Re: MoP and L&A - comments of a newbie

[WretchAwry <vickie@pilot.njin.net>]

Anne writes:

> Hello you crazy Hounds.
> 
> 	I've only been reading the list for a few weeks, so I am an emphatic
> newbie.  But I did want to throw my two cents in about MoP - which I also tend
> to skip when listening to TRS.  Lyrically, it just isn't up to Kate's usual
> standards.  The images are not particularly evocative ("I think about us lying,
> lying on a beach somewhere" just does not conjure up a particularly interesting
> scenario), and so they leave the desperately sad tone somewhat ungrounded.  The
> only line I do like is "And he isn't well at all", only because the way she
> sings it somehow manages to evoke (for me, anyway) the painful slowness of
> AIDS.  The song as a whole leads me to think that it's probably very meaningful
> for Kate herself, but doesn't give us as listeners enough to go on.

I can understand that.  I wasn't really flaming the earlier post, it just
hurt a little to hear it called crap (I said slop, because I couldn't
bear to type crap...I guess it hurt more than I thought).  I do agree that
while it's one of Kate's most personal songs, it gathers more and more
meaning the closer you are to Kate.  Since I'm not close to Kate at *all*,
I don't know why it affects me so much, other than it brings up my own
memories of loved ones who have died, especially my mother, and the thought
that someone (Kate) who has brought me so much pleasure and many meaningful
releationships (for one, Chris and I met because we were both Kate fans)
has lost so many near and dear to her.  I can't feel her pain, but I can
understand and sense it, and MoP brings it all the much closer to me.
It'll never be one of my favorite Kate songs (I even love "Reaching Out"
another song that's gets kicked in the butt here often, more) but oh,
I do love it so, and it makes me cry.

 
> 	L&A is another story entirely, and is not only my favorite Kate song,
> but I think my favorite song period.

That's wonderful!  I don't think I've ever heard anybody say that.

>  Here's one interesting theory about it,
> put forth by my housemate: she suggests that it's actually a response to some
> French feminist theorists, namely Luce Irigaray et al, who seek to construct a new
> world through the destruction of masculinist language.  Okay, this might be
> stretching it a bit, but the whole idea of something "unspeakable" whose
> articulation might "build a house of the future" seems to make sense.

I'd have to know a bit more to understand what you mean, sorry.  Could you
expand a bit?  It sounds about as grim as my *completely* unfounded theory
which is that Kate had a friend who was sexually abused as a child, and
Kate learned enough of what the pain is like to be able to put it into
a song for her.  Or him.  "Walk Straight Down The Middle" also speaks to
me in that same way...those lyrics are pure clinical depression, and that's
why I think of it as a companion song to L&A.  Again, this my own theory,
just based on the lyrics alone, not from anything Kate's ever said in an
interview.  

Vickie

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Vickie Mapes               irc ---> #ecto     "My ears are lucky to hear
vickie@pilot.njin.net      alt.music.ecto       these glorious songs" HR
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