W.HI.P
Moving
On the edge of the labyrinth
Posts: 561
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Post by W.HI.P on May 16, 2005 23:21:55 GMT
I have seen the movie, a very powerfull moment, a natural reaction to viewing such passion in her husbands painting of the maid. The movie has grasped the making of this painting very well.
My understanding of this song is very much different, I'm willing to share it if this is desired or even permited. It is with clarity.
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Post by Adey on May 17, 2005 0:27:25 GMT
I haven't seen the film.
Kate is apparently often inspired by movies, I wonder if there's a connection?
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genesismalachi23
Reaching Out
thank you atomjack for thee avatar! (visit thee site) http://www.fusionanomaly.net ye shan't regret!
Posts: 233
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Post by genesismalachi23 on May 17, 2005 1:01:11 GMT
I have seen the movie, a very powerfull moment, a natural reaction to viewing such passion in her husbands painting of the maid. The movie has grasped the making of this painting very well. My understanding of this song is very much different, I'm willing to share it if this is desired or even permited. It is with clarity. nothing is true... everything is permitted...
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W.HI.P
Moving
On the edge of the labyrinth
Posts: 561
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Post by W.HI.P on May 17, 2005 1:22:30 GMT
I haven't seen the film. Kate is apparently often inspired by movies, I wonder if there's a connection? No connection that I know of, as the movie is quite recent.
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W.HI.P
Moving
On the edge of the labyrinth
Posts: 561
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Post by W.HI.P on May 17, 2005 18:24:14 GMT
I must mention the connection that I see between "Suspended in Gaffa", "Leave it open" & "Get out of my house". "Leave it open" seems to be the aftermath of "Suspended in Gaffa". She has found her path, since thursting and seeking for it, she now understands the dangers that come with spiritual progressment. Within "Get out of my house", she shows the wisdom obtained from her journey.The Wisdom to comfront evil in the best possible way. For fear is the food of evil, and the mule offers none. So simple, yet so powerfull.
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Post by ~Passion~ on Jul 11, 2005 1:47:02 GMT
I love this song. It's my favorite out of them all. But I can't help but inquire.... what's with the HEE HAW bit? Sorry fans, but I laughed out loud when I heard that. I'm just wondering... what could it possibly represent? My guess is... did she eventuall let him in? Maybe she feels like an ass for doing so?
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W.HI.P
Moving
On the edge of the labyrinth
Posts: 561
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Post by W.HI.P on Jul 11, 2005 1:56:59 GMT
I love this song. It's my favorite out of them all. But I can't help but inquire.... what's with the HEE HAW bit? Sorry fans, but I laughed out loud when I heard that. I'm just wondering... what could it possibly represent? My guess is... did she eventuall let him in? Maybe she feels like an ass for doing so? I love this song too, more for it's lesson than anything. The "Hee-Haw" .. is the chant of the mule! IMO, it's Kate defeating the entity, sending it on its way.
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stev0
Moving
He's an utter creep and he drives me 'round the bend
Posts: 517
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Post by stev0 on Jul 11, 2005 2:13:05 GMT
Actually, Kate says the song was partially inspired by the Stephen King book The Shining.
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W.HI.P
Moving
On the edge of the labyrinth
Posts: 561
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Post by W.HI.P on Jul 11, 2005 2:40:08 GMT
Kate says alot of things, but avoids to say most!
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stev0
Moving
He's an utter creep and he drives me 'round the bend
Posts: 517
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Post by stev0 on Jul 11, 2005 3:51:45 GMT
Of course, there's the obvious inspiration from the tradition song The Two Magicians.
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Post by tannis on Nov 26, 2007 21:59:27 GMT
"Get out of this house." ~ from Wuthering Heights (1939)GOoMH… It’s a fantastic song! GOoMH is about: anger - "(slamming!)/(Lock it!)/(Get out of my house!)"; violence - "I wash the pains/I clean the stains away/(clean it all up)"; manipulation - ("Let me in!")/("It's cold out here!"); self-/ego-destruction - "I change into the Mule"; etc. The song reflects both the internal and the external worlds of the subject... Both (dramatic) ‘doors’ have been shattered, causing mind-splitting and objective fear (even the cat senses terror). "When you left..." - the 'you' here could be the violator/manipulator/other... OR it could be the former self - the one who is 'responsible' for the identity-crisis, the "I am my enemy,/Mowing me over,/And towing the light away" of FULLHOUSE... The leaver doesn't slam the doors; the voice-over does... and it is the (inner) voice-over who is terrifyingly angry... Maybe the FULLHOUSE ALTER EGO went too far over the edge, and now it is GET OUT OF MY HOUSE... Over the edge is over... "I watched the world pull you away..." - There is a (slo-mo) 4-line departure of the Other or the former (in)capable self... The world has pulled them away, meaning that our protagonist is at the end of the world... or not-of-the-world? ... or has somehow transgressed this world? ... In the hall, she (the ego-crisis) is met with wild activity. Trapdoors are opening... the mind is in disarray... The idea of a lift descending... into the subterranean parking lot of Horror movies... It hits the landing... We are in the dark, unconscious corridors of fear & acute madness... Behind the curtain of a Greek Tragedy... And it is this uprising fear and madness which she is now trying to lock out from her conscious mind, as she tries to restore ego-stability... ("Let me in!") ... She is trying to keep the weirdness of destruction out! She focuses on 'cleaning' up the Shakespearean weirdness... the transitional experience needs repressing ... (needs forgetting and then forgetting that it's been forgot) ... before the emotional response drowns her ego and floods, pours out onto the stage... before the obscene "off-stage" realities become seen...She makes resolutions & tries to control her (screaming and slamming) mind... desperately trying to (calmly) re-establish ego-control and identity-order... Her mental house is strong and full of faith… capable of keeping overwhelming fear out... capable of 'being born again'... The 'full of madness/mistakes' indicate that she has been in this FULLHOUSE before and can therefore recover... but each time it is more difficult, until... ... ... She is Under Ice, angry with her (self-persecuting) self… her mess, mistakes, madness… she has to deal with it… An internal schizophrenic struggle ensues between conscious/unconscious, (dis)order/chaos, calm/fear, etc. The dominant voice attempts the godlike strength of Medea, while her inner voice sounds like Medea's two terrified children... such is the tragic drama of this song! However, IMHO, by the end of the song, she lacks the power to function. Her fury has, as in a Greek Myth, turned her into a mule… a beast of terrible burden… A mule is the offspring of a donkey and a horse...(Hecuba was driven mad by sorrow and began barking like a dog…) Mythology also says the gods turned Hecuba into a dog so that she might escape Odysseus… (and Medea escaped Corinth)... So perhaps GOoMH treats insanity... The protagonist is trying to seal the doors and corridors of her mind from insane thoughts... doors which the Other opened... Her fighting fear of insanity has her barking like a mule to escape mad imaginings… Clearing the head, so to speak, and perhaps feeling the better for it! ----- Both GOoMH and the story of Io feature transformations into livestock. After Io's transformation, she was continually stung by a maddening gadfly. And in GOoMY, the "mule braying sounds" at the end could suggest a maddening battle between ongoing transformations.In Greek mythology, Io was the daughter of Inachus, a river god. One day Zeus noticed her and she quickly became one of his many lovers. Their relationship continued until Hera almost caught them -- Zeus changed her into a heifer to escape detection. However, Hera was not completely fooled and demanded Zeus give her the heifer as a present. Hera then set ever-watchful Argus Panoptes to guard her and to keep her separated from Zeus. So Zeus commanded Hermes to kill Argus, which he did. Heifer Io was loosed to roam the world, stung by a maddening gadfly sent by Hera, and wandered to Egypt, where she was transformed back into human form by Zeus. In Egypt Io gave birth to Epaphus.You and me on the bobbing knee Didn't we cry at that old mythology he'd read! I will come home again, but not until The sun and the moon meet on yon hillMaybe Get Out Of My House is about X trying to escape the advances of Zeus or from someone who thinks he is a Genie-Zeus! Maybe the protagonist has identified herself with one of Zeus' many extramarital affairs with women such as Leda, seduced in the form of a swan; Europa, as a bull; Danae, as a golden shower*; Kallisto, as Artemis; Antiope as a satyr; and of course Io.They come with their weather hanging 'round them...And ZEUS, King of the Gods, was also the god of weather.* and KT uses golden shower imagery in the L&A video, even trying to seduce her fans with a handful of dust!Kate Bush - Love And Angerwww.youtube.com/watch?v=RWNVlZ74I3sHERA, IO and the PEACOCK'S TAIL "Juppiter [Zeus] [seduced the Nymphe Io, and] fore-sensing his spouse’s [Hera's] arrival, transformed poor Inachis [Io] into a sleek white heifer (lovely still although a cow). Saturnia [Hera], against her will, admired the creature and asked whose she was, and whence she came and to what herd belonged, pretending not to know the truth. He lied - ‘The earth had brought her forth’ - so to deflect questions about her birth. Then Saturnia [Hera] begged the heifer as a gift. What should he do? Too cruel to give his darling! Not to give - suspicious; shame persuades but love dissuades. Love would have won; but then - if he refused his wife (his sister too) so slight a gift, a cow, it well might seem no cow at all! The goddess won her rival, but distrust lingered and still she feared her husband’s tricks, till, for safe-keeping, she had given the cow to Arestorides [Argos] - Argus of the hundred eyes, all watching and on duty round his head, save two which took in turn their sleep and rest ... Heaven’s master [Zeus] could not endure Phoronis’ [Io’s] distress, and summoned his son [Hermes] ... and charged him to accomplish Argus’ death ... [So Hermes] visited him [Argos], and with many a tale he stayed the passing hours and on his reeds played soft refrains to lull the watching eyes ... [and Hermes] saw all Argus’ eyelids closed and every eye vanquished in sleep. He stopped and with his wand, his magic wand, soothed the tired resting eyes and sealed their slumber; quick then with his sword he struck off the nodding head and from the rock threw it all bloody, spattering the cliff with gore. Argus lay dead; so many eyes, so bright quenched, and all hundred shrouded in one night. Saturnia [Hera] retrieved those eyes to set in place among the feathers of her bird [the peacock] and filled his tail with starry jewels." Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.624"Kate and Peacock"
THE RED SHOES "Sleeve Design and Artwork: Peacock Marketing & Design"
AERIAL "Design by Kate and Peacock" ----- The Shining* and Alien are thought to be filmic influences to this song (see gaffa.org/dreaming/td_goomh.html)… …and perhaps also the existential horror classic, CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962)… (where an emotional shock gives rise to a demonic struggle)?* KB: "The last book I read was The Shining and it just blew me away, it was absolutely brilliant, and that definitely inspired 'Get Out Of My House' because the atmosphere of the book is so strong..." Melody Maker, "Dreamtime Is Over", Oct. 16, 1982 - gaffa.org/reaching/i82_mm.html
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Post by Adey on Nov 27, 2007 2:18:33 GMT
A significant piece of work Tannis.. Your essay has great moments of insight and displays wider knowledge that you've bought to bear on the subject. I can't personallyagree with everything here, but I don't doubt that many of your thoughts are right on the money.
In "Deeper Understanding" here, we start with the premise that every member's contribution is entirely valid. But it's great to see such thoughtful and erudite work.
I note that you've been busy of late! I look forward to ploughing through your other song interpretations.
Nice one..
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Post by tannis on Dec 2, 2007 4:52:45 GMT
Thank you! In GOoMY, is The House a cursed ancestral line, an actual house, the mind, the 'I' ('this house is as old as I am')? ... The first four lines could be The Tenant taking a final look before he leaves (or is taken away)... Maybe he brought the weirdness in with him when he moved in, and it was he who made the house crack up (à la Polanski's 'Repulsion' 1965; a must see film!*)... Maybe The House has been trying to (poltergeist-like/curse-like) get him evicted ever since... Maybe much of the background noises (the slamming; the repulsion) are the ghosts of the past... the tragic magic... the non-repressible memories... Now he's gone, the House is sublimating the Fury, trying to clean up the Shakespearean weirdness... trying with all its god-almighty strength to stop the curse taking root and residence... But the left-burning demon is trying to bring back the Devil dreams... The Wolf is huffing and puffing to get at The Three Little Pigs... This House is desperately trying to lock itself up like a chastity belt... But there is no escaping this Stallion... every time the house changes, so does the internalised enemy... (...and go see Polanski's kafkaesque The Tenant, 1976; "la concierge est dans la cour"). On GOomH: Hestia represents the hearth, the naval that ties home to earth. Hermes personifies encounters with others in the social world. In the house, his place is at the door, protecting the threshold, repelling thieves because he himself is The Thief. ('The Hermes' were small statues of the god Hermes with an erect phallus that stood outside nearly every building in Athens as a kind of good-luck charm.) GOoMH suggests theft, violation, and a persistent intruder. 'Hestia' is without her companion, and a bad thief threatens to bore through the walls...
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Post by Al Truest on Dec 2, 2007 18:56:03 GMT
Thank you! In GOoMY, is The House a cursed ancestral line, an actual house, the mind, the 'I' ('this house is as old as I am')? ... The first four lines could be The Tenant taking a final look before he leaves (or is taken away)... Maybe he brought the weirdness in with him when he moved in, and it was he who made the house crack up (à la Polanski's 'Repulsion' 1965; a must see film!)... Maybe The House has been trying to (poltergeist-like/curse-like) get him evicted ever since... Maybe much of the background noises (the slamming; the repulsion) are the ghosts of the past... the non-repressible memories... Now he's gone, the House is sublimating the Fury, trying to clean up the weirdness... trying with all its god-almighty strength to stop the curse taking root and residence... But the left-burning demon is trying to bring back the Devil dreams... The Wolf is huffing and puffing to get at the pigs... This House is desperately trying to lock itself up like a chastity belt... But there is no escaping this Wolf... every time the house changes, so does the internalised enemy... Tannis, you sure have given this a lot of thought. This is one where I have just given a cursory view of the lyrics. It surely evokes the type of speculation you advance. But I just go with the visceral ride.
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Feb 3, 2008 21:20:03 GMT
Of course, in an album as dark and turbulent as The Dreaming, the relative balance and peace of Houdini cannot last for long. ;)With GOoMH, we again plunge into chaos. IMO, in Houdini, Hestia and Hermes were brought together and reconciled. But not completely, it seems. With GOoMH, Hestia will not let him in. She remembers all the pain he has caused her- all the strife and terror and tension his wandering has caused, all the danger he brings in with the world, "the weather hanging round him..." She fights to remain safe, protected, whole, unbroken. She keeps it shut, and locks herself up in the house of her psyche. "I wash the panes... I clean the stains.." She cleanses herself of all the chaos of the unconscious, scours herself of storms and floods. She conjures a protective magic circle, an inviolable centre, and keeps the madness, the weirdness, the mystical and creative and revelatory and the horrific, monstrous and dangerous, out in the cold. She will not fall for his perilous tricks again. She will not be entranced by his evil magic, enchanted into leaving her balance, her earth and her health. Like in Lily, she keeps within the circle of fire. The hearth. "With my key I..." The key is very interesting, as it also appears in Houdini. I wonder if it is a symbol of magical power, of he power of the mind, a sort of wand with which Hestia can protect herself. Earlier she gave it willingly to Hermes- it was the key to his magic, and maybe also the key to her heart. But she holds tight to it, now, in her her fear. It is the sceptre of her control, and she wields it, locking the house of her psyche up. The House also has incredibly interesting symbolism. I think it is a symbol of Hestia, and also a symbol of the whole self, or maybe the conscious, balanced self. Hestia is trying to keep the immense flood of her unconscious at bay, to keep all the storm and wind and sea out her sanctuary. But her house is also "as old as I am, this house knows all I have done... This house is full of m-m-my mess, this house is full of m-m-mistakes, this house is full of m-m-madness," which seems like the unconscious, to me. It is the controllable unconscious, though, and "with my keeper I (clean it up!)" She exorcises the demons, the ghosts, of her mind this way, and keeps her house safe. "I am the Concierge, chez-moi, honey Won't letcha in, for love, nor money My home, my joy, I'm barred and bolted and I Won't letcha in." "No strangers feet Shall enter me I wash the panes I clean the stains..." Hermes is left out in the cold. He calls to her, to let him in: "Woman, let me in Let me bring back the memories Woman, let me in, Let me bring back the Devil Dreams." He wants to bring back the memories of their shared past, the deepness and darkness of the path she has followed. He wants to bring back the reveries and Devil Dreams that once possessed her, the spell that once bound her, in all their dangerous glory. She will not let him. "I will not let you in Don't you bring back the reveries I turn into a bird Carry further than the word is heard." She is not going to succumb to reverie. I find "carry further than the word is heard" especially interesting. It reminds me of the Kalevala, a Finnish epic poem, where the hero is Vainamoinen, a great singer, born already an old man from Ilmatar, the goddess of the vaporous, unformed ether that existed before the world was formed. Instead of in heroic strength, his power lies in spellcasting and a mystical eloquence that is quite like, in my view, the songs of an artist, or the work of a writer. I think Kate, as an artist, might be somewhat attuned to this. Hestia, to escape Hermes, the Magician, must escape his word, or his spell. "Woman let me in I turn into the wind I blow you a cold kiss Stronger than the song's hit." He will not let her get away that easily. "I blow you a cold kiss.." reminds us that their conflict is made more riddling by the undeniable presence of a connection between them. And this connection threatens to overpower her word, her song of protection. She realises that she cannot keep him out forever. Gathering her strength... "I will not let you in My face towards the wind I change into the mule..." She confronts him. And, in a way, the end of this song really puzzles me. The chaos of "Hee-haw! Hee-haw!" to me says that she has let him in, she has confronted the storm, but the ending lyrics seem to contradict that. It also doen't help that for the longest time, I thought the she said "I'd rather let you in.." instead of "I will not let you in." In fact, that's still what it sounds like to me, though I know the real words. But I'm going to go with my real feeling and say that The Dreaming ends with a confrontation, more like the beginning of a process than the end of one. Houdini actually feels more like the end of the story to me, but GOoMH is undeniably connected. I suppose that it's because The Dreaming is such a baffling, wonderful thing, and it would never do for it to be wrapped up neatly with the closing song. It is a path and a story with no end, a tension between opposites that can never completely be solved, and that is why it is so startling and so incredible a work. Sorry this is so long, again, but I had a lot to say, I guess.
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