News submission for rec.music.gaffa

[news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU]

Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa
Path: bayes.math.Virginia.EDU!dlk5n
From: dlk5n@bayes.math.Virginia.EDU (Daniel King)
Subject: Kate and Homosexuality
Message-ID: <1991Aug5.192021@bayes.math.Virginia.EDU>
Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Reply-To: dlk5n@bayes.math.Virginia.EDU (Daniel King)
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Mon Aug  5 23:20:21 1991 GMT

     I was just looking at the masterful works that are
now available through ftp.  Much thanks to IED and Ron Hill
for making The Garden and Cloudbusting available.  I will surely
refer to them whenever I have a question about Kate.  But,
of course, they raise as many questions as they answer.
Case in point:

     I was reading throught the Cloudbusting entry on Kashka
>From Baghdad.  The song is clearly about two male lovers
("Kashka from Baghdad lives in sin they say, with another
man.")  It is, in fact, a very gay-positive song--the lovers
are seen "laughing, loving" despite disapproval from their
neighbours.  Kates seems to be both enamored and obsessed with
the couple ("I watch their shadow...I long to be with them.")
Here is the Cloudbusting entry on the song:


KASHKA FROM BAGHDAD
-------------------
That actually came from a very strange American detective series
that I caught a couple of years ago.  There was a musical theme that
they kept putting in.  It was a very moody series and it inspired the
idea of this old house somewhere in Canada or America with two people
in it that no one knew anything about.  And being a small town everyone
wanted to know what everyone else was up to, and these particular
people in the town had a very private thing happening.  (1979, Phone In
>From AVD)


    Kate wrote this long no later than her 17th birthday and possibly
much younger (an early version of Kashka appears on the Cathy
demos) which demonstrates Kate's sensitivity and maturity at
even an early age.  But I was very disappointed with her lack
of candidness in the above quote.  I was disappointed that she
did not mention the specific nature of the song--homosexuality.
Does anybody know if Kate has ever discussed homosexuality
publicly?

    Kate, I have found, has many gay male fans.  I have not met
many lesbian fans but they are surely numerous.  Has Kate ever
acknowledged that a significant portion of her fans are gay
and lesbian?  I would be curious to know what other love-hounds
have say on the subject of Kate and homosexuality.

    Finally, IED and other sources list the words to the chant-like
chorus at the end of Kashka to be:


Watching every night.
Don't you know they're seen?
Won't you let me laugh?
Let me in your love.


      I seem to be hearing something a little different but which
makes a big change in the meaning:

Watch 'ya every night.
Don't you notice me?
Won't you let me laugh?
Let me in your love.


      Actually if IED is correct the line may actually read as:

Don't you know their scene?


      Could somebody confirm IED's version or mine or suggest
something else?
                      &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Dan King                                Won't you let me laugh?
dlk5n@bayes.math.virginia.edu           Let me in your love.
dking@uottawa.bitnet                                -Kate