[MUSIC] Kate Bush, "Jig of Life"
Feb. 26th, 2009 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI blogged back in 2005 about "Jig of Life," a non-single album track off of Kate Bush's 1985 Hounds of Love. Blame the fiddles and the folk music that she deploys so effectively, as you can now hear.
There's also the lyrics, of course. As I blogged back in 2005, my confusion about the lyrics--someone appeared to be at threat of dying and someone seemed to have a proprietary interest in the death not happening--"only made sense at the end of last April, when I met up with talktooloose who told me that Kate Bush was thinking of the LP when she made her album. Side A was Hounds of Love, the more commercial side, containing the international hit "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" and following by the commercial and entertaining tracks "Hounds Of Love," "The Big Sky," "Mother Stands For Comfort," and the Wilhelm Reich-inspired "Cloudbusting." Side B was The Ninth Wave, a cycle of seven songs ("And Dream Of Sheep," "Under Ice," "Waking The Witch," "Watching You Without Me," "Jig Of Life," "Hello Earth," and "The Morning Fog") describing the experiences of a woman drowning at sea.
"Jig of Life" is the hinge of The Ninth Wave. Does Bush's subject choose to struggle and stay alive? Or, does she choose to surrender to the cool waters and perish, comfortably and quietly. I've always wanted to believe that she lived, that "The Morning Fog" describes her grateful half-dazed reaction to her rescuers, that she returned renewed to the shores."
I'd still like to think that.
The relevant lyrics are reproduced below, properly formatted thanks to Gaffa.org.
Yes, yes, we can talk about predestination paradoxes if we want, but do we really want to?
There's also the lyrics, of course. As I blogged back in 2005, my confusion about the lyrics--someone appeared to be at threat of dying and someone seemed to have a proprietary interest in the death not happening--"only made sense at the end of last April, when I met up with talktooloose who told me that Kate Bush was thinking of the LP when she made her album. Side A was Hounds of Love, the more commercial side, containing the international hit "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" and following by the commercial and entertaining tracks "Hounds Of Love," "The Big Sky," "Mother Stands For Comfort," and the Wilhelm Reich-inspired "Cloudbusting." Side B was The Ninth Wave, a cycle of seven songs ("And Dream Of Sheep," "Under Ice," "Waking The Witch," "Watching You Without Me," "Jig Of Life," "Hello Earth," and "The Morning Fog") describing the experiences of a woman drowning at sea.
"Jig of Life" is the hinge of The Ninth Wave. Does Bush's subject choose to struggle and stay alive? Or, does she choose to surrender to the cool waters and perish, comfortably and quietly. I've always wanted to believe that she lived, that "The Morning Fog" describes her grateful half-dazed reaction to her rescuers, that she returned renewed to the shores."
I'd still like to think that.
The relevant lyrics are reproduced below, properly formatted thanks to Gaffa.org.
Hello, old lady.
I know your face well.
I know it well.
She says,"Ooh-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na!
I'll be sitting in your mirror.
Now is the place where the crossroads meet.
Will you look into the future?
"Never, never say goodbye
To my part of your life.
No, no, no, no, no!
Oh, oh, oh,
"Let me live!"
She said."C'mon and let me live, girl!"
She said,"C'mon and let me live, girl!"("C'mon and let me live!")
"This moment in time,"(She said.)
It doesn't belong to you,"(She said,)
It belongs to me,
"And to your little boy and to your little girl,
And the one hand clapping:
Where on your palm is my little line,
When you're written in mine
As an old memory?
Ooh, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-
"Never, never say goodbye
To my part of your life.
Oh no, no, no, no, no!
Never, never, never!
Never, never let me go!"
Yes, yes, we can talk about predestination paradoxes if we want, but do we really want to?
