Re: Requesting info. about KaTe songs

[jorn@mcs.com (Jorn Barger)]

Did you get any answers on this?

In article <9404151117.AA15099@mhost.ida.his.se> Mikael writes:
>I'm compiling a tape at home, which I thought would be a good 
>presentation of KaTe's music. To that tape I'd like to write
>a formal introduction to each song. The problem is that I haven't 
>got the lyrics to any of them, and I'm not sure I got the 
>context of some of them right. So please help me with this.

The lyrics should be at ftp.uu.net in directory usenet/rec.music.gaffa/?

>These are the songs:
>
>Them heavy people

Kate's family is into spiritual self-improvement, esp. George Gurdjieff.
This song laughs at how difficult but rewarding that path can be.

>The man with the child in his eyes

Written when very young (13?), just a fantasy of a gentle lover

>In search for Peter Pan
           ^^^of
Kate the sensitive, dreamy child found her classmates games too cruel

>Wow

Probably for Lindsay Kemp, her gay dance teacher, about a gay actor
whose talents are passed over because of his sexuality

>Oh England, my Lionheart

Sentimental patriotism (now regretted by Kate)

>Hammer horror

An actor wins the lead part because the previous lead has died.  He's
spooked!  (Hammer is a British film company that made horror films.)

>Babooshka

An aging wife tests her husband's fidelity by seducing him, in
disguise.  She confirms that it was *him* who failed *her*, not vice
versa, for she can still fascinate him-- but he's craves change for
change's sake.

>Egypt

Contrasting the poetic mystery of the past with the poverty of Egypt's
present.

>Violin

Not much to say-- a love song to a musical timbre!

>The infant kiss

Inspired by the movie "The Innocents" which portrays a child whose
uncannily mature sexuality almost seduces his governess.

>Suspended in gaffa

No one knows!  Possibly from a totally obscure movie about a couple
who have to get pregnant to win an inheritance.

>The Dreaming

The white colonizers of Australia victimize the natives, whose religion
is far wiser, with its mystical concept of another reality called
Dreamtime.

>Night of the swallow

A man risks his freedom to smuggle drugs (?), his woman fears for him.

>Running up that hill

How can lovers understand each other, locked in different bodies?  To
love as well as possible one should strive to see thru their eyes.

>Hounds of love

Love is terrifying.

>Big Sky

Children notice the hugeness of the sky, with innocent awe.  Grownups lose
that.

>Under ice

A mood-piece about smothered emotions

>Waking the witch

The inquisitor tries to intimidate the healthy artist/witch into self-
denial, but she clings to her heart's truth.

>Jig of life

The life instinct demands we go on, no matter what...?

>The sensual world

The double-talk nonsense words were chosen to replace an exact
quotation from the last two pages of James Joyce's Ulysses, when
Joyce's estate refused Kate permission to use the originals.  The
speaker is Molly Bloom, reminiscing at the very edge of sleep about
her first lover.  The message is, learn to feel.  (The copyright
recently expired, but we'll probably never get the original version.)

>Reaching out

No matter how badly the world beats us up, we *have* to keep reaching
out to make contact with others.

>Constellation of the heart

Like the Starship Enterprise, we're racing thru a universe so strange
we have to be infinitely brave and original, and have faith there's
some sort of paradise right around the corner.

>Big stripey lie

The world is being crushed by the wholesale denial of spiritual values.
The imagery of waves, etc refers to the astral plane, the medium for
telepathy.

>Why should I love you

Babooshka still trying to hang in there!

>December will be magic again

Xmastime has very special vibes, which Kate associates with Oscar
Wilde's fairy tales, and with his spirit contacted by a playful seance.
A different version was used on the xmas special.

>Passing through air

The oldest officially released recording, financed by Dave Gilmour,
dating from 1977 or so.  A b-side.

>Ran Tan Waltz

Kate covers a folk tune about a poor fellow with a wild, straying wife.
She crossdressed when performing it on her xmas special.