*** The Sensual World Anotated Lyrics PART I ***

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

--- THE SENSUAL WORLD ANNOTATED LYRICS ---

        by Ron Hill, Andrew Marvick (IED), Julian West, Jorn Barger, 
WOJ, and Edward Suranyi.

        Compiled and edited by Ron Hill.

        Last Update: October 27, 1992


12" AND CD-SINGLE RELEASE
 
     The a-side of the single and 12" is simply the album cut of _TSW_: 
just under 4 minutes. The b-side has the instrumental version (exactly 
the same as the a-side but without the lead vocal); and 
_Walk_Straight_Down_the_Middle_.        The cover of both is the same: 
a black-and-white photograph
(printed in John Carder Bush's lush purplish-brownish-black "duo-tone"
colour) of Kate on the front, with the title, in spindly sans-serif
type along the right side, reading from top to bottom: THE SENSUAL
WORLD KATE BUSH. The back side is in plain black with all writing
in gold letters. The production credits are interesting: all tracks
were produced by Kate Bush. But _TSW_ was "recorded by" Del Palmer;
while _WSDTM_ was "engineered" by Del Palmer. A rather mysterious
distinction, no?
     The labels of the 12" are standard EMI black, but the CD-single
has a special black label-side with the _TSW_-style gold lettering on
it--extremely cool-looking!
     The photograph itself is _gorgeous_. It's just a very simple,
straightforward half-length portrait shot of Kate in a black, 
sleeveless
dance leotard top, hair loose and copious. She faces the camera nearly
head-on, but is looking off slightly to the right. Her arms are held 
out
in front of her, loosely clasped together at the wrist. Behind her is 
an
unseen back-light, and there is a kind of mist in the blackness beyond.
     A very similar shot was printed in NME's news announcement last 
issue. In that photo, from the same session, everything is more or less 
the same except that Kate is looking directly into the camera, and in 
her right hand is--a peach.
     In the photograph on the cover of the new single the peach has
become--dust, slipping through her fingers. ("Vanity, vanity, all is
vanity.") Typically exKuisiTe, purely Katian _implication_ and _sug-
gestion_, rather than direct statement: for if one had not seen the NME
photo, one would not know The Whole Story behind the image.


CREDITS

     Drums: Charlie Morgan
     Bass: Del Palmer
     Uillean Pipes: Davey Spillane
     Bouzouki: Donal Lunny
     Fiddle: John Sheahan
     Whips: Paddy Bush


COMMENTS FROM FAN

     This record has got to be the most inaccessible piece of 
_songwriting_ Kate has ever done--yet it's also one of her most 
immediately memorable and accessible _records_ she's ever done. There's 
_never_ been anything like _The_Sensual_World_.
        IED has never had so much difficulty hearing the words Kate is 
singing
than he has in this case. It's as though Kate had been inspired to
create one of the most infectious, stylistically eclectic pop records,
yet had decided to record the vocal so _only_she_could_really_hear_it_!
It's like she made this record _literally_ for herself! It's...oh, 
words
just fail IED--he's "stepping out off the page, into the sensual 
world"!
 

QUOTE FROM KATE

        The following is a fairly typical quote from Kate on the song.  
Other quotes can be found in the electronic book Cloudbusting.

        KATE: Well I think "The Sensual World" is talking specifically 
about the context of that within the song.  The song is about someone 
from a book who steps out from this very black and white 2-D world into 
the real world.  The immediate impressions was the sensuality of this 
world - the fact that you can touch things, that is so sensual - you 
know... the colours of trees, the feel of the grass on the feet, the 
touch of this in the hand - the fact that it is such a sensual world.  
I think for me that's an incredibly important thing about this planet, 
that we are surrounded by such sensuality and yet we tend not to see it 
like that.  But I'm sure for someone who had never experienced it 
before it would be quite a devastating thing.
        Those church bells on the front - that's a sensual sound to me.
        I love the sound of church bells.  I think they are 
extraordinary - such a sound of celebration.  The bells were put there 
because originally the lyrics of the song were taken from the book 
Ulysses by James Joyce, the words at the end of the book by Molly 
Bloom, but we couldn't get permission to use the words.  I tried for a 
long time - probably about a year - and they wouldn't let me use them, 
so I had to create something that sounded like those original word, had 
the same rhythm, the same kind of feel but obviously not being able to 
use them.  It all kind of turned in to a pastiche of it and that's why 
the book character, Molly Bloom, then steps out into the real world and 
becomes one of us.   (1989, Roger Scott)


LYRICS

        As we know from the quotes from Kate, she originally recorded 
the song using lyrics from Jame's Joyce's Ulysses, and then had to 
re-record it when she couldn't get permission to use Joyce's words.  
Fortunately, the original lyrics can be identified with pretty much 
100% certainty: they're all from the last page and a half (Vintage 
edition p. 782-3/Penguin p. 642-4) and fall into two verbatim chunks 
that match precisely for rhythm, vowel sounds, and 'yes'es.

        The chapter that the lyrics comes from (usually called 
"Penelope" or "Molly Bloom's monologue) is about 40 pages long, with no 
punctuation at all and only 8 paragraph breaks!  (Note that the 
"original" chapter headings are not included in _any_ edition. Joyce 
edited them out of the final galleys.  This is probably the single most 
obfuscatory deliberate act of his entire life.  They are so useful, 
however, that every Joyce critic makes free reference to them.)

        Unfortunately we can only _hear_ the original lryics in our 
minds' ear: I almost suspect that those multiple instrumental tracks on 
the EP were Kate's
way of saying listen-thru-the-code...  Of course, this wouldn't stop 
anyone from re-recording the song by singing the original lryics over 
Kate's instrumental version! 

        Kate's problems in obtaining permission are not unique.  The 
Joyce estate has been outraging scholars for several years now-- 
Joyce's only living heir, his grandson Stephen, feels that despite the 
desires of scholars, his family still retains the right of privacy, and 
that's his right, surely.  He has burnt letters, objected to the public 
sale of a deathmask of his grandfather, objected to the 
commercialization of the museum in the Joyce tower in sandycove...But 
what a loss that this song got caught in the crossfire...


        In, the following analysis, Kate's lryics are given in UPPER 
CASE and Joyce's are given in normal (for the book!) case.  When Kate 
has used words are in other sections of the book, the page numbers are 
given.  Hopefully the read will get a feel for the style and some of 
the mood of the chapter
from this extract.  It requires considerably more effort to appreciate
the background and motivations.


                      The Sensual World (restored)

(The song starts with the sound of church bells)

        KATE: I've got a thing about the sound of bells.  It's one of 
those fantastic sounds: sound of celebration.  The're used to mark 
points in life - births, weddings, deaths - but they give this 
tremendous feeling of celebration.
        In the original speech she's talking of the time when he 
proposed to her, and I just had the image of bells, this image of them 
sitting on the hillside with the sound of bells in the distance.  In 
hindsight, I also think it's a lovely way to start an album: a feeling 
of celebration that puts me on a hillside somewhere on a sunny 
afternoon and it's like, mmh... Sounds of celebration get fewer and 
fewer.  We haven't many left.  And yet people complain of the sound of 
bells in cities.   (1989, NME)

MMMH, YES

        KATE: In the original piece, it's just "Yes" - a very 
interesting way of leading you in.  It pulls you into the piece by the 
continual acceptance of all these sensual things: "Ooh wonderful!" 
(1989, NME)

- FIRST SECTION - 

THEN I'D TAKEN THE KISS OF SEEDCAKE BACK FROM HIS MOUTH (643 line 14)
...first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth

        It's interesting how Kate reverses this.
        The clearest description of the seedcake episode is in chapter 
8, the Lestrygonians. Page numbers:
Vintage (Random House) ed.,  1961: p. 176
Penguin Modern Classics ed., 1984: p. 144

GOING DEEP SOUTH, GO DOWN, MMH, YES.
and it was leapyear like now yes
TOOK SIX BIG WHEELS AND ROLLED OUR BODIES
16 years ago my God

        "big wheels" is from page 643 line 31.

OFF OF HOWTH HEAD AND INTO THE FLESH, MMH, YES,
after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes

        "Howth Head" is the physical location of the episode in 
_Ulysses_, a headland north of Dublin. (see eg 643 line 13)

HE SAID I WAS A FLOWER OF THE MOUNTAIN, YES,
he said I was a flower of the mountain yes

        "flower of the mountain" also appears on page 644 line 2

BUT NOW I'VE POWERS O'ER A WOMAN'S BODY-- YES.
so we are flowers all a womans body yes [sic: thus in joyce]...


- SECOND SECTION - 

TO WHERE THE WATER AND THE EARTH CARESS
...and Gibraltar as a girl where I

        The physical setting of the episode is on a hill to the north
of Dublin, overlooking the sea, hence possibly "where the water and the 
earth caress"

AND THE DOWN OF A PEACH SAYS MMH, YES,
was a flower of the mountain yes

        "Down on the peach".  Molly uses the word "peach" once, in the 
phrase
"soft like a peach" in reference to female sexual organs (Vintage
page 770).  Earlier in the day she has been presented with a gift
of peaches and pears. Can't find a reference to "down" on peaches.
        It's possible Kate might be using "peach" independently as a 
sexual
metaphor (it's a well established metaphor).  Molly's "peach" reference 
is over 10 pages from the end of the book, where the bulk of Kate's 
source material lies. 
        One of the publicity photos shows Kate holding a peach.

DO I LOOK FOR THOSE MILLIONAIRES
when I put the rose in my hair
LIKE A MACHIAVELLIAN GIRL WOULD
like the Andalusian girls used

        `Andalusian' appears because Molly is remembering incidents 
from her girlhood when she was an `army brat' in Gibraltar.  
Characteristically, these memories blur with those of her courtship 
with Leopold Bloom on Howth Head.
        The word `Machiavellian' since is absent not only from the 
"Penelope" chapter but from the whole of _Ulysses_!  
        Why did she use the word 'Machevellian' instead of 
'Andalusian'?  Seems to
me out of place somehow, unless of course she is refering to the 
manipulative
way the Molly plays with her suitor's mind...
        

WHEN I COULD WEAR A SUNSET? MMH, YES,
or shall I wear a red yes

        "sunsets" appears on page 643 line 39.