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Post by Lori on Jul 16, 2003 21:49:25 GMT
You stood in the belltower But now you're gone So who knows all the sights Of Notre Dame?
They've got the stars for the gallant hearts I'm the replacement for your part But all I want to do is forget You, friend
Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror Won't leave me alone The first time in my life I leave the lights on To ease my soul Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror Won't leave it alone I don't know Is this the right thing to do?
Rehearsing in your things I feel guilty And retracing all the scenes Of your big hit Oh, God, you needed the leading role It wasn't me who made you go, though Now all I want to do is forget You, friend
Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror Won't leave me alone The first time in my life I leave the lights on To ease my soul Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror Won't leave it alone I don't know Is this the right thing to do?
Who calls me from the other side Of the street? And who taps me on the shoulder? I turn around, but you're gone
I've got a hunch that you're following To get your own back on me So all I want to do is forget You, friend
Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror Won't leave me alone The first time in my life I leave the lights on To ease my soul Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror Won't leave it alone I don't know Is this the right thing to do
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Post by strabley on Dec 30, 2003 21:00:27 GMT
Have you noticed this?: I've got a HUNCH that you're following to get your own BACK on me. Pretty cool, huh? ;D ;D Kate may take forever to make an album, but at least they are rich and riddled to keep us going for a while!
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Post by Lori on Dec 30, 2003 22:22:48 GMT
Hey no, I never noticed that before ;D Do you think that was intentional?
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Post by saloldgal on Jan 15, 2005 1:01:10 GMT
I didn't catch the hunchback references either. That explains the smirk on her face right after she sings "I've got a hunch" on the video.
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RA
Reaching Out
Posts: 216
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Post by RA on Jan 20, 2005 13:40:23 GMT
Nicely spotted.
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Post by vampira on Mar 23, 2005 13:27:26 GMT
Anyone remember/ have a copy of the photo of Kate posing with a pair of joke vampire fangs to promote this one?
Later: struck me that the above post doesn't contribute overmuch to a deeper understanding of Kate's lyrics. Doh!
For what it's worth, I think this one's just a straightforward appreciation of the gothic element inherent in the horror movies up to the time Kate was writing. As far as I can recall, Hammer never tackled "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", so I guess the song is a tribute to the genre as a whole?
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Post by Xanadu on Mar 23, 2005 18:24:32 GMT
Later: struck me that the above post doesn't contribute overmuch to a deeper understanding of Kate's lyrics. Doh! Anything relevant can add to an understanding of the song. This is where we should talk about it. Do you have a copy of the pic? I think I have seen it, but maybe you can remind us. And welcome Vampira... a fitting place to make your first posts, hmm? Do you like Hammer horror films too, or just the song?
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Post by vampira on Mar 23, 2005 19:29:38 GMT
Hello Xanadu I love the song and hammer films As to the photo:: I was writing this article on songs with vampire lyrics/ artists who used v. imagery etc., and a friend gave me a really faded xerox of Kate and her fangs. I'd say it came from a newspaper, probably from when Hammer Horror came out as a single? I lost the photocopy and 've not found the original on the internet. If anybody has any luck, you could make a vampire-obsessed imbecile very happy...
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Post by Kevin2 on Oct 14, 2005 10:09:55 GMT
You stood in the belltower
OMG!!1! It's NOT bathtub?! I really thought it was.
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Post by Barry SR Gowing on Apr 3, 2008 11:07:38 GMT
The orchestration on this song absolutely slays me, especially the extremely ominous moment when Kate drops her into best little girl voice and the strings quietly but disturbingly accompany as she sings:
Who calls me from the other side Of the street? And who taps me on the shoulder? I turn around, but you're gone
I notice that in this song, as in her a lot of her songs the lines don't always rhyme ... but her melodies are so good and flow so well that I often completely fail to notice the lack of rhymes at certain points. Sometimes she will also throw in an unexpected rhyme. In her hands it works!
--Paul--
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Apr 3, 2008 17:08:39 GMT
^Yes, I've noticed this too. I actually like the fact that Kate sometimes doesn't rhyme- it gives an almost narrative aspect to the music, I think, and sort of involves the listener more than a simple rhyme would. It really does work!
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Post by tannis on Apr 26, 2008 16:19:18 GMT
Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror Won't leave me alone The first time in my life I leave the lights on To ease my soul...Doctor: How came she by that light? Gentlewoman: Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command. ~ The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1I've got a hunch that you're following To get your own back on me...As the name suggests, 'Hammer Horror' takes its name from the Hammer Film studio, known for gothic horror films. And both song and video treat us to gothic tricks!
In the video, La Diabolique KaTe 'dances' with a ghostly anonymous partner. KaTe becomes a puppet in a macabre mime show, thrown around as if possessed by the poltergeist of the former lead. I rather like the idea of HH being about une femme diabolique, as the video performance suggests, rather than about a would be Christopher Lee (as the lyric might suggest)! ... Who calls me from the other side...Maybe KaTe saw a horror film where the lead actor gets killed and the replacement gets haunted by the dead player? You stood in the belltower But now you're gone...Maybe the replacement had a hand in the star's fall, hence the haunting crisis of soul and conscience?I don't know Is this the right thing to do?I've always been a coward And I don't know what's good for me...Or maybe the song reflects KaTe's fears of suddenly being pushed into the limelight and losing her sense of self? A "Jekyll and Hyde" identity-crisis?Now they're trying to push me into your name... (demo)Hammer Film Studio made "The Wicker Man" (1973).Date: Thu, 8 Feb 90 Subject: Lindsay Kemp Just recently I rented the video of "The Wicker Man" (British c1973) and was surprised to see Lindsay Kemp's name in the opening credits... Kemp plays the local innkeeper, whose daughter (Britt Ecklund) is a kind of 'temple prostitute' who initiates young men into sexual experience. Kemp does no dancing, but does join in a bawdy song about his daughter... But later in the film, at the Mayday festival, he is supposed to take the role of the Fool.... Which put me in mind of a certain song about a homosexual actor who they give a part to, but he has to play the fool... Date: Thu, 08 Feb 90 Subject: Re: Lindsay Kemp This is indeed quite interesting. Lindsay Kemp is indeed gay. Rumour says that Kate had a crush on Lindsay Kemp and that "Moving" is a love song to him. (Lindsay only had eyes for David Bowie.) Whether or not Kate had Lindsay Kemp in mind when she wrote "Wow", I know not, but this new piece of information about Lindsay Kemp playing the Fool, sure seems like more than mere coincidence. gaffa.org/dreaming/E1_tid.htmlThe Wicker Man - Trailerwww.youtube.com/watch?v=5FdV-O8o7okTWM: The Landlords Daughterwww.youtube.com/watch?v=AZgIau4aF0oKate was once asked (through the KBC Newsletter) the identity of the man in the photo on the cover of "The Dreaming". Her reply was, "Why, Houdini, of course." IED's guess is that the man is Anthony Van Laast, Kate's one-time dance instructor and collaborator on the choreography for some of her early videos and the Tour of Life. The Dreaming: General Thoughtsgaffa.org/dreaming/td_gen.htmlAnthony van Laast was also the masked man in the Hammer Horror video.Kate Bush - Hammer Horrorwww.youtube.com/watch?v=pSJaE3O80ywKate Bush -Hammer Horror (1976) Demowww.youtube.com/watch?v=a4NPNwW40d4HAMMER HORROR (demo)
Who stands in the belltower, Now you're gone. And who knows all the sights Of Notre Dame?
You knew the girls and the times, You knew the rites and the rhymes. Now they're trying to push me into your name.
Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror, Won't leave it alone. The first time in my life, The first break of my life, Wh(ere) I've let'em go. Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror, Won't leave it alone. Oh no, It's not the right thing to do!
Who calls me from the other side Of the street? And who taps me on the shoulder? I turn around, but you're gone.
You know my mind and my heart. So you should know I wouldn't take your part. All I want to do is forget You, friend.
Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror, Won't leave it alone. The first time in my life, The first break of my life, Wh(ere) I've letten go. Hammer Horror, Hammer Horror, Won't leave it alone. Oh no, It's not the right thing to do!
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Post by tannis on Apr 29, 2008 0:54:37 GMT
Kate on Hammer HorrorThe song is not about, as many think, Hammer Horror films. It is about an actor and his friend. His friend is playing the lead in a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a part he's been reading all his life, waiting for the chance to play it. He's finally got the big break he's always wanted, and he is the star. After many rehearsals he dies accidentally, and the friend is asked to take the role over, which, because his own career is at stake, he does. The dead man comes back to haunt him because he doesn't want him to have the part, believing he's taken away the only chance he ever wanted in life. And the actor is saying, "Leave me alone, because it wasn't my fault--I have to take this part, but I'm wondering if it's the right thing to do because the ghost is not going to leave me alone and is really freaking me out. Every time I look round a corner he's there, he never disappears." The song was inspired by seeing James Cagney playing the part of Lon Chaney playing the hunchback--he was an actor in an actor in an actor, rather like Chinese boxes, and that's what I was trying to create. Making the video of Hammer Horror was the first time I had worked with a dancer. I wanted to do something different with it, using a dancer, and I was sitting in a hotel room in Australia when it suddenly came to me--the whole routine happened before my eyes--and the next morning at 9 a.m. the dancer turned up to start work. We'd never met before, and in ten minutes we were having to throw each other around. He was so inspiring that we did the video that same afternoon. I did it again in New Zealand, when we arrived late, so I went straight into the routine with a dancer I'd never met before who had learnt it from the video. It was the strangest experience--I got to the chorus and suddenly this total stranger appeared behind me doing the routine perfectly. I just couldn't stop laughing, and we had to do about three takes. In the show I wanted to use the same routine, but I couldn't possibly sing it and dance at the same time, and I thought it was important not to mime it, as I wanted it to be a dance number, totally dedicated to dance, so I could let rip more. It was important that everyone should know that it wasn't a cheat, so I decided to dance to a backing track, and it was the only number in the show that wasn't live. Kate's KBC article, Issue 3 (November 1979)gaffa.org/garden/kate3.html
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Adena
Moving
This time around we dance - we're chosen ones
Posts: 611
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Post by Adena on Jul 25, 2008 13:08:20 GMT
I've seen this video, and it really scares me. It's a powerful song. I won't bore you with a spiel on it today - maybe some other day. ;D
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Post by tannis on Sept 2, 2008 13:27:24 GMT
PLAYING A HUNCH: Is this the right thing to do?Hammer Horror (the single) is most impressive for the way it seems to tie in so many of the finer points of the first album and project them through one epic song. Melody Maker, "Enigma Variations", Nov. 1978gaffa.org/reaching/i78_mm.htmlOctober 11, 1978: From completing the final mix of the album, Kate is straight on a plane for Australia, where she is to preside with that month's teen pop sensation Leif Garrett over the Tenth annual TV Week King of Pop Awards before a live audience of 1,000 in a circus tent, and a television audience of two million on the Nine Network. The next day Kate also performs live on the television programme Countdown, debuting the routine for Hammer Horror, devised in her hotel room. Hammer Horror is planned as the first single from the new album. October 17, 1978: Kate moves on to New Zealand, specifically Christchurch, for a television special. There she again performs Hammer Horror. A Chronology of Kate Bush's Career gaffa.org/garden/chrono.htmlRun-out-groove "secret" messages: "We're all playing a hunch" is a reference (in IED's opinion) to a couple of lines from "Hammer Horror", in which Kate made a rather clever play on the words "Hunchback of Notre Dame". gaffa.org/dreaming/l.html#hammerOn a lot of English first pressings of vinyl records you can find run-out-groove "secret" messages inscribed onto the disc. Kate not only knows about the inscriptions, she even writes them, so most of them are of some significance. Here's the inscription on the first release vinyl single: Hammer Horror/Coffee Homeground: Side A: "We're all playing a hunch..."Kate Bush - Hammer Horror www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_-MxT_-GDs Kate Bush live on "Countdown" ...QUASIMODO: playing a hunch...Quasimodo is a central character from French author Victor Hugo's 1831 novel Notre Dame de Paris. Quasimodo is a tragic protagonist in the story and is a type of noble savage.
Quasimodo was born with extreme physical deformities, which Hugo describes as a huge wart that covers his left eye and a severely hunched back. He is found abandoned in Notre Dame (on the foundlings' bed, where orphans and unwanted children are left to public charity) on a Quasimodo Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter, by the archdeacon Claude Frollo, who adopts the baby and brings him up to be the bell-ringer of the cathedral. Due to the loud ringing of the bells, Quasimodo also becomes deaf.
Looked upon by the general populace of Paris as a monster, Quasimodo later falls in love with the beautiful Gypsy girl Esmeralda and rescues her when she is entangled in a murder. Quasimodo does not, however, earn love or compassion by the end, the main theme of the book being the cruelty of social injustice. Quasimodo also murders his former benefactor, Frollo, who has sealed Esmeralda's doom in hopes of quelling his lust for her, by pushing him off the cathedral. He later goes to the mass grave where the bodies of the condemned are dumped and dies clutching Esmeralda's body; years later, their skeletons are found intertwined.
Quasimodo's name can be considered a pun. Frollo finds him on the cathedral's doorsteps on Quasimodo Sunday and names him after the holiday, the Latin, quasimodo, meaning "almost like". Possibly Hugo hoped to subtly evoke a visceral reaction from readers that the hunchback was "almost like" a human being.THE LONG GOODBYE: playing a hunch...Going with your gut rather than simple linear, logical thinking. "I had a hunch there was nothing under it but bare skull..." - Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, 1953)."Crime afficionados will immediately recognize the rhetorical power of the 'hunch'. It is what drives the hard-boiled investigator to pursue certain leads of investigation, even when those leads are seemingly hopeless. The hunch also connotes male intuition and it is often privileged as part of a male investigator's hunting instinct, and it has a relation to male knowledge of male motivations and the criminal capacity of male behaviour. It is distinct from a more disengaged, intellectual approach to crime solving..." from Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film (Hanson, 2008; p.161)But it's not only Hollywood detectives who have hunches...He's gonna wangle A way to get out of it. She's an excuse And a witness who'll talk when he's called..."A hunch is not news and should not be reported as such, but informed speculation... A columnist should play a hunch now and then, taking readers beyond the published news, using logic and experience to figure out what may be happening now or to predict what will happen soon. Win some, lose some: I had a hunch Clinton would be impeached (right) and his wife would be indicted (wrong)..." On Playing Hunches query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E3DC103FF932A05753C1A9649C8B63ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN: We're all playing a hunch...Deep Throat: You let Haldeman slip away. Bob Woodward: Yes. Deep Throat: You've done worse than let Haldeman slip away: you've got people feeling sorry for him. I didn't think that was possible. In a conspiracy like this, you build from the outer edges and go step by step. If you shoot too high and miss, everybody feels more secure. You've put the investigation back months. Bob Woodward: Yes, we know that. And if we're wrong, we're resigning. Were we wrong? ~ All the President's Men (1976)SEN. GEORGE McGOVERN: Well, of course, I was an announced candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. I had already won a series of primary elections. This was almost exactly one month before our Democratic National Convention in Miami, Florida, where I actually officially won the Democratic nomination. So, obviously, I had a special interest in this because there appeared to be a conspiracy here. We didn't know why they broke into our headquarters. There were various explanations gave. I always had a hunch – and it's nothing more than a hunch, because we don't really have clear evidence of what they were after at our headquarters -- that Nixon thought we must have had some information on him that we would use at a strategic point during the campaign, and probably had his people trying to find out what it was. It may be that they thought there was information that would be embarrassing to us. We don't really know that answer. There may be some people who know specifically what they were doing in our headquarters that night, but I have never known for sure what their motive was. George McGovern and Mike Gravel Reflect on Deep Throatwww.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1823869
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