New Singles--some thoughts

[briarpatch!billy@uunet.UU.NET (Billy Green)]

EAT THE MUSIC is about emotional exposure.  As with most Kate songs, the
biggest clue about the song comes near the end:  "What am I singing?/A
song of seeds/The food of love/Eat the music."  I suppose you could consider
it emotional violence if you don't want people to know what your feelings 
are, but the intention of the song seems to be good natured.

What splits the speaker open?  Devotion.  Closeness (in a relationship,
one could assume) requires intimate knowledge of one another.  Her emotions
are not difficult to find.  His, it seems, have to be ripped out of him.  
Notice that the fruits depicted on the cover and in the song are almost 
exclusively seed fruits--melons, mangoes, papayas, pomegranates--that are 
used traditionally as feminine images (both literally and figuratively).  The
only "male" fruit mentioned in the song is a banana, which is split to reveal
that "He's a woman at heart/And I love him for that".

The song's premise is the old stereotype that women's emotions are easily
seen, while men don't want their feelings to be known.  She is willing to
dig beneath the surface to find a feeling, caring person underneath.  There
are also some sexual overtones--the standard sensual associations of the 
fruits mentioned and shown, the reference to "sticky fingers".

One problem with this song as an American single is that you will be hard 
pressed to find an American who will know what a sultana is. "Sultana" is a 
primarily British reference.  In fact, I'm not entirely sure what it is 
myself--I think it's a raisin or a grape.  (On the other hand, you'd also 
be hard pressed to find an American radio-listener who pays enough attention 
to lyrics to notice a reference like this....)

Musically, yes, it's very repetitive.  I want to avoid calling it Latin
music until I find what a Valiha is (an instrument played by Paddy and
someone else).  I will remind those who've been calling this song, "bad
Gloria Estefan", that Kate's always been ready to play with and blend
musicalities in her songs.In some of the songs on "The Sensual World", it 
was often hard to tell whether the music was Bulgarian-based or Irish-based.
Remember that the 12/8 time of this song is very Irish.  Adding brass on top
of that doesn't necessarily make it "Latin", although I will admit that the 
repeated trumpet duet has a decidedly mariachi feel to it--but I wouldn't 
tag the song as even vaguely "Latin" until the trumpets start.  

I also suspend final analysis until I see how this song fits into the context
of the story of "The Red Shoes" (which is a film I fell in love with in high
school, and which I think Kate, with her flair for the melodramatic, should
do wonderful things with).


RUBBERBAND GIRL:  I haven't see anyone else mention this yet--Kate's free-
form vocalisation in the middle is very Middle Eastern, vertical music 
sounding, very like pop recordings I've heard from Islamic cultures.  She 
starts with a skat-like "ra-ba-da-ba", then holds and quavers the vowel 
through the rest of the vocalisation.  It also has the sound of a vocalised 
guitar solo.  (Did I say something about blending musicalities?)

The lyrics are about wishing to be more flexible.  This one I can easily
see in the context of "The Red Shoes".  Flexibility and rigidity definitely
play into that story.

It definitely has the same playful spirit that was present in "The Big Sky".
For example, the "Here I go", followed by the rubbery octave glissandos, 
proving that she is a Rubberband Girl because her vocal cords, at least, 
can be flexible.


BIG STRIPEY LIE:  Take the pop-funk rhythm section from "I'm Still Waiting",
the violin overlay from "Experiment IV" and the screaming from "Get Out Of
My House". (BTW, did anyone ever notice that the drum track for "I'm Still
Waiting" is almost identical to Janet Jackson's "Miss You Much"?  They are,
in fact, almost the same speed.  Try dancing to "I'm Still Waiting",
though. :-)

Very menacing and dark.  A warning to someone to run away before getting
trapped by the lie.

There is an interesting contradiction in the screamed lyrics.  The scream is
very growly and raspy, but it is saying, "I want to help you/Never want to
hurt you/You know I could be good for you."  So, is this the Big Stripey
Lie?  Given that the words are words of comfort and soothing, yet they are
delivered with a growly scream, I would think probably so.

To my mind, this song falls squarely into context of "The Red Shoes" if
placed in the mouth of Moira Shearer's character--her husband and the head
of the ballet company both seduce her with these promises, but they are,
in fact, tearing her to pieces.  

(For those who haven't seen the film, it was the first film to speak poorly
of the discipline and dedication required by ballet.  The three central 
characters are a young ballerina, the head of a premiere ballet company and
a young composer.  The ballet company makes a bold move in commissioning a 
new ballet of "The Red Shoes" from this unknown composer, and it is to be 
danced by the unkown ballerina.  The story of the ballet is this: a young 
girl wants more than anything to dance.  A demonic shoemaker seduces her 
into trying on a pair of enchanted red shoes, and she begins to dance.  She 
can't stop.  She dances around the world, through beauty and terror.  In the 
end, she comes back home, where she dies of exhaustion, and the shoemaker 
puts the red shoes back on display for someone else to buy--a parallel of 
the film's story.  The ballerina falls in love with the composer. The head 
of the ballet company (who is secretly in love with her) makes her choose 
between her love for the dance and her love for the composer.  She retires 
and marries the composer.  When she returns for an revival of The Red 
Shoes, the head of the company tries to convince her to come out of 
retirement and rejoin the troupe.  Her husband enters, and she is faced
with the ultimate conflict:  give her entire life to her husband (for he 
demands nothing less), or give her entire life to the dance.  Rather than
make the choice, she throws herself in front of a train.  That evening, the
orchestra plays the score while a spotlight shines on her red toe shoes.
Very melodramatic, indeed.)



Billy Green			briarpatch!billy@boo.pacbell.com  OR
San Francisco CA		briarpatch!billy@lever.lever.com

"I didn't want to be the woman in 'The Red Shoes'.  I never saw 'The Red
Shoes'.  I didn't give a f**k about 'The Red Shoes'."
						     --A Chorus Line