Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (03/19/87)
Really-From: drukman%UMASS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
(Jonathan S. Drukman)
Has anyone noticed that "Suspended In Gaffa" can be interpreted as
being a song about a girl scared to lose her virginity?
I was out with some friends last week and we started discussing it,
one of them said that it had to do with gaining knowledge, I dismissed
that as being too general and said "No, there's got to be a specific
point to it." Here's what the debate produced:
"Out in the garden, there's half of a heaven"
--The garden: a classic trysting place, symbol of nature and
through the sex act, nature defiled.
"we're only bluffing/we're not ones for busting through walls"
--At this point, my friend who didn't see the sex angle immediately
said "Oh, NOW I see it!" - busting through walls: representative
of the tearing of the hymen, perhaps?
"But they've told us unless we can prove/that we're doing it/
we can't have it all."
--The narrator never specifically mentions what "it" is, so being
the suspicious little weasels we are, we make "it" equal "sex".
"He's gonna wangle a way to get out of it"
--This line gives me trouble; guys are usually gung-ho about sex,
maybe this one has second thoughts, maybe he likes the woman too
much.
"She's an excuse/and a witness who'll talk when he's called"
--Seems like she considers it rape, she'll betray the man when
a nameless "they" catch up with him and put him on trial.
<unless we can prove that we're doing it... etc>
The chorus is revealing, too.
"Suddenly my feet are feet of mud/It all goes slow-mo"
--She's scared to do it, she doesn't want to submit, lose her virginity.
Nervouseness, tension, are all evoked in this one line.
"I don't know why I'm crying/Am I suspended in Gaffa?"
--Well, you know the old cliche, the woman cries after losing her
virginity - something that can never be reclaimed. If, as has been
previously proposed, the word "Gaffa" is a corruption of "Gaffe" then
she obviously considers her submission to be a mistake, and she's
caught up in it.
I'll try to cover the rest of the song at another point. Before I
quit, have you noticed that of all those background messages, one of
the most audible is "I'm scared of the changes"? Another argument for
my case, I'd say.
Any counter or supportive arguments are welcome.
--Jon