Dream fragment from this morning

I was at a conference of some kind with some colleagues and possibly Mary Lou. I decided to leave and drive (or maybe ride a bicycle) to a house that belonged to me on the other side of town. I entered and met two female housekeepers who worked for me. I was planning to return to the conference and was looking for a ticket to the event. Some other male and female servants appeared and jumped in obsequiously to help me look. However, it occurred to me I could return to the event and get in without the ticket.

I started to leave when I saw Stephanie Skinner also walking out of the house wearing a winter coat and pulling a suitcase. "You're leaving!" I called out. "I never see you and I didn't even get to talk to you. Where are you going?" "Nashville," she replied. I approached to give her a friendly hug. Her face was very pretty and turned toward me. Impulsively, I started to kiss her on the mouth but she turned her head away and I felt embarrassed. "Just a kiss on the cheek," I said sheepishly as if that's what I intended all along. I left and started riding a bicycle back to the event. I was gliding along when I saw a multi-story building with a sign on a door on the 3rd floor that said Book Store. I stopped and approached the building, then realized the whole complex was an evangelical church. Although I wasn't interested in visiting a church, I walked up outdoor stairs to a landing on the 3rd floor, then descended rather agilely down the side of the building rather than taking the stairs again.

The downside of teaching Honors 2000

It's raining here and my day is free of structure. I'm listening to The Kick Inside straight through and enjoying it. I've become acclimated to KB and I'm relaxed and tuned in. However, I'm actually writing to ventilate a little about the privileged white boy in my Honors class who submitted a plagiarized paper that was also a POS even if it were original. I gave him a zero and he flunked the course. It's a pain in the ass but I'm turning him in to the appropriate LSU authorities. I'm not interested in his excuses, either. What he submitted is a slap in the face to the idea of an Honors program. In this age of shameless cheating, lying, abuse of women, children and minorities, and naked greed at the top, some of us have to take a stand for the old fashioned values of honesty, accountability, and fair play, right? The End. 💜

The Kick Inside

The closer and title song. It's a wistful, intriguing ballad with piano and voice then, strings. It's not clear what the song is about. "I'm giving it all in a moment or two, I'm giving it all, giving it, giving it." What does that mean? She's singing to a lover but then she calls herself sister. "You must lose me like an arrow shot into....?" They have to part but who is leaving whom? And why?

The song has hymn-like qualities. It's beautiful. I can imagine it being sung in concert by one of the big female stars with big voices but the composition is too personally Kate Bush's, not commercially catchy enough, too creatively brilliant. I listen again reading the lyrics on genius-dot-com, my go-to lyrics site. The notes explain the story. It's based on a Scottish ballad, Lucy Wan, about a woman who becomes pregnant by her brother, who then murders her. In Kate's song, the sister commits suicide, a martyr more than a victim.  She's letting the brother off the hook. Will he be haunted by guilt as he should? We aren't told so it's up to our imagination.

Ending one's debut LP on such a grim note is unconventionally gutsy. Kate Bush doesn't do things the conventional way and, yet, the perception I'm developing is of pure, iconic feminine power, the universal voice of a woman's human experience. A British voice, to be sure, but not just.

I will now go back and listen to the LP the way I used to listen to a new LP, one song at a time all the way through, no more blogging. After I finish grading the final exams in Honors 2000, of course.

Room for the Life

Back from lunch, I'm a little sleepy. I'll close my eyes and listen through the last two songs with headphones.

Am I getting acclimated to Kate's songs? Room for the Life grabs me right away. I hear the lyrics- it's an empowering admonition for women delivered via pleasantly accessible music, first a favorite chord progression I've recently used in one of my songs and then a rousing Afro-Caribbean groove tune that rocks me smilingly along. Kate's voice is pleasant and soothing. Yes.

Them Heavy People (I should be grading tests but oh, well)

I listened to this one (and watched the official video) back when I was going through the songs my friend, the Kate Bush fanatic, posted on her page. And to be perfectly honest, dear reader, I found it annoying. My first impression was "giddy, silly, why does she have to say them heavy people instead of those heavy people?" Today, I want to listen with an open mind. I just blogged that Kate was writing the songs on The Kick Inside as a teenager emerging from the child's world and encountering all sorts of new and intriguing and confusing things. I recall when I was her age listening to songs and reading various books recommended by the hipsters of the day and trying to determine if they made valid sense or were just the trickery of clever hucksters. "Does Bob Dylan really have the answer?" Does Carlos Castenedas offer the secrets of wisdom and power revealed to him by the Yaqui sorcerer, Don Juan (um, nope!)?" So, here's Kate sounding once again like a character in a London reggae musical, half-serious, half-sarcastic, asking herself those sorts of questions, wanting to believe but bringing a healthy dose of skepticism to the table. I make a connection between Kate saying them heavy people and Eliza Doolittle talking Cockney (Then, they'll march you, 'Enry 'Iggins, to the wall! And the Queen will tell me, "Liza, sound the call!"). Besides, I write lyrics and sing songs with language I don't use in Real Life except when I'm being satirical.

I bet Kate Bush listened to a lot of musical soundtracks.

Watched the video again playing sound through PA speakers. Totally, over-the-top satirical! I'm OK with the song now. But I don't know about that outfit she has on.

L'Amour Looks Something Like You

It occurs to me that I'm listening to the songs of a passionate teenager experiencing love and sex and freedom for the first time. Listening to her for the first time at age 66 I'm time traveling, back to 1978 when The Kick Inside was released and back to 1968 when I was experiencing those things as a passionate teenager in tumultuous times.  I've done this sort of thing before when I was much younger, discovering Freddy King and especially Robert Johnson, blues artists pointed to by Eric Clapton, discovering the sublime and joyous John Coltrane. I still have Prince to look forward to, having only scratched the pop culture surface of his immense body of work. Surviving this long is pretty cool, it has its consolations.

Oh to be in love

I like this song. It has many features of conventional pop music- it's catchy in a strange way. The arrangement and instruments are Beatlesesque as if Sir George Martin inspired the production or maybe was the producer. I doubt that, though. The song seems like a continuation of Feel It. The sex was so great, she's walking around humming to herself.  Still, she isn't sure it was anything more than an explosion of lust with a hot partner. But what the hell? It was glorious!

Feel It

Track 8 on The Kick Inside. I listened to the song last night with headphones after I turned out the lights. Today I listen again. The recording is just voice and piano, no overdubs do I hear. KB sings in her higher register. I can understand most but not all the words. "Feel it, feel it. my love. I need it. You are so beautiful and cute. Keep moving in. What you're doing to me." It seems to be about someone she finds very attractive and feels excited about. I will listen a third time looking at the lyrics. OK, it's about sex.

James and the Cold Gun

I listened to part of this back when I began the journey into KB's discography. This, however, feels like and essentially is a first listening.  My first impression- a conventional rock song. Except for the restless structure and transitions and Kate's singing and whooping and using herself as a Greek chorus.

Once again- Intro of standard piano chords followed by strong rock instruments, drums, bass, funky guitar chording, tight, punchy groove, oh, yeah. Minor verse moves into a more upbeat major chorus and then...another section before returning to the original verse structure. As usual, I'm disoriented by the voice and shifting structure and don't hear the words. The second time through I start to hear some of them.  "Oh, James, you're running out on reality." Softer, slow down ending.. or is it? Yes, it is.  I want to get out my guitar and go through again learning the chords so I understand what the song is doing. But I will listen again trying to concentrate on the words this time. It probably doesn't help I'm eating a delicious piece of cake with some vanilla ice cream baked by our accountant and brought over be her little nephew and niece who are our next door neighbors' kids. OK. I'll wait until I'm done with the cake, thank you.

Now, then, here we go. Even concentrating I'm still distracted by the music. Kate's clear but weirdly expressive voice (weird like the stretched images in circus mirrors) is somewhat buried in the mix and I can only make out a few words here and there... "casino... buckskin.  your own power?" (actually "you're a coward" I learn later).  I love her ecstatic lyrical whooping! Kate sounds like a euphoric lunatic giving poor James a friendly and humorous chastisement. I have no choice but to read the transcription on Genius dot com. I'll listen while I read. Now as I do that, most of the lyrics seem perfectly clear. It's the way she sings and the production that kept me off balance and unable to stay tuned to the words. The transcribed lyrics in black and white anchor me the fourth and last time through. James' friends really miss him. Is he a hunter or a soldier or an outlaw or just what? A figment of Kate's vivid imagination? It doesn't matter- the creative adventure of listening is what matters. To me.

I think this is the first one I've heard I could imagine myself performing.

Thoughts about KB

Written Dec 1 and sent via Messenger.

One of the endearing things about Kate Bush is she's very British. The British have a long tradition of eccentric artists as well as pacifists, protestors, and feminists (I don't know if Kate Bush is a feminist or not). The book I mentioned "To end all wars" follows the lives of some notable ones like Bertrand Russell and the Pankhurst ladies.

If someone asked me what it is about KB that makes her appealing, I wouldn't have said she's hot or beautiful. Thinking about this, the first 3 adjectives that came to mind were fascinating,  amazing and quirky. I wouldn't even say KB is hot or beautiful in a conventional sense (think Shakira). Not that she isn't those things but her appeal to me (and I would think to most guys who are drawn to her) is deeper and more... holistic or transcendent and complex than those relatively superficial qualities. It's more like at moments beautiful and sexy flash through the constantly shifting visual and musical images she projects. And the moments of exaggerated movements and expressions and pronunciation and vocal gymnastics aren't the sexy ones, at least to me. They're more comical, more reminiscent of Lucille Ball than Carolyn Jones. It's complicated...

The Man with the Child in his Eyes

Written Nov 25, 2018 and sent via Messenger

Before starting on professional matters. I listened to "The man with the child in his eyes" eyes closed with headphones, then with the video. I recalled reading she wrote this at age 13! Impressions: lush flowing piano chords, a   spontaneous association with the many patients who talked about abusers coming into their rooms at night... quickly dispelled by the uplifting emotional energy. "lost on some horizon" references "The Lost Horizon," the novel and movie about the mythical hidden land of Shangri-La.

Visually, the bodysuit with modest earrings and necklace conveys vulnerability. 💜 her British accent (I'm a sucker for them) and voice leaping up to "child" every time. I'm the millionth person to marvel at her writing this at 13.

Third time. Her face flows through changes that seem like she becomes different people, always feeling familiar as if I know all these people. Miming wings flapping to "child" evoking... you know what it evokes 😘 Reminding me of the quote from Hesse I recently posted. Image of embryo pose melts into Rorschach inkblot. Whew! Maybe I'll listen one more time eyes closed before morphing into responsible professor and psychologist. Life is a bitch and then you retire if you live long enough. 😉

Kite

Side 1, Track 4 from "The Kick Inside." A reggae kite chase as you follow the bouncing voice over the moving target of the chord changes.

Strange Phenomena

Side 1, Track 3. from "The Kick Inside." The recording starts with tinkling piano creating a dreamy ambiance reminiscent of modern show tunes. That feel continues as it segues into a chorus constituting the hook: "Raise your hands to the strange phenomena."  I couldn't understand many of the lyrics listening with headphones. I'll look them up to understand better what Kate is saying. Doing so I learn it's "Raise our hats..." "On mani padme hum (or properly om mani padme hum)" I discover "invokes the embodiment of compassion." This one isn't as strong as the other songs on The Kick Inside I've listened to thus far.  However, I've had so many inexplicable experiences of synchronicity, I'm more than happy to raise my imaginary hat to the strange phenomena.

The Saxophone Song

The second track on The Kick Inside is a serious winner. I should mention I'm a sucker for saxophone. The recording begins once again with what sounds like the cries of wild animals mixed with the sound of some primitive tribal horn. That's just a guess. The song is a flowing pop-rock tune in a minor key with numerous chords changes, often sprung on you by surprise, something Kate is most fond of. So am I. Somehow she is able to pull it all together coherently. The lyrics center around the singer being enthralled with a musician playing the saxophone. Whoo, smokey sexy! Kate does some cool and lovely things with her voice, sounding girlish as always but never shrill on this one. The minor section segues into a happy major key pop chorus. The song finally breaks into a long sinuous saxophone solo intertwined with a rapid 4 beat musical phrase on synthesizer that repeats exactly the same over and over. The two instruments fly around in stereophonic space as if dancing with one another in entirely different styles, one rigid and constricted, the other loose and free. It's creatively unconventional like most of the Kate Bush songs I've heard so far and it works like magic.

Kate Bush starting from her first recordings

Moving is the first song on "The Kick Inside."  There is no video with the recording so I listen in my studio via the PA system. The recording starts with anguished sounds, a mixture of human and animal voices?. Kate sings very high soprano sounding girlish and a little shrill at times but in lovely tune. The song is a minor key slow English ballad, more conventional in form than Wuthering Heights, with drums, bass, and piano prominent in the arrangement, her voice overdubbed in harmony, but the chord changes become more unconventional and interesting, still making musical sense. A recurring line is "please don't let me go." I hear the familiar leaps in the melody and a haunting, Scheherazade-like chord change enters in the middle and again near the end. I got out my guitar. The song is in D minor. The change I noticed goes from D minor to C to D-flat and A, then back to D minor. That's not identical to the 3 and 1/2 tone descent I call the Scheherezade change  (which would be, for example, A to E-flat)  but it has a similar exotic ambiance that shifts the mood from sad to uplifting and back to sad.