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Post by karmamama on Jan 17, 2006 3:21:46 GMT
That's what I always tell my girlfriend ;D Me too!
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Post by Chrisb on May 17, 2006 11:04:30 GMT
I love this song. I used to skip it, as with Houdini, but now I skip straight to them! Very different, Kate's older work..
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Feb 2, 2008 2:31:47 GMT
After the departure of Hermes in Night of the Swallow, I think All the Love is the story of his lostness. In his daring, ambitious flight, he has come upon a land of ghosts and spectres, marshes full of mists and willo'the wisps, a sort of underworld. In all his wandering and searching, estranged from the still, strong source of life that was Hestia in NOTS, he has become very lost. So lost he is dying... drifting in regretful memory. He cannot truly exist without her- his energy dissipates without a centre to hold it. I know I haven't been completely clear on whether the Hermes figure and the Hestia figure are separate people or elements of X's psyche, but I'm beginning to lean towards them being two truly separate people, especially in this song. I do think it's a bit of both, though- the visitor, or the Hermes figures presence awakens in X the wanderlust and desire for the impossible in X, yet also propel her into the role of Hestia. His departure has divided them cleanly, though, into him as Hermes and her as Hestia. He recalls "the first time I died..' which in the context of this story I think would be a time when he underwent a great change, maybe leaving home to begin his ceaseless journeys, rather than a physical death. There was a time when he was not alone, a time when he loved and was loved by people. He squandered it then, though, never seeing and feeling the presence of love in his life until it left. It is his nature to always be looking forward, never noticing the love, wisdom and feeling that is already there. For him to have something limits it, and this ruins it for him when he is separated from Hestia's reminders of the beauty and meaning of hearth and earthly things. I think the chorus is Hestia's voice, X's voice. She is thinking of him, and she knows what will come of his journey. He feels her presence, and it makes him feel all of his regrets. "We needed you... to love us too... we wait for your move." All the love, all the love we should have given... If NOTS is the expression of the glorious, imaginative, expansive desire of Hermes, I think ATL is the expression the deep, essential need for the steadiness and love of Hestia. "Only tragedy allows the release Of love and grief never normally seen I didn't want to let them see me weep I didn't want to let them see me weak But now I have shown That I stand at the gates alone." Only tragedy reveals the deep need for love and steadiness, the love and grief already there. Hermes, the Magician character, has never owned up to this- never let anyone see him weak, never embraced himself as anything other than the great poetic searcher of the mystical treasure, the alchemist loosely held by gravity. But he sees now how desolate he is, how weak and lost without the soft, steady binding of the ordinary earth. Extraordinary dreams are nothing without flesh and bone to them, without the strange mystical reality of earth and the mundane, the ground of life. A complete, spiritual life needs gratitude, and work, and enduring love to sustain it. Imagination and beautiful thoughts must be nourished by reality. There is so much grace and alchemy innate in ordinary life, a wellspring of mystical wisdom and beauty so easily tapped into with compassion and clear perception. If only he had known that great shimmering truth. He cannot find his lapis philosophorum, his wonderful treasure in this melancholy, solitary, immaterial land where he is lost so hopelessly, lanternless and longing... And so he fades away without his source to guide him, and his breath collapses in a chorus of goodbyes. Another long post. How surprising.
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Post by tannis on Apr 29, 2008 1:45:06 GMT
All the Love From its title, All the Love could've been The Dreaming's only straight love song, but the doleful remorse swamping the verse/chorus sections is suitable for what Kate describes as a lack of love song. She cites this one when I ask if any of the songs are about herself. "Some of them are definitely parts of me. I think All the Love definitely says something...Not necessarily the negative side of me but the self-pitying side. The way you look at human beings and yourself, and think we're just a heap of shit. If we weren't so scared of saying what we meant, it would be so much better. All the times you didn't say things to people, either because of pride, or rejection fears--that sort of thing. That may not be an example of my own life, but I felt it nearly happening. "It's just a terrible feeling, the thought of people having gone without the right amount of feedback. I think that really fucks people up. There are loads of people who spend all day saying, "What do you think?" I get an awful lot of feedback; even if it's negative it's better than nothing." "Dream Time in the Bush"gaffa.org/reaching/i82_zz.htmlKate on All the Love Although we are often surrounded by people and friends, we are all ultimately alone, and I feel sure everyone feels lonely at some time in their life. I wanted to write about feeling alone, and how having to hide emotions away or being too scared to show love can lead to being lonely as well. There are just some times when you can't cope and you just don't feel you can talk to anyone. I go and find a bathroom, a toilet or an empty room just to sit and let it out and try to put it all together in my mind. Then I go back and face it all again. *I think it's sad how we forget to tell people we love that we do love them. Often we think about these things when it's too late or when an extreme situation forces us to show those little things we're normally too shy or too lazy to reveal. One of the ideas for the song sparked when I came home from the studio late one night. I was using an answering machine to take the day's messages and it had been going wrong a lot, gradually growing worse with time. It would speed peoples' voices up beyond recognition, and I just used to hope they would ring back again one day at normal speed. This particular night, I started to play back the tape, and the machine had neatly edited half a dozen messages together to leave "Goodbye", "See you!", "Cheers", "See you soon"... It was a strange thing to sit and listen to your friends ringing up apparently just to say goodbye. I had several cassettes of peoples' messages all ending with authentic farewells, and by copying them onto 1/4" tape and re-arranging the order, we managed to synchronize the "callers" with the last verse of the song. There are still quite a few of my friends who have not heard the album or who have not recognised themselves and are still wondering how they managed to appear in the album credits when they didn't even set foot into the studio. Kate's KBC article, Issue 12 (Oct 1982)gaffa.org/garden/kate14.html* Under the Ivy: I sit here in the thunder...[/color]
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Apr 29, 2008 2:13:21 GMT
^ I love the story about the answering machine. And philosophically, very illuminating comments on the song from Kate - she talks about people being fundamentally alone, and the need there is sometimes to just retreat, and put the world back together - and I've always seen the idea of solitude, and it's benefits and sorrows, as very important to The Dreaming. And about being to shy or lazy to express love to the people we care about when tragedy does not press us to do so is so spot on. I think it really fits into my concept album vision of TD, as well - the Hermes figure's restlessness and irremediable desire arise from an inability to appreciate what is already there; an inability to articulate love and gratitude for the way things are until they are are lost or threatened.
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Post by tannis on Jun 24, 2008 16:32:23 GMT
"All The Love" - This is a very good song and thanks to Zan and MT, I understand it a bit better now. "The first time I died" is a lyric which I'm sure very few other artists would even think of writing down in a song. Kate takes the unobvious and puts it right in front of our eyes. I hope she continues to do this in her next album! The first time I died Was in the arms of good friends of mine...Maybe KaTe was thinking of Sylvia Plath when she wrote All The Love...The first time it happened I was ten. It was an accident.
The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut
As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plathwww.sylviaplathforum.com/ll.html
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Jun 24, 2008 22:45:47 GMT
I wouldn't be surprised if Kate had read some of Sylvia Plath's work. The line is reminiscent of Lady Lazarus.
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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 9, 2008 13:58:31 GMT
Yet Another of Adena's Time Wasters (analysis on All The Love)
Going out? Strange concept here. This sets the scene for the sadness here... and shows that years cannot erase friendships when they run deep.
Neglect? Hate? Again, years cannot erase the wish for loving.
Public eye means Kate has to hide her grief? I don't know. This one puzzles me.
She can't face her friends, so she uses a machine. The machine has a part of her on it, but really, what's a part to the person?
Everybody says their goodbyes - and waits for her move. A fitting, and very clever end, given the way in which it came about.
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Jul 9, 2008 16:22:34 GMT
Yet Another of Adena's Time Wasters (analysis on All The Love) I always enjoy reading these. Maybe the way the character tries to hide their grief reflects the hard time they had showing love to the people in their life? Only tragedy can release the locked up sorrow and feeling in their heart... but even that can't bring the barriers down completely. I think this song looks at a situation where someone dies finding that they had 'kept it shut' to all the gifts they had in life. I love the story behind all the voices saying goodbye... It is a fitting ending.
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Post by tannis on Jul 9, 2008 21:04:41 GMT
Yes, "Going out" is a strange concept here, suggesting a candle, a light, or a life going out...
The opening lyric, "The first time", brings to mind Plath's Lady Lazarus. However, the first verse also suggests how superficial and two-faced people can be, especially in school or in show business...The first time I died Was in the arms of good friends of mine. They kiss me with tears. They hadn't been near me for years...All The Love is a bleak and dramatic piece, perhaps dealing with suicidal drama and theatrics. 'To die on stage' is to flop, to lose the audience, to crash... Or it is to play the dying part...Only tragedy allows the release Of love and grief never normally seen...So the protagonist might be referring to a (school) drama production: Greek Tragedy's "The Queen is Dead!" The protagonist's character dies (on stage) "in the arms of good friends". They kiss her with dramatic tears. But in the real world (like in school) these "friendly players" shun her and send her to Coventry... They hadn't been near me for years...KB: "I became very shy at school. It laid some very heavy inhibitions on me. I wasn't exactly bullied, but there were people who picked on me and gave me a very hard time. I was very thin, and younger than most in my class, so I was rather like the runt of the litter. I'd get hit occasionally, but nothing that heavy. And I never fought back. I was aware of a lot of my friends being into things that I wasn't into. Like sarcasm. It had never been a part of my family--they still don't use sarcasm. I don't actually think it's nice. I think sarcasm is a very cheap and negative way of trying to get laughs and make yourself superior. It was a very cruel environment, and I was a loner. But I learnt to get hurt, and I learnt to cope with it. My friends used to play this game whereby they'd send you to Coventry. My friends sometimes used to ignore me completely, and that would really upset me badly. I still tend to be vulnerable, but I'm much better at fighting back if people are nasty to me today. I felt weak a lot of the time, but I think I was much stronger than I realised... The school was obviously quite religious in nature, being a convent school. I started getting concepts on God very early on. I remember saying to my father that maybe God was a circle, because I'd been told that he never began and he never finished. To me that was a circle. A lot of Catholicism is still in me deeper than I can see. But I don't follow that religion at all..." The Complete published writings of Kate Bushgaffa.org/garden/tofy.htmlBut I know I have shown That I stand at the gates alone...And 'stand at the gates' could to be a religious, biblical reference: e.g.Joshua, Chapter 201 And the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying: Speak to children of Israel and say to them: 2 Appoint cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by the hand of Moses: 3 That whosoever shall kill a person unawares may flee to them, and may escape the wrath of the kinsman, who is the avenger of blood. 4 And when he shall flee to one of these cities: he shall stand before the gate of the city, and shall speak to the ancients of that city, such things as prove him innocent: and so shall they receive him, and give him a place to dwell in. 2 Kings, Chapter 717 And the king appointed that lord on whose hand he leaned, to stand at the gate: and the people trod upon him in the entrance of the gate; and he died, as the man of God had said, when the king came down to him. Judith, Chapter 830 And Judith said to them: As you know that what I have been able to say is of God: 31 So that which I intend to do prove ye if it be of God, and pray that God may strengthen my design. 32 You shall stand at the gate this night, and I will go out with my maidservant: and pray ye, that as you have said, in five days the Lord may look down upon his people Israel. 33 But I desire that you search not into what I am doing, and till I bring you word let nothing else be done but to pray for me to the Lord our God. Jeremiah, Chapter 1719 Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Juda come in, and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem: 20 And thou shalt say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings of Juda, and al Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates. Jeremiah, Chapter 71 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying: 2 Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda, that enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord. Revelation, Chapter 320 Behold, I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him: and he with me. 21 To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome and am set down with my Father in his throne. 22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. All the love, all the love, All the love we should have given. All the love, all the love, All the love you could have given. All the love, all the love, All the love... ("Run for the hills...")Run For The Hills: When someone really wants to get away from a situation or relationship as fast as they can, they "run for the hills", assuming higher ground is safer. Usually it is when you are scared of something or scared of commitment. "I told her I loved her, so she ran for the hills." "Every time she asks me to come over, I freak out and run for the hills."www.urbandictionary.com/The telephone answering machine ending kinda reminds me of the Teenage Tragedy Song, "Hello, This Is Joannie" by Paul Evans:The phone rang once, the phone rang twice And then I heard her say-hey: "Hello, this is Joannie, I'm sorry but I'm not home But if you leave me your name and number I promise, soon as I get in I'll phone..."The 'teenage tragedy song' is a sometimes forgotten genre that was very "popular" in the fifties and sixties. The characters in these ballads face the ultimate emotional challenge: the death of a loved one. The song is either sung from the viewpoint of the dead person's sweetheart, or sometimes from the viewpoint of the dead (or dying) person. Asleep by The Smiths revisits the Dead Teen Song genre... As does KaTe's The Kick Inside...
Dead Teen Songs www.nyx.net/~anon52ea/DeadTeenSongs.html
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Post by Al Truest on Jul 9, 2008 23:13:52 GMT
Thanks. Very interesting read.
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Jul 9, 2008 23:54:49 GMT
Yes, thank you Tannis. I did always think of 'stand at the gate alone' as something of a biblical reference, meaning heaven's gate, but it's great to see more information about that.
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Post by tannis on Jul 10, 2008 15:38:51 GMT
Thank you... Maybe the way the character tries to hide their grief reflects the hard time they had showing love to the people in their life? Only tragedy can release the locked up sorrow and feeling in their heart... but even that can't bring the barriers down completely. I think this song looks at a situation where someone dies finding that they had 'kept it shut' to all the gifts they had in life. Yes, Rosa, the song does leave this impression. Rather like someone shutting themselves away, entombed, like Miss Haversham.
So now when they ring I get my machine to let them in...
It has been suggested that Kate Bush had a security system installed because of John Lennon's murder:Apparently, Kate said that "she was very glad the year [1980] was over because it had been an awful year and that she had been very depressed about John Lennon's murder. Seen in this light, it isn't too hard to see that the line, "Now when they ring, I get my machine to let them in," definitely refers to Kate's own security system, and that the line, "My door was never locked/ Until one day a trigger come -- cocking," almost certainly is an allusion to the effect that John Lennon's murder had on Kate." "Leave It Open"gaffa.org/dreaming/td_lio.htmlAlso: "I give them what they want to hear" might reflect KaTe's interview style; and "They think I'm up to something weird" might reflect fan rumour, as in the second verse to KoTM, or Golden Dawn speculation...
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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 10, 2008 15:57:12 GMT
*puts on something happier*
Good, all of that constant repeating of All The Love was depressing me.
I really like this song, but it has awful effects for the poor emotional complex.
Yes... but an ending to what? Kate Bush as we knew her?
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Post by tannis on Jul 10, 2008 19:12:52 GMT
The telephone answering messages at the end of All The Love are the attempts of friends and family to contact their loved one on the other side, to get through their psychological barriers and defenses, etc. Indeed, there is something magical and paranormal about telephonetic transportation:
In the early twentieth century, investigators modified the telegraph and wireless with the hopes of communicating with the dead. Thomas Edison, whose parents were Spiritualists, worked on but never completed a telephone that he hoped would connect the living with the dead. During the 1940s the "psychic telephone" experiments were conducted in England and America in attempts to reach the dead. Again, interest arose in the 1960s when Konstantin Raudive announced that he had captured voices of the dead in electromagnetic tape (Electronic voice phenomenon). Raudive was inspired by the experimentation of Fredrich Jürgenson, Swedish opera singer, painter, and film producer. In 1959 Jürgenson tape recorded aerial birdsongs in the Swedish countryside near his villa...
Mummy… Daddy… The day is full of birds Sounds like there saying words...
When playing the tape back Jürgenson heard a male voice discussing "nocturnal bird songs" in Norwegian. At first, Jürgenson thought he had picked up a radio broadcast, and then thought it seemed strange that such an accident should be discussing bird songs. He made more tapings. During the tapings he heard no voices, but on play backs he heard many voices, which seemed to have personal information for him, plus instructions on how to record more voices...
Just like a photograph I pick you up Just like a station on the radio I pick you up...
Jürgenson showed Raudive how to record the voices. Raudive's research was documented in a 1971 book called "Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead." Included with the book was a flex-disc (phonograph recording) of excerpts of the research, including both audio of the (supposed) ghostly voices, and the narrator reading the English translation back to us (the ghost voices are in Latvian, German, Swedish and other languages). On their album Hatful Of Hollow (1987), The Smiths use a sample of Raudive's flex-disc at the end of Rubber Ring: "You are sleeping... You do not want to believe..."
So the telephone messages at the end of All The Love are kinda paranormal, like friends trying to contact the dead, the underworld; to resuscitate someone shut up and dying from lack of love and an inability to connect with love.KB: "I wanted to write about feeling alone, and how having to hide emotions away or being too scared to show love can lead to being lonely as well... I think it's sad how we forget to tell people we love that we do love them. Often we think about these things when it's too late or when an extreme situation forces us to show those little things we're normally too shy or too lazy to reveal..." Kate's KBC article, Issue 12 (Oct 1982), About The Dreaming gaffa.org/garden/kate14.htmlAll The Love is followed by Houdini. In Houdini, Bess, just like those telephone callers, desperately tries to contact the dead... Everybody waiting... I wait at the table... We wait for your move... I wait for you... We're waiting... We're waiting... We're waiting...
Houdini and All The Love both reflect desperation. But All The Love ends in petrifaction and fossilization, while Houdini promises panoramic breakthrough... "Rosabel, believe!" see more: Electronic voice phenomenonwww.themystica.com/mystica/pages/paranormal.htm
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