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Post by tannis on Jun 15, 2008 20:53:30 GMT
The Sensual World does give a view of love and sensuality that is almost mystical in the way it relates to the 'spark' of spirit or life force. And the symbolism of seedcake and wheels is fascinating. I agree, Rosa... The symbolism is especially fascinating.It is a fact that Joyce had several works dealing with various aspects of the occult in his personal libraries. It is also beyond doubt that, from his earlier works until his most mature books, he constantly referred to occult authors and themes on many occasions.
Among the volumes on occult subjects which Joyce had in his personal library in Trieste, we find many texts concerning occult matters, like Jacob Boehme’s The Signature of all Things, Emanuel Swedenborg’s Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell, two books on theosophy and discipleship by Annie Besant, a tract on the occult meaning of blood by Rudolph Steiner, a study in French on Spiritism, a volume by Merlin called The Book of Charms and Ceremonies Whereby All May Have the Opportunity of Obtaining Any Object They Desire, a translation of Plutarch’s theosophical essays, a study on Yogi philosophy and oriental occultism, a work by Giordano Bruno and a study on him, and finally several works by Blake and Yeats. Joyce remained interested in the occult also in his more mature years. In the Paris library we find a copy of The Occult Review (July 1923) which features essays and articles on the “Practical Qabala,” the “Akasic Records,” and “the alleged communication with Madame Blavatsky.” The Paris library hosts also other books on similar subjects, though not as many as the Trieste library.
~ Occult Joyce: The Hidden in Ulysses, by Enrico Terrinoni (2007)"And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes..."Maybe Joyce had 'initiation' in mind, or maybe Kate et al rewrote the speech with 'initiation' in mind? There are also many references to Freemasonry in James Joyce’s Ulysses, though Freemasonry plays no active role in the story. Interestingly, KaTe's next album project, The Red Shoes, also seems to refer to Freemasonry symbols. see more: Maybe TRS is a magical conception...katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=theredshoes&action=display&thread=1749
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Post by tannis on Aug 3, 2008 13:17:32 GMT
You stood in the belltower... And the bells, the bells are ringing... The Ninth Wave features whirring helicopters, bullhorns, tangled tape-loop voices, chiming synthesized church bells, echoing snatches of conversation, and a host of fantastic characters. And KaTe rings out Waking The Witch church bells again for The Sensual World. Church bells also feature on Reaching Out.The new album is actually two mini-concept albums. Side one, also titled "Hounds of Love," is the more elusive since it is less about love than about some of love's attendant emotions—fear, alienation, rage, and confusion. In the title song, for instance, the narrator compares falling in love to a fox being chased down by hounds. Much of "Hounds" marches along to steady, galloping rhythms. Bush employs drums very much the way Peter Gabriel does, putting the music in motion through a succession of violent climaxes and hushed pauses. Her vocals carry on a dialogue with, in turn, piano, drums, and bass, and they are shadowed virtually everywhere by a Fairlight backing vocal. "Hounds" is far more pleasant to listen to than to contemplate, and the same is true of side two, "The Ninth Wave," which re-creates the last moments of a drowning victim, an eternity of recollections and hallucinations compressed into a few final breaths. Here the electronic effects are more integral—whirring helicopters, bullhorns, tangled tape-loop voices, chiming synthesized church bells, echoing snatches of conversation, and a host of fantastic characters hurtle into and out of the victim's ebbing consciousness. Bush's vocals, which explore a range of feelings—terror, sadness, resignation, and, finally, euphoria—are posed against an instrumental tableau in which strings, piano, and synthesizer shift in and out of the foreground. The growing sophistication of Kate Bush's compositions, arrangements, and production techniques does not obscure her unique, weird point of view. Only she could make such macabre subjects so seductive. Stereo Review - January 1986gaffa.org/reaching/rev_hol.htmlBells ring as you enter her Sensual World, bells of celebration, of sensual joy... What's the significance of the bells at the beginning of the song? KT: "I've got a thing about the sound of bells. It's one of those fantastic sounds: sound of celebration. The're used to mark points in life--births, weddings, deaths--but they give this tremendous feeling of celebration... In the original speech she's talking of the time when he proposed to her, and I just had the image of bells, this image of them sitting on the hillside with the sound of bells in the distance. In hindsight, I also think it's a lovely way to start an album: a feeling of celebration that puts me on a hillside somewhere on a sunny afternoon and it's like, mmh...Sounds of celebration get fewer and fewer. We haven't many left. And yet people complain of the sound of bells in cities." NME, "In the Realm of the Senses ", October 7, 1989 gaffa.org/reaching/i89_nme2.html
DJ: Church bells signal the start of "The Sensual World". What gave you the inspiration for that? KT: The original words for this song were taken from Molly Bloom's speech at the end of "Ulysses" by James Joyce, and I couldn't get permission to use the words. The original words were all about going back to a time when her husband proposed to her, and so the wedding bells were like the start of the whole song. Capitol Radio, Sept. 1989 gaffa.org/reaching/ir89_cr.html
KT: "Those church bells on the front - that's a sensual sound to me... I love the sound of church bells. I think they are extraordinary - such a sound of celebration. The bells were put there because originally the lyrics of the song were taken from the book Ulysses by James Joyce, the words at the end of the book by Molly Bloom, but we couldn't get permission to use the words. I tried for a long time - probably about a year - and they wouldn't let me use them, so I had to create something that sounded like those original word, had the same rhythm, the same kind of feel but obviously not being able to use them. It all kind of turned in to a pastiche of it and that's why the book character, Molly Bloom, then steps out into the real world and becomes one of us." (1989, Roger Scott) gaffa.org/cloud/music/the_sensual_world.htmlKate Bush - Waking The Witch www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3xg-An1Hs
Kate Bush - The Sensual World www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJc64xncBt4
Kate Bush - Reaching Outwww.youtube.com/watch?v=nKZDRbvU-BU
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Aug 3, 2008 20:00:49 GMT
^ I love the use of bells at the start of The Sensual World. And Kate's quote about them is perfect. There is such a feeling of union and celebration and divinity in the chime of bells, and the song seems saturated in all of those things for me. And aren't bells also a symbol of feminine energy or the divine feminine? That also fits in quite well, I think.
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Post by tannis on Jan 23, 2009 16:35:06 GMT
FLY-FISHING BY PADDY BUSHKate's so clever nowadays she writes *and* produces her records. She's also got bloomin' sexy with "Sensual World" in which talk of desire, touching and Kate's own breasts is rife. But these aren't merely shock tactics. "Sensual" is a delicate and all-consuming song. It even features Paddy Bush on whips!! Easy now. Sept. 23 issue of Record Mirror gaffa.org/reaching/rev_tsw1.htmlTSW LINER NOTES: Drums: Charlie Morgan Bass: Del Palmer Uillean: Davey Spillane Bouzouki: Donal Lunny Fiddle: John Sheahan
Whips Fishing Rods: Paddy BushPADDY: Let me tell you something else I'd like to get straight with you concerning the title track...If you look at the credits you can see that it says that I am playing whips on the track. This is a mistake made by some silly person that didn't ask. I'm playing a pair of fishing rods. I wanted to get the impression of a rich Irish lakeland, and the swishing sound of the rods should conjure the atmosphere of fly-fishing, tweed hats and long Wellingtons. However, the idea of whips is a long way from my original intention, so please accept my apologies, as I feel this credit is misleading. Paddy's Sixteenth KBC articlegaffa.org/garden/paddy16.htmlSo who was the silly person that didn't ask? And who was the proof reader? It all seems rather odd! Kate Bush - The Sensual Worldwww.youtube.com/watch?v=AJc64xncBt4Yellow Pages advert www.youtube.com/watch?v=abt6wGtWVX8 Fly Fishing by J. R. Hartley (1983)SIYL: Sticks - Paddy Bush & Preston HeymanAs for the swishing noise at the beginning of TSW, on the album version of Sat In Your Lap you can hear a similar swishing sound. The SiYL swishes are in fact Paddy Bush & Preston Heyman playing bamboo canes, whipping them through the air in time to the song:PADDY: Now I've been doing some musical experiments based on the ultra-simple principle that all sound is just air moving and if you want to make a noise just move the air. There are many machines doing exactly this. They all excite the air in their own characteristic way, from a football whistle to the sound of a jet air-liner as it pushes itself through the sky. How does this tie in with Kate's arrangement for the single--all those trumpets, backing-vocals and pounding jungle drums? Well, we tried a very simple idea that acutally seemed to add something exciting and unique to the track. Preston [Heyman, a drummer on The Dreaming LP] and I stood in the "live" room of a famous recording studio somewhere in London with our hands wrapped in bandages. We were positioned opposite each other about ten feet apart with a pair of microphones right in between us. We each held two four-foot bamboo canes like giant drumsticks but instead of hitting a drum or a percussion instrument, the idea was just to beat out rhythms in the air in time to the song. And sure enough, after an hour or so of thrashing, and several blisters later, we got a pretty new sound. It made us all want to dance about frantically. In fact, Preston did. Paddy's Fifth KBC article: Big Noises from Moving Airgaffa.org/garden/paddy5.html
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Post by tannis on Jan 29, 2009 18:27:51 GMT
The Senator, The Singer, The Artist and His GrandsonSENATOR DAVID NORRIS (a well-known Joycean scholar and longtime member of Seanad Éireann, the Irish Senate): "Kate Bush was in touch with me some years ago because she wanted to record the last line or two of Molly Blooms's Soliloquy from Ulysses. I had the pleasure of talking to her for about half an hour on the phone and marking her cards about that awful blister Stephen Joyce who unfortunately holds the copy right."thehomegroundandkatebushnewsandinfoforum.yuku.com/topic/16590/t/An-Irish-Senator-and-Kate-Bush.htmlKATE BUSH: "...originally the lyrics of the song were taken from the book Ulysses by James Joyce, the words at the end of the book by Molly Bloom, but we couldn't get permission to use the words. I tried for a long time - probably about a year - and they wouldn't let me use them..." (1989, Roger Scott) gaffa.org/cloud/music/the_sensual_world.htmlSTEPHEN JAMES JOYCE (born 16 February 1932) is the grandson of James Joyce and the controversial executor of Joyce's estate. Though the trustee of the Estate of James Joyce is Seán Sweeney, Stephen Joyce has taken an active role in all legal matters relating to Joyce's works. He has brought numerous lawsuits or threats of legal action against scholars, biographers and artists attempting to quote from Joyce's literary work or personal correspondence.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_JoyceIn 2004, the centenary of Bloomsday, Stephen threatened the Irish government with a lawsuit if it staged any Bloomsday readings; the readings were cancelled. He warned the National Library of Ireland that a planned display of his grandfather's manuscripts violated his copyright. (The Irish Senate passed an emergency amendment to thwart him.) His antagonism led the Abbey Theatre to cancel a production of Joyce's play "Exiles," and he told Adam Harvey, a performance artist who had simply memorized a portion of "Finnegans Wake" in expectation of reciting it onstage, that he had likely "already infringed" on the estate's copyright. Harvey later discovered that, under British law, Joyce did not have the right to stop his performance.arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/06/7048.arsThe Sensual World is a song that translates the old ache to a different level -- with the invaluable help of James Joyce. "I had a rhythm idea with a synth line I took home to work on one night," she says. "While I was playing it this repeated *Yes* came to me and made me think of Molly Bloom's speech right at the end of Ulysses -- which I *have* actually read all through! I went downstairs and read it again, this unending sentence punctuated with 'yeses', fantastic stuff, and it was uncanny, it fitted the rhythm of my song." (The last lines of Molly Bloom's great stream of consciousness read: "then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.") Although to Kate "it felt like it was meant to happen", when she applied through "official channels" (presumably the Joyce estate) for permission to use it, she was refused. But she wasn't to be deflected. "I tried to write it like Joyce," she says, smiling in self-mockery. "The rhythm at least I wanted to keep. Obviously I couldn't do his style. It became a song about Molly Bloom, the character, stepping out of the page -- black and white, two-dimensional, you see -- and into the real world, the sensual world. Touching things." She declaims exaggeratedly. "The grass underfoot! The mountain air! I know it sounds corny, but it's about the whole sensual experience, this wonderfully human thing. . ." And lines like "his spark took life in my hand"? "Yes, it is rather saucy. But not nearly as sexy as James Joyce." She looks concerned again. "I'd be really worried -- there's nothing I can do about it now because it's all part of the process -- but I would be worried if people felt this ambiguity between sensual and sexual. Q, "Iron Maiden", Phil Sutcliffe, November 1989gaffa.org/reaching/i89_q3.html
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Post by Barry SR Gowing on Jan 29, 2009 21:54:35 GMT
And lines like "his spark took life in my hand"? "Yes, it is rather saucy. But not nearly as sexy as James Joyce." She looks concerned again. "I'd be really worried -- there's nothing I can do about it now because it's all part of the process -- but I would be worried if people felt this ambiguity between sensual and sexual. Q, "Iron Maiden", Phil Sutcliffe, November 1989[/color] gaffa.org/reaching/i89_q3.html[/quote] Ah, Kate! Perhaps the song is really an allegory for the emergence of the artist and her artistic process. It is expressed in physical/sexual terms because in many ways the creation of art is a very primal thing as well as having some spiritual aspects.
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Post by tannis on Jan 30, 2009 17:27:25 GMT
MOLLY: "yes I said yes I will Yes"[/color] Yes, Paul, the song is full of sensual (and sexual) references, culminating in creative union. Bells ring as you enter The Sensual World, bells of celebration, of sensual joy...And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes... And his spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes...KaTe: "The original words were all about going back to a time when her husband proposed to her, and so the wedding bells were like the start of the whole song." Capitol Radio, Sept. 1989gaffa.org/reaching/ir89_cr.htmlMolly's soliloquy consists of eight enormous "sentences". Molly accepts Leopold into her bed, frets about his health, then reminisces about their first meeting and about when she knew she was in love with him. Joyce noted in a 1921 letter to Frank Budgen that "[t]he last word (human, all too human) is left to Penelope." The episode both begins and ends with "yes," a word that Joyce described as "the female word" and that he said indicated "acquiescence and the end of all resistance." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Bloom's_Soliloquy MOLLY: "...and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky..." [...of honey! ;D ]I wonder if anyone's ever proposed to KaTe. And did she say, "Mmh, no..."
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Post by tannis on Jan 30, 2009 17:33:48 GMT
Penelope, Dante Gabriel RossettiPENELOPE
And then it starts, that great chapter of Molly. Her two key words are yes and because.Yes because he never did a thing like that before as ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the City Arms hotel when he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting for that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself and her soul greatest miser ever was.... (U608)And on and on and on. Then she begins to think about her various lovers; she comes up to Boylan, and then she thinks about Stephen. Wouldn't it be nice [if Stephen came to stay with them,] and how Stephen is so much more refined than this bunch she's been with. Then she thinks, "Oh, yes, and there's something of that in Leopold, too." [The thought of Leopold] leads her to think of her girlhood in Gibraltar among the flowery realm down there. When she then thinks of Bloom in that sense, she thinks of the time she first gave herself to him on Howth Head, which extends out into Dublin Bay, and there are great rhododendrons [growing up the face of the cliff] there. [The thought of making love on Howth leads Molly to think of the time when she was a girl in Gibraltar and of her first love, whom she confuses with Bloom on Howth.]...I love flowers Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses God of heaven theres nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea and the waves rushing then the beautiful country with the fields of oats and wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going about that would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers all sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the ditches primroses and violets nature it is as for them saying theres no God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning why dont they go and create something I often asked him atheists or whatever they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves first then they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why because theyre afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. (U642-644)And that's how Ulysses ends: Yes.
I shall never understand how so many of our fashionable critics can for so long have written of Ulysses as a pessimistic negative work. I think there are twenty Yesses in that last passage. Further, loud and clear, throughout the book, comes Joyce's message of the bliss-in-being that is one in fact, though many in its apparitions, broken, multiplied, and reflected in this spirit-tossed ocean of tears that is the element of our apparently separated lives, neben- and nacheinander, as they are. And therein lies the justification of the symphony of yesses of Leopold's sakti (and Joyce's sakti also) Molly Bloom, at the conclusion of the book, remembering their own sweet day of thunder, sixteen years ago...Yes.
The affirmation of life is what Joyce represents. Joyce did not have a happy life, but he said Yes to the life he had. What I find in this book is that we have all said Yes and given ourselves. Bloom has given himself in his way, Stephen has given himself his way, Molly has given herself her way, and we're melting now into that wonderful ocean and all these memories, and she's thinking of Gibraltar even while she's thinking of the rhododendrons and this man and that one and it all melts into one big big dominant experience...Yes.
This Yes, however, comes from an element of life that is not rational. While going through Ulysses, we have been in the realm of separate individuals, and there has been nothing that anyone would rationally say was to be greatly affirmed. Then Stephen and Bloom are opened to compassion, which brings them together, and with that opening, we find all of life is to be affirmed. Both then vanish into darkness. They are the two poles: the adolescent youth and the mature man, introvert and extrovert in Jungian terms. Neither occupies the middle station, and each is inadequate to the full call of life, Molly there, who is (so to speak) the unawakened life really, and yet she does support the world, she is good enough...Yes.Joseph Campbell, et al (2003), Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: Joseph Campbell on the art of James Joyce, pp.186-190.In 1927 Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) was given clues to reading James Joyce's labyrinthine Ulysses by its original publisher Sylvia Beach and, as he said, it changed his career. His discoveries became the foundation for his later work in comparative mythology. To analyze Ulysses and Joyce's other works, he employed depth psychology, anthropology, religion, and art history as tools. A treasure for Joyce and Campbell fans alike, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words collects 60 years of Campbell's writings, lectures, and other commentary on Joyce, including exchanges with his audiences and Campbell's 1941 Joyce obituary.
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Post by tannis on Jan 30, 2009 21:33:14 GMT
Kate Bush and Joseph Campbell (and Deike Rich and The Holy Grail)The Red Shoes credits:
With Thanks To: Ma, Pa, Paddy, John, Lily, Haydn Bendall, Lisa Bradley, Hilary Sheffield, Stewart Arnold, Suzy Millais, Steve Sidwell, Shirley Parks, Phil Griffin, Laura Connor, Michael Powell, Danny McIntosh, Ken Townsend, Jim Jones, Anthony Yacomine, Garry Robson, Simon Quill, Alan Cundell, Gary Briley, Michael Skipwith, Deike Rich, Joe Boyd, Therese Stoulil, Malcolm Clark, Joseph Campbell, Mark Wilkinson & Del Subject: Re: Kate and Joseph Campbell
> Does anyone know about the relationship between Kate and Joseph Campbell? Is she talking about the real J.C. on the notes of TRS? Does Kate know J.C.? Can anyone enlighten me on this subject? Thank you.
> Joseph Campbell has been dead for a while, so I kind of doubt if they have a close relationship. Kate could have been reading JC's works and may have been impressed enough to credit him (posthumously) on the album. Or this could be another person named Joseph Campbell.
> Well, I know *I* sent her some of Joseph Campbell's books a while back (might have been '87)--I would be surprised if I were the only person who ever thought she might be interested.
A Red Shoes Collectiongaffa.org/moments/1_6.htmlP.S. DEIKE RICH
On the Trail of Merlin: A Guidebook to the Western Mystery Tradition by Deike Rich And Ean Begg (1991)Ean Begg, Deike Rich, Deike Begg (Foreword by Michael Baigent) In Search of the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood: A Traveller's Guide to the Sites and Legends of the Holy Grail (1995)
In Ean and Deike Begg's book, In Search of the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood San Juan de la Pena is described as "a place of refuge for the Christian religion in Aragon during the Moorish occuption" (p.108). The book continues to state that here Don Alfonso the Battler began his unsuccessful attempt to reconquer Spain in 1104, making his "proto-Templar knights" swear an oath of Holy War before this Grail. After his death at Fraga, he later bequeathed his kingdom to the Knights Templar. Here we see our first historical connection between the legendary guardians of the Holy Grail, the Templars, and the Grail itself. (The Holy Grail, Justin Griffin, 2001, p.105-106)."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 a flame" Tennyson "The Holy Grail" HOUNDS OF LOVE www.katebush.pl/teksty_houndsoflove.htm
Kate's reveries are broken by the phone ringing. Good news and bad news. The good news is that her record has jumped straight into the Top Ten--"Another number one would be terrific, fantastic, amazing." The bad news is that the album artwork must be changed immediately. Side Two of the disk, a concept piece called The Ninth Wave, has been wrongly coupled with a verse from Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Holy Grail. The quotation turns out to be from another poem altogether [The Coming of Arthur]. The connotations of this faux pas are immensely embarassing to Kate. "What Kate Did Next", 1985gaffa.org/reaching/i85_what.htmlI wonder who it was who wrongly coupled The Ninth Wave with Tennyson's The Holy Grail? And who was the proof reader? It all seems rather odd!
If Aerial is KT's alchemy, should we consider Hounds Of Love KT's Holy Grail?The Holy Grail, Dante Gabriel RossettiThe story of the Grail and of the quest to find it became increasingly popular in the nineteenth century, referred to in literature such as Alfred Tennyson's Arthurian cycle the Idylls of the King. The high seriousness of the subject was also epitomized in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting, in which a woman modelled by Jane Morris holds the Grail with one hand, while adopting a gesture of blessing with the other.
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Post by tannis on Feb 1, 2009 1:27:29 GMT
KATE BUSH and MARY MAGDALENEKate is Mary Magdalene and Tori is the whore of Babylon. And neither of them should be chastized (by the way, I am not saying that Tori is the whore of Baylon, or a whore, I am ONLY making a comparison. Do not take this comment out of context, I've just been reading too much Camille Paglia) for this or thier actions. love-houndsgaffa.org/archives/1995-32/msg00011.htmlThe Magdalene was a popular image for the Pre-Raphaelites, as was her province, prostitution, from where many of the artists acquired their models. In 1857, Rossetti painted Mary Magdalene Leaving the House of Feasting, in which she was shown with bare feet, loose hair and a floral crown. The model for Mary was Annie Miller, a model who had been discovered/rescued by the artist Holman Hunt, but who had appropriately escaped from him at the time of the sitting. Rossetti returned to the Magdalene a year later in Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee, this time using Ruth Herbert as the model, but with the same motifs of wild hair, intertwined with flowers, bare feet, and a palpable sense of erotic power. . . .Certainly, the depictions of Mary Magdalene are some of the most powerful of all the Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and they are in keeping with the initiated images of her down through the ages. She appears consistently with long, luxurious red hair, wearing red clothing, with an expression and demeanour of erotic energy, fecundity, and divinity. It is possible to see the Magdalene not only in those paintings that specifically show her, but also in Rossetti’s other celebration of fallen women, such as The Blue Bower (1865), Fazio’s Mistress (1863), and Bocca Baciata (1859). . . .Anthony Frederick Sandys’s Mary Magdalene (1858-60) shows her as a red-lipped woman, with sharp features reminiscent of Lizzie Siddal (though the model is unknown) and long red hair, holding an alabaster jar to her breast. Dante Rossetti accused Sandys of plagiarism, because of the resemblance to Mary Magdalene Leaving the House of Feasting, but when Rossetti came to paint the Magdalene some twenty years later, it was his painting that resembled Sandys. THE PRE-RAPHAELITE GODDESSshadowlight.gydja.com/preraphaelite.htmlMary Magdalene, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1877 The Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets were indeed fascinated with Mary Magdalene. She represented the femme fatale, and the fallen woman. Moreover, her redemption gave these artists a vehicle for moralizing their sensuality - for example, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Mary Magdalene, 1877 (Delaware Art Museum) and Frederick Sandys, Mary Magdalene, c. 1858-1860 (Delaware Art Museum).~ Pre-Raphaelitism and Medievalism in the Arts, Liana Cheney (1992)Mary Magdalene, Frederick Sandys, c. 1858-1860
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Post by tannis on Mar 29, 2009 14:34:51 GMT
To where the water and the earth caress And the down of a peach says mmh, yes, Do I look for those millionaires Like a Machiavellian girl would When I could wear a sunset? mmh, yes... ~ ©1989 Novercia Ltd.
And pop is also the principal theatre of that major consumerist invention: everyday life. It charges mundanity: ordinary people, voices, gestures, pretensions with mystic grandeur. A missa cantata for love's broken promises or the leader of the pack. Its hits are black whirlpools of affectivity, luminous moments which lift ordinary lives to transcendence, bathe dullness with rhapsodic purpose, texture our intimacies and punctuate memories - touch us all with History. The music not of the spheres but of the quotidian - that artistic space blown open by Joyce's Ulysses. (The Secret History of Kate Bush & the Strange Art of Pop, Fred Vermorel, London: Omnibus, 1983, p.57)
I watched them going ’round and ’round My blouse wrapping itself around your trousers Oh the waves are going out My skirt floating up around my waist As I wade out into the surf Oh and the waves are coming in Oh and the waves are going out ~ ©2005 Noble & Brite
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Post by Barry SR Gowing on Apr 8, 2009 13:33:29 GMT
And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes...
I can't believe that I missed this, but "arrows of desire" is a reference to a famous poem: And did those feet in ancient time (aka Jerusalem)[/color] by William BlakeAnd did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold! Bring me my arrows of desire! Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold! Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land. This poem is now also used as a hymn by the Church of England. Oddly, Blake held many unconventional views for his time and may even have been an aetheist. The poem seems to look back to a time when England may have been a "heaven on earth". It also uses some of Blake's trademark Romantic imagery, most notably the "arrows of desire". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_(hymn)Interestingly, googling the phrase "arrows of desire" also shows up some curious links to erotica and the history of "free love", but nothing about Kate (in the first few pages at least). So the phrase also has some intriguing contemporary associations. Blake's poem/hymn is very well known in England so it is unlikely that Kate came up with the phrase independently. --Paul--
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Post by tannis on Apr 8, 2009 15:27:20 GMT
Thank you, Paul, for pointing out this connection. Apparently, KT had always liked composer Benjamin Britten's setting of William Blake's poem Jerusalem. And in the context of The Sensual World, the "arrows of desire" are aptly erotic and possessive. With the track Oh England, My Lionheart, she was expecting a barrage of criticism because of the blatant soppiness of the lyrics. Her reasons for writing the song were simple enough: she had always liked composer Benjamin Britten's setting of William Blake's poem Jerusalem (And did those feet, in ancient times/Walk upon England's mountains green'), and thought a contemporary song proclaiming the romantic beauty of England should be written. KT: "A lot of people could easily say that the song [.. .My Lionheart] is soppy," she said in the aftermath of it receiving some severe criticism. "It's very classically done. It's only got acoustic instruments on it and it's done... almost madrigally, you know? I dare say a lot of people will think that it's just a load of old slush, but it's just an area that I think it's good to cover. Everything I do is very English, and I think that's one reason I've broken through to a lot of countries. The English vibe is very appealing." "Stand By Your Mantra", Classic Rock magazine, Harry Doherty, Dec 2005www.gaffaweb.org/reaching/iv05_classicrock.htmlAnd then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes...KT's line also 'steps out of the song' to record its creation, as well as introducing further characters (the rewriters). Her desire to record Molly Bloom's soliloquy, coupled with the refusal from the Joyce estate, forced her to 're-quill' the speech. But why "our"? "Our" implies more than one archer! So did Kate 'channel' Patience Worth or 'pick up' James Joyce? Or did JCB help her out, as he had done with Jig Of Life? ... Just like a photograph, I pick you up...The line is even more apt when we consider the Bush's interest in archery (as shown in the photography, sleeve and video for Running Up That Hill)...How did the sleeve for the Running Up That Hill come to be archery themed and the idea of lyrics on Kate's back? The archery... [JCB?]: 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... And [ inaudible] a few summers ago Kate was very active, very good actually, too... 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. John and Paddy Bush Interview, Convention 1985, Romford, Englandwww.gaffaweb.org/dreaming/con_85.htmlFinally, "our arrows of desire" echoes the Sagittariun simile used in The Kick Inside...Your sister I was born. You must lose me like an arrow, Shot into the killer storm.The Kick Inside uses a Sagittariun simile. And KaTe's brother Patrick 'Paddy' Bush was born 9 December 1952, when the sun was in the astrological sign of Sagittarius the Archer. The Sensual World uses a Sagittariun metaphor. And KT and Paddy rewrote Molly Bloom's soliloquy, KT rewriting the lyric and Paddy rewriting the melody...KT: "First I got the 'mmh yes,' and that made me think of Molly Bloom's speech; and we had this piece of music in the studio already, so it came together really quickly." gaffa.org/cloud/music/the_sensual_world.html
PB: "There's someone out there that I owe a big thankyou to. We can't find your name. We know you live in Holland, and several years ago you sent a cassette to us of a selection of your favourite tunes, including Rosina de Peira, harmony-singing from the Bahamas, and some Macedonian a-la-Turk ensemble music...You must know who you are by now, and that you are an unsung rung on the ladder, so get in touch and be recognized, and in the time in between please accept my thanks and a kiss from my sister." [The person in question is Jan Libbenga, a music journalist who provided a tape of a version of the Macedonian melody which Kate Bush/Davy Spillane subsequently arranged for Irish instruments and recorded on the title track of her album.] Paddy's Sixteenth KBC article Untitledgaffa.org/garden/paddy16.htmlJerusalem - Last Night of the Proms 06 www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ0oCmDXrVk
"Bring me my bow of burning gold," cries William Blake, "bring me my arrows of desire." A heaven-sent warrior like the prophets of old, he will rebuild Jerusalem "in England's green and pleasant land," as every British schoolboy knows. The imagery suggests the battle in heaven, Paradise Lost 6, as well as Eros ('Arrows of desire'), here turned to spiritual uses (the erotics of prophecy, as it were). According to Swedenborg, '"swords," "spears," and "bows" mean truths combating' (True Christian Religion 86). Blake's 'Bring me my bow of burning gold, / Bring me my arrows of desire' follows the purely material genitive of in the first phrase with a mixture of (strangely) material, partitive, qualitative (arrows being generally desirous of their marks), possessive (the arrows were originally those of Classical Desire, or Cupid). The true spiritual bowman who supplants Apollo is Christ. Blake shows him bending over the heavens, pulling his bowstring taut and sending his flaming arrows flying in all directions in his illustration for book 6 of Paradise Lost.
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Post by tannis on Apr 27, 2009 0:27:30 GMT
Change ringingChange ringing — as bell ringing is officially known — couldn’t be more of a misnomer. Since its origins in the 17th century, this proudly peculiar English tradition has resisted change. Even though about 300 brand new peals are rung in England’s churches every year, these remain firmly within the traditional style, conforming to conventions laid down 400 years ago.
For centuries church bells have been chimed from below by means of ropes attached to simple levers fixed to the headstocks from which the bells were hung. The replacement of levers by full wheels, which began in sixteenth-century England gave the ringers better control of their bells, allowing sets of bells (rings) to be rung in systematically changing patterns.
The bells are tuned to a normal (diatonic) scale and it is usual to start with ringing down the scale, a sequence which ringers call "rounds". The order in which the bells sound is then altered to give different sequences called "rows" or "changes". Changes may be called out individually by the conductor, and this style is known as call-change ringing. Alternatively, the changes may be made to a pre-set pattern or "method", and each ringer must learn that method in order to know when his or her particular bell must sound in each row. This style is known as method ringing. Call changes and a few standard methods are rung in most towers and this makes it very easy for ringers to visit and ring with other bands. There are many more advanced methods which provide a continuing challenge as ringers gain proficiency over time. Change ringing is also performed on handbells either to provide additional opportunities for practice or as an activity in its own right. It is, of course, popular with groups of ringers who live far from towers with change-ringing bells.The Sensual World and Waking The Witch seem to use fairlight recordings of live church bells. Of course, there's little chance of finding out which church was used, other than asking the recording technicians working on the albums. But listening to the Library of Bell Recordings, the bells of Broadwindsor, Dorset, S John Baptist seem a close match... www.cccbr.org.uk/bellrecordings/audiochurch/B.php#bhear more: Library of Bell Recordings cccbr.org.uk/bellrecordings/audiochurch/A.php#a TIM'S RINGING WEBSITEwww.freewebs.com/timrose2/towerbells.htm
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Post by tannis on Jun 17, 2009 15:27:29 GMT
The Hounds Of Love sleeve notes make a point of stating, "Jig of Life: Original music discovered by Paddy Bush". However, The Sensual World sleeve notes do not say, "The Sensual World: Original music discovered by Jan Libbenga" ...
TSW: A piece of traditional Macedonian music (called "'Antice, dzanam, Dusice") was re-worked to fit the "stepping out" chorus to TSW. It was Jan Libbenga, a music journalist, who provided a tape of a version of the Macedonian melody which Kate Bush/Davy Spillane subsequently arranged for Irish instruments and recorded on the title track of her album. KB's album credits do not mention Jan Libbenga or the Macedonian traditional melody. Elsewhere, PB says more:PB: "There's someone out there that I owe a big thankyou to. We can't find your name. We know you live in Holland, and several years ago you sent a cassette to us of a selection of your favourite tunes, including Rosina de Peira, harmony-singing from the Bahamas, and some Macedonian a-la-Turk ensemble music...You must know who you are by now, and that you are an unsung rung on the ladder, so get in touch and be recognized, and in the time in between please accept my thanks and a kiss from my sister." from Paddy's sixteenth article for the KBC Newsletter. It appeared in the twenty-third issue (Fall 1989).gaffa.org/garden/paddy16.htmlJan Libbenga: 'The Sensual World' is the name of the new single by Kate Bush. Although, 'new'? I have known the melody which her accompanist Davy Spillane plays in this song on bagpipes for years. In the fall of 1985 I was going to interview Kate Bush in England. Because she then already had shown her love for (Irish) folk music, I had brought a cassette of my folk favourites. The interview first was cancelled, but after a few days La Bush called me after all at home (collect). The interview was never published (too thin), but I did send her the tape afterwards. On that tape was the from Yugoslavian Macedonia originating 'Antice, dzanam, Dusice', performed by the Haagse [i.e. from The Hague] ensemble Calgija*, conducted by etnomusicologist Wouter Swets. Originally a song about a poor girl who had to take care of her younger sister, and therefore couldn't get a husband; in Swets' (instrumental) version almost as beautiful as 'Mother Nature's Song' by the Beatles. According to the booklet of the LP and CD 'The Sensual World' the title song was written by La Bush herself: not true. Was this traditional melody suggested to her by the Trio Bulgarka, guests on the album, or did my cassette reach her home address in Kent, after all? * Strictly speaking it should have been mentioned on the album that the melody originated with the group Calgija. The interlude has been composed by Wouter Swets in Macedonian style. Ur (#21, October 21, 1989)gaffa.org/archives/1996-05/msg00041.html"Calgija takes its name from the typical "alla turca" ensembles which have arisen in the Macedonian towns since the last century and likewise have a general Balkan-Turkish repertoire." ~ Wouter Swets, Calgija: Music from the Balkans and Anatolia (1977/8)Special Thanks to Cape Horn sailers for "Blood Red Roses", the Anastenaria folk-players for 'Jig Of Life', Vocal Ensemble Gordela for 'Hello Earth', Jan Libbenga & Wouter Swets for 'The Sensual World', and the music of Madagascar for 'Eat The Music' and 'The Red Shoes'... The similarity of phrasing between Wouter's "typical 'alla turca' ensembles which have arisen in the Macedonian towns" (Calgija, 1977/8) and Paddy's "Macedonian a-la-Turk ensemble music" (KBC, 1989) implies that Paddy had pursued Calgija: Music from the Balkans and Anatolia (1977/8) following Jan Libbenga's tape. Of course, this isn't the first time that KT has not referenced her traditional original sources: 'Waking The Witch' ("Red, red roses/Pinks and posies/Go down") borrows heavily from the halyard chantey 'Blood Red Roses' ("Go down, you blood red roses, go down/Ah, you pinks and posies/Go down, you blood red roses, go down"); 'Jig Of Life' was inspired by Greek dance rhythm, but the album credits do not mention the name of the traditional, nor its Greek roots; The choral on 'Hello Earth' was "totally inspired" by Herzog's Nosferatu, but KT fails to credit the Vocal Ensemble Gordela; and on The Red Shoes album 'Eat The Music' and 'The Red Shoes' stem from the music of Madagascar, but again the album credits do not mention the name of the traditionals, nor their Madagascan roots.Calgija: Music from the Balkans and Anatolia (1977/8) - Serious Dutch folk band formed in Utrecht by etnomusicologist Wouter Swets (later with Al-Faribi), focusing on music from the Balkans and the Middle East. Title ANTICE, DZANAM DUSICE means Antica, My Sweet Soul, a Macedonian song about a girl who has to take care of her younger sister and therefore can't find a husband. It's a local dance with roots in the repertoire of troubadours. It was known during the Middle Ages as Nevestinko Oro (The Bride's Reel). The oro was and still is a circle dance performed at weddings in Macedonia. Kate Bush (1989) counter melody in The Sensual World. [Andy Irvine & Davy Spillane (1992) as 'Antice' on album East Wind.] She forgot the name of the journalist (Jan Libbenga) by the time she used this melody in The Sensual World, which of course is no excuse to omit any form of credit or acknowledgement. www.originals.be/eng/main.cfm?c=t_upd_show&id=229
Nevestinsko oro - Orchestra Èalgiiwww.youtube.com/watch?v=UEIkphIDuYM&feature=relatedMacedonian traditional music (starogradska muzika) performed by the orchestra "Čalgii" - solists on the clarinet: A. Gelevski and Tale Ognenovski.Andy Irvine, Davey Spillane and Others - East Wind www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMpj4jcR7x0 Andy, Davey and the band playing the first track from their album 'East Wind', entitled Chetvorno Horo...Look out for Andy's Takamine Bouzouki!see more: WAKING THE WITCH and BLOOD RED ROSESkatebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&thread=1721THANKING THE CHEF: Jig of Lifekatebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=houndsoflove&thread=1723&page=3
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