Re: "Oh, To Be In Love"

[bloch%mandrill@ucsd.edu (Steve Bloch)]

IED writes:
>     ... It's
>obviously about the seductive power of romantic love, but the refrain
>"Oh to be in love--and never _get_out_ again" is interpreted by IED
>as a "kicker": not "never fall out of love again" but "never _get_
>out". Love is great and everything--but it's also a _trap_ to be
>wary of.

I hadn't thought of that reading.  I'm not convinced; it seems to me
equally plausible that it means "to be in love happily ever after",
with no sinister shadows.  The emphasis she gives to "never" in the
early recording, particularly when she goes up an octave, seems to
suggest such a fairy-tale atmosphere.

>That's IED's reading, anyway, and judging from the theme of
>_Hounds_of_Love_, we know such an attitude toward romantic love is
>quite consistent with Kate's views on the subject...

Isn't it IED who always warns us not to look for consistent attitudes
from one song to another, on grounds that each song is from the view-
point of a different _character_, not necessarily Kate herself?

>... if she _doesn't_
>mean to be making that last line of the refrain a "punchline", so to
>speak, then the whole song is nothing more than a typical paean to
>love--something Kate has _never_ written in her life, not without
>at least some kind of anomalous accompanying theme.

On the other hand, what was she -- 15 years old?  Although some of the
songs on ObsKuriTies II are quite sophisticated, the average is consi-
derably simpler and more naive than her later work.  Perhaps just the
Prince Charming metaphor suffices as an "accompanying theme".

"Writers are a funny breed / I should know" -- Jane Siberry

bloch%cs@ucsd.edu