Suspended In Gaffa

[W.HI.P]

I am as open as anyone to discuss all views, And i respect your request to Leave it open! I meant not to close anything, only to state my views, how else can we discuss this? I understand you wish to apply rules to this discussion. I can understand this, and respect it, but to express myself, i must continue in the only way that I know.
I will not be taken offense to hear opposing views on specific things. Feedback from others is the key to realize some things that we may have missed or misunderstood, thus listening to the song in a different way. This could trigger off a deeper understanding.
(Rephrased)

[Adey]

Exactly the point made by Xan some time ago, when I sought to close the discussion on another song with my own definitive (I thought) interpretation. She was right then, as you are now..

[amy]

Just having a look around youtube. Have a look at this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5z87kgH4FU

You might have already seen this. It's really wonderful to be able to perform with this kind of abandonment of self consciousness. She is totally expressing herself alone with no band and maybe that's why she changed her attitude towards performance. She's there completely alone. It must be hard to look back at a performance like this without feeling as though you might had looked foolish. Of course anyone else would look foolish but Kate just makes you want to love her because she's allowed herself to be so vulnerable. I wonder how she'll judge her music when she's 90. I reckon she might have a few giggles - she does have a sense of humour about herself! This performance just proves it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV8a3C6xeOY - This is so much fun - 'ecogazoo' just sums it up totally!

[Adey]

amy said:

Just having a look around youtube. Have a look at this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5z87kgH4FU

Fantastic.. I often forget these earlier performances, entranced as I am by Kate's more mature works. She's everyone's favourite younger sister performing her party piece on Xmas morning..

[tannis]

Sylvia Plath: "Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing."

SIG is incredibly well-crafted poetry and offers many readings and meanings... The Deeper Understanding I offer here focuses on the lyric poetry and video. The contrast between music and lyric shows great mastery and control. The Dreaming seems to 'songscape' overcoming barriers and/or violations. Indeed, the feminine literary tradition often deals with entrapment and escape, agoraphobia and claustrophobia. So, could this song deal with trauma? Of course, I am reading into this greatly, and it could very well be a misinterpretation. I have opted for line-by-line commentary...

KB: "And really, I mean, for myself, if I look at my life, in a way I feel I've led almost two lives. Because the first part of my life was so difficult, whereas the second part... I would say from my life up until 16 and then from 17 up until now have been two completely different stages."
1982 Picture Disk, The Dreaming Interview
gaffa.org/reaching/im82_pd.html


Out in the garden There's half of a heaven
- the garden - Eden? = earthly paradise; the original Eden was very likely in heaven, which agrees with the view on the subject held by the Arabs (wiki). The serpent tempts Eve, saying that she will not die, but would become like a god, knowing good and evil. Moreover, some traditions maintain that Cain was the serpent's first born son begotten over Eve.*
- 'Out in the garden' - a) the protagonist is out in the garden, in Eden, half of a Heaven; or b) feels dislocated both 'out' and 'in' the Garden.
- 'Out in the garden, there's half of a heaven' could also refer to her home studio which was located out in the grounds of her parent's house.
- In Breathing, the phase 'Out in...' signifies danger. And Kate admits that some of her friends thought MRS B (which also uses 'Out... In...') was "about the disguise of a crime" (Rolling Stone, 2006).
- "Out in the garden" (female pubic area) could be a KT idiom suggesting sex, masturbation, and that heaven inside. Indeed, some say that "Them Heavy People" is about masturbation.

And we're only bluffing
- We = exterior-self & interior-self (i.e. the divided self)?
- The exterior alter-ego is a 'bluff,' a defensive mask?

We're not ones for busting through walls
- Breaking through psychological defense-mechanisms to un-repress/recover the (unconscious) truth? Breaking the silence? Facing really challenging and difficult issues?

But they've told us Unless we can prove That we're doing it We can't have it all
- 'it all' - In TKI, the protagonist is giving 'it all' (committing suicide; 'it all' = life)...
So, in SIG could it be that 'it all' = wanting to feel they have their life back? a sense of autonomy, control, Freedom, etc.

He's gonna wangle A way to get out of it
- The offender?

She's an excuse And a witness who'll talk when he's called
- 'She' = mother?
- or the Lolita-esque groomed inner child?
SIG: "Not until I'm ready for you..."
TGaT: "Not until they let me see my solicitor..."
Sat In Your Lap: "I want to be a lawyer..."
TWL: And I'm coming for you!

"I caught a glimpse of a god, all shining and bright"
- The protagonist remembers the Garden of Eden/Innocence? before knowing good and evil?
- Or maybe the god is pagan Priapus?

KB on SIG: "Lyrically it's not really that dissimilar from 'Sat In Your Lap' in saying that you really want to work for something. It's playing with the idea of hell. At school I was always taught that if you went to hell you would see a glimpse of God and that was it - you never saw him again and you'd spend the rest of eternity pining to see him..."
- gaffa.org/reaching/i82_mm.html
Pat Benatar, 'Hell is for Children';
TMWTCIHE, run-out area reads: The child hides in the light;
see katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=theredshoes&action=display&n=1&thread=1752&page=3

KARIN: "The door opened, but the God was a spider. He came up to me and I saw his face. It was a terrible, stony face. He scrambled up and tried to penetrate me, but I defended myself. All along I saw his eyes. They were cold and calm. When he couldn’t penetrate me, he continued up my chest, up into my face and onto the wall. I have seen God."
Through a Glass Darkly (Bergman, 1961).

Suddenly my feet are feet of mud It all goes slo-mo I don't know why I'm crying
- Frustration, anger and surfacing memories are often too much to take. A fog makes everything slow. Alienation from self and others.
- 'Suspended animation.'

Am I suspended in Gaffa?
- Withdrawn and caught up in psychological torment?

KB: "Suspended in Gaffa is trying to simulate being trapped in a kind of web: everything is in slow motion, and the person feels like they're tied up. They can't move."
Kate's KBC article Issue 16
gaffa.org/garden/kate18.html

Not until I'm ready for you Not until I'm ready for you
Can I have it all
- Not until she feels ready to deal with issues can she have life/freedom/etc ('it all').

I try to get nearer But as it gets clearer There's something appears in the way
It's a plank in me eye With a camel Who's trying to get through it
- When the protagonist gets nearer to dealing with one set of issues, she faces difficult Religious issues (vis a vis the confessional, etc), and other problematic barriers kick in?
- The (confusing) mixed metaphor (plank/camel) shows how heavy, daunting and confusing these hindrances are.

Am I doing it?
- Confiding in another, seeking help, busting through (Religious) walls, etc.?
- Constant motivational and identity challenges.

I pull out the plank...
- But the protagonist rejects Christian religious biblical teaching?

and say "Thank you for yanking me back To the fact that there's Always something to distract"
- Self-determined clarity and guidance? Search for distracting/sublimated venture?
- 'Thank you' is used with courageous irony.

But sometimes it's hard To know if I'm doing it right
- Constant self-doubt and bewilderment re: 'sublimated' (distr)action?

Can I have it all? Can I have it all now? We can't have it all
- Constant battle with progress, stress and focus.
- Resignation; 'learned helplessness'.

"We all have a dream...maybe"
- or maybe not?

[Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly ... ('ASIL,' TLTC&TC, 1994)
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow ... ('Under Ice')
...Langston Hughs]

I won't open boxes That I am told not to I'm not a Pandora
- In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. She is most famous for carrying a box containing all the world's evils. She releases these evils, but closes the lid before Hope can escape (NFE album 'Pandora' cover art?). In Christian religion, Eve was the first woman; and because Eve tempted Adam to eat of the fatal fruit, also the first sinner and responsible for the Fall.
- The protagonist is not a Pandora/Eve. (Eve is not mentioned, further suggesting the protagonist has rejected Christian biblical teaching.) But neither is she prepared for disclosure. There is fear and she will do as she is told.

I'm much more like That girl in the mirror
- Is the 'girl in the mirror' a reference to ISOPP?
"Dennis loves to look In the mirror He tells me that he is beautiful
So I look too, and what do I see?
My eyes are full But my face is empty"
- The bluffing, exterior mask conceals the injured, empty interior self (i.e. divided self).

Between you and me
- Only herself and her reflection understand the situation.

She don't stand a chance of getting anywhere at all Not anywhere at all No, not a thing
- Trapped inside herself, unable to be a free-spirited seeker in the world, unable to find it a fulfilling place.
- The inner-self cannot achieve; a defensive, sublimated alter-ego is necessary for getting on in life.

She can't have it all
- The protagonist speaks of her inner-self in the third-person.

"Mother, where are the angels? I'm scared of the changes"
- The protagonist is scared of dealing with puberty, physical changes, and growing up generally.
- TGaT: "One of the rabble Needs mummy..."


* GAFFA: "So if the 'setting' of the song, or the general orientation, is more or less autobiographical... and, specifically, based on some of Kate's early childhood experiences, then what if "half of a heaven" really is a reference to Kate's own childhood barn out "in the bottom of our garden," the place of the old broken-down organ which was the home of countless mice?** ...I think that that same old disused barn was later used as one of Kate's early demo studios, where she would have done some of her first musical creations [and SIG video?]' - gaffa.org/dreaming/td_sig.html

** the place of the old broken-down organ...

"Wide eyes would clean and dust
Things that decay, things that rust..."

Something made of wood and metal will decay and rust, such as a broken down organ. So these lines could be an autobiographical reference to "Kate's own childhood barn out "in the bottom of our garden," the place of the old broken-down organ which was the home of countless mice?"
gaffa.org/dreaming/td_sig.html


EDIT ONE:
- If the above poetry/video analysis is plausible, then is there a degree of weirdness in making the mother play her part in the video? ... (and Dr Bush* in TF/TSW? etc... etc...)
- And see the 'confessional' album cover art for NFE and TSW

"[Kate Bush] made her own experience of the creative process quite clear with the cover of Never For Ever. A cornucopia of fantastic and real, beautiful and vile creatures -- the products of her imagination -- is shown swirling our from beneath her skirt..."
- gaffa.org/reaching/i89_q3.html

The NFE cover kinda reminds me of Pandora opening her box!

* Was KB's father a psychiatrist? and did her mother work as a psychiatric nurse in Long Grove Mental Hospital, Epsom?

see more:
THE WHOLE STORY: This house is full of m-m-madness...
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=dreaming&action=display&thread=1712&page=5

...and during the Kate Bush Swap Shop interview (YouTube; 12:44) KB says that she was 'really into being a psychiatrist...'

...and in the Suspended In Gaffa video, KT wears what looks like a restraining suit. In the Experiment IV video Paddy wears a straitjacket, and in the Rubberband Girl video KaTe wears a straitjacket...

...The strait waist-coat or strait jacket was heralded in the late 18th century as an advance in the management of the insane.

[Al Truest]

Tannis...If I put that much thought into the lyrics I couldn't enjoy the song. And even when you are probably right, the song can have as many meanings as there are listeners. But please don't let me discourage you. I enjoy your observations.

[rosabelbelieve]

In my opinion, SIG is where the first spiritual progress is made. It reminds me of the satori, or the mystical experience which marks the real beginning of a spiritual quest in Zen Buddhism. It seems after losing her way in the last few songs, X is finding her balance again, and is learning to accept herself and her fearfulness (Mummy, where are the angels? I'm scared of the changes!) The whispered lines seem to me to show that she has acknowledged her childself- the innocent and perceptive soul who can recieve "a glimpse of God" and not be ashamed of fear and uncertainty.

The garden does seem to be Eden to me, the original paradise, the unconscious, the uruboros, the prima materia that existed before the rise of consciousness and mankind's habit of dividing things to understand them. I'm reading Jung's Psychology and Alchemy right now, and I'm seeing a connection between this garden and the primal matter of alchemy and the latent unconscious, which in their earthy chaos and darkness contain all the ingredients needed to produce the lapis philosophorum, or the individuated self. In this song it seems linked with childhood, and innocence, when a glimpse of the sacred was unquestioned and close at hand, and heaven was seen on earth. X seems to know that this is no longer the case- "we're only bluffing, we're not ones for busting through walls.." The sacred is no longer an experience for her, it is a dusty idea. She is not brave enough to break through those walls of sediment, those edifices of fixed ideas. This is neccesary though, before she is to "have it all." The desire to "have it all" seems to me to be at the heart of the Dreaming- again, drawing from alchemy, it is the quest for the philosopher's stone, for the center of the mandala- maybe in the form of spiritual enlightenment, complete philosophical understanding, or perhaps the creation of a true artistic masterpiece. The quest for something transcendent.

This desire seems to put her in the position of an Eve or a Pandora- presented with a choice to remain in unconscious bliss and childlike completion, the uroboros snake biting it's tail in an unchanging circle... or to set out from home, seeking wisdom, seeking the lapis, seeking individuation. It seems to me that the natural and harmonious choice is sin- almost like Waking the Witch. The serpent uncoiling, the Devil, is a strange and fateful character. He sets all the wheels into motion, in a cycle of death and rebirth. Much like the Witch- there would be no story without her strange governing force, whether we call it good or evil. X must become the Witch, to find wisdom and completion. She must be Eve and Pandora, opening boxes, picking from the tree of knowledge...

The "he" and "she" bring to mind the anima and the ego, the King and Queen present in the alchemical prima materia which unite to form the completion of the lapis. "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..." maybe this is the ego, the masculine element, attempting to escape from the illogical, earthy, feminine unconscious, as it appears to him in contradiction with all his rationality and conventionality. The secret of wholeness, though, lies in embracing the unconscious. It also seems to me to refer to the ambitious human spirit which would 'wangle it's way out" of the bindings of nature and fate, the magician, the artist who is determined to incarnate the impossible, to transcend the spidery weavings of fate. This, for me, returns more strongly in NOTS and Houdini. The feminine figure is "an excuse" and "a witness who'll talk when he's called..." This is still quite mysterious to me, but it suggests a few things- the witness who'll talk when he's called seems similar to fate, the universal artist, witnessing everything. Unless they find a way of being in harmony, X can never have it all.

The chorus seems to me to be the mystical experience- she is ensnared, spellbound, in the honey-sticky spiderweb of the sacred, in a mystical binding that recalls paradise. It sets her back to the beginning, cleanly. In the cyclic nature of quests, this state is at once her most desired and complete philosopher's stone, and the prima materia she must move away from. This is a beautifully illuminating revelation, but it passes quickly. She has had a glimpse of having it all, and now must work for the true, lasting presence of this mystical completion.

The second verse presents impatience, X's feeling that she should be able to have it all without hard work, without the distractions of the material world, without tearing down personal illusions, that she should be able to do it right immediately. She is brought back to the reality of things, though, and she accepts that, though grudgingly it seems from the way "thank you for yanking me back to the fact..." is sung. Her desire to "have it all" is still frustratingly intense. In the last verse she seems to acknowledge how fearful of change she is, how, frozen with fear, she stands no chance of getting "anywhere at all." She is not a Pandora, bold enough to disobey. "Mummy, where are the angels? I'm scared of the changes!" The song seems to end in her seeing herself clearly, though frustrated. She knows the path she must take, though- the path of opening boxes and busting through walls. Leave It Open seems to me to show the beginning of the process revealed in Suspended In Gaffa. X is finally learning something...

Wow, that was long! Well, if anyone reads through all of this I will be very impressed.

[tannis]

rosabelbelieve said:

Oh hey, I had always wondered about that! It would be very cool if she were actually influenced by his ideas. And I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. I see a lot of connections to Kate's work, or at least similarities. Especially on The Dreaming, TRS, and Aerial.

Joseph Campbell gets a mention in this piece too...


Date: 29 Mar 90
Subject: What's "gaffa"? Well, it's NOT gaffer's tape!

What is "gaffa"?

Well, you'll get a dozen different answers but the one you'll hear most often will be the WRONG answer! That is: "gaffa is gaffer's tape, just like the duct tape electricians and roadies use"

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

OK, I can hear the emacs being fired up all over the world.

......."But Kate HERSELF said that gaffa is gaffer's tape".......

It's my duty Dave, to inform you of a fact that long-time Katefans are aware of but that tends to bewilder new fans.

Kate lies.

Oh, she isn't a pathological liar or it isn't that you can NEVER believe anything she says, it's just that sometimes she bends or omits the truth when asked certain questions. Why? Here are a few reasons:

1) She wants to be ambiguous sometimes because she wants people to interpret songs from within themselves, rather than take what she says as the final answer.

2) Sometimes she gets asked the same question over and over and over again and it's easier to come up with a quick and simple answer than to try to explain complicated matters to interviewers who wouldn't generally understand or care anyway.

3) She's lazy sometimes (about answering questions) and just doesn't feel like going into detail. She figures fans will work it out and who else cares so why waste the energy? She generally gives the most complete answers to questions in her fan club newsletter, where she knows that the people reading really care and truly want to know.

She's been asked time and time again what "gaffa" means and she quickly decided that the answer "gaffer's tape" was the best to give. Most people would say "oh, OK" and leave it at that. That answer doesn't make the least bit of sense though so I've come up with my own theory. I'm not a very articulate person but I'll try to do my best.

First of all, "gaffa" is a made-up word. It doesn't exist in the English language. There is a "gaffa" in the Italian dictionary which is the feminine of the French "gaffe". Maybe she was inspired by the Italian word, but the fact that she always answers "gaffer's tape" makes me think that she was inspired more by the word "gaffer".

Also, the word "gaff" has lots of different definitions in the dictionary, many of which could fit into the general meaning of the song "Suspended In Gaffa". More on this in a bit.

No matter where she got the inspiration, "gaffa" is Kate's word. It does NOT mean gaffer's tape, it's meaning is somewhat similar, but much, much more complex.

"Suspended In Gaffa" is a song that no one really understands fully. I can only scratch the surface when I try to explain it.

I have no idea what the first two verses mean, by the way. "Out in the garden, there's half of a heaven" could refer to her family home (which has a lovely, heavenly garden), or it could mean her home studio (at that time located at her parent's house).

"And we're only bluffing" ... Who's "we", bluffing about what...and how?

"We're not ones for busting through walls" ... Who's "we", what walls? Walls of knowledge? (Kate was heavily influenced by Pink Floyd's "The Wall" btw, but I don't know if that has anything to do with this line.)

"But they've told us unless we can prove/That we're doing it/ We can't have it all" ... Who's "they"? Told who? Prove what? How? Doing what? Have what?

"He's gonna wangle a way to get out of it" ... Who's "he"? Wangle how? Out of what?

"She's an excuse/And a witness who'll talk when he's called" ... Huh?

SIG is about someone (a woman, could be Kate herself, though the feelings the character goes through could be felt by men or women) who is insecure about finding knowledge and feeling as if they don't deserve to have the knowledge they so very much want. It's about striving for something, wanting something very badly, yet when it seems close to becoming reality, something blocks the progress.

"I try to get nearer/But as it gets clearer/There's something appears in the way/It's a plank in me eye/With a camel who's trying to get through it"
"Am I doing it? Can I have it all now?"
"I pull out the plank/And say thank you for yanking me back/To the fact/ That there's always something to distract/But sometimes it's hard/ To know if I'm doing it right"
"Can I have it all?" "Can I have it all now?" "We can't have it all"

I know there are Biblical references in there (camel through eye) but I'm not very well versed in the Bible so I'll let someone else go into more detail. Kate said once that the song was inspired by the horrifying Bible stories she heard as a child (She grew up Catholic but isn't part of the church anymore). I don't remember her exact words, something about how in Purgatory you would be given a glimpse of God so as to give you hope. Hell, though, was much worse because you would be given a glimpse of God to see how "great" & "good" he is, but you knew that you would never see him again. Kate said once that the song is about trying to find "Heaven".

I think the song can be interpreted to mean "God's Heaven", but I think that Kate had a much more interesting thing in mind. Everyone has their own "Heaven" and it could be God's, Buddha's, or a thousand other deities. OR it could be a personal heaven that is unique to the individual. Something along the lines of Joseph Campbell's "bliss" ("everyone has to find their own bliss").

A personal bliss or heaven would be something that makes you happy, something that makes your life interesting and meaningful and keeps you occupied. (It could be stamp collecting, it could be Kate Bush's music. It could be playing guitar, it could be watching movies. It could be any number of things.)

The saddest people of all are those who live their lives with no real interests or hobbies.
SIG is about "someone happily tripping through life", then all of a sudden it's as if they're going in slow motion. They start asking questions and realizing that to get the things they want is not going to be as easy as they had hoped. There are barriers and obstacles. Those can be physical or mental (by the way, this is the part that I use when I explain why I called my radio show "Suspended In Gaffa". I'd get into it but that would likely add another few paragraphs to this post so I won't).

It's about a character who's so insecure she's not sure she'll EVER get what she really wants because she's afraid to "open boxes" like Pandora. Afraid of what she might find.
It's about a state of mind and/or a state of being that keeps you in limbo, not able to get any further in your quest for whatever it is that you're looking for (that's where "Gaffa"-suspended therin, comes into the picture)

SIG is a sister song to "Sat In Your Lap" on the same album. SIYL is saying the same sorts of things, it's just much easier to understand. Kate has a much earlier song called "Frightened Eyes" (by some people-no one except Kate really knows what the title is) which deals with a similar subject. "They've all got frightened eyes/Saying leave me
alone/I'm perfectly safe here inside/Please don't surprise me...

SIG is about fear and insecurity and barriers and taboos and society and status quo and all kinds of things that I'm not anywhere near smart enough to even begin to try to figure out.
SIG is about three minutes and fifty-three seconds.
sigh....

gaffa.org/dreaming/E2_gaffa.html

[rosabelbelieve]

Thank you for posting this. I love the old Love-Hounds stuff. I think a lot of The Dreaming could be thought of as a struggle to find and 'follow your bliss'. SIG brings to mind the crossing of the first threshold, for me. And maybe SIYL is like the call to adventure? And The Ninth Wave reminds me of the belly of the whale, the descent into the unconscious.

[Barry SR Gowing]

SIG reminds me both of Sat In Your Lap and Running Up That Hill in the sense of dealing with the unknowable and the unattainable.

There seems to be a frustration with not being able to "have everything" but also a fear of doing anything at all. Of course, in RUTH this fear seems to have been overcome.

The line about "busting through walls" - I'm torn about whether to interpret this literally or symbolically. In RUTH she talks about 'running up that building', making deals with god, changing places with another person, and again is this meant to be literal or just symbolic?

Incidentally, "Gaffa" is an accepted term for gaffer tape, see:

www.industrysearch.com.au/Products/3M_Gaffa_Tape-21472
www.bmusic.com.au/category540_1.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape

However, even if that was what Kate had in mind (and I can accept that she would have heard her roadies talking about 'gaffa') it doesn't in itself shed much light on the song. She certainly isn't literally talking about being tied up in gaffer tape. That would be an undesirable interpretation! This is a song about fears, insecurity, emotions, thwarted ambitions and not gaffer tape!

I wonder if perhaps she is thinking about a particular childhood fear? It makes me think about my own childhood and the unsettling fears and phobias that one has at an early age.

And then there's all the quasi-biblical imagery: gardens/heaven/camels passing through eyes of needles...

Tannis' earlier suggestion (if I understand it correctly) that the song may in fact represent a kind of repressed memory of early childhood trauma is just flat out disturbing. Possibly correct, but I don't even really want to think about it!

Personally, I tend to think that the song is really about being frustrated with our imperfect physical self when spiritually we feel we could achieve much more. We are 'suspended in gaffa' in the sense of being very physically limited. However, even if we had the freedom to do as we wished without limitation, would we have the courage to do it, or would we still be psychologically inhibited? There's a paradox involved.

[rosabelbelieve]

barrysrgowing said:

SIG reminds me both of Sat In Your Lap and Running Up That Hill in the sense of dealing with the unknowable and the unattainable.

There seems to be a frustration with not being able to "have everything" but also a fear of doing anything at all. Of course, in RUTH this fear seems to have been overcome.

I very much agree with this. The unknowable and the unnattainable seem to me to be a the very heart of Kate's work, especially The Dreaming.

The line about "busting through walls" - I'm torn about whether to interpret this literally or symbolically. In RUTH she talks about 'running up that building', making deals with god, changing places with another person, and again is this meant to be literal or just symbolic?

Incidentally, "Gaffa" is an accepted term for gaffer tape, see:

www.industrysearch.com.au/Products/3M_Gaffa_Tape-21472
www.bmusic.com.au/category540_1.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape

However, even if that was what Kate had in mind (and I can accept that she would have heard her roadies talking about 'gaffa') it doesn't in itself shed much light on the song. She certainly isn't literally talking about being tied up in gaffer tape. That would be an undesirable interpretation! This is a song about fears, insecurity, emotions, thwarted ambitions and not gaffer tape!

I wonder if perhaps she is thinking about a particular childhood fear? It makes me think about my own childhood and the unsettling fears and phobias that one has at an early age.

And then there's all the quasi-biblical imagery: gardens/heaven/camels passing through eyes of needles...

Tannis' earlier suggestion (if I understand it correctly) that the song may in fact represent a kind of repressed memory of early childhood trauma is just flat out disturbing. Possibly correct, but I don't even really want to think about it!

Personally, I tend to think that the song is really about being frustrated with our imperfect physical self when spiritually we feel we could achieve much more. We are 'suspended in gaffa' in the sense of being very physically limited. However, even if we had the freedom to do as we wished without limitation, would we have the courage to do it, or would we still be psychologically inhibited? There's a paradox involved.

Good post. The part about 'suspended in gaffa' being suspended in the physical world is an interesting idea, and quite similar to my thoughts... I would say that it's not only the physical world she's suspended in, but more the whole level of existence as one person who cannot 'have it all.' Of course, I wrote up an enormous amount on TD earlier, as you can see, so what I think is partially contained in those posts.

I hope to hear more from you on Kate's work, Paul- this was very well-said.

[tannis]

Hello and welcome, Paul...
Have a good time reading though the threads, and I look forward to your posts!

[Barry SR Gowing]

Thanks tannis, I've been concentrating on reading about my favourite songs, but I'll probably branch out in a while. Your posts are very interesting I must say.

rosabelbelieve said:

Good post. The part about 'suspended in gaffa' being suspended in the physical world is an interesting idea, and quite similar to my thoughts... I would say that it's not only the physical world she's suspended in, but more the whole level of existence as one person who cannot 'have it all.' Of course, I wrote up an enormous amount on TD earlier, as you can see, so what I think is partially contained in those posts.

I hope to hear more from you on Kate's work, Paul- this was very well-said.

Thanks rosa! I agree there's even more in SIG than I suggested. "Having it all" is a hard concept to sum up.

She is still only one person ... even if freed from the physical world she still wouldn't have it all ... in fact she'd find that just when she thinks "she's king", she's really just beginning again on a new level. Also, I shouldn't dismiss the physical world; I daresay "having it all" would also include the notion of bliss in the physical world. I daresay that physical bliss isn't exactly "having it all" but as levels of bliss go, it's one of the best.

--Paul--

[Barry SR Gowing]

Mar 26, 2008 15:01:51 GMT tannis said:

I know there are Biblical references in there (camel through eye) but I'm not very well versed in the Bible so I'll let someone else go into more detail. Kate said once that the song was inspired by the horrifying Bible stories she heard as a child (She grew up Catholic but isn't part of the church anymore). I don't remember her exact words, something about how in Purgatory you would be given a glimpse of God so as to give you hope. Hell, though, was much worse because you would be given a glimpse of God to see how "great" & "good" he is, but you knew that you would never see him again. Kate said once that the song is about trying to find "Heaven".

The quote you're looking for is in the 1982 Melody Maker interview "Dreamtime Is Over" (the title of which seems to an awful pun on Elvis Costello's song Clowntime is Over). She said:

"Lyrically it's not really that dissimilar from Sat In Your Lap in saying that you really want to work for something. It's playing with the idea of hell. At school I was always taught that if you went to hell you would see a glimpse of God and that was it - you never saw him again and you'd spend the rest of eternity pining to see him. In a way it was even worse if you went to purgatory because you got the glimpse of God and you would see him again but you didn't know when. So it was almost like you had to sit here until he decided to come back.

I suppose for me in my work, because it's such a sped up life and so much happens to you and you analyse yourself a lot, you see the potential for perhaps getting to somewhere very special on an artistic or a spiritual level and that excites me a lot. And it's the idea of working towards that and perhaps one day, when you're ready for that change, it's like entering a different level of existence, where everything goes slow-mo... it's almost like a religious experience. That's basically what the song's about."



So in a sense the song is about feeling that you have a purpose in life (even if you don't quite know what it is) and that you are working towards something special, maybe something that puts you on a higher plane when you achieve it.

The Catholic idea of Purgatory is that it is a place that sinners go to after death if there is a possibility of redemption for them (the unredeemable just go straight to Hell). Purgatory involves purification of the soul. There are different interpretations of how this purification is achieved. There is certainly a punishment aspect involved; for example you might work, for years, decades, even centuries in purgatory, to atone for your Earthly sins until you are finally deemed worthy to enter heaven. Presumably, further sins committed in Purgatory count against you too and add extra time.

I understand that the Eastern Orthodox church also acknowledges a form of purgatory, Judaism has the concept of "Gehenna", and some Muslims believe that for certain people hell is only a temporary state which can be overcome whereas for others it is eternal.

However, I don't think that Suspended in Gaffa is literally about being in Purgatory; rather that she is likening her current condition to feeling like a kind of purgatory.

And even that doesn't really get close to explaining the song!

--Paul--

[rosabelbelieve]

^ Thanks for the information, Paul. I'd read the quote about SIG being about a situation similar to being in purgatory, and it's a very good one. I think it fits well into the idea of The Dreaming as a sort of quest for salvation, through realms earthly, psychological, infernal, and heavenly (which is somewhat akin to how I see it.