Re: Requesting. . . Jig of Life

[asteg@k12.ucs.umass.edu (Albert Steg (Winsor School))]

In a previous article, afcpeters@aol.com (AFC PeterS) says:
>>
>> > Jig of life
>> 
>>  The life instinct demands we go on, no matter what...?
>
>I've always interpreted the entire second side of HoL as being about a
>death/near-death, out-of-the-body experience. The songs represent various
>phases of the experience, including the inability to communicate from the
>"other side" (Under Ice), fighting accumulated negative (self-)judgment/guilt
>(Waking the Witch) and the old woman she would grow to be demanding that the
>young woman hold onto life, so that she (the old woman) could come into
>existence (Jig of Life). Towards the end, she's pulled away towards the
>heavens/hereafter, so far that she can hold up one hand and cover the entire
>Earth in her field of vision (Hello Earth), but finally resolves that it's not
>yet her time to die, and returns to her body, loving her friends and family -
>and life - more dearly than ever for the experience. 
>
>All the songs fit very easily into this storyline...which doesn't mean that was
>Bush's intention. :) Still, I always thought it was rather obvious. Anyone else
>get this?

	I think you've done as well as one can to do in reading TNW without
the extra little nudge that Kate gave us all in various interviews around
the time of the record's release.  The character is trying to stay afloat in
a large body of water somewhere (how she got there doesn't seem to matter).
The entire "side" charts her experience throughout a long night of struggle
trying to stay awake --hence a lot of the hallucinating sequences like 
"Wakin the Witch."
	Once you get the picture, the whole side comes to life much more 
powerfully --many obscure lines make good literal sense.  Go have a close
listen to "And Dream of Sheep" now, and you can understand that the "little
light" is one of those tiny battery lights attached to live vests on planes
or ships.  Americans may need help with "white horses," which is a British
expression for "whitecaps" -those little curls of white foam on the top of
cresting waves.  She reckons she must keep moving in the water so she'll
look like something other than a buoy anchored in the water.
	And take a closer look at what she's wearing on that back cover
photo!
	
	Incidentally, does anyone out there have, or know where I can get
the words that JCB recites at the end of "Jig of Life"?  I can't make all of
them out.  The music is a fabulous traditional reel that I heard in bars
in Edinburgh a few times --does anyone know its name ---or know of any 
other recordings of it?

						Albert
-- 
"When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books,the
first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt
themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure.
                       -Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel"