The Ninth Wave

[Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu]

Dave Armstrong writes:
----------------------
 Subject: And may they rest in peace with coffee - homeground

 The following was included in the press kit for the album 
_Hounds_Of_Love_.


 Side 2 is equally dramatic.  It is a conceptual piece entitled 
 THE NINTH WAVE.  The seven songs combine to tell the story 
 of someone who has been alone in the water for some time and 
 who is in danger of drowning.  His past, present and future 
 manifest themselves in the struggle to keep him awake.
-------------------------

_His?_

Are they kidding?

I know Kate frequently takes on a male persona in her
songs. (_TGAT_, presumably, _Cloudbusting_ and _TWW_ are
only the first ones to occur to me.) And one could even
argue that many, if not most, of her songs are meant to
be sung by a gender-neutral narrator. Really stretching
this, one could claim that the use of "his" above is
meant to be gender-universal. Really, really stretching
it would be to say that since Kate is female, using a
cross-gender reference underscores the universality of
the song.

But by any of these lenient standards, the copywriter is
plain wrong. The character in _The Ninth Wave_ is female.
She just is.

The two most irrefutable female references in the work are
_Waking the Witch_ and the first lines of _Jig of Life_:
"Hello, old lady..."

One could go on to argue that a female weltanschauung
permeates the entire work, but I needn't venture onto
such thin ice to make my point.

------------------------------------------ Julian -------