Mailbag

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: Mailbag

     Susan requests:
 >As for other things, in case my mailer is bouncing, I'll post this:
 >anyone who has the French lyrics to "Un Baiser D'Enfant" please send
 >them to me.  I'm driving people crazy by playing this so much-- I
 >really like it.  So now I sit and play the English and French versions
 >over and over.  Anybody know why she recorded it in French after
 >_Never For Ever_ was released with the English version?  Just
 >curious...

    There was also another request for this song's lyrics. Here,
for completeness' sake, then, are the French and English lyrics
of both _Un_Baiser_d'enfant_ and _Ne_T'enfuis_pas_. Enjoy.

The Infant Kiss (Un Baiser d'enfant)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 I say good night-night.             Je dis bonne nuit-nuit.
 I tuck him in tight.                Je le borde dans le lit.
 But things are not right.           Mais ca ne va pas.

      What is this? An infant kiss      Qu'est-ce que c'est? Un baiser.
      That sends my body tingling?      Ca me fait fremir.

 I've never fallen for               Je n'ai jamais avant
 A little boy before.                Aimee un enfant
 No control.                         Sans controle.

      Just a kid and just at school.    Il n'est qu'un jeune, et a l'ecole.
      Back home they'd call me dirty.   Chez nous ils n'aimeront pas.

      His little hand is on my heart.   Sa petite main joue dans mon coeur,
      He's got me where it hurts me.    Juste la ou ca fait mal.

      Knock, knock. Who's there in      Toc-toc. Qui est dans ce bebe?
           this baby?
      You know how to work me.          Tu sais bien y faire.

           All my barriers are going.      Toutes les barrieres tombent.
           It's starting to show.          Ca va se voir.
           Let go. Let go. Let go.         Ca se voit. Ca se voit. Ca se voit.

 I cannot sit and let                Je ne peux laisser faire
 Something happen I'll regret.       Je le regretterais.
 Ooh, he scares me!                  Ouh, il m'effraie!.

      There's a man behind those eyes.         Il y a un homme la dans les
                                                     yeux.
      I catch him when I'm bending.            Je le vois en me penchant.

 Ooh, how he frightens me            Ouh, il me fait peur
 When they whisper privately.        Quand ils chuchotent entre eux.
     ("Poor, stupid girl!")*
 Windy-wailey blows me.              Le vent souffle.

      Words of caress on their lips     Sur leurs levres des caresses
      That speak of adult love.         Qui parlent de l'amour.

      I want to smack but I hold back.  Je veux frapper, je me retiens.
      I only want to touch.             Je veux juste toucher.

      But I must stay and find a way    Je dois rester et arreter
      To stop before it gets too much!  Tout ca avant qu'il soit trop tard!


           All my barriers are going.      Toutes les barrieres tombent.
           It's starting to show.          Ca va ce voir.
           Let go. Let go. Let go.         Ca se voit. Ca se voit. Ca se voit,
           (Don't let go!)                 L'amour.**

 <*--"Poor, stupid girl!": This line is omitted from the
French-language version.>
 <**--"L"amour.": This last word ("love") is found only
in the French version.>

Ne T'enfuis pas (Don't Fly Away)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 Je viens                               I am coming
 Comme un chat                          Like a cat
 Par la nuit si noire.                  Through the night so black.
 Tu attends,                            You are waiting,
 Et je tombe                            And I fall
 Dans tes ailes blanches, la-la-la...   Into your white wings, la-la-la...
 Et je vole,                            And I fly,
 Et je coule                            And I sink
 Comme une plume.                       Like a feather.

      Si les grands yeux de mon Dieu             If the great eyes of my God
      Ne me gardaient pas,                       Were not watching (over) me,*
      Je te volerais                             I would steal you away.

 Ne t'enfuis pas!                       Don't fly away!
 Tu as des ailes,                       You have wings,
 Le pouvoir de me quitter.              The power to leave me.
 Tu es tombe                            You fell
 Du ciel comme un ange, la-la-la        From the sky like an angel, la-la-la
 Et j'ai peur                           And I'm afraid
 Que le ciel                            That the sky
 Te reprenne.                           Will take you back.

      Si les grands yeux de mon Dieu             If the great eyes of my God
      Ne me gardaient pas,                       Weren't watching (over) me,*
      Je te volerais.                            I would steal you away.

 Je viens                               I am coming
 Comme un chat                          Like a cat
 Par la nuit si noire.                  Through the night so black.

           Je t'en prie,                                I beg you,
           Je t'en prie,                                I beg you,
           Je t'en prie,                                I beg you,
           Je t'en prie,                                I beg you,
           Je t'en prie,                                I beg you,
           Je t'en prie--                               I beg you--
           Ne t'enfuis                                  Don't fly
           Pas!                                         Away!

<*--"Ne me gardaient pas": A kind of pun. Literally it means "If
the eyes of God weren't _keeping_ me," but the verb "garder", to keep,
sounds a lot like a slang contraction of the verb "regarder", to watch.
Hence the attempt at a parallel pun in the English translation (to
watch/to watch over).

 >My question is does anyone actually HEAR the "...Irgendwo in der Tiefe" part?
 >I hear something completely different.  I would like to know if

   Yes, IED hears it clearly.
   Dick writes:
 >One of the things I saw that I'm upset I didn't pick up was an
 >album of TKI with an alternate picture of Kate on the cover.  It's
 >a head to just below the shoulders shot of her with some sort of
 >"muscle" shirt on.  It was only $5.00, but I had already spent over
 >$100 the day before...

    It was either the Japanese import or the Uruguayan edition (as IED
recalls). Either way, $5 is a good deal. The picture is the infamous "pink
leotard" shot which was plastered on every bus and hoarding in England
early in 1978, causing many to pigeonhole Kate as a sex object rather
than a serious musician (it having then been--as it is now--unreasonably
difficult for a female artist to be accepted as both simultaneously).

 >On another note:  $75 for a pic disk of Kate?  Ouch!  I think one
 >could do better than that, but I don't know for sure...

     Lower prices can be found, but $75 is at the low end of
the scale--IED has seen copies go (quickly) for upwards of $150,
at West Hollywood import shops.

 >My question is this: Who is Keef?  As someone who seems to have
 >directed nearly all of KT's pre-HOL vids, I'm surprised I haven't
 >seen more about (place pronoun here) on the net.  Is this a
 >pseudonym for KT?

   Keef is the nickname and professional name (his company is
called Keefco) of Keith MacMillan, one of the very first directors
of promotional pop-music videos. Kate dropped him after the first
two videos for _The_Dreaming_, and hasn't looked back since, though
she says she still thinks very highly of Keef, and is friends with
him.

 >did say that the list price-- whatever list he may mean, I don't
 >know-- was $90.  As for whether it's original, maybe there's someone

    The "list price" is nonsense. There were two editions of the picture
disk LP of _The_Kick_Inside_. The first, "original", edition came out
in 1979, and originally retailed in England for about 8 Pounds. IED
bought one of those through mail order at the time, and paid about
$20 postpaid. The second, very slightly altered, pressing of the
pic-disk came out about two years later or so, and it was a larger
edition. It was selling in L.A. shops in 1982-3, new, for as little
as $8.49.
    Since production of the second edition ended in 1982-3, the
price of both the first and the second editions has risen steadily
and steeply. Although some distinction is sometimes made between
the two editions and their respective prices, this is not always
the case, since many dealers are not aware that there were two
different editions. The first edition bears an _circular_ brownish-
grey sticker on the front, and there is a secret message scratched
into the run-out groove which says, "Remember yourself". The
second edition has an _oval-shaped_ brown or grey sticker on
the front and no run-out-groove message. Nowadays either disk
can fetch at least $65.00, and some dealers routinely manage to
get more than $125 for them.

 >This is based on a story called "Lucy Wan" but I don't remember any
 >details about it. Seems like it was a Chinese folk tale or something.
 >
 >Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)

     As far as IED is aware, Vickie, there's no Chinese connection at all.
"Lucy (more commonly Lizzie) Wan" is an 18th-century English/Irish folk ballad,
best known as _The_Ballad_of_Lizzie_Wan_. The song's lyrics
tell of the tragedy of Lizzie Wan, who falls in love with her brother
and, becoming pregnant, kills herself. Kate's original lyrics to _her_
song _The_Kick_Inside_ make it clear that her own story refers to a new
set of characters--brother and sister--who face a similar crisis. In the
version heard on the album _The_Kick_Inside_, however, the explicit
reference to the early folksong has been replaced, making the
song's references much harder to identify and understand.
    Nick writes:

 >Given you had to make up a single LP of _Your Whole Story_, what KT
 >tracks would you chose?

   Fun question. _IED's_Whole_Story_ would begin at the very
beginning, with one of Kate's earliest compositions, a song
she wrote when no more than fourteen years old, called _Something_
Like_a_Song_. Other early songs IED would include: _Carmilla_,
_Playing_Canasta_in_Cold_Rooms_ and _Ferry_Me_Over_(_the_Music,_Dali_).
Then _Wuthering_Heights_ (original version), _In_Search_of_Peter_Pan_,
_The_Empty_Bullring_, _Warm_and_Soothing_, _Breathing_, _Army_Dreamers_
(the non-fadeout mix), _Sat_In_Your_Lap_ (a super-extended new remix
using the rhythm-only tracks heard briefly on the BBC TV programme
_Looking_Good,_Feeling_Fit_), _Get_Out_of_My_House_, _Lord_of_the_
_Reedy_River_ (though not a Kate Bush song, IED is convinced that
her cover is one of the greatest recordings of the twentieth century, and
as such _must_ be included), _Ne_T'enfuis_pas_ (first mix), _Under_the_
_Ivy_, the first three tracks from _The_Ninth_Wave_ (_And_Dream_of_
_Sheep_, _Under_Ice_ and _Waking_the_Witch_), and _Never_Be_Mine_.
All eighteen tracks would barely fit on one CD.
     There has been some flippant criticism of Del Palmer's
engineering capabilities, and IED would like to object. No less
qualified a critic than the violinist Nigel Kennedy very recently
praised Del specifically as a truly great engineer, and said that
Del obtained _the_very_best_ sound from Kennedy's violin that
he had ever heard on tape, ever. Since IED also thinks that the
complaints about _The_Sensual_World_'s engineering are utterly
belied by the sound--which, at least on IED's Sony 507ESD player, is
_extremely_ brilliant and stunning--he recommends that those
who have been so quick to cast aspersions on Del's expertise at
recording sound spend a bit more time learning how to _hear_ sound
first.
   Richard Caldwell writes:

 >Andy, I'm still looking for your copy of the lyrics...

     Does this mean you never received IED's huge file containing
all of Kate's lyrics to date, Richard? This is surprising and
frustrating news, since it took IED some time to break up the
file and send it to you, and he thought that you had acknowledged
receipt of it at the time. No? Please let IED know if you still
need the lyrics.
     You're right: it is "da-ba-da-ba", not "doo-ba-doo-ba".

-- Andrew Marvick