Cloudbusting - The book, the song, the controversy!!!! :-)

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

        Anders puts forth the dubious notion that the lyrics to 
Cloudbusting are "weak" and that the fact that the lyrics don't give 
all the background to the story makes them less important then the 
music!  What a dubious notion!  Firstly the song "Cloudbusting" is a 
successful song (number 20 on the British charts, not bad for such a 
long song!) and has been the basis for a very successful "sampled 
song", "Something Good" by Utah Saints.  The fact that the story isn't 
so easy to figure out hasn't stopped lots of people from loving the 
song.  Listen to the parts of the song that go "I just know that 
something good is going to happen" or "on top of the world.." or many 
other places in the song and tell me that the lryics don't add 
anything.   The first quote was the whole bases for the Utah Saints 
"song", and people responded to it with no further story at all!!! 
        Generally, poetry and music are what can speak directly to the 
emotions, without having to give us the "background info".  Movies and 
books almost always do, which is probably why music can have the same 
inpact, compacted into a much shorter time.
        Take the line from Anders' sig "If you see Saint Anne, please 
tell her - thanks a lot", that comes from a Bob Dylan song, a song I've 
only heard from Neil Young's version at "BobFest".  To me that line and 
song have very important meanings to me.  Do I know what the songs 
"about"?  Not a clue.  But I can applying the meaning and emotion to 
very personal things in my life.  Do I want to know what the song is 
"really" about?  I don't know.  Did I need to understand the background 
to the lryics to "Cloudbusting" to love the song?  No.  Did reading 
more about the song give me a different perspective on the song, 
without erasing the original, more personal perspective?  Yes!  
        Kate's talked about this subject several times, including:

        KATE: An engineer we were working with picked out the line in 
"And Dream of Sheep" that says "Come here with me now."  I asked him 
why he liked it so much.  He said, "I don't know, I just love it.  It's 
so moving and comforting."  I don't think he even knew what was being 
said exactly, but the song is about someone going to sleep in the 
water, where they're alone and frightened.  And they want to go to 
sleep, to get away from the situation.  But at the same time it's 
dangerous to go to sleep in water, you could drown.  When I was little, 
and I'd had a bad dream, I'd go into my parents' bedroom round to my 
mother's side of the bed.  She'd be asleep, and I wouldn't want to wake 
her, so I'd stand there and wait for her to sense my presence and wake 
up.  She always did, within minutes; and sometimes I'd frighten her - 
standing there still, in the darkness in my nightdress.  I'd say, "I've 
had a bad dream," and she'd lift bedclothes and say something like 
"Come here with me now."  It's my mother saying this line in the track, 
and I briefed her on the ideas behind it before she said it.  And I 
think it's the motherly comfort that this engineer picked up on.  In 
fact, he said this was his favourite part of the album.   (1987, KBC 
21)


        Someone mentioned about the disco-graphy info in the archives.  
The best file on this is "GARDEN02" (also known as GGRAPH) , which 
includes a simple listing of all kate's official releases, not 
including the "GLC" songs (Ken, The Confrontation, and One Last 
Look...), or the "Rocket Man" songs (Rocket Man, Rocket Man 
(Instrumental), and Candle in the Wind).  It doesn't include Chart 
Listings and release dates, but this info is available in Cloudbusting, 
Kate Bush Complete, A Visual Documentary, and other places.  
Collector's info (like info on different printings of singles and 
albums) is only available in the Illustrated Collector's Guide to Kate 
Bush and Uli's updates to it.  
        "GARDEN02" is meant to be a listing of all the different pieces 
of music available.  Later in the file there is a more detailed listing 
of more obscure stuff, and a complete Video-o-graphy. 

        Jorn mentions the "Gaffa movie" post.  I just added the old 
messages into "deeper Understanding" and I don't have that post on 
file, all I remember is Jorn talking about it, not the original post.  
If anyone remembers anything about it, please post.  

        Jorn askes about me posting parts of "Deeper Understanding" 
right away.  All the material that I have orginized into "articles" 
(The "annotated lyrics", the lists, etc) has been posted to GAFFA.  
Most songs contain simply all the various messages ever posted on 
Love-Hounds about them.  Something there's lots of interesting stuff, 
sometimes there's none.  The "Suspended in Gaffa" file is something 
like 200k, due to all the different interpretations on it, which are 
hard to condense into one "article".  
        I suppose I could post the info on a song by song basis (one a 
day or something to keep it small) and include the lyrics and Kate 
quotations, if there is interest in this.  The book has been 99% done 
for 9 months now, I just haven't had the time to finish the final 1% 
and mail it to someone so that they can put it in the archives.  
        
        As far as new versions of "Cloudbusting" (the book), I'll 
probably wait until I get new more "new" interviews, either more 
'78/'79 interviews, or interviews when the new album comes out!  I've 
gotten about 40 new interviews since the last version, but I still 
haven't transcribed all of them.  :-( 


Ron "I still don't own any Happy Rhodes :-(" Hill


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