Love and Anger

[MTARR@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU]

Hi!

I know this is rather old at this point, but I haven't had time to think
about it and post it until now.

People tend to complain about Love and Anger's lack of direction.  True,
not even KaTe knows what it's about, but in this case it works beautifully.
The best songs for me are the ambiguous ones, because then you can develop
your own ideas and associations about them.  (This goes along with the common
bitch about videos, but I don't want to get into that, so I won't. :)  And
even if you do someday find out what the song is "really" about, you still
have the option of keeping your own interpretation- see my post about "Marlene
on the Wall" from last week or so...

Anyway.  When I first read the lyrics for L&A I hadn't heard it yet, and
my first thought was "whoa- gotta read this again."  I did, and came to the
conclusion that, as far as reaching out and grabbing me and making me stop
and say, "wow", these were the best lyrics I'd ever seen from KaTe.

PEEL YOUSELVES OFF THE CEILING, FOLKS- EXPLANATION FORTHCOMING!!!

A song is a personal thing.  What the artist says and what the song says
to you are two completely different things- it's the difference between what
the song is officially supposed to mean and what it means to you individually.
In my view, what the song means to the individual most important.
KaTe has said many times that she wants to touch her listeners in some way-
and this song positively jumped out and tackled me.  I know why, too- at
that time in my life it really said something to me, "But just you wait
and see/ Someone will come to help you" was exactly what I needed to hear,
and I was totally "living in the gap between past and future"- actually,
I'm especially doing that now, what with not wanting to be in the country
I'm in and desperately wanting to avoid the real world after graduation...
:)

That's why I like the video.  It's as ambiguous as the song itself, you can
do with it what you like.  It works with the song- no direction in the song,
no direction in the video.  Makes sense.

I can understand why L&A does nothing for a lot of people- but I also see
how it can say so much to others, depending on how they apply it to their
own particular situation.  Sort of a song-for-all-states-of-inner-confusion.
:)  For a year and a half I had a copy of the lyrics up on my wall.  Now
they're not as relevant to me, but I still love them- and any suggestions
as to what the %$@#& she mutters at the very end would be greatly appreciated.

(whoa- reading this over, i have to apologize for the confusing and generally
bad writing style.  no wonder i'm not doing well this semester... :)

Put a great big IMHO before, during, over, around, and under this...
================================================================================
Meredith Tarr			"Oh yes I know I'm always falling,
mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu	 Gazing at hazy goldfish in your swimming eyes"
Wesleyan University						-Kate Bush
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