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Date: Tue, 22 Oct 85 21:10:58 edt
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: TKI Covers
> From: Tim Wicinski <wicinski@nrl-css.ARPA>
> How many
covers of "The Kick Inside" are there??
Gee. Lots and lots? There are at least five.
The Original cover is the "Kite" cover, with Kate flying by the big eyeball.
The U.S. cover is often called the "Red Sox" picture. It's sort of KB looking like a country/western singer, which is why, I would suppose, you called it the "Tammy Wynette cover".
The Canadian cover is the "Oooh my aching hairdoo" cover and looks like something out of Vogue magazine.
The Japanese cover is a cropped version of the original KB EMI publicity poster that Vermorel was talking about and could be called the "Nipples" cover, except that they cropped off half of each nipple.
I'm told the Uraguay pressing has yet another cover. And I don't know about Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 22:08:00 +0200
From: uli@zoodle.robin.de
(Ulrich Grepel)
Subject: UK TKI photo quiz (with price)
Hi!
One question for the photographic master minds of love-hounds:
- the UK cover picture of The Kick Inside (the Kate-kite) has been twisted a little bit for the cover. If you look close enough you can see that something was done, but not neccessarily what and why. Can you tell?
Hint: To answer this you probably need a photo from the same session that has not been twisted...
Since this is really a hard core question I'd offer a price for the first correct answer, a sampler CD I have twice. It's called Worldstars For Freedom and contains Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush with Don't Give Up.
The offer ends on September 15th, then I'll post the answer and think of another question.
From: evans@rd.eng.bbc.co.uk (Richard Evans)
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994
13:34:14 GMT
Subject: Re: UK TKI photo quiz (with price)
Well I looked at the cover of my CD but I couldn't figure it out. So I looked at the cover of my vinyl coz its bigger but I still couldn't figure it out. I reckon its got something to do with gravity... Go on Uli give us a clue.
richard
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 1994 11:52:00 +0200
From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich
Grepel)
Subject: Re: UK TKI photo quiz
I think I now can reveal the answer to the other question (what was done to the TKI cover photo with the Kate-kite?):
In the September 1994 issue of Audio (German hifi and music magazine) there's an untwisted photo of said session (page 11) where Kate is shown hanging at a kind of trapeze in front of the kite. The metal bar where she hangs goes all over the top of the kite. The bar was retouched to the black bar we can see on the TKI cover (and also the WH single cover). If you look CLOSELY you can see that Kate's fingers, were the bar really black, would have to be about 5 mm thin. That is, the black bar is too thick. And also thicker than all other black bars from the kite.
By the way, anyone has one of the very early Audio magazines? They said in the caption to the photo (which they put there because the 9/94 issue is the 200th of them) that Kate thanked them for already predicting a great future for her in 1979 by granting exclusive interviews. Anyone got them?
Bye, Uli
[ordered by songs and date]
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 90 01:46:06 EST
From: nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R
Caldwell, Ii)
Subject: Submitted For Your Approval: "Moving"
Annotations
My draft of annotations to the song "Moving" will follow. Please let me know what you think. The remarks in brackets indicate specific places where I'd like suggestions or further information.
This idea hasn't gone over terribly well. Jenn Turney has been the only person to offer information so far (thanks Jenn). Fortunately Jenn dug some interesting information from the archives and I found some interesting stuff in my own files.
[improved version by Ron Hill follows:]
From: rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 23:53:28
PST
Subject: **** Moving Annotated lyrics *****
MOVING ANNOTATED LYRICS
HISTORY
Moving appeared for the first time on The Kick Inside , Kate's first release. It later appeared as the B side to the second single from that album, The Man With the Child in His Eyes .
The Kick Inside.....................................EMC 3223......02/17/78
The Kick Inside (picture disc)....................EMPC 3223......02/17/78
The Man With the Child in His Eyes/ Moving...EMI 2806......05/28/78
BACKGROUND
" Moving is a tribute to Lindsay Kemp, the dance and mime performer whose highly influential show, Flowers (based on texts of Jean Genet), Kate attended when she was 15 or 16. Kemp's use of gesture without sound -- what Kate calls "expressive" mime, as opposed to the Marcel Marceau-tradition's "mime of illusion" -- made a profound impression on her, and within another few months she had begun studying under Kemp. After Kemp left for Australia Kate went on to work with several other dance instructors at the Dance Centre in Covent Garden, but she has always referred to Kemp as the first and foremost influence on her use of movement as an expressive vehicle in her musical performances."
- Andrew Marvick
"[Lindsay Kemp] taught me that you can express with your body -- and when your body is awake so is your mind. He'd put you into emotional situations, some of them very heavy. Like he'd say, 'Right, you're all now going to become sailors drowning, and there are waves curling up around you.' And everyone would just start screaming."
- Kate, March 1978, Interview by Steve Clarke.
"He needed a song written to him. He opened up my eyes to the meanings of movement. He makes you feel so good. If you've got two left feet it's 'you dance like an angel darling.' He fills people up, you're an empty glass and glug, glug, glug, he's filled you with champagne." - Kate Sounds, 1980
It has been speculated by some that Kate had a "crush" on Kemp, though there is no evidence of this beyond the song's lyrics. In any case, Kemp has been a tremendous influence on Kate throughout her career.
In the thirteenth issue of the Kate Bush Club newsletter (summer of 1983) Kate writes about visiting Kemp while traveling to promote The Dreaming :
"It was a very interesting trip -- we went to Rome, and as Lindsay Kemp was visiting at the time, we got a chance to see Lindsay, and we had a lovely evening. He cooked us a meal, and after we were so full that we could hardly move, he got out boxes of his old photos and we fingered each one with magical memories: shots of Flowers from The Collegiate Theatre, the first time I saw Lindsay perform. Lindsay dressed as Mr.Punch, leaping for joy. I remember the theatre being full of adults rather than children, and all of us shouting "Look behind you!" and "Oh, no, you don't!" Adults transported to childhood in a matter of moments -- but that's the craft of Lindsay's magic. Fond memories spread across the floor -- the passionate and dramatic, Lindsay's shows in photo form. We carefully put them all back in their boxes, a farewell dance and a big kiss goodbye."
This is all particularly appropriate since Kate had by this time begun a shift from performance-style videos, which clearly bore the mark of Kemp's inspiration, towards more film-inspired videos.
"My videos are more film-influenced now. When I first started making videos, I was so obviously theatrically and dance-influenced. A lot of that was from Lindsay Kemp and dance teachers with whom I had been working. Gradually the more involved I got in video, the process of making films, the more I've swung around to filmmaking. It's a beautiful discipline, dance, and it can be lovely, but I guess I'm getting for more into filmmaking now."
- Kate Option (March 1990) The Insights and Sounds of Kate Bush by Maria Montgomery Sarnoff
ANNOTATIONS
MOVING
Words and Music By Kate Bush
The sounds heard during the beginning and end of the song are "whale song", the sounds made by whales underwater.
"Whales say everything about 'moving'. It's huge and beautiful, intelligent, soft inside a tough body. It weighs a ton and yet it's so light it floats. It's the whole thing about human communication - 'moving liquid, yet you are just as water' - what the chinese say about being the cup the water moves in to. The whales are pure movement and pure sound, calling for something, so lonely and sad..."
"On the ground they're ppff (splodging sound), but in the water they're 'wahoo!' Which is the way with a lot of dancers."
- Kate, Sounds, 1980
Moving stranger, does it really matter?
As long as you're not afraid
to feel
Touch me, hold me, how my open arms ache
Try to fall for me
It could be that here Kate is asking Kemp to try to "fall" for her in spite of his homosexuality. She seems to say that his sexual preference shouldn't really matter as long as he's not afraid to have feelings for her. With this interpretation, the above lines would read like this "Beautiful dancer, What difference does my gender make?/If you can feel my love?/Touch me, hold me, How I long for you./Try to fall in love with me too."
Note that there is no evidence for this interpretion, aside from the fact that Kate has said the song is for Kemp.
(Chorus)
How I'm moved, how you move me
With your beauty's
potency
You give me life, please don't let me go
You crush the lily
in my soul
"It's [the song's] a complete evocation of the movement of the dancer, speaking with his limbs, sense through sensuality, as sexy as his 'beauty's potency', the dancer and the watcher in harmony like lovers."
- Kate, Sounds, 1980
The lily has long been considered a symbol of purity, innocence or more specifically the Virgin Mary (ref. Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and Stephen Friar's A Dictionary of Heraldry ). From this we can conclude that she is at least saying, "You stir passion in me."
Some might take the metaphor further and say that this is her first experience with this sort of passion -- the deflowering of her soul, if you will. The passion found in songs known to have been written well before Moving , Passing Through Air for example, would seem to refute this.
Moving liquid, yes, you are just as water
You flow around all that
comes in your way
Don't think it over, it always takes you over
And
sets your spirit dancing
Here Kate seems to compare both Kemp's movements and personality with water. Not only are his movements fluid but apparently Kemp has a certain grace and charm, perhaps a tao-like non-resistance.
(Chorus)
How I'm moved, how you move me
With your beauty's potency
You
give me life, please don't let me go
You crush the lily in my soul
PERFORMERS
Drums: Stuart Elliot
Bass: David Paton
Guitars: Ian Bairnson
Electic Piano: Duncan MacKay
[CONTRIBUTORS to the above:
Dave Armstrong
Jorn Barger
Richard Caldwell
David Kay
Jenn Turney
Doug Alan*
Keith Patrick DeWeese*
Andrew
Marvick*
Ron Hill
* Author of material from archive
COMPILATION:
First edition Compiled and edited by N. Richard Caldwell, March 13, 1990
Second edition compiled and edited by Ron Hill, January, 1993 ]
From: nrc@cbema.att.com
Date: Fri, 4 May 90 8:39:58 EDT
Subject:
Submitted For Your Approval: Saxophone Song
Well, it's taken me almost two months but I finally have a first draft of my annotations to Saxophone Song to submit for your approval. Please let me know what you think about the ideas included below.
This is your chance to point out what's wrong and what's missing. Once we've discussed it and it has been revised to a point that most people are satisfied with it I'll post the final version and someone can place it in the archives.
My goal is to provide a file that most Kate fans can turn to and say, "This presents a fairly complete and reasonable picture of what this song might be about." In order to do this I need your feedback.
[improved version by Ron Hill follows:]
From: rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 23:55:33
PST
Subject: *** Saxophone Song Annotated lyrics ***
SAXOPHONE SONG
HISTORY
Saxophone Song appeared for the first time on The Kick Inside , Kate's first release. This is the only official release of this song. The song was recorded well before rest of the album and is believed to have also been known as Berlin in it's early stages.
The Kick Inside.....................EMC 3223......02/17/78
The Kick
Inside (picture disc).....EMPC 3223......02/17/78
BACKGROUND
" Saxophone Song is one of Kate's earliest compositions. She made the final recording, exactly as it was released, in 1975, when she was 16 or 17, and there were no later changes. Its subject is pretty self- explanatory, though perhaps it should be said for the record that Kate had never been to Berlin, so far as anyone is aware! She probably wrote the song about the same time as The Man With the Child in His Eyes , which is to say when she was about 14."
- Andrew Marvick
While the song does seem to be self explanatory, Kate's fans know that her songs can often be far more then they seem. In the third issue of the Kate Bush Club newsletter (November 1979) a fan asked Kate if Saxophone Song was written about David Bowie. Kate replied:
"The song isn't about David Bowie. I wrote it about the instrument, not the player, at a time when I really loved the sound of the saxophone -- I still do."
One might find reason to be skeptical that the song is about the instrument and not the player since the lyrics repeatedly address the sax player in the second person. Kate's remarks in an EMI Records press kit make the intent of the song somewhat more clear.
"I wrote The Saxophone Song [sic] because, for me, the saxophone is a truly amazing instrument. Its sound is very exciting -- rich and mellow. It sounds like a female."
- Kate, EMI Music Talk
"Sometimes chord structures make you think of a place... and I love saxophones so I wanted to write a song about them. I think of a beautiful sax like a human being, a sensuous shining man being taken over by the instrument. The perfect setting was this smokey bar in Berlin with nobody listening except me in a corner, the streams of light flashing off it to me, pa pa (explosion noises).
In the song she is a 'surly lady in tremor... You'll never know you had all of me.' Mike suggested that Freud would have made a meal of this one too, and this time, as she's fond of phrasing it, she broke through the barrier.
"I'm very basic," she said. "I wasn't thinking of it as phallic when I wrote the song, but I do now when I see a sax player. I feel as if everyone understood the real things I'm saying, it wouldn't be much good, it wouldn't help me. If it seems harmless on the surface that's all right. I don't want to upset people who don't want to know. There are enough people, thank God, who have seen it. They're listening with their hearts.
"The sax is a very sexual sound, all vibrating, resonating - like bowels. Look at photos of musicians playing any instruments and it could be interpreted... it's not always sexual, but mainly. You are cuddling the instrument, you are seducing each other. Guitarists are up there so obviously waking with their guitars, but it's open, beautiful, it's at a love level."
- Kate, Sounds, 1980
So there can be little doubt that the saxophone player in Saxophone Song is just a character in a story that Kate is telling to express her feelings about the sound of a saxophone. While some think that the player's role is simply that of a musician who can stir the soul with the sound of his saxophone, others believe that the protagonist does have feelings for the player. It may be that these feelings have been aroused by the sound of his saxophone.
In portraying the rich, mellow, feminine nature of the saxophone Kate virtually creates a third character in her story. Some suggest that Kate might even be creating a symbolic love triangle between her three characters.
All of this may relate to Kate's view of art. "Don't you think Art is a tremendous sensual-sexual expression? I feel that energy often...the driving force is probably not the right way to put it," said Kate in a November 1989 interview with Q magazine.
Saxophone Song is also interesting because it shows Kate's remarkable ability to create atmosphere with her words, music and vocals even at a very early stage in her career.
In 1980 Kate wrote a some brief remarks to accompany the sheet-music published in the book The Best of Kate Bush . On Saxophone Song she comments, "All the people in the club are babbling, but the instrument is talking, and I can but listen."
ANNOTATIONS
SAXOPHONE SONG
Words and Music By Kate Bush
The sounds heard during the beginning of the song are "whale song", the sounds made by whales underwater. These sounds are also heard at the beginning and end of the previous track, Moving , and continue into the introduction of Saxophone Song.
You'll find me in a Berlin bar
In a corner, brooding
We note here that Kate's character is brooding. A variety of explanations have been suggested for this. It could be that she knows that she can never really have the object of her desires because she loves him not for who he is but for the music that he creates. Perhaps it is because of the virtual love triangle that some feel is being suggested between herself, the player and the instrument.
It may be that the reason is completely unrelated to the song itself but that it serves to show that the sound of the saxophone can touch her no matter what her mood.
You know that I go very quiet
When I am listening to you
There's something special indeed
In all the places where I've seen you
shine, boy
There's something very real in how I feel, honey
Here she seems to tell how the musician and his saxophone make her feel. She seems to be saying that these feelings are not just the those of simply enjoying the music but that there is something "special" and "very real" in these feelings. Those who love Kate's music can certainly empathize with this with this.
(Chorus)
It's in me, it's in me - and you know it's for real
Tuning in your saxophone
Daba-daba-doo
The candle burning over your shoulder
Is throwing shadows on your
saxophone
A surly lady in tremor
Here Kate develops the metaphor of the lady and the saxophone. The saxophone is referred to as "A surly lady in tremor". Some have suggested that this is specifically comparing the sound of the saxophone to the sensual singing voice of woman. In this case, "in tremor" may be referring to the tremolo of such a voice.
A few have noted that "A surly lady in tremor" suggests a woman in orgasm and the sounds that she might make. These might be compared both to a sensual singing voice and to the feminine sound of the saxophone.
The stars that climb from her bowels
Those stars that make towers on
vowels.
Evidently these "stars" are the sounds that the saxophone and the "lady in tremor" make.
You'll never know that you had all of me
You'll never see the poetry
you stirred in me
Of all the stars I've seen that shine so brightly
I've never known or felt, inside myself, so rightly
(Chorus)
One might consider these final four verses to be a capsule summary of the entire song. They seem to express not only the deep feelings that the player and his saxophone have stirred in the listener, but also that the musician and the instrument will never know of these feelings, either because they will never meet or because the feelings themselves are to deep to describe.
PERFORMERS
Drums: Barry de Souza
Bass: Bruce Lynch
Guitars: Paul Keogh,
Alan Parker
Keyboards: Andrew Powell
Saxophone: Alan Skidmore
Electric Guitar: Paul Keogh
CONTRIBUTORS
Doug Alan
Richard Caldwell
Andrew Marvick
John M. Relph
Jenn Turney
Ron Hill
COMPILATION
First draft compiled and edited by N. Richard Caldwell, May 2, 1990.
Second draft compiled and edited by Ron Hill, January, 1993.
From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 90
22:44:23 EST
Subject: Om mani padme hum
The chant "Om mani padme hum" (or however you spell this) does indeed mean "Hail the jewel in the lotus". And it is indeed a sexual reference, and something very worthy of hailing. Those Indians shure are horny buggers, ain't they?
"G." is not Gurdjieff. Why would Gurdjieff be coming over to Kate's pad? "G." is most likely David Gilmour.
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 90 22:44:51 CDT
From: Steven H. Veeneman <veener@ntmntm.chi.il.us>
Subject: Om Mani Padme Hum
Ah! Finally a topic I can contribute about...
Although I personally recite "Om mani padme hum" 108 times each morning as part of my Buddhist thing, I scarcely remember wondering about its literal meaning. "Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus" is probably right, but hearing it referred to gives you a chance to muse on more than its translation...
It is the personal mantra, according to the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, of Chenresig, the Goddess of Compassion. She/he is also known by the names Avaloketisvara towards India and Kuan-Yin towards China. Since the rise in Tibet of the Gelugpa sect around the 15th century, and since the Dalai Lama is recognised as one of the living incarnations of Chenresig, "Om mani padme hum" is the national mantra of Tibet. Travelers there find it on prayer wheels, prayer flags, and painted or carved on mountainsides near towns.
I have our beloved KaTe to thank for hearing its correct pronounciation for the very first time...
Date: Sat, 20 Apr 91 20:35:44 EST
From: jburka@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
Subject: Always something new to treat the ears, eh?
How is it that after 2 years of listening in all sorts of contexts (car, stereo, headphones; walking, computing, lying in bed in the dark basking in the music) it wasn't until tonight that I caught the male voices chanting "om mani padme hum" at the very end of "Strange Phenomena?"
Jeff
From: scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine)
Date:
Sat, 22 Aug 1992 16:55:31 GMT
Subject: STRANGE PHENOMENA
First song showing Kate's "mystical" bent. Not one of the more memorable songs on the album, musically, though. I've always wondered what does "Om mani padme" mean?
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 01:12:28 MDT
From: fiona
mcquarrie@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca
Subject: Strange Phenomena
Re STRANGE PHENOMENA:
Who or what is G? Well, as any girl knows :), G is short for "George" which is a colloquialism (big word) for "period". Hence the line "G arrives, funny had a feeling he was on his way", thus making Strange Phenomena the first song about PMS :)
I think this interpretation also makes sense in the light of the rest of the song, which talks about the phases of the moon (supposed to influence menstrual cycles), the "blues", and more generally the forces of nature over which we have no control.
Fiona McQuarrie
From: katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92
19:00:58 CDT
Subject: STRANGE PHENOMENA
Chris here,
Fiona McQuarrie comments in re STRANGE PHENOMENA:
> Who or what is G? Well, as any girl knows :), G is short for "George" which is a colloquialism (big word) for "period". Hence the line "G arrives, funny had a feeling he was on his way", thus making Strange Phenomena the first song about PMS :)
This is very interesting. I have never heard the reference. Is it a "commonwealth" thing? It makes quite a bit of sense, more than any of the "G"s proposed by others.
Chris Williams
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 92 00:03:48 MDT
From: fiona
mcquarrie@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca
Subject: "G" in Strange Phenomena
Re the mysterious "G" in Strange Phenomena: "George" was the term that was used in my family (English) and also by a lot of people I went to school with. When I heard the song "G" made perfect sense in the context. I note from another posting (sorry, I didn't copy it so I don't know who it was) that Kate Bush in an interview said that "G" was a "Mr. G. who we all knew" (or words to that effect). This doesn't exactly prove the "George theory", but on the other hand it doesn't disprove it outright either. Hmm.....
Fiona McQuarrie
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 1994 13:29:01 +119304328 (ADT)
From: Fiona McQuarrie
<fmcquarr@upei.ca>
Subject: Thoughts on G
I've been away for two weeks, so I missed all the hoo-ha after my posting about Strange Phenomena (and here you thought I was just waiting to see what you all came up with :) )
TO be more precise, I would certainly agree that the song is not completely about menstruation, but the idea is present in more than the line about "the punctual blues". The moon imagery ties in (since the moon is supposed to regulate menstrual cycles, much as it does ocean waves and other natural, uh, phenomena). On the whole, I would say the song is about being part of natural forces that you don't quite understand but which unite you with the rest of the world in different ways - and one of these is participating (involuntarily :) ) in that special monthly event.
(The "G" reference I took to be a reference to "George", a British term for "period" ("George has arrived" means you've got it), but I know that Kate herself hasn't explained it as such").
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 90 02:23:22 EST
From: katefans@world.std.com
(Chris'n'Vickie of Kansas City)
Subject: Kite
Jorn Barger writes:
> "Beelzebub" is a name for the
devil... but why is he aching in her belly?
Menstrual cramps, also referred to in "Strange Phenomena" "Every girl knows about the punctual blues..."
Vickie
From: Scott Telford <s.telford@ed.ac.uk>
Date: 21 Aug 92
17:01:25 GMT
Subject: Kite
KITE
I don't remember what KaTe has said about this, but to me, this song seems to be metaphorically referring to drugs. The first verse expresses the desire to escape from mundane life, the next describes apparently surreal experiences ("I got no limbs and I'm like a feather on the wind" - Ok, so they're all kite metaphors as well...but hidden double metaphors are KaTe's speciality, aren't they? 8^) and the last suggests regret and inability to revert to normal life: "And I'd like to be back on the ground/But I don't know how to get down" -addiction of course! And there's the old cliche "high as a kite" too.
Oh, and (tenuous link) speaking of songs of the Tour of Life era, has anybody else noticed that in the bit in the Hammersmith video, after Feel It, where Simon Drake walks across the stage, he's leafing through a girly magazine? That must have raised a few eyebrows of people reading the props list....8^)
From: scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine)
Date:
Sat, 22 Aug 1992 16:55:31 GMT
Subject: Kite
KITE
Incredible song. One of my favorites. Surrealistic (there's a hole in the sky with a big eyeball, watching me." Really fills you with this feeling of being carried along in the sky lie a kite. One interviewer brought up the mention of Beelzebub as an occult element, but I think it was just there to convery the image of discontent.
From: Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 90
22:44:23 EST
Subject: The Man With the Child in his Eyes
Why would anyone think that "The Man With the Child in his Eyes" is about masturbation? Kate once said it's about how women look for their fathers in their lovers.
|>oug
[No intelligent comment about this song in ten years, except maybe stating the obvious, like it's about the Bronte novel, etc. ... --WIE]
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 87 22:43:50 PDT
From: ganzer%trout@nosc.mil (Mark T.
Ganzer)
Subject: Is it Live? or is it...
> From: Jon Drukman
> OH yes, One very important KT question for anyone still reading: Is it really true (as |>oug claims) that "James And The Cold Gun" live from the "On Stage" and "Kate Bush" EPs is the SAME version in the Hammermsmith Odeon video?? It doesn't seem like it...
I never thought they were, and a little comparative listening proved it to me. First, the EP version has a piano intro, where the video doesn't. The drum flurry following the opening chords are not the same. Then, the first verse on the video starts 4 bars later than in the EP ( try playing the EP soundtrack over the video to see this). Also, the inflection in Kate's voice in the opening word "James.." is much different, as is her inflection throughout much of the song. I didn't bother to go much further to prove the differences. There are enough differences to conclude even that one is not a re-mix of the other, unless a whole new vocal track was recorded after the filming and much revision done to the EP mix.
I remember seeing |>oug's claim that the EP was recorded at Hammersmith Odeon. My EP doesn't say where it was recorded (mine is the Harvest 12"). My copy of the Hammersmith tape says that there were two shows done at Hammersmith, one of which (13 May 1979) was filmed. There are enough differences, however, for me to speculate that the EP was recorded at a much different point in the tour.
From: jorn@chinet.chinet.com (Jorn Barger)
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993
02:53:15 GMT
Subject: Re: Kate questions
3. Who is "Georgie"? (`Well take care of yourself, and remember Georgie'; Don't Put Your Foot on the Heartbrake)
Georges Gurdjieff, is one candidate. (So it would translate exactly as Fullhouse's 'Remember *yourself*', G's main teaching.) But then who's Emma? The lyric sounds like a novel (movie?) where the heroine Emma smashes up her car at the end, after her lover/husband abandons her. (Emma *Bovary* was the tragic victim of her own passions...?) Georgie might be her son?
From: scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine)
Date:
Sat, 22 Aug 1992 16:55:31 GMT
Subject: FEEL IT
Is this the most erotic song ever written? If there's anything that tops it, tell.
From: Doug Alan <nessus@mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 90 13:45:18
EST
Subject: Some Kick-Inside annotations
From: Jorn Barger
> what's "stop the swing of the pendulum let
us through"?
It refers to Kate wishing she could stop the passage of time, which often destroys love.
From: scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine)
Date:
Sat, 22 Aug 1992 16:55:31 GMT
Subject: L'AMOUR LOOKS SOMETHING LIKE YOU
Second most erotic song ever written. :-) Perhaps the most beautiful "one night stand" song I've ever heard. Her voice is inhuman, angelic on this one. And the images are stirring "I'm dressed in lace sailing down a black reverie, my heart is thrown to the pebbles and the boatmen. All the time, I find I'm living in that evening with the feeling of sticky love inside."
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 93 04:09 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Re: Kate questions
Bob Kovitz writes: I just listened to the box set from start to finish, and came up with a group of questions:
>1. What does "the Goose Moon" refer to (in L'Amour Looks Something Like You)
This is a guess, but I'd guess it's an orange-ish harvest moon, as would be in the shy when the geese fly south.
From: jorn@chinet.chinet.com (Jorn Barger)
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1993
02:53:15 GMT
Subject: Re: Kate questions
1. What does "the Goose Moon" refer to? (in L'Amour Looks Something Like You)
As Chris uncannily guesses, traditionally, it's a full moon in autumn when the geese are flying south. (I found it in a ref. book of idioms)
[No other comments on this song available. --WIE]
[No comments available! --WIE]
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 88 12:59 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Origin of "The Kick
Inside"
The Kick Inside (the song) was inspired by an old English/Irish ballad (there are more than a dozen versions with origins in many parts of Europe) called Lizzie Wan or Lizie Wan or Lucy Wan. The traditional song is about a sister and her incestuous love for her brother. It includes (in some versions) the line "When the sun and the moon meet on yon hill". As far as IED can tell, however, the subject and that specific line are the only connections between Kate's song and the original ballad. There are no musical links that his ears can identify.
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: Mon, 22 May 89 11:50 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Lyrics
> In your transcription of the lyrics of The Kick Inside, you give the lines "Your sister I was born. Lose me. /You must lose me like an arrow." To my ear this is "loose me like an arrow." The meaning is very different. "Lose me" implies carelessness. "Loose me" implies purposefulness. If this point has been debated to death in Love-Hounds I apologize, I haven't been reading it for very long.
>-- Steve Jacquot
Thanks for your note of appreciation, Steve.
I was extremely intrigued by your suggestion about the line "lose me like an arrow" from The Kick Inside. I feel a little stupid that the parallel with "loose an arrow" had not occurred to me in all my eleven years of familiarity with this song. Of course you're right that Kate had "loose" in mind!
The spelling in all the official editions of the lyrics has always been "lose". Two explanations are possible: first, that she meant "loose" and just didn't know how to spell it; second, that she meant to evoke the image of "loosing an arrow" while sticking to the storyline, in which the brother must "lose" her sister. While admitting the possibility that the former explanation is correct, I can't help feeling that Kate was deliberately spelling "lose" but using it in such a way as to recall "loose"--she has often used puns and other plays on words in her lyrics, and this would be just like her. But you're certainly right that it looks as though, one way or another, she did have the expression "loose an arrow" in mind. Thanks again.
-- Andy
From: Doug Alan <nessus@mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 90 13:45:18
EST
Subject: Some Kick-Inside annotations
From: Jorn Barger
> Kick Inside questions: [...] What's this about
Zeus? and "the old mythology he'd read"? What does the expression "well
in touch" mean?
She's saying she'll be "well in touch" with Zeus because she'll be dead. In Greek mythology Zeus was the head-honcho of the gods. I doubt that most dead souls got to talk to Zeus, but the dying character clearly has some hopes of grandeur. Why does she bring up this mythology? Because when she was a child, she and her brother would be read mythology while sitting on the bobbing knee of their father (or grandfather, or whatever), and she's recalling that childhood memory -- like Rosebud. You get the idea.
|>oug
[Sorry, header accidently deleted. --WIE]
From: IED/Jorn Barger?
The Ballad of Lizzie Wan
(Note: This is one of more than seven different versions of the ballad. Kate has identified this ballad -- under the title "The Ballad of Lucy Wan" -- as the source for her song "The Kick Inside".)
[Lucy Wan is mentioned explicitely in the lyrics of the demo version of The Kick Inside. See demos chapter. --WIE]
1. Fair Lucy sitting in her father's room,
Lamenting and a-making her
mourn;
And in steps her brother James:
O what's fair Lucy done?
2. It is time for you to weep,
Lamenting and a-making your mourn.
Here's a babe at my right side,
And it is both mine and yourn.
3. O what will you do when your father comes home?
Dear son, come tell
to me.
I'll set my foot into some little ship
And I'll sail plumb
over the sea.
4. O what will you do with your house and land?
Dear son, come tell to
me.
I'll leave it here, my old, dear mother;
Be kind to my children
three.
5. O what will you do with your pretty, little wife?
Dear son, come
tell to me.
She can set her foot in another little ship
And follow
after me.
6. Back home, back home will you return?
Dear son, come tell to me.
When the sun and the moon sets in yon hill,
And I hope that'll never
be.
"Lizie Wan"
These are from "The Ballad Book" by MacEdward Leach.
Version
1 is from Scotland, version 2 from Vermont (!).
--jorn
version 1:
Lizie Wan sits in her father's bower-door,
Weeping and making a mane,
[moan?]
And by there came her father dear:
"What ails thee,
Lizie Wan?"
"I ail, and I ail, dear father," she said,
"And I'll
tell you a reason for why;
There is a child between my twa sides,
Between my dear billy and I."
Now Lizie Wan sits at her father's bower-door,
Sighing and making a
mane,
And by there came her brother dear:
"What ails thee,
Lizie Wan?"
"I ail, I ail, dear brither," she said,
"And I'll tell
you a reason for why;
There is a child between my twa sides,
Between
you, dear billy, and I."
"And hast thou tald father and mother o that?
And hast thou tald
sae o me?" [told so of me]
And he has drawn his gude braid sword,
[good long sword]
That hang down by his knee.
And he has cutted aff Lizie Wan's head,
And her fair body in three,
And he's awa to his mother's bower,
And sair [sorely] aghast was he.
"What ails thee, what ails thee, Geordy Wan?
What ails thee sae
fast to rin?
For I see by thy ill colour
Some fallow's [felon's?]
deed thou hast done."
"Some fallow's deed I have done, mother,
And I pray you pardon
me;
For I've cutted aff my greyhound's head;
He wadna rin for me."
"Thy greyhound's bluid was never sae red,
O my son Geordy Wan.
For I see by thy ill colour
Some fallow's deed thou hast done."
"Some fallow's deed I hae done, mother,
And I pray you pardon me;
For I hae cutted aff Lizie Wan's head
And her fair body in three."
"O what wilt thou do when thy father comes hame,
O my son Geordie
Wan?"
"I'll set my foot in a bottomless boat,
And swim to
the sea-ground."
"And when will thou come hame again,
O my son Geordy Wan?"
[now pay attention this is the good part....]
"The sun and the moon
shall dance on the green
That night when I come hame."
version 2:
Fair Lucy was sitting in her own cabin door,
Making her laments alone;
Who should come by but her own mother dear,
Saying, "What makes
Fair Lucy mourn?"
"I have a cause for to grieve," she said,
"And a reason
for to mourn;
For the babe that lies in the cradle asleep,
Dear
mother, it is his own."
Fair Lucy was sitting in her own cabin door,
Making her laments alone;
Who should come by but her own brother dear,
Saying, "What
makes Fair Lucy mourn?"
"I have a cause for to grieve," she said,
"And a reason
for to mourn;
For the babe that lies in the cradle asleep,
Dear
brother, it is your own."
He took her by the lily-white hand
And he led her into the woods;
What he did there, I never can declare,
But he spilt Fair Lucy's
blood.
"O, what is that upon your frock,
My son, come tell to me."
"It is one drop of Fair Lucy's blood,
And that you plainly can
see."
"What will your father say to you,
When he returns to me?"
"I shall step my foot on board a ship,
And my face he never
shall see."
"What will you do with your three little babes,
My son, come tell
to me?"
"I shall leave them here at my father's command,
For to keep him companee."
"What will you do with your pretty little wife,
My son, come tell
to me?"
"She shall step her foot on board a ship,
And sail
the ocean with me."
"What will you do with your houses and lands,
My son, come tell
to me?"
"I shall leave them here at my father's command,
For to set my children free."
"When will you return again,
My son, come tell to me?"
[still with me?]
"When the sun and the moon set on yonders green
hill,
And I'm sure that never can be."
written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland
Willker
Sept 1995 June 1996