Re: Red Shoes

[Robb McCaffree <nsrjm@nursepo.medctr.ucla.edu>]

Hi, Elizabeth,

	I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your mother. I, 
too, found that "The Red Shoes" was a "double-sided" CD when my 
boyfriend of six years, Michael, passed away in September of 
1995 due to complications from AIDS.

	When the "Eat The Music" single came out in 1993, I 
rushed out and bought it. I wasn't thrilled with the song 
(expecting, as I was, The Dreaming II), but Michael defended it 
to me. He was no fan, but liked Kate's poppier stuff (like "Ken" 
and "Shoedance"). Of course, when the album came out, he quietly 
endured whilst I played it right into the ground.  :-)

	After that initial obsesion with "new Kate(!)", I 
decided that I didn't like "The Red Shoes" as much as some of 
Kate's more musically creative albums like TD or HoL. I was okay 
with it for what it was -- a pop album -- but I never thought of 
it as being particularly artistic. After I lost Michael, 
however, I began to listen to it exclusively again.

	All the exuberance and upbeat music on "The Red Shoes" 
tends to belie the powerful themes of grief. Kate says that most 
of the music was written well before Hannah died...but of 
course, this is the first full album since she'd lost Alan 
Murphy and Gary Hurst -- both to AIDS. I now find "The Red 
Shoes" to be more introspective and less fanciful than any other 
Kate album...and therefore as artistic as any -- but in a 
different way.

	I particularly listen to "Moments of Pleasure" and 
"Lily." Funny, I just remembered that both mention a "Michael" 
by name. Before my Michael died, whenever I played "Lily" in the 
truck, and Kate sang "Michael to my right," I'd reach over to my 
right and grasp his knee.
	
	Well, anyway. Stories tend to beget stories like this 
and I'm glad you shared yours. One great resource I've found on 
the net that you might visit is alt.support.grief. Posts like 
yours (and now mine) are common there, and reading and writing 
about your loss is always so cathartic. You'll find it by 
double-clicking the "Sharing with Others" line at:

http://www.funeral.net/info/brvres.html

	Take care,

	Robb