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Post by Lori on Jul 30, 2003 23:41:32 GMT
I wait at the table And hold hands with weeping strangers Wait for you To join the group
The tambourine jingle-jangles The medium roams and rambles Not taken in I break the circle
I want this man To go away now
With a kiss I'd pass the key And feel your tongue Teasing and receiving With your spit Still on my lip You hit the water
Him and I in the room To prove you are with us too
He's using code that only you and I know This is no trick of his This is your magic
I'd catch the cues Watching you Hoping you'd do something wrong
Everybody thinks you'll never make it But every time You escape:
'Rosabel believe Not even eternity Can hold Houdini!'
"Rosabel, believe!"
Through the glass I'd watch you breathe ("Not even eternity") Bound and drowned And paler than you've ever been ("--will hold Houdini!")
With your life The only thing in my mind We pull you from the water!
(Houdini!)
You ("Hou-di-ni...") And I And Rosabel believe
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Post by brillo69 on Jun 12, 2004 21:07:09 GMT
I wait at the table, And hold hands with weeping strangers, Wait for you To join the group.
The tambourine jingle-jangles. The medium roams and rambles. Not taken in, I break the circle.
I want this man To go away now.
With a kiss I'd pass the key And feel your tongue Teasing and receiving. With your spit Still on my lip, You hit the water.
Him and I in the room To prove you are with us too.
He's using code that only you and I know. This is no trick of his. This is your magic.
I'd catch the cues, Watching you, Hoping you'd do something wrong.
Everybody thinks you'll never make it, But every time, You escape:
'Rosabel believe, Not even eternity Can hold Houdini!'
"Rosabel, believe!"
Through the glass I'd watch you breathe. ("Not even eternity--") Bound and drowned, And paler than you've ever been. ("--will hold Houdini!")
With your life The only thing in my mind-- We pull you from the water!
(Houdini!)
You ("Hou-di-ni...") And I And Rosabel believe.
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Post by moominreggie on Jun 20, 2005 17:55:21 GMT
why has no one posted on this song call yourself fans. it is fantastic
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Post by Adey on Jun 20, 2005 18:04:08 GMT
Yes it is fantastic - at times my favourite KB track from certainly my favourite KB album. It has been discussed on several occasions but not necessarily on this thread. Look around you'll find many references to it And let me welcome you to the site - nice to see you here.
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Post by Al Truest on Jun 20, 2005 21:39:53 GMT
why has no one posted on this song call yourself fans. it is fantastic Agreed. We have, as Adey said, discussed it at length elsewhere. Maybe you could share your thoughts here and we'll chime in. This, I know, is one of Xanadu's favorites. I'm sure that you won't mind - you seem to have made yourself at home already. ;D Welcome.
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Post by matanchik on Jun 21, 2005 5:44:09 GMT
i also really like houdini, esp. the fretless bass in there and the amazing strings. it really passes the feel of the story
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Post by Adey on Jun 21, 2005 10:16:34 GMT
i also really like houdini, esp. the fretless bass in there and the amazing strings. it really passes the feel of the story agreed - the bass is amazing. Ebberhard Webber played on this & several other Kate tunes. Sorry about the plug, but look at my thread on the General Board - "Guys in the Band" - for an assessment of Webber and his contributions to her music.
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Post by Xanadu on Jun 21, 2005 18:59:29 GMT
why has no one posted on this song call yourself fans. it is fantastic It is wonderful, and so are just about all of them. But we can't talk about Kate all the time, right? So, when the song strikes us... we'll talk so much that we'll grow tired of that song.
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Post by tannis on Dec 6, 2007 13:20:07 GMT
In HOUDINI, the barrier is between this world and the next. [Houdini's wife, Wilhelmina Beatrice (Bess) Rahner, worked as his stage assistant.]
The first verse is her encounter with a charlatan medium. She recognizes the fakery and breaks the circle. Then we are back with her and Houdini, and ironically let into their fakery - how she would lovingly pass the key to him to unlock the chains.
Then we forward to a 'genuine' medium, one she believes (Ford?); and she is filled with Houdini's magic once again. (She has quite forgotten that their earthly escapology was an act!) She believes (and so do we!) that he has escaped the silence of Eternity...
His heroic breakthrough moves her to remember the queues of people lining up hoping to see Houdini drown/fail... But queue/cue sound the same, so we also hear a reference to her anxiety while Houdini was in the tank... 'I'd catch the cues' ... And this leads us into the verse dealing with Houdini's final earthly performance...
Kate's vocals are amazing and the song is eternally fantastic!
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Feb 3, 2008 19:22:42 GMT
What a beautiful song. As you can probably see from my name, it's one of my favorites. I also think that it is actually one of Kate's most startling and intense love songs. Hermes has not come back from his travels. Hestia sems to know what has happened. She begins searching for his lost soul, grieving and longing for him. Though they separated earlier, both of them in the end know that they need each other. She begins searching for seers and spiritualists to help her find him, so-called magicians and mediums who are of no help to her. Their magic is pure charlatanry, pure trick. She breaks the circle and finds herself overtaken by a reverie of memory. With a kiss I'd pass the key And feel your tongue Teasing and receiving With your spit Still on my lip You hit the water In a sort of trance, she remembers his magic- a true magic, which she was a part of. These memories must come from a time before NOTS, maybe a time between LIO- Hermes' arrival and TD, which seems to me to be the awakened deep dream that leads to the tension of NOTS. I said earlier that I thought it was likely that there was a long expanse of time between TD and NOTS, but with a little more thinking I wonder it the stretch of time- which I am quite sure exists- is between LIO and TD instead. Ah well- but about Houdini... Hestia is an essential part of the magic Hermes had. Without her, he has nothing. Without her kiss, passing him the key, he cannot come up for air. With your spit.. still on my lip... you'd hit the water! There is no way they can come apart from each other completely and remain truly whole. Like in the legend of Tristan and Iseult, whatever thorns and storms riddle their love, like in Wuthering Heights where " I hated you! I loved you too," they are ensnared in an intense, beautiful, excruciating web of of magic, love, and death. There is an binding, entwining thread of code, a "Rosabel Believe!" that cannot be broken even in the grief of death. They are inextricable. Hestia keeps up her search. She finds a true medium- "he's using code that only you and I know.. this is no trick of his, this is your magic..." She sees Hermes/Houdini as the true magician, the true alchemist, deftly slipping through the bonds of matter and the spiderweb shackes of death, the narrow story of fate, the artist bringing forth whole worlds of the inspired, fiery imagination in heroic escape worthy of godliness, almost. He has slipped out all prisons and bindings, the eternal archetypal magician in his pure element, immortal and mercurial, like quicksilver, free and miraculous. She forgets in impossibility. He has baffled the logic of cycles of nature, patterns thought immutable, to return to her. It is a glimpse of the lapis in the darkness of matter. And it is the closest he will ever come. But she doen't care. The magical treasure he could not find becomes hers in the imagination, and they are gracefully reconciled, in a melacholy, tenuous connection, but a truly felt one, shining with all the verve of the impossible. They, together, have seen the lapis, though they cannot keep it. I suppose it is an illusion, in a way. But it is as much as they can have. It is enough. Rosabel Believe. Not even eternity can hold Houdini.
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Post by tannis on Feb 3, 2008 22:15:49 GMT
Hermes was god of trickery and guile in its many aspects: including deception, crafty words, persuasion, and the wiles of thieves and merchants. - www.theoi.com/ As a good thief is clearly a brave and clever man, there is a correlation between good thieving and good marriage, a relationship that suggests the ancient association between Hermes and Hestia. These aspects are reflected in the relationship between Houdini and Bess. Hermes was also the Guide of Dead Souls and was depicted as the only god besides Hades and Persephone who could enter and leave the Underworld without hindrance. Bess and Houdini certainly won his favor in life; and who knows, maybe Hermes helped Houdini to escape Eternity... BTW: As heaven's herald, Hermes was god of the birds of omen, birds despatched from heaven under the divine inspiration of prophetic Apollon. Only seers, under the god's patronage, could distinguish birds of omen from those "idly-chattering" and interpret their divine messages. Aerial...?
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Feb 3, 2008 22:50:43 GMT
Ooh, thank you for the link, that looks like a great site! Hermes is very interesting, isn't he? After a bit of thinking, I wonder if one has to be a thief, in a way, to attain the greatest and most glorious treasure? Like how in so many myths fire had had to be stolen from the gods, because mortals were not supposed to have it. The desire for this goal is the same as the desire to trick fate, to escape, to disobey. The desired object is some of the power of God, in one of it's facets, and the only way to obtain something so precious and valued it through thievery. It's a very interesting idea.
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Post by tannis on Feb 3, 2008 23:39:11 GMT
PROMETHEUS was the Titan god of forethought and crafty counsel who was entrusted with the task of moulding mankind out of clay. His attempts to better the lives of his creation brought him into direct conflict with Zeus. Firstly he tricked the gods out of the best portion of the sacrificial feast, acquiring the meat for the feasting of man. Then, when Zeus withheld fire, he stole it from heaven and delivered it to mortal kind hidden inside a fennel-stalk. As punishment for these rebellious acts, Zeus ordered the creation of Pandora (the first woman) as a means to deliver misfortune into the house of man, or as a way to cheat mankind of the company of the good spirits. Prometheus meanwhile, was arrested and bound to a stake on Mount Kaukasos where an eagle was set to feed upon his ever-regenerating liver (or, some say, heart). Generations later the great hero Herakles came along and released the old Titan from his torture. PANDORA was built to deceive. She bewitched and married a gullible man named Epimetheus (Greek for "Afterthought"), who was the brother of Prometheus (Greek for "Forethought"). Besides showering her with irresistible charm and beauty, the gods had given Pandora a box (or a jar in some versions of the story) and instructed her not to open it. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her, and she opened the container, unleashing all manner of evil and misery on the world. www.theoi.com/
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Post by tannis on Feb 24, 2008 14:47:39 GMT
"Harry Houdini escaped from handcuffs, leg irons, straightjackets, prison cells, packing crates, a giant paper bag (without tearing the paper), an iron boiler, milk cans, coffins, and the famous Water Torture Cell. In most of these escapes, later examination showed no sign of how Houdini accomplished his release."
The Dreaming is one of the greatest albums ever, and its cover is one of the greatest album covers ever! The iconic cover shows Bess (played by KB) passing HH (played by ??Gordon Farrell??) the gold key. KATE BUSH and THE HUGUENOT
Do you think The Huguenot could have been the inspiration for the cover to THE DREAMING? ... On The Dreaming cover KaTe is attempting to pass the life-saving key to 'Mr Houdini'; and in A Huguenot, the girl is attempting to tie the life-saving Roman Catholic badge around her lover's arm. Both couples "embrace" their possible doom under a wall of ivy. The ivy, a symbol of immortality, provides hope of salvation and deliverance.JCB: "I thought that photographing Mr. and Mrs. Houdini on the banks of the Hudson River in a freezing wind had been a difficult assignment: the shot had required a long, long exposure and the wind was from the wrong direction, and when it was right, it kept shaking the tripod. However, the sedate, elegant brief for the cover of KBV had an element to it that all photographers are told to avoid working with at all cost: animals. Luckily, the dogs we wanted to use are friends of ours, so there was a good chance that they might put up with posing, keeping quiet and leaving each other alone. But only a chance..." gaffa.org/garden/jcb3.htmlCompare and Contrast:
A Huguenot, Millais, 1852upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Huguenot.jpgThe Dreaming, Kate Bush, 1982 (Photography, JCB)gaffa.org/wow/k254.jpgsee more: Under The Ivykatebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=houndsoflove&thread=1727&page=1----- The Homeric Hymns sing of Pythian Apollo striking "the golden key" on his lyre... In 'The Gold Key' by Anne Sexton, a gold key has the power to transform... And HH himself certainly possessed a gold key, as evidenced in 'Harry Houdini's handcuffs with key', ca. 1900; Courtesy of Houdini Historical Center. - www.loc.gov/exhibits/bobhope/vaude.html- www.loc.gov/exhibits/bobhope/images/vc28a.jpg"With a kiss I'd pass they key..."The reverse of the album cover is covered by English Ivy (Hedera Helix), a poisonous climbing or ground-creeping evergreen which smothers tall trees as well as the forest floor, preventing native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees from sprouting. Turn the album over, and it is as though Bess and HH are photographed under the ivy...----- Ivy - Immortality, Friendship, Faithfulness. Because it is an evergreen that clings while climbing, it signifies the need for protection. Since it grows quickly, it also symbolizes regeneration, sensuality and revelry. The Greco-Roman god Dionysus, or Bacchus, had an ivy cup and wore a crown of ivy leaves. ----- Academy of True Masons - A French high grade, supposed to have been instituted at Avignon. This Order consisted of six special grades, one of which was entitled Knight of the Golden Key...- Kenning's Masonic Encyclopedia KEY"The Key," says Doctor Oliver (Landmarks I, page 180), "is one of the most important symbols of Freemasonry. It bears the appearance of a common metal instrument, confined to the performance of one simple act. But the well-instructed brother beholds in it the symbol which teaches him to keep a tongue of good report, and to abstain from the debasing vices of slander and defamation." Among the ancients the key was a symbol of silence and circumspection; and thus Sophocles alludes to it in the Oedipus Coloneus , where he makes the chorus speak of "the golden key" which had come upon the tongue of the ministering Hierophant in the mysteries of Eleusis—Callimachus says that the Priestess of Ceres bore a key as the ensign of her mystic office. The key was in the Mysteries of Isis a hieroglyphic of the opening or disclosing of the heart and conscience, in the kingdom of death, for trial and Judgment. In the old instructions of Freemasonry the key was an important symbol, and Doctor Oliver regrets that it has been abandoned in the modern system. In the ceremonies of the First Degree, in the eighteenth century allusion is made to a key by whose help the secrets of Freemasonry are to be obtained, which key "is said to hang and not to lie, because it is always to hang in a brother's defense and not to lie to his prejudge." It was said, too, to hang "by the thread of life at the entrance, " and was closely connected with the heart, because the tongue "ought to utter nothing but what the heart dictates." And, finally, this key is described as being "composed of no metal, but a tongue of good report." In the ceremonies of the Masters Degree in the Adonhiramite Rite, we find this catechism (in the Recueil Précieu:, page 87): What do you conceal?All the secrets which have been intrusted to me. Where do you conceal them?In the heart. Have you a key to gain entrance there?Yes, Right Worshipful. Where do you keep it?In a box of coral which opens and shuts only with ivory teeth. Of what metal is it composed?Of none. It is a tongue obedient to reason, which knows only how to speak well of those of whom it speaks in their absence as in their presence. All of this shows that the key as a symbol was formerly equivalent to the modern symbol of the "instructive tongue," which, however, with almost the same interpretation, has now been transferred to the Second or Fellow-Craft's Degree. The key, however, is still preserved as a symbol of secrecy in the Royal Arch Degree; and it is also presented to us in the same sense in the ivory key of the Secret Master, or Fourth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In many of the German Lodges an ivory key is made a part of the Masonic clothing of each Brother, to remind him that he should lock up or conceal the secrets of Freemasonry in his heart. But among the ancients the key was also a symbol of power; and thus among the Greeks the title of Kxeiaouxos~ or key-bearer, was bestowed upon one holding high office; and with the Romans, the keys are given to the bride on the day of marriage, as a token that the authority of the house was bestowed upon her; and if afterward divorced, they were taken from her, as a symbol of the deprivation of her office. Our Savior expressed a similar idea when he said to Saint Peter, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." It is in reference to this interpretation of the symbol, and not that of secrecy, that the key has been adopted as the official jewel of the Treasurer of a Lodge, because he has the purse, the source of power, under his command.
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Feb 24, 2008 18:26:12 GMT
I love The Dreaming album cover, too. It's so perfect for the album.
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