re: Wow! vs Kashka?

[finley@lambda.uleth.ca (Kent Finley)]

Kashka writes:

>>	The lyrics to "Wow!" contain a line which *sounds* like: "He's too
>>busy hitting the Vaseline".  If this is really how the lyrics go, am I
>>mistaken in assuming that Kate is establishing the "He" as a--to be
>>technical--homosexual?  If so, I wish she could have found a more appealing
>>turn of phrase.  It borders on the offensive, were I the easily offended
>>type.

and Matt replies:

>Theatre actors wear heavy make-up known as greasepaint. After the show it
>is removed by rubbing it off with vaseline. Hence "he's too busy hitting
>the  vaseline" means he is too busy back in the dressing room cleaning up
>to receive any applause/accolades etc. No dressing room with a star
>and make-up girls for him. There is no implied reference to homosexuality.

To which I say:

Check out the video, where Kate pats her rump suggestively while singing
this line.  THEN tell me there's no implied reference to homosexuality.
The make-up interpretation is certainly valid, but not exclusive--heard
of double entendre?

I personally think it's a negative reference as well, softened by the
rather positive reference in Kashka from Baghdad--no other
interpretation possible in that song, IMHO, since Kashka lives "with
ANOTHER man".  She could have written "a lonely man", "a younger man",
or any other two-syllable man to fit the meter, but she didn't.  

"Kashka from Baghdad" is interesting from this standpoint.  "...no-one
knows who...", "...they never go for walks...", "Old friends never call
there..." --- all sounds a lot like what happens when people find out
someone is gay.

-- 
Kent Finley            | "I want to be a lawyer, I want to be a scholar,
P.O.Box 2081           |  but I really can't be bothered,
Lethbridge, Alberta    |  Ooh just gimme it quick, gimme it,
CANADA      T1J 4K6    |  gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme."
finley@lambda.uleth.ca |                  --Kate Bush, "Sat in Your Lap"