MisK.

[IEDSRI@aol.com]

The Japanese fanzine's information about the identity of 
Maureen is much appreciated. Since the rest of its 
identifications are accurate, IED is not inclined to doubt
it about this one, though confirmation would be useful.
The name of the engineer referred to as Teddy is Jon Barratt.  
Andy Pandy, Loopy Lou and Teddy were favorites of IED's 
when he was a small child. Perhaps this in part explains 
his attachment to Kate Bush now -- he unconsciously sees 
a little bit of Loopy Lou in her.

 > 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.
 > Argument?  Speculation?
 > -- Lisa

This is an excellent question. IED believes that both have
been true in the past. In the interview to which you refer
(our founder |>oug /\lan's official Love-Hounds interview,
from November 1985), Kate -- for whatever reason -- was 
clearly ducking serious consideration of her songs' 
meaning. She made a few wonderful remarks about GOoMH
and a couple of other things, but generally she was suggesting 
that many of her songs had little deep meaning, including UtI.  She called
"Burning Bridge" (if IED is remembering accurately)
"quite trivial", and implied that all the HoL b-sides could
be judged the same.  Ridiculous, of course, as these are
all recordings of peerless genius, and constitute an
important part of the canon of Western civilization's 
greatest achievements. . . 
     On the other hand, she has also on occasion admitted
that she had not been conscious of a song's meaning when she
wrote it: Love and Anger is an example.  She has on
occasion conceded that an interviewer's interpretation of 
a Kate Bush song might be accurate, even though she herself
had no such meaning in mind when she wrote it: Under Ice
is an example, and this attitude is visible in Peter Swales's great 1985
"Musician" interview with Kate, Paddy and Del. 
For what it's worth, Kate's brother John Carder 
Bush has also agreed that various interpretations of 
Kate Bush's songs may be correct, even if Kate didn't 
consciously intend that they should carry such meanings.
IED believes his point was that someone of Kate's education,
background and interests might well bring a multitude of
associations to her writing, so that even an apparently
superficial bit of verse might in fact carry valuable
symbolic meaning.

Regarding Walk Straight Down the Middle: remember that this
song was not part of The Sensual World.  It was intended
by Kate to be a b-side. Only when EMI requested a "bonus"
track for the CD did Kate agree to add WSDtM.  You'll
notice that there's an unusually long pause between the
end of TWW and WSDtM (at least on IED's copy). 

The song is NOT, however, a "mistake". It is a supreme masterpiece, and a
moment of almost holy, redemptive 
beauty for our generally shameful and disgusting century.

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
   S        R         I