| Kate Bush – Watching You Without Me Lyrics | 24 years ago |
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I remember reading once that, when Kate was quite young, her mother had a spell of some sort. When Mrs. Bush recovered, she related that she had something of an out-of-body experience. I can only imagine that this had a certain significance for young Kate, and, for me, it does seem to shed a certain light on what this song means. Unfortunately, the lyric foundation of this song, though telling and supportive, in many ways, of why I related the story about Kate's mother, is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of providing clues to the songs overall meaning. To really appreciate the song, one MUST hear it. Kate does an incredible job of aurally recreating a place between here and there, a space in between moments, a whole land/seascape wedged in the crack between one half-spoken word and the next. And how like Kate Bush to set the simple but powerful act of reaching out to and reassuring a loved one from "the beyond" against a mind-bending backdrop of backmasking, sampling, and world-music (Javanese gamelan), of sorts. "The medium roams and rambles..." delightfully, IMHO... |
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| Kate Bush – Oh to Be in Love Lyrics | 24 years ago |
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The meaning is plain: Kate is exulting the state of being in love. I find this song to be rapturous, and I particularly love the various aspects of physical and temporal transition in it, going from one state to another, not just shifting across the floor but from the past to the present and the potential of the future even if it is by way of "slipping into tomorrow too quick." Interesting that the clock has to stop in order to let the singer and the singer's loved one to another place vaguely defined--by time? by geography? by...? A hallmark of this song is the chanting male backing vocals. I'm thinking that this was the first time Kate used this variety of bvs but not the last, see also "Kashka From Baghdad," "All We Ever Look For," "Pull Out the Pin," etc. There is something very "olde" about this male chanting, and I wonder if it is a vestige of Roman Catholic liturgical chanting rearing up out of Kate's past. Just a speculation, IMHO... |
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| Kate Bush – In Search of Peter Pan Lyrics | 24 years ago |
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For me, this is a song about the fear of making the transition from childhood to adulthood in tact and as a person who was "raised right (correctly)." The real fear here seems to be one of not outgrowing those things which make us charmingly child-like when we are young but tragically childish when we're adults such as neediness and vanity. When one considers how young Kate was when she wrote this song (15-20 years old?), and particularly when one compares it to the likes of so many unnameable "chanteuses" very popular today, it is really astounding in its depth and insight. Haunting, eerie, whimsical, lilting, tragic, and secretive all at once...it seems to tie into the cover photo of LIONHEART very directly. IMHO... |
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| Kate Bush – Big Stripey Lie Lyrics | 24 years ago |
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This is one of those songs that will, ultimately, prove very difficult to cover by another artist as it is, in a way, the kind of song that only Kate Bush could create. Does that make sense? Anyhow... As for the meaning, it appears that it might be about...hmm...I just don't know. It is certainly filled with thought provoking concepts, images, etc., but it seems to be more concerned with creating an overall mood, of despair, loss, wanting, fear, loathing, than anything else. "Big Stripey Lie" is one of my favorite Kate Bush songs, but mostly because it challenges me so much. Actually, the entire song reminds me of an acid trip. On one hand, I feel that, by saying that, I'm diminishing the song to the level of, "Wow, man, that's a freaky song"; but, in another sense, I do feel that, with her references to the activities of preternatural agents, loose animals, and that "big, stripey lie" which, for some reason, becomes a big, stripey line similar to those that I "saw" in the acid trips of my realm of experience, I might not be too far off the mark. Also, regardless of what the official lyric sheet says about this song, I know that I hear, "Evil can be good for you!" IMHO... |
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| Kate Bush – Suspended in Gaffa Lyrics | 24 years ago |
| For me, the meaning of this song is similar to that of "All We Ever Look For"--see comments. However, it seems here that Kate's search here is for something more specific like the path to the Beatific Vision. Of course, I'm reading into this greatly; but that is part of the fun of listening to Kate's work. I remember reading once an interview in which Kate mentioned something about this song and the experience that one might have of looking up at the clouds and seeing God peeping through--"I thought I caught a glimpse of God all shiny and bright..." Also, this is one of my favorite Kate videos--who else would wear a straight-jacket/fencing outfit, dance around in a wind-tossed stable, and drift into outer space all in one promo? She's barking mad and brilliant! IMHO... | |
| Kate Bush – All We Ever Look For Lyrics | 24 years ago |
| I think the meaning of this song is quite obvious; however, I truly think that the search for that which makes ones life meaningful has never been expressed in such a lovely way. Tackling the ineffable seems to be what Kate does best, and here, against a background of western and eastern music, motifs, clever sampling, etc., she truly shines. I love this period of Kate's creative output for all its experimentation, fey whimsy and humor--the "fairy voices" in this song "hit me in a soft spot!"--and just the faintest hint of something being out of whack, twisted, very much askew. JMHO... | |
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