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        I FIND THE USE OF STRONG SYMBOLISM AND METAPHOR AND ALLUSIONS 
IN YOUR LYRICS TO BE EXTREMELY INTERESTING.  FOR EXAMPLE, IN "GET OUT 
OF MY HOUSE," THE WOMAN WHO IS SINGING THE SONG HAS BEEN LEFT BY HER 
LOVER AND FEELS HURT, AND IDENTIFIES HERSELF WITH A HOUSE.  THIS IS A 
BIBLICAL ALLUSION.  WHEN SHE SAYS "I WASH THE PANES", IT IS A TRIPLE 
ENTENDRE, BECAUSE SHE'S SAYING SHE'S WASHING THE WINDOWS OF HER BODY, 
WHICH ARE THE EYES.  THIS MEANS SHE'S CRYING, AND BY DOING SO, SHE'S 
WASHING THE HURT AND PAIN AWAY.  THEN SHE SAYS "NO STRANGER'S FEET WILL 
ENTER ME" SAYING THAT SHE WON'T LET ANYONE INTO HER HOUSE, WHICH IS 
SAYING SHE WON'T LET ANYONE INTO HER BODY, WHICH IS ALSO REINFORCED BY 
THE BIBLICAL USE OF "FEET" AS A EUPHEMISM FOR "PRIVATE PARTS".  THE 
LAYERS OF MEANING HERE, ARE PRETTY INCREDIBLE.
        THEN A MAN TRIES TO ENTER HER LIFE AGAIN, BUT SHE'S TOO SCARED, 
AND SHE TRIES TO ESCAPE BY FLYING AWAY, BUT HE TURNS INTO THE WIND.  
SHE THEN TURNS INTO A MULE, PERHAPS FOR ITS STUBBORN ABILITY TO 
WITHSTAND THE WIND.  AND THEN HE ALSO TURNS INTO A MULE.  NOW IT SEEMS 
THAT THEY HAVE A GROUND FOR COMMUNICATION.  BECAUSE MULES ARE NEUTER, 
AND THEY CAN COMMUNICATE ON A PLATONIC LEVEL RATHER THAN A SEXUAL 
LEVEL.
        NOW A FRIEND OF MINE BELIEVES THAT THIS LAST PART IS A FLAW IN 
THE SONG, BECAUSE MULES ARE NOT REALLY NEUTER AFTER ALL.  THEY ARE ONLY 
STERILE.  PERSONALLY, I THINK IT ISN'T A FLAW BECAUSE THE IDEA COMES 
ACROSS LOUD AND CLEAR TO ME, AND SOMEHOW IT SEEMS THAT "I CHANGE INTO 
THE AMOEBA: OOZE! OOZE!" JUST WOULDN'T WORK SO WELL.  SO THE QUESTION 
IS, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS INTERPRETATION? AND COULD YOU RESPOND TO 
MY FRIEND'S SLIGHT CRITICISM?
        And what was your friend's criticism?
        HE SAID THAT THE ENDING IS A FLAW BECAUSE MULES ARE NOT REALLY 
NEUTER, THEY ARE ONLY STERILE.
        What does he mean?
        WELL, IT SEEMS TO ME - AND TO HIM - THAT THE END OF THE SONG IS 
SORT OF A POSITIVE NOTE BECAUSE THEY'VE FOUND A GROUNDS FOR 
COMMUNICATION.  AND SORT OF ON A PLATONIC LEVEL, BECAUSE MULES MIGHT BE 
SEEN AS BEING PLATONIC, BECAUSE...
        Why?
        OH... WELL... MULES ARE STERILE... UH... A DONKEY AND A 
HORSE... YOU KNOW... HAVE A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP, AND THEN THEY HAVE 
MULES, AND MULES DON'T HAVE CHILDREN, BUT THEY REALLY CAN HAVE SEX.  
THEY JUST CAN'T HAVE CHILDREN, BUT A LOT OF PEOPLE ACTUALLY THINK THAT 
THEY JUST DON'T HAVE SEX.  WHICH ISN'T REALLY TRUE.
        Right!  Well, um... I think you... It's kind of weird the level 
of interpretation that you are reading into things, because... I mean, 
a mule - in our country - all it represents is a stupid animal.  They 
are considered stupid and that's the allusion that was being used in 
that case.  And it's very much a play on a traditional song called The 
Two Magicians about someone who's trying to escape someone, and they 
keep changing their form in order to escape them.  But the other thing 
keeps changing its form.  And that's actually what the whole song is 
about - someone who is running away from something they don't want to 
face, but wherever they go, the thing will follow them.  Basically, you 
can't run away from things - you've got to confront things.  And it's 
using the person as the imagery of a house, where they won't let anyone 
in, they lock all the doors and windows, and put a guard on the front 
door.  But I think the essence of the song is about someone trying to 
run away from things they don't like and not being able to escape - 
because you can't.
        BUT IF THE SYMBOL OF MULES IS JUST STUPIDITY, AT THE END, THEN 
IT WOULD SEEM LIKE IT WOULD BE A NEGATIVE ENDING, AND IT JUST SORT OF 
SEEMS TO ME, MOST OF YOUR SONGS...A LOT OF THEM...END ON UP NOTES.  AND 
IT SORT OF SEEMED LIKE IT WAS A POSITIVE NOTE AT THE END.
        Yes, I think the mule is that kind of... the stupid 
confrontation...  I mean, there's not really that much to read into it. 
 It was the idea of playing around with changing shape, and the mule 
imagery was something I liked inordinately.  The whole thing of this 
wild, stupid, mad creature just turning around and going, you know, 
"Eeyore! Eeyore!" [KATE MAKES CONVINCING EEYORE SOUNDS.] I don't know 
if you saw Pinocchio, but there's an incredibly heavy scene in there, 
where one of the little boys turns into a donkey - a mule.  And it's 
very heavy stuff.
        I HAVEN'T SEEN THAT SINCE ABOUT SIX, BUT I THINK I REMEMBER 
THAT...IT'S A STRONG IMAGE.
        Well, maybe you should see it again.  It's a good film.   
(1985, Love-Hounds)


*       DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE KATE BUSH SONG?
        PADDY: For me.  Yes, yes...it's "Get Out Of My House", really, 
was my favorite track.  I think if Alfred Hitchcock ever made hit 
singles [LAUGHTER FROM AUDIENCE]... And I love it, I love the energy 
that it deals with.  It's fantastic.  And Paul Hardiman's vocals on the 
very beginning of it I think are, to me, one of the most fantastic 
things thats ever been recorded.  I used to go into fits of extascy 
when we listened to the multi-track tapes of that and those opening 
"Eoyores"...  I love that track.   (1985, Kate Bush Con. Paddy and Jay 
Interview)



THE TWA MAGICIANS

        KATE: And it's very much a play on a traditional song called 
The Two Magicians about someone who's trying to escape someone, and 
they keep changing their form in order to escape them.

    _The_Twa_(read Two)_Magicians_ is an old English (and Irish and 
Scottish and just about every country in Europe, too) ballad in which a 
young maiden is wooed by a young man. In the original the girl 
threatens to change form (in some versions the boy does all the 
hypothesizing), from human to animal or vegetable. The boy always 
responds by promising to takethe form of a compatible or superior 
animal or vegetable.
     Kate merely borrowed the general idea. Her specific images of 
bird-to-wind, the "song's hit," and the mules are all unprecedented, 
however, at least to judge from the dozen or more versions of the 
original that IED has come across recently. Musically, there's no 
connection, either, as far as this listener can tell.
        Following is a transcription of the lyrics to an old Irish 
version of _The_Twa_Magicians_. Actually, with all the variants all 
over Europe, its English and Irish versions are not the earliest. The 
following version is the one that Kate probably learned as a child, 
since it is the work of A. L. "Burt" Lloyd, one of the fathers of the 
English and Irish folkmusic revival of our century, and a great 
favourite of Kate's.  IED transcribed as well as he could from the 
recording of the song by Martin Carthy (the album, which also includes 
an a cappella rendition of "The Handsome Cabin Boy", is called 
_Martin_Carthy_with_Dave_Swarbrick_, on Topic, 12 TS 340 -- 1977).


_The_Twa_Magicians_

A lady sits in her own front door
As straight as a willow wand,
And by there come a lusty smith
With a hammer in his hand, and he said

     Bide, lady, bide,
     There's nowhere you can hide,
     For the lusty smith will be your love
     And he will lay your pride.

"Well may stand you, lady fair
All in your robe of red,
But come tomorrow at this same time
I'll have you in me bed," and he said

     Bide, lady, bide,
     There's nowhere you can hide,
     For the lusty smith will be your love
     And he will lay your pride.

"Away, away, you coal-blacksmith,
Would you do me this wrong?
To think to have me maidenhead
That I have kept so long!

"I'd rather I was dead and cold
And my body laid in my grave,
Than a husky, dusky coal-blacksmith
Me maidenhead should have!"

So the lady she held up her hand,
And she swore upon her soul,
That she'd not be the blacksmith's love
For all of a box of gold.

But the blacksmith he held up his hand
And he swore upon the Mass,
Saying "I'll have you in me bed, young girl,
For the half of -------------  (unintelligible).

     Bide, lady, bide,
     There's nowhere you can hide,
     For the lusty smith will be your love
     And he will lay your pride.

INSTRUMENTAL BRIDGE

So the lady she turned into a dove
And she flew up in the air,
But he became an old cock-pigeon
And they flew pair and pair, crying

     Bide, lady, bide,
     There's nowhere you can hide,
     For the lusty smith will be your love
     And he will lay your pride.

So the lady she turned into a hare
And she ran across the plain,
But he became a greyhound dog
And he ran her down again, crying

     Bide, lady, bide,
     There's nowhere you can hide,
     For the lusty smith will be your love
     And he will lay your pride.

So she became a little mare
As dark as the night was black,
But he became a golden saddle
And he clung on to her back, crying

     Bide, lady, bide,
     There's nowhere you can hide,
     For the lusty smith will be your love
     And he will lay your pride.

So she became a hot griddle
And he became a cake,
And every move that poor girl made
The blacksmith was her make.

So she became a full-dress (?) ship
And sailed upon the sea,
But he became a bold captain
And aboard of her went he, crying

     Bide, lady, bide,
     There's nowhere you can hide,
     For the lusty smith will be your love
     And he will lay your pride.

So the lady she went into the bedroom
And she changed into a bed,
But he became a green coverlet
And he gained her maidenhead.

And watch ye how (?) he held her soul,
And still he bad her bide,
And the lusty smith became her love
For all her mighty pride.

---
rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA
x-gateway: rodan.UU.NET from love-hounds to rec.music.gaffa; Thu, 7 Jan 1993 03:02:10 EST
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 03:00:06 -0500
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From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams)
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Message-ID: <1993Jan7.080046.18641@midway.uchicago.edu>