Re: Night Scented Stock

[MTARR%WESLEYAN.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu]

X-VMS-News: eagle.wesleyan.edu rec.music.gaffa:3473

> From: slh@ut-emx.UUCP (Susan L. Cecelia Harwood):
> What the hell does "Night Scented Stock" mean?  All I can think of
> when I read the name is smelly cows, but that doesn't flow with the
> actual song (one of my favorite Kate things ever).

Greetings...

Uh, I don't think smelly cows cut it, but I'm sure Kate would get a big kick
out of that interpretation!  :)

I've been thinking about that lately, as I used it for outro music to the
radio news I was producing last night and one of the anchors asked what it was.
"The Infant Kiss" starts with "I say good night...night/ I tuck him in tight",
which implies putting someone to bed.  Then you've got "Night Scented Stock",
which is rather ethereal and dreamlike, then you've got "Army Dreamers", which
of course implies a dream.  I think NSS is there as a bridge between awakeness
and sleeping (yes, Julian, I know Awakeness probably isn't a word, so don't
bother to correct me on it! :) ).

The night air has a distinctive quality about it, an actual scent in many
cases, so there's the Night Scented part.  And "Stock" could mean a collection
of notes or voices.  (Or cattle, but I doubt it.)  That's how I see it, anyway.

And it is beautiful, isn't it?

********************************************************************************
Meredith Tarr                   "Looking for a moment that'll never happen
mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu         Living in the gap between past and future"
Wesleyan University                                             -KT
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