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Date: Mon, 5 Mar 90 04:27:06 EST
From: katefans@world.std.com
(Chris'n'Vickie of Kansas City)
Subject: EMI stupid? naaaah, surely not!
Chris here,
Kenneth G Descoteaux asked about EMI (regarding EMI's screw-up of the gender of the protaganist of "The Ninth Wave"):
> Now how did they screw up the release like that?
For EMI this is a minor "gaffe." Those of us who survived the "EMI-America" years have seen far worse. In our "hallway full'o'Kate" is a pair of those reproductions of album covers used for record store promotion called "flats." The back of the flat for Never For Ever has this;
KATE BUSH
features:
"NEVER FOR EVER"
Remember that song? How moving is was? What ever happened to it? Now this screw-up wasn't due to the album not being released yet - this was in 1984, a quick look at an English copy could have caught the mistake, or a phone call to any fan or record store that carried imports. This was fairly typical of things at that time. Not to be too hard on EMI-America but they have never given any impression they ever really understood her, or ever even tried.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 12:08:18 +0100
From: Ulrich Grepel <uli@intellektik.informatik.th-darmstadt.de>
Subject: Bravo July 1981
Hi all, and especially Ron, our interview/review etc. collector:
A friend of mine has found an old article about Kate in an old issue of the German teenie magazine 'Bravo'. I cannot say in which issue of that ugly rag the article was in, but there is a crossword puzzle on the backside of the pages that has a deadline of August 3rd, 1981, so this thing probably is from July '81. They perfectly show that they have absolutely no idea about Kate. At least they seem to like her... But can YOU tell after reading the article what to expect from her music? I surely can't. I will give both, the German original & my English translation that surely has a lot of errors due to being a non native speaker of English. My comments in []s. BTW, in addition to the photos & the article there is a 2 page poster of KT in the green leotard with the pink belt around Kate's waist. It's the same pic that we all can find on the Lioness at Heart box.
[the following is - of course - reprinted without kind or whatever permission]
Kate Bush
She presents her songs in matching costumes:
In her songs she gets
down to hot themes
[There are a lot of captions and a lot of pictures. I'll describe the picture, followed by the corresponding captions]
[Kate in the James And The Cold Gun costume, holding the rifle]: In "Army Dreamers" Kate curses in combat uniform and with a rifle against nuclear war. [how do you mix up three songs in one sentence?]
[Kate in a pink re-colored trouser-dress, exactly the one of the September '80 'rock pop'-performance of Babooshka, holding a huge double bass]: Kate thought up this gag for her stage performance: At "Hammer Horror" [??!] she climbs out of a huge double bass
[Kate waving goodbye at the end of the Hammersmith performance of Wuthering Heights]: With deathly pale makeup [wasn't that an effect of the lightshow?], a skirt wrapped around the slender waist, Kate pleads for her lover to follow her into the beyond in "Wuthering Heights". [Wasn't that the other way round? Of course Cathy wanted to join Heathcliff, but on the living side of the final frontier?]
[Kate in the dress that was used in the Wow performance at the Hammersmith Odeon]: In a playful, smoked [what's that?] suit, she presents herself completely tender with "A Man with the Child in his Eyes" [should I say anything?]
[Kate in the Mrs. Mopp costume]: For her "Rock-pop" performance Kate recently [almost a year ago!] showed up in a cleaner-look [at least they seem to look at their pictures and at least they know WHEN they were used, but what song was presented as Mrs. Mopp?]
[Kate in the famous Babooshka video costume]: As seductive "Babooshka" and with unjustified suspicions Kate drives her husband to his death
[Now they manage a matching pair of picture and song, but have they just begun thinking about "The Wedding List" before finishing their sentence?]
The slip is super-tight, the thin, striped and flowing shirt shows more than it conceals. The naked legs stick in studded boots [where are the rivets? I can't find 'em on the boots]. But the pugnacious amazon doesn't only look dangerous: With unjustified displays of jealousy she hunts her innocent husband into the grave, just for having a good cry afterwards as a black-dressed widow and to rail against her fate. [I think I just stop with my comments. Just for the ones who don't know woof yet: this is "all mixed up" (BTW: "all mixed up" is a TV show on the British TV station "Superchannel" where I have seen a lot of interesting videos!)]
Disguised that way as "Babooshka", Kate exhausts all of her acting and dancing repertoire. On her new [this is an '81 article! Oh, I wanted to shut up...] album "Never for ever" [their lower case Ever - aahh! not again!] the 22 year old English lady gets down on politically hot themes. In "Army Dreamers" she warns about nuclear weapons and a threatening war, she mistrusts the "Iron Maiden" from England [That's "Eiserne Lady" in German. How do the Brits call their long running female prime minister?] as well as the President of America. [No, I won't say anything more...]
Privately Kate - born on July 30, 1958 in Kent - also doesn't trust too many people. She likes to take everything in her own hands. The trained dancer and discovery of Pink-Floyd-guitarist David Gilmour played the piano perfectly at the age of six [now they even mix her up with Tori, and that in 1981!], writes her own songs since the age of 12. Today Kate thinks of her stage effects all alone and has her nine headed band completely under control. The delicate Kate spares no efforts to arrange her show as perfect as possible.
To be fit as a dancer, she takes courses from the English choreographer Anthony von [they even use the German form 'von' of the Dutch 'van'!] Laast. Only her two older brothers are allowed to botch into her business once in a while. Brother Paddy [going to the cloister now?] plays in her band and sometimes has something to say in musical terms. Brother Carder, called Jay, on whom Kate is especially attached, manages all her publicity and business affairs. He also keeps off all photographers and takes all [all? most!] of the photos of his sister for album covers and press releases by himself.
If Kate has griefs, she flees to her parents Hannah and John Bush, who are still running a country doctor's practice. In north London Kate shares a house with her two brothers and two cats. [Hi Pyewacket, Zoodle, Rocket...]
Though having this familiar security Kate doesn't know at the moment how she should continue. Film and TV offerings start to pile up, but she can't decide if she should work out another stage show, record her next LP or begin a career in dance and acting [was the last one ever an option??]. But one thing is sure: everything that Kate gets down to is, as the title of her LP says, "Never for Ever".
Margit Rietti
[now for the German original]:
Kate Bush
Sie stellt ihre Lieder in passender Verkleidung dar
In ihren Songs
packt sie heisse Themen an
[James and the Cold Gun Bild]: In "Army Dreamers" wettert Kate im Kampfanzug und mit Gewehr gegen den Atomkrieg
[Rock Pop's Babooshka-Bild (pink umgefaerbtes, rotes Kleid und Bass]: Diesen Gag dachte sich Kate fuer ihre Buehnenshow aus: Bei "Hammer Horror" steigt sie aus einem riesigen Bass
[Kate beim Abschiedswinken in "Wuthering Heights" vom Hammersmith-Video]: Leichenblass geschminkt, einen Rock um die schmale Taille gewickelt, fleht Kate in "Wuthering Heights" ihren Geliebten an, ihr ins Jenseits zu folgen
[Kate im "Wow"-Kleid]: Im verspielten gesmokten Anzug praesentiert sie sich ganz zaertlich bei "A Man with the Child in his Eyes"
[Kate im Putzfrauen-Kleid]: Zu ihrem "Rock-pop"-Auftritt erschien Kate vor kurzem im Putzfrauen-Look
[Kate im "Babooshka"-Video-Kostuem (Schwert und Pfauenfedern)]: Als verfuehrerische "Babooshka" treibt Kate mit unberechtigten Verdaechtigungen ihren Mann in den Tod
Der Slip ist superknapp, das duenne gestreifte Flatterhemd zeigt mehr als es verdeckt. Die nackten Beine stecken in nietenbesetzten Stiefeln. Doch die streitbare Amazone sieht nicht nur gefaehrlich aus: Mit unbegruendeten Eifersuchts-Szenen verfolgt sie ihren unschuldigen Ehemann bis ins Grab, um sich anschliessend als schwarzverkleidete Witwe auszuweinen und mit ihrem Schicksal zu hadern.
So verkleidet als "Babooshka", schoepft Kate Bush ihr schauspielerisches und taenzerisches Repertoire voll aus. Auf ihrer neuen LP "Never for ever" (Nicht fuer immer) packt die 22jaehrige Englaenderin auch politische heisse Themen an. In "Army Dreamers" warnt sie vor Nuklear-Waffen und einem drohenden Krieg, misstraut der "Eisernen Lady" von England ebenso wie dem amerikanischen Praesidenten.
Auch privat vertraut Kate - am 30. Juli 1958 in der Grafschaft Kent geboren - kaum jemandem. Am liebsten nimmt sie alles selbst in die Hand. Die ausgebildete Taenzerin und Entdeckung von Pink-Floyd-Gitarrist David Gilmour spielte schon mit sechs perfekt Klavier, schreibt seit ihrem 12. Lebensjahr eigene Songs. Heute denkt sich Kate auch ihre Buehneneffekte und Kostueme allein aus und hat ihre neunkoepfige Band fest im Griff.
Die zierliche Kate scheut keine Muehe, ihre Show so perfekt wie moeglich zu gestalten. Um auch taenzerisch in Form zu sein, nimmt sie Unterricht bei dem englischen Choreographen Anthony von Laast. Nur ihre zwei aelteren Brueder duerfen Kate ab und zu inds Geschaeft reinpfuschen. Bruder Paddy spielt in ihrer Band mit und hat auch musikalisch ein Woertchen mitzureden. Bruder Carder, genannt Jay, an dem Kate besonders haengt, betreut ihre gesamte[n] Publicity und Geschaeftsangelegenheiten. Er haelt ihr auch alle Fotografen vom Leib und schiesst saemtliche Fotos fuer Platten-Cover und Pressematerial von seiner Schwester selbst.
Wenn Kate Kummer hat, fluechtet sie sich zu ihren Eltern Hannah und John Bush, die nach wie vor in Kent eine Landarztpraxis betreiben. In Nordlondon teilt Kate ein Haus mit ihren beiden Bruedern und zwei Katzen.
Trotz dieser familiaeren Geborgenheit weiss Kate im Moment nicht, wie es bei ihr weitergehen soll. Film und TV-Angebote beginnen sich zu haeufen, doch sie kann sich nicht entscheiden, ob sie wieder eine neue Buehnenshow ausarbeiten, die naechste LP aufnehmen oder eine Schauspiel- und Tanzkarriere einschlagen soll. Doch eins ist sicher: Alles, was Kate anpackt ist, wie der Titel ihrer LP schon sagt "Nicht fuer immer".
Margit Rietti
[ordered by songs and date]
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 89 10:22:05 -0500
From: Michael Mendelson <mendel@cs.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Babooshka grammar
I was listening to the Whole Story today and in the song Babooshka, I thought I heard Kate say
"She couldn't have made a worst move..."
which is grammatically incorrect (it should be worsE). So I checked the lyrics I have from the lyrics server, and (although I know there are some mistakes in there) they said "worse."
I listened to the song again and indeed Kate utters a very pronounced worsT. Has anyone else noticed this? Is Kate intentionally erring? Or am I missing something subtle in the lyrics? I suppose the sentence could mean that "She was incapable of making a WORST move," but from the context, this does not appear to be the intended meaning.
From: jsd@gaffa.mit.edu (Jon Drukman)
Date: 8 Aug 89 17:22:16 GMT
Subject: Re: Babooshka grammar
> "She couldn't have made a worst move..."
You know what I find interesting is that it sounds a hell of a lot like Kate starts to say "choice" and then replaced the word on the master tape with "move" but did a sloppy punch-in job. I have always thought this but never mentioned it to anyone. This seems like a good opportuinity to bring it up. Anyone else hear it? Listen carefully -I'm almost positive there's a glitch there of one sort or another...
Date: 8 Aug 89 20:35 -0700
From: Mark Anderson <manderso@ugly.cs.ubc.ca>
Subject: Re: Babooshka grammar
Until I got the lyrics with Never For Ever, I thought Kate was singing "choice"--albeit with a rather strange pronunciation. Actually it sounds like "chove" to me, suggesting Jon's theory might have some merit. Though I thought Kate was too much a perfectionist to let that slip by.
And since we're on the topic of Babooshka grammar, is there any such word as "freezed"?
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 89 08:30:33 CDT
From:
motcid!marble!meadley@uunet.UU.NET (A. Meadley)
Subject: Re: Babooshka
grammar
> "She couldn't have made a worst move..."
Yes. That is what I have always heard on "Never For Ever", too.
As far as I can recall from my English lessons at school, worse compares two things ("This is the worse of the two") and worst compares three or more things ("This is the worst of the three").
So Kate is implying several (ie. three or more) options of which the one she took was the "worst".
Ant in Chicago
From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 89
22:42:55 EDT
Subject: Grandmother
> From: peter@xal (Peter Freeman)
> And yes, it does mean
grandmother, and I also believe that it refers to the type of scarf that we
stereotypically associate with older Russian women. This opens the song back up
for interpretation...it would seem to me that she is incognito because she is
wearing a BA-boosh-ka.
If I remember correctly, Kate has said that she was just trying to think of an exotic sounding name and that "Babooshka" came to mind. (She has said the same thing about "Kashka".) She has never, to my knowledge, ever mentioned that its Russian meaning as "grandmother" or "scarf worn on the head" has anything to do with the song. I doubt that the Babooshka is used to indicate that the woman dresses incognito by hiding herself in a babooshka because this does not agree with the story of the song which seems to indicate that she dresses exoticly and sexily. However, who knows with Kate -- you could be right.
> [\:on :/runkbrain:]
> You know what I find interesting is that
it sounds a hell of a lot like Kate starts to say "choice" and then
replaced the word on the master tape with "move" but did a sloppy
punch-in job. I have always thought this but never mentioned it to anyone.
This is what it sounds like to me too... but I doubt that it's a mistake. There must be some deep meaning in it -- known only to Kate. Maybe if you play it backwards it says "I buried Paul".... Then again, Kate spelled Orgonon wrong by mistake....
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 89 23:11:30 -0500
From: Michael Mendelson <mendel@cs.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Babooshka Grammar
> As far as I can recall from my English lessons at school, worse compares two things ("This is the worse of the two") and worst compares three or more things ("This is the worst of the three"). So Kate is implying several (ie. three or more) options of which the one she took was the "worst".
Unfortunately, I don't think it works that way, Ant. WORST is the superlative form, whereas WORSE can be used as a superlative, or as a *comparative*. You are correct when you say that (as superlatives) WORSE is of two things, and WORST is of greater than two things. But what Kate seems to be using in Babooshka is the comparative.
The case is more clear if we pretend she's saying a BETTER move. Using analogies, GOOD:BAD = BETTER:WORSE = BEST:WORST.
"She couldn't have made a BEST move..."
is clearly ungrammatical (in the sense Kate seems to want here), whereas
"She couldn't have made a BETTER move..."
is grammatical. In the same way WORSE is better than WORST. In the words of another song-writing genius, "You better you bet!"
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 89 02:21 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Babooshka
> Kate in all her infinite wisdom, gave the song that title. As I understand, Babooshka means "grandmother". Any ideas???
IED seems to remember (but from what source he cannot say) that Kate once said the name was inspired from some old children's story she had read long before. This is not confirmed, however, and in fact IED is not at all certain that he ever actually read this anywhere. It could have been a dream. (See, as many of you will not be surprised to learn, IED tends to have Kate Bushological dream experiences at any and all times of the day and night. It's very distressing sometimes.)
[re Grammar:]
Apropos Kate's use of odd grammatical misconstructions, IED would like to point out that these anomalies are quite clearly deliberate artistic decisions on her part. In her interviews Kate's use of "I" and "me" are invariably correctly placed. Her grammar is extremely good. Lines like "You and me knew life itself is breathing" (from Breathing ) and "Him and I in the room" (from Houdini ) could therefore only have been devised for artistic reasons. One thing they definitely do is identify the narrative context as informal, casual, conversational, rather than self-consciously poetic or otherwise literary. And this is crucial to the communication of Kate's aesthetic, which, in terms of lyrics, at least, is in IED's opinion generally more narrative and anecdotal than poetic. (Of course this creates a certain poetic atmosphere itself, but that's not what IED means.) It would be a lot different (and far more painful to IED) if Kate were to use "For you and I"--a form of bad grammar which stems from unworthy pretence rather than healthy casualness.
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 89 10:08 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Grammar
Just a note on Babooshka 's grammar: IED has studied two early versions of this song, and there can be no doubt that in those early versions Kate wrote and sang "worse move". No "T" sound at all. Therefore her inclusion of the "T" sound in the final version was either a.) a very peculiar but deliberate change on her part which was made apparently purely for the sake of the sound ; or b.) a little slip of the tongue which she decided was not worth scrapping the whole take to fix. Judging from the strength of the "T" sound the former explanation seems likeliest. She just stuck a "T" sound on there. Now there is another possible explanation, and that is that perhaps she meant to keep the grammar correct ("worse"), so left the "correct" grammar on the lyrics-sheet, but at the same time wanted to introduce still another twist of meaning to the phrase, so in the vocal, added the "T". Whatever the reason, there is no possibility that Kate didn't know the correct grammatical construction--she not only wrote it out for the lyrics, she also sang it correctly in two early versions of the song.
And if some of you are now extremely curious about where IED got access to two early versions of Babooshka, he'll just say that they were broadcast once on UK radio by Kate herself, and the tapes are floating around for traders to find. Good luck. (No, no obsKuriTies 3 is planned--all those projeKTs are a thing of the past.)
-- Andrew Marvick
From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 89
21:32:07 EDT
Subject: All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya
I just saw on TV a commercial for Certs where there is a Russian dude up in Siberia, or something, and he's really far from the camera. He pops a Certs in his mouth and suddenly zips up so that we have an ultra-closeup of his face and he says something like, "Come to me, my little babooshka". Thus, it seems that "babooshka" is used as a term of affection in Russian, in addition to its meanings as "grandmother" and "scarf worn on the head".
Perhaps this word is used similar to the way that French men call their women their "little cabbages". Cabbage has never seen very romantic to me, but to a different culture, anything goes....
|>oug
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 89 21:52:03 EDT
From: evs@sunbar.mc.duke.edu
Subject: Origin of the Babooshka title
Since certain Love-hounds were pondering the origin of the "Babooshka" title, I thought this excerpt from an EMI 1980 interview, "Kate Discusses Never For Ever", would be of interest. This is reprinted from Vol. 1, Issue 2 of Breakthrough.
If hasn't been posted before and if there's sufficient interest I'll type in the rest of the interview and post it to L-Hs. The interview is of historical interest and contains some nice insights into details of the album. She talks about working with Peter Gabriel among other things. Also interesting is the discussion on long period of time that they seem to think it took for Kate to produce the album--funny, considering the interval between HoL and TSW.
Int: One track which has achieved success as a single is "Babooshka" which is the lead track on this album and when I first saw that you had done a song on that title I imagined it was a Russian grandmother. Where had you heard the term?
Kate: Well, it was very strange, because as I was writing this song the name just came and I couldn't think where I'd got it from and I presumed it was from a Russian fairy tale--it sounded like the name of a princess or something and it was so perfect for the music, it had all the right syllables and the right feel, so I kept it in. Many strange coincidences happened after that--where I'd turn on the television and there would be Donald Swann singing about Babushka. So I realized that there was actually someone called this and I managed to find in the Radio Times a little precis of a program that was on called Babushka. It was an opera that someone had written and Babushka was apparently the lady that the three Kings went to see because the star stopped over her house. They presumed that the Lord was in there, and when he wasn't they went on their way. She wanted to go with them to find Jesus and they wouldn't let her come so she spent the rest of her life looking for him. I don't really know where it came from but it worked.
Int: It's a very lovely story and one could write another song about that I suppose.
Kate: Yes, maybe.
Int: But the one you've written about is another tale of romance, successful and failed and a very touching one about a man who is tiring a bit of his wife but when she dresses up in what we might call new clothes he falls for her all over again. Now someone might say that this is a very novel way of looking at love. Do you think of yourself as a writer of love songs?
Kate: I don't know. I suppose I would say that I have written some love songs but I wouldn't term that as one. Really I'm very annoyed at the way that the woman is behaving in this song because it is so stupid and in fact she's just ruining the whole situation which was very lovely--and it's only because of what's going on in her brain that she does these things so--suspicion, paranoia all these naughty energies again and it's really quite sad I think.
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 89 20:29:48 PDT
From: wisner@mica.berkeley.edu
(William Wisner)
Subject: Re: All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka,
Babooshka-ya-ya
It seemed obvious to me the first time I ever heard Babooshka. I had always thought of the word babooshka as a Russian endearment. I also thought that the idea that the word is a Russian endearment could be nothing but a Western myth. I've never had a chance to ask a Russian, though..
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 89 13:04 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: More of the same
IED would just like to add that he doesn't think it unreasonable of him to doubt your attribution of this phrase to Kate in light of the fact that your idea of a proper source for substantiation of Russian-language idioms is a Certs commercial.
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 89 21:08:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Peter Glen Berger <pb1p+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: "Babooshka"
"Babooshka" is, in fact, a term of endearment to a child, particularly a baby. It is related to the quasi-yiddish "Bubulah". But probably, "AHHHHhhyahhhh, baby baby baby ya ya" just didn't have that ring to it.
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 89 19:19:45 PDT
From: ide!lofdahl@Sun.COM (Corey
Lofdahl)
Subject: Babooshka blah blah
in reply to Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Sorry Doug, but I have this russian friend, and in a failed attempt at using an actual real live russian phrase to impress her with my bilingualness, I called her "Babooshka". Let me just say that the quizical look on her face convinced me more than any argument that indeed the correct interpretation is "Grandmother" or "scarf worn on the head". Of course this is the word of one born in the great workers paradise versus those who have proven themselves worthy of hawking candies with just a hint of retcyn. Take your pick.
--Corey
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 89 15:13:49 PDT
From: ide!lofdahl@Sun.COM (Corey
Lofdahl)
Subject: Babble-ooshka
Love-Hounds:
Hate to beat this subject to death but I showed my last trenchant insight to my Russian friend and she corrected some of my comments. First, Babooshka is indeed a term of endearment, but it is a term of endearment for one's grandmother. So everyone is sort of right on that one. Secondly, as for scarfs on the head, *MARRIED* Russian women wear these, but only the old ones actually do. Therefore, while Babooshkas tend to actually wear these scarfs, "Babooshka" does not mean scarf worn on the head.
--Corey
From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 89
11:22:50 EDT
Subject: Re: Babooshka blah blah
Well, I asked my Russian coworker about the word "babushka" and she said that in Russian, the word means "grandmother" and nothing more. She says that it never is used to mean either "scarf worn on the head" or as a term of endearment. She also said that she has heard it often used both these ways by Americans. (In fact, if you look in an English dictionary, the definition of "babushka" is "a usually triangularly folded kerchief for the head".)
In any case, there is still the possibility that Kate used the name "Babooshka" because she once heard it used as a term of endearment by an ignorant English-speaker and it stuck in her head.
|>oug
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 08:03:46 -0500 (EST)
From: "Stuart M.
Castergine" <scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: She knew
exactly what to do (Babooshka)
Another discussion question. What does everyone think happens at the end of Babooshka?
Kate leaves the ending open to question.
Her lines at the beginning of the song "She couldn't have made a worse move." give a foreboding feeling, as if something bad is going to come of this.
But that isn't clear at the end.
Our last view is of the man giving himself to what he thinks is a mistress, "I'm all yours, Babooshka" not knowing it is really his wife. The ironic part is that everything he finds attractive in the mistress is what reminds him of his wife. Of course, the wife doesn't know that.
I think the breaking glass noises are important, but they can be interpreted in a couple different ways.
The Russion flavor of the title and the fact the the breacking noises usualy occur in pairs makes me think of two lovers toasting each other and throwing their glasses in the fire.
But the foreboding intro to the song makes me think the breaking glass might symbolize violence, or broken lives or broken hearts, a broken relationship.
Anybody else have any thoughts on this?
From: RIDLEY@ZASU.SPRL.UMICH.EDU
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 10:37:31 -0500
(EST)
Subject: re : She knew exactly what to do
I always associated the foreboding "She couldn't have made a worse move." to mean that the husband did exactly what she thought he would do, but hoped he wouldn't do. So she found out that it was possible for her husband to be attracted to another woman. That sort of sucks for her...
Aaron
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 1994 14:28:04 -0500 (EST)
From: "Stuart M.
Castergine" <scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us>
Subject: Re: re : She
knew exactly what to do
> I always associated the foreboding "She couldn't have made a worse move." to > mean that the husband did exactly what she thought he would do, but hoped he > wouldn't do. So she found out that it was possible for her husband to be > attracted to another woman. That sort of sucks for her...
But what was really happening was that he was being attracted to his wife all over again. "Just like his wife." I think he didn't really want another woman, he was just a desperate lonely man who wanted his "old" wife back.
When he found out it was *really* her, he may have been overjoyed, and it may have brought new life to their marriage.
Anyway, what do you think are the chances of him not recognizing his wife at the meeting? I don't think it would be possible to disguise my wife in any way that I would find attractive such that I would not recognize her.
Yet, he still throws himself at her. I bet he knew!
From: Anders Hultman <anders.hultman@unisource.se>
Date: 21 Dec
1994 15:26:43 GMT
Subject: Re: She knew exactly what to do
"Stuart M. Castergine" <scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us> wrote:
> Another discussion quetsion. What does everyone think happens at the
end of Babooshka?
> Kate leaves the ending open to question.
>
Her lines at the beginning of the song "She couldn't have made a worse
move." give a foreboding feeling, as if something bad is going to come of
this. > But that isn't clear at the end.
> Our last view is of the
man giving himself to what he thinks is a mistress, "I'm all yours,
Babooshka" not knowing it is really his wife. The ironic part is that
everything he finds attractive in the mistress is what reminds him of his wife.
Of course, the wife doesn't know that. I think the breaking glass noises are
important, but they can be interpreted in a couple different ways.
I have always thought of it as that they -- the couple -- "break the mirrors"; that they see their real selves without disguises. I have borrowed this interpretation from a backannouncement made after the song was played on Swedish national radio once in about 1986. The radio presenter said someting along the lines of "it is never too late to break the mirrors, it is never too late for love".
This interpretation is somewhat vauge and fuzzy, but is supported by the video; she lifts her veil, the mirrors break, and they all se everything clearly.
This is an interesting topic. Keep posting!
anders
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 93 04:09 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Delius
Bob Kovitz writes: I just listened to the box set from start to finish, and came up with a group of questions:
>7. What does "amat" mean? (`Delius amat' in "Delius") Who is `Fenby'? (Delius) Any comments about "Delius"? I assume he is a classical composer?
The British composer Fredrick Delius was incapacited, and Eric Fenby was hired to transcribe the music that Delius could no longer play or write. After a very rocky start, they achived an amazing rapport. Kate appeared on the Russell Harty Show with cellest Julian Lloyd Webber and Eric Fenby to discuss Delius. Kate's video to the song was shown for the only time, and clips from Ken Russell's biographical film of Delius were played. The implication was that Kate was inspired by the film, made in 1956 (?).
From: jorn@chinet.chinet.com (Jorn Barger)
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993
02:53:15 GMT
Subject: Delius
Bob Krovetz fires the startingpistol for a new round of rec.music.gaffa.jeopardy:
7. What does "amat" mean? (`Delius amat' in "Delius")
Latin amo, amas, amat: i love, you love, *s/he loves* (But why???)
From: buckylucky@aol.com (BuckyLucky)
Date: 20 Oct 1995 09:53:08 -0400
Subject: Delius - His Own Words
The following on Frederick Delius (1862-1934) is published in Harold C. Schonberg's "The Lives of the Great Composers," Revised edition, 1981. I feel it is relevant material here.
Delius's music owed nothing to anybody. Like Debussy, he completely broke away from established form, and there is a free, improvisatory quality about his music that sounds as if it had resulted from experimenting with voluptuous, exotically chromatic chords at the piano. It is a rhapsodic kind of music, in free forms, and is altogether free of Classicism. The harmonies can be overwhelmingly rich and even dissonant at times, but they were unlike the harmonies of any other composer. "I don't believe in learning harmony or counterpoint," Delius said. "Learning kills instinct. Never believe the saying that one has to hear music many times to understand it. It is utter nonsense, the last refuge of the incompetent....For me, music is very simple. It is the expression of a poetical and emotional nature." To Delius, a "sense of flow" was the only thing that mattered. Music had flow or it didn't. If it had, it was good music. If it didn't, it was bad. In 1920 he reacted violently to the advanced music of his day, in a long article he wrote for "The Sackbut":
"There is room in the world for all kinds of music to suit all tastes, and there is no reason why the devotees of Dada should not enjoy the musically imbecile productions of their own little circle as much as the patrons of musical comedy enjoy 'their' particular fare. But when I see the prophets of the latest clique doing their utmost to pervert the taste of the public and to implant a false set of values in the rising generation of music lovers by sneering at the great masters of the past, in the hope of attracting greater attention to the 'petits maitres' of the present-then I say it is time to speak openly and protest....
This is an age of anarchy in art; there is no authority, no standard, no sense of proportion. Anybody can do anything and call it 'art' in the certain expectation of making a crowd of idiots stand and stare at him in gaping astonishment and admiration....
Music does not exist for the purpose of emphasizing or exaggerating something which happens outside its own sphere. Musical expression only begins, to be significant where words and actions reach their uttermost limit of expression. Music should be concerned with the emotions, not with external events. To make music imitate some other thing is as futile as to try and make it say 'Good morning' or 'It's a fine day.' It is only that which cannot be expressed otherwise that is worth expressing in music."
From: ccjs@cc.nu.oz (James Smith)
Date: 2 Apr 90 10:16:40 +1000
Subject: Blow Away lyrics
Can anyone help with the following? It's for a friend who doesn't have net access. It's also rather interesting.
"On the subject of deciphering lyrics, I've noticed a couple of "background whispers" in the song BLOW AWAY. The first one is arround the 1:36 mark (CD) in between "Buddy Holly ... Sandy Denny"--goes something like "go sleep/seek". It is very low in the mix and it has to be turned up rather loud to pick it up. The second is at the 2:38-39 point--over the 1st "Viscious" and is maybe "aah don't drop" (?) Once again it isn't easy to pick up."
These seem to me to be introductory bits leading into the chorus. Can anyone make out what they are?
Jim
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 1991 17:28:16 -0800
From: jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.edu
Subject: Blow Away and Scares Me Silly
"Scares Me Silly" (or whatever IED and other scholars are calling this song), recorded in '75 with the K.T. Bush Band (or so says the sometimes mistaken liner notes of "PTA") contains the lines (I can't quite make out all the lyrics),
"...close our eyes to the cello solo
and (pray) the music will
never let me blow away."
I can't help but connect this to "Blow Away", which was written much later. I guess I'm just wondering if there *is* some connection between these two songs of rather divergent theme (though I guess they're related in a weird sort of way; one is about music and death, the other is about being in the studio, recording music). Anyway, just a weird ponderance I had today, walking home from the doctor's office listening to the tape.
Jeffrey C. Burka
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1991 17:58:05 -0800
From: ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed
Suranyi)
Subject: Q&A in Q magazine
The August issue of Q magazine includes the following in its Q&A column:
Q: Patrick Humphries writes in his book about Fairport Convention, Meet On The Ledge, that Sandy Denny was commemorated in a song by Kate Bush, Paul Metsers and Dave Cousins after her tragic death. What is the name of the song and where can I find it? -- Levent Varlik, Ankara, Turkey
Here's part of the answer:
A: A small misunderstanding here. Patrick Humphries did not mean to imply in Meet On The Ledge -- which will be republished next year --that these three artists had collaborated on a tribute song. In fact, Kate Bush has never written a song with anybody, but on her 1980 album Never For Ever the chorus of the song Blow Away lists a selection of dead pop stars thus: "Hello Minnie, Moony, Vicious, Vicious, Buddy Holly, Sandy Denny." (Minnie is the soul singer Minnie Riperton of five-octave range and Lovin'You hit single fame who died of cancer in 1979, while Moony is The Who's drummer Keith Moon who accidentally overdosed in 1978, the same year as Sandy Denny suffered her fatal fall).
Ed
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 93 04:09 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Blow Away
Bob Kovitz writes: I just listened to the box set from start to finish, and came up with a group of questions:
>8. Who are "Minnie and Moony" (Blow Away)? Who is "Bolan" ?
Minnie Ripperton, Keith Moon, and Marc Bolan.
From: jorn@chinet.chinet.com (Jorn Barger)
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993
02:53:15 GMT
Subject: Re: Kate questions
Bob Krovetz fires the startingpistol for a new round of rec.music.gaffa.jeopardy:
8. Who are "Minnie and Moony"? (Blow Away)? Who is "Bolan"? [I assume they are dead rock and roll artists. Perhaps Minnie refers to Minnie Ripperton?]
Yes Minnie Ripperton, Keith Moon, Marc Bolan. Assuming these were deaths that touched her especially, should we be surprised by the absence of Jimi, Jim, & Janis? (Was Buddy Holly via Don Mclean?? or just good name-rhythm?)
From: Doug Alan <nessus@mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 90 17:22:03
EST
Subject: Egypt
[Egypt:]
Kate has said that the song is about the contradiction between the romantic, exotic image that people have of Egypt with the harsh reality of a place where the people live in dire poverty. The lyrics represent the romantic image, while the music is scary to represent the unfortunate truth.
|>oug
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 85 20:36:17 edt
From: Doug Alan <nessus>
Subject: Lyrics to "Wedding List"
After a year of trying, and reading several different mostly (but not totally) correct transcriptions, I have finally determined THE definitive transcription of the lyrics to the end of "The Wedding List": [different to IED's version. --WIE]
After she shot the guy
She committed suicide
(I'm comin' Rudi)
A victim that they analyzed
They found a little one inside
Must have been Rudi's child
(I shot him, shot him, shot him honey)
Never mind she got the guy
(He hit the ground, Rudi)
An eye for an
eye-e-eye
(Ashes to ashes to a-a-a-a-ashes)
An eye for an eye-e-eye
(I hit him, hit him
Oh ohh oh aoh Rudi)
An eye for an
eye-e-eye
(Aoohh ohh Rudi)
An eye for an eye-e-eye
(Comin'
comin comin' honey)
An eye for an eye-e-eye
(Rudiiiii aaaoooohhhh)
-Doug
Date: Tue, 09 May 89 11:43:45 EST
From:
JONES%RPIECS.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Wedding List
Hello there Andy--
I saw your question in Love-Hounds and decided to finally contribute my two cents' worth to Love-Hounds.
Anyway, Kate's "The Wedding List" (as far as I can tell) is about a young woman whose husband is shot down immediately after they are married... (if you happen to see the video, the guy is shot down just as Kate and her "groom" are going to kiss). To get revenge, Kate picks up a rifle and stalks the killer, and right after she shoots HIM, she kills herself (in the video, she hangs herself).
The words you refer to are these:
And after she shot the guy
She committed suicide
Later when
they analyzed
They found a little one inside
Must have been Rudy's
child
An eye for an eye
So, not only did Kate kill herself, but she also destroyed the unborn child that was to have been hers and Rudy's.
Of course, I'm sure my interpretation will fall victim to IED's and others' criticisms, but that's what happens as far as I can tell. BTW, this "video" I referred to is from Kate's 1980 (?) Christmas special.
Hope this helps you somewhat.
All the best,
Deb Wentorf
Date: Wed, 10 May 89 16:21 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: The Wedding List
Deb Wentorf: far from attacking your summary of The Wedding List, IED greatly admired it. Absolutely correct, so far as IED knows.
Perhaps it's worth adding that the story behind the song is based, in part, at least, on Francois Truffaut's film La Mariee etait en noir (The Bride Wore Black), which is something of a tribute to Hitchcock by the French director. It stars Jeanne Moreau, and in it there is one scene which Kate copies almost frame-for-frame in her video for The Wedding List:
the part where the bridegroom (Anthony Van Laast) is shot, and falls on his back on the stairs, and the bride (Moreau/Kate) drops down by his side. However, in Kate's story the setting is changed from present-day to the Old West.
-- Andrew Marvick (K4735r)
From: undrtoad@ix.netcom.com (P. Dale Campbell )
Date: 18 Oct 1995
04:09:54 GMT
Subject: The Wedding list
Norman Buchwald writes:
>...I thought I had good ears and did not know that the "heroine" of "The Wedding List" was carrying "Rudi's child"(!) I think that adds meaning to what the song is really about(!)...
In context, that statement is a SUPPOSITION by the investigators ("...it must have been Rudi's child."). I have wondered myself whether this means the other guy was a jealous, dumped, ex-lover and the true father of the woman's child (quite a motive for murder, eh?). I don't have the lyrics handy to check myself, which given my record would be a good idea. "What say ye, Good People?"
From: btd@carina.cray.com (Bryan Dongray)
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995
00:34:15 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Wedding list
Since the lyrics say:
Now, as I'm coming for you, (present tense )
All I see is
Rudi.
I die with him, again and again. (past tense )
And
I'll feel good in my revenge.
I'm gonna fill your head with lead
(*future tense )
And I'm coming for you! (*present tense
)
so Rudi here would be her killed husband.
Then:
One in your belly, and one for Rudi.
so the attacker is not Rudi, and
since "they say":
It must have been Rudi's child
I would assume it was, of course doesn't have to be, if it was then it would have to have mean a "shotgun wedding", maybe someone had a problem with that (eg brother/father/previous boyfriend)?
Notice the video has Paddy as the husband killer.
I ask though "Bang-bang--Out! like an old cherootie," what relevance is a "cigar with both ends cut square" to the song? Well, that's what my dictionary has!
Bryan Dongray
From: Buffalohead <NSRJM@NURSEPO.MEDCTR.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 18 Oct
1995 06:03:54 GMT
Subject: Wedding List
The lyrics don't list these background vocals, and I've always supposed that she was saying, "It must've been Rudi's gun." Does anyone KNOW differently? How about the complete BV's for this song?
Robb
From: undrtoad@ix.netcom.com (P. Dale Campbell )
Date: 18 Oct 1995
12:16:19 GMT
Subject: Wedding List
Bryan Dongray writes:
>I ask though "Bang-bang--Out! like an old cherootie," what relevance is a "cigar with both ends cut square" to the song?
I assume this is a British idiom. Were Her Highness American, She might have said
"Bang-bang--Out! like a ci-ga-rette"
She "put him out", like extinguishing a cigar.
The ending words, according to Kate Bush Complete :
After she shot the guy
She committed suicide
I'm coming Rudi
And later when they analysed
They found a little one inside
It must have been Rudi's child
I shot him
Never mind she got the
guy
He hit the ground Rudi
An eye for an eye
Ashes to ashes
Of course, this isn't *really* complete, but it makes the intent clearer.
What makes me wonder is "Never mind she got the guy"--does this mean "don't worry about who's kid it was"? If "they" doubt the truth of the statement, they would deny its importance. Then again, maybe this is reading too much into it. (Reading too much into a KT song? Never! :)
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 86 14:04 EST
From: <SJZIEL@SUNSET.BITNET>
(Delius)
Subject: Violin
What are the lyrics to the 'other' verse in the live version of Violin? I can't figure most of them out from the video. (Not unusual with Kate, eh.)
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 89 11:11 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Violin
> To draw a comparison, there's a KaTe bootleg ( Paris, 1979, I think?) which has an earlier version of Violin, with some different lyrics.
Yes. Something like
"Hearing the haunting melody
<Inaudible line>
Hearing
the word in the green valley
Hearing the Banshee riddle
Hearing the
Banshee riddle."
A fan once asked Kate for the actual lyrics in a Newsletter, but (no surprise) she was evasive, saying that she had "forgotten" them, that they had changed several times throughout the tour, and that they weren't very good.
Also, check out the early arrangement of Egypt from various bootlegs. It's quite different from the Never For Ever arrangement.
Both are on Paris, 1979, as well as on the Manchester, London Palladium and Bristol bootlegs.
-- Andrew Marvick
From: jorn@chinet.chinet.com (Jorn Barger)
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993
02:53:15 GMT
Subject: Violin
X. What instrument is the Banshee? (Violin)
I think this isn't an instrument, but Paddy's (processed) voice, because a banshee's a mythological screaming female demon, foretelling death. Maybe the sound behind the banshee/bv lines?
From: stevev@greylady.uoregon.edu (Steve VanDevender)
Date: 4 Dec 92
18:29:21 GMT
Subject: The Infant Kiss
First, there was Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. I actually read this in one of my high school English classes; it is not terribly exciting. In fact, our entire class teased the teacher about sexual repression for the rest of the year because of it, since it was the theme he thought was most prominent in the book.
Then there was a film adaptation called The Innocents, which I have not seen. However, I did see Chris William's video for "The Infant Kiss" composed of clips from the movie; it was really quite appropriate. I believe the movie is what inspired Kate to do the song.
Both the book and the movie are about a governess sent to take care of a young boy and girl; the children appear to be possessed by the ghosts of people who used to work on the estate where they live. In particular I recall that the boy is supposed to be possessed by the spirit of a former gardener, and therefore does some suggestive things around the governess. It is not entirely clear whether the governess is insane and imagines all this (hence the sexual repression theme) or whether something supernatural is happening.
From: jan1073@usa.net
Date: 11 Mar 1995 03:43:50 GMT
Subject:
Re: Infant Kiss
Angela Reid writes:
> I've been researching Victorian sexuality lately for a class, and I have been wondering about this song. Does anybody know Kate's story behind it? I'm struck by a thematic similarity to Henry James' "Turn of the Screw," where the governess has a very erotically charged relationship with her young male ward (even comparing their feelings to those of newlyweds in the final scene). Knowing Kate's proclivity for writing songs related to books, I wondered if there was any connection.
Hi Angela,
I may be the wrong person to interpret this (being male with no offspring), but I'll hazard it out anyway...I think that it's a very powerful song.
The setting appears evident: Kate is a young woman (most likely adolescent) baby-sitting (or something equivalent--perhaps simply tucking a relatives child into bed at a family gathering-- it has been my observation that maturing women experiment with mothering experiences through close observation/assistance with new additions to a family such as cousins, nieces and nephews, or close family friends...usually not siblings or children of people with whom they are not familiar. But I digress.) laying a child down to sleep for the night.
I say goodnight - night.
I tuck him in tight.
But things are not
right -
What is this? an infant kiss,
As the young Kate tucks the boy into bed, he is undergoing a familiar ritual...one Kate is not familiar with. How many small children are tucked into bed without recieving a kiss from their parent? Not many, I'd wager. Since babies primary behavioral resource is imitation, they begin to kiss back as the skills develop (until bedtime becomes undesirable, anyway :-) ) to do so. This boy catches Kate unawares and kisses Kate goodnight. Tenderer moments are hard to find.
That sends my body tingling.
I've never fallen for,
A little boy
before,
No control
This suprise has stirred the inherient maternal instincts in Kate...a biological urge which is very new to her, both physically and intellectually. The most significant part is NEW...this little boy has opened doors Kate didn't even know she had. Life suprises us like that sometimes...I think adolescent women may handle such suprises better than adolescent men, but I'm straying from the realm of my dime store philosiphy.
Just a kid and just at school,
Back home they'd call me dirty,
His little hand is on my heart,
He's got me where it hurts me.
Kate is a developmental age where she is aware of her sexuality, but it's a dirty thing, not much discussed and even less frequently in a positive light. I am uncertain whether Kate is still bending over the boy, or if she has picked him back up again...in either case his hand is clearly on her breast. Since he is old enough to present her with a kiss, he could be puller her blouse as she bends over so he can kiss her, or she could be cradling him in her arms. She knows her classmates would think of this as 'dirty' (in a non-malicious sense), be she feels something much stronger, and definately not dirty.
Knock, knock, who's there in this baby?
You know how to work me.
The recognition of a maternal capability is directly related to the realization that this baby will turn into a person , just like Kate. Though difficult to comprehend, the understanding of this is almost immedately present.
And all my barriers are going,
It's starting to show,
Let go,
let go.
This isn't about sexual barriers, this is about maternal ones. Stronger for women I think because after all, they can get pregnant. Kate can make one of these things; she posses an ability innate with her femininity to creaste another human being. No small thing, that.
I cannot sit and let,
Something happen I'll regret,
Ooh, he
scares me,
There's a man behind those eyes,
I catch him when I'm
bending
Mothers are more aware and more protective of their son's sexuality, just as most fathers are more aware and more protective of their daughter's sexuality. This infant boy will become more than a person; he will become a man. I am less certain of whether this is biological or learned (or is Kate being dirty? Frankly, I don't think so). Perhaps some feminine folk can answer this question for me. The bending reference may be Kate bending down to kiss him goodnight, I'm not sure.
Ooh, how he frightens me,
When they whisper privately,
Windy-waily, blows me,
Words of caress on their lips,
That speak of
adult love.
I want to smack but I hold back,
I only want to touch.
But I must stay and find a way to stop this before it gets too much.
Kate isn't comfortable with the concept of herself in a motherhood role... of course this is the very subject which the mothers, and perhaps fathers, discuss either while she is not present or whisper to one another while they feel she is more focused on the child than them. She wants to strike out, to remove from their minds the idea that she is a sexual creature, capable of such an act because she feels some sort of shame. Remember, they'd only call her dirty.
I think the focus of the song is more maternal than sexual, though the two awarenesses awaken about the same time. The song reflects Kate's psycological and cultural conflict with such powerful internal stirrings.
There's my two cents. It's all my opinion, and flames on what a sexist pig I am can be sent via e-mail or to /dev/null. That's my youth and paranoia speaking there, I think :-).
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 90 11:55 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Night Scented Stock
"Night-scented stock" is the name of a very lovely-smelling flower. IED first found reference to it in a Gnaio Marsh mystery set in New Zealand, but IED thinks the flower turns up in England, as well--and possibly in Shakespeare, too? If there's anyone in the group who knows about flowers, could he or she tell us more about this flower?
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 09:41:32 +0200
From:
anders.hultman@unisource.se (Anders Hultman)
Subject: Night Scented Stock
Now it's time for another linguistic question: What does "Night Scented Stock" mean? I have tried and tried and couldn't figure it out.
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 14:34:03 -0400 (AST)
From: Fiona McQuarrie <fmcquarr@upei.ca>
Subject: Re: Night Scented Stock
There's a flower called "night scented stock", so called because its blossoms emit a wonderful odour after sunset. I saw it mentioned in a gardening article.
[this seems to be the correct answer! --WIE]
From: Ulrich Grepel <uli@zoodle.robin.de>
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 95
18:28:48 +0200
Subject: Re: Night Scented Stock
Yep, that's what I found out a long, long while ago while trying to understand that song title. In German it translates to "Nachtschattengewaechs", which, retranslated by word to English means "Night Shadow Plant".
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 93 01:52:55 BST
From: Richard Caley <rjc@cogsci.edinburgh.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: B.F.P.O. (Army Dreamers)
Jon Drukman:
> I guess so. but I don't buy this Post Office jazz. why would our little army boy be coming home from a daring assignment with the Post Office in a body bag?
BFPO isn't generally used as the name of an organisation (though it might mean that too), it's the form of a postal address:
Private A. Squaddy,
152nd Regmt. Royal Highland Spud Bashers,
B
F P O 666
plus presumably some other stuff. Ie, it's like a postal/zip code for getting mail to people in the services whose physical address might be variable or even secret. So, `coming home from BFPO' means coming home from some forces unit.
From: Darren Turner <d turner@postoffice.utas.edu.AU>
Date: Thu,
12 Aug 1993 02:19:49 GMT
Subject: Re: B.F.P.O.
B.F.P.O. stands for British Forces Posted Overseas.
I know this as my father used to be one.
Darren
Date: Sat, 16 May 87 17:36:56 EDT
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: in out in out in
This is the official narration in KB's "Breathing" as printed in the KBC newsletter. I believe that the narration was composed by John Carder Bush.
"In point of fact it is possible to tell the difference between a small nuclear explosion and a large one by a very simple method. The calling card of a nuclear bomb is the blinding flash that is far more dazzling than any light on earth --brighter even than the sun itself -- and it is by the duration of this flash that we are able to determine the size of the weapon. After the flash a fireball can be seen to rise, sucking up under it the debris, dust and living things around the area of the explosion and as this ascends it soon becomes recognizable as the familiar Mushroom Cloud. As a demonstration of the flash duration test lets try and count the number of seconds for the flash emitted by a very small bomb: ... Then a more substantial medium sized bomb: ... And finally one of our very powerful high yield bombs."
From: uuwest!user@apple.com (A Modem User)
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 89
15:19:18 PDT
Subject: "Breathing" problem
I'm surprised that with all this grammar talk, nobody has picked up on something which deeply disturbs me, a line in "Breathing" that, were I perhaps a bit more anal retentive, would truly screw up the entire song:
"You and me knew life itself is breathing"
ARRRRRRGGGG! "Me knew"? How could Kate, intelligent, introspective, cer-tainly grammatically correct Kate make such a horrid faux pas? Does anybody else have any stink with this? The only excuse that I could possibly find to explain the blatant deviation of the Queen's English is that Kate wanted to sing the song from -- you guessed it -- a child's point of view. But I myself wouldn't buy that cop-out for a nickel.
-Uzer
From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 89
23:35:42 EDT
Subject: Re: "Breathing" problem
> "You and me knew life itself is breathing"
> ARRRRRRGGGG! "Me knew"? How could Kate, intelligent, introspective, certainly grammatically correct Kate make such a horrid faux pas?
Kate seems to care little for "perfect" grammar and often deviates from the Queen's English. If you want perfect grammar, listen to Princess Di sing -- not Kate!
Besides, if Kate sang "You and I knew life itself is breathing", I'd REALLY gag! First of all, no one really talks that way unless they have a pole stuck up their ass. Second of all, I really don't care to be reminded of inane pendantic high school English teachers who teach English as it was PRESCRIBED by a bunch of conceited scholars a couple of hundred years ago, rather than the English language as it had naturally evolved over thousands of years. These scholars messed around with the language to suit their own whims and had their bastardized version officialized mainly for political reasons to suppress the lower classes, who would not speak their new "pristine" version of the language as the upper classes would learn to. Now, don't you feel guilty!
Honky With an Attitude, |>oug
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 89 14:23 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Breathing
> IED (if you're still reading this), could you describe again the backing vocals of the last part of "Breathing"?
There are some really neat things about the end section of Breathing. First, the way the chorus asks questions and the lead vocalist makes statements recalls the interaction of chorus and actors in Greek theatre.
Of more direct relevance to the song itself, though, is the double-entendre of the word "without". Right up until the last line, the chorus seems to be asking the simple question, "What are we going to do without?" In this case, the word "without" would seem to be meant as a synonym for "outside"--as the opposite of "within". The meaning of the question seems to be, therefore, "What are we going to do when we are born? When we leave the womb and must face the outside world?"
Only in the crashing, climactic last line of the song does it become clear that this question is really incomplete--that the entire question is: "What are we going to do without breathing ?" And you could also say that both of these questions by the chorus are answered by the chorus's final words: "We are all going to die without breathing." (Try reading it this way, as an answer to the first question, "What are we going to do without?": "We are all going to die without, breathing .")
The really wonderful thing about this play on words is the way it dovetails with what the foetus itself (Kate's lead vocal) is saying: "Please let me breathe! Life is breathing." Only with that last note and that last word do the chorus and the foetus-heroine conjoin. Both the statement "We are all going to die without breathing" and the statement " Life is breathing" finish up with the common word, yet they are saying the same thing from opposite perspectives. Almost in reflection of that dichotomy, the last word, "breathing", is heard backwards (as though the breath is finally sucked in--or out?--for the last time), to give the listener a very direct sonic impression of "life/without/breathing".
Now IED doesn't argue that all of these things were planned in a completely cool-headed, calculating way by Kate when she wrote the song. But I do think that they are real, and that a lot of this kind of complex double-meaning comes about more or less through artistic instinct. Whatever the degree of premeditation, IED thinks it's an absolutely brilliant artistic concept, and one which Kate has realized with typical perfection:
"What are we going to do without?"
Ooh please!
"What
are we going to do without?"
Let me breathe!
"What are we
going to do without?"
Ooh, Quick!
"We are all going to die
without!"
Breathe in deep!
"What are we going to die
without?"
Leave me something to breathe!
"We are all going
to die without!"
Oh, leave me something to breathe!
"What
are we going to do without?"
Oh, God, please leave us something to
breathe!"
"We are all going to die without
Oh, life
is--Breathing.
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1992 22:25:00 -0800
From: Peter Byrne Manchester <PMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu>
Subject: Arcane KB video influence
I think I've unearthed a direct influence on Kate Bush's breakthrough video for "Breathing." The sequence in which Kate falls back out of the 'womb' finally to appear in our world before the altar to the sun looks very much to me like it is based on a transitional scene in the first episode of the second season of Rock Follies, "Rock Follies of '77," called "The Band Who Wouldn't Die." Anybody remember this?
Orientation: Howard Schuman and Andy Mackay's "Rock Follies" played Thames TV in England in 1976 and 1977. Each year consisted of a set of six hour-long shows. The first year comes to a kind of completion that suggests to me that a second year was not a sure thing. It fact it was only the first year's six shows that played in the United States in 1977-78, mostly as a pledge drive special on a number of PBS stations. I have tape of both seasons, from the 1987-88 late-night broadcast of the series on WNET ch. 13 in New York; I don't know whether other PBS stations ran it that year or not. I also don't know whether it was ever rebroadcast in other countries, or is still in any kind of circulation in the UK. In many ways it is a classic show--casting, music, writing--but it was particularly ahead of its time in its use of video technique to move out of realistic narrative time into the strange time-worlds of the songs. Five years ahead of MTV, it remains an original and seminal vision of an integration of video technique with music. I am very confident that if Kate was watching it, she enjoyed it hugely and took inspiration from it.
When the series came back for a second year, its fictitious band the "Little Ladies," Dee (Devonia Rose, Julie Covington), Q (Nancy Quinelle de Longchamp, Rula Lenska), and Ann (Charlotte Cornwell), were an actual hit pop act and had an album out (Island Records ILPS 9362-B), of songs from the first season (not the same performances as on the show, however, and without the title tune, "Little Ladies"). The first episode of that comeback year, "The Band Who Wouldn't Die," culminates in a scene in the office of a brassy manager named Kitty Schriver, who offers to buy the Little Ladies as an act, manage them and produce records for them. As the Little Ladies leave her office, the show makes one of its patented segues into a song, the title song for the episode. What happens visually is that the three women step out of the door to Kitty's office into a darkness into which they fall, downwards, in slow motion, slowly rolling down a barely visible black inflated huge plastic pillow. The effect is exactly the same as what Kate does in "Breathing" in her slow-motion twisting fall into time and destiny. It looks to me like technically both sequences were done the same way, with a large inflated dark plastic pillow.
Anybody out there in a position to comment? Do the Little Ladies still have fans?
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 04:50:00 -0800
From: katefans@chinet.chi.il.us
(Chris n Vickie)
Subject: Julie Covington (from Peter Manchester's post)
Vickie here.
Peter Byrne Manchester) writes:
> I think I've unearthed a direct influence on Kate Bush's breakthrough video for "Breathing." The sequence in which Kate falls back out of the 'womb' finally to appear in our world before the altar to the sun looks very much to me like it is based on a transitional scene in the first episode of the second season of Rock Follies, "Rock Follies of '77," called "The Band Who Wouldn't Die." Anybody remember this?
I don't, but Chris does. It aired in Kansas City. Thanks for posting <fascinating details deleted>
> When the series came back for a second year, its fictitious band the "Little Ladies," Dee (Devonia Rose, Julie Covington), Q (Nancy Quinelle de
Julie is maybe best known for the song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" but she also is in the Kate history books for covering "The Kick Inside" and a very good version it is too!
> the door to Kitty's office into a darkness into which they fall, downwards, in slow motion, slowly rolling down a barely visible black inflated huge plastic pillow. The effect is exactly the same as what Kate does in "Breathing" in her slow-motion twisting fall into time and destiny. It looks to me like technically both sequences were done the same way, with a large inflated dark plastic pillow.
Anybody out there in a position to comment?
Not really, I just wanted to thank you for this post. It certainly sounds possible. Chris vaguely remembers reading somewhere (perhaps in an old issue of Homeground??) that Kate and Julie Covington are friends too. Perhaps. Whatever, Julie certainly liked the song TKI enough to record it and treated it very respectfully. She has a beautiful voice.
Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
From: rhill@netlink.cts.com (Ron Hill)
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1992 17:44:34
-0800
Subject: Julie Cov. quote
JULIE COVINGTON
How did you meet Julie Covington? [An English pop singer who once recorded a cover version of Kate's song "The Kick Inside."]
I met Julie Covington through Jay. He is a friend of hers, and I've known her for a long time. (1980, KBC 5)
Note the year! This certainly would seem to somewhat support P.M.s interesting "Breathing" theory.
written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland
Willker
Sept 1995 June 1996