Re: misc, muse, Cloudbusting

[jorn@chinet.chinet.com (Jorn Barger)]

Ron writes:
>         Michael provided some info on various Kate cover versions
> (thanks) and asks if there is a list.  Well, I have compiled an
> article on the subject that was posted here last year and will one day
> be included in the "best of" the love-hounds book, Deeper Understanding
> (to be done "real soon now").

Ron, please don't wait until it's "done"!!!  Start posting it in bits, 
****now****!?!?!?!?  Ple-e-e-e-ease?  Starting with the Gaffa-movie theory, 
and the rest of your file on SiG? (Someone actually sent me a kind email 
about my Dreaming-asciipoem-critique, and wanted more details about the 
movie, which I can't retrieve, myself, just now.  Thanks, someone!)

>         There have been discussions of the amount of time between
> Kate's albums, and whether or not she's been in a slump lately, etc.  I
> don't think we really know if she's actually gone through a
> "non-productive" phase in the time since her last album.  I think if
> you look at the history of Kate's career, you find that in her early
> years (1978-80) she was living a non-stop creative/productive life.
> After the tour ('79) she felt "drained", and then after Never For Ever
> she went through a "terrible introverted depression".  Before Hounds of
> Love and The Sensual World she's reported that she's consciously taken
> breaks, but that they were of a more positive nature.  I suspect that
> at some time in the last couple of years she's taken a "creative break"
> of some sort, but it sounds like from the last two albums that she
> views these as positive, happy, and healthy things.  Kate has said that
> she tends to really throw herself totally into her albums and since I
> don't think you can live your life in non-stop creative/productive
> mode, I'm glad that Kate seems to have found a way to provide more
> balance in her life.

Well, I hope you're right, but in terms of how much good-vibes we try to 
send her way, I think, clearly the more the better!  :^)  (Don't sell your 
creativity short, either... "non-stop creative/productive mode" is my 
definition of heaven-on-earth!)

>         Vickie asked if Kate subscribes to the idea of a "muse".  The
> only time I know of that Kate used that term was that she once called
> her mother a "muse" and she talked in '87 about getting the "muse" down
> on tape.  I've heard "muse" used by people either as a part of
> themselves that's creative or as a force greater then themselves that
> inspires them, and I don't think we really know if Kate means it in the
> second way.

(Is it even taboo on r.m.g. to affirm that Kate might believe in a 
spiritual dimension to the cosmos???  Crikey, it's only *universal* among 
artists...)  All artists confront the incertitude of inspiration.  
Personifying it as a muse is useful and *harmless*.  One aspect of the 
tradition re muses is that they're associated with venerated (deceased) 
ancestors, addressed on the non-physical plane.  I can't think whether I've 
ever heard of woman artists having male muses, but I sure wouldn't find it 
surprising, so I can see this as somewhat muselike:

      But every time it rains,
      You're here in my head,
      Like the sun coming out--
      Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen.
      And I don't know when,
      But just saying it could even make it happen.

Or:
 Don't think it over,
 It always takes you over,
 And sets your spirit dancing.

Or:
      You'll never see that you had all of me.
      You'll never see the poetry you've stirred in me.
      Of all the stars I've seen that shine so brightly,
      I've never known or felt in myself so rightly,

Or:
 And suddenly I find myself
 Listening to a man I've never known before,
 Telling me about the sea,
 All his love, 'til eternity.

Or:
When that feeling of meaninglessness sets in,
 Go blowing my mind on God:
 The light in the dark, with the neon arms,
 The meek He seeks, the beast He calms,
 The head of the good soul department.

Or:
      All we ever look for--a god.
      All we ever look for--ooh, a drug.
      All we ever look for--a great big hug.
      All we ever look for--just a little bit of you.

Or:
     "I caught a glimpse of a god, all shining and bright."

Or:
       Dree-ee-ee-ee-ee-
       A-a-a-a-a-
       M-m-m-m-m-
       Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-
       I-i-i-i-i-
       Me-me-me-me-me.
 See the light bounce off the rocks to the sand.
           (Push 'em from the)
 Pull of the Bush.
      See the sun set in the hand of the man.


*Muse*icians' getting in the groove is another form of this:

     You know the feeling when you're on the right track.
     You fall in love and you're never gonna turn it back.

Or:
           Oh, come on, you've got to use your flow.
           You know what it's like, and you know you want to go.
           Don't drive too slowly.
           Don't put your blues where your shoes should be.
           Don't push your foot on the heartbrake.
 She's losing that inner flame.
 It was burning bright,
 But she's losing the light fast.

Or:
 I want the answers quickly,
 But I don't have no energy.

Or:
 I am a rocket
 On fire
 Look at me go with my tail on fire


>         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 lyrics.  Most songs don't really give you
> all the "setting" of the song, which makes them more "general" (in a
> way) than 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 convey.  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)

I agree that artists often can't articulate in 'prose' what they can 
articulate quite *supernaturally* in their art.  A good critic serves a 
valuable role by trying to do this.  (My personal prototype for this was 
hearing a friend praising Pauline Kael (c1975) for her supernatural ability 
to articulate the millions of subtle feelings *he* experienced, watching 
the same feature films...)

And Kate's lyrics are *way* on the obscure side, though the interviews 
always claim this is unintentional.  She says she usually writes the lyrics 
last, and I get a sense that this forces her to put a much heavier emphasis 
on the poetic-sound-values of the words, over the storytelling.  So part of 
an aspiring critic's job is to read the interviews, and get the word(s) 
out!!!

A question like "Is Cb's message to conquer your fears?" can be examined 
based on the emotional feel of the music, the imagery of the lyrics, Kate's 
quotes from interviews, *and* the literary and historical material she 
based it on.  Aaron wrote:
> I think that she is talking about fear in general. If you
> have a talent for something, that other people will try to take away
> from you-- don't be afraid to use it. If you don't use it, then you have
> nothing. What good is a glow in the dark yo yo if it's buried in
> the garden?  None.

This theme is also pretty universal among artists, eg DPyFotHb:  "Stuck in 
low gear/  Because of her fears"
 
The feel of Cloudbusting for me is kind of crossing-your-fingers-and-
hoping-the-scary-vibes-go-away-but-not-feeling-enough-power-to-do-
anything-really-yourself, though the last lines do finally affirm "your 
son's coming out".  (Historically, it was probably the 60s sexual 
revolution that pushed back the clouds of Reichian censorship.  I'm not 
sure *how* it became legal to republish Reich's books, but they were 
reappearing all thru the 70s.)


jorn