Houdini Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Theresa_Gionoffrio 

Cover art for Houdini lyrics by Kate Bush

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