The Kick Inside

[tannis]

"aerial quality"

The conviction with which she sails along at that stratospheric pitch makes the music seem eerie, driven, and finally tough, despite its aerial quality...
I wondered how the artiste of the early days differed from the current one.
"I could sing in key but there was nothing there. It was awful noise, it was really something terrible. My tunes were more morbid and more negative. That was a lot of people's comment: they were too heavy. But then a lot of people are saying that about my current songs. The old ones were quite different musically, vocally, and lyrically. You're younger and you get into murders..."
The last song on the album is the title cut, which contains opaque lines like "Your sister I was born - you must lose me/Like an arrow shot into the killer storm." Que pasa, KB?
"That's inspired by an old traditional song called 'Lucy Wan.' It's about a young girl and her brother who fall desperately in love. It's an incredibly taboo thing. She becomes pregnant by her brother and it's completely against all morals. She doesn't want him to be hurt, she doesn't want her family to be ashamed or disgusted, so she kills herself. The song is a suicide note. She says to her brother, 'Don't worry. I'm doing it for you.'"

"Kate Bush Gets Her Kicks" (1978)
gaffa.org/reaching/i78_tp.html


The Kick Inside: THE ALBUM TITLE

KB titled her debut album after its most controversial track... A bold move! Consequently, any comments are bound to inspire controversy. The album, THE KICK INSIDE, was Kate’s first ‘child’ (artists often refer to their creative outputs/projects as children, etc.). TKI naturally reflects many poetic, musical and literary influences/origins/Muses/etc.

When the album TKI came out, Kate was shot into stardom (itself a potential killer storm - Joplin, Hendrix, Cobain, etc.).
The old Kate was lost and Kate the star was born. A scary (suicide/rebirth) transition…
And by the time fans read the lyrics, Kate had gone global (well in touch) and was working and learning among the Zeuses of Rock’s Hall of Fame.

From the start, Kate was determined to ‘be well in touch’ (creatively sensational) and to ‘give it all’ in her work for fans, etc… Her creative urges (This kicking here inside…) gave her no choice but to 'leave you [her old self? the 'genius'*?] behind'…

The Kick Inside can thus be seen as a cryptic goodbye-thank-you to the creative 'genius'/influences that fired up the ego to make her a star… Like it's the birthing song of a rock star… About realising destiny and hitting the charts!

1970: Kate's brother Paddy needs someone on piano to accompany his violin playing. Kate's father shows her the C Major chord and she begins to play... Kate follows her elder brother John and begins to develop her poetry. Her piano playing is an outlet for her frustration. She is heavily influenced by an interest in Greek mythology.
A Chronology of Kate Bush's Career
gaffa.org/garden/chrono.html

* genius: a person who strongly influences for good or ill the character, conduct, or destiny of a person, place, or thing: e.g. Rasputin, the evil genius of Russian politics.
dictionary.reference.com/browse/genius

-----

The Kick Inside: THE SONG

Tragedy depicts the downfall of a basically good person through some fatal error or misjudgement, producing suffering and insight on the part of the protagonist and arousing pity, fear and horror on the part of the audience. Sometimes, narrow-minded audiences only get the horror and do not see the pity. But THE KICK INSIDE emphasises the pity.

Maybe the two opening lines remember the night of the demon (à la HOL). TKI is quite an angry title, like a punch (or a hit in the soft spot). Her heavy belly - the kick inside, the sticky love inside - brings insight, lucidity, anxiety and shame. Driven by an heroic sense of responsibility, and by the now lucid horror of events, she elects to kill herself (the 'Efteling Elaine'?). She suffers mythic weirdness, where once before she felt only tearful pity at that old mythology.

The Kick Inside song may be interpreted as an unsuccessful resolution of the Oedipus complex, with transference of the Oedipal desire from her father to her brother.

The Kick Inside song can also be compared with L'Amour Looks Something Like You:

You look like an angel...
(Oh, do you know you have the face of a genius?)

I'm dressed in lace, sailing down a black reverie...
(I've pulled down my lace and the chintz.)

All the time I find I'm living in that evening,
With that feeling of sticky love inside...
(This kicking here inside
Makes me leave you behind.)

-----

The NFE chintz maternity dress

On the attic cover to Lionheart, Kate's slender, 'heroin chic' frame is photographed on top of a signed crate. What is hiding in the attic crate? What does KaTe conceal in her 'Pandora's box'? What story does the cover tell?

On the cover to Never for Ever, KaTe opens her 'Pandora's Box', and the attic crate reveals a flow of Boschian monsters and chimeras!

The Never for Ever cover reads like a visual pun or catch phrase play on KaTe's name: Kate, Bosch, Kate Bush...

In 1960, the art historian Ludwig von Baldass wrote that Bosch shows "how sin came into the world through the Creation of Eve, how fleshly lusts spread over the entire earth, promoting all the Deadly Sins, and how this necessarily leads straight to Hell". Charles de Tolnay wrote that the center panel represents "the nightmare of humanity", where "the artist's purpose above all is to show the evil consequences of sensual pleasure and to stress its ephemeral character".

The phrase Never for Ever is rather like the Latin Memento mori; and death is a state of being never for ever. On Never for Ever, Kate is as deathly pale as 'Cathy'. She stands on her funeral mound, "barefoot and pregnant", reincarnating light and dark creatures, giving it all from her billowing aerial-decorated dress...

Indeed, the photoshoot for the NFE album sleeve shows KaTe wearing what seems to be a red chintz maternity dress...
www.kundavega.com/kate/stickyB.jpg


gaffa.org/wow/k_b.jpg


gaffa.org/wow/k187.jpg

On the back cover to NFE is a Sunset photograph - the 'sun and the moon meet' and KaTe takes to the sky as vampire bats. Note that the NFE Back Cover ("concept and photography, John Carder Bush") has a very similar 'sun set meeting moon' theme to the Back cover ("original ideas: John Carder Bush and Del Palmer") of The Kick Inside. Both the NFE and TKI back covers feature a sunset sky with moon and flying creatures. Even the sloping hill horizon is similar...

see more
KATE'S BUSH and KATE'S BOSCH...
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=neverforever&action=display&thread=1702&page=2

-----

"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 god of the sun and Artemis was goddess of the moon.

-----

EDIT: A SKY OF HONEY & TKI

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").

Artemis was worshipped as Diana in Roman mythology. Roman worship of Apollo was also adopted from the Greeks. In 17 BCE Augustus celebrated the 'Secular Games', the culmination of which were sacrifices and prayers on the Palatine to Apollo and Diana...

"Like the light in Italy
Lost its way across the sea..."

APOLLO & ARTEMIS (Sun & Moon) were also Famous Archers.
...see: "Has anybody else noticed the run-out messages on the new 'The Red Shoes' 7" vinyl release? On side A it's 'ONE FOR THE ARCHERS'..."
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=theredshoes&action=display&n=1&thread=1752&page=3

"I will come home again, but not until
The sun and the moon [The Archers?] meet on yon hill..."

The album covers for THE KICK INSIDE and NEVER FOR EVER both feature "the sun and the moon..." Apollo and Artemis...

A SKY OF HONEY: "We went up to the top of the highest hill..."

The Archers: And when KB et al return with Ariel Sky, 'the sun and the moon meet on yon hill' in Sunset, Somewhere In Between and Nocturn...

"On this Midsummer night
Everyone is sleeping
We go driving into the moonlight..."

-----

[purple]PHOEBUS[/purple] - i.e. the shining, pure or bright, occurs both as an epithet and a name of Apollo, in his capacity of god of the sun.

[purple]PHOEBE[/purple] - a surname of Artemis in her capacity as the goddess of the moon (Luna), the moon being regarded as the female Phoebus or sun.

[tannis]

Rosie Ann

ROSIE she sat in her shnnaer bower,
Greitin and making grit mane,
When down by cam her father, saying,
What ails thee Rosie Ann?

'A deal, a deal, dear father,' she said,
'Great reason hae I to mane,
For there lyes a little babe in my side,
Between me and my brither John.'

Rosie she sat in her simmer bower,
Weeping and making great mane,
And wha cam doun but her mither dear,
Saying, What ails thee, Rosie Ann?

'A deal, a deal, dear mither,' she said,
'Great reason hae I to mane,
For there lyes a little babe in my side,
Between me and my brither John.'

Rosie she sat in her simmer bower,
Greiting and making great mane,
And wha came doun but her sister dear,
Saying, What ails thee, Rosie Ann?

'A deal, a deal, dear sister,' she said,
'Great reason hae I to mane,
For there lyes a little babe in my side,
Between me and my brither John.'

Rosie she sat in her simmer bower,
Weeping and making great mane,
And wha cam doun but her fause, fause brither,
Saying, What ails thee, Rosie Ann?

'A deal, a deal, dear brither,' she said,
'Great reason hae I to cry,
For there lyes a little babe in my side,
Between yoursell and I.'

'Weel ye hue tauld father, and ye hae tauld mither,
And ye hae tauld sister, a' three
Syne he pulled out his wee penknife,
And he cut her fair bodie in three.

'0 what blude is that on tho point o your knife,
Dear son, come tell to me?'
'It is my horse's, that I did kill,
Dear mother and fair ladie.'

'The blude o your horse was neer sae red,
Dear son, come tell to me:
'It is my grandfather's, that I hae killed,
Dear mother and fair ladie.'

'The blude o your grandfather was neer sae fresh,
Dear son, come tell to me:
'It is my sister's, that I did kill,
Dear mother and fair ladie.'

'What will ye do when your father comes hame,
Dear son, come tell to me?'
'I'11 set my foot on you shipboard,
And I hope she'11 sail wi me.'

'What will ye do wi your bonny bonny young wife,
Dear son, come tell to me?
'I'll set her foot on some other ship,
And I hope she'11 follow me.'

'And what will ye do wi your wee son.
Dear son, come tell to me?'
'I'll leave him wi you, my dear mother,
To keep in remembrance of me.'

'What will ye do wi your houses and lands,
Dear son, come tell to me?'
'I'll leave them wi you, my dear mother,
To keep my own babie.'

'And whan will you return again,
Dear son, come tell to me?'
'When the sun and the mune meet on yon hill,
And I hope that'll neer be.'


Rosie Ann & TKI

Rosie is in deep distress. Her father, mother, and sister each pay her a visit, and Rosie confesses to each that she is with child by her brother John. Then her brother pays her a visit. He is angry that she has told the others what has happened and he kills her. Twice he lies to his mother before telling her that he killed his sister. He says he will flee to the seas, hoping his young wife join him (apparently John is also married). But he will leave the brother/sister-born child with his mother, and he will not return until "the sun and the mune meet on yon hill, And I hope that'll neer be..."

In TKI, the narrator seems to have told no one of her predicament. Rosie's brother is described as a "false, false brother". In TKI, the bother has "the face of" a genius; i.e. we are not told that he is a genius, only that he looks like one. So he could be a false pretender. Moreover, Rosie is murdered by her brother whereas in TKI, the pregnant girl is going to commit suicide. The only real connection comes with the line "the sun and the mune meet on yon hill." But in 'Rosie Ann' the brother sings this line (and the next), whereas in TKI, it is the suicidal sister singing this line, and the last line of 'Rosie Ann' is not included. Although the narrator of TKI is committing suicide, she stills hopes to come home again, to be reborn.

The TKI is not an updating of the Lucy Wan story. Rather, her predicament has her recall the popular Rosie Ann/Lucy Wan/Lizzie Wan song story (demo version). But the narrator of TKI mostly remembers being read to. Maybe that old mythology was Greek Myth, since, as we have seen, oftentimes the Greek Tragedies end in suicide. As Antigone goes to her death, she cries: "All for reverence, my reverence of the gods!" And the narrator of TKI hopes to be well in touch with Zeus.

CREON:
And still you had the gall to break this law?

ANTIGONE:
Of course I did. It wasn't Zeus, not in the least,
who made this proclamation - not to me.
Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods
beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men.
Nor did I think that edict had such force
that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods,
the great unwritten, unshakable traditions.


Maybe another influence on TKI is the story of Hamlet and Ophelia. Maybe KB has redefined their relationship as brother and sister for the purpose of this song creation?

KB's performance of The Kick Inside at Efteling is very suggestive of Ophelia drowning among her garlands, or The Lady of Shalott floating to her doom. The 'Efteling Elaine'...
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-76x06vfCtk

I have explored a possible relationship beween Hamlet and 'Hounds of Love' over on the HOL thread at:
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&n=1&thread=1715&page=2

[tannis]

BONNY HIND

A squire persuades a maiden to lie with him. Afterward, she asks his name, and he reveals that he is a lord's son. She calls him a liar: she is that lord's daughter. The horror-struck son reveals that he was long at sea. She commits suicide (as with 'The Kick Inside'), and he buries her. He goes home and grieves for a "bonny hind" whatever his father can do to distract him.

Herd got this tragic ballad from a milkmaid, in 1771. Mr. Child quotes a verse parallel, preserved in Faroe, and in the Icelandic. There is a similar incident in the cycle of Kullervo, in the Finnish KALEVALA. Scott says that similar tragedies are common in Scotch popular poetry; such cases are "Lizzie Wan," and "The King's Dochter, Lady Jean."


Bonny Hind,
recorded by June Tabor on "Abyssynians" (1983)

It's May she comes and May she goes down by the garden green
It's there she spied a good young squire as good as ever seen

It's May she comes and May she goes down by the Holland green
And it's there she spied a brisk young squire as brisk as ever seen

"Come give to me your green mantle, give to me your maidenhead
If you won't give me your green mantle, give me your maidenhead"

He's ta'en her by the milk-white hand and gently laid her down
And it's when he raised her up again giving her a silver comb

"Perhaps there may be bairns or perhaps there may be none
But if you be a courtier pray tell to me your name"

"Oh I am no courtier" he said "but new come from the sea
Oh I am no courtier" he said "but when I courted thee

They call me Jack when I'm abroad, sometimes they call me John
But when I'm in my father's bower, oh, Jock Randal is my name"

"You lie, you lie, you bonny lad, so loud I hear you lie
For I am Lord Randal's only daughter, he has no more than me"

"You lie, you lie, you bonny lass, so loud I hear you lie
For I am Lord Randal's very own son that new come from the sea"

She's puttin' down by her side and out she's taken a knife
And she's put in in her own heart's blood and taken away her life

And he's taken his only sister with a big tear in his eye
And he's buried his only sister beneath the Holland tree

It's soon he's hied him o'er the dales his father due to see
"It's oh and woe for my bonny hind beneath the Holland tree"

"What care you for a bonny hind, for it you need not care
There's eight score hinds in yon green park and five score is to spare"

"Oh score at them a silver shot and these you may get three
But oh and woe for my bonny hind beneath the Holland tree"

"What care you for your bonny hind, for it you need not care
Take you the best and leave me the worst since plenty is to spare"

"I care not for your hinds, kind sir, I care not for your fee
But it's oh and woe for my bonny hind beneath the Holland tree"

"Oh were you up your sister's bower, your sister fair to see
Oh you'll think no more on your bonny hind beneath the Holland tree"

[tannis]

[green]THE KICK INSIDE: The Song[/green]

Wiki: "The Ballad of Lizie Wan was the inspiration for the title song from English recording artist Kate Bush's album The Kick Inside. It is directly referenced in an early demo recording of the song in the second verse: 'You and me on the bobbing knee / Welling eyes from identifying with Lizzy Wan's story.' The final version of the song replaces the direct reference and describes the ballad as 'old mythology.'"
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizie_Wan

Gaffa: "A note on the origin of this song: "Lizzie Wan" (alternately "Lucy Wan") is an 18th-century English/Irish folk ballad, best known as The Ballad of Lizzie Wan, which recounts the tragedy of Lizzie Wan, who falls in love with her brother and then kills herself while carrying his child [N.B. Lizzie/Lucy/Rosie does not kill herself, but is killed by her brother]. Kate's original lyrics in the demo version of The Kick Inside included the line "Welling eyes from identifying with Lizzie Wan's story" making it clear that her own story refers to a modern pair of siblings who face a similar crisis. In the finished version as heard on the album, the explicit reference to the early folksong was removed, making the song's inspiration harder to identify."
- gaffa.org/diction/k.html#kicksong

[purple]KB: [/purple]"The song 'The Kick Inside', the title track, was inspired by a traditional folk song and it was an area that I wanted to explore because it's one that is really untouched and that is one of incest. There are so many songs about love, but they are always on such an obvious level. This songs is about a brother and a sister who are in love and the sister becomes pregnant by her brother. And because it is so taboo and unheard of, she kills herself in order to preserve her brother's name in the family. The actual song is in fact the suicide note. The sister is saying 'I'm doing it for you' and 'don't worry, I'll come back to you someday.'"
"Self Portrait", The Kick Inside promo LP/cassette Interview, 1978
- gaffa.org/reaching/im78_tki.html

And I'll do it for you
I'll be the Rose of Sharon for you...


[green]THE BALLAD OF LIZIE WAN[/green]

[purple]Synopsis: The heroine -- Lizie, Rosie, Lucy -- is pregnant with her brother's child. Her brother murders her. He tries to pass off the blood as some animal he had killed -- his grayhound, his falcon, his horse -- but in the end must admit that he murdered her. He sets sail in a ship, never to return.[/purple]

LIZIE WAN sits at her father’s bower-door,
Weeping and making a mane,
And by there came her father dear:
‘What ails thee, Lizie Wan?’

‘I ail, and I ail, dear father,’ she said,
‘And I’ll tell you a reason for why;
There is a child between my twa sides,
Between my dear billy and I.’

Now Lizie Wan sits at her father’s bower-door,
Sighing and making a mane,
And by there came her brother dear:
‘What ails thee, Lizie Wan?’

‘I ail, I ail, dear brither,’ she said,
‘And I’ll tell you a reason for why;
There is a child bewteen my twa sides,
Between you, dear billy, and I.’

‘And hast thou tald father and mother o that?
And hast thou tald sae o me?’
And he has drawn his gude braid sword,
That hung down by his knee.

And he has cutted aff Lizie Wan’s head,
And her fair body in three,
And he’s awa to his mothers bower,
And sair aghast was he.

‘What ails thee, what ails thee, Geordy Wan?
What ails thee sae fast to rin?
For I see by thy ill colour
Some fallow’s deed thou hast done.’

‘Some fallow’s deed I have done, mother,
And I pray you pardon me;
For I’ve cutted aff my greyhound’s head;
He wadna rin for me.’

‘Thy greyhound’s bluid was never sae red,
O my son Geordy Wan!
For I see by thy ill colour
Some fallow’s deed thou hast done.’

‘Some fallow’s deed I hae done, mother,
And I pray you pardon me;
For I hae cutted aff Lizie Wan’s head
And her fair body in three.’

‘O what wilt thou do when thy father comes hame,
O my son Geordy Wan?’
‘I’ll set my foot in a bottomless boat,
And swim to the sea-ground.’

‘And when will thou come hame again,
O my son Geordy Wan?’
‘The sun and the moon shall dance on the green
That night when I come hame.’

www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch051.htm


[green]THE KICK INSIDE: The Song[/green]

The album, The Kick Inside, is open about sexual matters, particularly on the erotic "Feel It" and "L'Amour Looks Something Like You". "Strange Phenomena" has been labelled "a frank paean to menstruation" (wiki).
Indeed, many of the songs tap into 'The Kick Inside' metaphor...

[purple]You crush the lily in my soul...
Tuning in on your saxophone...
Beelzebub is aching in my belly-o...
So keep on a-moving in...
All the colours look brighter now...
L'amour looks something like you...
Them heavy people hit me in a soft spot...
There's room for a life in your womb, woman...
This kicking here inside...[/purple]

...Hence, explaining why perhaps the entire album was so named The Kick Inside... But "Does it really matter As long as you're not afraid to feel?" ...

[blue]I'm beginning to see The Red shoes as a concept album... argh, you guys are probably thinking I see everything as a concept album! Which is sort of true. But I swear I don't see one in TKI, Lionheart, NFE, or TSW... [/blue]

How about this...

KT: "The song 'The Kick Inside', the title track, was inspired by a traditional folk song and it was an area that I wanted to explore because it's one that is really untouched and that is one of incest... The actual song is in fact the suicide note. The sister is saying 'I'm doing it for you' and 'don't worry, I'll come back to you someday.'"
"Self Portrait", The Kick Inside promo LP/cassette Interview, 1978
- gaffa.org/reaching/im78_tki.html

...So maybe all the erotic songs on TKI explore incestuous fantasies, culminating in the parlour/boudoir pregnant suicide of 'The Kick Inside' song: 'I'm doing it for you' and 'don't worry, I'll come back to you someday.'

And I'll do it for you
I'll be the Rose of Sharon for you...

-----

EDIT: In both 'The Kick Inside' & 'The Wedding List', KT chooses to have a pregnant protagonist commit suicide.

'The Kick Inside' & 'The Wedding List' ?

I'm giving it all in a moment, for you...
And now, as I'm coming for you...

This kicking here inside
Makes me leave you behind...
And later, when they analysed
They found a little one inside...

Shot into the killer storm...
She committed suicide...

[tannis]

"Sister and Brother" - Kate Bush duet with Midge Ure

Date: 10 Aug 88
Subject: Review

I have now heard a song called "Sister and Brother", taken from Midge Ure's forthcoming solo-album, due for release on August 29. "Sister and Brother" is the song in which Kate Bush appears. I heard it at the record company a couple of days ago, and I'm sure that all you Love-Hounds will be interested in a review, so here goes:

"Sister and Brother", Midge Ure with Kate Bush, taken from Midge Ure's forthcoming solo-album "Answers":
I have only heard it once, but I was immediately impressed. I have a feeling that this is the type of song that becomes more and more interesting every time one hears it. It is strong, powerful, overwhelming, interesting and exciting.
First there's a sequence with only Midge Ure singing.
Then there's a sequence with only Kate Bush singing.
Then there's a sequence where they sing together.
And, there's an instrumental sequence which is quite influenced by Kate Bush's style. All in all it is a fantastic song, you should be looking forward to it!

Date: 13 Jan 89
Subject: KaTe is on Midge Ure's new album

Apparently Midge met Kate at a social event and passed on a tape of the song to her and told her that he'd like her to participate. She called him back a couple of days later and said that she was very moved by the song and that she'd do it, but he had to send her all the tapes, and that she'd add her vocals herself. She then called Midge back a week later and told him that she was finished, and (of course) Midge was blown away.

gaffa.org/dreaming/tsw_colb.html


"Sister And Brother" counts as something of a flawed gem. The atmosphere of the track is extremely good, with both Ure and Kate Bush somehow managing to get a strong sense of urgency out of their rather prosaic lines. The presence of UB40 members in the chorus in downright bizarre -- how odd, too, that Ure would be restricted to such a minimal vocal presence in his own song. The song has a longer instrumental section than do the others on the album, including a fairly proggy, Banksian keyboard section (presumably played by Kilgore). Some fairly good guitar parts are featured in the reprise section as well, and Bush's voice is utilized quite well. A triumph, but not without its limits.

www.tranglos.com/marek/yes/tr_106.html

[tannis]

KATE BUSH and THE LADY OF SHALOTT

"My understanding is that she's been living on an island in the Thames since she had Bertie..."

Come Back Kate (Kate Bush documentary pt. 1/6)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmloRo5VoOI

The Story

Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed;
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.
~ Tennyson

The Lady of Shalott is a magical being who lives alone on an island upstream from King Arthur's Camelot. Her business is to look at the world outside her castle window in a mirror, and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. She is forbidden by the magic to look at the outside world directly. The farmers who live near her island hear her singing and know who she is, but never see her.

shall i make you in the morning
as cup of instant coffee
i will sweeten it with honey and with cream
when you sleep
do you have dreams?
you can read the early paper
and i can watch you while you shave
oh god the mirror's cracked
when you leave
will you come back?
~ Dory Previn, 'Lady With The Braid' (from Mythical Kings and Iguanas (1971)

The Lady sees ordinary people, loving couples, and knights in pairs reflected in her mirror. One day, she sees the reflection of Sir Lancelot riding alone. Although she knows that it is forbidden, she looks out the window at him. The mirror shatters, the tapestry flies off on the wind, and the Lady feels the power of her curse. An autumn storm suddenly arises. The lady leaves her castle, finds a boat, writes her name on it, gets into the boat, sets it adrift, and sings her death song as she drifts down the river to Camelot. The locals find the boat and the body, realize who she is, and are saddened. Lancelot prays that God will have mercy on her soul.

The story of the Lady of Shalott is a version of "Elaine the fair maid of Astolat", from Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Elaine's naive love for Lancelot was unrequited. She died of a broken heart (i.e., committed suicide -- Malory's book contains her justification of suicide). Her dead body (with suicide note between her hands) was floated down the Thames to Camelot. Like Ophelia, funeral barges and dead bodies going down rivers are some sort of archetype.

Tennyson likes to write poems about creatures lost in the half-life, and/or people taking decisive, heroic action that leads to their doom. The key line, "I am half-sick of shadows", implies the Lady's mind is divided about the right choice. It's the Lady's romantic yearnings that finally make her look out the window.

Room For The Life
Night after night in the quiet house
Plaiting her hair by the fire, woman
With no lover to free her desire
How long do you think she can stick it out?
How long do you think before she'll go out...

"In Tennyson's poem, with its hypnotic rhythm and repetition, the lady is imprisoned on an island, forbidden to look directly at the world, watching only through a mirror whose reflections she weaves into a tapestry web. Solitary and mysteriously accursed, she dreams of her own "loyal knight", and confesses herself 'half sick of shadows', yearning for real experience. So when the shining image of Lancelot, the red cross knight, appears in her mirror, she suddenly breaks the ban." (p.149)
"Most artists chose to depict this moment, the most dramatic in the poem, when the lady is condemned to die. She leaves her tower, finds a boat and drifts down river, singing as she dies. Lancelot is among those who watch as she arrives, saying: 'She has a lovely face; God in his mercy send her grace.'" (p.149)
"Nevertheless, it is hard to read his, or the other, images as anything but an oblique account of the confined and restricted world of the Victorian woman--accursed and prohibited by virtue of her sex alone--and the dire consequences attendant on rebellion. The rejection of seclusion in the shadowy sphere of prescribed femininity, where the approved activity is weaving or embroidery, leads immediately to ostracism and social death. The enclosed rooms in which these ladies live, looking out on inviting sunlit landscapes, and the tangled threads binding their vigorous limbs, are surely metaphors of woman's condition, signifying the docile, passive, reflective and domestic role that dominated Victorian ideas of femininity. The lady cannot break from her constraints: her gesture of independence provokes the curse. It is interesting that most artists chose to depict this particular moment, so that their ladies are frozen forever in their decision of defiance." (p.152)
Jan Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women (1987/1998)
uregina.ca/~starkc/psyc_330_2000_shalott.html

The Lady Of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson
www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/shalcomb.htm


The Pre-Raphaelite Vision

I in my boat long hours,
He in his royal plumage--
I threw him some flowers,
In the reedy river,
In the reedy river.
~ Donovan


Arthur Hughes, The Lady of Shalott, 1873
www.victorianweb.org/painting/hughes/paintings/7.html

Compare the artist's earlier oil study of the Lady entering her boat...


Arthur Hughes, Study for The Lady of Shalott, c. 1864
www.victorianweb.org/painting/hughes/paintings/8.html

John Atkinson Grimshaw painted the dead Lady of Shalott floating down the river in her funeral barge after having done a similar painting, Elaine, in 1877. Both paintings convey the atmospheric stillness of the dead lady as she floats through the night. The Lady of Shalott (1878) portrays the dead Lady recumbent in an exotic barge set against a wooded background and moonlit sky whereas Elaine, who also died of unrequited love for Lancelot, is accompanied by the shadowy figure of a boatman as she glides into Camelot.


The Lady of Shalott, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1878
www.pathguy.com/shalottgrimshaw.jpg


Elaine, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1877
www.timelessmyths.com/arthurian/gallery/elaine.jpg


Henry Peach Robinson, The Lady of Shalott, 1861
www.austinchronicle.com/binary/ed9b/arts_feature1-1.jpg


The Dead Lady Floateth Down Ye Stream Toward Camelot
www.pathguy.com/shalott2.gif

Under tower and balcony,
By gardenwall and gallery,
A pale, pale corpse she floated by,
Deadcold, between the houses high,
Dead into towered Camelot.
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
To the plankèd wharfage came:
Below the stern they read her name,
"The Lady of Shalott."

They crossed themselves, their stars they blest,
Knight, minstrel, abbot, squire and guest.
There lay a parchment on her breast,
That puzzled more than all the rest,
The wellfed wits at Camelot.
"The web was woven curiously
The charm is broken utterly,
Draw near and fear not--this is I,
The Lady of Shalott."

~ Tennyson (1833 edition)

These images of The Lady Of Shalott can be compared with:
a) the 'Kate Bush Efteling Gardens Special' (1978) performance of The Kick Inside ['The Efteling Elaine'];
b) the reverse photograph on The Ninth Wave sleeve ['The Ninth Wave Ophelia']. (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.);
c) 'Lord Of The Reedy River'; and
d) the painting Kate owns called 'The Hogsmill Ophelia'.



At one end of the studio is a huge painting of a drowned, cracked doll floating face up past a sewer. For some reason this painting, which might be described as macabre-kitsch, seems to say a lot about its owner. Kate returns and sees me examining it. "That's called The Hogsmill Ophelia. A lot of people find it disturbing but I don't I've lived with it for ages. Looked at it every day. That picture cost me all the money I had once. Paintings are a great inspiration. One of my favourites is by Millais, The Huguenot. It's of a man going off to the wars being hugged to the breast of his lover. She's holding him to her by a scarf around his arm. It's very beautiful."
"What Kate Did Next", 1985
gaffa.org/reaching/i85_what.html

But the real jewels are the unexpected treasures that glitter in the grass. Adolescent, helplessly sexual, 'Lord Of The Reedy River' has Kate languorously in love with a swan. There's nothing to the melody and the backing is a symphony of dripping water and the aching creak of rowlocks as the singer, a Lady of Shalott adrift on the lake, pursues her vain love; yet this sparse suggestion is the essence of it all.
Wild, temperamental, endearingly aware of and in love with her own media image, a true child-woman in her blend of emotional maturity and sparky naivety.. . Reassuringly, we still know as much-and as little-about Kate Bush as we ever did.
Glynn Brown in Select Magazine (Love-Hound, Wed, 21 Nov 90)
gaffa.org/dreaming/tww_box.html

The Kick Inside: 'The Efteling Elaine'

In the 'Kate Bush Efteling Gardens Special' (1978), Kate gives a carefully worked out video treatment to The Kick Inside: "It features Kate as the doomed heroine of The Kick Inside, dressed in black and veiled. She lip-synchs the vocal while lying in a coffin--more properly, a death-barge--and at the end of the song, she sails slowly down a placid river, evoking images of Elaine and The Lady of Shalott, classic poetical figures of Arthurian legend. Kate is memorably made-up in this video: her hair has been painted white (or perhaps platinum-blond). The result is striking."
gaffa.org/passing/v78_may.html

Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPk0mzsxJyQ&feature=related
I'm dressed in lace, sailing down a black reverie
My heart is thrown
To the pebbles and the boatmen
All the time I find I'm living in that evening
With that feeling of sticky love inside

see more:
L’Amour Looks Something Like You
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=kickinside&action=display&thread=1675&page=1
Rossetti's The House of Life and Kate Bush's The Tour of Life
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1731&page=1
The Lady Of Theale
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=aerial&thread=2447&page=7
KT and THE LADY OF SHALLOT: Suspended in Gaffa...
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=dreaming&thread=1710&page=4

Emilie Autumn - Shalott
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpXdNaXYysk&feature=related

[rosabelbelieve]

I love The Kick Inside video, and the Loreena Mckennitt song, as well as the Tennyson poem. Thank you for all the information on the story of The Lady of Shalott.

[Adena]

The Kick Inside video is one of my favourites, personally. Beautiful green veil... ooh.

[Adena]

A woman pregnant by her brother...

Ah, but that reminds me of an old tale. A woman spent a night in a bed with her brother, by his will alone. He was five years older than she, she not yet into her sixteenth year. She would never have found herself pregnant, for she could not bear the young ones. Mind, in the weeks on, she began to feel worse and worse, until she stated in barely legible hand that this was to be her punishment to fit her crime, and departed by the same hand that wrote the note.

There is a lot about women pregnant by their brothers or fathers drifting around, I find. I have heard of many such stories myself, sadly. Perhaps the world is not as eloquent as we would wish...

[Adena]

'Quite simply, Adena, the sun and the moon will never meet. I doubt very much, though, that she knows or believes it.'

Do you think the 'sun and moon meet on yon hill' line from this song is part of the ominosity of the girl's death, her hoping that this will happen, or her believeing that this will happen?

[tannis]

Bright, white coming alive jumping off of the aerial...

When there is a full moon or a new moon, the Sun and the Moon are in line with the Earth, and their gravitational attractions are added together. When there is an eclipse, the Sun and the Moon meet in alignment. The Sun and Moon are of course two of the most important considerations in astrology, and they meet in astrological signs and tarot card spreads. As symbols of the male and female principles, the Sun and the Moon meet in our very hearts.

Somewhere in between the day and night, go up to the top of the highest hill and stop still. Watch as the Sun descends and the Moon rises. You will see the Moon kissed by the light of the Sun. It will be your perception that brings these two celestial bodies together. They will meet in your vision, bringing with them rebirth, resurrection, return... Go driving into the moonlight, the light given to earth by the Sunlit Moon's reflection. Dive deeper into the moonlight... The Sun and the Moon meet in the moonlight...

Become panoramic. Just reach up and touch it...

[Adena]

Reading into this quite probably way further than I should, the meeting of the sun and the moon is paradoxical. Therefore, maybe the supposed appearance of the woman in the song is paradoxical, and though she may seem to appear, she will never show herself...

Oh, and it may interest you to know that the motto of a good family friends of ours is 'touch the sun'.

[rosabelbelieve]

May 26, 2008 12:12:56 GMT tannis said:

Bright, white coming alive jumping off of the aerial...

When there is a full moon or a new moon, the Sun and the Moon are in line with the Earth, and their gravitational attractions are added together. When there is an eclipse, the Sun and the Moon meet in alignment. The Sun and Moon are of course two of the most important considerations in astrology, and they meet in astrological signs and tarot card spreads. As symbols of the male and female principles, the Sun and the Moon meet in our very hearts.

Somewhere in between the day and night, go up to the top of the highest hill and stop still. Watch as the Sun descends and the Moon rises. You will see the Moon kissed by the light of the Sun. It will be your perception that brings these two celestial bodies together. They will meet in your vision, bringing with them rebirth, resurrection, return... Go driving into the moonlight, the light given to earth by the Sunlit Moon's reflection. Dive deeper into the moonlight... The Sun and the Moon meet in the moonlight...

Become panoramic. Just reach up and touch it...

That's an interesting perspective on it. I've always loved this line... it is paradoxical, but I think that in the ambiguity of a paradox you can sometimes find a symbol that is very powerful in the way it almost unites opposites. I like the way Tannis interpreteted it - though I also like Adena's idea of her appearing and yet not appearing. That would be sort of like Watching You Without Me, wouldn't it? "I'm not here... I'm not here..."

[Adena]

'I am here, Adena... I am here...'

How delightfully and stupidly inaccurate people's words can be. As in this song.

[tannis]

The voice of 'The Kick Inside' comes from a girl who is pregnant by her brother and is about to kill herself to save her family from the scandal of exposure. Kate curved in towards the topic via some reflections on the delicate balance of sexuality in every relationship:
KB: "Men, friends, get very close to each other. At what point does it become sexual? Love can be very strong and not sexual.
"It's the same with my brothers. I see them as men and I see them as attractive, but there is no sexual content in the relationship. I suppose there's never been much physical contact . . . well, most relationships are platonic.
"The story of 'The Kick Inside' was taken from a folk song. It is a pure love, it starts so innocently ('You and me on the bobbing knee') There are no demands between them except the most basic ones. I mean, I find I can trust my brothers more than anyone else because they know me so well. We were brought up in the same way, in the same house, with the same games and just a few years between us. It's as if we were reflections of each other."
Sounds, "Labushka" (1980)
gaffa.org/reaching/i80_so.html