Yet another "Red Shoes" posting....

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

First, old business:  I still have a couple of "Rubberband Girl" posters
(40" X 60") left--never picked up by those who inquired and no responses 
from them regarding my e-mail--available for $7.50 each (what they cost 
me wholesale).  I should have the 40 X 60 Red Shoes poster in by the end 
of this week or early next week, plus I am promised that my 40 X 60 Vox 
magazine cover posters are being shipped out "tomorrow" (11/11), so I 
should have those by late next week (I hope!).  Prices and availability
when they arrive (I ordered 18 Red Shoes and 10 Vox, but what I receive
might be different, plus the price on Red Shoes was listed today as 
being higher than it was six weeks ago, so I'm not sure how much they'll
be until they get here).  As before, they will be available to anyone
who can come to my house to get them.

Preliminary thoughts after spending a week with The Red Shoes:

Kate's trend toward optimism continues and increases.  Never For Ever
almost seems to have been a thematic low point, where the recurring theme 
was death (even down to the album's title), and songs ended on happy notes
like "After she shot the guy/She committed suicide".  

Hounds Of Love (rather, The Ninth Wave) was a noticeable turning point, 
where the heroine decides she wants to live even after the nightmares she's
been through, kisses the ground and gives thanks that she's alive.  

Songs about distracting oneself from conflict or bad relationships ("The 
Big Sky" and "Not This Time") gave way on "The Sensual World" to songs of 
pushing through the bad spots and looking to others for help ("Love And 
Anger", "Reaching Out").

So why, then, do I not cringe when The Red Shoes keeps giving out lines
like, "Just being alive/It can really hurt", "life is sad", "I feel that
life has blown a great big hole through me"?  Even when the line, "Just
being alive, it can really hurt" appears identically in two different
songs?  Because this line isn't the end of the story.  This time, someone 
is always there to pull the sufferer through the pain, so the pain is 
always fleeting and even leads to better things.  So the basic message seems 
to be "Life *can* really suck, but it sucks worse when you're all alone."  
The message isn't left in terms of such a simple maxim, however.  There 
is an undertone of "There are times to reach out to others for help and 
protection, but there are times when you need to protect yourself as well.
Recognize the difference and hope that you'll know how to act appropriately" 
(e.g., "Lily" and "Big Stripey Lie" and "Constellation Of the Heart").

Most of these twelve songs deal directly with interpersonal relationships, 
both romantic and platonic (but decidedly more romantic than not).  
"Rubberband Girl" makes no reference to anyone other than to the self 
(though I suppose one could argue that, since it's about someone wishing 
to be more flexible, that it's about one's relationship with oneself):  And
the title song is about love of the dance.  This is a true dancers' song, 
the closest I've seen someone come to expaining the passion involved in 
devoting oneself to one's work.  The narrator uses the curse of the shoes to
find some happiness--though cursed to dance till her legs fall off, she 
lifts her eyes to God and uses the unstoppable dancing to make her dreams 
come true.

Speaking of lifting your eyes to God, I notice a large number of spiritual/
religious references on this album as well (and I don't mean "Oh *GOD* it's 
a jungle in here."):  
"Song Of Solomon"; 
the narration at the beginning of "Lily" ("Oh, thou that givest sustenance 
       to the universe", etc.); 
the angels Gabriel, Raphael, Michael and Uriel;
"eyes are lifted to God"; 
"Where just a couple of pigeons are living/Up on the angel's shoulders/
       I don't know if I'm closer to Heaven but/It looks like Hell down
       there"; 
"'Tis here where Heaven and Hell dance"; 
"she's opening up the doors to Heaven"; 
"Your name is being called by sacred things/That are not addressed nor 
       listened to/Sometimes they blow trumpets" (angels perhaps?)
"The red of the Sacred Heart"; 
"Have you ever seen a picture/Of Jesus smiling?"  
(That's what I find on a cursory glance at the lyric sheet.)

So the next question would be "Why?".  For the most part, these are not
exclusively Christian images.  Kate has never been one to shove religion in 
others' faces (to the contrary, she's very guarded regarding her personal 
life), and I think that these references are intended to be taken more as 
literary references (for want of a better phrase) than as Bible-thumping.
(Also,I don't think "this cross is your heart" is a religious reference; 
my first thought on hearing this line was of a graphic image "X" or "+" and
not of a crucifix).  

Tentatively I will make this guess about why she's using all the religious 
imagery:  She's underscoring her references to relationships so that you 
know she's speaking of deep, spiritual love (and even spiritual sex), and 
not just about casual or superficial relationships.

I kind of consider "Constellation Of the Heart" as the culmination of 
this album's images.

Let me preface these remarks with a few words about the song, "The Big
Sky".  I've always viewed that song as being about an argument.  The
story underneath the song seems to be this:  Two people on a hill are looking
at the shapes in the clouds; one keeps interjecting the statement, "You
never understood me/You never really tried"; the song ends with the phrase,
"You want my reply?/What was the question, dear?/I was looking at the
big sky", as if to say, "You never tried to understand me, then, fine, I've
more interesting and amusing things to pay attention to than *you*, and
they don't require understanding."  This is similar to the theme of "Not
This Time," where the singer sings nonsense lyrics to keep herself going
in a decidedly abusive relationship--both give images of someone distracting
herself to keep from facing an unpleasant situation.

Well, now she's saying "Stop looking at the damn sky and look at yourself
instead.  Follow your heart, steer straight into the storm.  The storm is 
unpleasant, but it ends--and that's your path to paradise."

It is in "Constellation Of the Heart" that the religious images are linked
back to the human element ("'Tis here [in the heart] where Hell and Heaven 
dance") .  This is the song that repeats, verbatim, the line from "Moments 
Of Pleasure", "Just being alive, it can really hurt," and answers it with 
"Without the pain there'd be no learning/Without the hurting we'd never 
change."  This is also the song that echoes the "Top Of the City" image of 
a ladder to salvation/escape ("She's no good for you, baby/Look I'm here 
with the ladder" echoed by "Find me the man with the ladder/And he might 
lift me up to the stars").  The curve (smile), cross (heart) and line 
(path) mentioned in "The Red Shoes" and echoed in songs like "Song Of 
Solomon", "Eat the Music" and "Why Should I Love You", seem to have become 
linked in this song to deliver this message:  "Examine what's in your heart,
trust what you find there.  It will lead you to the path that will lead 
you toward happiness."

If this is the overall intention of the album, then it is far and away the
happiest message Kate has yet delivered.  And the alternate track listing
makes sense that way, too--take the song about the confusion of breaking
up ("I want to stay with you.  But I can't stay here.  But I want to 
stay.  But...") and follow it with the song about the fear and anger of 
betrayal, and end with the song that pulls all the others together.

Also, it helps point out to me something I hadn't quite caught on "The 
Sensual World"--if there is a recurring theme on that album, it is the 
theme of helping, reaching out, working together, teaching.  I always 
complained that the songs on "The Sensual World" didn't hold together like 
Kate's other albums, that it just seemed a pointless mishmash of songs.  
I'll have to go back and look at it again now......


(Amusing P.S.:  A few weeks ago, I was passing a shop that sells wind-up 
and battery-operated toys, a lot of which are animals.  They had a large 
sign in their door which read, "It's a jungle in here!"  I had to control 
the impulse to scrawl "We've got wild animals loose in here" at the 
bottom...)


Billy Green
(415) 552-1289 (h)       (415) 781-6777 (w)
briarpatch!billy@lever.lever.com   or   briarpatch!billy@boo.pacbell.com

"Who says you can't have it all?"	--Michelob
"You can't have it all."		--Kate Bush