, Hello,' so I just picked up the book and read it and couldn't believe that I'd just found this book on the shelf. I mean it was so inspirational, very magical, with that energy there. So when I wrote and recorded the song, although it was about nine years later, I was nevertheless psyched up by the book, the image of the boy's father being taken away and locked up by the government just for building a machine to try to make rain. It was such a beautiful book!" http://gaffa.org/reaching/i85_swa.html CLOUDBUSTING - Watkins Book Shop Long established British bookshop specializing in occultism, mysticism, comparative religion, parapsychology, esoteric psychology, and related topics, founded by John M. Watkins in 1894. Watkins was a friend of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and other leading occult figures of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The shop in Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road, London, was a meeting place for such famous and varied individuals as A. E. Waite, William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley. Watkins also published texts in the fields of occultism and mysticism. All through the prewar occult boom of the 1920s and 1930s and the more recent occult explosion of the 1960s, the Watkins Book Shop has been a central focus of occultism, with a strong emphasis on mysticism and Eastern religion. As familiar to British students of occultism and mysticism as the Weiser Bookshop in New York. http://www.answers.com/topic/watkins-book-shop Aleister Crowley... Madame Blavatsky... Madame Maria Nanky... Isis Unveiled... The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn... Produced by Golden Dawn Productions... Lots of occult references... Then to find a quote from Kate remembering and referencing the time and place where she found A Book of Dreams... and that place being an historically recognized hub of mystical and spiritual possession... And 'Aerial' is of cause a Golden Dawn solar production! ... The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was possibly the single greatest influence on twentieth century western occultism. The Golden Dawn system is based on an initiated hierarchal order similar to that of a Masonic Lodge, however women were admitted on an equal basis with men. Some well known members included William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley, etc... |
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| Kate Bush – Cloudbusting Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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On top of the world Looking over the edge... I'm on the top of the world looking down on creation... "Top of the World" is the name of a 1973 song by the Carpenters. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973, becoming the duo's second U.S. number-one single. Released: September 17, 1973 Writers: Richard Carpenter; John Bettis see more: The Carpenters - Top Of The World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq5pLi0huhw ----- 'Neither science nor fiction, A Book of Dreams inhabits its own special and highly vulnerable reality. The truth of what young Reich says he experienced is rooted in the timeless mysteries of fathers and sons, where the literal and the mythic cannot always be distinguished. Peter Reich the man makes no effort to do so. Molded by the overwhelming fact that the world did not accept and love his father as unquestioningly as he did, he cannot and does not want to intellectualize his past... His book took six drafts and endless soul searches. "My father was afraid that his wives and children would write books about him, and they did," he says. "Talk about guilt." Guilty or not, this book is deeply touching. Nearly every line seems balanced fearfully between devotion and the possibility of betrayal.' - TIME, Monday, May 14, 1973. Google: Wilhelm Reich was a controversial figure. He believed that traumatic experiences blocked the natural flow of life-energy in the body, leading to physical and mental disease. His work on the link between human sexuality and neuroses emphasized "orgastic potency" as the foremost criterion for psycho-physical health. Reich built "orgone accumulators" to harness orgone, which he believed was responsible for emotions and sexuality. Wild rumors spread that his "sex boxes" caused uncontrollable erections. Is Side One of HOL thematically linked? Is it about the psychopathology of 'lovesickness'? RUTH - 'Cathy & Heathcliff' - Though RUTH is a much darker version of the classic original... And of course at this time KB also recorded the "Wuthering Heights (new vocal)" version to appear on the TWS (1986); - see RUTH thread: http://katebush.proboards6.com/?board=ho....ead=1714&page=2 HOL - 'Hamlet & Ophelia'/Night of the Demon? Ophelia losing her purity? - "Do you think I meant cuntry matters?"/"I think nothing, my lord!" - The inside sleeve picture of KB is her as Ophelia (her as "The Hogsmill Ophelia"?) ... - Kate Bush owns the "The Hogsmill Ophelia" (a painting of a cracked doll drowning in sewage) - http://gaffa.org/dreaming/tnw_gen.html - In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia will sing some "mad" little songs about death and a maiden losing her virginity. She will say "good night", exit and later be found drowned (TNW); - See HOL thread: http://katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi....ead=1715&page=2 MSFC - Psycho (1960)? - Or a mother concealing 'Child abuse'?; CLOUDBUSTING Wilhelm & Peter Reich (father/son)... Child abuse recovery/'coming out' to tell the story? I still dream of OrgAn-on I wake up crying You're making rain And you're just in reach... You're like my yo-yo... What made it special made it dangerous... So I bury it And forget... (repression) Oh, God, Daddy I won't forget... (therapeutic/associative recall) The sun's coming out Your son's coming out... ('Peter Reich' is coming out of the dark to tell his difficult story). On the sleeve, KB sends "a big thank you to Peter Reich." KOTE BUSH & THE PHILASAPHER'S STANE... Freudian Slip? In the documentary COME BACK KATE, Peter Manchester, a Professor of Philosophy and Speculative Theology, tells his story of writing to Kate Bush. Mr Manchester wrote to Kate informing her that Peter Reich followed his father's practice in spelling Orgonon with an 'O' from Orgone energy, whereas her lyrics for Cloudbusting write Organon with an 'A'. Mr Manchester considers that Kate may have perpetuated a deliberate pun with reference to the logical treatises of Aristotle, but concludes that he has probably caught Kate in a spelling error. Kate Bush wrote back to him. "Dear Peter. Thank you for your extremely interesting letter. I enjoyed it very much. I am afraid the 'Organon' misspelling is a mistake. And we were aware of this as soon as we saw the copy. It is very difficult to correct everything, and this [Organ-on] one slipped through my hands. I'm sorry the spelling mistake annoyed you. It annoyed me painfully, until I got a letter from a 43 year-old Professor of Philosophy and Speculative Theology and he broke the spell! All the best, Kate Bush." Further, Kate Bush had addressed the letter to "Mr Peter Monchester" - Mon, not Man... Peter Manchester: "I got to play with Kate Bush!" But if CLOUDBUSTING treats child abuse or the psychopathology of lovesickeness, then maybe Kate deliberately made an ironic spelling mistake... Organ On... Organ Off... Maybe KaTe was being extremely intentional? ... John Carder Bush, when asked directly about the spelling, replied, "It could be intentional." http://gaffa.org/dreaming/hol_clb2.html see more: Come Back Kate (Kate Bush documentary pt. 1/6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmloRo5VoOI THE BIG SKY HAMLET: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel? ... Methinks it is like a weasel... Or like a whale? ... THE BIG SKY - Psychotherapeutic intermission? Primal Music/dance/Scream? ... Screen? ...reply... ...question... - Free-associative projection... We pause for the jet... We're looking at the big sky Honey! You want my reply What was the question Mm, Yeah! I was looking at the big sky... Maybe TBS is a pause for the noise of trauma? - missing; I never go in now ["orgone accumulator/sex box"/etc?] Is TBS a need for constant distraction, constant focus on an ever-changing bigger picture? ... Like watching the fish at the dentists' ... Obsessive-compulsive cleaning the cobwebs of the mind? ... The desperate need for fresh air? ...Cloud-busting! Maybe TBS is psychoanalytical, with slip-references to 'not being understood' while pointing elsewhere? 'That Cloud...' & The Rorschach inkblot test - 'It has been employed in diagnosing underlying thought disorder and differentiating psychotic from nonpsychotic thinking in cases where the patient is reluctant to openly admit to psychotic thinking.' (wiki). Cloud - Noah - drowning? ... The Ninth Wave? 'It is undoubtedly significant that side 1 ends with Bush making rain in "Cloudbusting," an act in which the waters are at her mercy. In contrast, Bush is at the whim of the drowning pool on side 2, as if her rainmaking got out of hand...' (On Record, Frith & Goodwin, 1990; pg 461.) |
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| Kate Bush – Get Out of My House Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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In GOoMY, is The House a cursed ancestral line, an actual house, the mind, the 'I' ('this house is as old as I am')? ... The first four lines could be The Tenant taking a final look before he leaves (or is taken away)... Maybe he brought the weirdness in with him when he moved in, and it was he who made the house crack up (à la Polanski's 'Repulsion' 1965; a must see film!)... Maybe The House has been trying to (poltergeist-like/curse-like) get him evicted ever since... Maybe much of the background noises (the slamming; the repulsion) are the ghosts of the past... the tragic magic... the non-repressible memories... Now he's gone, the House is sublimating the Fury, trying to clean up the Shakespearean weirdness... trying with all its god-almighty strength to stop the curse taking root and residence... But the left-burning demon is trying to bring back the Devil dreams... The Wolf is huffing and puffing to get at The Three Little Pigs... This House is desperately trying to lock itself up like a chastity belt... But there is no escaping this Stallion... every time the house changes, so does the internalised enemy... On GOomH: Hestia represents the hearth, the naval that ties home to earth. Hermes personifies encounters with others in the social world. In the house, his place is at the door, protecting the threshold, repelling thieves because he himself is The Thief. ('The Hermes' were small statues of the god Hermes with an erect phallus that stood outside nearly every building in Athens as a kind of good-luck charm.) GOoMH suggests theft, violation, and a persistent intruder. 'Hestia' is without her companion, and a bad thief threatens to bore through the walls. Their conflict is made more riddling by the undeniable presence of a connection between them. "carry further than the word is heard" This line can suggest Pheme or Ossa, the Greek goddess or spirit (daimon) of rumour, report and gossip. She was also, by extension, the dual spirit of fame and good repute in a positive sense, and infamy and scandal in the bad. By turning into a bird, is the narrator hoping to fly faster than the speeding hotfoot of Ossa? Beyond Rumour? |
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| Kate Bush – Get Out of My House Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Both GOoMH and the story of Io feature transformations into livestock. After Io's transformation, she was continually stung by a maddening gadfly. And in GOoMY, the "mule braying sounds" at the end could suggest a maddening battle between ongoing transformations. In Greek mythology, Io was the daughter of Inachus, a river god. One day Zeus noticed her and she quickly became one of his many lovers. Their relationship continued until Hera almost caught them -- Zeus changed her into a heifer to escape detection. However, Hera was not completely fooled and demanded Zeus give her the heifer as a present. Hera then set ever-watchful Argus Panoptes to guard her and to keep her separated from Zeus. So Zeus commanded Hermes to kill Argus, which he did. Heifer Io was loosed to roam the world, stung by a maddening gadfly sent by Hera, and wandered to Egypt, where she was transformed back into human form by Zeus. In Egypt Io gave birth to Epaphus. You and me on the bobbing knee Didn't we cry at that old mythology he'd read! I will come home again, but not until The sun and the moon meet on yon hill Maybe Get Out Of My House is about X trying to escape the advances of Zeus or from someone who thinks he is a Genie-Zeus! Maybe the protagonist has identified herself with one of Zeus' many extramarital affairs with women such as Leda, seduced in the form of a swan; Europa, as a bull; Danae, as a golden shower*; Kallisto, as Artemis; Antiope as a satyr; and of course Io. They come with their weather hanging 'round them... And ZEUS, King of the Gods, was also the god of weather. * and KT uses golden shower imagery in the L&A video, even trying to seduce her fans with a handful of dust! Kate Bush - Love And Anger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWNVlZ74I3s |
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| Kate Bush – Houdini Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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KATE BUSH and THE HUGUENOT 'The Huguenot' could have been the inspiration for the cover to THE DREAMING. ... On The Dreaming cover KaTe is attempting to pass the life-saving key to 'Mr Houdini'; and in A Huguenot, the girl is attempting to tie the life-saving Roman Catholic badge around her lover's arm. Both couples "embrace" their possible doom under a wall of ivy. The ivy, a symbol of immortality, provides hope of salvation and deliverance. JCB: "I thought that photographing Mr. and Mrs. Houdini on the banks of the Hudson River in a freezing wind had been a difficult assignment: the shot had required a long, long exposure and the wind was from the wrong direction, and when it was right, it kept shaking the tripod. However, the sedate, elegant brief for the cover of KBV had an element to it that all photographers are told to avoid working with at all cost: animals. Luckily, the dogs we wanted to use are friends of ours, so there was a good chance that they might put up with posing, keeping quiet and leaving each other alone. But only a chance..." http://gaffa.org/garden/jcb3.html Compare and Contrast: A Huguenot, Millais, 1852 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Huguenot.jpg The Dreaming, Kate Bush, 1982 (Photography, JCB) http://gaffa.org/wow/k254.jpg |
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| Kate Bush – Blow Away (For Bill) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"One of the band told me last night/That music is all he's got in his life" (Blow Away from the new LP, Never For Ever). Is that really you, using the third person as a slender disguise? KB: "Yeah. Well done. It is..." http://gaffa.org/reaching/i80_rm.html Please don't thump me Don't bump me Don't dump me back there Please don't thump me Don't bump me I want to stay here... IMHO, this kinda makes life seem harsh, brutal, ominous; and the 'I want to stay here' is sung to a place of sanctuary. It reminds me of KB's "Frightened Eyes": They've all got frightened eyes, Saying, "Leave me alone, I'm perfectly safe here inside. Please don't surprise me." Bill Duffield was the lighting director for the Tour Of Life. He literally put out the lights. Bill is honoured in "Blow Away" and "Moments of Pleasure"... Hey there Bill Could you turn the lights up? Put out the light, then, put out the light Vibes in the sky invite you to dine... ..."God moves in mysterious ways!" ACT 5, SCENE 2: A bedchamber in the castle: DESDEMONA in bed asleep; a light burning. Enter OTHELLO Put out the light, and then put out the light: If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, I can again thy former light restore, Should I repent me: but once put out thy light, Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume... This quote occurs just as Othello is preparing to murder his wife, Desdemona. First he will put out the candle, then he will put out the light of Desdemona's life. The candle's light can be restored once extinguished, but he contrasts this with Desdemona's "light" (life) which of course cannot be reillumined once quenched. I have just finished reading Shakespeare's Othello. In the scene just before Othello kills Desdamona, he says, "Put out the light/Then put out the light." I was wondering if this means the same thing in Blow Away. KB: "You're the first person in four years to pick up on this--so, thank you." http://gaffa.org/garden/kate18.html You read me Shakespeare on the rolling Thames That old river poet that never, ever ends... You wouldn't make a good Lady Macbeth? KB: "Lady Macbeth? (Laughs) No. To tell you the truth, I'm not that intrigued by acting. If someone offered me something really interesting, especially someone I admired, I'd do it because I'd be crazy not to. But I'm no actress. I don't have the talent or the temperament." "Booze, Fags, Blokes And Me" (1993) http://gaffa.org/reaching/i93_q.html |
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| Kate Bush – Delius (Song of Summer) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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SOLAR MONOTHEISM: Reaching Out for the Sun... Phoibos [Apollon], of you even the swan sings with clear voice to the beating of his wings, as he alights upon the bank by the eddying river Peneios; and of you the sweet-tongued minstrel, holding his high-pitched lyre, always sings both first and last. And so hail to you lord! I seek your favour with my song. ~ Homeric Hymn 21 to Apollo Kate Bush - Delius (Song Of Summer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmADS0sFCGA Man wearing Sun Mask in divination ceremony http://www.cubby.net/missalette/missalette12/images/sun_mask.gif The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Marlan, 2005) http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2005/bigmarlan.jpg Book Description "The black sun, an ages-old image of the darkness in individual lives and in life itself, has not been treated hospitably in the modern world. Modern psychology has seen darkness primarily as a negative force, something to move through and beyond, but it actually has an intrinsic importance to the human psyche... "He draws upon his clinical experiences and on a wide range of literature and art to explore the influence of light and shadow on the fundamental structures of modern thought as well as the contemporary practice of analysis. "An important contribution to the understanding of alchemical psychology, this book draws on a postmodern sensibility to offer insight into modernity, the act of imagination, and the work of analysis in understanding depression, trauma, and transformation of the soul." The similarities are indeed striking! It makes me wonder about the origins of the 'sun-masked man' icon. Maybe the cover was used on another book which the Bush family owned? Maybe the cover is from an old Masonic source. There is what looks like a Palm Tree on the cover, which can be interpreted as a Freemasonry symbol, as can be the sun-disc. The cover to The Black Sun is so like the Kate and Paddy Bush 'Delius' video, and very much suggests solar worship. The Sun is prominently featured on the AERIAL cover. The back cover to TKI and NFE both feature sunset with moon; and LIONHEART features a solar lion moving its slow thighs... Reaching out for the Star Reaching out for the Star that explodes Reaching out for Mama See how the flower leans instinctively Toward the light... |
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| Kate Bush – Delius (Song of Summer) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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YOUTUBE: Kate Bush - Delius - Song of Summer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP1eYeMKkZE In the Delius (Song of Summer) video, KB plays the Swan (obviously!) and PB plays the part of Delius, upon the bank, wearing an 'Apollonian sun mask'. The sun mask could reference Apollo or an Egyptian solar deity, such as Ra, or Amun-Ra (Amun merged with the sun god Ra)... And the cover of AERIAL repeats the solar disc reference, becoming one big solar mask. The Delius (Song of Summer) video seems very much to reference the ancient world. Sources of inspiration could be: 1) Homeric Hymn 21 to Apollo... Phoibos [Apollon], of you even the swan sings with clear voice to the beating of his wings, as he alights upon the bank by the eddying river Peneios; and of you the sweet-tongued minstrel, holding his high-pitched lyre, always sings both first and last. And so hail to you lord! I seek your favour with my song. APOLLO & ARTEMIS: The sun and the moon... APOLLO was the god of the sun. Each day he drove his chariot of fiery horses across the sky to give light to the world. [Aerial Sky?] Apollo was believed to be one of the best archers. He was the son of Leto and Zeus, and also the twin brother of the virgin huntress Artemis. Apollo was also the Greek god of music and poetry and the hymns that were sung to Apollo were called paeans. Apollo was the leader of the Muses and also the expert director of their choir. Apollo became god of the sun and Artemis became goddess of the moon. ARTEMIS was associated with the moon as her brother the sun. Artemis, goddess of the Moon, is the quintessential female archetype. Artemis is known as the goddess of the night, the huntress, the goddess of fruitfulness, Lady of the Beasts, the woodland goddess, the bull goddess, the personification of the moon. The association between Artemis and the moon is revealed in one of the epithets used to describe the goddess - Phoebe ("the bright one"). 2) Winged Maat Paying Homage to Hathor, Valley of the Queens, Egypt. Dynasty XIX 1270 B.C. This scene shows the Goddess Maat kneeling with her wings extended in a pose of paying homage to the Goddess Hathor who is seated on a throne. Maat is the Goddess of Truth and Justice who personifies cosmic order and harmony as established by the Creator-God at the beginning of time. Her symbol is an ostrich feather on her head. Hathor is the great Sky-Goddess often represented as a cow who became known as a universal Mother-Goddess. Hathor was the Goddess of joy and motherhood and the embodiment of all that is best in women. Hathor was also considered the Goddess of music, dance, light-hearted pleasure and love. She was considered the protectress of pregnant women and midwives. The goddess Hathor later became assimilated with the goddess Isis. 3) Relief of the goddess Isis from the Temple Philae. Egyptian goddess Isis protecting a mummified pharaoh, a late Ptolemic relief from the Philae Temple, which was first built in the thirtieth dynasty, c. 380-343 B.C. as a temple to Hathor and later enlarged by Greek and Roman rulers of Ancient Egypt who built temples to Isis and Osiris. In Egyptian mythology, the goddess Isis is the wife and sister of Osiris and the mother of Horus. The goddess Isis, a moon goddess, gave birth to Horus, the god of the sun, and together, Isis and Horus created and sustained all life and were the saviors of their people. Isis was worshipped as the archetypal wife and mother. Her name literally means "she of throne", that is, "Queen of the throne", which was portrayed by the emblem worn on her head, that of a throne. However, the hieroglyph of her name originally meant "she of flesh", i.e. mortal, and she may simply have represented deified, historical queens. She also is known as being the goddess of magic and healing. Ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile flooded every year because of her tears of sorrow for her dead husband, Osiris. He was killed by her other evil brother, Seth, god of chaos and destruction. Seth sliced Osiris into bits and flung them into the Nile River, letting the animals eat the remains of his body. However, all the pieces survived, except for one of them. Throughout the Graeco-Roman world, Isis becomes one of the most significant of the mystery religions, and many classical writers refer to her temples, cults and rites. Temples to Isis were built in Iraq, Greece, Rome, Pompeii. At Philae her worship persisted until the sixth century, long after the wide acceptance of Christianity. Philae was the last of the ancient Egyptian temples to be closed, and its fall is generally accepted to mark the end of ancient Egypt. After her assimilation of Hathor, Isis's headdress is replaced with that of Hathor: the horns of a cow on her head, and the solar disc between them. Usually, she was depicted with her young son, the great god Horus, with a crown and a vulture, and sometimes as a kite flying above Osiris's body or with the dead Osiris across her lap. Some scholars believe that Isis worship in late Roman times was an influence behind Catholic development of the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 4) On the NFE vinyl centre label, KB appears as 'The White Swan'. In Swan Lake, an evil sorcerer, von Rothbart, has captured Odette and used his magic to turn Odette into a swan by day and a woman by night. Once Prince Siegfried knows her story, he takes great pity and falls in love with her. When they realise the spell can never be broken, both Odette and Siegfried drown themselves by leaping into the lake... The Ninth Wave? Ophelia? etc. |
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| Kate Bush – Babooshka Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Babooshka is like an agent provocateur engaging in a sting operation, or a Morality Play telling of Man Vs Lust. Her spidery power to "take it further" suggests that she is doing all the weaving. But there is obviously a weakness, a willing, a longing on his part, like he is keen for the ride. He is the 'typical' male fly caught in the black widow web of feminine guile! A fatal attraction! "She wanted to take it further So she arranged a place to go To see if he Would fall for her incognito..." The "All yours Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!" suggests that he does 'fall for her incognito'. Her 'capacity to give him all he needs' overwhelms his cognitions. He does not solve the riddle of uncanny familiarity, and the alter ego Sphinx wins! However, the crashing, backfiring finale suggests the wife is furious that her cunning plan was so successful and revelatory! And as you say Paul, I suspect that both parties are injured by glaring feelings of (self-)betrayal. And yes, maybe it was he who stopped paying attention to the relationship and to her needs years ago - the romance and the passion. And maybe his 'frigidity' drove her passions to distraction! ... The Babooshka (1980) video costume makes me think of Boudica, the warrior queen of the Iceni people of Norfolk who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire, or the Amazons. The Amazons were a mythical ancient nation of all-female warriors. In some versions of the myth, no men were permitted to have sexual encounters or reside in Amazon country; but once a year, in order to prevent their race from dying out, they visited the Gargareans, a neighbouring tribe. The male children who were the result of these visits were either put to death, sent back to their fathers or exposed in the wilderness to fend for themselves; the females were kept and brought up by their mothers, and trained in agricultural pursuits, hunting, and the art of war. In the Iliad, the Amazons were referred to as Antianeira ("those who fight like men"). In popular culture, the Amazons are seen frequently in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess. The Ephesian Artemis was a divinity totally distinct from the Greek goddess of the same name. She seems to have been the personification of the fructifying and all-nourishing powers of nature. It is an opinion almost universally adopted, that she was an ancient Asiatic divinity whose worship the Greeks found established in Ionia, when they settled there, and that, for some resemblance they discovered, they applied to her the name of Artemis. As soon as this identity of the Asiatic goddess with the Greek Artemis was recognised, other features, also originally peculiar to the Greek Artemis, were transferred to her; and thus she is called a daughter of Leto, who gave birth to her in the neighbourhood of Ephesus. Her original character is sufficiently clear from the fact, that her priests were eunuchs, and that her image in the magnificent temple of Ephesus represented her with many breasts (polumastos). The whole figure of the goddess resembled a mummy: her head was surmounted with a mural crown (corona muralis), and the lower part of her body, which ended in a point, like a pyramid upside down, was covered with figures of mystical animals. The symbol of this divinity was a bee, and her high priest bore the name of king (essên). Her worship was said to have been established at Ephesus by the Amazons. BaBushka reminds me of Dangerous Liaisons (1988; from the novel 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Choderlos de Laclos). - 'Babushka' is the Russian word meaning "grandmother," or more generally (but quite informally) "old lady." In recent years, the term has also come to indicate a strong, outspoken or opinionated woman of any age (wiki). - As in TD ('The Pull of the Bush'), "BaBUSHka" can be regarded as a play on Kate's name. |
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| Kate Bush – The Man with the Child in His Eyes Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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On a lot of English first pressings of vinyl records you can find an inscription in the run-out area of the disc... Kate not only knows about the inscriptions, she even writes them, so most of them are of some significance... Here's a list of the inscriptions on the first releases of the vinyl editions: The Man With The Child In His Eyes / Moving: Side A: "The child hides in the light"; - In August 1980, Pat Benatar released her second LP, 'Crimes of Passion', featuring 'Hell Is For Children' ("They hide in the light, so you can't see their fears") AND her cover of WUTHERING HEIGHTS. YouTube: Pat Benatar - Hell is for Children: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sa0MkWoeTk "They cry in the dark, so you can't see their tears They hide in the light, so you can't see their fears Forgive and forget, all the while Love and pain become one and the same In the eyes of a wounded child..." Each line of TMWTCIHE seems to have a different address, from Jesus to her imaginary friend, guardian, or groom... |
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| Kate Bush – The Kick Inside Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"Oh, do you know you have the face of a genius?..." Apollo was the great Olympian god of prophecy, music, song, poetry, archery, etc. He is considered the ideal of manly beauty. To be 'Apollonian' is to be serenely high-minded, noble and bright, etc. "I'll send your love to Zeus..." Artemis was the sister of Apollo. They were the twin offspring of Zeus and Leto. "You must lose me like an arrow Shot into the killer storm..." Apollo and Artemis were two great Olympian Archers. In old mythology, they are often shown equipped with hunting bow and quiver of arrows. "The sun and the moon meet on yon hill... Apollo was a Sun God and Artemis was a Moon Goddess. |
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| Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Come Back Kate (Kate Bush documentary pt. 1/6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmloRo5VoOI Kote Bush & The Philasapher's Stane! "I got to play with Kate Bush..." Julie zingt Wuthering Heights... "I was working as a wardrobe mistress In a cocktail bar... Singing along and doing the ironing..." ... reminds me of Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man (1973)... Indeed, maybe KT's WH dance routine was inspired by Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man... :) |
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| Kate Bush – Nocturn Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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We go driving Rising and rising A veil of diamond dust The sky’s above our heads The sea’s around our legs In milky, silky water We swim further and further The stars are caught in our hair The stars are on our fingers We dive down we dive deeper and deeper Bright, white coming alive jumping off of the aerial... Obelisks are ancient aerials. The obelisk's phallic form was representative of sexual reproduction, which the ancient Egyptians realized was also a source of life. Obelisks soared up towards the sky with their shafts decorated in hieroglyphs, and were crowned by a reflective, shining, gold-plated, pyramidal point, the pyramidon. The obelisk was a symbol of contact between the earth and the heavens, between man and the gods. The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, and during the brief religious reformation of Akhenaten was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten, the sundisk. The pyramid and Obelisk were connected with sunrise and sunset, with zodiacal light and Sun pillars, respectively. The ancient Egyptians believed that the obelisk was a mediator of the power of life that reached to the dead, channeling the sun's rays to the deceased, and assisting them in their resurrection. Maybe Nocturn celebrates Sex Magick... Sex magick is the use of the sex act—or the energies, passions or arousal states it evokes—as a point upon which to focus the will or magical desire for effects in the non-sexual world. The fundamental premise of sex magic is that the sexual energy (libido) of the human organism is the most potent force it contains. Harnessing the unique states that arise through sexual activity provides a special conduit for the transcendence of nominal reality. Aleister Crowley was one of the first people in modern times to publicly advocate the practice of sexual magick. An example of sex magick is the Great Rite of Wicca, a ritual that involves either symbolic or actual sexual intercourse. This union between the High Priestess and the High Priest represents the union between the Maiden Goddess and the Lover God. (wiki) Pagan Sun Worship, Nocturnal emissions, and a celebration of The Golden Dawn! |
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| Kate Bush – Nocturn Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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On the "Indus Bird Mask" photography accompanying NOCTURN The "Indus Bird Mask" photograph shows a standing heron. The Ancient Near East consists of the geographical area from the Indus Valley to the Mediterranean, plus Egypt and Greece. These are the myths of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Christians, and Greeks. In ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology, the phoenix is a mythical bird and associated with the Egyptian sun-god Re and the Greek Phoibos (Apollo). According to the Greeks the bird lives in Arabia, nearby a cool well. Each morning at dawn, it would bathe in the water and sing such a beautiful song, that the sun-god stops his chariot to listen. In Egypt it was usually depicted as a heron, but in the classic literature as a peacock. ["Design by Kate and Peacock" on back of CD booklet? *] The phoenix symbolizes immortality, resurrection, and life after death. In that aspect it was often placed on sarcophagi. The name Phoenix to the Egyptians, as to other pagan nations was a name that symbolized the Sun-god under the names Ra and Osiris. The name Phoenix means "Shining One" (and so does the name "Lucifer"). It is associated with the Egyptian Benu (or Bennu)... And of course the somewhat planetary photograph accompanying AERIAL seems very much to show the immortal and invincible arisen Phoenix Heron Bird... In the 'Book of the Dead' from the New Kingdom the Benu is represented as a grey heron (Ardea cinera), with two long head plumes and a straight beak. Though primarily associated with Atum and Re, the resurrection aspect led to an association with Osiris, and the heron was sometimes depicted wearing the 'atef' crown. In ancient Egyptian, the hieroglyph for 'Benu' means to 'rise in brilliance' or to 'shine'. The standing heron appears in naturalistic or symbolical scenes connected with the sun-god or life after death. Often the sun-disc was shown above its head, pointing at the connection with the myth of the sun-god and its day and night journey. The heron also represented the 'Ba' - the soul of Ra. By the cry of the Benu bird, existence was announced as coming into being. The silence of the primeval night is broken and light and life is brought to creation. There are depictions of the heron perching on a cliff or a little piece of land which is rising above the flooded waters. In this way it became an adequate image of life emerging out of the primeval waters at the first time of creation, just like the sun was said to do, and thus symbolising rebirth. Because of its association with rebirth, the heron also became a manifestation of the resurrected Osiris, Lord of the Dead, and brother/husband of Isis. The goddess Isis, a moon goddess, gave birth to Horus, the god of the sun. Together, Isis and Horus created and sustained all life and were the saviors of their people. Isis is closely connected with the Greek Moon Goddess, Artemis... "On this Midsummer night Everyone is sleeping We go driving into the moonlight..." Isis was a winged goddess who represented all that was visible, birth, growth, development and vigour. Having wings, she was a wind goddess. The kite was sacred to her, and she could transform herself into this bird at will... "The sands run red In lands of the Pharoahs..." "Where sands sing in crim-son, red and rust..." Inscribed in the temple of Isis: "I, Isis, am all that has been, that is or shall be; No mortal man hath ever me unveiled. The fruit which I have brought forth is the ‘SUN’." |
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| Kate Bush – Sunset Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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COUNTING CROWS The practice of Augury has been around for centuries. Both India and Tibet have a system of crow augury. It is about predicting the future by counting the number of crows, the direction of their flight, the time of day at which they are seen, their cawing, etc. Crow augury may have started off as Magpie augury. The oldest rhymes, including at least one dating to the 1600's, deal with counting magpies rather than crows. The magpie rhyme seems to have been left on European shores, though. In North America, most people who know the rhyme use it in reference to crows. The basic rhyme, which goes something like "One for Sorrow, Two for Joy..." has been a popular children's chant through the years. Various versions of the rhyme exist, but the basics are as follows: One: Sorrow. An unhappy event. A change for the worse. Maybe loss or a death. Two: Joy. A surprise. A change for the better. Sometimes the finding of something. Three: Marriage. A celebration. Sometimes the birth of a female child. Othertimes some significant event around a daughter. Four: Birth. Usually the birth of a male child. Sometimes a significant event surrounding a son. Five: Silver. Sometimes costly. Usually a positive transaction. Six: Gold. Wealth. Sometimes money. Maybe greed. Occasionally a negative transaction. Seven: Something of spiritual significance. Often a secret. In some cases witchcraft, or the performing of sacred rites. Eight: Something profound. Death, dying, or a glimpse of Heaven. A life-altering journey or experience. Nine: Something sensual. Passion, or forbidden delight. In some versions this is corruption, in others it is closer to temptation. Ten: Something extreme. An overwhelming sensation. Something paid in full. Eleven: Uncertainty. Waiting. Wanting. May be in relation to a spiritual matter. Twelve: Fulfillment. Riches (though not always of a material sort). A fruitful labor. Something completed. An end to a problem, or the answer to a question. - http://7thcrow.com/crows.html In the photography accompanying SUNSET, there are three silhouetted crows/ravens... a 'marriage'? In the art Design for PIANISSIMO, there are four silhouetted crows/ravens... a boy? So when you look through the CD Booklet, you will see seven silhouetted crows/ravens... sacred rites? witchcraft? a secret never to be told? Here are two versions of Counting Crows ... 1 One for sorrow, two for mirth, Three for a wedding, four for a birth, Five for silver, six for gold, Seven for a secret not to be told. Eight for heaven, nine for hell, And ten for the devil's own sel'. 2 One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret, never to be told, eight for a wish, nine for a kiss, ten for a time of joyous bliss. Incidentally, in the art Design for PIANISSIMO, there are seven silhouetted blackbirds... The Secret Seven... |
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| Kate Bush – Sunset Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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On the "BLACKBIRD & RAVEN IN FLIGHT" photography accompanying SUNSET You should not speak of it You should not think it even Because it is forbidden... Of all the people in the world Why should I love you? There's just something about you There's just something about you... If I could sing like a blackbird Just like my heart was filled with summer... (Why Should I Love You, DEMO). “The beautiful song of the blackbird makes it a symbol of temptations, especially sexual ones. The devil once took on the shape of a blackbird and flew into St. Benedict's face, thereby causing the saint to be troubled by an intense desire for a beautiful girl he had once seen. In order to save himself, St. Benedict [The Exorcist; patron against witchcraft and those fighting temptation, etc.] tore off his clothes and jumped into a thorn bush. This painful act is said to have freed him from sexual temptations for the rest of his life.” In spite of its dark appearance, the RAVEN is a solar symbol of the Greek God Apollo. In Greece he was sacred to Apollo, the god of light. Greeks believed that Apollo turned the raven black when the bird informed him of the unfaithfulness of his lover, Coronis. This episode gave the raven a reputation as a tattler, a spy, and a divulger of secrets. In nearly all cultures, the raven or crow was originally white. In one of the Greek tales, Coronis, the daughter of Phlegyes was pregnant by Apollo. Apollo left a white crow (or raven) to watch over her, but, just before the birth, Coronis married Ischys. The crow informed Apollo of this, and Apollo was not impressed. He killed Coronis and Ischys, and turned the crow black for being the bearer of bad news. Luckily, Apollo retrieved the unborn child at the funeral, for the child became Aesclepius, the father of medicine. The raven is also a symbol for solitude and an attribute of several saints whom ravens fed in the wilderness, including St. Anthony Abbot, St. Paul the Hermit, and St. Benedict. Although the raven itself was considered unclean, God sent ravens to feed Elijah the Tishbite by the brook Cherith during a long drought (1 Ki 17:6; Lev 11:15; Deu 14:14). The raven has long been a symbol of divine providence (Psa 147:9; Job 38:41). Many remember the Lord's command to consider the sparrow and the lilies, but the words, "Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them," are seldom brought to mind (Lk 12:24). In the Song of Solomon, the Beloved's locks are "black as a raven" (Song 5:11). The raven symbolizes filial gratitude and affection, wisdom, hope, longevity, death, and fertility. In alchemy, it represents change and the advanced soul dying to this world. It remains a frequently used symbol in modern magic, witchcraft, and mystery. In the telling of myths and legends, the crow frequently took the place of the raven. Like the larger raven, the symbolic crow is associated with the sun, longevity, beginnings, death, change, bad luck, prophecy, and Christian solitude. It, too, is considered a messenger of the gods. Christians consider the crow an emblem of the Virgin Mary. The words, "I am dark, but lovely...because the sun has tanned me," are believed to mean that the light or love of God has so shown upon her that she is burned and purified as if by a mighty sun or fire (Song 1:5-6). |
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| Kate Bush – Prelude Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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PRELUDE On the "WOODPIGEON" photography accompanying PRELUDE Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) The UK's largest and commonest pigeon, it is largely grey with a white neck patch and white wing patches, clearly visible in flight. Although shy in the countryside it can be tame and approachable in towns and cities. Its cooing call is a familiar sound in woodlands as is the loud clatter of its wings when it flies away. Wood Pigeons waddle when they walk, which adds to their general appearance of being overweight. In fact, the Wood Pigeon's feathers weigh more than its skeleton and it is Europe's largest pigeon. Juvenile birds are browner and duller and lack the white patch on the neck. They can be confused with the smaller Stock Dove... Daphnis and Chloe, Longus Daphnis is fifteen years old, Chloe thirteen. They are drawn to each other and long to make love. But no one has told them what love is, nor do they know how to accomplish the physical act. Around their predicament Longus weaves a fantasy which entertains and instructs, but never errs in taste. The hard toil and precariousness of peasant life are here, but so are its compensations--revelry, music, dance, and storytelling. Above the action brood divinities--Eros, Dionysus, Pan, the Nymphs--who collaborate to guide the adolescents into the mystery of Love, at once a sensual and a religious initiation. In 1:27 Daphnis explains to Chloe why the wood-pigeon has such a distinctive call. The boy and girl herding their cows in the myth are obviously parallel to Daphnis and Chloe, and Daphnis says that the girl resembles Chloe... "But besides these, the Stock-dove [or Wood Pigeon] did delight them too; and sang from the Woods, her bucolic's. But Chloe desiring to know, askt Daphnis what that complaint of the Stock-dove meant; and he told her the tradition of the ancient Shepherds. "The Stock-dove (Chloe) was once a very fair Maid, as thou thy self now art; and in the flower of her age, kept her herds, as thou dost thine. She was skilfull in Musick, and her herds were so taken with her voice and pipe, that they needed not the discipline of the staffe, or goad: but sitting under a pine, and wearing, a coronet of the same, she would sing of Pan and Pitys, and her cowes, would never wander out of her voyce. There was a Youth that kept his herd not far off; and he was fair, and Musical, and not inferiour to the maid: but, as he tryed with all his skill, to emulate her notes and tones; he played a higher strain, as a male, and yet sweet, as being a boy; and so allured, from the maids Herd, eight of her best Cowes, to his own. She took it ill that her herd was so diminisht, and in very deep disdain, that she was his inferiour at the art; and presently prayed to the gods, that she might be transformed to a Bird, before she did return home. The gods consent, and turn her into a mountain-bird, because the Maid did haunt there; and Musicall, as she had been: And singing still, to this day, she publishes her heavy chance, and demands her Cowes again..." DAPHNIS & CHLOE By LONGUS Translated out of Greek by GEORGE THORNLEY Anno. 1657 |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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MOON, EARTH AND SUN PUT ON AERIAL DISPLAY... The cover art to Aerial seems very much dedicated to Apollo, the Sun God... the chariot of the sun, set out on some horizon, sunlight dancing about the sea... And as early as 1978, Kate Bush confirmed that she was interested in the Occult: KB: "That's really interesting, that's an amazing thing about interviews, they really make you think. I am interested in the occult but not the negative side of it. I really don't know much about it. I believe we are controlled by forces... the moon and the stars." "Haunting Kate Bush" (1978) http://gaffa.org/reaching/i78_nz.html Maybe, just maybe, KB has identified herself with Artemis, the Moon Goddess, in the photograph accompanying 'Joanni'? ... Like a moony-lamp of Night, her face could be the amber orb of the moon floating in the night sky... Maybe KaTe believes she has become the moon, a controlling force... So when one flicks through the CD booklet, the Sun and the Moon appear to be in direct alignment... Indeed, given the interluding cartoon 'King of the Mountain' sketch, one could say that "the sun and the moon meet on yon hill..." AERIAL: The Golden Dawn and The Golden Compass The title AERIAL is A Perfect Circle, full of celestial, nebulous, and earthly connotations... Aerial Nephelai... Aerial Supremacy... Aerial Rising... Pyramids and Obelisks... Shining Ones... Waves, Stations and Signals... Aerial Wonder... "A magician doesn't like to expose his magic, black or white..." Occult studies are by definition a study of hidden mysteries. While the practitioner is often attempting to scry hidden wisdom, that knowledge is traditionally not freely shared (esp. amongst fans!), and is often reincoded in a symbol system known only to the practitioner and other members of a related community. Karswell Kate: "What kind of language is this?" Hidden on all Kate Bush album covers is her trade mark KT runic symbol. The clearest example of this is on the Lionheart album cover, where the mark appears on the crate, just above (or below) the beast *. On the AERIAL album cover, the KT logo appears on the water in the lower foreground. The stem of the T is broken, giving the appearance of a capital T over a capital K. (Some people see even more symbols hidden in the lower right-hand corner of the cover.) A capital T: The Tau Cross Tau Cross - Symbol of the god Mathras of the Persians and the Aryans of India. To them, Mathras was an "angel of light" or the "heavenly light". It is used in modern Masonry under the symbol of the T square. In the modern occultism of Madeline Montalban (died 1982) Lucifer's identification as the Morning Star (Venus) equates him with Lumiel, whom she regarded as the Archangel of Light, and among Satanists he is seen as The "Torch of Baphomet" and Azazel. In this modern occult teaching, an obvious appropriation of Christian soteriology, it is stated that it is Lucifer's destiny to incarnate in human form at certain key times in world history as a saviour and redeemer for humanity. A symbol for this process is the Tudor Rose. The Tudor Rose can be red, representing Lucifer, or white representing Lilith. The Tau cross is also a symbol of Lumiel/Lucifer and his role as an avatar for the human race. On the Aerial Cover you will see A Perfect Circle around the Sun. The points of the Sun's rays have also been enhanced. The effect is to produce The Golden Compass. * The Lionheart Lion: Satan is called by many names in the Bible, each name revealing his basic character. He is called "Roaring Lion" in 1 Peter 5:8 (King James Version): "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour..." The Kick Inside Dragon: Satan is referred to as: "Dragon" (Isaiah 27:1; Revelation 20:2), "Great red dragon" (Revelation 12:3), "Old serpent" (Revelation 12:9; 20:2), "Son of the Morning" (Isaiah 14:12)... The AERIAL album artwork features two paintings in tempora: "Lesson Time" by Frederic Cayley Robinson, 1921 "Fishermen and Boat" by Joseph Edward Southall, 1920 Tempora is taken from the Latin, to mingle, to temper, to mitigate, season and soften, to mix in due proportion... Karswell Kate: "What kind of language is this?" Ole Worm (May 13, 1588 – August 31, 1655) was a Danish physician and antiquary. He wrote a number of treatises on Rune stones and collected texts that were written in runic. In 1626 Worm published his Fasti Danici, or "Danish Chronology," containing the results of his researches into runic lore. Its expanded title is: "Fasti Danici Universam Tempora Computandi Rationem Exhibentes". So maybe the use of the word Tempora in Ole Worm's Runic tome explains why Kate and Peacock chose to mingle two tempora paintings in the AERIAL artwork... "It's in the trees! It's coming!" |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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NOCTURN: Cinematic driving references are often featured in KB's work... Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbreak, Fullhouse, Cloudbusting, Hello Earth, You're The One... the on the road movie need to get away… And NOCTURN is a euphoric escape into nature. Let go of melancholy longing and become panoramic! (But how we long!) We see KaTe driving into the moonlight, diving deeper and deeper, among the stars, and becoming panoramic... "...And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools." "In milky, silky water We swim further and further" "...Tripping on the water like a laughing girl." NOCTURN is a moonlit midsummer night's dream. Everyone is sleeping, dreaming, diving into their watery unconscious... One summer night on Atlantic resort Amity Island, Chrissie decides to take a moonlight skinny dip... NOCTURN kinda reminds me of the opening of JAWS, where the girl goes midnight skinny dipping! But what comes up is not Jaws, but the sun over the horizon! KB has conquered her nightmares! And the celebratory ending is nothing short of spectacular! ... This is a fantastic song ... "All the time it’s a changing And all the dreamers are waking" ...'Stop that lyin' and a-sleepin' in bed--get up!' AERIAL continues the theme of escape and communion, and introduces a tribal gathering of energy to face the everyday… "What kind of language is this? What kind of language is this? I can’t hear a word you’re saying Tell me what are you singing In the sun" The blackbird seems to have the answer! And KaTe joyously reports back to us: "All of the birds are laughing All of the birds are laughing Come on let’s all join in Come on let’s all join in" "What kind of language is this?" could be quoted from Night of the Demon (1957): MISS HARRINGTON: "What kind of language is this?" and in DON'T LOOK NOW (1971): The Seer: You're sad. You're so sad and there's no need to be. Sister: My sister's psychic. The Seer: She wants you to know. I've seen her and she wants you to know that she's happy. I've seen your little girl sitting between you and your husband, and she was laughing. Yes. Oh, yes, she's with you. She's with you, my dear. And she's laughing! ... She's wearing a shiny little mac. Laura Baxter: Christine! The Seer: Oh, but she's laughing! She's laughing! She's as happy as can be. So maybe the blackbirds are communicating a reassuring spirit message from the Other Side? ... KB: "I do have a special fascination for films like Don't Look Now..." KB: "My favourite is Don't Look Now. I was incredibly impressed by the tension, the drive and the way that every loose end was tied up. I get so irritated by films which leave ideas hanging." Whatever, KaTe’s laughter suggests a cathartic conversation with a blackbird, like they are truly communicating. Or maybe it evokes a longing to change into a blackbird and to sing merrily and high on the roof in the sun! It's Exhilaring! ... "I turn into a bird Carry further than the word is heard..." And then we’re back to the thumping for the rest of the song and it’s the pounding of our wings as we fly wildly and deliriously through the sunrise. This is an album-closer unquestionably the work of the creator of The Dreaming! And I agree with the connection with The Big Sky. Both songs seem to deal with catharsis. Aerial Sky is a wonderful sunset and a wonderful sunrise, as never-ending as the cycle of death and rebirth... A Sky of Honey captures humankind's fascination with the sun trip by day and at night... From Egyptian Nut arching across the big sky, to Newgrange and Stonehenge solstices, to eclipses, the everyday and the beyond. A Sky of Honey is indeed a Classic Timepiece... |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The PROLOGUE Italian can translate as: "Rome my (dear) Rome my (beautiful) darling (treasure) my (jewel) sky full of sun and light you dance so well (so well) so slowly..." PROLOGUE suggests the miracle of life, conception, motherhood, and remembrance of things past. The cycle of life and death is reflected in the cycle of the day - the painting of morning, afternoon, and night. The song of the oil and the brush... So the lovers begin, with a kiss... A tryst... Tristan and Isolde under the ivy? ... (The Kiss by Gustav Klimt) An Architect's Dream is possibly allegorical for God making the world. The Great Architect of the Universe (GAOTU, also Grand Architect of the Universe or Supreme Architect of the Universe) is a conception of God discussed by many Christian theologians and apologists. As a designation it is used within Freemasonry to neutrally represent whatever Supreme Being to which each member individually holds in adherence. An Architect's Dream celebrates the mystical union of love and the sensuous appreciation of life. A meditation on life’s contrasts, Shadows and Light, and maybe with some dark accents coming in from the side... Mmm, that's good! At the end of An Architect's Dream, it is revealed that the painter is painting on the sidewalk, and it starts to rain... Such is life! ... "Life is a lot of grey and a little bit of blue..." There’s a man drawing pictures On the sidewalk with chalk. Just as fast as he draws ’em Rain come down and wash ’em off. - The Beat of Black Wings, Joni Mitchell But the appreciation of life continues into a reassuringly wonderful ‘Sun-set’! SUNSET... The iridescent descent of the sun... “This is a song of colour,” and of rich rich rich imagery. It’s a song to say goodnight by hailing the splendor of sunset—read that literally or allegorically as you wish, as you will with the lyrics when you actually have this playing with the booklet in your hand. It’s lovely piano-and-voice stuff with very gentle bass and just a hint of soft drumming until the end, which swells into a Flamenco-tinged Spanish guitar fiesta that perfectly evokes a certain shade of dusk-tinged red-orange that’s filling the sky on this spread of the booklet. "The day writes the words right across the sky They go all the way up to the top of the night..." AERIAL TAL... KaTe, blackbird and carrier pigeon wing their divine message to the gods... With SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN we say goodbye to the day... "This is where the shadows come to play twixt the day And night Dancing and skipping Along a chink of light..." ...an underworldly or otherworldly feeling. A communion of spirits. SIB evokes that very special ‘window’ moment between people, nature, spirit, truth… "Not one of us would dare to break The silence Oh how we have longed For something that would Make us feel so..." ...whole? ...free? ...complete? Somewhere in between, there is a moment of pleasure, a communion better than words... 'Be quiet, unless your speech be better than silence' Self Portrait, Salvator ROSA , 1615 - 1673 The sun: Goodnight mum Somewhere in between, this sounds like a dedication to KaTe's mother? |
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| Kate Bush – An Endless Sky of Honey Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The double vinyl Aerial comes with lush packaging - large lyric booklet, lined matt black record sleeves and silver-black record center labels. The vinyl run-out features a calligraphy letter 'B' (for Bertie?) or maybe it's a 'CB' (for Catherine Bush?). And the back cover features a drawing suggestive of Kate Bush calculating Pi ("Lesson Time" by Frederic Cayley Robinson, 1921). "Somewhere in between The waxing and the waning wave Somewhere in between The night and the daylight" Day and Night The album cover references Day and the inner black sleeves suggest Night. Remove the vinyl from its black sleeve and hold the sleeve up to daylight, you see a 'Full Moon'. Hold it up to lamplight, you see an 'eclipsed moon'. Indeed, each time you remove the vinyl from its sleeve, you see the 'Waxing moon'! ... AERIAL - A SEA OF HONEY KOTM and HTBI visit Underworld and Otherworldly realms, conjuring up spiritual and ghostly presences. Joanni summons up the past, invoking warrior spirit and the archetypal strength of the martyr. And while Bertie is very much in the present, its Renaissance madrigal is very much in the candlelit past. Bertie is directly followed by Mrs Bartolozzi, a lachrymose storytelling or multi-layered confessional. A Coral Room rocks the boat; and Pi lulls us into the mysterious infinity that is Kate Bush. These are truly fantastic and wonderful songs! AERIAL - A SKY OF HONEY Genesis 1: The Creation 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. The black vinyl, the black center, the black sleeve... Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. PRELUDE introduces Bertie as The Sun. “Mummy… Daddy… The day is full of birds. Sounds like they’re saying words...” But what is Kate saying, muffled within the sound? Sounds like she's also saying words! ... "Don't grow old guilty..." ? From the opening, we are in “communion with nature” and with what really matters, away from everyday stresses and absurdities (we’re gonna be laughing about this…) ... In PROLOGUE, Bertie becomes the Summer, the light of Life, eternal youth, and a lovely afternoon... Endymion. Immortal Rome. The Lark Ascending... Just Great! (ENDYMION, John Keats, 1818.) Can you see the lark ascending? The LARK symbolizes freedom, ardor, joy, youth, happiness, and the desire to be happy. According to Near Eastern mythology, the lark was the first creature to live upon the earth. Even today, he carries his father or creator inside the crest of his head. In other regions, the lark became associated with the "Spirit of the Wheat" and eventually with Christ who proclaimed, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John 6:51; see also John 6:32-50). This bird's use as a symbol of Christ was strengthened by the fact that it helps rid wheat fields of locust eggs, caterpillars, and the harvest beetle - destructive creatures which were symbols of the devil. Because he makes his nest on the ground, the lark, like Christ is considered an intermediary between heaven and earth and a symbol of the marriage of heaven and earth. Because the lark soars straight into the heavens and, upon reaching a great height, hovers there singing a joyful song, this bird is considered an emblem of glad prayers to the Creator inspired by the joys of being alive. He is believed to pray for the sowers of the wheat fields and, allegorically, for the sowers of Christ's fields. Its association with prayer makes this bird a symbol of the priesthood. In Scotland, it is said that the song of the lark may be understood by any person who lies quietly in the fields and listens to it. A British superstition states that drinking three lark's eggs will give one a beautiful singing voice. The singing lark is especially a symbol of the praying Christ as He ascends into Heaven, blessing His disciples (Lk 24:50-51; see also Acts 1;9; Mk 16:19). The Lark Ascending is a popular musical piece written in 1914 by the famous British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Featuring a prominent solo violin part, the composition is intended to convey the lyrical and almost eternally English beauty of the scene in which a skylark rises into the heavens above some sunny down and attains such height that it becomes barely visible to those on the ground below. The First World War halted composition, but the work was revised in 1920 and it was premièred under conductor Adrian Boult in 1921. |
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| Kate Bush – Pi Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Sing a Song of Sixpence Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing. Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king? The king was in his counting house, counting out his money. The queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey. The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes, When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose! The queen was in the studio eating bread and 'honey', while the King was in his counting house counting out his 'priceless junk'! Inspired by four and twenty 'blackbirds' (and of course her honey sand witch), she saw a vision of 'A Sea of Honey' and 'A Sky of Honey'! She was so excited, she made a dainty dish called 'Pi' and set this before 'Bertie', the 'King on top of the Mountain'. Meanwhile, 'Mrs Bartolozzi' was in the garden hanging out the clean laundry, when down came a blackbird and pinched the keyhole! The blackbird left behind a book on 'how to be invisible', but it was written in avian cipher, and took 12 years for Kate and 'Joanni' to decode! She set the translation to music on 'Aerial Tal' (though of course she sings it in cipher, much to the delight of Bertie!). 'Aerial' was released on 31-4-1592 and when everyone opened their Aerial Pie, the birds began to laugh and we all joined in! Kate celebrated with a double rye whiskey, which had been distilling for exactly 3.141592 years! Immediately, people hit on the idea that Pi contained far more than just four and twenty clocked blackbirds. They baked up conspiracy theories about steam trains and tarot cards. Was Kate really a golden dawn railway child or was she into the Qabbala? Geeks spent their spare time and loose change trying to become panoramic. Surely the answer must be somewhere in between sunset and nocturn? Or between 4 a.m. and 4 p.m.? Or perhaps it was all one big Architect's Dream, hidden under a veil of diamond dust, and as elusive as the Freemason's 'The Great Architect of the Universe'... |
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| Kate Bush – Pi Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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SUSPENDED IN PIE Pi chugs along like a steam train locomotive. Indeed, Pi is like a trainspotter's hem of anorak, with the blocks of digits representing carriage or wagon numbers! The 'three' (point) is sung like a whistle (as are other digits). And the tune lulls rather like a train journey. Infinity is symbolically represented as an horizonal eight. So maybe KaTe has an obsessive nature and deep fascination for Bertie's model railway. And the 'Pi' locomotive takes us to 'Bertie' ... Although KaTe sings the first 54 digits of Pi correctly, in the lyrics booklet it says "58231" instead of the sung "5820". What is the significance of the number 31? The central document of Thelema is 'Liber AL vel Legis', also known as The Book of the Law. The book is full of mystical references, allusions, statements of morality, and communications in cipher. Crowley and his protegé Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad) discovered that the number 31 was a numerological key which revealed hidden meanings therein. The founder of Golden Triangle Temple did numerological research in the late 1990s, building upon Crowley and Achad's work, and formulated a system of English Qabalah based upon 31, or "EQ31" for short. The EQ31 system does not claim a monopoly on the truths of English Qabalah within Thelema; however, it does produce some remarkable correspondences and insights, and in the founder's own life provided the prompting which led him to Work with T Allen Greenfield and to establish the Temple. 31 = AL (God, The All), LA (Not, Nothing), KHV (Magical Self), and HVK (To Go, the function of a God). The number 666 when translated into Hebrew letters is Mem, Samekh, Vav. These letters correspond with Atus 12, 14 and 5. 12+14+5=31. Note in this connection that Path 31 of the Qabalistic Tree of Life is the Path of the letter Shin, the special letter of 666. "In Hebrew "not" is LA, 31, and AL is God, 31, while there is a third 31 still deeplier hidden in the double letter ST, which is a graphic glyph of the sun and moon conjoined to look like a foreshortened Phallus, thus--when written in Greek capitals. This S or Sigma is like a phallus, thus, [Greek], when writ small ; and like a serpent or spermatozoon when writ final, thus, [Greek]. This T or Theta is the point in the circle, or phallus in the kteis, and also the Sun just as C is the Moon, male and female." THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS by The Beast 666 Himself http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/eoftg/eqotg7.html The number series 31-666-31 signifies "Alostrael," the magical name of Crowley's mistress, Leah Hirsig, the Scarlet Woman: "Alostrael, 31-666-31, the Scarlet Woman Lea my concubine, in whom is all power given, sworn unto Aiwaz, prostituted in every part of her body to Pan and to the Beast, mother of Bastards, aborter, whore to herself, to man, woman, child and brute, partaker of the Eucharist of the Excrements in the Mass of the Devil, Sorceress of the Rite of Esau and Jacob..." The Cephaloedium Working by Aleister Crowley http://www.inventati.org/amprodias/thelema/cephaloedium.htm |
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| Kate Bush – King of the Mountain Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The phrase 'King of the Mountain' reminds me of the children's nursery rhyme, 'I'm the king of the castle...' :) After his divorce in 1973, Presley became increasingly isolated, overweight and caught in a trap, with (prescription) drugs affecting his health, mood and his stage act. Maybe KB uses 'blurred diction' on KoTM to evoke the slurred later performances of Elvis... "So if an old friend I know (shove it up your nose)..." - Elvis Presley - Suspicious Mind (1970) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTYg2Q-vDJ0 Elvis also spoke of the hollowness of his Hollywood life, and revealed: "I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get and how empty I really feel." In Citizen Kane, when his second wife abandons him, Kane begins destroying her room. He grabs a snow globe and is about to throw it when he sees the falling snowflakes inside. The image of falling snow evokes involuntary memories in Kane. He remembers being sent away by his mother when it was snowing, making him utter "Rosebud" — another memory of the occasion. When the camera pans a scene of workers burning some of Kane’s less valuable possessions, in the fire is the sled that Kane was riding the day his mother sent him away. Painted on the sled is the name Rosebud... 'Rosebud' represents his lost life "before the beginning" - his childhood before an inheritance wrenched him away and changed everything forever... [In 1976 KB gets a small inheritance from an aunt, and decides to leave school to concentrate on preparing herself for a career in music. Effectively the money gave her the security to become her own boss and follow her own mind...] The second verse to KoTM is an analogy to the sort of rumors that Kate has experienced about herself over the last 15 years... HOLLY (reading to Kit from a movie fan magazine): "Rumor: Pat Boone is seriously considering giving up his career so he can return to school full-time and complete his education. Fact: Pat has told intimates that so long as things are going well for his career, it's the education that will have to take the back seat." KIT: I don't blame him. HOLLY: "Rumor: Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth are in love... Fact: True, but not with each other." (Kit chuckles at this, which pleases Holly.) - from Badlands (1973) KoTM is like a conversation with Elvis. I agree that the first verse looks at Elvis's funeral, his last concert. But KoTM also reminds me of 'Rocket's Tail'... It seems to tap into the negative and destructive side of fame; how it brings alienation and anomic disorientation (from fans and things) by failing to realize the life goals of the individual. Fame ought to mean satisfaction and achievement, but it can mean paranoid Suspicious Minds, loneliness, fear, emptiness, etc. And without meaning and purpose, there is only distress, hunger and junk... The chorus makes me think of a parallel, OK universe with Elvis, Kane or anyone, out there happy, before the fall of fame... :) "The wind is whistling Through the house... The wind it blows The wind it blows the door closed..." Finally, this is a far cry from the slamming doors of GOoMH! ... A gentle whistling wind has replaced the scream... The House seems exorcised of its ghosts... The 'Washing' photograph showing Elvis's famous white jumpsuit next to the Bertie cartoon accompany the lyrics to KOTM in the CD/Vinyl booklet remind me of the phrase, The King is dead. Long live the King! To promote KOTM, KB wore a KGB-style Russian winter red star hat. KB... KgB... Maybe another pun on her initials? |
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