*** Get Out Of My House Annotated lryics PART II ***

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

        KATE: The track kept changing in the studio.  This is something 
that's never happened before on an album.  That one was maybe half the 
length it is now.  The guitarist got this really nice riff going, and I 
got this idea of two voices - a person in the house, trying to get away 
from this thing, but it's still there.  (1982, ZigZag)


 I will not let you in!
 Don't you bring back the reveries.
 I turn into a bird,
 Carry further than the word is heard.

        KATE: So in order to get away, they change their form - first 
into a bird trying to fly away from it.   (1982, ZigZag)

 "Woman let me in!
  I turn into the wind.
  I blow you a cold kiss,
  Stronger than the song's hit."

        KATE: The thing can change as well, so that changes into this 
wind, and starts blowing all icy.  (1982, ZigZag)

        Possibly the "song hit" is the bird's "song" so this line would 
be saying "my wind is stronger then your song.", although there is no 
other evidence that the "bird" sings any song in the song.

 I will not let you in.
 I face towards the wind.
 I change into the Mule.
     "I change into the Mule."

 Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw-hee-haw-hee-haw-hee-haw...

      "Hee-haw! Hee-haw! Hee-haw!"

        KATE: The idea is to turn around and face it.  You've got this 
image of something turning round and going "Aah!" just to try and scare 
it away.   (1982, ZigZag)

        KATE: You're cornered, there's no way out, so you turn into a 
bird and fly away, but the thing changes shape, too.  You change, it 
changes; you can't escape, so you turn around and face it, scare it 
away.
        "Hee Haw"
        "Hee Haw"
        "Hee Haw"   (1982, KBC 12)

        KATE: I think the mule is that kind of... the stupid 
confrontation...  I mean, there's not really that much to read into it. 
 It was the idea of playing around with changing shape, and the mule 
imagery was something I liked inordinately.  The whole thing of this 
wild, stupid, mad creature just turning around and going, you know, 
"Eeyore! Eeyore!" [KATE MAKES CONVINCING EEYORE SOUNDS.] I don't know 
if you saw Pinocchio, but there's an incredibly heavy scene in there, 
where one of the little boys turns into a donkey - a mule.  And it's 
very heavy stuff.
        I HAVEN'T SEEN THAT SINCE ABOUT SIX, BUT I THINK I REMEMBER 
THAT...IT'S A STRONG IMAGE.
        Well, maybe you should see it again.  It's a good film.   
(1985, Love-Hounds)

        Although Kate has never specifically mentioned the male in the 
song also turning into a mule, there appears to be two seperate "mules" 
at the end, which would indicate that he did so, especially since the 
second mule has a male "voice", credited to Paul Hardiman.


        The reason that Kate made the choice of the mule, may be 
explained by her description of it above as a "stupid" animal . Its 
actions, in other words, are "thought-less": prompted by the crudest 
form of emotional stimuli or instincts. Kate has more than once 
insisted that music (art) is "pure emotion"--especially in the Russell 
Harty interview. When Harty patronizingly says "We've been to 
Bronte-land...Where will the arrow of your powerful intellect fall 
next?" Kate's immediate and strong reply is: "Well, I think the answer 
to that is that art is _emotion_. Art is pure emotion..." Her reply has 
always seemed to IED to represent an implied preference for the value 
of emotion over the intellect.  If so, the choice of the "stupid" mule 
as the guise in which the heroine of _GOoMH_ finally faces her 
"problem" makes excellent sense.
        Also, of course, Kate may have been thinking of the expression 
"stubborn as a mule", which describes the character she was singing 
about perfectly.

 Dha Dhin Dha Dha Dha/Dha Dha Dha Dhin Dha Dha/Dha Dkin Dha Dha
 [Repeats to fade out]


        This is credited as "drum talk" to Esmail Sheikh.  (Whether or 
not the above transcription is entirely correct is unclear).  This is 
from East Indian Classical music and is called bol.  The process of 
studying drumming in this form of music involves both learning to speak 
drumming patterns in bols and learning to play the patterns.  Whether 
or not this symbolizes anything that may have a direct relationship to 
the theme of Kate's song is unclear.



CONCLUSIONS

        KATE: And that's actually what the whole song is about - 
someone who is running away from something they don't want to face, but 
wherever they go, the thing will follow them.  Basically, you can't run 
away from things - you've got to confront things.  And it's using the 
person as the imagery of a house, where they won't let anyone in, they 
lock all the doors and windows, and put a guard on the front door.  But 
I think the essence of the song is about someone trying to run away 
from things they don't like and not being able to escape - because you 
can't.  (1985, Love-Hounds)


        The quote from Kate describes the "point" or "moral" of the 
song (note how this seems to lead right into Running Up That Hill, the 
first song on the next album).  But does the song have a positive or 
negative ending?  There are several points of view.


        1) The "happy" ending.  That the man and woman seemed to have 
found something in common in their muleness and sang to each other.  
The "drum talk" at the end could represent some kind of morse-code, 
meaning that they have found another way to communicate now that the 
primary channels have broken down.
        However, many people find the whole song, including the ending, 
to be too jarring to be describing something "happy".

        2) The "unhappy" ending.  In this interpetation, the characters 
in this song don't end up communicating.  This would be reflected in 
the song by the extented "mumbling-like" sounds at the end of the song, 
representing the total breakdown of communications between the two.
        This would mean that the ending of the song was intended as a 
kind of negative warning about what could happen when you "lock" 
yourself up so tightly.


        2) The "hopeful" ending.  In this interpetation,  the ending 
_does_ indeed contain the "some sort of hope in there" that Kate said 
(of _The_Ninth_Wave_) she feels should be part of all works of art. In 
the above quote, Kate was says that the theme of the song was the error 
people can make of running away from their problems, and that the only 
way to solve problems is to confront them. She also explains that when 
the female character in _Get_Out_of_My_House_ changes into a mule 
(whether a stubborn one or a stupid one), she _does_ finally turn and 
confront the male character (who has changed into a mule as well).  
This is the quintessential Kate Bush "ending"--sad but hopeful, very 
much 
like the ending of _The_Ninth_Wave_. In both, the protagonist has come 
to a new realization of the "right way" to proceed/feel/think, and is 
therefore able better to resign herself to _whatever_ fate might befall 
her, whether that fate be "happy" or not. And this, of course, is an 
essential element of Kate's own avowed philosophy, described by her in 
numerous interviews. 
     So we do not learn what actually happens when the two mules 
confront each other in _GOoMH_; nor is it important. What is important 
is that the  protagonist has finally been able to confront the force 
which threatens her--she is no longer running from it. In a similar way 
the heroine of _The_Ninth_Wave_, in the final bars of 
_The_Morning_Fog_, has found reasons for living: whether she will 
actually survive the physical ordeal or not, she has at least gained a 
new appreciation of the important aspects of her life (love of family; 
and faith in the human spirit, so to speak, as represented by her 
"future self" in _Jig_of_Life_). It's therefore extremely important, 
IED believes, that both _The_Dreaming_ and _Hounds_of_Love_, as albums, 
conclude with the
same basic situation. In both, the ultimate "fate" of the protagonist 
is not resolved, because that is not the artist's concern. Rather, it 
is the insight that those protagonists gain along the way that matters. 




OTHER QUOTES 

        It should be noted that the above quotes have been re-arranged 
in such a way that there meaning may have been somewhat distorted.  In 
other words, the quotes may not actually relate to the lryics they are 
put next to. 
        Following is the remaining quotes relating to the song. 


        I TELL KATE THAT THE SPACE BETWEEN MY EARS FELT LIKE PALE JELLY 
AFTER FIRST EXPOSURE TO THIS ONE ON THE WALKMAN.  SHE IS PLEASED!
        Oh, good! It's meant to be a bit scary.  It's just the idea of 
someone being in this place and there's something else there...  You 
don't know what it is.  (1982, ZigZag)

*       I SUPPOSE IN TERMS OF GENERAL IDEAS, KATE, MAYBE WE COULD TALK 
A LITTLE ABOUT THAT.  JUST WHERE YOU PLUCK THESE IDEAS FROM, IS THIS 
SOMETHING THAT OCCURS TO YOU IN EVERY DAY LIFE OR DO YOU DISCIPLINE 
YOURSELF TO SIT DOWN AND THINK ABOUT THINGS?
        They're very often ideas that come out of other people's 
creations.  Films and books are very much big inspirations to me.  For 
instance, there's a track on this album that was...  really the whole 
atmosphere was inspired by The Shining.  I read the book and it was 
such an incredibly strong atmosphere, very creepy, very haunted, and I 
used it to like set a song using the same atmosphere, but instead of it 
being a hotel it being like a house, which is also a human being.  And 
just playing with the feelings that I got when I read the book and 
trying to put that same kind and strangeness into the song.   (1982, 
Dreaming debut)

---
rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA