houdini

[Mike Mendelson <MJM@ZYLAB.MHS.CompuServe.COM>]

Thanks for refreshing my memory as to Rosabel's ID.
Does anyone know Houdini's wife's *real* name (assuming
Rosabel was a term of endearment unknown to anyone else)?

There are still some lines in this song that are a bit perplexing.
So, here are all the lyrics (for those, like me, who have not
memorized every syllable of every song backwards in sanskrit)
so you can all help me understand.   My notes are in the left
margin.

                    Houdini
                    _______

                     I wait at the table,
                     And hold hands with weeping strangers,
                     Wait for you
                     To join the group.

OK, so Mrs.H. is sitting
at a table with some charlatan
who claims he can contact
her dead hubby.

                     The tambourine jingle-jangles.
                     The medium roams and rambles.
                     Not taken in,
                     I break the circle.

Alas, he cannot pull the
wool over her eyes, so she
cuts the seance short...

                     I want this man
                     To go away now.

...and expresses loathing
for the guy who's in charge.

                          With a kiss
                          I'd pass the key
                          And feel your tongue
                          Teasing and receiving.
                          With your spit
                          Still on my lip--
                          You hit the water.

Here a little reminiscence
re: her husband's exploits...
the way she would slip him
the key before he enterred
the locked trunk about to
be submerged in shark-infested
ice cold water etc. etc.
("Teasing and receiving" --
ain't that brilliant?)

                     Him and I in the room
                     To prove you are with us too.

Now, she's referring
to the guy called Ford, I presume,
who supposedly succeeded in
uncovering the correct code
Houdini and his wife agreed
on before his departure:
"Rosabel believe."

                     He's using code that only you and I know.
                     This is no trick of his.
                     This is your magic.

But it's really Houdini
who is pulling the strings.

                     I'd catch the cues,
                     Watching you,
                     Hoping you'd do something wrong.

This is where I start to
lose it.  What is she referring
to here?  The cues of Houdini
as he is about to perform a trick?
Well, why would she hope something
go wrong?  Or has she started to refer
to the medium in second person, suddenly,
thus hoping that *he*'d do something
wrong?  I'm a little puzzled.  Help.

                     Everybody thinks you'll never make it,
                     But every time,
                     You escape!

Sure, everyone else is the
skeptic... but Mrs.H. knows he
will succeed... or does she?

                     Rosabel believe,
                     Not even eternity
                     Can hold Houdini!

At least a double entendre
here: 1) Rosabel (Mrs.H.)
believe that H is boss, or
2) Ford uttering "Rosabel
believe", the mantra that
proves he has contacted H,
whom no one can hold back.

                               "Rosabel, believe!"

                          Through the glass
                          I'd watch you breathe.
                          Bound and drowned,
                          And paler than you've ever been.

                          With your life
                          The only thing in my mind--
                          We pull you from the water!

I guess Mrs.H. is apprehensive when
Houdini does his stunts, even though
she knows the trick.

                     Houdini!

                     You
                     And I
                     And Rosabel believe.

A conundrumatic ending.  Is 'you'
the person listening to the song?
Ford?  Houdini himself?
Does Rosabel here refer to Mrs.H.,
making the "I" redundant?  Or
is Kate the "I", speaking now
as narrator about H or
the listener (you) and Mrs. H.?


OK.  All help is hereby solicited and accepted.
Thanks.

ObKate:  Hey, this whole post was about Kate!  Remember her,
she wrote the dumb song!

-lowercasepalindromemanmjm (mike mendelson)