"There Goes A Tenner" revisited

[Doug Alan <nessus@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>]

> [Douglas Weiman:] I hope to see something else discussed now, like
> the images of "Sat In Your Lap", the point of view of "Symphony in
> Blue", or a comparison between Joyce's "The Dead", and "My Lagan
> Love".

The relationship between "The Dead" and Kate's version of "My Lagan
Love" is not just a similarity.  "My Lagan Love" is directly based on
"The Dead".  This was told to me personally by John Carder Bush, who
wrote the lyrics to "My Lagan Love".  It was perceptive of you to pick
this up.

> But seriously, I generally agree with IED's opinion's over |>oug's,
> but the facts are there in black and white.  Sorry, IED about *this*
> one, but you are absolutely correct about the last verse of There
> Goes A Tenner.  So sleep well.

IED's theory about the end of "There Goes A Tenner" absolutely
correct???  Let's examine this again....

There's a universally held principle that if you have two theories,
and all the evidence is explained by the two theories, the simpler of
the two theories is to be prefered.  This principle is known as
Occam's razor.  With regard to "There Goes A Tenner", we have two
theories: mine and IED's.  Mine is significantly simpler, and explains
everything.  Furthermore, IED's is flawed.  Let's go over them again
briefly.  I'm including below the lines that follow Kate waking up in
rubble after the safe has been blown up.  She's apparently been
captured by the police:

	I've been here all day
	A star in strange ways
	Apart from a photograph
	They'll get nothing from me
	Not until they let me see
	My solicitor
	Ooh I remember
	That rich windy weather
	When you would carry me
	Pockets floating in the breeze
	There goes a tenner
	Hey look! there's a fiver
	There's a ten shilling note
	Remember them?
	That's when we used to vote for him.

My theory says that all of the song takes place in the present, except
at the end, beginning with "Ooh I remember".  Everything after this is
a reverie of better times, when the burglars lived rich off of their
ill-gotten gains.  Sometime in the past, Kate and her bank-robber
lover had pulled off a successful heist and they celebrated their
success by tossing their money in the air and watching it float in the
breeze.  Kate daydreams about the way things use to be, while in the
present she is probably being shackled and photographed by the police.
The song ends on the melancholy and nostalgic note, "That's when we
used to vote for him".  This interpretation is very straight-forward,
and it makes complete literal sense that what comes after "Ooh, I
remember" is in the past.

IED's theory also says that all of the song is in the present, except
the part beginning with "Ooh, I remember".  According to IED,
everything inbetween the lines "Ooh I remember" and "There goes a
tenner" is in the past, long before Kate became a bank robber, perhaps
when Kate was a child.  Then suddenly, beginning with "There goes a
tenner", without any indication in the song, we switch to many years
in the future, after Kate has served her time and has been released
from prison.

IED's theory is certainly more complicated.  In addition to this, it
has several flaws.  Even if it had no flaws, my theory would be
preferable, because of its simplicity, but combined with the flawed
nature of IED's theory, the issue should be clear.  These are some of
the flaws with IED's theory:

	(1) There is nothing to indicate the passage of time into the
	    future.  Furthermore, it seems counterintuitive,
	    considering that it makes perfect sense that we are still
	    in the reverie.

	(2) IED maintains that my theory can't be true because this is
	    Kate's first bank robery.  However, there is nothing in
	    the song to indicate that this is Kate's first bank
	    robbery.  Furthermore, the line "Pockets floating in the
	    breeze" shows that Kate has been witness to money floating
	    in the wind in the past.  This is true in either my or
	    IED's theory.  Now if IED's theory is correct, why is
	    there money floating in the wind when Kate was a child?
	    Clearly, Kate has burgled in the past.

	(3) IED maintains that the ending is happy.  This would be
	    very uncharacteristic of Kate.  Kate is not one to tell a
	    story where someone does something bad and ends up winning
	    because of it.  Kate seems to be a definite believer in
	    the notion of Karma.  Furthermore, the very ending of the
	    song, "Remember them?  That's when we used to vote for
	    him?", is nostalgic.  Why would Kate suddenly get
	    nostalgic if at the moment, everything is better than
	    ever.  She wouldn't get nostalgic.  The only explanation
	    for this is that the ending is not all that happy.

	(4) The video is directly at odds with IED's theory and
	    directly supports my theory.  The ending of the video,
	    beginning with "Ooh I remember", is in sepia.  It stays in
	    sepia until the end of the video.  To me, sepia indicates
	    a flashback.  Thus, everything from "Ooh I remember" until
	    the end of the song, is a flashback.  How does IED explain
	    why the end of the video is in sepia?

It should be pretty clear by now that IED's theory is untennable.

> [ Douglas Wieman:] I'd also like to see Ne T'en Fuis Pas get credit
> as the best thing that Kate (or anybody else, for that matter) has
> ever put on vinyl.

Now that just ain't gonna happen!  "Ne T'en Fuis Pas" is a fine
B-side, but as album material, it just doesn't cut the high-level of
mustard that Kate has already squozen onto our collective hotdogs.

Kate saves,

|>oug