[mod.music.gaffa] Treasure

Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (02/05/87)

Really-From: Jeremy Bornstein <JEREMY@BROWNVM.BITNET>

I've just purchased Cocteau Twins' Treasure.  Perhaps I haven't given it
as many listenings as I should have before asking this questions, but does
anyone have any knowledge/ideas about the lyrics?  Some sounds like nonsense,
some like maybe Italian, but I can't really tell.
 
-Jeremy

Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (02/09/87)

Really-From: andrews@cs.UBC.CAN (Jamie Andrews)

>Really-From: Jeremy Bornstein <JEREMY@BROWNVM.BITNET>
>I've just purchased Cocteau Twins' Treasure.  Perhaps I haven't given it
>as many listenings as I should have before asking this questions, but does
>anyone have any knowledge/ideas about the lyrics?  Some sounds like nonsense,
>some like maybe Italian, but I can't really tell.

     From what I've heard of and about the Twins, they often
treat the voice as just another instrument.  That instrument
may be the main melody line, or in the harmony (the so-called
"buried vocal").  Probably, therefore, the words, if any, are
chosen more for their sound than anything else.

--

     BTW, the first place I heard of the Twins was in _Trouser
Press_; did I see someone say that that venerable organ had
started up again?  It closed down around mid-1984 (just after
its 10th anniversary issue), even though it seemed to be as
high-quality as ever.

--

     While I'm writing to love-hounds again...  I thought I'd
mention a couple things about _HoL_ songs.

     I'm beginning to like "Cloudbusting" more and more as a
poem.  Forgive the freshman English class analysis, but have you
noticed that in the first stanza, Daddy is "making rain" and the
narrator (his son, right?) "wakes up crying"?  Also, the phrases
"bury it" and "daddy" near the end of both stanzas are echoed by
the string section, in exactly the same cadence as KT sings them...
also the lines immediately after them are "and forget" and "I
won't forget", respectively...

     As for "HoL" itself (the song), I was surprised that IED
didn't mention in his analysis the interpretation that I thought
this newsgroup took its name from.  The "hounds" are her very
fanatical fans, and the song says that she fears their love
because it seems so threatening and possessive -- but that,
ultimately, she needs their love as well.

--Jamie.
...!seismo!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!andrews
"Mayan skies sleeptalk with voices of lovers"