| Kate Bush – Under the Ivy Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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While there may be many shades of meaning in Kate Bush's words, there is one fairly direct meaning that it took me many years to realise. Kate is referring to a very intimate place indeed, under the tangle and the 'leaves', in fact her favorite place. Somewhere she likes to go when she is alone, yet easy to find when you know where it is. It is certainly "not easy" to talk about, "not safe". And yet she is waiting to be discovered there. Do I have to spell it out? |
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| The Killers – Human Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Good lyrics, worth listening to, but this is country rock not Shakespeare. First, let's get that quote out of the way. Writers often use phrases for no other reason than that they once read it and liked it. In this song, the attribution does nothing to improve our understanding. Second, that word "dancer". This word is compared to "human". "Human" is an adjective. If he'd wanted to say "dancers", he would have had to say "humans", but that wouldn't have sounded so good, so he used "dancer" as an adjective, meaning "of the dancer kind". The gist of the song is: (1st verse) He is on tour when is is dumped over the phone by his g/f. "Well", he thinks, "easy come easy go", and he responds like a true gentleman and says kind things. But he feels queasy about it. (Chorus) And then he thinks: Is that all there is to being human? Just swapping partners like in a line-dance? Doesn't that just leave you feeling cold and empty? What does it all mean? (2nd verse) He might as well forget about all the values of decency and virtue that he was bought up to believe in, they're not worth anything if love means nothing any more. (Break) Am I really alive? Because all communication with my heart appears to have been cut. And that's it in a nutshell, a comment on the sad state of things when people lack courage to make a commitment and stick to it, thus devaluing our whole existence as human beings. A good song, not nonsense as some have said. |
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| Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Thanks to Habalulu for that helpful material (below). However songwriters can be extremely cagey about the more personal aspects of their songs. There is a strong theme of hurt in this, and I suspect it partly describes a sort of "friendly" break-up, which nonetheless still hurts on both sides. |
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| Kate Bush – Hello Earth Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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These lyrics seem to be a fantasy about an astronaut watching the Earth being hit by a meteor which wipes out civilisation. The peek-a-boo words describe how small the Earth looks from space, so small, like a baby, you can hide it from sight just with your outstretched hand. She then thinks: "The could be me down there, just driving home as normal and stopping to look at something bright and very fast in the sky". From space she watches as the approaching meteor whips up storms over America before hitting the Atlantic. She feels guilty ("murderer") being out in space while the Earth in destroyed, as though it was somehow her fault. She wants to believe that somewhere down there under the waves someone is left alive ("gibt es ein licht"), but fears this is the end ("goodnight"). There are probably echoes of "2001 A Space Odyssey" here and of other things too. And this is not to disregard the many metaphorical, poetic and psychological undertones that may be present. That would be another discussion. |
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