Back to the Hounds of Love album page
Back
to the Hounds of Love album page
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 85 19:34:12 EST
From: hsut@purdue-ecn.ARPA (Bill
Hsu)
Subject: And Dream Of Sheep + Hello Earth
SOME UNOBSERVANT OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE STRUCTURE
OF TWO KATE BUSH SONGS
A long time ago, I foolishly suggested that it would be fun to do some thematic analyses of Kate Bush songs. Somebody (jer?) suggested as candidates And Dream of Sheep and Hello Earth, since most people thought they shared musical material but were unable to say exactly where. Well, here's what I dredged up. The comments are mostly on musical themes and motifs.
So are the two songs similar? Well, yes and no. The similarities are more subtle than the direct quoting of musical phrases. Generally, I'd say Kate Bush used a surprising economy of means in these two songs to achieve very varied effects. The two songs are in the same key (C# minor, occasionally moving into E major) and are similar in harmony also.
And Dream of Sheep is mainly composed of five main phrases: (there are different ways to break them up, but this is how I did it)
(1) The open fifths of "Little light shining...guide them to me". The first passage goes E E (5th) B, B (5th) F# etc. The first chord is a C# minor 7th (C# E G# B) and contributes to the tense, mysterious quality of the opening.
(2) "My face is... (repeated)". This is a relatively calm phrase, consisting mostly of repeated E's.
(3) "If they find me...for a buoy". Another calm phrase, alternating mostly between B and G#.
(4) "Let me be weak...of sheep". Quiet descending figures, ending in E major.
The first break in the song has the female voice saying "Come here, (name)". (1) is then repeated and extended with variations ("I'll wake up...a seeking craft". Call this (1a).) Then we have (2), (3), (3) again, but truncated ("I'll tune into..." and "I can't be left to..."). A repeat of (4) leads to the first new material for awhile.
(5) "Ooh their breath..." Open 6th's. A short phrase is repeated as a kind of coda.
The opening of Hello Earth is very similar to that of ADOS. The first phrase "Hello Earth Hello Earth" is over the same chord as ADOS (C# minor 7th) tho the theme is slightly changed. Hello Earth goes G# G# B, C# C# F#, while ADOS goes E E B, B B F#. I'd like to associate the chord and the thematic material with some kind of "contemplation" motif. It opens the two songs on Ninth Wave which are about the narrator contemplating her surroundings rather than hallucinating.
Hello Earth is much looser in construction than ADOS. Division of themes are not as clearcut as ADOS, so roughly here are the artificial divisions:
(1) "Hello Earth ... peek-a-boo little earth". Notice the "blot you out out..." motif (C# E G# B) which returns often in the song.
Part of (1) is repeated; "With just my heart...asleep at the seat" has the same thematic material as "With just one hand...little earth".
(2) "I get out of... travelling fast". Open fifths again.
(3) "Look at it go (twice)".
The first break in Hello Earth is again achieved with an non-Kate voice, the chorus that will return at the end of the song. Compare the "Come here..." passage in ADOS.
(1) is repeated with variations for "Hello Earth, Hello Earth, watching storms...the wind out to sea". Then there is a passage constructed of variations on C# D# E B ("All you...etc"). I see this as a combination of the open 5th motif of the opening of ADOS and the "blot you out out" phrase (C# E G# B).
(2) with all its rhythmic rigor and open fifths is repeated for "Go to sleep...head of the tempest". A short connecting phrase ("Murderer...") and then a repetition of (3) for "Why did I go...".
So there are definitely similarities. The upward leap of a fifth is an important motif, along with the C# minor 7th chord as both harmony and melodic line (in arpeggiated form). Both songs are in the same key, and the harmony is rather similar. While the songs were not terribly complex, the way Kate Bush uses a limited amount of material to achieve her many different effects is interesting.
Comments?
Bill Hsu
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 16:07 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: fishing rod?
1. "And Dream of Sheep"
a. Source of sound directly after first "...and dream of sheep...": sounds like a fishing rod? (supposed to be radio turning on)
Posted-Date: 24 May 87 15:05:25 PDT (Sun)
Date: 24 May 87 15:05:25 PDT
(Sun)
Subject: secret message in "And Dream of Sheep"
What's the narration behind the first occurance of "Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep" (~0:50) ? I haven't been able to piece it together... does anyone have it?
Date: Wed, 27 May 87 12:46 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: Re: secret message in "And
Dream of Sheep"
> What's the narration behind the first occurance of "Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep" (~0:50) ?
Without his D-5 in the computer room to confirm, IED can only assume that you are referring to the "shipping report" in "And Dream of Sheep". No-one has deciphered all of that message, but an Irish (or Scottish?) fan suggested that part of it was a list of coastal areas and islands along the shipping lanes between Ireland and Scotland (see Break-Through issue 10 or 11, IED believes). The message may say something like: "Attention all ships, especially sea navigators (?)....Bell Rock... Tyree..." etc. (This is not supposed to be an accurate transcription, just an idea of what to listen for.)
-- Andrew
From: Neil Calton <nbc@vd.rl.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 87 12:29:25
bst
Subject: Re: secret message in "And Dream of Sheep"
The message does appear to be some kind of shipping report. I can make out the following:
Attention shipping information in sea areas .... Bell Rock, Tiree,
Cromaty, gale east .... .... , Malin, Sellafield .... ....
Now the thing is, they are not all sea areas. Cromaty and Malin are but the rest are all coastal stations or light vessels. The BBC issues weather reports for the sea areas and coastal stations but keeps them quite separate. Also they are clearly referenced with the date and time of day. In addition there is a forecast for the areas they mention. In the 'And Dream of Sheep' piece the only meteorological term I can pick out is the word gale. Now without any reference to the force or future direction this information is useless. There may possibly be some meteorological term preceding 'Bell Rock' but it is unclear to my ears.
Neither are all the mentioned names from the same area of the coast. Bell Rock is on the east coast as is the Cromaty sea area. The others are on the west coast of Scotland or (in the case of Sellafield) England. The Malin sea area is between Scotland and Ireland. The lack of meteorological data in the snippet makes me doubt that it was an actual broadcast - unless Kate edited it to just leave the names.
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 87 09:22:44 PDT
From: ganzer%trout@nosc.mil (Mark T.
Ganzer)
Subject: "And Dream of Sheep" message
...gale easterly ("Come here with me, Luv" obliterates this), Malin...
This sounds like it is a warning of gale easterly winds in the Cromaty area based on reports from ships in the area and the Bell Rock and Tiree stations, and then continuing on to reports from the Malin and Sellafield areas. Not having UK marine navigation maps nor having listened to any weather or marine broadcasts from over there, I can't comment on it's validity or whether it is an actual broadcast or not. It could possibly be a radio report from a shipping company to all it's ships at sea. Most likey this passage was simulated to "sound like" something someone had heard on the shortwave (or LW band?) and that fit with the musical passage.
"All you sailors (get out of the waves, get out of the water)..."
MarK T. Ganzer
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 1994 15:29:28 -0400 (EDT)
From:
kenh@bsbbs.columbus.oh.us (Ken Hollern)
Subject: the little light
I have always wondered what the little light was referring to. I think the light before someone dies is more than obvious, which leads me to believe that it's not that light. Kate tends to be a little bit more obscure. I had thought maybe it was the light from a farrie, you know like tinkerbell, taking kate into a different dimension. I also considered it to be Dr. Bush, using a pen light, looking into Kate's eyes to see if she is conscious. I've also considered to be the moon, a flare, a lighthouse.
I've been thinking about this for the past five years (when I purchased my first Kate album) and am completely dumbfounded. Just a couple of thoughts.
From: asteg@k12.ucs.umass.edu (Albert Steg (Winsor School))
Date: Thu,
28 Apr 1994 16:12:38 GMT
Subject: Re: little light
Last week in a posting about 'The Ninth Wave' I offered a summary of a the "stuck in the water" reading of the suite of songs as Kate had explained it in various interviews. Following the situation of a person somehow stranded in the ocean overnight, waiting for the dawn, the "little light" is the battery-operated pen-light attached to life-jackets to help rescuers find the survivors. (On the back cover photograph Kate is wearing that sort of life-jacket.) So the line "Little light guide them to me" is very literal! "White horses" are the foam caps on moving waves, so she wants to keep moving in the water so that a plane might notice her. I think the image of the tiny light illuminating her face in the water is one of the loveliest on the record.
Of course, listeners may recognize whatever sorts of symbolic ideas appeal to them in the songs --but as with poetry in general, we lose a lot if we don't grasp the literal level of meaning first. Most good poems do involve a speaker in a particular settting and circumstance,which we need to see in order to get into "deeper" meanings. Getting help with the "situations" in Kate's songs is, for me, one of the best reasons for having newsgroups like this.
One of the marvelous things about "The Ninth Wave" is that although there are plenty of details that point to the person's predicament, no-one that I know was able to make out this situation (person stuck in the water) without some help, usually after getting to know the side really well. Listening to it with the new picture in mind is almost like getting a new Kate Bush record!
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 16:07 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: sounds
2. "Under Ice"
a. "Hay-ho" or just "Oh-oh"? (This in reference to credits on LP sleeve)
b. "Sonar, take it deep to deep six..."?
c. Clinks during harmonics passage at end of "Under Ice" and an uncredited dijeridoo? (ditto intro of Meteorological Mix of BS)
Date: Thu, 06 Apr 89 12:07:59 -0500
From: (Michael J. Lamoureux) <lamour%smiley@gateway.mitre.org>
Subject: submarine pings
> During one of the ocurrences of these "pings", I can definately hear words in the background that sound like guys on a submarine, and I can fairly clearly make out the word "sonar".
The vocals Chris is talking about start at about 1:31 into Under Ice in the left channel. I agree that the word "sonar" is easily distinguishable. After much playing with it, I've determined that it's easiest to hear the words by dropping the low bands on the eq. (and the right channel, of course), but I still can't figure out what else he is saying.
And I'd like to (I think this is the end) ask Mr. Andrew "IED" Marvick what exactly he meant by "Salve Sancta Kate".
From: Robb McCaffree <nsrjm@nursepo.medctr.ucla.edu>
Date: 3 Sep
1995 05:06:03 GMT
Subject: Re: The Ninth Wave: a name...
I do hear a name called in the middle of 'Under Ice' and this one is most DEFINITELY meant as a name -- the intonation is unmistakeable. A man's voice calls it after she sings "only me skating fast" and it sounds vaguely like 'Carol' or 'Sheryl' (Crow, maybe?), but, as is with all Kate's message b-vocals, it's not entirely clear.
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 86 09:35:47 est
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: The Semi-Compleate Lyrics to Waking The Witch
> From Dave Fetrow:
> On "Waking the Witch" my recording (which was in the tape machine at work while reading this) it is definitely: "Bless me father, Bless me father for I have sinned --- UH". However it also sounds a bit spliced up, so maybe that wasn't the original.
I meant the part right after that. Here's that section a little more acurrately, as I hear it:
PRIEST: What child? What Child?
KATE: Bless me father, bless me
father, for I have sinned -- UH!
Simultaneously:
KATE: Help me. Listen to me, listen to me, listen to
me, come, baby -- UH!
KATE: Red, red roses.
Simultaneously:
KATE: Help me, baby. Talk too!
KATE: Red, red
roses
JUDGE: I question your innocence.
Here's all the lyrics for the whole song as best as I can make them out. If anyone has any different ideas about what's being said, please tell me:
VOICES: Wake up.
A good morning m'am. This is your early morning call.
(Trivia note: the above line was said by Paddy talking through a phone.)
You must wake up.
Wake up.
Wake up, man. Wake up, child. Pay
attention.
Come on, wake up, my love.
Wake up, love.
They
should make the night, but see your little light's a lie.
[Simultaneously:]
MAN: Sunday at nine and you're sleeping in bed?
Get up!
KATE: Your ma needs a shower. Get out of bed.
CHORUS:
Little light.
MAN: Can you not see that little light up there?
KATE:
Where?
MAN: There!
KATE: Where?
Over here.
You still in
bed?
Wake up sleepy head.
The heirs of the water are trying to get
out.
We are water in the holy land of water.
Don't you know you've
kept we waiting!
Look who's here to see you!
KATE: Wake, wake up. Wake up. Wake up, baby. Wake up. Wake up. Wake, wake up dear.
JUDGE: You won't burn.
KATE: Red, red roses.
JUDGE: You won't
bleed.
KATE: Pinks and posies.
JUDGE: Confess to me girl.
KATE: Red, red roses go down.
KATE: [Indecipherable]
JUDGE: Poor...
KATE: Red, red roses.
JUDGE: ... blackbird.
KATE: Pinks and
posies.
JUDGE: Wings in the water.
KATE: Red, red roses.
BOTH:
Go down.
KATE: Pinks and posies.
KATE: [Indecipherable.]
PRIEST: What child? What Child?
KATE: Bless me father, bless me father,
for I have sinned -- UH!
Simultaneously:
KATE: Help me. Listen to me, listen to me, listen to
me, come, baby -- UH!
KATE: Red, red roses.
Simultaneously:
KATE: Help me, baby. Talk too!
KATE: Red, red
roses.
JUDGE: I question your innocence.
KATE: This blackbird --
there's a stone around my leg.
JUDGE: Hah! Damn you woman! UH! Hah!
KATE: This blackbird -- there's a stone around my leg.
JUDGE: What say
you, good people?
GOOD PEOPLE: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
KATE: This
blackbird.
JUDGE: I am responsible for your actions.
KATE:
Auuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
JUDGE: UH! Hmm! Ha, ha, ha. Kill thee. Burn!
KATE: Help this blackbird.
VOICE: Let go of the way.
VOICE IN
HELICOPTER: Get out of the waves. Get out of the water.
-Doug
Date: Tue, 06 May 86 15:16 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: re the lyrics
Only two corrections to be made, off hand, to the transcription of the dialogue in "Waking the Witch": The Priest asks, "What is it, child?" I think, not "What child, what child?" Also, in the "wake-up"-call section, I thought the male voice which screams simultaneously with the female chorus of "Your ma needs a shower. Get out of bed!" was not saying "Sunday at nine and you're sleeping in bed. Get up!" Rather, I hear: "Stop that lying and sleeping in bed. Get up!"I may be wrong about the latter line, however.
Finally, I would like to relay the news that the promotional film for "The Big Sky" is listed as being available for licensed telecast in the May 8 (?) issue of Billboard. Since it is extremely unlikely that "The Big Sky" will be released as a single domestically, the film will in all probability be ignored by most video programmers, MTV included, unless we do something about it. Assuming everyone here wants to see and/or record it, I urge another MTV dial-a-thon, with the aim of getting at least one token cable-cast of "The Big Sky". Could someone suggest a date and time? Thanks.
Hey! What's that? Looks like one of those...umm...
Date: Fri, 30 May 86 12:21 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: harmonizer?
I think John Lorch is probably right about the harmonizer/Fairlight issue. There's no audible sign of the harmonizer in the vocals of "Waking The Witch", as far as I can tell. The inquisitor's voice is distorted, obviously, but not in the way a harmonizer distorts.
Even with spoken rather than sung vocal sounds the harmonizer produces a very distinct doubling or tripling of the sound at regular intervals of pitch. In fact, I'm not sure a harmonizer of that kind was used anywhere on Hounds of Love. A good example of the sound a harmonizer makes can be heard in Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" during the bridge where the word "sledge" is repeated by itself.
Date: Sun, 8 Jun 86 04:00:48 EDT
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: To harmonize or not to harmonize...
> From: Andrew Marvick
> I think John Lorch is probably right
about the harmonizer/Fairlight issue. There's no audible sign of the harmonizer
in the vocals of "Waking The Witch", as far as I can tell. The
inquisitor's voice is distorted, obviously, but not in the way a harmonizer
distorts.
A digital harmonizer can be used as a pitch shifter. This is what was done. This is from the mouth of Del Palmer, so it's likely to be correct. I asked him if the judge was done by Kate singing through a pitch-shifter, and he said yeah. He said that they had tried doing the voice two different ways (1) using a harmonizer to shift the pitch down an octave (2) playing a tape at slower speed. He said that if he recalled correctly, what was put on the album was the vocals digitally pitch-shifted with a harmonizer.
"Confess to me, girl!"
Doug
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 86 13:41 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: lyrics
Response to: marvicK To the rescue!
> After an extensive listening
to the CD with LH moderator Doug Alan, we conclude that the exchange is not "What's
that?" but rather. "What is it?" And yes, it's there...
Absolutely right, it's "What is it?" Thanks. Glad to hear you hear it the way IED does, he was beginning to doubt it himself.
> On another point, Doug brought up something about "Waking the Witch". Does Katie-kins say "Help me, baby, talk to me, listen to me, tell them baby" or "Help me, baby, talk to me, listen to me come, baby"? Doug maintained the word is "come", I maintain it's "tell them". Comments, anyone?
Katie-kins? IED thinks it could be "come, baby" -- but NOT "...listen to me come, baby"!! Just "Listen to me. Come, baby!" The punctuation is crucial -- it's true she's been using some naughty language lately, but only when it was relevant to the song's meaning.
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 86 06:13:57 EDT
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: "come"
Regarding "Waking The Witch":
> [A. Marvick:] IED thinks
it could be "come, baby" -- but NOT "...listen to me come, baby"!!
Just "Listen to me. Come, baby!" The punctuation is crucial -- it's
true she's been using some naughty language lately, but only when it was
relevant to the song's meaning.
Come, come now -- aren't we talking about the same woman who has called "Night of the Swallow", "Nice to Swallow"? Besides the naughty meaning would be completely relevant to the song. The song's about a a dream of going into a church to confess one's sins and getting accused of being a witch. It would make perfect sense in a dream about confessing to get a little extravagent in describing one's sexual sins.
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 86 12:55 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: "come"
Sorry, this "come" business in "Waking the Witch" just doesn't hold water with IED, who is no prude, but simply can't see any clear basis for the interpretation. As IED sees the song, the character is asking for help from her confessor BECAUSE she has been accused of being a witch; the main purpose for her confession is to seek the protection of the Church, NOT to admit that she is guilty. Her hope of salvation is a metaphor for her hope for protection --and, of course, both are forlorn.
But Doug's interpretation introduces a completely irrelevant, even conflicting scene, wherein the character not only confesses real sins (in the Church's eyes, mind you, not in IED's), but RE-ENACTS them in the confessional! Give IED a break, Doug!
From: decvax!bellcore!cwruecmp!ncoast!smith
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 86
06:36:15 EDT
Subject: Listen to me cum, baby
> From Joe Turner:
> On another point, Doug brought up something
about Waking the Witch. Does Katie-kins say "Help me, baby, talk to me,
listen to me, tell them, baby" or "Help me, baby, talk to me, listen
to me come, baby"? Doug maintained the word is "come", I
maintain it's "tell them". Comments, anyone?
After spending the last 15 minutes playing that passage over and over i have come to the conclusion the word is "cum", I mean it sure sounded like she was having an orgasm.
From: bu-cs!sam
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 86 09:06:15 EDT
Subject:
lyrics
BTW: I sat here the other day with every single solitary person at work listening the the controversial line in "Waking the Witch". We have all come to the conclusion that you Doug, have a dirty mind. I have 8 votes for "TELL THEM" and zero for "COME".
- Shelli
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 86 20:33:21 EDT
From: Nancy Everson <everson@spca.bbn.com>
Subject: Waking the Witch lyrics
Maybe I'm a little late on this topic, but after all this debate about what Kate says in "Waking the Witch," I decided I would listen for myself. Well, I don't think Kate said "Listen to me come, baby." Last night, I put on my cd of Hounds of Love, put on my headphones, and put the A-B repeat function on my cd player to good use. I listened to those few phrases over and over, for about twenty-five times. I tried really hard to hear what others have been hearing, but all I could hear was this:
Listen to me
Listen to me
Tell them, baby
Uh, help me ....
This actually make sense if you think about it -- she'd on trial, after all.
Doug's party was fun. (It sounds like I left too early, though.) It's pretty interesting to go to a party when you don't know anyone there, but everyone has something in common. Maybe we can get Kate to come to the next one. We could all chip in to pay for her airfare. Then we could have her perform some of her songs, and we wouldn't need to watch her videos.
- Nancy Everson
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 16:07 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: lyrics
3. "Waking the Witch"
a. Sound leading into the first "Wake
up!": static, and a backwards piano chord?
b. Wake-up passage:
"We should make the night
But see your little light's alive"
"Stop that lyin' and a-sleepin' in bed -- get up!"
"Hurry
up! Ma wants a shower! Get up!" This line is dubious, no?
"A
good morning, ma'am -- This is your early morning call."
("Little
light...")
(Whale-song)
"Wake up, man!" (Scottish
accent? If so, why?)
"Where?"
(Whale-song)
"Over
here" (referring to the "little light"):
contrast with "Over
here!" in "Jig of Life" (referring to "this moment")
Change of first person, from singular to plural
Who are "they"?Who
are "we"? What are all these people doing here?
"We are of
the going water and the gone
We are of water in the holy land of water..."
(Whale-song)
"Don't you know you've kept him (?) waiting?":
Who is "he"?
c. The song proper:
Before "You won't burn!": words?
"Spiritus sanctus in nomine ________"
Is the last word "luminorum"?; "domino"?; "deus, amen"?
On the second, third and fourth times the syllable "spir-" is sung, it is accompanied by a a drum or man's vocal sound
"Deus et deu dominum ________"?
Same sound is heard here, as well
Directly after the first "Help this blackbird -- There's a stone...": there is a sibilant sound like a cymbal, but vocal
After "I am responsible for your actions":
Kate cries or moans in a distinct way heard no-where else, accompanied by a synthetic (? guitar?) moan
"That proves it!" ("Not guilty!"? identify)
After "That proves it!" the inquisitor makes a sound, either an inarticulate cry or the words "The heaven"?
Lyric sheet lists "Take her away" -- cannot find in recording
Lyric sheet lists "Wake the witch" -- in fact, the words are "Wake OF the witch", which makes explicit the obvious double-entendre
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 12:41 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: lyrics
Nancy is absolutely right about the lines from "Waking the Witch", of course. This "come" business, quite regardless of whether it is appropriate or not, is simply NOT THERE. The words are "Tell them", not "Come". Period. And Nancy is right to point out that "Tell them" makes perfect sense in the context of the song.
From: jon drukman <jsd@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar
91 11:37:33 PST
Subject: funky voice on The Ninth Wave
The "jiggling" voice effect (where it comes in and out very rapidly) is achieved through the use of a device known as a "noise gate." What it does is pass a sound through based on certain criteria, such as the volume level of the source. This is good for electric guitars that are going through amps, and might be humming or buzzing. The noise gate will shut off the annoying hum until something loud enough (like a real intentionally hit guitar note) comes through. Very useful. What Kate has is a version of the gate that can trigger the sound based on ANOTHER source. The Boss Microrack Compressor/Gate does this.
How it works is: you stick some kind of noise source into the trigger input (Kate probably used a drum machine) and you stick the sound you want to go on and off quickly into the input line. Now, whenever the sound at the trigger input gets loud enough, it turns on the sound coming from the input line. This sounds kind of complicated, but it's really quite easy. You just program your drum machine to go click click click very rapidly, and stick it into the trigger. Now, when you sing through your mic, your voice only gets heard when the drum machine makes a sound. Bingo! Instant on/off voice effects. Very useful and very dramatic.
I hope this is abundantly clear. Let me know if questions still haunt you.
--Jon "All I Need Is An Amoeba" Drukman
From: smith drt <p0070421@cs3.oxford-brookes.ac.uk>
Date: Wed,
14 Apr 93 12:28:29 BST
Subject: Strange Message
Recently I've been listening to The Ninth Wave and the track Waking The Witch. Just after the various voices there is some backwards/speeded up dialogue spoken by what I presume is Kate. Does anybody actually know what's been said if anything?
Telfer
From: jean anne kirwin <jkirwin@s850.mwc.edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Jun
93 15:42:23 EDT
Subject: Waking the Witch
Hey guys,
Could anyone say exactly what Her Kateness is saying at the end of 'Waking the Witch' - "this blackbird - has a stone around it?" - Sounds like that but I don't think so (but it certainly would fit the context of the song -"help this blackbird - someone help this blackbird" . I have gotten down the lines of the priest - "What is it my child - you are a witch -- woman, I question your innocence! -- I damn you woman! -- What say you good people (guilty - guilty - guilty!).....
I really love this song - it seems to speak to the repression of female spirituality - the repression of the witch in all of us. Specifically - the Catholic Church and it's fear and repression of it.... but that subject is too deep to get into over the Internet...
Jean
From: souvigne@ensibull.imag.fr ()
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1993 10:33:23 GMT
Subject: Re: Waking the Witch
jean anne kirwin wrote: :
> Could anyone say exactly what Her Kateness is saying at the end of 'Waking the Witch' - "this blackbird - has a stone around it?" - Sounds like that but I don't think so (but it certainly would fit the context of the song -
Kate says 'Help this black bird, there's a stone around his leg' as far as I remember.
"Watching You Without Me" is in a file by itself, mainly because there was so much discussion concerning the Kate Bush Club contest.
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 85 21:54:42 edt
From: Doug Alan <nessus>
Subject: Jig of Life
"Jig Of Life" is my favorite song on HOL. For at least a week of pondering over the lyrics, though, I had absolutely no idea what they were about, and then suddenly the meaning of the lyrics sung by Kate became incredibly obvious. Then the KBC newsletter came out, and Kate's explanation of the song matches with mine *exactly*. Nobody else I have talked to has gotten the meaning of "Jig Of Life" even close to right, so I am starting to feel very arrogant and conceited. Gee, I just must be the world's greatest KB lyric analyzer.
Prove me wrong! Cut me down to size. What do you think "Jig Of Life" means? (The part sung by Kate, that is -- the part narrated by John Carter is another story....) (P.S. It's no fair if you've just read the meaning out of the KBC newsletter.)
Doug
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 85 01:24:42 edt
From: harvard!topaz!jerpc.PE.UUCP
Subject: lady in the mirror
> Why do you say that the old lady in the mirror is her mother? Why not herself? KB doesn't say the old lady is in her mirror -- she says the old lady comes to her and says "I'll be sitting in your mirror".
Well, because Kate Bush (despite what someone recently said, reading from an old biography) is the same age as me, and that is the same experience I have sometimes. The face in the mirror is Kate Bush (or the narrator); but she looks there and sees that this face is very much like the face of her mother when she was born: that is what the line "Now is the place where the crossroads meet" means, I think. But this causes the identity of the two generations to be somewhat mixed and confused, and the similarities and differences become apparent. I think "My part of your life" is the part having to do with the continuation of life across generations. Thus the person speaking in the song sees that she is the same age as her mother was, and so she has come around to the beginning of a sort of short cycle again, but now it is her turn, and "This moment in time" belongs not to her for her own ends, but to all three generations at once.
I like the idea of it simultaneously relating to a reason not to drown, however.
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 85 05:26:24 edt
From: Doug Alan <nessus>
Subject: Jig Of Life
> From: jer
>> [Me:] Why do you say that the old lady in the
mirror is her mother?
> The face in the mirror is Kate Bush (or the narrator); but she looks there and sees that this face is very much like the face of her mother when she was born:
But Kate *doesn't* look in a mirror! The old lady says to her "*I* will be in your mirror". And in 50 years, the old lady *will* be in Kate's mirror because the old lady *is* Kate -- 50 years from now.
> I think "My part of your life" is the part having to do with the continuation of life across generations.
No, it doesn't. The old lady is part of Kate's life, because she is what KB will become. And she is saying "Don't say goodbye to my part of your life -- don't say goodbye to your future -- don't let yourself drown."
>> [Me:] (Henry Chai got the 10 point bonus question!)
> You
mean, you're not going to reveal this [the KT-symbol], and it's not in her
ear?.... How about a clew, instead?
It's on the back cover.
Doug
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 86 15:20:12 est
From: nessus (Doug Alan)
Subject: lyrics to "Jig Of Life"
I just received issue two of "Under The Ivy", yet another Kate Bush fanzine (British). It says that "Hounds of Love" is being released as a single in England on Feb 24th and the B-side is "Jig Of Life". (I guess this means we don't get a new song from Kate. Oh well! Maybe on the next single....)
In any case, the rag also printed the words to John Carder Bush's narration in "Jig of Life". I'm not sure if they are official, but they sure seem like it to me. If they are not, whoever transcribed it sure has a much better ear than me:
Can't you see where memories are kept bright Tripping on the water like a laughing girl Time in her eyes is spawning past light Run on the ocean and the woman unfurls Holding all the love that waits for you here Catch us now for I am your future A kiss on the wind and we'll make the land
Come over here to where when lingers Waiting in this empty world Waiting for then when the life spray cools For now does ride in on the curl of a wave And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools
We are of the going water and the gone We are of water and the holy land of water And all that's to come runs in With the thrust on the strand
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 16:07 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: lyrics
5. "Jig of Life"
a. Story-telling framework? (John's two "she said"s)
b. Two speakers: the heroine, and her future self
c. Following climax of jig, under the first "I put this moment here", are more clinking sounds, and extra, not quite fully erased jig music -- is this the very same music, or another bit of the jig which was subsequently excised? Likely the latter, and not simply a magnetic tape-echo
Note: Either way, this was NOT meant to remain audible
d. Is the first "over here" the SAME "over here" that is in "Waking the Witch"?
e.
"Can't you see where memories are kept bright,
Tripping on the
water like a laughing girl?
Time in her eyes is spawning past light
One with the ocean and the woman unfurled
Holding ALL THE LOVE that waits
for you here
Catch us now for I AM your future
A kiss on the wind
and we'll make the land
Come over here to where when lingers
Waiting
in this empty world
Waiting for then, when the lifespray cools
For
now doves ride in on the CURL OF THE WAVE
{these words spoken with chorus}
And you WILL dance with me in the sunlit pools
WE ARE OF THE GOING
WATER AND THE GONE {with chorus}
WE ARE OF WATER IN THE HOLY LAND OF WATER
{with chorus}
And all that's to come runs in
With the thrust on the
strand"
From: Doug Alan <nessus@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 88
10:06:14 EDT
Subject: lyrics
On to "Jig of Life"...
> Sure that's not " doves
ride in on the curl of a wave"?
Yeah, well yeah. I got the lyrics from the second issue of *Under the Ivy*. I asked John Carder Bush, who wrote the narrated lyrics, if they were official, and he said "Yes". Perhaps "now" should be capitalized, however. If you think about it, these lyrics make perfect sense. The song has a lot to do with Time, and I think the meaning of this line is "For the present rides in on the curl of a wave".
|>oug
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1991 15:58:00 -0700
From: katefans@chinet.chi.il.us
(Chris n Vickie)
Subject: More corrections for "Jig of Life"
Vickie here. Re the "John poem" differences...
If I might be so bold, I'd say both versions are slightly wrong. IED's is the closest to being right.
> the differences being "Run on the ocean" in the first and "One when the ocean" in the second,
Both are wrong, but IED is more right. (yes, I'll explain)
> "curl of a wave" vs. "curl of the wave",
--IED's "the" is correct...
> "and the holy land of water" vs. "in the holy land of
water",
--IED's "in" is correct...
> "unfurls" vs. "unfurled" ...
--IED "unfurled"
is correct...
These are the things they both have wrong:
Anon> Time in her eyes is spawning past light
IED> Time in her
eyes is spawning past light,
'light' should be "life"
Anon> Run on the ocean and the woman unfurls
IED> One when the
ocean and the woman unfurled,
'when' should be: One "with" the ocean and the woman unfurled,
How do I know?
Well, before HoL came out I got a call from our friend John Reimers, who had interviewed Kate and went on to become very good friends with John Carder (herafter known as "Jay") They would talk for hours and hours about all kinds of subjects, everything under the sun, except Kate. Very rarely did they discuss her. However, Jay had told John that he had a poem featured on KBV. John was very interested in Jay's writing and even had some manuscripts. John asked for the "lyrics" of the poem and Jay told him. John transcribed them, and the next time we talked he asked me if I wanted to hear it. Knowing that it would be on the Kate album, I transcribed the words myself.
This is what I wrote down:
Can't you see where memories are kept bright?
Tripping on the water
like a laughing girl
Time in her eyes is spawning past life
One with
the ocean and the woman unfurled
Holding all the love that waits for you here
Catch us now for I am
your future
A kiss on the wind and we'll make the land
Come over here to where When lingers
Waiting in this empty world
Waiting for Then, when the lifespray cools
For Now does ride in on the
curl of the wave
And you will dance me in the sunlit pools
We are of the going water and the gone
We are of water in the holy
land of water
And all that's to come runs in
With the thrust on the
strand
Now, there is one difference between my version and IEDs that I tend to think is correct on IEDs.
Vickie> And you will dance me in the sunlit pools
IED> And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools
The "with" was not in my original version and I never hear it being said, but the was Jay's voice weirds out at that point makes me think there is something being said there, probably a "with" because it makes most sense.
"Time in her eyes is spawning past life" makes much more sense than "light" because, although light is a subject in other songs on the side, this particular song, Jig of *Life*, is concerned with past, present and future life.
"One with the ocean and the woman unfurled" makes sense because she's just spent the night on the ocean, she became a part of it's being. She's also looked inside herself and found wonders and terrors she never knew existed within. "the woman unfurled"
This is interesting to me because it tends to make an argument for the fact that the woman dies. If she's "one" with the ocean, after her mind has gone through such amazing turmoil, then she could have died just when she was a more "whole" person. It's hard to explain, I never can seem to find the right words to describe what I'm thinking here, but I've always felt the woman died. Hints in other songs helped, but this line in particular leads me to think that, and to be very sad about it, but accept it.
We know very little about the character, who she was and what she was like, before the shipwreck, so it wouldn't help us to know her after she'd been "rescued", we wouldn't know if she'd changed. Common sense would tell us how an experience like that would change a person, but we just don't know. In my tiny mind, there's no reason for Kate to "save" the character, because the 9thW, besides being a rousing sea tale, is about learning to appreciate the things you have, family, friends, loved ones. It's a morality tale. If the character lives, it's just a nice story. If the character dies, it's a lesson to the readers (listeners) to do what? I don't know. Live their lives to the fullest, say "I love you" more often, never travel by boat. :-)
Hmm, just some disjointed thoughts.
What a wonderful piece The Ninth Wave is! I do wish Kate and Terry Gilliam had gotten together and gone ahead with the film. Then again, nothing on film is ever as vivid as a listener's own imagination, so maybe it's best.
Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 1994 11:06:36 -0800 (PST)
From: "Karen L.
Newcombe" <kln@crl.com>
Subject: We are of water . . .
The actual quote is "We are of water and of the holy land of water, and time runs on, she cried . . ."
Which is a word play on a poem by W.B. Yeats which begins "We are of Ireland and of the Holy Land of Ireland, and Time runs on She cried", which is in turn a poetic use of an ancient prayer which over the years has been incorporated into folk songs and suchlike, which is where Yeats found it.
The oldest version I've seen is a prayer to Brigid, the goddess of poetry who was christianized as "St. Brigid", and dates from the late 1300s. If I can find it in my desk I'll post it -- so many little bits of paper with stuff like that on them floating around I can't promise, but I may be able to track it down somewhere else.
By the way, anyone who comes up with literary references to the Ninth Wave, I'm collecting them in a haphazard way for no discernable purpose. My subconcious is up to something . . .
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 85 13:26:45 edt
From: Doug Alan <nessus>
Subject: Tiefer, Tiefer...
> From: hound!hejira
>> [Me:] In German: "Deep. Deep.
Somewhere in the darkness, give her your light."
> Dankeshoen! I'm impressed; I caught the "gib" and the "Licht", but nothing else.
I don't deserve the credit. It was deciphered by a friend of mine, who's taking German, and it took him about a week. I didn't even know it was German, until he told me. It sounded to me like
"Deefa. Deefa. Urgen voida deefa. Keep this unleashed."
Doug
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 85 21:18 MST
From: "James J. Lippard" <Lippard@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA>
Subject: Nosferatu and Hounds of Love
I just saw "Nosferatu, The Vampyre" by Werner Herzog tonight. The chorus in "Hello, Earth" that begins around 3:30 is indeed in it in a couple of places: in the town square where the plague victims are dancing around and shortly thereafter while a bat is flying.
"Deep. Deep. Somewhere in the darkness, give her your light.": I disagree with the last part of this translation. I hear "gibt es ein Licht", which means "there is a light". "Gibt es" literally means "it gives", but it's an idiom which translates "there exists" or "there is". "Give her your light" would be "gib ihr dein Licht".
Jim Lippard
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 85 19:34:12 EST
From: hsut@purdue-ecn.ARPA (Bill
Hsu)
Subject: And Dream Of Sheep + Hello Earth
SOME UNOBSERVANT OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE STRUCTURE
OF TWO KATE BUSH
SONGS
A long time ago, I foolishly suggested that it would be fun to do some thematic analyses of Kate Bush songs. Somebody (jer?) suggested as candidates And Dream of Sheep and Hello Earth, since most people thought they shared musical material but were unable to say exactly where. Well, here's what I dredged up. The comments are mostly on musical themes and motifs.
So are the two songs similar? Well, yes and no. The similarities are more subtle than the direct quoting of musical phrases. Generally, I'd say Kate Bush used a surprising economy of means in these two songs to achieve very varied effects. The two songs are in the same key (C# minor, occasionally moving into E major) and are similar in harmony also.
And Dream of Sheep is mainly composed of five main phrases: (there are different ways to break them up, but this is how I did it)
(1) The open fifths of "Little light shining...guide them to me". The first passage goes E E (5th) B, B (5th) F# etc. The first chord is a C# minor 7th (C# E G# B) and contributes to the tense, mysterious quality of the opening.
(2) "My face is... (repeated)". This is a relatively calm phrase, consisting mostly of repeated E's.
(3) "If they find me...for a buoy". Another calm phrase, alternating mostly between B and G#.
(4) "Let me be weak...of sheep". Quiet descending figures, ending in E major.
The first break in the song has the female voice saying "Come here, (name)". (1) is then repeated and extended with variations ("I'll wake up...a seeking craft". Call this (1a).) Then we have (2), (3), (3) again, but truncated ("I'll tune into..." and "I can't be left to..."). A repeat of (4) leads to the first new material for awhile.
(5) "Ooh their breath..." Open 6th's. A short phrase is repeated as a kind of coda.
The opening of Hello Earth is very similar to that of ADOS. The first phrase "Hello Earth Hello Earth" is over the same chord as ADOS (C# minor 7th) tho the theme is slightly changed. Hello Earth goes G# G# B, C# C# F#, while ADOS goes E E B, B B F#. I'd like to associate the chord and the thematic material with some kind of "contemplation" motif. It opens the two songs on Ninth Wave which are about the narrator contemplating her surroundings rather than hallucinating.
Hello Earth is much looser in construction than ADOS. Division of themes are not as clearcut as ADOS, so roughly here are the artificial divisions:
(1) "Hello Earth ... peek-a-boo little earth". Notice the "blot you out out..." motif (C# E G# B) which returns often in the song.
Part of (1) is repeated; "With just my heart...asleep at the seat" has the same thematic material as "With just one hand...little earth".
(2) "I get out of... travelling fast". Open fifths again.
(3) "Look at it go (twice)".
The first break in Hello Earth is again achieved with an non-Kate voice, the chorus that will return at the end of the song. Compare the "Come here..." passage in ADOS.
(1) is repeated with variations for "Hello Earth, Hello Earth, watching storms...the wind out to sea". Then there is a passage constructed of variations on C# D# E B ("All you...etc"). I see this as a combination of the open 5th motif of the opening of ADOS and the "blot you out out" phrase (C# E G# B).
(2) with all its rhythmic rigor and open fifths is repeated for "Go to sleep...head of the tempest". A short connecting phrase ("Murderer...") and then a repetition of (3) for "Why did I go...".
So there are definitely similarities. The upward leap of a fifth is an important motif, along with the C# minor 7th chord as both harmony and melodic line (in arpeggiated form). Both songs are in the same key, and the harmony is rather similar. While the songs were not terribly complex, the way Kate Bush uses a limited amount of material to achieve her many different effects is interesting.
Comments?
Bill Hsu
Date: 22 Nov 1985 2317-PST (Friday)
From: Elgin Lee <ehl@su-navajo.arpa>
Subject: KB on Miami Vice
A few minutes ago, I was surprised to hear the soft but unmistakable sounds of the choral section of "Hello Earth" emanating from the living room. "That's strange," I thought -- as far as I knew, I was the sole Kate Bush fan in my house. Checking it out further, I quickly saw that it was coming from the TV set, to the scene of some gunman stalking through a house gunning for somebody or another. They played the choral section up to the voiceover at the end (the one that's in what sounds like German -- what's it mean, anyway?).
Somehow, the music didn't seem all that appropriate.
Elgin Lee
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 85 14:11:56 est
From: Steve Tynor <gatech!gitpyr!tynor>
Subject: I'm becoming a Miami Vice Fan
Hope you all caught last night's Miami Vice. Kate's 'Hello Earth' was used in the last 15 minutes of the program! My favorite song (tied with Jig of Life) off the album. My faith in humanity has been restored.
Now, can anyone provide a translation of the men's chorus lines? I've heard several of you refer to it as 'greek chorus'. Why?
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 85 01:03 MST
From: "James J. Lippard" <Lippard@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA>
Subject: Miami Vice/Hello Earth
Unfortunately, the chorus from "Hello Earth" was not original with Hounds of Love. It was used in the 1979 Werner Herzog film "Nosferatu, the Vampyre". I'm not sure who originally wrote it, the music in Nosferatu was credited to Wagner, Gounod, and Popul Vuh.
Jim
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 85 22:11:11 est
From: ambar@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject: "Greek chorus"
Doug sent me some photocopies of a KB newsletter which is about a year old (she wishes everyone happy holidays) where she talks about how the new album (HoL) is doing. She tells how one of the crew (I forget who) brought back some tapes of Greek choruses which they all thought were very interesting...... and the sections in Hello Earth sound rather evocative of Greece.....
AMBAR
"Experience is something you get after you need it."
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 86 22:22 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: greek chorus
Speaking of Kate, IED just got out of the Nuart after seeing Herzog's "Nosferatu" again. This time he was armed with a walkman and recorded the Czech (or Russian) men's choral passage from the film which Kate used in The Ninth Wave. The "folk music", as it is called in the opening credits, is performed by a group called "Zinzcaro", if the name is remembered correctly. (The damn film isn't out on video in this country, apparently, so IED can only go by memory about the spelling.) NOT by the Richard Hickox Singers.
This is especially significant in light of the extraordinary similarity between the two performances of the piece. On careful listening, however, it is clear that, although extremely similar, the two performances are definitely different. The point where the difference is most clearly audible is in the forte repeat of the theme: in Kate's version the singing is a bit stronger, and the bass singer holds his note steadily between two of the chorus's syllables. This is not the case in the film version. Also, Kate has treated the sound of the choir electronically in some way -- or so it seems to IED -- whereas the film choir, which sings unaccompanied (Kate's choir is supported by a fermata note by a string section), is recorded in a more prosaic way.
All of this is particularly interesting because the same thing seems to be the case with the excerpt from "Curse of the Demon" which can be heard at the beginning of "Hounds of Love". IED has been assured that this passage is not the original, but a careful re-creation. Yet it is so similar that without such assurance it would be difficult to believe.
If anyone is in contact with a German folk-music fan, perhaps he/she might ask about "Zinzcaro"? Meanwhile IED plans to try to track down Richard Hickox.
Incidentally, the lead actor (not Kinski, but the younger man who plays Jonathan Harker) bears an astonishing resemblance to the actor whom Kate hired for the romantic lead in her "Hounds of Love" film. If it weren't for the thinning hair of the actor in "Nosferatu", IED would swear they were one and the same man.
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 86 15:56 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: NosferaKTu
Small world, eh, Fu-Sheng? Well, perhaps you're right that IED's enthusiasm for KT borders on the lunatical in comparison with that of other L-Hs; he will try to keep that in mind in future.
Since you ask, here is what IED knows about the Nosferatu connection:
In between the verses of "Hello Earth", Kate interstitched an uncanny duplication of the men's choral passage from the surreal
"drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-we-may-die" scene from the end of Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu", although altering the sound somewhat, and adding other instrumental tracks, either acoustic strings or a Fairlight imitation.
In the liner notes to Hounds of Love Kate "thanks" Werner Herzog, not specifying what for. Then, in Tony Myatt's Capital Radio interview, which was conducted for the Romford Convention last October or November, Kate said that she had got the men's choral section of "Hello Earth" "from" Herzog's "Nosferatu". She first identified the origin of this music as "Czech or Russian", then corrected herself by stating flatly that it was "Czech", adding that the music had sounded "truly holy" to her. (I don't remember the words exactly, but I have them on audio tape somewhere, and they are now in print somewhere in a recent "Homeground", which has been printing a transcription of the interview over the past two issues.)
At the beginning of the movie credit is given to Popol Vuh for the main score (IED foolishly paid $10.00 plus for the soundtrack LP in Europe last November, naively assuming that all the music from the film would be included). Below Popol Vuh's credit, two additional musical credits were listed, one for a passage from some Wagner opera or other (didn't have time to read it) and the third for "folk music" by some group (?) known as "Zinzcaro". This is almost certainly the credit for the bit of choral music in the penultimate scene which Kate used in "Hello Earth".
However, Kate's version is sung by a British choral group known as the "Richard Hickox Singers". In neither case are the words intelligible to IED, since he knows neither Czech nor Russian. He would be very interested to know what the words mean, or even if the same words are sung in both versions, even though it is admittedly highly unlikely that the lyrics' content bears any relation to Kate's theme in The Ninth Wave, or even that she ever bothered to find out what the words meant. It was clearly the sound that interested her, not the meaning of the words.
This has nothing to do with the line spoken in German from the same part of The Ninth Wave: "Tiefer, tiefer, ergendwo in der Tiefe gibt es ein licht." If you notice, that line, spoken by Gabi Zangerl, is accompanied by the sounds of a submarine's sonar signal. It is IED's theory that this is meant to evoke images of U-boat activity during WWII, and possibly to create the feeling of claustrophobia that must have existed within the confined spaces of a submarine, which is a big part of the movie "Das Boot". Kate has several times referred to old war movies as a primary inspiration for The Ninth Wave.
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 86 18:03 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Subject: Kate safe?
> It has always my impression that the submarine sonar sounds indicate that Kate is rescued by a submarine. After all, we have the voice telling us that "somewhere in the depth, there is a light", then we hear submarine sounds, and then Kate is safe on land again.
Thanks, Doug. Great point which IED applauds, is excited by, and feels dumb for not having thought of on his own.
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 16:07 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: lyrics
6. "Hello Earth"
a. Four voices, three (?) on land, one (?) in space capsule:
First voice: "Columbia now at nine times the speed of sound"
Second voice: "Roger that, Dan, I've got a solid tach-end {?} locked on, uh, tach-end twenty-three"
Third voice: "The, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned trajectory are all one line on the block"
Fourth voice: Show {?} your {?} block {?} decoded {? recorded?}"
b. Very complex group of sounds in transition from end of first chorus to end of "over America": whales, sonar, whistling wind and harmonics?
Enough of that. Just remember, there will be a spot quiz on the above problems at the party.
gniddi KT suj
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 86 13:04:44 PDT
From: Kevin Carosso <KVC%engvax.UUCP%usc-oberon.ARPA@usc-oberon>
Subject: lyrics
For anyone picky enough to care:
> 6. "Hello Earth"
> a. Four voices, three (?) on
land, one (?) in space capsule:
> First voice: "Columbia now at
nine times the speed of sound"
> Second voice: "Roger that,
Dan, I've got a solid tach-end {?} locked on, uh, tach-end twenty-three"
The second voice should read:
"...got a solid TACAN lock on
TACANs two and three"
The TACAN system is a military navigational system, also used by the shuttle.
Kevin Carosso
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 86 14:01 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: greek chorus
Now that you have all been duly admonished and are busily tugging at your forelocks in shame and contrition, IED announces an important new Bushological discovery:
HE HAS IDENTIFIED THE ORIGINAL SOURCE OF THE MEN'S CHORAL PASSAGE FROM "HELLO EARTH".
Let him take this opportunity to retract and apologize for his earlier vague reference to some Czech folk group named Zinzcaro in relation to the passage in question. This was quite false, and frankly IED is ashamed to say that he can't for the life of him explain how he came up with this false reference. He thought he had read it in the credits of Nosferatu, but in this it seems he was completely mistaken. IED will have the original score and the text (WHICH IS NOT IN CZECH OR RUSSIAN AT ALL), together with an English translation, within one month. Until then, let him confine himself to the simple statement that the passage, as Kate herself has said, is indeed "HOLY".
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 86 14:02 PST
From:
IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: greek chorus
Andrew Marvick's penultimate attempt to learn the origins of Kate's re-recording of the choral music from Nosferatu has produced an inconclusive result. (Those L-Hs with good memories and a respectable amount of fanaKTicism in their blood will recall IED's mid-October claim that he would know the truth about this bit of music within one month, and so that they may remove themselves from their tenterhooks, he has decided to explain the situation.)
The movie itself gives no clear information about the passage. IED therefore tracked down the addresses of Messrs. Michael Berkeley and Richard Hickox, respectively the orchestral arranger and chorus master on Kate's "Hello Earth" track. I asked them for whatever particulars they could give concerning the music, hoping that one or the other would know what the lyrics of the choral passage meant, and any other details about the recording process.
Yesterday I received the following letter from Michael Berkeley, accompanied by a photo-copy of the four-part score that Kate and he used for the recording.
Dear Mr. Marvick,
Thank you for your letter of October 10th. I'm very glad that you enjoy Kate's work since I too have always thought it highly individual.
You're right in thinking that a lot of care went into recording the chorus on Hello Earth and Kate was as exacting in her very precise requirements as any great conductor I have known (and I've known a few). Every nuance and dynamic had to be just right.
We began with an original chorus by me in the style of the Nosferatu music but it soon became clear that Kate was wedded to the Nosferatu sound almost note for note so, after exhaustive attempts to ascertain that the music was not in copyright, I notated the music and then adapted it so that it would fit harmonically.
Like you, I've been unable to pin down exactly where the music originates from but I came to the conclusion that it was a chant probably of Russian or greek Orthodox ancestry and almost certainly sung by monks or priests.
I'm sorry not to be able to be more precise and if you ever find out more yourself I will be fascinated to hear about it. Meanwhile, if I can find my copy of the chorus as I wrote it, I will include it for you or send it later.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Berkeley
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 88 13:06:32 pst
From: Marq Laube <marq%apple.apple.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: astronaut in Hello Earth
Fourthly, I discovered an incredible bit in "Hello, Earth" the other night. Right as Kate is singing the initial "Hello, Earth! Hello, Earth", during each of the "th" sounds, a very quiet male voice comes on (sounding like its being projected from space) and says something. Anyone have any clues as to what it is. (If you want to hear this, you will have to crank it up!)
-Marq
[It's definitely there, but I have no idea. It sounds a bit like "departure" or so. --WIE]
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 87 11:23 PST
From: IED0DXM@OAC.UCLA.EDU
Subject: re astronaut
[Re: the Hello Earth piece:]
Good listening, Marq. The words are simply
those of an astronaut, trying to contact Earth. He is echoing Kate's words, "Hello
Earth, Hello Earth." Keep it up. If you think that's hard to hear...
-- Andrew Marvick
From: Richard Jennings <garp!ames!hplabs!hpmwtla!hpqtdla!hpopda!richi@eddie.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 88 12:55:31 GMT
Subject: re astronaut
I reckon all he says is "Earth" - twice; you can hear it more clearly during the second "Hello Earth". However, I'm absolutely prepared for IED to shoot me down in flames on this - he always seems to get the lyrics that no-one else can (remember the "lovely toy" line in eKsperimenT IV?).
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 88 15:01 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: greek chorus
> Werner Herzog movie, "Nosferatu". I doubt Kate picked it for the words. IED knows more about this. -- |>oug ]
Maybe, but it's still nothing. After considerable research in quest of the meaning of the "words" in the Nosferatu chorus, and even the making of inquiries in letters to the arranger and the conductor, respectively, of the track, IED has come to the conclusion that it's highly unlikely that Kate ever found out what the words of the original chorus actually are saying, or even that she ever got more than an approximation of the original phonetics. No one has yet traced the original recording, and the credits in the movie itself are very vague. They apparently attribute the recording (but with no identification of the music itself) to a "group" called Zinzkarol, which IED (with extreme hesitancy) suggests might translate more or less as "Gypsy Chorale". Beyond that he was unable to track the scent. It's interesting that Kate thanks both Herzog and Florian Fricke in the HoL liner-notes, indicating that she made careful inquiries into the origin of the music. It turns out, however, that Popol Vuh, though the official composers of the film's soundtrack, did not compose or record the particular bit of music in question.
Date: Thu, 25 May 89 08:09:52 PDT
From: Douglas MacGowan <MACGOWAN@SRI-NIC.ARPA>
Subject: Classical Quotes
"So high our dragons soared into the air
that looking down the
earth appeared to me
no bigger than my hand in quantity"
--
Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus"
"With just one hand
held up high -
I can blot you out"
-- The Excellent Kate "Hello Earth"
Any connection? Kate quoted Shakespeare in "Blow Away" (and not a really famous quote, either), and I thought I remembered reading her say that she admired Marlowe and Elizabethan drama.
Just a thought.
Douglas MacGowan
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 10:01:55 -0800
From: Zimri Smith <ST701790@brownvm.brown.edu>
Subject: Hello Earth story.
I've been meaning to post something about Hello Earth for a while, but I haven't been sure if I can really express it. I love the song, but sometimes... well, I suppose I should say that it scares me silly. It's the imagery that comes from this part that does it:
(pardon inaccuracies -- I'm operating from memory here)
Can't do anything
Just watch them swing with the wind out to sea
All you sailors [...get out of the water]
All you cruisers
All you
fishermen
head for home
...
I get this image of Earth as seen from a distance, probably from high orbit. Looking down, you see a horrific, dark storm shooting out to sea, toward a sailboat, on which the sailors are ignorant of the impending horror-show that a nasty storm at sea can be. The reason this occasionally conjures up real fear is that I've done a some open water passages on sailboats, and know first-hand the potential for feeling helpless and alone out there when a dark wall appears on the horizon and grows quickly, consuming the entire sky in an angry black froth. I've been scared shitless out there, but at the same time it's weirdly exhilarating. Whenever some sort of nasty weather starts to come, I can't help playing over and over again in my mind, "All you sailors/all you cruisers..." etc.
The worst time I couldn't stop running the lines through my head was about 14 months ago, when my father was sailing to the Virgin Islands and got into a nasty storm (50 knot winds, 40 foot seas). A simultaneous set of events led to what is called a "goosewing jibe", which is a generally a bad thing. What happens is this: the boat is at the bottom of a trough between waves (in this case, about 40-footers, which are big and scary), and the mast sticks up above the top of the waves (on Mariah, the mast is about 60 feet tall), catching wind above the waves that isn't down in the trough. As the boat goes up the side of the next wave, the sail fills more and more.
Now, if the sail is off to one side, say, the port (left) side, and the wind starts to fill the sail *from* the port side, beginning at the top of the sail, you don't really notice this happening unless you're staring at the top of the mast. What happens is that the sail continues to fill, and at a certain point, fills more from the port side than the starboard, and as it continues to fill, violently whips to the other side of the boat. There is what is essentially a big stick on the bottom of the sail, called a boom, which during a jibe (a jibe -- or for the Brits out there, a gybe --is that violent movement of the sail from one side to the other) becomes a big baseball bat being swung at least as fast as the windspeed.
Anyway, as the 50 knot winds swung this big bat, my father was standing up and caught the end of it right in the face. Miraculously, he wasn't killed, and because he was wearing his harness, he wasn't thrown overboard. But his head was bashed pretty badly, and needed to be pulled from the boat, as they were about 350 miles off shore and couldn't just duck in to the nearest hospital. The problem was that the weather prevented any boat-to-ship transfer, and the coast guard tried several times to get him off with a helicopter and a rescue sling, but the waves were still too bouncy, and it wasn't possible. 36 hours after the accident, Air Force air/sea rescue was finally able to get him off the boat by dropping frogmen from a helicopter, who patched him up some and put him in a horseshoe sling which was dragged behing the boat to a distance at which it was safe for the helicopter to come down and pick up him and the frogmen.
Anyway, during that awful 36 hours, the only information my mother, brother, and I had was that he'd been struck by the boom during a jibe in a storm, and that the coast guard and air force were trying to get him off the boat, but couldn't. And among the swirling vortex of things rushing through my head were the images and lines from Hello Earth. And of course now I can't help associating the song with this story, and with ugly storms I've seen for myself.
So that's my story about why Hello Earth scares me sometimes.
Oh, in case anyone's interested by now, Dad's injuries (multiple skull fractures, lacerations to the eye, etc) actually healed pretty quickly, and he's fine. In fact, he was back on the boat about two months later. If any of you out there are students and have loved ones who sail, ask them not to get smashed in the face by a boom while you're in the middle of finals. It's kind of distracting.
-Zim
From: johnz@eaglet.rain.com (John Zimmer)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1992
05:12:18 GMT
Subject: Re: Irgendwo in der Tiefe
Ronald Hill writes:
> Well, at the end of "Hello, Earth"
the German words are: "Tiefer, tiefer, irgendwo in der Tiefe giebt es ein
Licht - Ihr koennt es nie finden." This means: "deeper, deeper,
somewhere in the depth there is a light - you (pl.) will never find it. "
I believe it's pretty well established that the German passage ends with "Licht" -- what comes after are the English words "Go to sleep little Earth".
Oh, and 'giebt' should be 'gibt'.
John Zimmer
johnz@eaglet.rain.com
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 09:59:59 +0000
From: S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk (Steve
Fagg's Mac)
Subject: Re: Nosferatu
Here's what KaTe had to say on the subject of "Hello Earth" & "Nosferatu" in the "Hounds of Love" programme on BBC Radio One's "Classic Album" series:
***** begin transcript *****
"Hello Earth" was a very difficult track to write as well, because in some ways it was too big for me. I ended up with this song that had two huge great holes in the choruses, where the drums stopped and everything stopped, and people would say to me: "What's going to happen in these choruses?" and I hadn't got a clue!
["Hello Earth" is played as far as the first "hole", then continues under the following.]
We had the whole song, it was all there, but for these huge great holes in the choruses, and I knew I wanted to put something there. I'd had this idea to put a vocal piece in there that was like this traditional tune I'd heard used in the film "Nosferatu". And, really, everything I came up with, it was rubbish really compared to what this piece was saying, and so we did some research to find out if it was possible to use it. And it was, so that's what we did. We re-recorded the piece and I kind of made up words that sounded like what I could hear was happening on the original. And suddenly there were these beautiful voices in these choruses that had just been like two black holes.
["Hello Earth" has reached the next chorus and is faded up again. It plays to the end of the track.]
In some ways I thought of it as a lullaby for the Earth. And it was the idea of turning the whole thing upside down and looking at it from completely above, like you would if you were lying in water at night and you were looking up at the sky all the time. I wonder if you wouldn't get the sense that, as the stars were reflected in the water, a sense that you could be looking up at water that's reflecting the stars from the sky that you're in. And the idea of them looking down at the Earth and seeing these storms forming over America and moving around the globe. And they have this huge, fantastically overseeing, view of everything. Everything is in total perspective and way, way down there somewhere there's this little dot in the ocean that is them.
[The programme moves on to "The Morning Fog"]
***** end transcript *****
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 94 14:47:23 CST
From:
gallaher@MOLLYBLOOM.msfc.nasa.gov (Mike Gallaher)
Subject: Ninth Wave
I saw the 1979 Werner Herzog film Nosferatu recently and was surprised to hear one scene accompanied by the same male choir piece that Kate inserted into "Hello Earth." I had assumed, since the piece wasn't credited on her album, that the section had been composed by whoever it was that was listed as arranger (or conductor or something like that) on the album. But it is obviously a preexisting composition. I didn't catch the title of the composition on the credits; I thought maybe someone out there could find a videotape of Nosferatu and get it. Since it is a prominent part of one of Kate's albums, it ought to be documented along with the rest of the KTrivia we wallow in, right?
Another thing: I downloaded the complete lyrics listing, and I noticed that in the transcription of the "conversational" intro to Waking the Witch, the transcriber apparently does not hear what I hear, namely two instances in which the name of the "narrator" of The 9th Wave is (to me) clearly given. The name is so perfect for the character that I cannot believe that I'm imagining it. Being new to the group, I just wondered if the character's name has already been discussed, and if not, why isn't it documented somewhere?
From: willtre@aol.com (Willtre)
Date: 26 Oct 1994 03:43:01 -0400
Subject: Georgian Source for "Hello Earth" (male chorus section)
Recently I "accidently" found out via AOL's KB Folder that some info. I have on a source for the male-chorus interlude in "Hello Earth" in The Ninth Wave was not generally known... I had no idea that even Kate doesn't know where this piece (that she picked up from Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu") came from.
2-3 years ago, my brother James was buying a lot of Russian orthodox liturgical music, thereby discovering the music of Georgia (Caucasia) along the way... he picked up a pretty obscure Japanese recording of traditional Georgian music (called, "The Marvels of Polyphony in Sakartvelo", CD Ethnic Sound Series #17, Victor, Japan 1987), and discovered upon playing the third cut that it was what must have been the source for this chant-like piece. On the Japanese CD it was called "Tshintsharo" (the liner notes were all in Japanese, so we couldn't learn anything more about this particular piece or type of music...Andy Marvick replied in an AOL msg. that the trailing credits in "Nosferatu" do mention something called "Zinzgaro"...) Back then when James' played the piece for me, I recognized the chord progression first, then started to hear the melody, moving in the same directions, at a slightly different meter--still very recognizable as the "Hello Earth" chorus. It is a very beautiful, haunting piece.
Just last Sunday, however, I was able to find out a little more about "Tshintsharo" because I discovered at Tower Records, a newer, domestic release of the exact same collection. The label, JVC, did not fully translate the liner notes, but about "Tshintsharo" it says this much: "This song performed without any trace of vibrato has a text including the line "May the well flow forth." Appropriate, (thinks Karen N.), for Kate's Ninth Wave!!
I will write to the label to see if there is any way to get a full translation for all the notes; here is a bit of what is there--
"The mountainous nation of Sakartvelo is located in the Caucasus mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Sakartvelo is in fact the former name for the area now known as the Soviet Republic of Georgia. Sakartvelo has a distinctive musical culture which fuses Turkish and other Asian elements with features from the music of Greece... Men and women seldom sing together. Choral music includes quiet pieces in the manner of Masses, lively pieces featuring exchanges between groups within the chorus... another important feature... is the complete absence of vibrato."
I'm sending a tape to The Kate Bush Club in Welling, Kent. Here is the CD info. for the domestic release:
"Georgian Polyphony I: Choral Music from Caucasia" JVC World Sounds, 1990 JVC Musical Industries, Inc. 3800 Barham Blvd., Ste. 305, Los Angeles, CA 90068.
includes: the Female Chorus Group of National Music School of Telavi; Male Chorus Group of Mestia; and Male Chorus Group of Makharadze.
--posted by Jennifer Trerise (Willtre @ AOL.)
From: au766@freenet.carleton.ca (Charles H. Baum)
Date: Fri, 28 Oct
1994 04:07:17 GMT
Subject: Re: Georgian Source for "Hello Earth"
(male chorus section)
The Female Chorus Group of National Music School of Telavi is the chorus which sings this cut on this CD, though most of the recordings I've heard of this (usually on truly obscure Georgian vinyl albums) are done by male choruses. Another JVC CD is Ethnic Sound Series No. 29, The Marvelous Polyphony of Martve, which features the same piece done (track 17) by the boy's chorus called Martve, directed by the Georgian choral director Anzor Erkomaishvili, who also directs the Rustavi Ensemble.
The song is actually a traditional lyrical song from Kakheti-Kartli, the easternmost region of the (former Soviet) Republic of Georgia, the area around Tbilisi, the capital. The song is actually best transliterated as tsintsqaro . The ts sounds are glottalized underneath the ts, and teh q is like a k sound, except made as far back in your throat as possible, and then a little further back. (It's a sound that Georgians like to hear foreigner attempt, and sometimes literally choke on.) All vowels tend toward median (neither long nor short).
The version that Kate uses is actually a pretty good transcription of the the traditional tune. The harmonies are also traditional--one of the unusual distinguishing features of Georgian music is that it is almost ALWAYS in harmony, usually three-part harmony in the Kakheti region, where tsintsqaro is from. I first became aware of it when the Kate Bush album was used as background music for an episode of Miami Vice involving Soveit defectors and spies. I didn't actually see the episode, but my friend had taped it on his VCR to time shift it, and my friend Frank is one of a handful of people in America (besides myself) that instantly recognized it as a Georgian tune. In fact, tracking down Kate Bush's use of it is how I got into Kate Bush myself. (I've long been into Georgian music!)
Tsintsqaro can be translated as At the Spring or By the Source or At the Well . It's a boy meets girl love song; he catches a glimpse of her at the spring when she comes to fetch water.
The choral parts of Hello Earth are therefore actually a traditional, public-domain folk-song!
A transliteration of the Georgian words I use to sing it (originally from a 1936 transcription of the song):
1. tsin-tsqa-ro cha-mo-vi-a-re tsin-tsqa-ro
tsin-tsqa-ro bi-cho da
cha-mo-vi-a-re
2. tsin shem khvda ka-li la-ma-zi tsin shem-khvda
bi-cho da ko-ka-rom
e-dga-mkhar-ze-da
3. si-tqva u-tkkhar da i-tsqi-na si-tqva u-tkhar-ri
bi-cho da
gan-ris-khda da-dga gan-ze-da
4. repeat verse 1.
Charlie Baum
The Kartuli Ensemble
(North America's Georgian Mens
A-Cappella Chorus)
There are no comments about this song here, but there are comments elsewhere, particularly in The Ninth Wave General Thoughts.
written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland
Willker
Sept 1995 June 1996