nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (06/30/85)
["Dig, dig, dig away."]
I was a little confused when the cover of Keyboard magazine called Kate
Bush "Britain's Renaissance Woman of Concept Rock" because it didn't
seem to me that any of Kate's albums are "concept" albums. As I
understand the term "concept album", it applies to an album where all
the songs -- if there are individual songs -- are tied together by some,
usually grandiose, common thread. Thus Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and
"Animals" would clearly be "concept albums". Genesis's "The Lamb Lies
Down on Broadway" would be another. But I never considered any of
Kate's albums to be a concept album because I didn't think any of them
has a strong common thread connecting the individual songs.
I was thinking about this recently while looking at the album cover. On
the back cover in big writing there is the statement "With a kiss I'd
pass the key". On the front cover, other than Kate, the prominent
images are Houdini, a key, chains, and a padlock. Then I suddenly
realized that every song on "The Dreaming" in some manner talks about
keys or locks and prisons:
Sat In Your Lap: "In my dome of ivory: a home of activity/ I want the
answers quickly, but I don't have no energy"
There Goes A Tenner: "You blow the safe up"
Pull Out The Pin: "I pull the pin"
Suspended In Gaffa: "I won't open boxes that I am told not to/ I'm not a
Pandora"
Leave It Open: "My door was never locked/ Until one day a trigger come
-- cocking/ (But now I've started learning how)/ I keep
it shut"
also "I kept it in a cage/ Watched it weeping, but I made it
stay/ (But now I've started learning how)/ I leave it
open/ I leave it open"
The Dreaming: "See the sun set in the hand of the man"
Night of the Swallow: "In Malta, catch a swallow/ For all of the guilty
to set them free"
also "Would you break even my wings/ Just like a swallow"
All The Love: "I stand at the gates alone"
also "So now when they ring, I get my machine to let them in"
Houdini: "With a kiss, I'd pass the key"
Get Out of My House: "With my key I (lock it)/ With my key I (lock it up)"
Has anyone else noticed this? Does anyone else care? Does anyone think
this was totally unintended, and I'm just over-analyzing the whole
thing?
Does anyone see any common thread tying together the songs on "Never for
Ever"? Several of the songs deal with our mortality, which is also what
the title alludes to, but this theme hardly seems to pervade all of the
songs.
"But you're not a swallow"
Doug Alan
nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)