Bitter-Sweet Ecstacy

[Doug Alan <nessus>]

I just saw both videos for "Running Up That Hill"!  A friend who gets
cable told me that they were showing RUTH on MTV, so I lent him my VCR
to record MTV at night, while everyone is sleeping.  A couple days
later, he called me back and said he got it.  So I went over to his
house and we watched the video for RUTH that they are showing on MTV
four times.  Then we turned off the TV and I disconnected the VCR.  As
soon as I had finished disconnecting the VCR, I turned on the TV to make
sure the cable connection was hooked up right.

When I turned on the TV, I heard the music for RUTH, so I started to
wonder how the VCR could still be hooked up.  But the VCR was unplugged.
So then I wondered if MTV was showing RUTH again, but when I looked at
the channel, it was on a different channel.  So then I eventually got
around to looking at the TV, but what I saw on the TV wasn't the video
for RUTH.  Then finally I realized that what I was seeing is the
*original* video for RUTH.  And then I nearly fainted, because I had
just disconnected the VCR!!!!!

V66, a music video TV station in Massachusetts, showed the original
promo video!

In any case, both videos are excellent, though Kate's promo video just
totally blows away the clip from the Terry Wogan show that MTV is
showing.  It's the best video I've ever seen!  Even better than Gariel's
"Shock The Monkey" and "I Don't Remember".  I don't understand why MTV
doesn't show the promo video, because from what I saw of it, it isn't
overly erotic, as I had previously thought.  Not nearly so much as the
"Hammer Horror" video, which is extremely erotic.  My guess is that they
think it is too "artsy fartsy" with Kate doing her wonderful dancing.  I
would also guess that when the song becomes a big success in the U.S.,
MTV will show the original video too.  There are some promblems with
RUTH doing well in the U.S., though.  Apparently, EMI-America didn't
expect the song to do as well as it is, and they didn't press nearly
enough copies.  Every place is sold out of them, and they can't restock
until EMI finishes pressing more.

The original promo video is just as Henry Chai described it, except that
*all* of it is equally amazing!  The dancing is completely wonderful....
I could gush for hours....

The video on MTV is definitely a clip from the Terry Wogan show, where
Kate performed the song live (though no one is *really* singing or
playing their instruments) in front of an audience on August 5th.  It
starts off with a a guy saying something like "And here's Kate Bush!"
Then there's clapping, and the guy fades to a shot of two flags.  Then
we see military drums, and then the camera zooms out to reveal the whole
stage.  Kate is standing at a podium, wearing a cloak and an archery
bow.  Behind her are a small and strange marching band standing in a
semi-circle.  There are two drummers with miltary drums.  There are two
guitarists.  There is Kate's brother, Paddy, with a balalaika, and there
is a guy with a Yamaha KX keyboard that he's wearing with a shoulder
strap.  Behind the marching band are two guys holding flags.

Kate does not dance at all in this performance (it's one of the very few
where she does not).  Instead she stands at the podium and gestures with
her arms and with her head as if she is a preacher in a church,
preaching to a large congregation, as she sings about making a deal with
God.  As the performance goes on, the podium gets shorter and shorter
until Kate is kneeling at the podium, and looks like a Bible thumping
Baptist minister kneeling in front of his congregation.

At the end of the song, Kate removes her bow and pulls an arrow from
Paddy's quiver.  She loads the bow, draws, and aims it at the sky (At
heaven?  At God?  At the "killer storm"?)

I think I'm going to buy a color TV today...  Boy, I sure wish I could
see the original promo video again.....

-Doug