The Red Shoes FAQ #2 (w/much new info)

[jorn@chinet.com (Jorn Barger)]

Title of forthcoming Kate Bush album: "The Red Shoes" (TRS or tRS)
Release date:  Tues. Sept. 14, 1993 (simultaneous UK and US?)

Featuring: Dave Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Prince (aka O{+> ) [these 
four guitarists get one track each-- Clapton's other three rumored 
performances were apparently replaced], Lenny Henry, and the Trio Bulgarka.

A forty-minute [?] video/film that Kate is making now, called "The Red 
Shoes", should include 6 or 7 of the songs.

== Complete track list ==================================================

Rubber Band Girl
And So Is Love
Eat the Music
Moments of Pleasure
The Song of Solomon          +
Lilly                        |
The Red Shoes                |
Top of the City              |  The "Red Shoes" sequence?
Constellation of the Heart   |
Why Should I Love You        |
You're the One               +

All songs are reportedly credited to Kate alone, though various magazines 
have reported Prince wrote one track, and RBG certainly *sounds* like he 
could have written it.

== The first single ===================================================

The first single should be out August 16: "Eat the Music" backed with a 
non-album cut, "Big Stripy Lie".

An extended version of EtM entitled "The Madagascan Mix" will be available 
on the 12" picture disc and the CD single.

A plan to have the first US single be "Rubber Band Girl" was abandoned.

Andrea's theory of the (puzzling) title "BSL":
Stripes are usually used to draw attention to something.  Think of 
cross-walks.  If we apply this theory to a lie, then we can (perhaps) 
safely assume that the lie referred to here is "obvious".

== Lyrics =============================================================

1. Rubber Band Girl
[Featuring Prince on guitar and bv's]

See those trees, bend in the wind?
I feel they've got a lot more sense than me
You see I try to resist

[CHORUS duetted with Prince:]
A rubber band bouncin' back to life
A rubber band bend the beach [???]
If I could learn to give like a rubberband
I'd be back on my feet!
A rubber band hold me trousers up, a rubber band ponytails
If I could learn to twang like a rubber band
I'd be a rubber band girl!
Rubber band girl me, rubber band girl me
I wanna be a rubber band girl (a rubber band girl she)

When I step out, of my catapult
I'm gonna land with my feet firm on the ground
And let my body catch up
A rubber band bouncin back to life
A rubber band bend the beach [???]
If I could learn to give like a rubber band
I'd be back on my feet!
A rubber band hold me trousers up, a rubber band ponytails
If I could learn to twang like a rubber band
I'D BE A RUBBER BAND GIRL!
Rubber band girl me, rubber band girl me
I wanna be a rubber band girl (a rubber band girl she)

(Live like a rubber band)
(Twang like a rubber band)
(Snap like a rubber band)

Rub-a-dub-a-dub-a-DUUUUB!
Rub-a-duuuuuuuwuwuwuwub!
Rub-a-duwuwuwuwuwuwuwub!

Climb on now! [?]
(a rubber band girl she)
(a rubber band girl she)

One rubber band will kick you up  [keep?]
Two rubber bands will kick you up
Three rubber bands will kick you up

(Here I go)
Uhhh-oooh-uhhh-oooh-uhhh-oooh-uhhh-oooh-uhhh-oooh-
UHHH-OOOH-UHHH-OOOH-UHHH-OOOH-UHHH-oooh-uhhh-ooh-uh!!!!
(a rubber band girl she)
(a rubber band girl she)

One rubber band will kick you up
Two rubber bands will kick you up
Three rubber bands will kick you up

(a rubber band girl she)
(a rubber band girl she)
(a rubber band girl she)


2. And So Is Love
[VERY low key song, Clapton on blues-guitar, and the same mournful pipe-
organ voice as Rocketman?]

A new her
You do her

We let it in
We give it out

And in the end, what's it all about?
It must be love... 

I give you my, I give you my...   [sentence left dangling by Kate]
You give me your, you give me your joy
We used to say, "Aw hell, we're young"
But now we say that life is sad
And so is love...

(Ooooh baby live your life for love)
(Ooooh baby live your life for love)

We used to say, "Aw hell, we're young"
But now we say that life is sad
AND SO IS LOVE!!!

(Ooo-ooh baby for the sake of love)
(Ooo-ooh baby for the sake of love)

And whatever happens, what really matters
It's all we've got, isn't that enough!?

  (life is sad and so is love)
You let it slip, you let it [her?] slip  (life is sad and so is love)
I love you more, I love you more for it  (life is sad and so is love)
Oooh yeah    (life is sad and so is love)
All for love    (life is sad and so is love)
Just for the sake of love  (life is sad and so is love)
You set me free, I set you free  (life is sad and so is love)


3. Eat the Music
[jungle sounds, then fast jangly strummed guitar, and *loud* bass,
eventually trumpets and Caribbean bv's]

Split me open (heyy-yea-ea)
With devotion (heyy-yea-ea)
Put your hands in (woo-ooo-oo-oo-ooh) 
And rip my heart out (woo-ooo-oo-oo-ooh)
Eat the music!

Does he conceal, what he really feels?
He's a woman at heart, and I love him for that
I split him open, like a pomegranate!
Insides out
All is revealed
Not only women bleed

Take the stone out, of the mango
You put it in your mouth
And pull a plum out

Pick a papaya
And the cassava [?]
And the banana
And the sultana
The little pieces [???]
Sticky fingers
And the banana
And the sultana

Split them open, with devotion
Put your hands in, and rip their hearts out
Like a pomegranate
Insides out
He's a woman at heart
And I love him for that

Pick a papaya [?]
And the cassava
And the banana
And the sultana
The little pieces [?]
With sticky fingers
And the banana
And the sultana

All emotion, with devotion
Put your hands in
Whatcha thinkin?
What am I singin?
A song of *seeds*
The food of love
Eat the music!


4. Moments of Pleasure (MoP)
[Duration 5:16, piano and beautiful strings.  This may after all be the 
version used on TRS.]

Some moments that I've had
Some moments of pleasure
I think about us lying
Lying on a beach somewhere
I think about us diving
Diving off a rock into another moment

The case of George the Wide  [of Judge the Wipe?]
Oh God I can't stop laughing
This sense of humour of mine
It isn't funny at all
But we sit up all night
Talkin' about it

Just being alive
It can really hurt!
These moments given
Are a gift from Time...

On a balcony in New York
It's just started to snow     [Dec '78 SNL appearance?]
He meets us at the lift        [Michael Powell???]
Like Douglas Fairbanks
Waving his walking stick
But he isn't well at all
The buildings of New York
Look just like mountains through the snow!

Just being alive
It can really hurt!
These moments given
Are a gift from Time...
Just let us try
To give these moments back!
To those we love
To those who will survive...

And I can hear my mother sayin'         [Hannah Bush died Feb 14 1992]
"Every old sock meets an old shoe"
Ain't that a great saying?
Every old sock meets an old shoe
Here come the hills of Time...

Hey there Maureen      [mother? morning?]

Hey there bubba        [brother?]
Dancing down the aisle of a plane
Smurph playing his guitar refrain      [Alan Murphy, Kate's longtime 
Hey there Teddy                      guitarist, who died several years ago]
Spinning in a chair at Abbey Road
Hey there Michael                         [Michael Powell died in 1990]
Do you really love me?

Hey there Bill                    [Bill Duffield, lighting man, who died at 
D'you turn the lights up?               the beginning of Kate's only tour]


First listen: "Moments of Pleasure" performed on "Aspel & Co" 20th June 
1993 (live show, lipsynched performance).  

==== Aspel interview quotes =============================================

Q:   What do you do, sit at a keyboard, or what?
KB:  Yeah, a keyboard.  And we tend to put stuff straight onto tape so
     I'm actually working onto tape and then I'll play the tape back, and,
     you know, work to the stuff that's on there, so...

[Question about the title "Red Shoes"]
KB:  Well, it is very much connected with the film.  I was lucky enough to
     meet Michael Powell, the director of The Red Shoes before he died and
     he was such a sweet man, he was really sweet, I thought one of
     Britain's best directors and he had a very strong effect on me, he
     was a very sweet man and he seems to have popped up in two or three
     of the songs that are on the album.

KB: "I think I prob'ly am truly mad."

=== "Red Shoes" artistic sources =======================================

"The Red Shoes" was a 1947 Technicolor classic by Michael Powell and Emeric 
Pressburger.  The title refers to the title of a ballet within-the-film, 
based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale about a girl punished for her 
vanity (in wearing red shoes to church) by being unable to stop dancing 
until she cuts her feet off, and dies.  In the film, this was made a 
metaphor for choosing between devotion to art, and devotion to love.

Martin Scorsese counts it one of his favorite films, for one example.  
Definitely recommended for serious Katewonks!

Other Michael Powell flicks: Black Narcissus, The 49th Parallel, Ill Met by 
Moonlight, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), One of Our Aircraft 
is Missing, Peeping Tom (1960 shocker, also with Moira Shearer), The Spy in 
Black, The Thief of Bagdad (1940 version)

== 1994: the year of red shoes?  =======================================

Apparently Disney is also doing a Red Shoes movie, and there's a Broadway 
musical planned by that name to open in January.

== Tour speculations  ===================================================

Among the reasons to assume NO tour:

1) We get a movie instead

2) On Aspel, she was asked about touring, and said nothing hopeful, just:
"I think it was a bit rough for me being so exposed publicly, I found that 
a bit rough. And then I suppose I wanted to just retreat and work."

3) She *lipsynched* the Aspel show.

4) She reportedly turned down an offer to do MTV Unplugged.


== Videotape tree ======================================================

A videotape tree is forming, to include Aspel and both Rocketmans, as well
as the Christmas special and the rare Dutch TKI videos.  To be included 
contact one of the following toplevel dubbers:

loiselle%coins@cs.umass.edu                   Cindy Loiselle
rurfin04@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu 
chai@utcc.utoronto.ca                         Tippi Chai (MONO ONLY)
johnz@eaglet.rain.com                         John Zimmer
woj@remus.rutgers.edu                         woj (MONO ONLY)
rtimko@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu              Martin Timko
henrik@husc.harvard.edu 
pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.edu                 Peter Manchester


== Katemas parties so far  ==============================================

Wollongong Australia: Saturday  31 July 93  1:00pm
GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@BHPMELMSM.BHP.bhpmel04.telememo.au

Chicago IL: vickie@pilot.njin.net  Vickie Mapes
Saturday August 7, 1993  1:00pm

Toronto, Canada:  chai@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca  Tippi Chai

Columbus, Ohio: nrc@bsbbs.columbus.oh.us  N. Richard Caldwell
Saturday, July 31st, 1993  2:00 PM

=== FTP-ing Aspel samples ==============================================

Scott Telford, Evan Welsh, Jerome Chan, Eric France, and others (names?) 
have come thru splendidly, making screenshots and audio digitizations of 
MoP available.  The sound samples range in size from 1.4Mb to 5Mb, which is 
pretty big unless you can ftp it, so proceed with caution.
[Please correct any old info here]

UK:
ftp.epcc.ed.ac.uk in pub/local/audio/kate  [all hours now okay]

US:
ftp.uu.net in /usenet/rec.music.gaffa/kb/sound 
or
netcom.com or ftp.netcom.com or 192.100.81.100  in /pub/trimm

Sun/NeXT-format 8kHz 8-bit mono u-law files: 
"moments3.au"  1.4Mb (to fit on an HD floppy) comprising the first 3 mins
"moments5.au"  2.5Mb and has the full 5m20s song
[These can be converted to Macintosh format with a 64k freeware utility 
called Ulaw 1.1.  This conversion is *very* slow-- figure 30-60 minutes on 
a 68030 machine.]

Macintosh sfil format:
"moments5.hqx"  about 4.5 Megs

Microsquish wave format (.wav):
"moments5.wav"   [may have vanished from US site]
[If you have multimedia sound on your Windows box, this file can be played 
with the MediaPlayer applet which is bundled with MS-Windows 3.1.  It can 
also be played with any number of Windows waveplayer utils available in the 
public domain such as DROPWAVE or PLAYNOW.]

Five Jpegs of the show are available, too:

US names:
KBMA01.JPG (26767)
KBMA02.JPG (19812)
KBMA03.JPG (27437)
KBMA04.JPG (23136)
KBMA05.JPG (28495)

UK names and location:
pub/local/images/gif/kate/aspel/aspel0[1-5].gif

Ken Saint-John's "The Electric Cafe BBS" (+1 805 399 3636) also offers 
these files.