Re: misc, muse, Cloudbusting

[ag@sics.se (Anders G|ransson)]

In article <31He5B1w165w@netrun.cts.com> rhill@netrun.cts.com 
(ronald hill) writes:



           A couple of weeks ago, Aaron suggested that "Cloudbusting" 
   might "really" be about the "fear" the son in the story had.  This 
   touches on something I've always felt about music.  If you look at a 
   song like Cloudbusting, generally there's not a chance in hell that 
   most people are going to "get" the specific story about it, unless they 
   happen to have read an interview with Kate about the song, even if they 
   paid close attention to the lryics.  Most songs don't really give you 
   all the "setting" of the song, which makes them more "general" (in a 
   way) then movies or books. When you listen to a song like that, it 
   really is a kind of direct emotional connection, the author of the song 
   may not even know "intellectually" what they are trying to convay.  So 
   the "emotional undercurrent" of the song is in many ways much more 
   important then what the song is intellectually "about".  Just after 
   writing this, I happened on a quote from Kate: 

           It's so sad, and it's also a true story, and somehow even if 
   people don't understand the story, they pick up on the feelings, the 
   emotions - this is a very rewarding experience for me.   (1987, KBC 21)





This seems incidentally to be related to what I took up in a
couple of articles last week. What courage it required to
write something vaguely critical of Kate Bush right into the
Lion(hearts)'s den you can of course not imagine! But, all you
Lovehounds out there - do what you will with me, but this
critical stuff is for you!

To repeat a few lines from what Ron Hill writes above:
 " Most songs don't really give you 
   all the "setting" of the song, which makes them more "general" (in a 
   way) then movies or books. When you listen to a song like that, it 
   really is a kind of direct emotional connection, the author of the song    may not even know "intellectually" what they are trying to convay.  So 
   the "emotional undercurrent" of the song is in many ways much more 
   important then what the song is intellectually "about"."

The lyrics to a song is of course not to be judge apart from the
music and it is impossible to separate the impact of the song
into one part given by the music and another given by the
lyrics. That said I'd still say that the 'emotional
undercurrent' in "Cloudbusting" is mainly coming from the music.
Why? Simply because the lyrics is so weak. (Yes, yes *in my
opinion*, I know that.)
Now, that the author does not know "intellectually" what she is
trying to convey is to me unrelated to whether there is a more
or less general character to the lyrics. Given a very precise
story it may well be the case that the feeling involved is
impossible to put into (other) words and that it is not
"intellectually " known to the author of the lyrics.

One could reason that since feelings are in a way 'colouring
everything' they are general and so a non-specific generic story
might be corresponding to a feeling. That is, from my
experience, not the case. On the contrary; the more detailed and
concrete the situation described in the lyrics the more intense
is the feeling given. Since Kate Bush seldom does more than
sketch a diffuse background in her lyrics the emotions transferred
is rather bleak. (Yes, *in my opinion*, yes, yes, hey don't hit
me).

Good lyrics; "America" Paul Simon. 
Bad lyrics; "Heads we're dancing" Kate Bush.

Best regards Anders


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