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[microsoft!stevesc@uunet.uu.net]

Subject: Kate's interview and The Bomb
Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa

Andrew quotes:
> Subject: The 10/7/89 _New_Musical_Express_ interview with Kate Bush
>
>HEADS WE'RE DANCING
>
>     I found it really funny, bit strange in a way... <FUNNY? MORON!>

Gee, you really get into this interviewer's style!

>     "That's a very dark song, not funny at all!"

Given reason, sometimes she actually contradicts an interviewer.  This
sure doesn't happen very often though.

>     '_It_was_'39,_before_the_music_started._' Did you
>write it to tie in with the war anniversary?
>     "No, purely coincidental. I wrote the song two years
>ago, and in lots of ways I wouldn't write a song like it now.
>I'd really hate it if people were offended by this...But it was
>all started by a family friend, years ago, who'd been to dinner
>and sat next to this guy who was really fascinating, so charming.
>They sat all night chatting and joking. And next day he found out it
>was Oppenheimer. And this friend was horrified because he really
>despised what the guy stood for.

This is sure a strange impression to get of Oppenheimer (the horror, I
mean).  He was a leader in the bomb project because it was his job in
a real war.  He was terrified by the power of the bomb, and as soon as
the war was over and his obligation to the project was over, he
removed himself from the project, and denounced efforts to continue
development of nuclear weapons, Teller's H-bomb in particular.  At the
time of the first successful test of the bomb, he said something like,
"I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds", quoting the Indian god
Shiva.  (Or was it Kali?  And yes, I know I'm probably horribly
mangling the quotation.)

>     "I understood the reaction, but I felt a bit sorry for
>Oppenheimer. He tried to live with what he'd done, and actually,
>I think, committed suicide.

Because of his public denunciation of H-bomb development, Oppenheimer
was unmercifully harassed by elements in the U.S. goverment.  He was
labelled a Communist by the commie-hunters of the post-WW2 years, and
blacklisted so that he had little success for the rest of his career,
either in physics research or academia.  I don't know if he killed
himself, but the commie "witch hunts" did drive quite a few people to
that fate.

>     "But I was so intrigued by this idea of my friend being
>so taken by this person until they knew who they were, and then it
>completely changing their attitude.
>     "So I was thinking, what if you met the Devil? The Ultimate
>One: charming, elegant, well spoken.

I don't want to delete that transition, because that would pull her
words out of context and imply that she thought Oppenheimer was a
bad guy.  Clearly she knows better, and the inspiration was the
general idea of finding an unknown someone charming then later finding
out that the person was someone who was a symbol of something evil or
someone who was himself evil.

It's ironic about her family friend's horror at learning that someone
he found so charming was Oppenheimer.  Kate doesn't say so, but her
friend's horror was almost certainly because he thought of Oppenheimer
as a symbol of The Bomb.  The irony is that some people in the U.S.
government accused him of evil-doing because of his efforts to halt
further bomb development, which was his unsuccessful attempt to atone
for his role in the creation of the first one.

>     "Then it turned into this whole idea of a girl being at
>a dance and this guy coming up, cocky and charming, and she dances
>with him. Then a couple of days later she sees in the paper that it
>was Hitler. Complete horror: she was that close, perhaps could've
>changed history.
>     "Hitler was very attractive to women because he was such a
>powerful figure, yet such an evil guy. I'd hate to feel I was
>glorifying the situation, but I do know that whereas in a piece of
>film it would be quite acceptable, in a song it's a little bit
>sensitive."

This settles the discussion of whether the song is about the literal
Hitler or a metaphorical equivalent.  Or at least it settles what Kate
_says_ her intent was.  In this case, I think it's very fair to say
that it really was her intent.  Usually when she is cryptic about
explaining her intent it's because she's answering an bad question.
But in this case she volunteers the explanation, and is very clear
about it.  The fact that it seems the most rational explanation (based
on analysis by several Love-Hounds before the interview) adds to my
certainty that it's about Hitler himself.

Well, enough long-winded analysis from me for today.

-- 
	Steve Schonberger	microsoft!stevesc@uunet.uu.net
	"Is there any escape from noise?" -- Jon Drukman
	"Not on Usenet!" -- me