All is revealed

[Peter Byrne Manchester <PMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu>]

       In addition to generous and instructive things IED said about the 
'tracklist' thread, in Andy Marvick's post the other day, there was a classic 
IED Mystic Message woven into the paragraph in question.  The 'code' was so 
far from devious that I take it to be a message meant to be posted (read the 
letters in caps in the paragraph, backwards):

       I'M CLIMBING UP THE LADDER HILL BUILDING IT'S ALL THE SAME REALLY 

This of course assimilates the ladder mentioned in "Constellation of the 
Heart" to the hill and building the singer would go running up in RUTH, "if 
only could."  IED then signs off, "searching for the man with the stick for 
the next three weeks.  He'll see you all on the angel's shoulder when he 
returns...".

       In CotH, we find the lines

              Oh and here comes the man with the stick
              He said he'd fish me out of the moon

It having been my great joy and privilege to have Andrew Marvick visit three 
of the past four weekends, and so to share first experiences of "The Red 
Shoes" with him, including the EtM and RBG videos that he otherwise would 
have missed (he has no TV in New York), I find the jumble of emotions he is 
signalling here quite moving.  If it seems that IED has been uncharacteristi-
cally scarce in recent weeks, that is because Andy was back at Columbia this 
semester completing his doctoral disseration, and it now appears (to his joy 
and terror) he has finally been invited to prepare it for defense.  So, 
before turning to some last remarks on the tracklist question, the following 
message should go forth:  Calling all angels!  Calling all angels!  If you're 
an angel, you know what to do.

              One more step to the top of the city
              Where just a couple of pigeons are living
              Up on the angel's shoulder.

One more step, Andy!  Go for it!  Give 'em hell!

       Tree of Schnopia <as010b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu> (Mystery Science 
Drewcifer 3000) writes:
>And to those who are putting forth this ridiculous postulate that the order 
>of songs on TRS is (gasp) adulterated...why not run along and invent some 
>more conspiracy theories and let us do our thing?  Has it not occurred to 
>you that perhaps *KaTe* chose the final order of tracks, and that the 
>"original" was just a first idea?  Has it not occurred to you that she 
>looked at the order of the postulate and said "my God, that would sound like 
>shit", as I did?  I mean, program your disc however you please, but don't 
>try and pass it off as the "real" order, lyric sheet be damned.  

Well, this is my fault; the spin I put on my initial report of the 
possibility that an alternative track order is suggested by the lyrics order 
on the record sleeve, was a bad move.  Even if it is a trademark affectation 
of the newsgroup, the mock-authoritarian style is not redeemed by its irony 
and always winds up generating more heat than light.  I apologize.

Moreover, I stipulate:  the released album is authoritative and what Kate 
intended to release (it is not "adulterated").  No doubt there were lots of 
ideas about the playlist, and no doubt Kate discussed her ideas with others 
whom she listened to because she trusted their judgment (there was no 
"conspiracy").  I was clearly wrong in supposing that the playlist suggested 
on the record sleeve represented an "original" order intended for the album 
that she was talked out of late in the production process, since the record 
*jacket* has the released order on the back, so there is no need to suppose 
that marketing considerations played any role.  IED makes the point well: 

>in ied's humbLe opinion the evidencE still weigHs in favor of peter's 
>original interpretaTion.  ied would demur on one minor Point, however:  he 
>sees no reason to assUme that the chanGe(s) to the track order must have 
>been prompted by commercial concerns at aNy stage.  it could well be that 
>the track order on sIde two remained a matter of doubt for kate herself 
>until shortly Before the release date (or even later).  we siMply have no 
>way of knowing.  

Most true.  Still, we do have evidence that Kate can remain fond enough of an 
early (or at least alternative) version of her work to give *it* to us too:  
"Alternative Hounds of Love" (which still sounds to me like a way the song 
wanted to go at an early stage, that she just couldn't let go of).  So the 
correct form of the 'Experiment V' hypothesis that Andy and I considered last 
weekend is stated by IED:

>                 or (and this is an explanation which ied fInds particularLy 
>attractive, though of course it is unsupported by any faCt) the confusion 
>Might well have been created deliberately, and the clues to the side's 
>correct running order placed on the lp's sleeve for the dedikated to 
>dIscover for themselves, thus to be further delighted...

The inferences can be summarized:

       The order of the lyrics on the record sleeve is NOT the maximally 
       efficient nesting of the Side B songs beneath the Side A ones; the UK 
       CD lyrics sheet is.

       The complete mess of an order in which the lyrics are listed on the US 
       CD lyrics sheet might be a 'covering of one's tracks' (the pun here is 
       distracting), intended to confuse the inattentive.

       It is one thing to print the Side A lyrics in album sequence, the Side 
       B lyrics almost entirely out of order, so that one is provoked to look 
       for (and promptly discover) some other principle of arrangement (as on 
       the UK CD).  But it is quite another to arrange all of the lyrics for 
       sides A and B, in discrete groups of 6, in such a way as entirely to 
       match the album sequence except for a single reversal of position of 
       two songs.  Yes, CotH won't fit under EtM in the format chosen, but if 
       that's the whole reason, that's teasing!

       Finally, of course, there is the whole huge factor of the sheer 
musical and lyrical satisfactoriness of the suggested playlist.  It's an 
*experience* to hear and think of the album that way, and it's nice to think 
there is a chance it comes from Kate--an esoteric version of the exoteric 
album.  Craig Heath saw some point to it lyrically from the start, and has 
now made a capital observation, picking up on my last post:

> <CH> [I said YtO must be last because I interpret the WSoP references as
> indicating an ending]
>> <PBM> I agree completely that at the end of "You're the One," some
>> larger ending is marked, too, with the WSoP tonality working just
>> as he describes.  But that fits exactly into the way I perceive
>> "Big Stripey Lie," as marking a new beginning, moving through
>> grief and pain to dismisal...
>
>When I read this catalogue of emotions, it struck a chord, but my
>next thought was "where is anger?"  Certainly my response to YtO
>involves being on the cusp of an emotional progression, and it's
>hard for me to distinguish how much of that progression is coming
>from clues in the lyrics and music, and how much from my personal
>psyche; however, the progression I feel from YtO is: self-pity,
>then anger, then acceptance.

YES!  How blind could I be?!  The last line of "You're the One," "just forget 
it alright", is spit out with more open rage than I can remember ever hearing 
from anyone, much less KB.  There is a very natural sequence, not just 
emotional but spiritual, that anyone who's been through it will recognize:  
after denial (often enough self-pity as CH designates it), rage; then grief 
and pain; then dismissal.  If a person can actually get through that (it is 
precisely like going to hell), there may come recovery ("You're the One") and 
the beginning of wisdom ("Constellation of the Heart").

Craig Heath notes:
>Now, the difficulty I had in accepting BSL as a rejoinder to YtO
>is, I must confess, largely because I don't feel I understand what
>BSL is trying to say.  All I get from it so far is anger, but that
>is enough for the triptych of YtO, BSL and WSILY to mirror that
>same progression of emotions (I think WSILY is the weakest link of
>the three in this theory, but it's close enough).

Agreed that BSL is angry; it does reach dismissal ("hey all you little waves 
run away"), with only the ache left (the violin line).  For me, the key to 
the song is "Oh my God it's a jungle in here, you've got wild animals loose 
in here".  "In here" is *in that musical passage*, sonically; Kate swamping 
the mixing desk with the almost unbelievably percussive walk-below-the-bottom 
bass line.  <This can *only* be heard all the way to the bottom on the EMI 
CD>  The credit for that performance should read "LEAD Bass - Kate".  People 
justly admire the guitar work, but she doesn't play a line on the guitar at 
all; it's all feedback and phasing--a great ear, but no licks.  But that bass 
lead!!!  You have to hear it in relation to the sound of "Ne T'Enfuis Pas" in 
its original mix, where Kate herself was being a wild jungle animal, to sense 
the deliverance this song and her performance on it must have been for her.

It's the strength of the collaboration on "Why Should I Love You?" that makes 
that track work for me on this theory.  I find Prince's work on this cut to 
be supremely tasty, even elegant--especially given the technical situation.  
It sets up Lenny Henry's verse to be as beautiful as the Trio sets up 
Kate's to be at the beginning.

       Craig Heath to me again:
>PBM also said:
>> [The WSoP references are] an excellent argument, very important
>> for exploring this album, which is chock full of musical
>> allusions of this kind.
>
>Would you care to be more specific?  ... 

I wish I could be.  It was Andy who was boiling over with observations, and I 
should have been taking notes.  He caught a lot of Captain Beefheart and 
Incredible String Band things.  He picked up a theme in backing vocals on a 
song here that was an instrumental line somewhere in "The Ninth Wave," and 
was in turn some kind of Beatles quote.  I'm not musicologist enough to catch 
this stuff on the fly.

       I will share one last thing and then quit.  My kately friend Margaret 
(whom Andy met) points out that the theme of RBG is among the oldest of all 
for Kate Bush.  In "Room for the Life," the last lines of the second verse,

              How long do you think, before she'll go out, woman
              Hey get up on your feet and go get it now
              Like it or not we keep bouncing back
              Because we're woman

Enough.  I've got to go grade 17 graduate exams on Aristotle's Metaphysics.  
Interest should shift to "The Line, the Cross, the Curve" that premiered 
yesterday.

............................................................................
                                                            Peter Manchester
       "Eat the Music!"                        pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.edu
                                                     72020.366@compuserv.com