James And The Cold Gun

[Admin]

James, come on home
You've been gone too long, baby
We can't let our hero
Die alone

We miss you day and night
You left town to live by the rifle
You left us to fight
But it just ain't right to take away the light

Remember Genie from the casino?
She's still a-waiting in that big brass bed
The boys from your gang are knocking whisky back
'Til they get out of hand and wish they were dead
They're only lonely for the life that they led
With their old friend

Ooh, James, are you selling your soul to a cold gun?
Selling your soul to a
Ooh, James, are you selling your soul to a cold gun?

Where lies your heart?
It's not there in the buckskin, baby
It's not there in the gin
That makes you laugh long and loud

You're a coward, James
You're running away from humanity
You're running away from reality
It won't be funny when they rat-a-tat-tat you down

Remember Genie from the casino?
She's still a-waiting in that big brass bed
The boys from your gang are knocking whisky back
'Til they get out of hand and wish they were dead
They're only lonely for the life that they led
With their old friend

Ooh, James, are you selling your soul to a cold gun?
Selling your soul to a
Ooh, James, are you selling your soul to a cold gun?

[mizzshy]

I wonder why "James" is running away...

[paul1574]

isnt this song about the outlaw Jesse James ?

references to 'his' gang (the james-younger gang)

references to a prostitute (Genie) waiting in a casino as was the practice then in saloons

the cold gun a reference to murder in cold blood? etc etc

the life that they led refers to life during/before the american civil war?

any thoughts ?

[Al Truest]

paul1574 said:

isnt this song about the outlaw Jesse James ?

references to 'his' gang (the james-younger gang)

references to a prostitute (Genie) waiting in a casino as was the practice then in saloons

the cold gun a reference to murder in cold blood? etc etc

the life that they led refers to life during/before the american civil war?

any thoughts ?

Let me give this more thought. I always assumed it was about Jesse James and his gang. But in that I never really cared for this song outside the visuals afforded by her skin-tight leotard get-up in the Hammersmith video ; I did not persue the lyrical content to any extent. I do know that EMI wanted it as the first single. Kate won the battle and ultimately the control and direction of her carreer, for the most part, from then on. Still I consider it more of a pop song than most of her other work.

[mizzshy]

Actually, Jesse James would make sense...

[tannis]

KB: "For instance, I really like guns. Not what they do, but detach them from their purpose and they're... fantastic, beautiful. And yet, they're designed to kill which is against everything I believe in."
She talked with relish about the gun used by the assassin in 'The Day Of The Jackal' and with fascinated horror about dum-dum bullets (she was well up on the technical details):
KB: "How someone can even think about lining a bullet with mercury so that it rips another human apart is incredible. I'd never shoot anything living at all. I was always given dolls when I was a little girl of course, so maybe if they had given me guns I wouldn't have had this thing. Unless I'm trying to get back at all these people shooting me..."
She looked at Mike and he countered with an astute enquiry about the routine she did on stage with 'James and the Cold Gun' which produced the much used stills showing her licking the rifle barrel and firing from the crotch, raw phallic gestures. She skipped around that for a moment though.
KB: "I was brought up on movies: love, revenge, and death. Violence when used correctly can be a brilliant instrument in entertainment. Or it can be disgusting. Normally in 'James' we used bits of red felt to represent blood, but one night we used capsules and spurted the stuff all over the place and the audience loved it. They like strong imagery."
Throughout the interview she kept coming back to films, TV and other people's art, as the starting points for many of her songs. Forever fantasy. She accepted it:
KB: "Each of them comes from something that makes me go 'Wow!' Most of the films I've drawn from were shown when I was a kid, which is strange. They've taken ten years to work through my system and go "oo-ee!". I know if makes me a thief, but the material is digested and changed, like with 'Infant Kiss' (new LP, more below). In fact it's very difficult using a film story because they're so long and you have to precis so much. Sometimes I feel I only get half of it across."
Sounds, "Labushka" (1980)
gaffa.org/reaching/i80_so.html

Kate Bush - Live at Hammersmith Odeon - 10 of 11
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4S5i3jfzHc
James And The Cold Gun

[andreymat]

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