"Deeper Understanding" and the meaning of "gaffa"

[jburka@silver.ucs.indiana.edu]

Sauron writes:

>Sorry if this is a) a repeat of already-brought-up information, or
>b)inappropriate, but has anybody got a copy of the lyrics of "Deeper
>Understanding" on the Sensual World CD?

First off, why would it ever be inappropriate to share KaTe's lyrics?  Those
who know the song by heart can always hit 'n' and the rest can enjoy.

That said...hmmmm.  I don't think I've seen the full lyrics to any TSW song
posted.  (This, of course, is not counting the early attempts at transcribing
"This Woman's Work" from the _She's Having a Baby_ soundtrack 3 or so years
ago.)


[note:  do you realize how hard it is to recall KaTe lyrics when you're
listening to Happy?

"Deeper Understanding"

As the people here grow colder
I turn to my computer
And spend my evenings with it
Like a friend.
I was loading a new programme
I had ordered from a magazine
"Are you lonely, are you lost?
This voice console is a _must_!"
I press Execute

Hello, I know that you've been feeling tired,
I bring you love and deeper understanding.
Hello, I know that you're unhappy,
I bring you love and deeper understanding.

Well I've never felt such pleasure
Nothing else seemed to matter
I neglected my bodily needs
I did not eat, I did not sleep,
The intensity increasing
'Til my family found me and intervened.
But I was lonely, I was lost
Without my little black box
I pick up the phone and go Execute.

Hello, I know that you've been feeling tired,
I bring you love and deeper understanding.
Hello, I know that you're unhappy,
I bring you love and deeper understanding.

I turn to my computer like a friend
I need deeper understanding.
Give me deeper understanding.

			--Kate Bush

>And, since this is the first time I realized that this group existed,
>can anybody enlighten me as to WHAT THE HELL "GAFFA" IS?  And how does
>one get suspended in it?  :v)

Well, since you talk of being suspended in it, I assume that you know that
the gaffa in rec.music.gaffa refers to the song "Suspended in Gaffa" from
_The Dreaming_.

In a literal sense, gaffa refers to gaffer's tape, known on this side of
the pond as duct tape.  

As to the symbolism in the song, well, it's anybody's guess.  KaTe herself
has said a few different things as to its meaning within the song.  Here's a
quick transcription of one interview {rummages to find walkman and the
tape with the interview}  Ah.  Here we go.  Courtesy of a clip Vickie
played on SiG 118 (her last live broadcast in Kansas City) (I have no idea
what the source for this interview is):

I:  What's "Suspended in Gaffa" like, what's the song about?  And then I'll
ask you what the video's about...

KaTe:  "Suspended in Gaffa," is, I suppose, similar in some ways to "Sat
in Your Lap," the idea of someone seeking something, wanting something.  I
was brought up as a Roman Catholic and had the imagery of Purgatory, the idea
that when you were taken there that you would be given a glimpse of God,
and then you wouldn't see Him again until you were let into Heaven, and
we were told that in Hell it was even worse because you got to see God but
then you knew that you'd never see Him again <chuckles>.  Instead of using
that as the parallel, and the idea of seeing something incredibly beautiful, 
having a religious experience as such, but not being able to get back there.
And it was playing musically with the idea of the verses being sort of
real time, and someone happily jumping through life, and then you hit the 
chorus, and it's like suddenly everything goes into slo-mo, and they're 
reaching for that thing that they want, and they can't get there.

I:  And is the video, do you feel, a dance interpretation of that?

KaTe:  Well, that video, and the one that went with "There Goes a Tenner,"
quite honestly, were rushed.  There was very little time to do them.  I
had to do three videos in something like two months, and I don't really
think that if we'd had more time, that we would have done that.

- --------------------

And that's what "gaffa" is.

Now *my* question is:  does anybody know how the single word "gaffa" was
chosen to fit Love-Hounds into the rec.music hierarchy way back when?  I
suppose it makes sense as *the* single word that KaTe fans will identify
with her...

Jeff

- -- 
|Jeffrey C. Burka                |"I've lost my way through this world of |
|jburka@silver.ucs.indiana.edu   | profanities/I thrive on the wind and   |
|jburka@amber.ucs.indiana.edu    | the rain and the cold."  --Happy Rhodes|

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