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Date: 18 Sep 89 10:06 +0100
From: Norvald Stol <stol%vax.elab.unit.uninett@nac.no>
Subject: "Sensual World" video.
MTV-Europe showed the video to "Sensual World" on friday 15, and at least two more times during the weekend.
The video is very simple compared to what we are used to from KaTe, but (IMHO) matches the song very well.
The main "activity" in the video is KaTe partly walking, partly dancing through a forest (while singing, of course). She is the only living thing in the video (except for the trees, that is). Her surroundings are changing along the way. In the beginning its an "ordinary" forest, with normal daylight. After a while she's dancing herself into a sunset (sunrise?). Further along the way, the background turns into flames and her dance is escalating into a kind of witchdance (???). The weather-conditions in the forest are not very healthy and changes from summer and good weather to snow showers. The light is also changing along the way.
All in all a very KateBush-ish kind of video, though simple.
I LIKE IT VERY MUCH !!! No bad action to ruin the song!
For the song itself: She is whispering through it! Probably the right thing for THIS song, but I hope she uses her great voice more on the rest of the album.
Norvald.
From: djjouellette@lion.waterloo.edu (Daniel JJ Ouellette)
Date: 21
Sep 89 16:02:54 GMT
Subject: The Sensual World, The Video
Hello everyone.
The video for The Sensual World has made it to Canada. Much Music, a Canadian video channel, started playing it on Sept. 20.
Not a bad video. Only got a quick once through of it. I was suprised that it was as short as it was.
Ok, Discription to follow if I can remember it all. The basic video is as posted before.
The video starts with a water shot, like looking at or through a lake. Then it proceeds to Kate in the forest, and proceeds as described before.
Kate is her slim self once again. She is wearing what appears to be a long flowing dress. It is made of dark purple velvet like material. I believe it is an alaboration on the dress style she wore in the Running Up The Hill video. It has the look of a dress, but has the separate legs (like pants). She starts the video sporting a hat (Think it was purple). Small Pill box affair. It is attached by long silky (pale blue) scarves. She takes the hat off about the middle of the video.
Any way, that's about all I do remember of the video. Like I said, good video. If this is any indication what the rest of the album is like, IT WILL BE A MEGA HIT!
That's all for now, Talk later, Danny
Date: 2 Oct 89 19:57 -0700
From: Mark Anderson <manderso@ugly.cs.ubc.ca>
Subject: The Sensual Video!
The video for The Sensual World was played this afternoon on "YTV Rocks", a half-hour video station on Canada's YTV! All I can say is it's one beautiful video. Has it been seen in the States yet?
In it, Kate's wearing a long dark velvet dress and a hat with a veil wrapped around her chin and flowing back over her hair. She's dancing down a path through the woods. At first, the light is warm and soft, like sunlight filtering through the trees overhead. Later it becomes a deep orange from the large red sun, now setting.
Then Kate removes her hat as big flames leap up in the background, just beyond the trees. She dances a strange dance with the fire spreading across the horizon under the setting sun. Then it becomes night, dark but with stars and a big bright full moon. Finally, as the song winds up, it becomes light again, as at the start of the song.
There's a lot of fluff floating through the air at times--down? With petals perhaps? And in the night scene, what seems to be hail rains down on Kate at one point, and there's some swirling ... snow?
Wonderful.
-Mark
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 90 08:56:37 CST
From: Jorn Barger <barger@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu>
Subject: Blizzards of Glitter!!!
Ah, The Videos!
My fave is the backwards dance in TSW-- has anyone ever seen anything like it anywhere? It moves me like witchcraft...
On VH1 they showed the longshot of the road bordered with trees with either Never Be Mine or Between a Man & a Woman-- has anyone seen a full version?
Are there any others floating around yet? Is there a British Love & Anger?
Sign me, Just Wundering
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 90 15:57:53 EST
From: gordon!henrik@EDDIE.MIT.EDU
(Larry DeLuca @ The Sensual World)
Subject: The Sensual Videos
"The Sensual World" was *HOT*. Mmmmmmmh, YES!!!!!!!! God, how I wanted her! Especially during the instrumental break when she was stepping through the night turning toward the camera and away - Mmmmmhhh, yes! Definitely her most erotic video yet.
From: emx.utexas.edu!ut-emx!slh@cs.utexas.edu (Susan L. Cecelia Harwood)
Date: 23 Feb 90 03:37:44 GMT
Subject: TSW--The video
"The Sensual World" was wonderful. I was *so* impressed! I could just see her climbing off of her page and into the world. Kate, of course, looked gorgeous-- I admire a woman who can be sexy covered (as opposed to *un*-covered). And the elemental changes. Wow. (This one gets my vote as best of the lot.)
[Please read also Chris Smith' semiotic analysis "L&A_Anal". Strongly recommended! --WIE]
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 89 17:24:18 EST
From: mifflin@ihuxy.att.com (Arthur W
Mifflin)
Subject: KATE ON US MTV 11/2/89 Love And Anger
Hello to all fans of Kate!
Well here is my first posting to Love Hounds. I've been a silent reader since '83 ( and |>oug was extolling the virtues of KT in rec.music.misc). Now so many others also carry the torch, too!
Last night, on Post Modern MTV, the FIRST video was the new one for "Love And Anger". I just got a tape in the VCR (barely!) in time to get it.
It starts off with a swirling of skirts and then to a close up of Kate kneeling as if to pray. It reminds me of a cross between RUTH (dance version), Big Sky, Sat In Your Lap, and Hounds Of Love videos. I have not figured out why there are ballerinas in this video (KT answer to Robert Palmer?! :-), but it also has David Gilmour and a band playing behind KT. Paddy is there, John Giblin (I guess) on bass, and an unknown male keyboards player.
It seems as though the audio was the same mix as the album. I will sync the two up tonight to verify this! I was only able to get it in mono (MTV only gets FM stereo and my tuner was destroyed at a party last weekend).
I will try to post more on this later. Have a nice weekend and may the grace, power and the glory that is KATE be with you all now and forever!
Arthur Mifflin
From: portal!cup.portal.com!Edward Lee Whiteside@apple.com
Date: Mon,
6-Nov-89 22:20:17 PST
Subject: "Love and Anger" on MTV's Now
Hear This 11/6/89
Just caught the west coast feed of MTV's Now Hear This weekly show that previews new videos and records. They usually only show three complete videos during the show and this week's show had "Love and Anger" as a "World Premier Video" (but of course, it had been spotted over the weekend on MTV already....).
As the person who saw the end of the video mentioned, at the end Kate is dancing around in front of the band (which also includes Paddy lip syncing to the background vocals and playing whatever instrument he uses on the song.
The video starts out a lot different, with Kate in the light from a spotlight above her doing a serious lip-sync to the song as dancing girls and priests turn up and dance around her. About the time of Gilmour's guitar solo, Kate starts moving around a lot more and it turns into a performance video with a backing band. I'm sure others will find all sorts of significant things in it to speculate on. A couple of other notes on it.
The audio track is the same as the LP/CD track as far as I could tell. I did sync up my CD to check that out and so I could hear the "Yes" at the end, which was (as is usual MTV fashion) cut off to fade to the VJ. Don't know if the laugh is part of the video or not. The comments leading in to the video talked about Dave Gilmour discovering Kate "at the tender age of 16" and that he helped to produce her demos that got her a recording contract No mention of who the director was or anything like that.
From: victoro@crash.cts.com (Victor O'Rear)
Date: 7 Nov 89 09:17:51
GMT
Subject: Love & Anger video
As I sit, awaiting the arrival of MY KT posters (one for me, one for a friend, one for another..), I checked MTV and heard:
(Hmm, let me check my stereo/dolby VHS copy...)
"But now check out the new one from Kate Bush, who was discovered at the tender age of sixteen by Pink Floyd's gitarist David Gilmore who orginized and financed her demo tapes that led to her first record deal... She has produced six criticly acclaimed albums, of which the latest is "The Sensual World" was released late last month, the first video "Love & Anger" showcases Kate's dramatic performance style, which of course incorporates dance, mime, and magic. And on guitar, her old friend David Gilmore. Here's Kate Bush with Love and Anger..." Adam Curry "Now Hear This!"
Drum beats join reflected light and Kate's words bring her into view kneeling in a pool of white light. She's dressed in a snug black, sleeveless gown and our viewpoint pivots around her from her left, behind her and then facing her. As she faces us, and continues rotating, a sparkling rain showers the pool of light as she tosses her hair and head to the words "Tell you what I'm feel'n" As she/we rotate around to face her - she twists and begins to stand. The scene dissolves to gold, bejewled chains being poured from her hand and the closeups of a staff and sceptar and we then see that she is holding. Seven we are treated by the view of a proud kate, her hair tossed by the emotion of her words. In the closeups we she her earings, long black combinations of beads - that might be more. The women receed into the darkness and Kate is left to stand alone in the pool until men wearing tall red hats spirial in and surround Kate.
After some wonderful closeups of Kate - God she looks good - she is caried onto stage by band members and we have the manditory MTV closeups of preforming band members and the video closes with Kate throwing sparkles at us with "Yeah!"
(I vote for the Yeah! as my favorite sound on "The Sensual World" {I think I'll make it my system beep!} with her first round of humming as my second choice.)
And I couldn't say it better then "Yeah! That was Kate Bush..."
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 89 16:42:31 -0500
From: turney@svax.cs.cornell.edu
(Jenn Turney)
Subject: 'Love and Anger' video
I was one of those lucky enough to catch the new video on Empty-V last Thursday night (well, actually Friday morning by then). Victor O'Rear has given an initial description which is a more or less accurate sketch. I'd point out, however, that 'staff' and 'sceptar' (sic, should be 'scepter' or 'sceptre') refer to the same object. The second object is I believe correctly referred to as an 'orb' -- a spherical object surmounted by a cross. KaTe stands still for most of the time she is holding these objects, while dancers appear in the background. Towards the end, she's relieved of them and joins the band.
This is the first of KaTe's videos I've seen and strikes me as rather bland in relation to my expectations from descriptions of previous vids. I've already received condolences from IED, who thinks the format may have been dictated/restricted by CBS (hope I am not misinterpreting him). I'm looking forward to someday seeing the rest of the bunch.
Jenn
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 89 15:51 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: the new video
So by now cable-ized Love-Hounds will already be familiar with this extraordinary new Kate Bush video. For those who are less elaborately wired up, here's a brief description.
It begins (the first set of verses) with Kate, on her knees with hands in lap, dressed in black culottes and a sleeveless black top, hair loose but set in great, dramatic waves, lip-synching while remaining very still. She is lit by a small spotlight in an otherwise blank dark studio space, and the camera revolves slowly around her from above, making two whole circuits around her. Throughout this part of the video and much of the rest of it, a thin, intermittent shower of gold glitter (a la Danae and Zeus?) flows over her body from the darkness above. She then lets a handful of gold slip from her hand, and the camera shows it to be filled with jewels and precious necklaces, etc.
Then there are some close-ups of a monarch's sceptre and orb (symbols of regal--and, sometimes, imperial--office). Kate then stands up, and the camera-angle opens out to show her standing still, orb and sceptre held to her chest, in front of a troupe of classically costumed ballerinas, who are performing a very severe, basic routine on toe. Then, with the beginning of the second refrain, the ballerinas split up, and before tiptoeing offstage, take Kate's orb and sceptre from her--which act suddenly shakes her to action herself. From offstage left, meanwhile, a second troupe of dancers--this time traditionally garbed Sufic "whirling" Dervishes--pass by her. (The video actually began with an out-of-focus close-up of the Dervishes' robes whirling in unison.)
Next, amid further showers of gold rain, Kate dances backwards, while facing the camera, in a choreographic move much like the backwards dance in The Sensual World. And as the song moves into the instrumental/choral section, the blackness behind Kate falls away to reveal her band, in everyday dress, playing together. David Gilmour is prominent, behind him the bass-player (IED has still not decided whether this is Del, moustache and sideburns shaven off, or the bass-player on the original track, John Giblin, but he may have an answer for you soon on this point), and also included are Paddy Bush (wearing a loose shortsleeve shirt and porkpie hat), who plays the extremely arcane and bizarre extinct (?) instrument known as the valiha; Stuart Elliott on drums; an unidentified keyboard player (Kate played all keyboards on the new album); and Kate's old dance partners Gary Hurst and Stewart Avon-Arnold (who, after carrying Kate in on her back to where the band are playing, crouch down at either side).
This part of the video is very elaborately edited, with brief shots of each player's face intercut with shots of the ballerinas' and Dervishes' dancing feet and twirling coattails. As the video nears its end brief and vague shots of water are seen. Finally, with the end of the film, Kate hums the last notes, turns to the camera and flings a handful of the gold dust into the camera with the challenge, "Yeah!"
All in all, this video, while clearly designed to encourage MTV and other American stations to actually air it, is nevertheless a typically symbol-laden and exquisitely detailed Kate Bush film. (Its cinematic tenor is stressed by Kate again through the use of the broader aspect ratio she used for The Sensual World .) The color and lighting are stunning, and Kate herself looks to be in tiptop shape--older, certainly, than in her earliest video performances, but every bit as lean around the middle! Toward the end, when Kate "rocks out" in a freeform dance, it comes as the surprise it always was to realize that this seemingly innocent, life-loving gamine is indeed the creator of the greatest music (and videos) in modern history--it is a shock once more to be reminded of the faKT that she is God InKarnaTe.
-- Andrew Marvick
From: mifflin@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (arthur.w.mifflin)
Date: 7 Nov 89
20:55:04 GMT
Subject: KATE ON US MTV 11/2/89 & 11/6/89
Has anyone else noticed that one (and only one!) of the short band clips, the snare drum is hit on the ONE and THREE (not TWO and FOUR!) beats AND IS NOT PROPERLY SYNCED WITH THE AUDIO!!! (Which is on TWO and FOUR!). In all other shots, the snare sounds when it is hit. This is unusual for a Kate video!!!
Arthur Mifflin
Date: Thu, 9 Nov 89 17:29:26 EST
From: cliffs@sunrock.east.sun.com
(Cliff Skolnick {Prof Services} Sun Rochester)
Subject: 'Love and Anger'
video
I ordered cable when I heard that the Love and Anger video was going to be on 120 minutes (how's that for being a fanatic). It was installed this morning, and guess what was the 2nd video on empty TV? You guessed it.
Now hows that for timing?!
Cliff
Date: Thu, 23-Nov-89 20:36:40 PST
Fr: Larry Hernandez
(L-H@cup.portal.com)
Subject: love and anger video
After scanning through 10 minutes of MTV crud, I finally had enough and decided to watch my copy of Love and Anger for the 43rd time. After having watched it a few times now, I am definitely "informed" enough to say: "My God, why isn't this video No. 1 yet??"
Maybe now I'll pull out my other tape of TSW and once again admire the sheer genius, ingenuity, and utter perfeKTion of both the song and the video. Maybe after that, I'll once again play the fantastic and incomparable Lionheart CD. Mmh yes, I agree with people who know what the hell they're talking about: Kate Bush writes the best music and makes the best videos in the history of civilisation.
+------------------Is there any ESCAPE from DRUKMAN?-------------------+
Date: Sat, 02 Dec 89 16:03 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: people in L&A video
> I haven't seen this mentioned yet. Just who is everybody in the band in the "Love and Anger" video.
IED has identified them already in Love-Hounds, but for the sake of latecomers and slackers he will repeat the information. Aside from Gilmour on electric guitar, the men in the Love and Anger video are:
John Giblin on bass,
Stuart Elliott on drums,
Paddy Bush on valiha (the odd rectangular instrument, which originates from Madagascar),
an unidentified (by IED) keyboardist (all keyboards on the track were originally played by Kate, and this man is not Kevin McAlea, Kate's usual keyboard stand-in),
and Stewart Avon-Arnold
and Gary Hurst as Kate-carriers (they spend the rest of the video crouching on the ground on either side of Kate).
Stewart and Gary, incidentally, were Kate's dance partners until 1983. They did not participate in any of her Hounds of Love TV or film performances, so their reappearance, along with Gilmour's and the Dervishes', makes for a kind of oldtimers' reunion.
-- Andrew Marvick
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 89 13:00 PST
From:
IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu
Subject: bassplayer
> I don't think IED knew who the bass player was; he hypothesized that it might be a clean-shaven Del. John Giblin is credited on the song.
Yes, and thanks for the ID of the keyboardist, Kevin. IED has more or less decided that the bass player cannot be Del with a shaven face. He just looks too different. It must be John Giblin, about whom Kate has had special words of praise recently. Giblin, incidentally, used to be the bass player in the now-long-defunct British group Metro; and he played the beautiful bass part on Kate's Breathing.
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 89 04:31:21 EST
From: chris@world.std.com
(Chris'n'Vickie of Kansas City)
Subject: Love And Anger
This should stir'em up some. Here is our interpretation of the Video for "Love And Anger". Just the video.
The parts in {}'s are from Chris. The Parts in []'s are from Vickie.
Video starts with a:
BLURRY SHOT
{Not much meaning here. Just a blurry shot of the skirts of the Sufis.}
Next Kate is:
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
{This is it. The record that's going to "break her" in America. All eyes are upon her.}
In her hands are:
JEWELRY
{Could it be a rosary? She is on her knees, is she praying? For what?}
She is:
SHOWERED WITH GOLD
{As she will be, metaphoricaly, if she succeeds in America, the last holdout in the "civilized" world. We feel this video is the direct result of a conversation with CBS record executives.}
She drops her:
JEWELERY
[Possibly "pearls before swine"?]
She spins with her:
HEAD DOWN, ARMS OUTSTRETCHED
["Here I am, do what you will"]
She is handed the:
CROWN JEWELS
{Not all the crown jewels, just the Orb and Septre, but definitely the British Crown Jewels, symbolic of her Britishness.}
In come the:
BALLET DANCERS
{The Ballet Dancers may represent what CBS thinks of her recent videos, serious and hoity-toity. They may have told her to "loosen up" and stop taking herself so seriously.}
And she:
STANDS THERE
{As everyone knows, in American rock videos, she singer just stands there while dancers rush around, trying desperatly to create the illusion that the singer is dancing, as in videos by Kim Karnes, Rod Stewart, Elton John and others. God forbid that the singer actually try to dance, as in Sting's "We'll Be Together". Kate, as we all know, can dance very well, but she tried that with "Running Up That Hill" and that video was bumped in favor of a TV show in which she was safely behind a podium.}
Then the ballet dancers:
FADE AWAY
Then Sufi Dancers or:
WHIRLING DEVERISHS
{Don't you just love them. I do.} [ditto]
The ballet dancers come back and:
TAKE THE CROWN JEWELS
{Or her Britishness, as CBS may be trying to do.}
Causing Kate to:
VIBRATE VIOLENTLY
[Free & easy, loose, "Americanized"]
And start:
GOING BACKWARDS
{Being told to pander to the American market would no doubt be a [huge] step backwards for Kate at this point in her career.}
The camera pans left to a:
ARCH-TYPICAL "AMERICAN ROCK VIDEO"
{Dave Guilmor with a wind machine in his face. This video is exclusivly for the American market. Peter Fitzgerald-Morris tells us it hasn't been shown in England. Near as we can tell CBS picked this song as the first single and asked her for "a video for the American market" and she must have thought "Hmm.. a video for America? Well I guess we'll just have to make an American video." So she made as American a video as she could.}
Our heroine gets:
CARRIED IN FEET FIRST
{As she well would have to be. This type of video is known the well-known, and much dreaded, "Band-in-a-Box"}
And starts to:
GYRATE WILDLY
{Near as I can tell this is something between The Pony and The Frug. I think Joey Heatherton invented this one on Hullaballoo.} [no one has commented on the "hullaballoo" dance moves she made in in the Dreaming video-same influences at work]
Surrounded by:
CLICHED SHOTS OF BAND MEMBERS
{Possible award winner for Most-Cliched Visuals on the MTV Music Video Awards (a hotly contested catagory). The worst lighting I've seen in years. Par lamps on a straight truss on a chase!! This *cannot* be anything other than a JOKE, the lighting equivilent of a guitarist running his/her hand up and down the neck of his/her gee-tar (Kate called this action "obviously wanking away up there")(see: Heart or any Heavy Metal). Take it from me, the lighting is dumber than a box of rocks. On purpose. Kate's videos are always well and subtly lit.}
Until she:
THROWS THE GOLD GLITTER AT THE CAMERA
{With a manical grin on her face. Watch it in slow motion.}
Thus ends Kate's funniest video. I've broken it down for ease of commenting by other Love-Hounds. We've run this past Doctor of Katebusholigy Peter David Fitzgerald-Morris of "Homeground" and he found it amusing and very likely given Kate's sense of humor. Remember this is Kate we are talking about, Our Lady of the Oblique Reference, the one who puts lyrics in her songs that even her most ardent fans cannot decipher, the one who hides secret symbols on her records, the one who once answered a simple question, "what kind of makeup do you use?", with, "oh, I don't use makeup anymore, I use latex!". Comments welcome.
Love,
Chris'n'Vickie
[or Vickie'n'Chris]
[notice how the title can be turned into Love an' Danger? No special significance, I just think it's neat]
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 90 15:57:53 EST
From: gordon!henrik@EDDIE.MIT.EDU
(Larry DeLuca @ The Sensual World)
Subject: Love and Anger
Wow! I just got my copy last night! "Love and Anger" was pretty dippy -almost enough so to make me believe Chris'N'Vickie in their analysis. I, however, am tempted to believe it was designed specifically to appeal to the American market, without the parody overtones. My favourite section of it was when she looked at her feet and spun around sprinkling glitter right before the rock-out, and the close-ups of the ballet dancers' feet in the puddle and gold glitter, and the dervishes, which were totally cool.
From: mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Date: 18 Feb 90 19:57:26 GMT
Subject: KT's little fit
Secondly, I'm rather bummed that the version of L&A on the TSW videotape edited out KT's little fit in the middle. That was one of my favorite parts of the video: I throw fits all the time, and it's nice to know that she can do it too.
Meredith Tarr
From: halley!steve@cs.utexas.edu (Steve Williams)
Date: 19 Feb 90
03:52:14 GMT
Subject: Re: Whut Cut?
In a 2-day-old article, Neal R Caldwell writes:
> I'm a bit surprised that I haven't seen any mention here of the fact that the "Love and Anger" on "TSW - The Videos" is differant from the video shown by MTV and VH1. The most noticable difference is that they cut out the little fit that Kate has when the ballet dancers take the orb and scepter from her. There are some other changes in the edit but I can't name them off hand. Could this be an edit intended for the U.K.?
Is this true? WHY would they do that? Next to the simple shots of (tiny) Kate sitting on her heels, that brief moment was one of the best in the video (IMFO, of course). Why cut out *anything* when going from the broadcast version to the "home" version? If anything, you'd think the videos might get longer.
From: emx.utexas.edu!ut-emx!slh@cs.utexas.edu (Susan L. Cecelia Harwood)
Date: 23 Feb 90 03:37:44 GMT
Subject: L&A
I was in Sound Warehouse, walking towards the door, when I saw that face. You know, the one with the flower blooming out of it. It was in the shape of a videocassette. Before I knew it, it was in my hand. And off I went to experience the sensual world...
"Love and Anger" I'd seen before, so it wasn't *too* surprising. A friend watching with me said that the ballet dancers had the same look as the Robert Palmer females you see in his videos. The jam with the band was cool.
From: mtarr@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Date: 24 Feb 90 18:23:12 GMT
Subject: Murmurs amongst the glitter
Hello again...
I just bought the TSW videos, and after watching the tape eight times in succession on a borrowed VCR (which has now, unfortunately, been returned), I'm convinced that KT is one of the best video artists going. Does she have a thing for glitter, or what? Anyway, I have one question: at the end of "Love and Anger", about 15 seconds before the end of the song, she says something. I don't think she says anything on the album version, but she's definitely moving her lips in the video. I'm a good lip-reader, but this one's got me.
Anybody out there been able to figure out what she's saying?
Meredith Tarr ("living in the gap between past and future...")
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 90 10:39:52 -0500
From: turney@svax.cs.cornell.edu
Subject: Re: Murmurs amongst the glitter
Meredith Tarr wonders what Kate says towards the end of Love and Anger.
I'd been wondering this myself and have tried to pick it up the last few times I've seen the video, to no avail. However, if I'm not mistaken, it does indeed occur on the album as well. The point we're talking about is between the mm-mm-mm's at the end of the song. Okay, kind of like this:
Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm, mm-mm-mm-mm-mm
Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm, mm-mm-mm-mm-mm
(<the phrase>)
Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm
Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm
Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm
Yeah!
My first approximation, which I don't think is correct, is "And we all sing". Can anyone refine the approximation?
Jenn
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 90 18:28:06 PDT
From: ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward
Suranyi)
Subject: Gary Hurst
Gary Hurst died of AIDS at the end of January. "Gary's contributions to Kate's visual presentations have been enormous, since he was first recruited to take his place with Stuart Avon Arnold as the dancers for the Tour of Life in 1979. His first video was. .. 'Them Heavy People,' and he appeared in almost every video of Kate's since which required a dance routine. Indeed he can be seen in the clip for 'Love And Anger,' his last contribution to Kate's work made only weeks before his untimely death."
Ed
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 20:03:08 EDT
From: woj@paladin.Owego.NY.US (my
favorite buildings)
Subject: seKreT messages, etc
in other news, has anybody attempted to figure out what KaTe sings at the end of the "love and anger" video? i recently got a letter from meredith tarr and she says that repeated viewings leads her to believe that KaTe is mouthing "very interesting." i cannot comment as my videos are now in new jersey where i will be moving to thursday of this week.
woj
From: Paul.Gillingwater@actrix.gen.nz (Paul Gillingwater)
Date: Thu,
22 Aug 1991 12:03:02 -0700
Subject: Maqabbaleh (Dervish turning)
I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Maqabbaleh ceremony last week, as one of the audience. For those who have not seen this before, (and I guess that's most of us!) this is a traditional Sufi/Dervish mystical dance which incorporates a great deal of spinning around.
For those who are interested in Kate Bush, you will find that her video "The Sensual World" includes one track that features both ballet and Dervish "turning". ("Love and Anger"?)
As was explained to us, the "turners" start off wearing black robes, which symbolise the darkness of the grave. They wear a tall hat, similar to a fez but around 18 inches high, of a brown colour. This is worn slightly tilted to the right. The hat is said to symbolise a grave stone. Under their black robes, they wear white garments, which are symbolic of a funeral shroud or winding clothes, including a type of pleated skirt that is designed to emphasise the circularity of their turning. As they spin, the skirt lifts up, revealing white trousers underneath and small dark shoes. They remove their black robes when the dancing starts, and replace them again when finished, implying emergence from and return to the grave.
The dance is very formal, involving procession and much bowing, especially to the "sheik", who seems to act as a still focus for the turning. Another "skeik" acts as 2IC, walking around within the circle created by the dancers. The arms begin folded up around the shoulders while passive; as they start to spin, the arms go out, with the left hand pointing downwards, and the right palm up, with thumb sticking out. The head is turned to point to the thumb, on which they seem to focus whilst turning.
We were told in a short talk beforehand that the Dervish Maqabbaleh tradition was started by disciples of Rumi, the 13th century poet and mystic (1207-1273), who noted that when in states of divine ecstasy, he would spontaneously begin to turn. The dance seems to be in three distinct stages. There are also references to a type of spiritual journey, which starts as the divine essence manifests through the kingdoms of mineral, vegetable, animal and finally human, then journeys back to the source in a mystical progression. The strong references to death are emphasised by the music --- a heavy drum beat reminds us that we are alive right now, and should dance with joy while we live! A Turkish traditional flute, the "neh", winds through with a soaring melody.
Here is an example of a poem by Rumi. It is taken from an *excellent* book called "The Enlightened Heart, An Anthology of Sacred Poetry", edited by Stephen Mitchell.
Morning: a polished knifeblade,
the smell of white camphor burning.
The sky tears his blue Sufi robe
deliberately in half.
Daylight Rumi drags his dark opposite
out of sight. A happy Turk comes
in.
A grieving Hindu leaves.
The King of the Ethiopians goes.
Caesar arrives.
No one knows what changes,
changes.
One half of the planet is grass.
The other half grazing.
A pearl goes up for auction. No one has enough,
so the pearl buys
itself.
We stand beside Noah and David and Rabia
and Jesus and Mahummed.
Quietness again lifts and planes out,
the blood in our heads gliding
in the sky of the brain.
(Translated by Coleman Barks with A.J. Arberry)
From: johnz@eaglet.rain.com (John Zimmer)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1992
21:17:26 GMT
Subject: L&A video
All this talk of TSW has prompted me to go back and watch the videos again, and reminded me of a couple of things:
1. I usually need a cold shower after "The Sensual World" ends;
2. I don't recall seeing an explanation (if one exists) for why the commercially available version of "Love and Anger" has the "tantrum" footage removed (immediately following the ballerinas relieving her of the orb and scepter in the MTV version). Picking nits, I know, but it's been stuck in my head for a couple years now. Any ideas?
John Zimmer
From: meth@aol.com
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 92 13:15:51 EST
Subject:
Missing Freakout
John Zimmer noted the absence of the slight fit Kate throws in the middle of the "Love And Anger" video on the TSW video compilation. I've never been able to figure this out, either. The American eMpTV version had it, and it was one of my favorite moments in the entire thing. Then I bought the compilation, and it wasn't there. :(
Maybe she didn't want the True Fans (TM) who would buy and dissect the video to surmise that she's becoming prone to seizures in her old age? ;)
Meredith Tarr
From: s.telford@ed.ac.uk (Scott Telford)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992
12:55:25 GMT
Subject: Re: Missing Freakout
I'm still wondering what this "fit" is. As I remember the L&A vid on the UK TSW tape, after the dancers grab the orb & sceptre, KaTe zooms right past the camera, then there's a sequence where she's facing the camera, waving her hands out in front, then there's a bit where the male dancers pick her up and carry her onto the stage. I guess you must be talking about the bit between the last two? (can't remember what happens there!). Anyway how could they leave that out without editing the audio track?
From: johnz@eaglet.rain.com (John Zimmer)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1992
23:07:52 GMT
Subject: Re: Missing Freakout
>I'm still wondering what this "fit" is. As I remember the L&A vid on the UK TSW tape, after the dancers grab the orb & sceptre, KaTe zooms right past the camera, then there's a sequence where she's facing the camera, waving her hands out in front, then there's a bit where the male dancers pick her up and carry her onto the stage. I guess you must be talking about the bit between the last two? (can't remember what happens there!). Anyway how could they leave that out without editing the audio track?
I believe the UK and US tapes are the same; the "fit" comes immediately after the dancers grab the orb and sceptre, lasting only a second or two -- it looks like the edit is filled in by going "slow-mo" at this point (if you watch carefully you'll see her start to wring her hands and bend forward slowly). My question is still -- why?
John Zimmer
From: meth@aol.com
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 13:14:25 EST
Subject:
Re: Missing Freakout
The fit occurs right at the point where the dancers take the orb and sceptre out of her hands: the minute they're away from her person her entire body undergoes this tremor which begins at her fingertips, travels through her arms to her torso and then down her body to her toes. (You can see the first instant of this in the edited version.) It's really quite spectacular.
The whole thing happens so fast that I think all they had to do was edit in one more second of the next shot to replace it, so the audio track wouldn't be affected at all.
Meredith Tarr
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 13:10:51 +0100
From: Ulrich Grepel <uli@intellektik.informatik.th-darmstadt.de>
Subject: Re: Missing Freakout
Hi there,
Reading that there are two versions of the L&A video, I just had to check the spot. I have the UK video tape and a recording from MTV Europe. Both are ( :-( ) without the tremor. ME WANT TO SEE IT!
In the following description the scenes are referred to as scene 1 (Kate loosing contact to orb and sceptre, and finally tremoring) and scene 2 (Kate throwing her head up and then rotating her arms). The following is a study of single 1/25 second frames, viewed in digital single stepping video:
- scene 1: Kate looses contact to the orb
scene 2: not yet there
- scene 1: Kate has lost contact to orb
scene 2: not yet there
- scene 1: Kate looses contact to sceptre
scene 2: not yet there
- scene 1: Kate has lost contact to both, fingers of both hands are pointing
down in an 30 degree angle, her elbows are slightly bended,
scene 2: The
back of Kate can already be seen at the bottom
- scene 1: Hands going inwards and slightly up, elbows more bended
scene 2: no change
- scene 1: Hands going forward and up, elbows even more bended, thumbs up
scene 2: no change
- scene 1: Hands going upwards, fingers inwards
scene 2: no change
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: Kate's right elbow and her back are
going up a little bit further
- scene 1: the hands are stretching outwards fast, elbows almost straight
again
scene 2: Her back is rising slowly.
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: Her elbow's are going up
- scene 1: Elbows going backwards, whole arms are turning forward, hands
pointing about 30 degrees downwards
scene 2: Kate throws her head up and
can be seen only very slightly, her left elbow appears
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: More of her head can be seen, but not
yet clearly
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: it now begins taking over control. Her
hair can be identified, the light in the real background is shimmering through
her hair that is sort of flying up.
- scene 1: her ankles are going up while the fingertips remain in position,
so the angle increases
scene 2: Kate's forehead can be seen for the first
time - roles of background and foreground change places, since now the former
background has more than 50 % of the picture.
scene 1: no change
scene 2: Kate's face can be seen, but very
verschwommen. Kate's chin is there, and also upper half of Ausschnitt
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: Kate's Ausschnitt completely visible,
her right arm behind back, left arm down
- scene 1: hands are again pointing forwards, her thumbs up
scene 2:
Kate's body rises further
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: Kate is rising further, her right arm
begins to appear
- scene 1: no change, but getting weaker, perhaps 10 percent of picture is
scene 1:
scene 2: Kate throws her head to the back
- scene 1: her hands are pointing outwards again
scene 2: she's almost
standing straight now, head thrown to the back, first frame where her face can
be seen clearly
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: now her body is straight, head further
back
- scene 1: no change
scene 2: body 'more than straight', a little bit
to the back
- scene 1: hands turned so they point slightly downwards
scene 2: left
hand can be seen for the first time, head almost completely thrown to the back
- scene 1: completely faded out, only scene 2 is now visible
scene 2:
left hand is rising
Kate now begins putting her head straight onto her shoulders again, thereby lifting her right shoulder to begin rotating her arms.
Some questions:
- Is this the right position in the video?
- Has someone recorded an emty-vee USA broadcast of the video?
- You, who has recorded it, do you have a VCR with good single stepping capabilities?
- You, who has answered the last questions with 'yes', can you check the way the MTV-USA video is different and tell us your results?
- All those 'no changes' above: These would qualify as 'slow-mo', but they are not enough to bring in a significant amount of additional frames. Ideas?
- While we are discussing single video frames: As we all (should) know, NTSC uses 30 frames per second, while PAL (and SECAM) only uses 25 frames. While watching the single frames of the videos, I could not see any mixture between two frames to adjust frequency. I often can see that on other video recordings from TV. Can anyone of you NTSC users verify if the single frames in the video are clear cut from one another or if they fade into one other?
Uli
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 94 19:26 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Love and Anger - the video
This is coming a bit late (we had Uli as a house guest) but I had to correct a mistaken impression. Love and Anger is not a slapdash effort, nor did I intend to imply that it was. It is a carefully crafted piece of humor. Rubberband Girl (version 2), on the other hand, *was* a slapdash market piece made by a an obviously somewhat annoyed Kate.
To avoid any further misunderstanding, here's our original analysis of of the Love and Anger video. Apologies to those who may have seen this more than once.
--------------------
[see earlier post. VM]
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 94 19:37 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Re: The Video Challenge
Fiona replies:
>Re my remarks on the Love and Anger video: I did not say the video did not have a storyline. I said that I did not think the images in the video were put together with the intent of sending a message to record company executives.
I didn't say that it was intended to send a message to the record company executives either. I feel that it is about the situation of being told to make a video for a song that was not her choice for a single. I wouldn't think that she would expect them to "get it." Haven't you ever made a joke about someone you disliked (say, the school bully) with the specific intention that the object of the joke *not* get it?
>I seem to recall Kate saying in an interview that she herself was not sure what the song was about. Thus, I would be quite willing to accept that the video might not have a storyline, if the creator is not sure that the song does. However, if I were to try to explain the video, I would say that the first part with the dancers, the orb and sceptre, glitter, etc. are somehow related to working through or dealing with the problem the song seems to be talking about. The band scene may represent the state where the problem has been resolved and a celebration of the new, improved person results. But, of course, that is my own interpretation.
Then what is the crux of the video? In the original version (not seen on later edits) the line of ballet dancers grab the orb and septre from Kate and she spazzes out. What was that changing? What are you saying the message of the video is? "Don't worry, be happy?" Please, Kate's world view, as far as we can tell from her songs, is *much* more complex than that.
> As to the significance of the orb and sceptre, I would say they might represent the individual's inner strength and self-esteem (a theme that has certainly occurred in Ms. B.'s other work, and a theme which would certainly relate to what seems to be going on in the song). However, my more overwhelming inclination is to say that they look very striking against a dark background.
As do her skin, hair and dress. But they are symbols of a national level, roughly equivilent to an American artist wrapping herself in a flag holding a bald eagle. Far too loaded, and specifically representative of the monarchy to simply be intended to be symbols of personal empowerment. Agreed, they could well be intended to carry that message, but I still have some trouble seeing your view covering the entire video in a consistant way.
>Finally: another video where there is such a dramatic switch between the first and second parts? easy. The Big Sky.
But the first part deals with looking at the sky, star-gazing, falconing, sailing and the second part could be considered a celebration of those who voyage in the sky, astronauts, pilots, balloonists and the simple joy of flight.
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 94 21:29:11 EST
From: CHRIS SMITH/Indiana U SOM/ONE
WORLD <SMITHCJ@ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: "L&A" video
storyline...
Hello all:
I've been lurking on the list, and posting very occasionally, for a couple of years now. My first introduction to Kate's music was actually my stumbling across the "L&A" video while channel-surfing on MTV one night during the incredibly brief period it was in rotation. I was blown away by the video, the tune, and the sheer density of the symbolic language. Became a Kate fan the same night.
I actually wound up writing a semiotic/analysis paper for a musicology seminar on the "L&A" video, in which I tried to identify and articulate all the different symbolic vocabularies which were being referenced, and then tried to get at the "program" or storyline they were used in service of.
I've submitted the paper (three years later) to a performance studies conference in NYC in March '95. I'd welcome feedback from those on the list who are far greater authorities than I; and/or if anyone is interested in one person's response to and analysis of what "L&A" might be "about," I'd be happy to email copies of the text, at such time as it's in more finalized form.
Thanks to all for providing a positive and informative forum; I continueto learn things and get new insights from following discussions.
In solidarity :-),
[See next section. VM]
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 89 14:52:12 +0200
From: Sakari Jalovaara <sja@sirius.hut.fi>
Subject: This Woman's Video
The video for This Woman's Work was on MTV this morning.
The video opens with Kate playing piano and singing. The rest of the room is dark, you can see only Kate and the piano.
The camera shows a room - a hospital waiting room - chairs, two windows, coffee vending machine, a man (now I know I've seen him before, who is he?) sitting down, holding his head in his hands, then pacing around, nervous, waiting. It's raining outside.
Kate appears - as a ghost - a rain of gold, the camera circles and we are in a forest - with Kate and the man - there is a red telephone booth on the background, lit inside. It is dark.
The camera moves again - we are back in the hospital, a nurse comes in - it's Kate - no, blink your eyes and it is someone else - she tells the man something. Bad news.
It has stopped raining - the camera moves again - a dinner table, Kate sitting, laughing - she throws her head back - and back - and she falls backwards - the man catches her, carries her to a car - drives frantically in a rain of gold (she had a lot of that stuff left over from Love and Anger, huh?) - into the hospital. Kate is rushed away.
We are back in the waiting room - a nurse comes in, smiling -tells the man something. Kate is okay.
Date: 7 Dec 89 9:34 +0100
From: Norvald Stol <stol%vax.elab.unit.uninett@nac.no>
Subject: Man in TWW video
I'm pretty sure that this is the British actor Tim McInnerny, much seen in TV-series from BBC. The role I will definitely not forget is his "Lord Percy"-character in "Black Adder" (with Rowan Atkinson as the Black Adder).
Norvald.
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 90 15:57:53 EST
From: gordon!henrik@EDDIE.MIT.EDU
(Larry DeLuca @ The Sensual World)
Subject: This Woman's Work
"This Woman's Work" was *amazing*. Very nicely done. I just wish she hadn't bothered to frame it with the piano bit. I mean, I think we could all get the fact that she was singing from his point of view without it, and while it was an interesting way to start out the video, and I liked the end bit, I felt like it diminished the raw emotional power of it all (I thought she should have faded out much earlier on Mr. "I can't remember my line" - he looked so *odd* just jawing after the nurse came to talk to him). Actually, I really didn't like his acting - especially close-up. Though, with his campy, overdone style he would have made the *PERFECT* Heathcliff to play opposite her 1978 Cathy in "Wuthering Heights" (can you just imagine the two of them, making utterly grotesque gestures and horrific facial expressions, clawing through the fog at each other in a surreal hide-and-seek with cartwheels?).
All-in-All, I still think "Hounds of Love" is her best video, or "Running Up That Hill". But, MMMMMMH, yes! "The Sensual World" will titillate me for years to come.
Mmmmmmmmmh, yes!!!!!
larry...
From: emx.utexas.edu!ut-emx!slh@cs.utexas.edu (Susan L. Cecelia Harwood)
Date: 23 Feb 90 03:37:44 GMT
Subject: TWW--The video
"This Woman's Work" made me cry. It was a very moving piece of film. Having been in a similar situation to that of the couple in the video last fall, my boyfriend and I both cried. A video has *never* made me cry-- me, who sobs every time Romeo, Juliet, Mozart, and Cathy Earnshaw die. The scene that depicts the restaurant and the subsequent drive to the hospital is intense, especially the way it runs horizontally from scene to scene.
While still bedazzled, I think I'll submit my contribution to the "Kate Bush as Icon" discussion. I am most impressed with Kate Bush's music. I think she's a very imaginative and talented woman. Completely unrelated to this is the fact that I think she's absolutely gorgeous. I have posters of her-- in fact, one is actually accorded the role of icon on the North wall of my house. I think appreciating Catherine Bush as a beautiful woman does little to enhance and nothing to detract from appreciating the musical works of Kate Bush.
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 90 19:36:41 PST
From: ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward
Suranyi)
Subject: Review of the British videocassette in NME
The December 1 issue of New Musical Express (with Julee Cruise on the cover) has a review of the British videocassette:
Hello trees, hello sky! At only 36 minutes, this video offers an interview with Kate [the entire VH-1 special], a fairy skip through her work to date, and three full-length video clips from last year's 'The Sensual World'.
The interview is actually quite interesting; she's not just a squeaky-voiced airhead with a lot of funny costumes and a load of old pantheist wank. Despite claiming that her songs have "their own little personalities", Kate reveals herself to be a dedicated and unpretentious artist, and provides some interesting insights into her sensual work.
The clips themselves -- sometimes startling, sometimes too precious -- are mostly as we've come to expect. Kate contorts herself in either agony or ecstacy amid autumn leaves, while sparkly bits fall from the sky and a troupe of dancers sway to the music. All very nice, of course.
The most notable clip of the three is 'This Woman's Work' which, while steering perilously close to Jim Steinman's bloated territory, is fluid and visually striking.
-- Hamish Stewart
From: nbc%inf.rl.ac.uk@mitvma.mit.edu
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 91 18:12:55
GMT-0:00
Subject: Review of The Sensual World Video
The February issue of Q Magazine has a review of The Sensual World video.
Woman's Realm
Welcome to the sensual, nay sexual, world of Kate Bush: where oestrogen meets testosterone.
Endowed with a come-hither title if ever there was one, this slim but perfectly formed video brings up to date the Kate Bush story-in-moving-pictures. It consists of a fireside chat with an unseen interviewer about 1989's The Sensual World album and the three self-directed videos that accompany the extracted singles, Love and Anger, This Woman's Work and the title track, followed by the clips shown in their entirety. Yours for #9.99.
For all her charm and sincerity, Kate is one of those artists who should perhaps leave her work to speak for itself. "I've explored female energies in myself as a writer/producer," she earnestly avows. "Before, I'd really just done as I'd seen guys do. In hindsight, a lot of what I was doing was male-influenced." An interesting thought, but it's unsubstantiated by the evidence of her very first video, 1977's Wuthering Heights, compared to the recent Sensual World (co-directed by The Comic Strip's Peter Richardson).
In the first, the 19-year-old Kate in a virgin-white dress, balletically swirls through a dry-ice mist. In the second, she wafts through an enchantered forest in full medieval fig. The former, we must believe, is esentially chock-full of testosterone while the latetr runs on oestrogen, but one defies even the most sharp-eyed budgie-sexer to tell the diference. The theme of Love and Anger lends itself more readily to distinguishing between the X and Y chromosomes, and Kate wittily spends the first half of the clip in familiar, if you will, female swoon, only to be borne halfway through by her ballet-dancing handmaidens to a rough, tough male world of rugged black amplification through which a burly David Gilmour leads other bestubbled rockers in giving it some welly.
A self-confessed apolitical animal ("I think I'm an emotionally-based person"), Kate derives most inspiration from conversations, books, painting and films and in particular she extols Alfred Hitchcock - "a tremendous influence when I'm making a video, the ultimate refereence point." With that in mind, one looks afresh at her clip for This Woman's Work. Elegantly and economically, she dramatises a woman's collapse and her other half's anguish with a dream-like fluidity that indeed denotes that she's studied such classics by the master as Spellbound, Notorious and Vertigo with more than a little attentiveness. At the same time (and she is seldom given credit for her sense of humour), she casts in what you might call the Jimmy Stewart or Gregory Peck role no less than Tim McInnerny of Blackadder fame - who is, of course, referred to throughout the song as "darling". Hitch might have had a chuckle himself at that.
Mat Snow
The video gets 4 stars (out of a maximum of 5).
On
to the "Love And Anger " analysis
written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland
Willker
Sept 1995 June 1996