Back to The Sensual World album page
Back
to The Sensual World album page
Date: Wed Sep 6 14:58:25 GMT 1989
From:
timelord%TARDIS.CS.ED.AC.UK@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: The Sensual World
Heard this (the song, that is) on Radio One today. (A rare display of taste on their part.) Sounds good - strong percussive backbeat, lots of pipes, whistles and fiddles backing Kate's vox. The arrangements sound very ethnic - wanders between Arab/Jewish melodies on the pipes and whistles with Irish fiddling coming in later.
--Rick.
From: davidbro@microsoft.UUCP (David Brown)
Subject: Re: The Sensual
World
Date: 7 Sep 89 18:25:15 GMT
YOU HEARD THIS SONG?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!??????????
ARGH!!!! NEW KATE!!!!
AND I HAVEN'T HEARD IT YET !!!!!
From: n8445482@unicorn.wwu.edu (Bil)
Subject: Re: The Sensual World
Date: 8 Sep 89 00:57:12 GMT
After reading these postings last night, 6 of the 3 people living a KateHouse committed suicide.
Oh the humanity.
Fortunately, overdosing to The Dreaming hasn't been proven to be fatal.
Nonetheless, there exist people out there who have heard new Kate. This is seriously depressing.
From: Graham Bardsley <mcvax!tcom.stc.co.uk!graham@uunet.UU.NET>
Date: 19 Sep 89 12:54:06 GMT
Subject: Cut the crap, cut the cack - heres
The Sensual World
I Thought you love-hounds across the pond would be interested in this. Since you wont be getting this as the US single and there is probably some interest in what the <feel> of the forthcoming album is I have tried to unravel the lyrics to the two tracks on the CD single : The Sensual World and Walk Straight Down The Middle (the third is just an instrumental version of TSW). The CD single was released in Britain on Monday. Theres a couple of places where the lyric is pretty inaudible. Anyway here goes:
The Sensual World
Mmmmm Yes - Then I've taken the kiss of seed cake that foam his mouth
Going deep south go down
Mmmmm Yes - To the six big wheels and work damn
hard
He's up off of his head and into the flesh
Mmmmm Yes - He said I was the flower of the mountain yes
But now I've powers ?o'er ernos? body
Yes
Slippin out of the page into the sensual world
Slippin out...
To where the water and the earth caress and down on the peach says
Mmmmm Yes - do I look for those millionaires
Like a mad ?Coralean? girl
When I could wear
The sunset
Mmmmm Yes - And how we'd wished to live in the sensual world
It don't
need words - just one kiss in another
Steppin out of the page into the
sensual world
Steppin out of the page into the sensual world
Then the arrows of desire (remind) the speech
Mmmmm Yes - Then he
whispered would I
Mmmmm Yes - Be safe
Mmmmm Yes - From mountain
flowers
And at first with a charm around him
Mmmmm Yes - He loosened it so if
It slipped - between my breasts
He'd rescue it
Mmmmm Yes
And his spark took life in my hand
and mmmmm Yes
I said, oooh yes
Not yet
Mmmmm Yes
Mmmmm Yes
Yes
(As you can see - it's a pretty wierd set of words and without the music probably doubly so.)
Date: 20 Sep 89 09:38:03
From: Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu
Subject: The Sensual World
Thanks for the lyrics, Graham. I don't think them "wierd" at all.
The word "seedcake" is definitely a reference to Ulysses by James Joyce. Lazy scoffers who want to check this out fast should turn to the last line of the book and compare it to Kate's lyric
"mmmmm yes, I said oooh yes not yet."
The clearest description of the seedcake episode is in the "Sirens" chapter (#11)
"he said I was the flower of the mountain yes" might be from the same episode.
Is this song about Molly Bloom's desire to be "slippin out of the page"?
These are not the first Joycean references in Kate's work.
Julian
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 89 01:03 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Getting Into The Sensual
World
Finally! IED got hold of the new single today at last, in 12" and CD-5" formats. (7" and cassette singles are expected soon, though the latter is going to be very scarce.) Incidentally, Los Angeles's Kate maniacs have been coming out in force to get copies: The shopkeepers said the new single would arrive at 6 p.m. this evening, not before. IED arrived at 6:01, and already all 8 copies of the CD single had been bought or set aside (for people who had placed large deposits in advance). IED was 10 seconds from being too late to get the last CD-single, for another fan was right on his heels into the shop! And everyone wanted multiple copies, too! The woman behind the counter said something like "Jeez, you Kate Bush fans are really obsessive!" IED assured her earnestly that there was a simple reason for that: KATE BUSH IS GOD. She wasn't converted, however.
The a-side is simply the album cut of TSW : just under 4 minutes. The b-side has the instrumental version (exactly the same as the a-side but without the lead vocal); and Walk Straight Down the Middle. The CD-single has the exact same contents as the 12".
The cover of both is the same: a black-and-white photograph (printed in John Carder Bush's lush purplish-brownish-black "duo-tone" colour) of Kate on the front, with the title, in spindly sans-serif type along the right side, reading from top to bottom: THE SENSUAL WORLD KATE BUSH. The back side is in plain black with all writing in gold letters. The production credits are interesting: all tracks were produced by Kate Bush. But TSW was "recorded by" Del Palmer; while WSDTM was "engineered" by Del Palmer. A rather mysterious distinction, no?
The labels of the 12" are standard EMI black, but the CD-single has a special black label-side with the TSW -style gold lettering on it--extremely cool-looking!
The photograph itself is gorgeous. It's just a very simple, straightforward half-length portrait shot of Kate in a black, sleeveless dance leotard top, hair loose and copious. She faces the camera nearly head-on, but is looking off slightly to the right. Her arms are held out in front of her, loosely clasped together at the wrist. Behind her is an unseen back-light, and there is a kind of mist in the blackness beyond.
IED earlier described a very similar shot which was printed in NME's news announcement last issue. In that photo, from the same session, everything is more or less the same except that Kate is looking directly into the camera, and in her right hand is--a peach.
In the photograph on the cover of the new single the peach has become--dust, slipping through her fingers. ("Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.") Typically exKuisiTe, purely Katian implication and sug-gestion, rather than direct statement: for if one had not seen the NME photo, one would not know The Whole Story behind the image.
IED has had a stab at transcribing the lyrics of The Sensual World, too. By the way, this record has got to be the most inaccessible piece of songwriting Kate has ever done--yet it's also one of her most immediately memorable and accessible records she's ever done. There's never been anything like The Sensual World.
IED does not for the life of him know what the specific subject of the song is, but he'd be willing to bet there's some very particular literary source for it. So many crucial words are hard to decipher, however, that IED can make no guess as to what that source might be--a fairy tale, perhaps?
IED has no confidence in his own version of the lyrics. "----" marks equal total failure; all the other words are tentative at best. IED has never had so much difficulty hearing the words Kate is singing than he has in this case. It's as though Kate had been inspired to create one of the most infectious, stylistically eclectic pop records, yet had decided to record the vocal so only she could really hear it ! It's like she made this record literally for herself! It's...oh, words just fail IED--he's "stepping out off the page, into the sensual world"!
Thanks to Graham for starting the ball rolling. IED reproduces Graham's version line by line, with IED's below each one. In many cases Graham and IED hear the same words, but (as is to be expected with a vocal like this one, sung in such an uncompromisingly private way) in many other cases there are discrepancies--though again IED is not at all sure which version, if either, is "correct".
The Sensual World
>Mmmmm Yes - Then I've taken the kiss of seed cake that foam his mouth
Mmm...yes! When I've taken the kiss of seed cake back from his mouth
>Going deep south go down
Goin' deep south -------
>Mmmmm Yes - To the six big wheels and work damn hard
Mmm...yes!
Took six big wheels, erode our bodies (?)
>He's up off of his head and into the flesh
Up --------- head and
into the flesh
>Mmmmm Yes - He said I was the flower of the mountain yes
Mmm...yes! He said I was the flower of the mountain mist (?)
>But now I've powers ?o'er ernos? body
But now I've powers of a
woman's body
>Yes
---
>Slippin out of the page into the sensual world
Steppin'out off
the page into the sensual world
>Slippin out...
Steppin' out...
>To where the water and the earth caress and down on the peach says
To where the water and the earth caress and the down on the peach says
>Mmmmm Yes - do I look for those millionaires
Mmm...yes! Do I look
for those millionaires
>Like a mad ?Coralean? girl
Like a Mycoralian (?) girl
>When I could wear
When I could wear
>The sunset
The sunset.
>Mmmmm Yes - And how we'd wished to live in the sensual world
Mmm...yes! And how we'd wish to live in the sensual world
>It don't need words - just one kiss in another
It don't need
words. Just one kiss, then another.
>Steppin out of the page into the sensual world
Steppin' out of
the page, into the sensual world.
>Steppin out of the page into the sensual world
Steppin' out of the
page, into the sensual world.
>Then the arrows of desire (remind) the speech
And then the arrows
of desire rewrite the speech.
>Mmmmm Yes - Then he whispered would I
Mmm...yes! And then he
whispered, would I--
>Mmmmm Yes - Be safe
Mmm...yes! --be safe--
>Mmmmm Yes - From mountain flowers
Mmm...yes! -- from mountain
flowers?
>And at first with a charm around him
And at first with the charm
around him
>Mmmmm Yes - He loosened it so if
Mmm...yes! He loosened it so if
>It slipped - between my breasts
It slipped between my breasts,
>He'd rescue it
He'd rescue it.
>Mmmm Yes -- And his spark took life in my hand
Mmm...yes! And his
spark took life in my hand, and
>And mmmm Yes -- I said, oooh yes
Mmm...yes! I said "Mmm...yes!
>Not yet
But not yet."
>Mmmmm Yes
Mmm...yes!
>Mmmmm Yes
Mmm...yes!
>Yes
Yes!
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: 21 Sep 89 08:36:34
From: Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu
Subject: TSW and Molly Bloom
Greetings from the cutting edge of Kate Bush scholarship!
First off, a correction to yesterday's assertion that the best place to look for the seedcake passage in Ulysses was chapter 11, the Sirens. I meant the other chapter in which Bloom is in a public eating-place: chapter 8, the Lestrygonians.
To make up for this, I can now quote page numbers:
Vintage (Random House) ed., 1961: p. 176
Penguin Modern Classics ed., 1984: p. 144
The passage which is of more direct relevance to The Sensual World is the final page-and-a-half or so of the book, Vintage p. 782-3/Penguin p. 642-4.
These pages contain the lines:
"I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth" (643 line 14)
[Kate reverses this in TSW]
"flower of the mountain" ( 643 line 16, 644 line 2)
"big wheels" (643 line 31)
[but I don't understand this reference in either context]
"sunsets" (643 line 39)
The physical setting of the episode is on a hill to the north of Dublin, overlooking the sea, hence possibly
"where the water and the earth caress"[TSW line 10].
An edited version off the passage, beginning with the line
"I'd love to have the whole place swimming in roses" (642 line 42) has been set to music (!) for soprano (!) solo and orchestra by Stephen Albert under the title of "Flower of the Mountain" (!). I have located the piano reduction of Albert's score, which was published in 1986 by Schirmer. It is orchestrated for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn), 2 A clarinets, 2 F horns, 2 Bb trumpets, percussion, piano, harp and strings. It runs about 16:00. It was first performed by Lucy Shelton at the Y in NYC, 17 May 1986. I don't think it has been recorded.
Now. Mystery lines.
"going deep south". The NME(?) review someone posted this morning gave this line as "going deep sex". I think this is odd, and unlikely. "deep south" and "deep six" are both expressions. "deep sex" sounds a little direct for line two of a song ! Can we try to get an authoritative reading on this one?
"he's up off his head". Could this possibly be "Howth Head"? That is the physical location of the episode in Ulysses, a headland north of Dublin. (see eg 643 line 13)
"down on the peach". Molly uses the word "peach" once, in the phrase "soft like a peach" in reference to female sexual organs (Vintage page 770). Earlier in the day she has been presented with a gift of peaches and pears. Can't find a reference to "down" on peaches.
"?Coralean? girl". Could it possibly be "Coriolanus" or "Cordelia"? Both are mentioned in Ulysses, but beyond that I have no suggestions.
"?o'er ernos? body" ???
"The Sensual World" seems to be original to Kate. The word "sensual" somewhat surprisingly does not occur in Ulysses, and so a fortiori neither does "sensual world". Does IED have any further reference to Rupert Croft-Cooke's work The Sensual World ? I can't find it in the Dartmouth library either. I have written down a date of 1903--if that is the date of the work, it is a natural for earning a reference in Ulysses which is set in 1904. I rather think that is Croft-Cooke's birthdate though.
Damn I want to hear this song now!
Julian
From: greg@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Greg O'Rear)
Subject: Re: Getting Into
The Sensual World
Date: 21 Sep 89 20:57:25 GMT
> >Like a mad ?Coralean? girl
> Like a Mycoralian (?) girl
I heard it as "Machiavellian".
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 89 11:48 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Ulysses and The Sensual World
First, a sincere and warm thankyou to Julian West for the extremely cogent information he gave about the connections between Ulysses and The Sensual World. IED, who owns the Penguin edition, had searched in vain for "Chapter 11" yesterday (the original chapter headings are not included in that edition, it turns out), so could find only the relevant soliloquy at the very end. The specific page references you gave, therefore, Julian, are most opportune and much appreciated.
It occurs to IED that Kate might be drawing partially, or even possibly in toto, from the recent film James Joyce's Women, which starred Fionula Flanagan as Molly Bloom, and which included a long soliloquy based on but also of course much different from the original in Ulysses. This would be worth checking into.
> Now. Mystery lines.
> "Going deep south". The NME(?) review someone posted this morning gave this line as "going deep sex". I think this is odd, and unlikely.
As much as he'd like to, IED cannot oblige. This is one of several lines in the song which IED simply cannot hear clearly enough to make sense of. We'll just have to wait till the album comes out with the lyric sheet.
> "he's up off his head". Could this possibly be "Howth Head"? That is the physical location of the episode in Ulysses, a headland north of Dublin. (see eg 643 line 13)
Yes! Yes! Yes! That's what she's saying! Great work!
> "down on the peach". Molly uses the word "peach" once, in the phrase soft like a peach" in reference to female sexual organs (Vintage page 770). Earlier in the day she has been presented with a gift of peaches and pears. Can't find a reference to "down" on peaches.
Nevertheless it makes perfect sense in this context. You must have hit on the correct reference (p. 770).
> "?Coralean? girl". Could it possibly be "Coriolanus" or "Cordelia"? Both are mentioned in Ulysses, but beyond that I have no suggestions.
As Greg O'Rear noted already, Kate is saying "Like a Machiavellian girl" here. Thanks, Greg.
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 89 12:35:41 EDT
From: Jon Drukman <jsd@GAFFA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Penelope (p.49)
"the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldn't answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky...
...O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 01:05:23 EDT
From: Woj <woiccare@clutx.clarkson.edu>
Subject: Machevellian Girls
Alright you anaylsts of things Kate: why did she use the word 'Machevellian' instead of 'Andalusian' (like Joyce wrote it) in TSW (the song)? Seems to me out of place somehow, unless of course she is refering to the manipulative way the Molly plays with her suitor's mind...
Comments?
woj
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 89 09:25:51 EDT
From: juli@lafayette.dartmouth.edu
(Julian West)
Subject: TSW and Molly Bloom
> From: Woj <woiccare@clutx.clarkson.edu>
> Alright you anaylsts of things Kate: why did she use the word 'Machevellian' instead of 'Andalusian' (like Joyce wrote it) in TSW (the song)? Seems to me out of place somehow, unless of course she is refering to the manipulative way the Molly plays with her suitor's mind...
Okay, good question! I was a bit puzzled by this word `Machiavellian' since it is absent not only from the "Penelope" chapter but from the whole of Ulysses ! Your observation that `those Andalusian girls' [ Ulysses ] fits the rhythm of `a Machiavellian girl' [ TSW ] is an excellent one. Since Kate is on record as having said that she couldn't get the rights to use the text from Ulysses (although she obviously alludes to it freely), perhaps this is an example of a line which was changed from an earlier, complete version of the song. If we could get some more evidence to bear out this hypothesis, it would shed considerable insight into the textual composition of TSW .
Similar examples anyone?
Julian
ps. `Andalusian' appears because Molly is remembering incidents from her girlhood when she was an `army brat' in Gibraltar. Characteristically, these memories blur with those of her courtship with Leopold Bloom on Howth Head.
Date: 04 Oct 89 11:27:19
From: Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu
Subject: Words in The World
Just what everyone wanted: more Joycean pedantry about TSW !
Ed Suranyi (?) yesterday made the keen observation that Kate has made the appropriate decision of focussing on Molly's ultimate "yes". More on that, and on two other words that may have been overlooked.
"yes" represents Molly's great apotheosis at the end of the chapter, as readers of Jon Drukman's transcription will have noticed. It is both the first word of the chapter ["Yes because he never did a thing like that before..."] and the last ["...and yes I said yes I will Yes."]
Consequently, it is the last word of the entire book. It probably represents her last thought before falling asleep in the early morning hours of June 17.
"yes" has a relative frequency of .00375 in "Penelope" as opposed to .00135 in Ulysses as a whole. Looked at another way, its 84 occurences in Molly's monologue represent over 23% of its appearances in the book. The monologue contains only 8.5% of the words in Ulysses [my estimate]. The word "yes" is thus clearly linked to Molly.
"mmmmm" is the flip side of "yes". Molly's first word spoken in Ulysses , and likely her first thought of the day on June 16, 1904, is "Mn". Although it does not recur (there is a "mm", but in her husband Leopold Bloom's thoughts) this word is strongly associated to Molly. In its two letters it embodies the ambiguity of yes/no. Her husband instantly translates it for us as "No", but clearly this translation is necessary! Molly, in her embodiment of the female principle, transcends male, boolean logic.
I'll transcribe the exchange:
-- You don't want anything for breakfast?
A sleepy soft grunt answered:
-- Mn.
No. She didn't want anything. ...
[chapter 4, middle of second page; page 46 in Penguin ed.]
The third word, easiest to overlook is "he". "He" is also overrepresented in "Penelope", with a relative frequency of .0193 as opposed to .0153 in the book as a whole. Its 433 occurences in "Penelope" represent 10.7% of its total number of appearances.
But this relatively small difference in frequency drastically underestimates the importance of "he" in Penelope. The pronoun appears universally without antecedents . Molly frequently uses "he" to refer to completely different men within a line or two of one another. Even in her remembrances of her marriage proposal, she is filtering in thoughts of an adulterous liaison earlier in the day, of her first sexual experiences in Gibraltar, of a young student whom her husband has just rescued from adversity, etc. Considerable familiarity with the text of Ulysses is required to differentiate between these elliptical antecedents.
"He" appears 4 times in TSW , "his" twice and "him" once. [My counts, made of course without Kate's transcription of the lyrics.]
Conclusion: in focussing on these three easily overlooked words "Yes" "mn" and "he", Kate betrays considerable sophistication in her handling of the literary source material. Any surprises?
Julian
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 89 13:14 PDT
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: MisK.--Mailbag
>> Conclusion: in focussing on these three easily overlooked words "Yes" "mn" and "he", Kate betrays considerable sophistication in her handling of the literary source material. Any surprises?
>Give me a fucking break. You can't be serious. This is nonsense, no matter what the "relative freqency" of "mn" is in Ulysses. Please go look up "Occam's Razor" in a philosophy book before you go spouting this bull again.
-- Brian
Since Brian's foolish, anti-intellectual complaint appeared he (and Julian) will have had a chance to read the NME interview which IED posted the other day. In it Kate confirms several of Julian's suppositions about her approach to the Joyce text: that her source was indeed the text itself (not, as IED had suggested might be possible, the film James Joyce's Women ); that her study of the passage had obviously been quite extensive (as well as rooted to an initial experience years in her past (what better way to be introduced to the Molly Bloom passage than through a live reading by Siobhan McKenna, a firstrate Shakespearean actress?); and, most importantly, that she had indeed taken very careful notice of the use of "Yes" in the original passage.
In fact, her decision to use the Joyce text as the subject of her song stemmed from her immediate recollection that this word had been a crucial motif of the Molly Bloom passage. She also observed both the distinction and the similarity between her "Mmh, yes" and the "Yes" in that soliloquy.
IED, for one, never had the slightest doubt but that Julian was correct about this. And if he was correct in this respect, why not in all his other, related suggestions regarding the text and Kate's adaptation of it?
And lest some of you should still doubt that Kate would take that kind of trouble with her literary material, remember that she shares her work with her family, including her brother John Carder Bush, long before it is released. And JCB does most definitely heed the significance of the written word in this way. He is also very familiar with Joyce's work.
IED thinks it's a little unfair to those many Love-Hounds who haven't had a chance to hear it themselves. Speaking for himself, anyway, IED has always found it very hard to shrug off other people's judgements about the nature and quality of new music when he gets the judgements before he has heard the music.
He will say this, however: The Sensual World is a great work of art. He doesn't see why so many people come to a new Kate Bush album with a measuring-stick, comparing it to see how much like The Dreaming or Hounds of Love it is. It's different! What would have been the point of making an album like The Dreaming again? She already made The Dreaming !
IED has been a Kate Bush aKolyTe long enough to know that it is absurd to criticize her new music--let alone to try "ranking" it in relation to her earlier albums--before having really lived with it for a while--or even then. Also, IED's copy of the album is of amazingly poor audio quality. (The normal cassette version of the album which IED obtained the other day--from which he copied the liner notes for Love-Hounds recently--is loaded with tiny but very noticeable dropouts, excessive tape hiss, a slightly faster than 33 1/3 running speed and a terribly sharp drop-off of the higher frequencies. IED strongly advises Love-Hounds to hold out for the UK vinyl or the CD.) He therefore hasn't been listening to it much yet.
Hell, IED's been listening to the 1976 demos practically every day for three months or more now, and he still doesn't really have anything concrete to say about them--only that they are an unassailable, incontrovertible proof that God is living among us.
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: 13 Oct 89 08:33:07
From: Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu
Subject: The Sensual World anagrammed
- I -
'Show and Tell' ruse
Grand leave? No.
Go! Heft!
Urge to chain
Shewn in agreed cad
- II -
Sad? Ring up rented Eden.
Mama an' we be at an end now.
'n' be in me ever
T' Heat-stick lore
Ma who risks nowt?
Men who skid 't, dawdle 't alright
From: barger@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Jorn Barger)
Date: 18 Oct 89
23:24:40 GMT
Subject: Scholar Cracks Sensual Wordcode
because i felt this terrible sense of deprivation hearing the doubletalk lyrics of sensual world i spent yesterday evening in the library with a ulysses concordance...
the good news is that the original lyrics can be identified with pretty much 100% certainty: they're all from the last page and a half and fall into two verbatim chunks that match precisely for rhythm, vowel sounds, and 'yes'es.
the bad news is that we can only hear them in our minds' ear: i almost suspect that those multiple instrumental tracks on the EP were Kate's way of saying listen-thru-the-code...
the joyce estate has been outraging scholars for several years now--joyce's only living heir, his grandson stephen, feels that despite the desires of scholars, his family still retains the right of privacy, and that's his right, surely. he has burnt letters, objected to the public sale of a deathmask of his grandfather, objected to the commercialization of the museum in the joyce tower in sandycove...
but what a loss that this song got caught in the crossfire...
The Sensual World (restored)
MMMH, YES,
THEN I'D TAKEN THE KISS OF SEEDCAKE BACK FROM HIS MOUTH
...first I
gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth
GOING DEEP SOUTH, GO DOWN, MMH, YES.
and it was leapyear like now yes
TOOK SIX BIG WHEELS AND ROLLED OUR BODIES
16 years ago my God
OFF OF HOWTH HEAD AND INTO THE FLESH, MMH, YES,
after that long kiss I
near lost my breath yes
HE SAID I WAS A FLOWER OF THE MOUNTAIN, YES,
he said I was a flower of
the mountain yes
BUT NOW I'VE POWERS O'ER A WOMAN'S BODY-- YES.
so we are flowers all a
womans body yes [sic: thus in joyce]...
TO WHERE THE WATER AND THE EARTH CARESS ...
and Gibraltar as a girl
where I
AND THE DOWN OF A PEACH SAYS MMH, YES,
was a flower of the mountain
yes
DO I LOOK FOR THOSE MILLIONAIRES
when I put the rose in my hair
LIKE A MACHIAVELLIAN GIRL WOULD
like the Andalusian girls used
WHEN I COULD WEAR A SUNSET? MMH, YES,
or shall I wear a red yes
AND HOW WE WISHED TO LIVE IN THE SENSUAL WORLD
and how he kissed me
under the Moorish wall
YOU DON'T NEED WORDS-- JUST ONE KISS, THEN ANOTHER.
and I thought well
as well him as another
AND THEN THE ARROWS OF DESIRE REWRITE THE SPEECH, MMH, YES
and then I
asked him with my eyes to ask again yes
AND THEN HE WHISPERED WOULD I, MMH, YES
and then he asked me would I
yes
BE SAFE, MMH, YES, FROM MOUNTAIN FLOWERS?
to say yes my mountain
flower
AND AT FIRST WITH THE CHARM AROUND HIM, MMH, YES
and first I put my
arms around him yes
AND LOOSENED IT SO IF
and drew him down to me
IT SLIPPED BETWEEN MY BREASTS
so he could feel my breasts
HE'D RESCUE IT, MMH, YES,
all perfume yes
AND HIS SPARK TOOK LIFE IN MY HAND AND, MMH, YES
and his heart was
going like mad and yes
I SAID, MMH, YES
I said yes
BUT NOT YET, MMH, YES
I will Yes
MMH, YES
--Jorn Barger (i'd like to bring you love, and deeper understanding, someday)
Date: 19 Oct 89 12:28:20
From: Julian.West@mac.dartmouth.edu
Subject: A banner day for Kate scholarship
Congratulations to Jorn Barger!
Jorn has done a damned sensible thing in tracking the "original" lyrics to the World. I had conjectured in love-hounds a week or two ago that this would be possible but I hadn't gotten around to trying yet ! How lazy can I get? I've even been wasting time on my thesis...
What tipped me off (this was back in the days before we were sure about the difficulties with Joyce's estate) was the unusual word "Machiavellian" which is not Joycean at all but happens to fit the cadence of "Andalusian". I figured that similar substitutions had been made throughout, starting with the first line, which I had myself been able to match. I had no idea that the complete solution would be so simple though! Only two fragments!
Incidentally, everything that Jorn says about the custodians of Joyce's estate is strongly stated, but true. It is frustrating! Are you something of a Joycean scholar, Jorn?
Only one thing that Jorn says is (partially) false, however: that "we can only hear [this song] in our minds' ear". True that we can only hear Kate singing it in our minds (and how sweet it is! try it!) But we can certainly hear someone else singing it. All I need is a good soprano, a recording studio, and a copy of the double-tracked single (the one with no lyrics, remember). I'll get on it this weekend.
Is it worth doing this? Depends on whether you are interested in Kate primarily as a singer or a composer. Is it legal ? Probably depends on how widely it circulates; I don't know.
julian
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 89 23:40:00 EDT
From: Jon Drukman <jsd@GAFFA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: A banner day for Kate scholarship
> All I need is a good soprano, a recording studio, and a copy of the double-tracked single (the one with no lyrics, remember). I'll get on it this weekend.
I have the CD single which has the instrumental version as a separate song (real easy to cue up) and I have a four track tape deck. Any good singers out there?
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 89 17:44 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: Dutchman's allegations of
Kate Bush "fraud"
A recent Love-Hounds posting (IED is greatly indebted to the transcriber, to Vickie Mapes--via Larry Hernandez--for calling IED's attention to it, and to Michael Butler for reading it over the phone to him), taken from an article printed in the Dutch music journal Ur (#21, October 21, 1989), has moved IED to do a little research on his own, and he has a few observations to make now.
First, what exactly happened between Mr. Libbenga and Kate? Mr. Libbenga more or less admits that he never actually had any personal contact with Kate. In fact, it seems that whatever telephonic communication he had with her was too "thin" to fill even the brief kind of interview-article now considered adequate among contemporary-music publications. Nevertheless, we are told, Mr. Libbenga "sent Kate" a tape of folk music. It is not clear to what address this tape was sent, but there can be no doubt that Kate and her brothers are recipients of a vast number of such tapes each year, and we cannot assume that Kate ever heard Mr. Libbenga's tape, nor that, if she did hear it, she was aware from whom the tape had come. Paddy Bush, we know, has an enormous collection of tape-recordings of ethnic music, and presumably Kate's exposure to these and other collections is casual, even chaotic, at times.
We also have the information that Kate called Mr. Libbenga "collect". And why not? Mr. Libbenga had asked for an interview with Kate Bush, and--almost certainly because he had associated himself with a Dutch music journal--he was granted one. Perhaps his evident pique at being asked to pay for the cost of the interview was a partial cause of the succeeding interview's suspicious "thinness"? We cannot know.
What of the question of "fraud", then? There can be no question that the recording heard on Kate's album is completely different from the recording named by Mr. Libbenga. The choice of Uillean pipes, Greek bouzouki and Irish fiddle as the instrumentation of the "air" in question is surely original--particularly if, as Mr. Libbenga claims, the melody is Macedonian. (Macedonia is a part of what is now Yugoslavia.)
Whatever similarity does exist between Mr. Libbenga's Dutch tape and Kate's The Sensual World must, therefore, be strictly limited to the melody itself. It would be unwise to take any stranger's word for it that one melody is "the same" as another without hearing the two recordings oneself; in this case it would be triply unwise, for we know already that Mr. Libbenga apparently had some reason for harboring a grudge against Kate (for calling "collect", and for failing to oblige him with a "thick" enough interview to further his career), and we also know that Mr. Libbenga has described his original tape recording as sounding much like The Beatles' recording of Mother Nature's Son --a comparison which, in IED's opinion, puts in the gravest doubt Mr. Libbenga's claims about the likeness of his tape to Kate's recording!
Two other points are in order. First, it will be remembered that the author of the interview with Kate which was published recently in New Musical Express twice referred to Kate's instrumental material from The Sensual World as a "Macedonian air". We need not be in any doubt that this knowledge was not the author's own, but was transmitted to him by Kate Bush herself. (There is little likelihood that a staff writer for New Musical Express could distinguish a Macedonian air from a plate of peas.) Therefore, assuming that the origin of the melodic material is Macedonian, Kate has already proven herself perfectly forthcoming on the issue.
The second point is that, however Kate became acquainted with the melody, its folk origins place it squarely in the public domain, and therefore any question of "fraud" is moot.
Despite this fact, it is significant that Kate has always been perfectly willing to identify elements of her music which are borrowed from traditional sources. In fact, Kate was openly apologetic when, through a label typo by EMI, credit for the composition of The Handsome Cabin Boy was given to her (the song is traditional). Similarly when My Lagan Love was released Kate was very explicit about the traditional origin of the music vs. the John Carder Bush-originated lyrics she used for the song. And again when describing the use of a traditional melody in Hello Earth Kate was admirably forthright in ascribing its origins to the soundtrack of Werner Herzog's film Nosferatu. (She also thanked Herzog and the film's soundtrack supervisor Florian Fricke in the liner notes of Hounds of Love .) And still another time, Kate went out of her way to identify a rhythm she used in Jig of Life as coming from Greek folk sources.
Given this proven honesty on Kate's part in the past, IED can see no reason for doubting her when she claims that her recording, The Sensual World, is substantially her own work. IED thinks the most likely explanation is that a minimum of melodic material was adapted--with at least some changes and probably considerable variation and development--by Kate from traditional Macedonian sources, possibly but by no means certainly through exposure to Mr. Libbenga's homemade compilation of public-domain traditional music; and that, following its novel and radical re-instrumentation and arrangement by Kate with the aid of Irish musicians, she rightly felt that such a natural absorption of folk elements in her work did not jeopardize her status as creator of the final recording. And despite this, she has apparently been quite willing to identify the Macedonian roots of a (no doubt small) part of her recording's elaborate counter-melody.
All in all, IED can find no justification for Mr. Libbenga's quibble with Kate; indeed, IED sees far more evidence to doubt both the legitimacy of Mr. Libbenga's musical expertise and the honorability of his motivation for making these dubious accusations.
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 14:32:05 EST
From: rpk@goldhill.com
Subject:
SeKreTs of the Sensual World
The only obsKure detail that I can recall that the moment is the whip sound about 00:14-00:15 into first track. Does this also appear on Heads We're Dancing? There is, of course, a more obvious double sound apperance, which is the bells in both The Sensual World and Reaching Out. Maybe there's a sound in each track besides The Sensual World that also appears in that song (although that's probably not the case, given the relative simplicity of This Woman's Work).
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 89 11:14:44 -0700
From: Lazlo Nibble <lazlo@ariel.unm.edu>
Subject: Woosh
Maybe this was mentioned before and I missed it. Fifteen seconds into the title track on "The Sensual World", right before the bass guitar cuts in, there's a "woosh" sound. Que es?
From: gatech.edu!mit-eddie!GAFFA.MIT.EDU!jsd@cs.utexas.edu (Jon Drukman)
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 89 18:50:38 GMT
Subject: Re: Woosh
See there on the credit sheet where it says "Paddy Bush: Whips"? That's what it is. A whip.
(Kate's been watching too much Indiana Jones stuff.)
From: leo@duttnph.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart)
Subject: Kate Bush vs.
the Dutch Magazine 'Oor' [long]
Date: 19 Dec 89 08:43:11 GMT
A month or so ago, I posted a translation of an article in a Dutch music magazine, in which Kate Bush was accused of falsely taking writing credit for the song 'The Sensual World', and ... oh heck, I'll repeat the translation further on in this posting. I didn't get much response from the Love-Hounds, except - of course - for IED, or rather Andrew Maverick, who (at my suggestion) composed a letter, which I subsequently send to the editors of the magazine. I had already forgotten about it when a few days ago I got a reply from the journalist who wrote the original article.
Just for completeness' sake, I thought it might be interesting to let this group know the final outcome of this matter. I will now give, in order, my translation of the original article, IED's letter, and the translation of the reply from the original author (which is addressed to me, because I put a brief explaining note along with IED's English letter). All translation errors are, of course, mine:
* JAN LIBBENGA's ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN MUSIC MAGAZINE 'OOR' *
BUSH FRAUD ? [In Dutch: 'Bush Bedrog?', a nice alliteration]
'The Sensual World' is the name of the new single by Kate Bush. Although, 'new'? I have known the melody which her accompanist Davy Spillane plays in this song on bagpipes for years.
In the fall of 1985 I was going to interview Kate Bush in England. Because she then already had shown her love for (Irish) folk music, I had brought a cassette of my folk favourites. The interview first was cancelled, but after a few days La Bush called me after all at home (collect). The interview was never published (too thin), but I did send her the tape afterwards. On that tape was the from Yugoslavian Macedonia originating 'Antice, dzanam, Dusice', performed by the Haagse [i.e. from The Hague] ensemble Calgija, conducted by etnomusicologist Wouter Swets. Originally a song about a poor girl who had to take care of her younger sister, and therefore couldn't get a husband; in Swets' (instrumental) version almost as beautiful as 'Mother Nature's Song' by the Beatles. According to the booklet of the LP and CD 'The Sensual World' the title song was written by La Bush herself: not true. Was this traditional melody suggested to her by the Trio Bulgarka, guests on the album, or did my cassette reach her home address in Kent, after all?
* IED'S REPLY TO THE MAGAZINE *
In regard to Mr. Libbenga's accusation that the English recording artist Kate Bush was deceitful in failing to identify the traditional source of a part of her recent record, "The Sensual World": I would like to make several important points.
First, Mr. Libbenga seems to have been primarily upset because he had not received any personal credit on Ms. Bush's album, even though he himself apparently did nothing more than make her aware of a piece of traditional Macedonian folk music.
Second, Ms. Bush has in fact been more than forthcoming about the traditional elements in the record--in a recent interview in England's music journal "New Musical Express" she expressly identifies the record's counter-melody as a Macedonian folk tune.
Third, Ms. Bush's use of this folk music (which is, of course, entirely in the public domain) occupies a minimal role in the overall effect of her recording: only the most basic melodic cell is retained from the Macedonian source, and this is confined to an instrumental countermelody which never assumes dominance over--and in fact is drastically altered to accomodate--Ms. Bush's original vocal melody-line. And as if these substantive changes to the music were not themselves enough to explain the crediting of the recording to Ms. Bush, she re-arranged the Yugoslavian motif for a unique combination of Irish, Greek and electronic instruments.
Finally, I would like to point out that, in an article written by Ms. Bush's brother Paddy and published (before Mr. Libbenga's sour-toned, petty article ever went to press) in the most recent issue of the "Kate Bush Club Newsletter", a special appeal was made to the "Dutch person" who had sent Ms. Bush the tape of the original Macedonian melody to let them know his identity, so that they could give him credit for the service he did them. It seems that Mr. Libbenga never properly identified himself to the Bush family in the first place!
Taking these facts into account--and considering that Ms. Bush has always been scrupulously honest and generous in crediting any and all musicians and sources for their help in creating her own indisputibly original and masterful music--I think Mr. Libbenga ought to be ashamed of himself for having accused this supremely honourable British musician of deceit. He owes Ms. Bush an apology.
-- Andrew Marvick
* JAN LIBBENGA'S LETTER TO ME *
Dear Leo,
Thanks for sending the reactions of Andrew Maverick from Los Angeles. I should answer his letter personally, but I get the impression that he has never read the article in question himself and that you must have translated it (I am assuming that you are corresponding Bush-fans).
My article got somewhat of a wry after-taste because an editor put "Fraud?" above it, much against my wishes (I only saw it after the issue had been printed). Read the article without that heading and it gets a lot more friendly.
Strictly speaking it should have been mentioned on the album that the melody originated with the group Calgija. The melody in question is *not* in the 'public domain' as your acquaintance suggests, but is an instrumental interpretation of a vocal (!) piece by Wouter Swets from The Hague. Copyright exists just as much for arrangements of folk music. The arrangement has been used un-altered (I only noticed this later). This is not necessarily 'negligence' on the part of Kate Bush; the responsibility belongs in the first place with her record company EMI.
Meanwhile, I now know about the Kate Bush Club Newsletter, and there has been contact with the management. Accompanying my cassette was a letter (send via EMI, as requested by Kate Bush) and they lost it. That I did not receive 'credit' on the record is not important, if you had read (and translated) my article well, you would have seen that I leave it open from whom she got the melody. It was not out of spite, but out of pure astonishment that I wrote the article. In short: I was pleasantly surprised, and play 'The Sensual World' with joy.
Greetings,
Jan Libbenga
* SOME FINAL COMMENTS OF MY OWN *
- I think this is a *very* reasonable letter. What he says makes perfectly good sense to me, and does not ring false. In fact, it was a nice surprise to actually receive a reply from 'the man himself', because I was expecting nothing more than a form letter.
- He only allows himself one sly dig at the end: "If you had read (and translated) the article well...". I can say nothing else than that he is right, and very smart as well: IED indeed did *not* see the original translation. At first he had written a longer and much more vicious letter, purely based on a verbal account someone gave him of the article (we all know how IED gets when Kate is done an injustice!). I pointed out some mistakes to him, and he rewrote the letter accordingly. However, the part about Jan Libbenga wanting credit for himself was indeed still wrong, and it is my mistake that I did not 1) tell IED this, and let him rewrite again; or 2) send him a transcript of the original article, so that he wouldn't have made the mistake in the first place. This was completely my responsibility, and Jan Libbenga correctly does not fault IED for this.
- Afterthought. At first I thought it would be nice to return the courtesy to Jan, and write him a personal letter as well, explaining the context in which all of this has taken place (i.e. Usenet & rec.music.gaffa). On second thought, seeing as how the discussion is actually about the unauthorized use of copyrighted material, I think it might be wiser not to tell him that I translated his article, without any kind of permission whatsoever, and distributed it for hundreds if not thousands of people to see... :-)
Once again going back into passive Gaffa Watching Mode,
Leo Breebaart
From: rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 01:08:42
PST
Subject: The Sensual World Anotated Lyrics
--- THE SENSUAL WORLD ANNOTATED LYRICS ---
by Ron Hill, Andrew Marvick (IED), Julian West, Jorn Barger, WOJ, and Edward Suranyi.
Compiled and edited by Ron Hill.
Last Update: October 27, 1992
12" AND CD-SINGLE RELEASE
The a-side of the single and 12" is simply the album cut of TSW : just under 4 minutes. The b-side has the instrumental version (exactly the same as the a-side but without the lead vocal); and Walk Straight Down the Middle. The cover of both is the same: a black-and-white photograph (printed in John Carder Bush's lush purplish-brownish-black "duo-tone" colour) of Kate on the front, with the title, in spindly sans-serif type along the right side, reading from top to bottom: THE SENSUAL WORLD KATE BUSH. The back side is in plain black with all writing in gold letters. The production credits are interesting: all tracks were produced by Kate Bush. But TSW was "recorded by" Del Palmer; while WSDTM was "engineered" by Del Palmer. A rather mysterious distinction, no?
The labels of the 12" are standard EMI black, but the CD-single has a special black label-side with the TSW -style gold lettering on it--extremely cool-looking!
The photograph itself is gorgeous. It's just a very simple, straightforward half-length portrait shot of Kate in a black, sleeveless dance leotard top, hair loose and copious. She faces the camera nearly head-on, but is looking off slightly to the right. Her arms are held out in front of her, loosely clasped together at the wrist. Behind her is an unseen back-light, and there is a kind of mist in the blackness beyond.
A very similar shot was printed in NME's news announcement last issue. In that photo, from the same session, everything is more or less the same except that Kate is looking directly into the camera, and in her right hand is--a peach.
In the photograph on the cover of the new single the peach has become--dust, slipping through her fingers. ("Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.") Typically exKuisiTe, purely Katian implication and sug-gestion, rather than direct statement: for if one had not seen the NME photo, one would not know The Whole Story behind the image.
CREDITS
Drums: Charlie Morgan
Bass: Del Palmer
Uillean Pipes: Davey
Spillane
Bouzouki: Donal Lunny
Fiddle: John Sheahan
Whips:
Paddy Bush
COMMENTS FROM FAN
This record has got to be the most inaccessible piece of songwriting Kate has ever done--yet it's also one of her most immediately memorable and accessible records she's ever done. There's never been anything like The Sensual World.
IED has never had so much difficulty hearing the words Kate is singing than he has in this case. It's as though Kate had been inspired to create one of the most infectious, stylistically eclectic pop records, yet had decided to record the vocal so only she could really hear it ! It's like she made this record literally for herself! It's...oh, words just fail IED--he's "stepping out off the page, into the sensual world"!
QUOTE FROM KATE
The following is a fairly typical quote from Kate on the song. Other quotes can be found in the electronic book Cloudbusting.
KATE: Well I think "The Sensual World" is talking specifically about the context of that within the song. The song is about someone from a book who steps out from this very black and white 2-D world into the real world. The immediate impressions was the sensuality of this world - the fact that you can touch things, that is so sensual - you know... the colours of trees, the feel of the grass on the feet, the touch of this in the hand - the fact that it is such a sensual world. I think for me that's an incredibly important thing about this planet, that we are surrounded by such sensuality and yet we tend not to see it like that. But I'm sure for someone who had never experienced it before it would be quite a devastating thing.
Those church bells on the front - that's a sensual sound to me.
I love the sound of church bells. I think they are extraordinary - such a sound of celebration. The bells were put there because originally the lyrics of the song were taken from the book Ulysses by James Joyce, the words at the end of the book by Molly Bloom, but we couldn't get permission to use the words. I tried for a long time - probably about a year - and they wouldn't let me use them, so I had to create something that sounded like those original word, had the same rhythm, the same kind of feel but obviously not being able to use them. It all kind of turned in to a pastiche of it and that's why the book character, Molly Bloom, then steps out into the real world and becomes one of us. (1989, Roger Scott)
LYRICS
As we know from the quotes from Kate, she originally recorded the song using lyrics from Jame's Joyce's Ulysses, and then had to re-record it when she couldn't get permission to use Joyce's words. Fortunately, the original lyrics can be identified with pretty much 100% certainty: they're all from the last page and a half (Vintage edition p. 782-3/Penguin p. 642-4) and fall into two verbatim chunks that match precisely for rhythm, vowel sounds, and 'yes'es.
The chapter that the lyrics comes from (usually called "Penelope" or "Molly Bloom's monologue) is about 40 pages long, with no punctuation at all and only 8 paragraph breaks! (Note that the "original" chapter headings are not included in any edition. Joyce edited them out of the final galleys. This is probably the single most obfuscatory deliberate act of his entire life. They are so useful, however, that every Joyce critic makes free reference to them.)
Unfortunately we can only hear the original lryics in our minds' ear: I almost suspect that those multiple instrumental tracks on the EP were Kate's way of saying listen-thru-the-code... Of course, this wouldn't stop anyone from re-recording the song by singing the original lryics over Kate's instrumental version!
Kate's problems in obtaining permission are not unique. The Joyce estate has been outraging scholars for several years now-- Joyce's only living heir, his grandson Stephen, feels that despite the desires of scholars, his family still retains the right of privacy, and that's his right, surely. He has burnt letters, objected to the public sale of a deathmask of his grandfather, objected to the commercialization of the museum in the Joyce tower in sandycove...But what a loss that this song got caught in the crossfire...
In, the following analysis, Kate's lryics are given in UPPER CASE and Joyce's are given in normal (for the book!) case. When Kate has used words are in other sections of the book, the page numbers are given. Hopefully the read will get a feel for the style and some of the mood of the chapter from this extract. It requires considerably more effort to appreciate the background and motivations.
The Sensual World (restored)
(The song starts with the sound of church bells)
KATE: I've got a thing about the sound of bells. It's one of those fantastic sounds: sound of celebration. The're used to mark points in life - births, weddings, deaths - but they give this tremendous feeling of celebration.
In the original speech she's talking of the time when he proposed to her, and I just had the image of bells, this image of them sitting on the hillside with the sound of bells in the distance. In hindsight, I also think it's a lovely way to start an album: a feeling of celebration that puts me on a hillside somewhere on a sunny afternoon and it's like, mmh... Sounds of celebration get fewer and fewer. We haven't many left. And yet people complain of the sound of bells in cities. (1989, NME)
MMMH, YES
KATE: In the original piece, it's just "Yes" - a very interesting way of leading you in. It pulls you into the piece by the continual acceptance of all these sensual things: "Ooh wonderful!" (1989, NME)
- FIRST SECTION -
THEN I'D TAKEN THE KISS OF SEEDCAKE BACK FROM HIS MOUTH
...first I
gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth
It's interesting how Kate reverses this.
The clearest description of the seedcake episode is in chapter 8, the Lestrygonians.
GOING DEEP SOUTH, GO DOWN, MMH, YES.
and it was leapyear like now yes
TOOK SIX BIG WHEELS AND ROLLED OUR BODIES 16 years ago my God
"big wheels" is from page 643 line 31.
OFF OF HOWTH HEAD AND INTO THE FLESH, MMH, YES, after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes
"Howth Head" is the physical location of the episode in Ulysses, a headland north of Dublin. (see eg 643 line 13)
HE SAID I WAS A FLOWER OF THE MOUNTAIN, YES,
he said I was a flower of
the mountain yes
"flower of the mountain" also appears on page 644 line 2
BUT NOW I'VE POWERS O'ER A WOMAN'S BODY-- YES.
so we are flowers all a
womans body yes [sic: thus in joyce]...
- SECOND SECTION -
TO WHERE THE WATER AND THE EARTH CARESS
...and Gibraltar as a girl
where I
The physical setting of the episode is on a hill to the north of Dublin, overlooking the sea, hence possibly "where the water and the earth caress"
AND THE DOWN OF A PEACH SAYS MMH, YES,
was a flower of the mountain
yes
"Down on the peach". Molly uses the word "peach" once, in the phrase "soft like a peach" in reference to female sexual organs (Vintage page 770). Earlier in the day she has been presented with a gift of peaches and pears. Can't find a reference to "down" on peaches.
It's possible Kate might be using "peach" independently as a sexual metaphor (it's a well established metaphor). Molly's "peach" reference is over 10 pages from the end of the book, where the bulk of Kate's source material lies.
One of the publicity photos shows Kate holding a peach.
DO I LOOK FOR THOSE MILLIONAIRES
when I put the rose in my hair
LIKE A MACHIAVELLIAN GIRL WOULD
like the Andalusian girls used
`Andalusian' appears because Molly is remembering incidents from her girlhood when she was an `army brat' in Gibraltar. Characteristically, these memories blur with those of her courtship with Leopold Bloom on Howth Head.
The word `Machiavellian' since is absent not only from the "Penelope" chapter but from the whole of Ulysses !
Why did she use the word 'Machevellian' instead of 'Andalusian'? Seems to me out of place somehow, unless of course she is refering to the manipulative way the Molly plays with her suitor's mind...
WHEN I COULD WEAR A SUNSET? MMH, YES,
or shall I wear a red yes
"sunsets" appears on page 643 line 39.
AND HOW WE WISHED TO LIVE IN THE SENSUAL WORLD
and how he kissed me
under the Moorish wall
"The Sensual World" seems to be original to Kate. The word "sensual" somewhat surprisingly does not occur in Ulysses, and so a fortiori neither does "sensual world"
YOU DON'T NEED WORDS-- JUST ONE KISS, THEN ANOTHER.
and I thought well
as well him as another
AND THEN THE ARROWS OF DESIRE REWRITE THE SPEECH, MMH, YES
and then I
asked him with my eyes to ask again yes
AND THEN HE WHISPERED WOULD I, MMH, YES
and then he asked me would I
yes
BE SAFE, MMH, YES, FROM MOUNTAIN FLOWERS?
to say yes my mountain
flower
AND AT FIRST WITH THE CHARM AROUND HIM, MMH, YES
and first I put my
arms around him yes
AND LOOSENED IT SO IF
and drew him down to me
IT SLIPPED BETWEEN MY BREASTS so he could feel my breasts
HE'D RESCUE IT, MMH, YES,
all perfume yes
AND HIS SPARK TOOK LIFE IN MY HAND AND, MMH, YES
and his heart was
going like mad and yes
I SAID, MMH, YES
I said yes
BUT NOT YET, MMH, YES
I will Yes
MMH, YES
COMPLETE LAST FEW PAGES.
. .I love flowers Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses God of heaven theres nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea and the waves rushing then the beautiful country with fields of oats and wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going about that would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers all sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the ditches primroses and violets nature it is as for them saying theres no God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning why dont they go and create something I often asked him atheists or what- ever they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves first then they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why because theyre afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and germaniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used to or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes
and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
OTHER USES OF ULYSSES
There is a general Joycean feel to Kate's work, both in its Irishness and in the overall level of its detail and the richness and diversity of its reference. However, the only certain Joycean reference in Kate's work is the song "My Lagan Love". A more dubious one is Stephen's reference to "every ninth, breaking, plashing, from far, from farther out, waves and waves" in the third chapter (Penguin p.38 line 40). Kate and Joyce might simply be independently aware of the same bit of folk wisdom however. Also, Kate has specically said she got the title from the quote on the back of "Hounds of Love."
Another unlikely influence on Kate's work from Ulysses is "all the amount of pleasure they get off a womans body were so round and white for them always I wished I was one myself for a change" [Penguin ed. page 638 lines 41-2.], which is simular to "I'd make a deal with god and get him to swap our places" [RUTH]
An edited version of the Ulysses passage, beginning with the line
"I'd love to have the whole place swimming in roses" (642 line 42)
has been set to music (!) for soprano (!) solo and orchestra by Stephen Albert under the title of "Flower of the Mountain" (!). I have located the piano reduction of Albert's score, which was published in 1986 by Schirmer. It is orchestrated for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling English horn), 2 A clarinets, 2 F horns, 2 Bb trumpets, percussion, piano, harp and strings. It runs about 16:00. It was first performed by Lucy Shelton at the Y in NYC, 17 May 1986. I don't think it has been recorded.
The recent film James Joyce's Women, which starred Fionula Flanagan as Molly Bloom, included a long soliloquy based on but also of course much different from the original in Ulysses.
The Firesign Theater used that same speech in the end of their album, "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?"? Of course, the effect is slightly *different*... the speaker is that perpetual flimflam artist cum used-car salesman, Ralph Spoilsport... I don't know if this one made it to CD, but it's definitely worth a listen.
Rupert Croft-Cooke has a book entitled The Sensual World, but it's probably just a co-incidence.
From: niklasn@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Nik Newark plc)
Date: Mon, 14 Feb
1994 09:44:39 GMT
Subject: Sensual World Melody
I bought a CD at the weekend called "East Wind" by Andy Irvine & Davy Spillane, containing Macedonian & Romanian music. Track 6 of said CD, "Antice", contained a melody that sounded very familiar.... it is 90% the same as the Uillean pipe melody on "The Sensual World", which is incidentally played by .... Davy Spillane.
For info: Antice is a traditional melody, the CD was released in 1992 (3 years after the release of TSW)
Date: Sun, 1 May 94 21:01 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Re: Kate/Joyce
In article <snelson-010594194505@ts6-37.upenn.edu> you write:
>Kate Bush's albums are full of things that hint at literary references, but I spotted something beyond coincidence. Stepping off the page, indeed.
>The first verse of her song "The Sensual World" has the lines:
>..Then I'd taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth
>..He
said I was a flower of the mountain, yes
> But now I've powers over a
woman's body, yes
>In the last chapter ("Penelope") of James Joyce's Ulysses there's the line:
>"yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was the one true thing he said in his life..."
This was all worked out long ago by Jorn Barger, Love-Hounds Flame Master and Joyce Scholar. The "recovered lyrics" are in the archives. Love-Hounds Flame Master Emeritus Jon Drukman recorded a version of The Sensual World using Jorn's lyrics with a female singer (sorry but her name has slipped my mind) and the instrumental recording of the song. Good work, and credit where credit is due.
Kate has confirmed that the original (and slightly different musically) version was indeed a direct lift, that she sought rights from the Joyce estate and as refused. She was them forced to write new lyrics about the same charactor. She was (for Kate) quite annoyed.
One additional point about the birth of the song - she whispers the word "re-write" in "...our arrows of desire rewrite the speech"
Back
to The Sensual World Songs page
written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland
Willker
Sept 1995 June 1996