Lionheart and RuthKate Bush - Running up that Hillwww.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZsXVf6INc1:11 of KaTe's 'Running Up That Hill' video is very reminiscent of the attic room used to shoot the cover for Lionheart.[/b]
'Running Up That Hill' is compelling and tragically beautiful. I guess that's part of its enduring appeal. It holds so many meanings... and I guess I have been over-analytical... But here goes... RUNNING UP THAT HILL... and DEFENSE...On the 'defense' theme... Maybe this song is from her perspective as she deals with (or shuts out) an abuse of trust - through violence? sex? drugs? paranoia? death? entrapment? etc... The relationship could be messy co-dependency, or the abusive experience could be socio-political-institutional... The trauma restructures and imprisons her identity; she feels defined by the abuse(r), too angry to feel... "I think therefore I am" and this protagonist is too painfully aware of her own existence, and longs to escape, to be, and to think as another... The defensive/aggressive 'Do you want to feel how it feels/hear about the deal...' The deal with God: God could swap places with her, deal with the situation she is in, and give her her freedom; or through God, she could swap places with her abuser and have them experience her hurt, while she experiences freedom...
The essential twisting of Love & Hate excludes all else and all others - This song is about A and B and (the defense mechanism/opiate?) GOD, such is the intense psychological concentration... She is too vulnerable and too disturbed to escape/forget the relationship/situation; and the idea of (a deal with) God dysfunctionally 'enables' her to cope... But they are so entwined, that revenge and freedom also seem pointless - like there's a warped stokholmesque psychosexual entanglement... 'You don't want to hurt me' ... But the cut is already deep, and she curses the
Other every moment of every single day... Her thunder, her deep-rooted human tenacity, her determined necessity not to be unhappy; and her fragile need that they both matter, so that her miserable suffering matters...
"Also, the narrative of the song is constantly self-revising. The second verse, in talking of the extent to which the lovers hurt each other, gives the lie to the easy assertion with which the piece opens: 'It doesn't hurt me.'" (Keeping Score, 1997, p.212).Then the darkly climactic desire to "steal" the experience of freedom (from her? by her?)... and the resigned hopelessness and doomed futility of 'If only...'
Then again, sometimes I think that RUTH is about Kate talking to her former self, the KB of Wuthering Heights/Babooshka/etc... and her wanting to swap places, to relive the experience of youth with the wisdom of Time... Don't we all? ... :-)
PS... and the PLACEBO video treatment is excellent! RUNNING UP THAT HILL... and WAR...- marching War Drums...
- Heroism, Pride, Nationalism, reassurance, illusion Vs Realism, resignation, fear, coping, aloneness...
- Brave smiles and nervous hearts...
- Battlefield, vilification of enemy, war cry, man's inhumanity to man, infantry sent to meaningless frontline slaughter...
(see Rosenberg's 'Break of Day in the Trenches')
- Horror of war and the intense desire to fly, run, drive, get away from the experience...
- The Dream Deal - swapping places with anything or anyone... father-son, soldier-nature, soldier-you, now-then...
(...and of course Kate deals with war in Pull Out The Pin, Army Dreamers...)
RUNNING UP THAT HILL... and WUTHERING HEIGHTS...Cathy: "I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them!"
Mr. Earnshaw (introducing Heathcliff): "See here, wife! I was never so beaten with anything in my life: but you must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil."
One final thought...
Is RUTH "Wuthering Heights Revisited"? ... A much darker version of her classic original? ... Maybe RUTH is Cathy's ruthless, dual nature teasing Heathcliff! ... It has the perverse cruelty, the tormented passion, the defiant obsession, the torturous disregard, and the eternal love for the Moors...
'It doesn't hurt me' because life without Heathcliff and the Moors is no life! ... The defiant 'won't be unhappy' ... The wicked 'tearing you asunder' ... The eternal longing to 'be running up that hill' ...
Her shocking deal even disturbs the dead, unleashing ghostly, purgatorial voices! ... Yes, Hate and Love tore them both asunder... And if she only could, Cathy would have made such a deal for her beloved moors! ... And Heathcliff would have obliged her! ... But, as Nelly remarked: "The greatest punishment we could invent for her, was to keep her separate from him" ... So 'with no problems'? Even God couldn't manage that!
Cathy: 'I wish I could hold you,' she continued, bitterly, 'till we were both dead! I shouldn't care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn't you suffer? I do!'
Heathcliff: ''WHY did you despise me? WHY did you betray your own heart, Cathy? ...nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, YOU, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart - YOU have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine!'
Ooh! Let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
Ooh! Let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
You know it's me--Cathy! "C'mon, baby, c'mon darling,
Let me steal this moment from you now.
C'mon, angel, c'mon, c'mon, darling,
Let's exchange the experience, oh..." The "Come on, Baby..." could be Heathcliff! ... Maybe these are his words as he embraces the dying Cathy, desperate to grant her wish... Such is the power of deluded love! ...
Unfulfilled, her 'If I only could' continues to torment Heathcliff... amidst the cries of her own tormented spirit...
Cathy: 'I am Heathcliff! ... So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable...'
Heathcliff: 'Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! ... I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!'
Revenge is a major theme of Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Early in the novel Heathcliff is described as plotting revenge, and the second half of the novel is dominated by Heathcliff's revenge against Hindley and his descendants for his mistreatment of him and against Edgar and his descendants for Catherine's death. Heathcliff's revenge affects everyone in the novel, and he seems to think that if he can revenge Catherine's death, he can be with her. He has been looking for her since her death, as he has been sensing her near him. However, it is only at the end of the novel, when he has given up his plans for revenge, that he is able to see Catherine and that he is reunited with her.
Musically, the background vocal chants ("e-yo") are almost identical to singing in classical Japanese musical theatre such as
Noh, and the prominent drumming pattern appears to be influenced by Japanese
taiko. Noh includes deity plays, warrior plays, madness plays and ghosts plays. In plays where the principle actor appears first as a human and then as a ghost, the first role is known as the
maeshite and the later as the
nochishite (wiki).
KATE BUSH is p.h.e.n.o.m.e.n.a.l ... The video of 'Running Up That Hill' features Kate and dancer Michael Hervieu wearing
hakama, the traditional culotte-like garments worn in the practice of Kyudo, the Way of the Bow. Kyudo (Japanese: Kyu: bow. Do: a way or moral discipline) is the oldest of Japan's traditional martial arts. For several hundred years it has served as the ideal expression of Japanese culture. Throughout history there has never been another culture that has so closely linked the act of shooting the bow with the condition of the human spirit. Since correct hitting can only come from correct shooting and correct shooting is the outcome of finding the right balance in body, mind and will, the target in kyudo is seen as a mirror of the archer's heart.
www.heijoshin.com/"Has anybody else noticed the run-out messages on the new 'The Red Shoes' 7" vinyl release? On side A it's 'ONE FOR THE ARCHERS'..."gaffa.org/moments/2_2f.htmlKB's interest in archery (as shown in photography, and the sleeve and video for the 1985 Running Up That Hill) is well noted.Famous Archers: APOLLO & ARTEMISApollo, the son of Zeus and Leto, was born in the island of Delos, together with his sister Artemis.
ARTEMIS was the great Olympian goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals. She was also a goddess of childbirth, and the protectress of the girl child up to the age of marriage. Her twin brother Apollon was similarly the protector of the boy child. Together the two gods were also bringers of sudden death and disease--Artemis targeted women and girls, and Apollon men and boys.
In the character of sister of Apollo, Artemis is like her brother armed with a bow, quiver, and arrows. In ancient art Artemis was usually depicted as a girl dressed in a short knee-length chiton and equipped with a hunting bow and quiver of arrows.
APOLLON (or Apollo) was the great Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, healing, plague and disease, music, song and poetry, the protection of the young,
and archery. As the god of song and music, we find him in the
Iliad (i. 603) delighting the immortal gods with his play on the phorminx during their repast; and the Homeric bards derived their art of song either from Apollo or the Muses.
"Niobe’s twelve children were destroyed in her palace, six daughters, and six sons in the pride of their youth, whom Apollon killed with arrows from his silver bow, being angered with Niobe, and Artemis Iokheaira (shaft-showering) killed the daughters; because Niobe likened herself to Leto of the fair-colouring and said Leto had borne only two, she herself had borne many; but the two, though they were only two, destroyed all those others..."
- Homer, Iliad.
www.theoi.com/Famous Archers: TRISTAN & ROBINTSOS: "I'll be Isolde or Marion for you..." Maid Marian was originally a character in May Games festivities and is sometimes associated with the Queen or Lady of May of May Day. She became associated with Robin Hood in this context, as Robin Hood became a central figure in May Day,
associated as it was with the forest and archery.Marian is likely derived from the French tradition of a shepherdess named
Marion and her shepherd lover Robin (not Robin Hood). The best known example of this tradition is Adam de la Halle's
Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, circa 1283.
Iseult (alternatively
Isolde, Yseult, Isode, Isoude, Isotta) is the name of several characters in the Arthurian story of
Tristan and Iseult. The most prominent is Iseult of Ireland, wife of Mark of Cornwall and adulterous lover of Sir Tristan.
The love story of Tristan and Isolde is one of the most famous in literature. It tells of a passionate and illicit love born of a potion that the two drank by mistake. Because Isolde was pledged to marry Tristan's uncle, King Mark of Cornwall, their love could bring the young couple no happiness; instead it condemned them to suffering, guilt, exile and a tragic end.
In the Béroul retelling of the legend: "Tristan was an excellent archer, skilled with the bow. Governal had taken one from a forester, and he had brought two feathered and barbed arrows. Tristan took the bow and set out through the woods. He saw a buck, drew his bow, and shot, striking the animal directly in the right side. It cried out, leapt up into the air, and fell back to the ground. Tristan brought it back with him."
'The Archers' - JCB & KB?"And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmm, yes..." (TSW).[
] "How did the sleeve for the Running Up That Hill come to be archery themed and the idea of lyrics on Kate's back?"
[JCB?] "The archery... Archery is something that we [KB & JCB? 'The Archers'?] have been interested in for many years. It symbolizes the very basic learning processes, archery. You aim an arrow at a target and you let it go and it flies towards the target, it misses the middle and it moves a little bit to the left and a little bit low, then you know that the next arrow you're going to shoot has to be a little bit to the right and a bit higher..."
"JAY [JCB]: I think there's some levels of archery which now... in terms of a simple fact, you can see archery as... with the left hand holding the bow, as the future, and the right hand is pulling this way, it's going backwards, as the past. And you're the present. You could see it as the left hand as the passive thing, the female, and the right hand as the male...
"And the idea of the lyrics written on Kate's back was...
we'd been working on a series for about the last eighteen months and a photograph... because I never found a photograph and a poem written on the page opposite -it never seems to work. You look at the poem and you're having to read the words and that's more concentrated thing, particularly these days, because less of us are used to it. And then you look at the photograph and you get a much more immediate reaction. So trying to balance all that's going on. And I though the only way to do it was actually to write
the poem in the photograph. And writing it on the person, that meant you could take a portion of the person,
you could write your poem. You take a photograph too and get a much more complete thing. So I'd done a few of those and Kate saw them and liked the idea, so we tried... initially we were going to try them for the album cover, but that didn't work out, it was much too busy. But it worked well I think for the single back."
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gaffa.org/dreaming/con_85.htmlTake a look at The Magician Tarot card...-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magician_%28Tarot_card%29Now take a look at the cover to RUNNING UP THAT HILL...-
www.katebush.pl/singles.htmThe photograph of KB on RUTH could be the back of The Magician! ... The RUTH/Magician is fascinating, isn't it! ... JCB: "The inside artwork was more complicated. After the archer shots were completed, we headed for an outdoor location, because we wanted to use a particular doorway that we knew of. It was two in the morning, and after we had set up lights and the smoke machine, I wrote the lyrics from the song onto Kate's back--and realised as I was doing it that the cold night air was going to cause problems with the skin texture. But as it happened, by staying in the warm until the last moment, this did not become a problem."
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gaffa.org/garden/jcb3.htmlTo quote wiki:The Magician Tarot card (Rider-Waite) - Description and symbolism:A youthful figure in the robe of a magician has the face of the divine Apollo, the sun god, with a confident smile and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the lemniscate of infinity. About his waist is a serpent-cincture or girdle, the ouroboros, the serpent devouring its own tail. The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of eternity, eternal becoming or transmutation and transformation, but in this case it indicates more especially the eternity of attainment in the spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand raised towards heaven, the sky or the element æther, whilst the left hand is pointing to the earth. This iconographic gesture has multiple meanings, but is endemic to the Mysteries, symbolising divine immanence, the ability of the magician to bridge the gap between heaven and earth. On the table in front of the Magician the symbols of the four Tarot suits signify the Classical elements of earth, air, fire and water. Beneath are roses and lilies, the flos campi
(Rose of Sharon) and lilium convallium
(Lily of the Valley), changed into garden flowers, to show the culture of aspiration.
Write me your poetry in motion
Write it just for me, yeah
And sign it with a kiss
And I'll do it for you
I'll be the Rose of Sharon for you
I'll do it for you
I'll be the Lily of the Valley for you
I'll do it for you
I'll be Isolde or Marion for you
I'll do it for you
Ooh I'll come in a hurricane for you...Mythopoetic Approach: Some schools associate The Magician with Hermes, especially Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic Egyptian/Greek figure that came from combining Hermes and Thoth,
a god of the moon, knowledge, and writing. In this aspect, The Magician guides The Fool through the first step out of the cave of childhood into the sunlight of consciousness, just like Hermes guides Persephone out of the Underworld every year... He represents the potential of a new adventure, chosen or thrust upon one. A journey undertaken in daylight, in the Enlightenment Tradition.
He brings things out of the darkness into the light. He explores the world in order to master it. He is solar consciousness... He's associated through the cross sums (the sum of the digits) with Key 10, The Wheel of Fortune (Tarot card), picking up on Hermes as a Trickster figure and a god of chance, and Key 19, The Sun, bringing us back to
Apollo and to enlightenment.
see:
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=theredshoes&action=display&n=1&thread=1752&page=3