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Post by tannis on Jul 1, 2008 15:04:02 GMT
I'm pretty sure "O Willow Waly" was composed especially for the film, and was intended to evoke the idea of a traditional song without actually being one. Oh, I think you're right... IMDb > The Innocents (1961) > Full cast and crew
Original Music by Georges Auric"Yet the elegant, serious tone begins with one of the most terrifying of all film openings: a blacked-out screen as the children sing-song a folk tune by George Auric with neomedieval lyrics by Paul Dehn." www.bohemian.com/metro/11.09.05/innocents-0545.htmlIsla Cameron (b. about 1930 – d. 1980) was a Scottish actress and singer. Her most memorable cinematic moment was in 1961 in the spooky thriller The Innocents where she imitated a child’s voice and sang the traditional song “Oh, Willow Waly”. The composer Georges Auric incorporated her singing into the orchestral soundtrack. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Cameron
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Post by Barry SR Gowing on Jul 2, 2008 19:52:35 GMT
The word I was talking about was not an adverb "wildly" - which wouldn't make sense - but an adjective, "wildy" (it's one letter shorter). I agree. I've never been very happy with "wiley". However, as much as I like the idea of "wildy" or even "windy" I think it must be "wily". I've listened very carefully to both versions of the song and she almost certainly is singing "wily". What I suspect is that she originally wrote: Out on the wild and windy moorsand then decided that "wild and windy" was a bit cliched... --Paul--
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Post by tannis on Jul 2, 2008 22:34:18 GMT
Wuthering Heights by Sylvia Plath, September 1961
The horizons ring me like faggots, Tilted and disparate, and always unstable. Touched by a match, they might warm me, And their fine lines singe The air to orange Before the distances they pin evaporate, Weighting the pale sky with a soldier color. But they only dissolve and dissolve Like a series of promises, as I step forward.
There is no life higher than the grasstops Or the hearts of sheep, and the wind Pours by like destiny, bending Everything in one direction. I can feel it trying To funnel my heat away. If I pay the roots of the heather Too close attention, they will invite me To whiten my bones among them.
The sheep know where they are, Browsing in their dirty wool-clouds, Grey as the weather. The black slots of their pupils take me in. It is like being mailed into space, A thin, silly message. They stand about in grandmotherly disguise, All wig curls and yellow teeth And hard, marbly baas.
I come to wheel ruts, and water Limpid as the solitudes That flee through my fingers. Hollow doorsteps go from grass to grass; Lintel and sill have unhinged themselves. Of people the air only Remembers a few odd syllables. It rehearses them moaningly: Black stone, black stone.
The sky leans on me, me, the one upright Among the horizontals. The grass is beating its head distractedly. It is too delicate For a life in such company; Darkness terrifies it. Now, in valleys narrow And black as purses, the house lights Gleam like small change.
The Yorkshire moorland evokes drama, menace and alienation. Plath's Wuthering Heights is disturbing, visceral writing. A vivid poem of place in which the landscape and the poet merge into one, as if Plath is invoking the moorland world purely to reflect her own state of mind, as she claims the landscape as her own. There's menace lurking behind every rock and tree, or a challenge she must live up to. With a touch of the occult, a taste of the supernatural, she draws deeply on the ghostly folklore tradition of the moors. As her relationship with the moors develop, she increasingly brings more of herself into the poems that she writes about them. Exploring the atmosphere and light, making the landscape surreal, beautiful and terrifying, with Gothick sensibilities and iconic statements. With Wuthering Heights, Plath has the confidence to take the title of Bronte's novel to tell her own story. Rooting into her own subconscious for exactly the right image to express an emotion and humor. A poem bringing the landscape to vital life. At the end of Wuthering Heights, Plath stays on the high ground, a victory, powerfully claiming the landscape as her own. Plath must have rated her Wuthering Heights highly, as she made the poem the opening of Crossing The Water (first published in book-form in 1971).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).In the 60's, Myra Hindley and lover Ian Brady abducted and murdered several small children in and around Manchester. They buried several bodies on Saddleworth Moor, north of Manchester; when they were found out, the case became known as the Moors Murders.Steven Patrick Morrissey was the same age as several of the victims, like Lesley Anne Downey and John Kilbride. In interviews years later, he revealed the deep impression the murders had left on him as a child - a feeling of an intense malevolent spirit around Manchester that never really left him. This experience was to turn into the lyrics for this evocative and highly moving song, with surely the best lyrics on the first album. The image of the children's ghosts clamouring to be buried in the Moors, their promise of retribution, and the stern reminder "Manchester, so much to answer for" all add to the deep sadness of this tune, backed by Marr's plaintive guitar parts. Months after the release of "The Smiths", a relative of the murdered John Kilbride heard this song on a jukebox in a pub. Incensed by what he saw as a taking advantage of the murders, a chance hearing caused yet another scandal to hinder the rising career of The Smiths. After several communications from Morrissey himself, the relatives soon realised the sincerity of the song. In its early stages, this song was titled "Over The Moors"...www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~moz/lyrics/thesmith/sufferli.htmSuffer Little Childrenwww.youtube.com/watch?v=7bLJxoR1tH4In some respects, "Suffer Little Children" is a song in the classic tradition of the elegiac folk ballad — a commemoration of the dead drawing on actual remembered events in the life of the singer and his community. In the song's lyrics, three of the Moors victims are named. The lyrics also mention Myra Hindley by name and quote her statement to the police at the time of her arrest. Morrissey even assumes the collective voice of the murdered children themselves. In 1987, Johnny Marr told The South Bank Show that this was the first lyric Morrissey gave him after agreeing to Marr's proposal that they should collaborate (as such, it can be considered the first Smiths song). The song was only played live once, at The Smiths' first gig, The Ritz, 4th October 1982. Why "The Smiths"? Some say that the group's name comes from Myra Hindley's brother-in-law David Smith, who had married Myra's younger sister Maureen in August, 1964. It was "The Smiths" who told the police about the identity of the Moors Murderers. "Do you really like Kate Bush? I'm not surprised. The nicest thing I could say about her is that she's unbearable. That voice! Such trash! You'll learn, Sonny." ~ Steven Morrissey to Robert Mackie, 13 October 1980.[/b][/color] torr.typepad.com/weblog/2008/01/moz-penpal-lett.html
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Post by ketman on Jul 3, 2008 17:50:43 GMT
Since the song dates from the period before her first album, I suspect she was a bit vague with lyrics. I think she chose a word like "wily" , knowing it was wrong, but liking it for its sound, and thinking, I'll change it later. Then forgot about it... And in due course it found its way onto the record, and once it was out in the public domain, it was too late. She was stuck with it.
I'm only familiar with a small fraction of the total Bush output as yet, but amongst the songs I've got to know there are many lines, turns of phrase, metaphors or images that I could take issue with. But I don't know of any later song where there is a word that is so manifestly wrong as "wily". I think she was a lot more careful after that.
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Post by tannis on Jul 3, 2008 23:25:40 GMT
KaTe wrote 'Wuthering Heights' in March 1977. And in August 1977, was called in to record material for an album. KB: "Well, I wrote [Wuthering Heights] in my flat, sitting at the upright piano one night in March... I felt a particular want to write it, and had wanted to write it for quite a while. I remember my brother John talking about the story, but I couldn't relate to it enough. So I borrowed the book and read a few pages, picking out a few lines. So I actually wrote the song before I had read the book right through. The name Cathy helped, and made it easier to project my own feelings of want for someone so much that you hate them. I could understand how Cathy felt..." Kate's KBC article, Issue 1 (January 1979), "Kate's Songs"[/b] gaffa.org/garden/kate1.htmlThe original release date for 'Wuthering Heights' was November 4, 1977, and around this time many promo copies of the single were sent out to radio producers. So, though the release date got postponed, 'Wuthering Heights' became an airplay hit two months before its official release on January 20, 1978.
The song opens with Cathy's Ghost "out", outside, calling Heathcliff from the moors; and Heathcliff is maddened by the wily, windy presence. IMHO, on the metaphoric and mood level, I think 'wily' also evokes and taps into many of the themes and characters of Brontë's Wuthering Heights...Theme 1: Love gone wrong. Relationships in Wuthering Heights are like the moors: dark, stormy, twisted. Cathy loves Heathcliff but marries Edgar Linton. Heathcliff loves Cathy but marries Isabella Linton. Mr. Earnshaw loves his adopted son, Heathcliff, better than his biological son, Hindley, causing Hindley to despise Heathcliff. Linton and young Cathy are forced to marry. Theme 2: Cruelty begets cruelty. Hindley’s maltreatment of Heathcliff helps turn the latter into a vengeful monster. In developing this theme, Emily Bronte is ahead of her time, demonstrating that suffering abuse as a child can lead to inflicting abuse as an adult. Theme 3: Revenge. Heathcliff’s desire to get even against all who wronged him is at times so strong that it subverts his other emotions, including love. Theme 4: Lure of Success and Social Standing. Cathy marries Edgar after becoming infatuated with his image as a cultured gentleman with wealth enough to meet her every need. Isabella marries Heathcliff after becoming infatuated with an idealized, romantic image of him. Theme 5: Class distinctions. Heathcliff’s fury erupts after Cathy decides to marry “up” into the world of the Lintons, and not down into the world of Heathcliff. Theme 6: Fate. The entire novel depends on the forces unleashed when Mr. Earnshaw happens upon an orphan child, Heathcliff, on a street in Liverpool and returns with him to Wuthering Heights. Theme 7: Prejudice. The upper crust, the Lintons, look down upon the lower crust, Heathcliff and his kind. Theme 8: The moors as a reflection of life around them (or vice versa) and life beyond. The dark, stormy moors–where only low-growing plants such as heather thrive–symbolize the passionate and sometimes perverted emotional lives of the residents of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. In the gloomy wasteland, the Yorkshire folk, including Heathcliff himself, sometimes report seeing ghosts of people buried in the moors. www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html#wuthering
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Post by tannis on Jul 4, 2008 16:22:16 GMT
CATHY: "And yet, he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. Linton's is as different as frost from fire. My one thought in living is Heathcliff. Ellen, I am Heathcliff!"
CATHY: "I told you, Ellen, when he went away, that night in the rain-- I told you I belonged to him, that he was my life, my being... It's true. It's true. I'm yours, Heathcliff. I've never been anyone else's... Take me to the window. Let me look at the moors with you once more. My darling! ... How beautiful the day is... Can you see the crag... over there where our castle is? I'll wait for you... till you come..."
HEATHCLIFF: "Leave her alone. She's mine. She's mine."
HEATHCLIFF: "Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest so long as I live on. I killed you. Haunt me, then. Haunt your murderer. I know that ghosts have wandered on the earth. Be with me always. Take any form. Drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this dark alone, where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life. I cannot die without my soul..." NELLY: "I can still see and hear that wild hour... Poor Heathcliff trying to tear away the veil between death and life... crying out to Cathy's soul... to haunt him and torment him... till he died."
~ Wuthering Heights (1939)Out on the wiley, windy moors We'd roll and fall in green You had a temper like my jealousy Too hot, too greedy How could you leave me When I needed to possess you? I hated you. I loved you, too...
Ooh, it gets dark! It gets lonely On the other side from you I pine a lot. I find the lot Falls through without you I'm coming back, love..."Nelly, I AM Heathcliff!" ... IMHO, much of KaTe's song could have been written from the perspective of both Cathy and Heathcliff. It is striking how KaTe's lyrics entwine them, twisting their spirits into a true lover's knot... Indeed, in Ch. 29, Heathcliff has the gravedigger open Catherine's coffin and, desperate to be with her in death, Heathcliff knocks out one side of her coffin, with the instructions that one side of his be knocked out too, so that they might lie together for eternity. By the end of the novel, Nelly wonders if he is human or monster.
And in many ways, KaTe's song reflects Heathcliff's deranged and twisted mind. Surely it is Heathcliff's very own conscience - projected Out on the wily, windy moors - which is haunting him relentlessly...see the film: Wuthering heights Part 1www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC9Ghp9os2E&feature=relatedKate Bush - Wuthering Heights (Live) 1/3www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhU6IP5OVIThe fourth of at least five Top of the Pops performances of "Wuthering Heights".Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT4OOdTPcIwKate Bush being weird and performing Wuthering Heights. Feb/April 1978.
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Post by tannis on Mar 29, 2009 14:45:09 GMT
Matt Berry Interview
He may be best known for his comedy roles in the Channel Four hit series The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place, Snuff Box and The Mighty Boosh, but Matt Berry is also an accomplished musician. On the release of his third album, Contact Music caught up with the man himself on a sunny afternoon in a Soho pub in order to gain a first-hand insight into his blossoming music career.
And what about the album itself? Unlike Opium, which was extremely dark and was based around the 'horrors of the city'-covering subjects such as decadence and debauchery, drugs and sex-Witchazel, although still dark, is about the horrors of the country. 'But it's not just horrors, its kind of melancholic horrors of the country' he explains. In fact he described it on 6 Music as sounding like 'folk from 1978', and the inspiration for the album came from a childhood experience. 'One of the most memorable and frightening things when I was four or five was Kate Bush doing Wuthering Heights. She did it outside, in a forest and she did this thing where she looked straight into the camera and it's the most frightening thing for a kid to see, but it just stuck in my head'. He adds 'I thought the countryside was full of sexy witches like that, and that's what I wanted to base it on'!www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/interview/matt-berryx24x03x09Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights - High Quality www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxZiDQ6Iw5s ~ The Red Dress Version...
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Post by tannis on Aug 1, 2009 17:27:17 GMT
The Kate Bush Mysteries: "Witch Bush" or "Mistress of Arcane Knowledge"The Kate Bush Mysteries argues that the vegetarian Kate Bush is not a serious practitioner of witchcraft, astrology, or UFO skywatching, and that the KT sign has no basis in Knights Templar reality. Rather, the article 'exposes' Kate as a modest (but still notable) explorer of "New Age" ideas – with mundane and artistic concerns seemingly holding more importance and significance for her. The article seems premised on the idea that were Kate seriously interested in UFOs, witchcraft and the paranormal, etc. then these themes would predominate her song-writing and interview content. Its target audience seems to be those who persistently credit Kate with links to Crowley, Blavatsky, Freemasonry, Sex Magick, the Sirius system, and the Unexplained. However, the article fails to consider aerial alchemy, the KT sign at Garway Church, Golden Dawn Productions, KaTe's extra sensory perception, Carrie's telekinesis, and Lord Summerisle's Morris dancing... WITCH BUSH www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv0azq9GF_g Kate Bush, "Wuthering Heights", the White Dress version (1978).
WITCH HAZEL www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZzfM05tSfM Mama Cass Elliot, "Different", from Pufnstuf (1970)
WITCHIEPOO & BOSS WITCH www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6yWquSNNjs The Witches Convention, "Zap The World", from Pufnstuf (1970)Why do you always move your eyes right and left in your videos? It is very pleasant to watch, but it intrigues me. What is the idea behind it? KB: "I have to watch out for any demons that might be creeping up on me, and video shoots attract so many of them that I have to keep an extra eye out in case they trip me up while we're going for a take. You've seen what happens to Faith Brown because she doesn't look out for them." [Kate's referring to Brown's parody of her Wuthering Heights video, in which Brown trips and falls.] Kate's KBC article Issue 16gaffa.org/garden/kate18.html"Creepy Carrie! Creepy Carrie!" www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJe0iVo8y3A "If I concentrate hard enough, I can move things..." The original 1976 trailer for the film "Carrie" directed by Brian De Palma and starring Sissy Spacek.wickerman 1973 part 8 of 10 www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjeMQUaj6YU&feature=related ...7:48: "Play the fool! That's what you're here for!" ~ with Lindsay Kemp and Edward Woodward. On the other side from you...Although associated with an extensive and varied artistic output, Kate Bush is eternally linked in the public consciousness with the white-robed ghost of Catherine (“Cathy”) Earnshaw; featured in a now iconic promotional video made for her 1978 hit single “Wuthering Heights” (TKI & TWS). The “White Dress Cathy” video did not come immediately unbidden from Kate Bush’s psyche. Her first ever televised appearance (in a German TV programme called Bio’s Bahnholf broadcast on the 9th February 1978) featured Bush performing “Wuthering Heights” in a red dress. On the 16th February 1978 Bush made her first BBC1 Top of the Tops studio appearance wearing normal attire; but she subsequently did an encore performance of “Wuthering Heights” in March 1978 wearing a black gypsy-style outfit. But in regard to general cultural reference this song is mainly associated with two official promotional videos, both believed to have been directed by Keith (or “Keef”) Macmillian. The first depicted Bush dancing in a red dress within an open countryside setting; however, Bush was somehow dissatisfied with it and decided to shoot another version. This resulted in the now iconic "white dress" video, filmed in a darkened studio setting utilising dry ice smog and blur-motion special effects to emphasise the song’s supernatural aspect. In probably what must rank (with hindsight) as one of her most fateful decisions, Kate Bush reportedly acquired a white Victorian nightgown from a London antique shop for the purpose; the video depicting her dancing and miming in this attire. This second version was chosen as the main promotional video for “Wuthering Heights” – hence was a visual legend of contemporary U.K music born… (6). “Wuthering Heights” subsequently reached number 1 in the UK charts in March 1978; retaining that position for four weeks. The song’s main promotional video also acquired a hold on the public imagination - which consequentially resulted in the “White Dress Cathy” becoming synonymous with Kate Bush (and the target of numerous parodies, notably by the impressionist Faith Brown (4)). Bush herself acknowledged she had created an enduring cultural icon by stating in one interview that “Cathy will live on as a force...” (5).
As she did; resulting in Bush and her “Cathy” character becoming admixed within the popular psyche as an “ethereal hippy”. Eventually, other factors were soon added to this conceptual brew. Bush’s public mystique was reinforced from the 1990’s onwards by media claims of her increasingly adopting a retiring – even reclusive – demeanour. It should be noted, however that even from the outset of her career Kate Bush expressed a desire for privacy and unease towards excessive fan adoration (7); it is therefore tempting to suspect the press increasingly exaggerated this aspect to create an “angle” for news stories regarding her. Indeed, this conception reached its nadir in 1996 with the Sunday Mirror penning a story alleging she had changed her name to “Katherine Earnshaw” and was supposedly living in a state of self-enforced isolation (7). Although this spurious story was quickly rebutted by the artist still known as Kate Bush(!), such preconceptions sadly persists to this day; as represented by the 2008 comedy short “Kate Bush and the Gas Man” (8) posted on Youtube. This three minute sketch depicts a white-clad Mrs. Haversham-like character living in the wildwood, comically reflecting the various bogus allegations made about the actual Kate Bush over the past three decades. Similar claims surfaced in the late 2000’s regarding a dispute over access to a beach and two lanes passing close to her property in South Devon; where (once again) the media depicted her as a recluse obsessed with her privacy and security. And, once again, the Daily Mail’s headline for this particular story- “The Battle for Wuthering Heights” - evoked the ghost of Cathy (8).
This concern for her personal space should again be placed in context- Bush having unfortunately suffered from notable repeated intrusion from journalists, “fans” and (possibly) persistent stalkers (8). In stark contrast to her public image as a pre-Raphaelite “hippy chick”, the actual Kate Bush is (in actuality) a contemporary-minded individual enjoying a normal personal and family life; a person who has exhibited a notable degree of canny business acumen during her long career (12). Furthermore, rather than being overtly preoccupied with the role of “Cathy”, this persona represents only one character among many she has depicted over the years, which she only reportedly encountered through incidentally watching the last part of the 1938 movie (or in some versions the 1972 BBC adaptation) of “Wuthering Heights” on television – either in the UK or Canada. (13). It is thus evident that not only Brontë’s Heathcliffe has been haunted by Cathy’s spectral presence...
This preconception reflects the general public’s perennial inability to separate “performer” from “performance” bedevilling other individuals within the arts – in all likelihood tragically so in the instance of George Reeves, who even in death was labelled as “T.V’s Superman….” (9). Bush has utilised the medium of drama to present her music since the inception of her career. There are hints of this approach even in Bush’s childhood, as indicated by pictures taken by her brother (the poet and photographer John Carder Bush) depicting her posing in various costumes (10). Prior to “Wuthering Heights” musicians generally represented themselves during public recitals; David Bowie and his 1972 “Ziggy Stardust” concept album persona being a notable exception (11). The most notable irony of all is that the ghost of Cathy is never explicitly seen in Emily Brontë’s original 1847 book, outside of fantasies, inference or rumours; only directly manifesting once within a dream-like experience in the form of a child (14). Hence, Bush’s “Cathy” represents a unique interpretation of this character – one which, ironically, has inspired later adaptations!
It is significant to note that Kate Bush’s famous high-pitched vocalisation utilised within “Wuthering Heights” was deliberate, intended to reflect the impression that she was depicting a spectre (5). It is therefore tempting to speculate whether this interpretation of “Cathy” was possibly influenced by Banshee legends known to the Irish side of her family. This concept was indeed seemingly known to her; one song - “Violin” (NFE) - referencing the word “Banshee” within its lyrics; which Bush performed for the 1979 BBC Kate Bush Christmas Special in a black costume with bat-like “wings” (5). The LP back album cover for NFE also shows Bush in a similar costume; in this instance more overtly depicted as a flying “bat-woman”.
Forteans could further speculate whether tales of spectral white ladies from folklore also played a part in forming this persona; Bush being fond of telling ghost stories when a teenager (and whose childhood home was reputedly haunted by the ghost of a Victorian serving-maid (15)). In any event Bush’s “Cathy” has at least provided a cultural stereotype for such apparitions since [at least] 1978!...
The “white dress” Wuthering Heights video - although intended to depict the ghost of Brontë’s “Cathy” – was seemingly interpreted as witch-figure by some; an image which (thanks to the “George Reeves effect”) some falsely took to reflect Bush’s actual nature. Today, the same situation seems to repeating itself on Youtube in regard to a later generation of viewers (66). This erroneous inference may have been reinforced by Bush’s earlier music video dance performances, which sometimes featured miming gestures suggestive of enchantment and mesmerism (67). Furthermore, it is also not uncommon for women who project a self-confident/sensual image to be labelled a “witch” even within “progressive” modern Western societies. Nonetheless, her (once vocal) interest in paranormal and “new age” topics aside, there is no objective basis for this perception; Bush appearing in various interviews as a modern, progressive individual with mundane concerns, mainly focused on perfecting her “art”. Furthermore - in comparison the abundance of Christian imagery cited earlier - overt references to the “occult” are generally absent from Bush’s musical output prior to 1993 [see "Lily"] . “Waking the Witch” (HOL) - depicts the past life memory of a woman seemingly condemned for witchcraft and undergoing the “swimming” ordeal. However, it contains nothing of esoteric significance and is doubtless inspired by media accounts of Early Modern witch trials.Kate Bush and the Gas Man www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xnlZLqne8
Kate Bush Wuthering Heights www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3gKKiTvjs The "Red Dress" version.
Kate Bush-Wuthering Heights www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv0azq9GF_g The "White Dress" version.see more: Confess to me, girl... katebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=leaveitopen&thread=1998&page=6 The Delta Project ~ "THE KATE BUSH MYSTERIES: FACT OR FICTION?"www.deltapro.co.uk/katebushm.pdf
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Post by tannis on Nov 11, 2009 22:27:21 GMT
Kate Bush - The Whole Story.
In the late 1970s, not only was Bush unusual for the wide range of vocal pitch, barely approached never mind highlighted in regular pop music records, but also the accompanying movements to her singing were drawn not from conventional disco routines, but from a more experimental expressive base. Her extremes of vocal delivery, dramatic facial expression, and repetitious expansive movements occasioned much parody at the time. Her presentation of the song, which earnestly seeks to conjoin word, movement, sound, and sentiment, appears perhaps a little too literal for present day tastes, experienced in reading a multitude of simultaneous and disjunctive images. Nevertheless, Bush was an innovator of note in her attempt to communicate the concept of a song, to an audience outside the traditional domain of musical theatre, through the personal performance of a visual and aural holistic spectacle.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS as presented on the 1986 compilation, THE WHOLE STORY is essentially a video version of a stage performance, using effects of duplicate and inverted mirror images, tricks of colour changes, and strobing to complement the sense of otherworldliness inherent in the subject. Cathy's ghost is remarkably agile, as she cartwheels and spins in slow motion, trailing multiple images of outstretched legs and arms across the screen in the instrumental sections. Soft focus and dry ice heighten our cultural reading of this slender girl-like figure, in gauzy long white dress, with untamed long dark hair, as a spectre with the same Romantic pedigree as Gautier's Wilis in GISELLE. Bush's movements, although not strictly from the classical ballet canon, owe more to this European tradition of lyricism, augmented with expressive actions from a Grahamesque influence, than to the popular Afro-American derived vernacular of jazz dance.
Similar sources of movement vocabulary and compositional structuring can be viewed in THE MAN WITH THE CHILD IN HIS EYES (1978) in which Bush selects a limited amount of material, to be repeated in tandem with chorus and verse. Arguably, this somewhat predictable marrying of musical and choreological structure at this level enables the audience to focus on the song's lyrics, suggesting the singing subject's recurrent fascination with the object of the song's title. As viewers, we are invited to view Bush as a secretive yet knowing girl child, beginning and concluding in foetal position, who draws and lulls us into her confidences. The camera moves us in from the initial overhead shot, into a close-up of Bush's face, made-up as innocent temptress, eyes appealing yet canny, as she addresses us in an intimate yet knowing way. The soothing long rounded sound of the opening of the chorus is echoed in the movement, as both arms draw a half-circle outwards from her body, as if casting a spell. 'He's here again' she croons, as seated on the floor, she gently arches forward and backwards, pulsating softly to the syncopation of the strings, before looking, enticingly yet vulnerably out from a close-up, singing with soft emphasis, The Man with the Child in his Eyes'. Singing subject and object of the song blur, as she takes on characteristics referred to in the words, expressing them through the colour of her voice, her wide open and, occasionally dreamy, eyes, and through the seemingly unselfconscious, yet intimate, movements circling her body. Tight camera shots of the primarily static choice of position from which to address us augment the sense of intimacy and voyeuristic pleasure we derive from being told emotional secrets.
The choice of a duet to visualise RUNNING UP THAT HILL (1985) reveals Bush in her most dancerly mode on this video compilation. A heterosexual emotional relationship is played out through the movement, in a style reminiscent of London Contemporary Dance Theatre during the 1970s. RUNNING UP THAT HILL commences in hazy purple light with a female hand reaching directly out to grasp a man's neck. As he rhythmically rocks his head, jerkily from side to side, the beat begins. The shadowy features of this man are succeeded by the inverted face of Bush, eyes closed, and the camera pulls slightly back to reveal her, in a descending wrap around the man's body. From a low cradling position, he lifts her as she sings 'It doesn't hurt me - do you want feel how it feels' before she reaches out with spread fingers, away from engagement with the man. Once again, Bush takes the protagonist's role, interpreting the situation and emotional sense of the lyrics, through movement and spatial relationships, enhanced by the camera shots and lighting which directly focus the viewer's gaze. The man appears either in shadow, with his back to us, behind Bush, or with his face averted from her and from us. Through such means, the viewer is manipulated to concentrate on the 'I' of the song, the difficulties of the relationship are expressed through this woman's point of view. The choice of full-length baggy culottes over dance leotards attempts to lessen the specificities of time and place with regard to the two actors, alerting the viewer to focus on the essence of their relationship, aside from any contextual factors.
Unlike the other tracks on the video, Bush does not lipsynchronise the lyrics, with the result that the visual content of the video appears more as a reflective and stylised expression of a persona relationship. Unusually then, the treatment of the star's role in this video operates outside the usual conventions of popular musical theatre, where the bodily production of movement and words are perceived as congruent. Instead the foregrounding of the movement together with a costume, designed to facilitate ease of action rather than specify a social time and context, orientate the video more towards the conventions of twentieth century Western dance theatre as an art, rather than popular commodity.
When Bush employs dance movement in her later video collection, THE SENSUAL WORLD (1990), she again draws from a lyrical, expressive base in her interpretation of the title song. In LOVE AND ANGER (1989), she turns to the world of classical dance, as an emotionally passive corps de ballet, almost lifted from a white act of SWAN LAKE, merely provide a background of a visual, vertical, in what appears to be a TV studio. Bush's eclectic theatricality, crossing the worlds of mime, art dance, musical, and opera with pop music, contrasts sharply with the dance vision of most American music videos of the 1980s.
from Parallel Lines: Media Representations of Dance, Stephanie Jordan, Dave Allen (1993, pp.58-60).
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Kris
Under Ice
Posts: 43
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Post by Kris on Sept 9, 2012 8:46:09 GMT
This is going to annoy a lot of people, and before I state this opinion, I must say, I WORSHIP ALL VERSIONS OF THIS SONG. I love the original version on, The Kick Inside with all my life. My prefer the "new vocal" version on This Woman's Work. Both incarnations of the song are genius.
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Post by gentlemangaga on Sept 9, 2012 13:22:28 GMT
I amannoyes!!! very (well I didn't intentionally grammatize it like that... new keyboard. Anyway, I prefer the original piercing vocals... but cest la vie!
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Kris
Under Ice
Posts: 43
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Post by Kris on Sept 9, 2012 22:20:50 GMT
I amannoyes!!! very (well I didn't intentionally grammatize it like that... new keyboard. Anyway, I prefer the original piercing vocals... but cest la vie! It seems most people prefer the original. I only like the new vocal version just slightly better. It depends on the day, which version I listen to.
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Post by thenutbar44 on Sept 20, 2012 21:46:53 GMT
I have to say I like the original version best. Not to say I don't like the new vocal version, I do. I call it the 80's heavy metal version.LOL
I love her young high piercing voice on those early albums. It's all I listen to really.
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Kris
Under Ice
Posts: 43
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Post by Kris on Sept 21, 2012 4:30:21 GMT
I do. I call it the 80's heavy metal version.LOL Hahah, that is a good name for it. Like I said, both versions to me are flawless, but most prefer the original. Honestly, I love Kate's high soprano, as well as her lower work. It's all one big masterpiece!
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