Under the Ivy (longish)

[moonboots@earthling.net (Boots)]

Note: I tried to send this on Friday, but I don't think it got
through. Apologies if I am in error about this


>But "Under The Ivy" is, of course, about marijuana.

Whoa!!!!! Cooolll!!!

>Just kidding.

Darn!

Ok, so, seriously...
For a long time I've been wanting to run this theory by everyone.
"What is Under the Ivy about?" 

I know, I know, these sorts of things get beaten to death all the
time, but it's the only song that I've instantly been stunned by,
stunned to absolute silence. 

I didn't hear UTI until after I was totally a devout Kate fan. I'd
already left home to starve on my own in New Mexico and took with me
only 6 tapes, (the six Kate releases at the time minus TWS). Her music
has been my emotional sustenance for the entire time I was out there. 

Anyway, I'd never heard of Under the Ivy, and a while after I
returned, I found a RUTH single. It had the very short Under the Ivy
track on the B-side. I bought it immediately and took it to a friend's
house to listen to. That day opened up something very special to me.

My sense of the song is Kate being genuinely herself, not writing from
the array of characters I'd come to expect. She's wonderful at writing
from a "role", and she can easily transcend being Kate, being female,
and even being human with her words, voice, and music. This was
different. It was the Kick Inside (the song) and Symphony in Blue and
a few others where she was simply Kate...only she dug up something
else.  She seemed to be speaking directly to me, telling me something,

giving me and anyone else that would listen to a B-side of a pop song
(not meaning anything derroagtory when I say "pop") a message.

It's instructions to all the people that would be her friends, her
true loves, soulmates, kindred spirits, whatever, the people that
she's already impressed enough to make them want to find her.
She's speaking as an artist that is also a human being that must
sometimes regret the necessary distance between her and those she'd
like to give more to.

It wouldn't take me long, to tell you how to find it, to tell you
where we'll meet.

The message to me, is one that's incredibly genius. How many other
times have stars (and she really is one) looked at the crowd before
them and turned aside to speak directly to you for a very short time
just to let you know that they not uonly appreciate putting bread into
their mouths, but give you instructions to find them, give you an
assurance that they will be there, saying in essence, Not This Time,
Not Yet, but someday and possibly for eternity?

That, to me, above all of the things she's sung about was the thing
that struck me...knowing that most people familiar with Kate would
never hear it. If they picked up any of her albums, they'd get
wonderful gems, but not that. You had to find it on your own, and then
let you soul decode what was being said.

Okay, so this might not be what she meant it to be about, but I think
it's something that, if you never heard it or took it that way, it
should make you a bit happier. Because she IS saying it to you, if you
want her to.

Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing anybody else's perceptions on the
song and on my interpretation--especially if my way of expressing it
was a bit unclear to you.

boots

Go right to the rose
Go right to the white rose
I'll be waiting for you

It wouldn't take me long
To tell you how to find it

(ps, and it doesn't -- most incredible two minutes I've ever heard)