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Post by tannis on Dec 29, 2007 16:49:17 GMT
2/8 The 'Hello Earth' Chorus, The Ninth Wave Suite, and NosferatuThe Ninth Wave Suite is a multifaceted operatic and cinematic jewel, cut with many thematic and narrative aspects. In KB's Breathing, the 'Chorus' (written by John Carder Bush) captures the social anxiety of the Cold War - the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Greenham Common (Women's Peace Camp); the Armaments Race; Brezhnev, Reagan, Thatcher, etc... So could The Ninth Wave Suite capture, record and input another historical moment of social anxiety? In the liner notes to Hounds of Love KB gives "special thanks" to Werner Herzog, not specifying what for. (She also thanks the film's soundtrack supervisor Florian Fricke in the liner notes of Hounds of Love.) But KB has confirmed that she got the men's choral section of Hello Earth from Herzog's "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979): I: On the track Hello Earth, right? right? There's a choir in there. Now that again was an unusual thing to have...Has it? [sic] KB: "Yes, but it was totally inspired by a movie that I watched, and, um...I'd already been writing the concept--I suppose it had been in my head for a couple of months. And, uh...I watched this film called Nosferatu, directed by, um... Herzog. And it's beautiful! And there was this one piece of music that just haunted me, to the point where I just--I had to use it in the song. It was exactly what I wanted to say at this point in the music." The Tony Myatt interview, Nov. 1985gaffa.org/reaching/im85_tm.htmlThe ('Greek') Tragic Chorus on Hello Earth is a version of "Zinzkaro," the Georgian folk song performed on the Herzog soundtrack (wiki). I have not seen the Herzog film, only the Murnau original. But from Gaffa: 'I just saw "Nosferatu, The Vampyre" by Werner Herzog tonight. The chorus in "Hello, Earth" that begins around 3:30 is indeed in it in a couple of places: in the town square where the plague victims are dancing around and shortly thereafter while a bat is flying.' - gaffa.org/dreaming/tnw_song.html#earthThe Richard Hickox Singers sing the chorus sections on Hello Earth. Michael Berkeley and Richard Hickox were, respectively, the orchestral arranger and chorus master on Kate's "Hello Earth" track. Writing to Gaffaweb, Michael Berkeley described Kate as "wedded to the Nosferatu": Michael Berkeley: "You're right in thinking that a lot of care went into recording the chorus on Hello Earth and Kate was as exacting in her very precise requirements as any great conductor I have known (and I've known a few). Every nuance and dynamic had to be just right. We began with an original chorus by me in the style of the Nosferatu music but it soon became clear that Kate was wedded to the Nosferatu sound almost note for note so, after exhaustive attempts to ascertain that the music was not in copyright, I notated the music and then adapted it so that it would fit harmonically. Like you, I've been unable to pin down exactly where the music originates from but I came to the conclusion that it was a chant probably of Russian or greek Orthodox ancestry and almost certainly sung by monks or priests. I'm sorry not to be able to be more precise and if you ever find out more yourself I will be fascinated to hear about it." Date: Tue, 02 Dec 86 / Subject: greek chorusgaffa.org/dreaming/tnw_song.htmlAlso from Michael Berkeley: "Kate Bush, it transpired, was working on her new album, Hounds of Love, and for one track, Hello Earth, she wanted a chorus to recreate the orthodox singing/chanting that made such a contribution to the film Nosferatu. The only problem, Hickox explained, was that there was no sheet music available and that anyway it would need to be notated and completely re-written to fit the Hello Earth track. Slightly bemused, I think - this was a far cry from his more customary Gluck or Vaughan Williams - he asked if he could put Bush in touch with me... Having chatted at length, she sent me a long letter with the words of the song and precise instructions on how it should unfold. Her writing hand was curiously like her voice - quirky and touchingly childish; large, separated letters and with the dots over each "i" individually circled. There was, however, nothing child-like about the seriousness and certainty of its contents. Structure was carefully delineated, verses and choruses written out fully and marked up in colour, and she talked of the sound quality in the most graphic terms. Still not having been able to identify the music of the title sequence of Nosferatu or even the language it was sung in, she suggested that, if necessary, I write something similar but added that while the key of this chorus would need to relate, it could arrive as something foreign, harmonically a surprise, as though from another world. In other words, while it had to fit, Kate wanted it to sound "collaged". This superimposition of foreign sources is a technique pioneered by visionary composers like Ives and Stockhausen. I soon realised that Bush was pretty exacting on the precise fit of the "non-fit". Indeed, she was thrilled when I suggested we create our own new language for this chorus of the spheres..." 'Kate Bush rules, OK?' Guardian Unlimited Arts.arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1589379,00.html The original source of the chorus for Hello Earth was Herzog's Nosferatu, in particular, its Bruegelesque town square scene (and, at the time of 'Hounds of Love', KaTe (1985) references Bruegel as one of her favorite painters). Indeed, Kate says that the chorus was "totally inspired" by Nosferatu, and Berkeley states that Kate was "wedded to the Nosferatu-sound almost note for note". Berkeley makes clear that Kate had been unable to identify the music of the Nosferatu sequence, or even the language it was sung in. So Berkeley had to notate the Nosferatu-sound and recreate the "traditional" singing/chanting. He then had to adapt it so that it would fit harmonically as the Hello Earth chorus. Moreover, Kate states that she "kind of made up words that sounded like what [she] could hear" on the original. So it is clear that neither Berkeley nor Kate knew that it was a Georgian piece called 'Tsintskaro'. Hence, on Hello Earth, the chorus do not sing Tsintskaro/Zinskaro/Cincyaro. Rather, they are evoking the Nosferatu-sound through 'sacred mumbling'.* F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) and Werner Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) are German horror films. By quoting from Herzog's film, Kate Bush is introducing "something foreign"/'the Other' into The Ninth Wave Suite. Kate Bush further underscores the German/"Other" film tie-in by using the German/"Other" Hello Earth voice over, "Tiefer, tiefer Irgendwo in der Tiefe Gibt es ein licht". So, through which interpretive facet are we to make sense of KB's Vampyric inclusion?* see more:CHORUS OF THE SPHERES: Like Two Black Holes in the Skykatebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1724&page=4
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Post by tannis on Dec 29, 2007 16:50:16 GMT
3/8 "Nosferatu! Was it he who brought the plague to Bremen in 1838? I have long sought the causes of that terrible epidemic, and found at its origin and its climax the innocent figures of Jonathon Harker and his young wife Nina..." - Nosferatu (1922). Since at least the Victorian times, the vampire has been associated with sexuality, drug addiction and plague: "The vampire is like the Chinese addicts who began in the late 1800s to inhabit London's East End opium dens. Both are like new diseases arriving from peripheries that attempt to "colonize the center" ... Against such threats, the imperial center summons all its powers of knowledge and mastery of science and technology to defeat the vampire and, in parallel fashion, ultimately to justify legally outlawing the addict" (McMahon, 'The Fall of the God of Money', 2002; pg 16). Bram Stoker, intrigued by the publicity surrounding bats that fed on blood, included bats in his book Dracula *. Stoker's Dracula uses the vampire as a metaphor for the Victorian view of sex as innately dangerous; and in Murnau's Nosferatu, plague arrives in Bremen by sea, brought from the East by the odious Other, the undead Nosferatu (and 'Nosferatu' means 'plague-carrier'). And they say they take me home Like poppies heavy with seed They take me deeper and deeper...In And Dream Of Sheep, KB uses the simile 'like poppies heavy with seed'. Opium is the name for the latex produced within the seed pods of the opium poppy. Morphine, the principle ingredient of opium, is named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Heroin is a processed derivative. The first period of large scale heroin smuggling into the United States since its 1923 prohibition occurred during the years 1967-71 (http://opioids.com/jh/index.html). "It banishes melancholy, begets confidence, converts fear into boldness, makes the coward eloquent, and dastards brave. Nobody, in desperate circumstances, and smiling under a disrelish for life, ever laid violent hands on himself after taking a dose of opium, or ever will" (John Brown, 1780). www.heroin.org/images/heroin.htmlAfter injecting heroin, the user reports a surge of euphoria and any concerns become insignificant. Most people feel 'a warm glow' - My face is all lit up...; 'all lit up' is street slang for under the influence of drugs; www.noslang.com/drugs/dictionary/a ... After the rush, they enter an alternately wakeful and drowsy state, with substantially reduced psychological pain. In ADOS, the protagonist is wanting to sleep rather than be left to her distressed imagination. She longs to dream cotton wool dreams; and the poppy simile clearly reveals that she understands opiate effects as a drug addict would. ('White Horse' is street slang for heroin or cocaine; Regular users have described heroin as like being "wrapped in cotton wool.") In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick; filmed as ' Blade Runner,' 1982) there are three distinct groups: humans, "specials," and androids. Specials are damaged humans, no longer considered real humans; they are looked down upon as sub-human. The novel questions what is human and "humanness". Key here is empathy. At the outset of the novel we see Deckard tending to his fake sheep and dreaming of a real one... Since the war that caused the radioactive fallout, real animals are scarce and have become status symbols. Caring for an animal means displaying empathy, humanness, signalling that people with pets are not androids. But during the novel, we see that Deckard who is considered human by society is very cold and unfeeling, while Isidore and Rachael who are considered sub- or non-human display much more emotion. KB's ADOS could thus be a longing for empathy and warmth, a longing to show empathy and warmth, and a compassionate longing to feel human. In Sheep in Fog, Sylvia Plath creates a complex extended metaphor where the subject is her own spiritual experience. "Fog" is an important catalyst in this process because it indicates a state of perception and comprehension where the definite borders between concepts break down allowing the concepts to merge into each other, becoming a higher unifying concept. The higher concept necessarily causes an expansion of consciousness in the reader. The poet explicitly states the images "sheep" and "fog" only in the title. The first stanza mentions "hills" and "whiteness". These concepts already blend into "sheep" and "fog". Then the sheep are further metamorphosed into "people" and "stars" indicating a further personification and a reaching into the cosmos. (See 'Sheep in Fog,' Ariel, Sylvia Plath, 1966.) Up there's a heaven Down there's a town Blackness everywhere and little lights shine Oh blackness blackness dragging me down Come on light the candle in this poor heart of mine ~ This Flight Tonight by Joni Mitchell (from Blue, 1971) Little light shining, Little light will guide them to me. My face is all lit up, My face is all lit up. If they find me racing white horses, They'll not take me for a buoy. Let me be weak, Let me sleep And dream of sheep... As a dream symbol, 'sheep' can mean: being soft, weak, vulnerable and unable to protect oneself; being led, lost, not thinking for oneself; a devious person, a wolf in sheep’s clothing; feeling ripped off, feeling fleeced; being timid or feeling embarrassed, sheepish; etc. Sheep can also signify blind faith because they run around in a flock believing that all will be okay. * ... In 1979, Kate was offered a blood-curdling role as Dracula's moll in a vampire film: Kate, 20, said yesterday: "There is still so much I want to do musically. I am not ready for films yet... I was given a choice of two roles opposite Dracula-type characters, and I don't see myself in that sort of role..."The Sun, April 18, 1979: Dracula's Moll? Who, Me?- gaffa.org/reaching/i79_ts.htmlINTERVIEWER: Talking about eerie creatures, on the back cover of the album [NFE, 1980] there's some pictures of you doing a sort of floating pose... with your tongue hanging out, wearing sort of bat clothes... That is quite a cover... KB: And the cover was terribly important because I do feel with home taping, etc., happening, you have to give people as much as you can on an album... And you hold the cover and you think "oh, this is it!," you know, and you sorta plow through it for any little bit of information. And so that's what I've tried to do and we've got the most incredible artists... INTERVIEWER: I can see, it's brilliant actually. I mean it's almost like a sort of child's book but using very adult sort of.... adult paintings, adult drawings, isn't it, for the cover? KB: Yes, it's pencil, it's incredible. Never For Ever Debut, Radio 1, 1980.- gaffa.org/reaching/ir80_r1.html"[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.htmlThe NFE cover kinda reminds me of Pandora opening her box!
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Post by tannis on Dec 29, 2007 16:51:19 GMT
4/8 Hot Press, "The Private Kate Bush", November 1985:INTERVIEWER: "Obviously on one level The Ninth Wave is about somebody nearly drowning. But I was struck by images which suggested that there could be drugs involved. There's the line in And Dream of Sleep [sic]: 'I can't be left to my imagination/Let me be weak...' And then there's the mention of poppies." KB: "Definitely there is the connection, with the poppies. That imagery wasn't really meant to be drug-orientated, but when you think of poppies you automatically get that sense of terrible drowsiness, and I suppose you do connect it to opium." INTERVIEWER: "Then in The Ice Song [sic; the interviewer is thinking of Under Ice] there is the reference to 'making [sic] lines, little lines,' which can obviously be interpreted in those terms. There's also a connection in snow and pervasive whiteness." KB: "Yes, absolutely. But really it wasn't conscious when I was writing it, and it was only a few weeks before we finished the album that people said, 'God, have you looked at this: Cutting little lines,' and I had really not consciously considered that at all. I mean, the whole thing is about skaters cutting ice, and leaving tracks instead of footprints. And it's cold and empty. For me, the ultimate loneliness is not a complete wasteland, but for it to be completely frozen. It was that imagery more than a drug-based one. But you are right..." INTERVIEWER: "Someone experiencing a habit could metaphorically be said to be drowning. I definitely think of the second side as a description of what it might be like to get over a heroin habit." KB: "I think it's parallel to so many things, really--It's definitely going through an experience and coming out the other side and it's definitely not a pleasant experience. I definitely find it very frightening, the whole concept of being in something so huge and it's night and you're alone..."- from gaffa.org/reaching/i85_hp.html Kate once described The Ninth Wave as "all my own personal nightmares put into song." - gaffa.org/diction/w.htmlUnder Ice taps into vulnerability, rashness and terror. Spaced out speeding across still life... Maybe a mind-expanding trip taking the protagonist to the edge of self, to the messy beyond self... Speeding above/ over ice becomes trapped below/ under ice, and the self becomes dangerously split... Coke Crash... ('Ice' is street slang for cocaine; 'Splitting' is street slang for rolling marijuana and cocaine into a single joint; 'Kate Bush' is street slang for kind bud, an expensive and potent strain of marijuana!) "Wake up, child! Pay attention!" ... ... ...
"Red, red roses" ... "Pinks and posies" ... "Confess to me, girl" ... "The blackbird!" ... "Wings in the water" ... "Bless me, father, bless me, father, for I have sinned" ... "Tell them baby! Help me baby! Talk to them!" "I question your innocence!" ... "She's a witch!" "There's a stone around my leg" ... "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" ... "Not guilty!" ... "Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!""Its lay aloft you lazy whores!" ... Ah, you pinks and posies! Go down you blood red roses go down!On 'Red, red roses,/Pinks and posies' see the (plague) sea shanty " Blood Red Roses": www.sailorsongs.com/blood_red_roses_.htmHear of YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WwC4fTLqog("Originality is the art of concealing your sources" - Franklin Jones. ) KB: "First songs I ever sang were dirty sea shanties. I'm very proud of it, I can't think of a nicer influence..." (Melody Maker, "Paranoia and Passion of the Kate Inside," by Colin Irwin October 4, 1980). gaffa.org/reaching/i80_mm.htmlIn legend, roses purify and in times of plague people carried posies for protection (c.f. "Ring a-ring o' roses"). It is widely believed that the Great Plague's memory lives on in the nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-ring o' roses': the 'roses' refer to the red spots that appear over the buboes, and 'A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down!' recalls the violent coughing and swift death that accompanies pneumonic plague. www.historylearningsite.co.uk/plague_of_1665.htm('The Witch' is street slang for heroin; 'witch' and 'wings' are both street slang for heroin and cocaine; 'Black birds' and 'roses' are street slang for amphetamines; "Wings in the water" - 'give wings' = to inject someone or teach someone to inject heroin; www.noslang.com/drugs/dictionary/g ) Sanna: 'Are you a witch?' - Ansiktet, aka The Magician (Bergman, 1958). In Waking The Witch, the protagonist is burdened by having sinned. The blackbird is a symbol of temptations, especially sexual ones. So is the nature of her transgression sex as sin? Is Waking The Witch a 'trial of conscience,' a 'Salem witch trial,' a crucible brought about by sex, sin, danger and mass hysteria? KB: "'Waking the Witch' on side two was totally written through a guitarist--the electric guitartist. I knew what I wanted, but it wasn't a song that would sound right if it was based around a keyboard. It had to be written through the electric guitar. So the guitarist came in literally working to just a Linn pattern, and, um...I just told him what I wanted, and it was a very different way of writing. I've never done it like that before, but I think it was very successful" [Album Credit: "Guitars: Alan Murphy"]. The Tony Myatt interview, Nov. 1985gaffa.org/reaching/im85_tm.html'Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)... The rose and poppy are her flower...' - from Lilith, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Parenthetically, 'Lilith' is held as a goddess of witches, the dark feminine principle. Some regard Lilith as the very first vampire who cannot die because she left Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve. It is said that Lilith sent the snake to Eve in order to make her sin. Two primary characteristics are seen in legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, and Lilith as a child-killing witch who strangles helpless neonates. She is the mother of all succubi; a demon-woman who hunts men, seduces them and drains their life with a kiss ( www.lilithgallery.com/library/ ). "The witch in her role as devil’s consort and the temptress and bitch / prostitute are some of the prominent dark Lilith archetypes and (particularly male) phantasies and projections in our Western societies." - www.islandnet.com/~licht/lilith_asteroids.htmIn Greek mythology Lilith corresponds to the figure of Lamia. In a fit of jealousy Hera destroyed Lamia’s children, whereupon Lamia gained revenge by seeking to destroy others’ children in her wanderings by becoming a serpent-woman and a succubus who ate children and sucked their blood. Lamia’s continual emotional state was extreme misery, similar to that of Niobe weeping over her own children destroyed by Hera. In Mesopotamian mythology, 'Lilith' is a female wind and storm demon thought to be a bearer of disease, illness, and death. So could the JCB images of Kate Bush on the cover of Hounds Of Love represent a Pre-Raphaelite Rossettian rendition of "Lady Lilith" bearing The Ninth Wave? see more: Rossetti's The House of Life and Kate Bush's The Tour of Life...katebush.proboards6.com/?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1731&page=1
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Post by tannis on Dec 29, 2007 16:52:16 GMT
5/8 A VAMPYRIC DIGRESSION: Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (Murnau, 1922).Harker left Nina with his good friends, Westenra and his wife Lucy... Jonathon travels to the Carpathians... INNKEEPER: You must not leave now! The evil spirits become all-powerful after dark! ... THE BOOK OF THE VAMPIRES: and it was in 1443 that the first Nosferatu was born... DRIVER: We will go no further, sir. Not for a fortune! We will go no further. Here begins the land of the phantoms... And when he had crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him... "Nina, my beloved- Don't be unhappy. Though I am far away, I love you. This is a strange country. After my first night in the castle, I found two large bites on my neck. From mosquitoes? From spiders? I don't know. I have had some frightful dreams, but they were only dreams. You mustn't worry about me. I am leaving immediately to return to Bremen--and to you." ... THE BOOK OF THE VAMPIRES: Nosferatu drinks the blood of the young, the blood necessary to his own existence... NINA: (suddenly sitting up) Jonathon! Jonathon! Hear me! ... The doctor laid Nina's trance to some unknown disease. Since then I have learned that she had sensed the menace of Nosferatu that very night. And Harker, far away, had heard her cries of warning... ... ... Watching You Without Me - Nina paranormally watches Jonathon... What separates them, what makes communication impossible, is the Nosferatu...... ... ...Nosferatu was en route; and with him disaster approached Bremen... Nosferatu held Renfield under his influence from afar... ATTENDANT: That patient who was brought in yesterday has gone out of his mind... Nina was often seen alone among the dunes, watching and waiting for her husband's return... NEW PLAGUE BAFFLES SCIENCE A mysterious epidemic of the plague has broken out in eastern Europe in the port cities of the Black Sea, attacking principally the young and vigorous. Cause of the two bloody marks on the neck of each victim baffles the medical profession... Aboard the Demester, first one man was stricken, then all... BURGOMASTER: The plague is here! Stay in your houses! ... Nina reads from 'The Book of the Vampires': Only a woman can break his frightful spell--a woman pure in heart--who will offer her blood freely to Nosferatu and will keep the vampire by her side until after the cock has crowed... Enter the Nosferatu... The cock crows. The Nosferatu looks up from drinking at Nina's neck... RENFIELD: The Master is dead... And at that moment, as if by a miracle, the sick no longer died, and the stifling shadow of the vampire vanished with the morning sun. THE END.**** The "official" secret message in Watching You Without Me is the section where you hear Kate singing a melody with "words" that sound a bit like: "Zwoh-nikh-lawn, zwoh-nikh-law-nee. E-e-t-nee-awng, nawn-width-aw-nee-naw..." repeated several times. The correct answer to this cryptic crossword is: "Don't ignore, don't ignore me. Let me in and don't be long."gaffa.org/dreaming/tnw_wywm.htmlThe Satanic/Vampyric "Leave it open!" (of LIO) thus finds echo in GOoMH ("Let me in!") and WYWoM ("Let me in and don't be long!"); and echoes WH ("Let me in your window!"). DOUG: You've said elsewhere that "Jig of Life" was inspired by a Greek ceremony. Could you describe this ceremony and say how it appears in the song? KATE: My brother [Paddy Bush] discovered a piece of music that was used in a Greek religious ceremony [ The Anastenaria], where people worked themselves into a trance state through the hypnotic quality of the music and then begin to walk on fire. The piece of music is incredible and has a very hypnotic rhythm. And it was the piece of music that I then used to base the song upon. The inspiration was totally a musical one and a rhythmic one. gaffa.org/dreaming/doug_int.html"You gotta keep thinking You can make it thru these waves..." Blue, by Joni Mitchell, 1971"Over here..." - The poem was composed and is spoken by Kate's brother John Carder Bush. Maybe also JCB serves as KB's consulting literary editor, and has 'contributed' to her lyrics far more than we know? And John Carder Bush wrote the narration in "Jig Of Life" and "Breathing" and the lyrics to "My Lagan Love". - gaffa.org/dreaming/doug_int.htmlWizard of Oz: 'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!'
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Post by tannis on Dec 29, 2007 16:53:12 GMT
6/8 From the painful cries of mothers to a terrifying scream We recorded it and put it into our machine...- Experiment IV, 1986. Could The Ninth Wave Suite capture, record and input another historical moment of social anxiety?Watching storms Start to form Over America... I was there at the birth Out of the cloud burst The head of the tempest...THE BIRTH OF THE TEMPEST: KB's fifth album, Hounds of Love, was released in September 1985. AIDS was detected in a group of American gay men and entered global consciousness in June 1981. By 1985–1986 it was declared a pandemic as it spread across sub-Saharan Africa (wiki). Just watch them swing With the wind Out to sea...Parenthetically, in 'Delius (Song of Summer)', Kate sings of "Syphilus Deus Genius, ooh" in her tribute to the aging syphilitic and blind composer; in 'Wow', Kate famously sings of "that movie queen He's too busy hitting the vaseline"; and, of course, Kashka from Baghdad Lives in sin, they say With another man But no one knows who...The Tragic Chorus on Hello Earth is accredited to Herzog’s "Nosferatu"... As a complex extended metaphor, The Ninth Wave Suite chronicles a vast array of human emotions, highs and lows. Beneath the surface there are references to: heroin, cocaine, "specials," etc; vulnerability and rashness; sexuality as sin; the Great Plague's 'roses'; mass hysteria and moral panic; drowning and the inability to communicate; "wings in the water"; etc, etc. Moreover, the "Nosferatu" Chorus introduces vampires, plague, madness and death. Does KB use the Tragic Chorus on Hello Earth to reference the social anxiety surrounding HIV/AIDS, just as she referenced The Cold War anxiety in the Breathing Chorus? Gary Hurst, a dancer who worked with Kate in both videos and live appearances, died from AIDS in 1990. He is mentioned by his nickname Bubba in the song Moments Of Pleasure. And Alan Murphy, Kate's regular guitarist for a decade, died from AIDS in 1989. Kate recalls Murph "playing his guitar refrain" in the song Moments of Pleasure. gaffa.org/diction/list.html BTW: 'george' & 'george smack' are both street slang for heroin; 'gee' is street slang for opium. So: SP/DPYFotHB/MoP - '"G" arrives'/'And remember Georgie'/'The case of George the Wipe'?; and re: DPYFotHB, messy 'miss emma' = Morphine. www.noslang.com/drugs/dictionary.phpwww.uta.fi/FAST/GC/drugslan.html#GExperiment IV: Experiment 4? Experiment Intravenous? Experiment Immunodeficiency Virus? Music made for pleasure, music made to thrill It was music we were making here until...The 'Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!' could also reference the emerging pandemic. And the 'All you sailors/Life Savers/cruisers ("Get out of the waves/water!")' could warn against whoring pleasure models, Cold Blue Steel & Sweet Fire, promiscuity, and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). ('Life Saver' is street slang for heroin; 'Taking a cruise' is street slang for Rocket Fuel/Angel dust/PCP; 'Bad go' is street slang for a bad reaction to a drug. The "Here I go!" of HOL has become the "Why did I go?" of HE. www.uta.fi/FAST/GC/drugslan.html#L;www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sailor ) And the public are warned to stay off.........
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Post by tannis on Dec 29, 2007 16:54:04 GMT
7/8 The Morning Fog KB: "Well, that's really meant to be the rescue of the whole situation, where now suddenly out of all this darkness and weight comes light..."Nosferatu (1922): "As the sun rose, Harker felt himself freed from the oppressions of the night...""How do you know what will happen tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog -- it's here a little while, then it's gone..." (James 4:14): www.allaboutlifechallenges.org/anxiety-and-worry-faq.htmLook at the birds of the air... Finally, The Morning Fog represents the all clear salvation emerging from the Tennysonian ninth wave: a thanksgiving for surviving the dark night of the soul; a triumphant recognition and deeper understanding of life; the birthing song of a born again, wiser and more responsible adult self! KB: "I think even though a lot of people say that the side is about someone drowning, it's much more about someone who's not drowning, and how they're there for the night in the water, being visited by their past, present and future to keep them awake, to keep them going through until the morning, until there, uh, there's hope...""RAIN, RAIN, AND SUN! A RAINBOW IN THE SKY! A young man will be wiser by and by; An old man's wit may wander ere he die. Rain, Rain and sun! a rainbow on the lea! A truth is this to me, and that to thee: And truth or clothed or naked be. Rain, sun, and rain! and the free blossom blow; Sun, rain, and sun! and where is he who knows? From the great deep to the great deep he goes." --Tennyson, The Coming of Arthur.****
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Post by tannis on Jan 11, 2008 10:06:05 GMT
8/8 POSTSCRIPT.from Gaffa, The Ninth Wave, General Thoughts- gaffa.org/dreaming/tnw_gen.htmlDate: Tue, 12 Jan 88 Subject: Ophelia "The whole conceit of the heroine drifting in water refers to far more than just the explicit, immediate context of The Ninth Wave. In fact, the implicit references are so deliberate that they may arguably be more important than the explicit subject-matter... "The allusion to Ophelia's insane self-immersion is plain to see in the photo for The Ninth Wave: the flowers. These were explained away almost flippantly by John Carder Bush [JCB] as being intended to show the chaos and damage on board the ship during its sinking (or whatever ultimately forced the heroine into the ocean). The idea was supposed to be that commercially cultivated flowers, perhaps in the hands of the heroine at the time of the disaster, perhaps thrown by happenstance into the water from a dining table flower arrangement during the commotion and sinking, have happened to end up floating in the very same waves in which the heroine finds herself engulfed. This explanation has always struck IED as suspiciously superficial -- not to mention implausible... "The image of a beautiful young Englishwoman floating on her back in a cold, deathly state, dressed in a white lace nightie and set adrift amid exotic and colourful flowers has, since the seventeenth-century premiere of Hamlet, been inextricably connected with the fate of Ophelia... This image, in fact, was reproduced precisely by Kate herself in what was virtually her debut on video, the so-called Eftelink films, specifically the last of the six, a setting of "The Kick Inside"... "During that conversation [at East Wickham Farm in 1985] IED and JCB discussed the connection of the "Lakeside" images (photographs taken by Jay of his sister sitting and stretching by the banks of the river or lake which appears in the Eftelink videos) with Pre-Raphaelite imagery... "IED has been purposelessly musing on all of this, mulling over also Kate's own comments about the influence of Pre-Raphaelitism on her own artistic vocabulary as well as the large painting, called "The Hogsmill Ophelia", which hangs in her studio. * And the more familiar he becomes with the images and the references, the more sense it all makes. What do you think?"* The Hogsmill Ophelia: a painting which Kate keeps on her wall.gaffa.org/passing/ophelia.gifAt one end of the studio is a huge painting of a drowned, cracked doll floating face up past a sewer. For some reason this painting, which might be described as macabre-kitsch, seems to say a lot about its owner. Kate returns and sees me examining it. KB: "That's called The Hogsmill Ophelia. A lot of people find it disturbing but I don't I've lived with it for ages. Looked at it every day. That picture cost me all the money I had once. Paintings are a great inspiration. One of my favourites is by Millais [British Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais, 1829-1896], The Huguenot [technically, A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge, 1851-52]. It's of a man going off to the wars being hugged to the breast of his lover. She's holding him to her by a scarf around his arm. It's very beautiful." "What Kate Did Next", 1985gaffa.org/reaching/i85_what.htmlKB: "I love paintings. Years ago when I didn't have the money to afford it at all, I bought a big picture. People thought i was mad, and they were right! But I just fell in love with it. It's a bit like Millais's Ophelia, but a modern image of it; in fact, she's floatin in a sewer, hahaha! But I thought the irony was great, and the water, although it's disgusting, has all the colours of oil in it. I do have a tremendous fascination with grotesque beauty and sad humour, opposites put together. I'd sit and look at that picture and than spend a couple of hours writing." Q/HMV, "Follow That!" (1990)gaffa.org/reaching/i90_q2.htmlHOL - 'Hamlet & Ophelia'/Night of the Demon? (Ophelia losing her purity? - "I think nothing, my lord!"). - The inside sleeve picture of KB is her as Ophelia (her as "The Hogsmill Ophelia"?) ... - In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia will sing some "mad" little songs about death and a maiden losing her virginity. She will say "good night", exit and later be found drowned (TNW). - See HOL Thread: katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&n=1&thread=1715&page=2The Ninth Wave: Does she live or die at the end?www.atforumz.com/showthread.php?t=227110
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Post by tannis on Feb 24, 2008 16:38:25 GMT
"A big woof to Bonnie and Clyde"The [purple] Hounds of Love[/purple] album cover and sleeve show KB with two dogs, 'Bonnie & Clyde'. - gaffa.org/diction/h.htmlJCB: "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... Then suddenly they lay down next to Kate, and we were away. Half an hour later I had enough photos..." - gaffa.org/garden/jcb3.htmlBonnie & Clyde are Weimaraner Hounds. Weimaraners in popular culture"Singer Kate Bush poses with two Weimaraner on the cover of her 1985 album Hounds of Love" (wiki) The Weimaraner is a silver-grey breed of dog developed originally in early 19th century for hunting. Early Weimaraners were used by royalty for hunting large game, such as boar, bears, and deer. As the popularity of large game hunting began to decline, Weimaraners were used for hunting smaller animals, like fowl, rabbits, and foxes. Rather than having a specific purpose such as pointing or flushing, the Weimaraner is an all purpose gun dog. The Weimaraner is loyal and loving to his family, an incredible hunter, and a fearless guardian of his family and territory. The name comes from the Grand Duke of Weimar, Karl August, whose court enjoyed hunting.
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amy
Reaching Out
Posts: 108
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Post by amy on Feb 25, 2008 19:11:09 GMT
Hi Tannis, I think (and I don't know much about dogs) you'll find Bonnie and Clyde are/were weimaraner dogs. Have a look: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimaraner. What do you think? I've always loved these dogs and two live near me. They're incredibly beautiful and their colour is unique to any other dog I've ever seen. I think there is one in the picture of Kate in the garden with her mum and brothers so I guess she's owned them in the past.
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Post by tannis on Feb 25, 2008 20:03:11 GMT
A big thank you to amy! ... I followed your lead and you are absolutely right. "There is of course the album Hounds of Love by Kate Bush. For an album with that title she could only pick out one breed to be presented with her on the album cover: Two lovely Weimaraners." www.filerweims.com/music.php"A big woof to Bonnie and Clyde"The Kate Bush Hounds Of Love cover and sleeve show KB with two Weimaraner Hounds. A hound is a type of dog that assists hunters by tracking or chasing the animal being hunted. Is Kate Bush photographed as the hunter with her hounds, or as the courted quarry?IMHO, the photographs are strikingly pre-Raphaelite, reminiscent of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his muse, Elizabeth Siddal. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which developed around 1848, were greatly influenced by Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith. In 1863, Dante Gabriel Rossetti of the Brotherhood began painting what would be his first rendition of "Lady Lilith". Lady Lilith by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 1868.www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walke....lady-Lilith.jpgIn Mesopotamian mythology, 'Lilith' is a female wind and storm demon. So could the JCB images of Kate Bush on the cover of Hounds Of Love represent a Pre-Raphaelite Rossettian rendition of "Lady Lilith" bearing The Ninth Wave? see more: The Sensual World of Kate Bush & Dante Gabriel Rossettikatebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1731
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Post by tannis on May 5, 2008 4:19:15 GMT
This evening, I saw Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, starring Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski. Kate Bush has confirmed that she got the men's choral section of Hello Earth from Herzog's "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979). The ('Greek') Tragic Chorus on Hello Earth is a version of "Zinzkaro," the Georgian folk song performed on the Herzog soundtrack.Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) Vokal-Ensemle Gordela "Zinzkaro"
Chapter 22: Pestilence 1:26:31-1:29:01
Zinzkaro plays as Lucy walks through the square observing mayhem, madness and social breakdown brought about by the plague. All real sounds are filtered out.
Werner Herzog: "Watch out for the music... from the Georgian Soviet Republic... and it has something very, very strange about it... And this scene is a little bit like in late medieval times where people would feast and dance as an homage to life itself and in the craze of the times of the plague..." Interviewer: "So you would say at this point we have definitely crossed over into the other realm?" Werner Herzog: "Yes."
"The scene where plague-infested people feast their last in the medieval square while surrounded by rats is surrealism straight out of Bosch that imprints permanently on the brain." (imdb)
see the plague scene featuring Zinzkaro at: Nosferatu in Delft www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4GKEnScx54 05:35
Chapter 23: Sacrifice 1:34:16-1:35:24
Zinzkaro plays again as Count Dracula sucks the life out of Lucy, hand on her breast, with vampire bat cut. IMHO, the Hello Earth chorus is so like the Werner film soundtrack as to be considered the same. Hence, KaTe's "Special Thanks to... Werner Herzog..."
Indeed, Kate and Hickox's remarkable recreation of the orthodox singing/chanting that makes such a contribution to Herzog's Nosferatu is an uncanny quote. Moreover, Kate Bush follows Herzog's Nosferatu by using two sections of the "Zinzkaro" chorus. It must therefore be concluded that Kate was deliberately seeking symbolic associations between Nosferatu and The Ninth Wave's Hello Earth chorus.
Kate Bush's "Zinzkaro" quotes and signifies Nosferatu's "Zinzkaro", which in turn means that Kate is incorporating vampiric and plague myth, legend and lore into the ('Greek') Tragic Chorus on Hello Earth. The cross-media cultural allusions thematically expand the idea that The Ninth Wave Suite addresses the social anxiety surrounding HIV/AIDS (and see the further comparison made above between 'Waking The Witch' ("Red, red roses, Go down") and the plague sea shanty "Blood Red Roses").
After seeing Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, one cannot help but see La Danse Macabre and vampiric blood lust when listening to the Hello Earth sections of "Zinzkaro". Waking The Witch becomes more defined as a 'trial of conscience,' a 'Salem witch trial,' a crucible brought about by sex, sin, danger and mass hysteria. And The Ninth Wave Suite takes on board the edge of a modern morality play.
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Post by tannis on May 6, 2009 4:27:41 GMT
Ivan Aivazovsky: "The Ninth Wave" - 1850 - oil on canvas San Petesburgo, Museo Estatal Born in Crimea in 1817, to an Armenian family, Ivan Aivazovsky is arguably the most famous Russian seascape painter. The quality of his paintings made him one of the most respected artists in Russia, earning the Gold Medal at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, and opening his own school at home town of Feodosiya. Aivazovsky painted more than 6,000 works, most notably the famous "The Ninth Wave", and a large group of large paintings glorifying the Russian navy. "The Ninth Wave" is a true masterwork. Aivazovsky reaches in this painting an absolute technical perfection, representing a group of unlucky castaways trying to survive under the merciless charges in form of oceanic waves. Nevertheless, the centre of the composition is the powerful, almost mystical and diffuse representation of the sun, which illuminates the scene with a strange, oneiric range of green and pink shades. This painting is often called "the most beautiful painting in Russia"Below is a cutting taken from an unknown 1978 teen mag. Maybe Kate's dream was the initial inspiration for 'The Ninth Wave' concept?see more: Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900)stpetersburg-guide.com/people/aivazovsky.shtmlwww.artsstudio.com/reproductions/new_aivazovsky-biography.htm
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Post by tannis on Sept 17, 2009 5:27:27 GMT
Many techniques employed on The Dreaming reappear on Hounds of Love. Tribal drum rhythms that drove songs like "Sat in Your Lap" and "The Dreaming" play a larger role on Hounds, and the mixture of traditional and contemporary instruments is also included in a more highly developed form. However, the discontinuities between the two albums are as important as the similarities. The piano, for example, is no longer the central instrument on Hounds; it has been replaced by the Fairlight, which possesses the capability of integrating a variety of sounds into a melodic whole. This shift reflects the difference in the two albums' contents. While the idiosyncratic piano proved the ideal accompaniment for The Dreaming's introspection, Hounds requires an instrument that mirrors its focus on interpersonal relationships and the interrelatedness of life...
"The Ninth Wave" is also previewed by the back of the album jacket, where a photograph of a wet, seaweed-strewn Kate Bush appears. Beneath the picture the following explanation is given:
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last 'Til last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged Roaring, and all the wave was in flame . . . —Tennyson, "The Coming of Arthur"
At this point it is not surprising to learn that Tennyson's poem possesses a muddled chronology, beginning with the meeting of Arthur and Guinevere and ending with a fantastical account of Arthur's birth. The four lines on the jacket refer to the night of Uther's death, but the quotation ends before the reader can learn that the infant Arthur, swathed in flame, is borne on the ninth wave. As Merlin declares with the child washed to his feet is Uther's heir, the wave encircles the two with flame. When the wave recedes, calm ensues.
The temporal confusion in Tennyson's tale is in keeping with Kate Bush's narrative and musical devices, and the invocation of Arthur weaves a mythic web around the second side of Hounds. The cycle of birth, death, and messianic rebirth central to Arthurian legend is also vital to "The Ninth Wave." Like Arthur, Kate Bush experiences a death and rebirth, though hers is in the water. According to Carl Jung, water symbolizes the subconscious mind into which one must descend before aspiring to the heights of enlightenment. In dreams, the conscious mind fights the pull of water, just as Bush does. Like the subjects of Jung's analysis who though "spirit" comes from above, Bush is disturbed to be in the midst of the water, "the fluid of the instinct-driven body, blood and the flowing of blood, the odor of the beast, carnality heavy with passion." For Bush, the water is another vehicle for an introspective ordeal.
"And Dream of Sheep," a lullaby played on the piano, sets up the scenario in which Kate Bush, as the narrator, tries to stay awake in the water and awaits rescue. "Little light will guide them to me," she sings, wishing that she could doze, desiring her radio as a link to civilization in the primal pool. The struggle for consciousness proves futile as the sheep take her "deeper and deeper." Her error is immediately signalled by the ominous strings and deep vocals of "Under Ice." The water of Bush's dreamworld has turned to ice over which she skates, but "There's something moving under / Under the ice / Moving under ice—through water / Trying to get out of the cold water." Kate please, "Something—someone, help them!" until she reaches the awful realization, "It's me!"
The claustrophobic dream jolts Bush back to consciousness, though the process is difficult. Employing a variation of a technique used in "All the Love" on The Dreaming, a variety of voices urge Bush to awaken, and many make reference to Bush's situation. Some mention the "little light," others recite lines from songs elsewhere on the side, such as "We are water in the holy land of water" from "Jig of Life." This lead-in to "Waking the Witch" contains the first appearance of garbled voices that sound like Kate Bush's cries for help as she bobs in and out of the water, gasping "—help me baby help me—talk to me talk to me—."
Once again, Kate slips into hallucination. This time she has confessed to a priest, but the priest uses the confession against her in a witchcraft trial. The jury of "good people" affirms that the defendant is "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" and though the clergyman pities the girl—"poor witch"—he condemns her. By announcing "I am responsible for your actions," the priest removes from the girl's hands power over her own karmic destiny. Thus, in some way the "witch's predicament parallels that of the drowning victim whose fate lies with potential rescuers. The priest's reassurance, "You won't burn / You won't bleed," simply serves to affirm that the witch will die by drowning. "Help this blackbird / There's a stone around my leg," Bush cries. "Wake the witch," the clergyman's final command, is answered by the sound of a helicopter and a man shouting "Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!"—a command later uttered by Bush in "Hello Earth." The priest's voice is a demonic growl, contrasting strongly with the song's angelic refrains and enhancing the perception that symbols of good often conceal fundamental evil. Loss of control is underscored by the frenetic, electric guitar-driven melody.
Disillusionment gives way to resignation in the quiet, droning "Watching You Without Me." No longer does Kate see herself in the world of the living, but instead imagines that her disembodied soul has returned home to watch a loved one. "You watch the clock / Move the slow hand / I should have been home / Hours ago—but I'm not here," she observes; yet this is the time of a distant world, a different reality. Bush, as the narrator, has entered the realm of spirit where ethereal voices sing, "We receive thee," and her links to the physical plane are dissolving: "You can't hear me." She seems ready to accept the spirits' invitation—"You won't hear me leaving"—when she is rudely jerked back to physical existence by the earthy Irish instruments of "Jig of Life."
The traditional jig begins with the line "Hello old Lady / I know you face well," conjuring images of the mythic Mother on the album's first side. Kate is told by the old Lady that "Now is the place where the crossroads meet"; she must choose between life on the Other side and continued existence on Earth. The old Lady urges her to struggle for her worldly existence, the aspect of Kate's being that is the old Lady, the Earth Mother. A decision to enter the spiritual realm is not without consequences for others: "This moment in time / It doesn't belong to you / It belongs to me / And you little boy and your little girl." The recitation by John Carder Bush, Kate's brother, at the end of the song serves to reinforce the old Lady's message, advising Kate that her past, present, and future are inextricably linked; though "now does ride in on the curl of the wave," she must also remember "all that's to come runs in at the first on the strand." Kate Bush's ordeal has brought her to the crossroads, the place where past, present, and future converge, where she must choose between physical and spiritual existence. In the song's arrangement, the feeling of the presentness of the past is intensified by the inclusion of a number of traditional Irish folk instruments.
As "Hello Earth" fades in, the ancient mood of "Jig of Life' is disrupted by space radio chatter. The song finds Bush in the aerial position she occupied at the end of "The Big Sky," and from her elevated station she can make our planet seem insignificant: "Hello Earth / With just one hand held up high / I can blot you out / Out of sight." But she cannot affect events on Earth, she can merely watch. "Watching the storms / Start to form / Over America / Can't do anything / Just watch them swing with the wind / Out to sea." Though Kate wants to ward seagoers of the potential danger, the danger that placed her existence in peril, she is helpless—she gave in to her desire to ascend the heights before experiencing the primal depths, forfeiting her earthly power.
However, Kate Bush's journey through the collective unconscious has shown her that it is not too late to reclaim her physical existence. Though she seems resentful of the forces that interfered with her plans to cease her struggle for life, Bush also sees that she was wrong to give up so easily and accepts her baptismal trial:
I was there at the birth Out of the cloud burst The head of the Tempest, Murderer, Murderer of Calm! Why did I go? Why did I go?
At the end of "Hello Earth" Bush descends to the physical place, asking in German if there is a light and whispering "tiefe, tiefe," which in German is synonymous with "deep" in the sense of "profound." Thus, Bush's perception of being taken "deeper and deeper" in "And Dream of Sheep" has been borne out in a spiritual way as well as physically.
"Hello Earth" is the most dramatic track on Hounds of Love. Bush uses piano, bass, folk instruments, guitar, sound effects, and her voice to create a melodramatic mood and cinematic scope. The most remarkable feature of the song, however, is the integration of a Gregorian-type chant into the melody. The liturgical chant acts much like traditional folk instruments on other tracks; it brings an element of the past into present reality. Yet unlike didgeridoos and pipes, such chants suggest a Christian culture and tend to imbue lines like "I was there at the birth" with Christian connotations.
Its lyrics, soaring melody, and placement on the album make "Hello Earth" a climactic moment. The song represents Bush's epiphany. "The Morning Fog," a joyous celebration of Kate's spiritual rebirth, follows "Hello Earth" to close the album. After surviving the night, bush welcomes the light of the morning as it burns off the fog, and she greets the Earth: "D'you know what? / I love you better now." Her declaration that "I am falling / Like a stone" seems to imply that Kate is being pulled underwater for a final time, but the gaiety with which she sings the line suggests she is falling from the spirit world back to the material realm. In fact, Bush tells us that the descent is "Like a storm / Being born again." The enlightened appreciation she has gained for humanity and the Earth will be demonstrated when she is back among the living: "I'll kiss the ground / I'll tell my mother / I'll tell my father / I'll tell my loved on / I'll tell my brothers / How much I love them." Lest anyone doubt that "The Ninth Wave" is a description of Kate Bush's own struggle for spiritual understanding, it is interesting to not that these lines from "The Morning Fog" accurately describe the Bush family unit.
Kate Bush leaves it up to the listener to decide whether the drowning person of "The Ninth Wave" is rescued. "The Morning Fog" is such an upbeat song that one might be tempted to argue that help must be in sight. Yet when "The Ninth Wave" is taken as a whole, physical salvation is much less important that the spiritual enlightenment Bush has already received. Rather than turning from the primal drives and the evil that lie at the core of humanity. Bush realizes that she must face and accept this part of her soul. Within each individual the past, present, and future coexist, and no element in the balance can be neglected. Humans strive to cultivate their civilized exteriors, but without a recognition of the natural forces that spring from their primitive essences there can be no true understanding.
On Record, Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin (1990, pp.458, 461-464).
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