Re: "Under the Ivy" Deconstructed...

[nessus@mit.edu (Douglas Alan)]

In article <1995Jan25.225334.17593@lafn.org> ac506@lafn.org (Lisa
Morton) writes:

>   Recently I've been puzzling over the content of "Under the Ivy".
>   I seem to recall a quote in "THE GARDEN" where Kate, after being
>   unusually evasive regarding the meaning of the song, offers up something
>   to the effect of "...it may be about two people leaving a party to
>   make love."

Hmmm.... It seems that all of a sudden a lot of people are quoting my
interview with Kate.  How extrememly embarrassing!

>   Do artists such as Kate Bush deliberately attempt to obfuscate meaning
>   of their work?  I think the answer instead is that perhaps even she
>   doesn't know the real meaning - or, perhaps, that unconsciously she
>   knows it and doesn't want to deal with it.

I asked John Carder Bush this very question and he wrote me back
saying that artists are apertures for God and are therefore not
necessarily conscious of all the meanings that exist in their work.
The more layered meanings there are, the better the aperature.  Kate,
he says, is quite the conduit.

Me, I think I might explain it more in terms of the incredibile
complexity of the subconscious human mind.  Some might call this
complexity God.

This is not to say that Kate isn't actively coy about her intent.

> Now I've been trying to get this out of the song, and
> finally realized that this is hopeless.  It seems plain to me that
> the song is about an adult desperately trying to regain the innocence
> of safety, the childhood sense that everything is or will be fine.

> Argument?  Speculation?

In this interview Kate told me that the song was about two people
sneaking out back to make love.  When I asked her why the song was so
sad she said because this was something the two people had done
innocently as children, but now they had to sneak around to do it.  It
sounds to me as if everything you say is in the song is there,
according to Kate, and more.  Sexuality is something that to children
is innocent.  It is our screwed up society that makes it dirty.  The
song is sad because the characters long for the innocent sex of their
childhood.

|>oug

P.S.  Don't let the moral majority hear about this.  They'll say that
Kate and I are child pornographers.