What's "gaffa"? Well, it's NOT gaffer's tape!

[katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Kansas City)]

Vickie here. JULIAN...DON'T READ THIS...IT WILL DRIVE YOU CRAZY!!!
Everyone else, be warned....I ramble on "gaffa"

Dave writes:

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What is "gaffa"?  I heard about this newsgroup after asking a friend
what was discussed in "rec.music.gaffa".  But what does it mean? I see
that there is a song on The Dreaming called "Suspended in Gaffa".

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Well, you'll get a dozen different answers but the one you'll hear most
often will be the WRONG answer! That is: "gaffa is gaffer's tape, just
like the duct tape electricians and roadies use"

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

OK, I can hear the emacs being fired up all over the world.
......."But Kate HERSELF said that gaffa is gaffer's tape".......

It's my duty Dave, to inform you of a fact that long-time Katefans are
aware of but that tends to bewilder new fans.

Kate lies.

Oh, she isn't a pathological liar or it isn't that you can NEVER believe
anything she says, it's just that sometimes she bends or omits the truth
when asked certain questions. Why? Here are a few reasons:

1) She wants to be ambiguous sometimes because she wants people to interpret
   songs from within themselves, rather than take what she says as the
   final answer.

2) Sometimes she gets asked the same question over and over and over again
   and it's easier to come up with a quick and simple answer than to try
   to explain complicated matters to interviewers who wouldn't generally
   understand or care anyway.

3) She's lazy sometimes (about answering questions) and just doesn't feel
   like going into detail. She figures fans will work it out and who else
   cares so why waste the energy? She generally gives the most complete
   answers to questions in her fan club newsletter, where she knows that
   the people reading really care and truly want to know.

She's been asked time and time again what "gaffa" means and she quickly
decided that the answer "gaffer's tape" was the best to give. Most people
would say "oh, OK" and leave it at that. That answer doesn't make the least
bit of sense though so I've come up with my own theory. I'm not a very
articulate person but I'll try to do my best.

First of all, "gaffa" is a made-up word. It doesn't exist in the English
language. There is a "gaffa" in the Italian dictionary which is the 
feminine of the French "gaffe". Maybe she was inspired by the Italian word,
but the fact that she always answers "gaffer's tape" makes me think that she
was inspired  more by the word "gaffer".
Also, the word "gaff" has lots of different definitions in the dictionary,
many of which could fit into the general meaning of the song "Suspended In
Gaffa". More on this in a bit. 

No matter where she got the inspiration, "gaffa" is Kate's word.
It does NOT mean gaffer's tape, it's meaning is somewhat similar, but
much, much more complex.

"Suspended In Gaffa" is a song that no one really understands fully.
I can only scratch the surface when I try to explain it.

----------------------------
I have no idea what the first two verses mean, by the way.
"Out in the garden, there's half of a heaven" could refer to her family
home (which has a lovely, heavenly garden), or it could mean her home
studio (at that time located at her parent's house).

"And we're only bluffing" 
Who's "we", bluffing about what...and how?

"We're not ones for busting through walls"
Who's "we", what walls? Walls of knowledge? (Kate was heavily influenced
by Pink Floyd's "The Wall" btw, but I don't know if that has anything to
do with this line.)

"But they've told us unless we can prove/That we're doing it/
We can't have it all"
Who's "they"? Told who? Prove what? How? Doing what? Have what?

"He's gonna wangle a way to get out of it"
Who's "he"? Wangle how? Out of what?

"She's an excuse/And a witness who'll talk when he's called"
Huh?    
--------------------------

SIG is about someone (a woman, could be Kate herself, though the feelings
the character goes through could be felt by men or women) who is insecure
about finding knowledge and feeling as if they don't deserve to have
the knowledge they so very much want.
It's about striving for something, wanting something very badly, yet
when it seems close to becoming reality, something blocks the progress.

"I try to get nearer/But as it gets clearer/There's something appears in
the way/It's a plank in me eye/With a camel who's trying to get through
it"

"Am I doing it? Can I have it all now?"

"I pull out the plank/And say thank you for yanking me back/To the fact/
That there's always something to distract/But sometimes it's hard/
To know if I'm doing it right"

"Can I have it all?"
"Can I have it all now?"
"We can't have it all"

I know there are Biblical references in there (camel through eye) but I'm
not very well versed in the Bible so I'll let someone else go into more
detail. Kate said once that the song was inspired by the horrifying
Bible stories she heard as a child (She grew up Catholic but isn't part
of the church anymore). I don't remember her exact words, something about
how in Purgatory you would be given a glimpse of God so as to give you hope.
Hell, though, was much worse because you would be given a glimpse of God to
see how "great" & "good" he is, but you knew that you would never see him
again. Kate said once that the song is about trying to find "Heaven".
I think the song can be interpreted to mean "God's Heaven", but I think that
Kate had a much more interesting thing in mind. Everyone has their own
"Heaven" and it could be God's, Buddha's, or a thousand other dieties. OR
it could be a personal heaven that is unique to the individual. Something
along the lines of Joseph Campbell's "bliss" ("everyone has to find their own
bliss"). A personal bliss or heaven would be something that makes you happy,
something that makes your life interesting and meaningful and keeps you
occupied. (It could be stamp collecting, it could be Kate Bush's music. It
could be playing guitar, it could be watching movies. It could be any number
of things.)
The saddest people of all are those who live their lives with
no real interests or hobbies.

SIG is about "someone happily tripping through life", then all of a sudden
it's as if they're going in slow motion. They start asking questions and
realizing that to get the things they want is not going to be as easy as
they had hoped. There are barriers and obsticles. Those can
be physical or mental (by the way, this is the part that I use when I
explain why I called my radio show "Suspended In Gaffa". I'd get into it
but that would likely add another few paragraphs to this post so I won't).

It's about a character who's so insecure she's not sure she'll EVER get
what she really wants because she's afraid to "open boxes" like Pandora.
Afraid of what she might find.

It's about a state of mind and/or a state of being that keeps you in limbo,
not able to get any further in your quest for whatever it is that you're
looking for (that's where "Gaffa"-suspended therin, comes into the picture)

SIG is a sister song to "Sat In Your Lap" on the same album. SIYL is
saying the same sorts of things, it's just much easier to understand. 
Kate has a much earlier song called "Frightened Eyes" (by some people-no
one except Kate really knows what the title is) which deals with a similar
subject. "They've all got frightened eyes/Saying leave me alone/I'm perfectly
safe here inside/Please don't surprise me

SIG is about fear and insecurity and barriers and taboos and society 
and status quo and all kinds of things that I'm not anywhere near smart
enough to even begin to try to figure out. 


SIG is about three minutes and fifty-three seconds.

sigh....

Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
katefans@world.std.com