What's RUTH all about then ... ?

[kortink@cs.utwente.nl (John Kortink)]

jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka) writes :

>Angel asks:
>
>>       Excuse me Mr. Andrew D. Simchik but I am curious to know how on earth
>>you have arrived at the conclusion that Kate's lyrics to RUTH is about her
>>wanting her male companion to experience female sexual pleasure?
>
>Actually, when I first  started listening to HoL, I interpreted RUTH in a
>similar way--that the narrator wanted to swap bodies so they could
>both experience sex from the other's viewpoint.  I don't know when I started
>thinking of it in a much more broad, platonic sense.

All viewpoints well taken (including Kate's ; by the way can anyone confirm
this ?), but how do you explain 'Be running up that road, be running
up that hill, with no problems' in this context, when it's *not* primarily
about swapping sexual experience ? It seems males should know how to interpret
this ... Also, I think the lines saying 'Come on baby, come on darling, let
me steal this moment from you now' in the climactic part of RUTH really
suggests it's mainly sexual.

(And what would be wrong with that, anyway ?)

As the lines are suggestive, it can obviously interpreted freely and be
taken to mean a 'general' experience swap. I would never expect Kate (or
any artist for that matter) to miss the opportunity to generalize the
meaning of their lyrics, even when it was meant to be specific about
something in the few intense hours it was written in.

Then again, isn't music open to interpretation ? Sometimes I don't even
want to know what the author meant *exactly*. It usually doesn't enhance
your own interpretation. It might explain the really weird bits, but
nothing more.

By the way, I *am* a major Kate fan. I have all her work ... And Peter
Gabriel's. And Suzanne Vega's. And Tori Amos'. So I guess r.m.g. is my
'home' actually ! :-)

By the way, I did not at all agree with the Kate poll ... Maybe a retry
would be in order with more people joining in ...


John Kortink

Student of Informatics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands
NETMAIL : kortink@cs.utwente.nl              DISCLAIMER : the usual