Re: "What is Gaffa?" web page

[nessus@mit.edu (Douglas Alan)]

In article <m0tM7Sg-000YJLC@miso.wwa.com> chrisw@wwa.com (Chris
Williams) writes:

> When Kate was asked soon after the album, she explained that it was
> being held back by little things (personally I believe that "gaffa"
> is a pluralization of "gaffe".)

> Several years later, she had obviously tired of answering the question.
> She then answered with a joke about "gaffer's tape," and being "suspended"
> in it.

Chris repeatedly fails to acknowledge, however, that it *could* be the
case that the song *is* about being held back by little things (which
it is) *and* that the image of being stuck in gaffer's tape could be a
metaphor for this.  He further fails to acknowledge that Kate's words
were not some flip reply to an annoying interviewer, but rather
carefully composed words that she put into her own Kate Bush Club
newsletter with no indication at all that this was intended to be a
joke, or funny in any manner.  Here are Kate's words, and you can
judge for yourself whether it is meant to be a joke:

     "Gaffa" is Gaffa Tape. It is thick industrial tape, mainly used
     for taping down and tidying up the millions of leads, and
     particularly useful in concert situations. Suspended in Gaffa is
     trying to simulate being trapped in a kind of web: everything is
     in slow motion, and the person feels like they're tied up. They
     can't move. Defeat (1984, KBC 16)

The above words seem pretty serious to me.  And if this is a "joke"
Kate doesn't seem to have the same flair for humor that she usually
exhibits: (1) It isn't funny.  (2) It would be quite jarring to
transition so abruptly from a joke to a serious explanation of the
song, as the latter half of the paragraph clearly is.

>  Several people chose to ignore this,

Ignore what?

>  choosing instead to make asinine cracks (including one who asked
>  Kate to her face if "Night of the Swallow" was about fellatio. No,
>  I'm *not* kidding.)

Cool.  Who did this?  And what was Kate's response?

|>oug