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Say good night-night
I tuck him in tight.
But things are not right.
What is this? An infant kiss
That sends my body tingling?
I've never fallen for
A little boy before.
No control.
Just a kid and just at school.
Back home they'd call me dirty.
His little hand is on my heart.
He's got me where it hurts me.
Knock, knock. Who's there in this baby?
You know how to work me.
All my barriers are going.
It's starting to show.
Let go. Let go. Let go.
I cannot sit and let
Something happen I'll regret.
Ooh, he scares me!
There's a man behind those eyes.
I catch him when I'm bending.
Ooh, how he frightens me
When they whisper privately.
("Don't Let Go!")
Windy-wailey blows me.
Words of caress on their lips
That speak of adult love.
I want to smack but I hold back.
I only want to touch.
But I must stay and find a way
To stop before it gets too much!
All my barriers are going.
It's starting to show.
Let go. Let go. Let go.
(Don't let go!)
I tuck him in tight.
But things are not right.
What is this? An infant kiss
That sends my body tingling?
I've never fallen for
A little boy before.
No control.
Just a kid and just at school.
Back home they'd call me dirty.
His little hand is on my heart.
He's got me where it hurts me.
Knock, knock. Who's there in this baby?
You know how to work me.
All my barriers are going.
It's starting to show.
Let go. Let go. Let go.
I cannot sit and let
Something happen I'll regret.
Ooh, he scares me!
There's a man behind those eyes.
I catch him when I'm bending.
Ooh, how he frightens me
When they whisper privately.
("Don't Let Go!")
Windy-wailey blows me.
Words of caress on their lips
That speak of adult love.
I want to smack but I hold back.
I only want to touch.
But I must stay and find a way
To stop before it gets too much!
All my barriers are going.
It's starting to show.
Let go. Let go. Let go.
(Don't let go!)
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery
Track duration: 02:50
"The Infant Kiss" as written by Kate Bush
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I won't spoil the story for you (go read the book, its ace!)but the governess is NOT supposed to be a pedophile; rather she is being stirred by the evil man possessing the little boy. Just as well because I don't think I could enjoy this song as much otherwise!
THE INNOCENTS (1961)
"They must be made to admit what is happening..."
Miss Giddens thinks Flora is possessed of Miss Jessel - 'She's not alone! And at such time she's not a child - she's an old, old woman!' ... Flora becomes terrified of Miss G. She suffers a breakdown and begins screaming unrepressed, traumatised obscenities...
Miss Grose: 'To hear such filth from a child's mouth! I don't know where she could have learned such language!' ...
Miss Giddens: 'You saw who taught her... Miss Jessel!' ...
Miss Grose: 'All I know is: Miss Flora was a sweet innocent child, a happy child until you made her face that... that bad memory!' ...
Miss Giddens: 'We were together this afternoon, sitting in front of the fire. He [Miles] didn't say anything, but he wanted to. It was like a pendulum, and I could feel it swinging my way, slowly, slowly. Oh yes! He wanted to reveal himself and ask for my help, and we must give him that chance! Don't you understand that?'
Miss Grose: '...waking a child can sometimes be worse than any bad dream... It's the shock...'
All except Miss Giddens and Miles get out of the house... Miss Giddens now begins her 'exorcism' of Miles...
"Where? ... Where, you devil! ... Where? ... "
The best ghost story in fiction has been turned into the best ghost story on film... And KB has turned the scew into the best ghost story in song! ... :o)
THE INFANT KISS
Miles: "Kiss me goodnight, Miss Giddens!" ... But things are not right...
In the song, she is aroused by the child's goodnight kiss, which dangerously lingers (as in the film) until she and he Let go...
Reaction-formation? - From then on she is gripped ('I cannot sit and let') by the idea that he is possessed and in spiritual danger... But maybe she is the one possessed and in spiritual danger? ... And in the film her 'virtuous' actions make something happen she will forever regret!
She is both repulsed by and drawn to the child, the man behind those eyes...
'Ooh, he scares me!' - Quint? Miles? Or herself possessed of 'Quint'?
The child becomes a screen on which she projects her unconscious sexuality. The 'innocent' presence of the (sexually-aware) child(ren) makes her terrified of her Victorian repressions! Her 'dirty mind' catches him when she's bending...
'Words of caress on their lips That speak of adult love' - The children's awareness of Quint and Miss Jessel have 'corrupted' them with sexual knowledge. Indeed, Q&J have 'corrupted' the very house...
Miss Grose: 'Rooms used by daylight as though they were dark woods!'
'I want to smack but I hold back' - She wants to discipline the children, to govern/correct/censor/repress them, but she holds back because it is only through their talk and behaviour that Miss G can enjoy being corrupted by 'Quint'? ... Is Miss G being turned by Quint's screw? ... The children are not 'innocent'; they were privy to Q&J... Is it the governess's 'innocence' that is corrupting? ...
'But I must stay and find a way To stop before it gets too much!' - Miss G is determined to 'exorcise' Miles, to free herself of 'possession' by Quint...
'All my barriers are going/It's starting to show/Let go. Let go. Let go' ... But her Victorian 'Upstairs' sexual morality is giving way to the Q&J 'Downstairs' code... She is falling down, psychologically disturbed... and desperate to return the child's infant kiss... Don't let go! ...
THE INNOCENTS (1961)
"He had the devil's own eye..."
'The Innocents' is about souls in danger... The film opens with Miss Giddens crying in the dark, "More than anything, I love children..."
"Have you an imagination..." The new governess, Miss Giddens, is given "supreme authority" over two orphaned infants, Miles and Flora, by their uncle... The master's valet, Peter Quint, is dead; so too is the previous governess, Miss Jessel, drowned in the lake, suicide... Over and done with... But is it? ...
On one level, this is an allegory of Good Vs Evil, with the virtuous governess fighting to save the children from being possessed by the demonic ghostly spirits of the former governess, Miss Jessel and the vicious valet Quint... On the other side, it is a pre-Freudian study of sexual neurosis, in which a repressed Victorian spinster with a colourful imagination starts seeing things... The multiplicity gives the tale its horror...
Miss Giddens gets 'carried away quite easily and 'can't help imagining things'... Flora looks angelic, but is there something of the night about her? A cruelty, a possession? ... And Miles? Why, even before he has arrived, Miss G fears he has the power to corrupt! ... Miss G is enchanted with Miles. He flatters her, much as his uncle had done. A little adult, magical and precociously gifted... "I like a boy with spirit," Miss G has said, but Miles's 'spirit' is ultimately to cause her great disturbance...
"I've let them go... Upstairs to the attic perhaps, alone" ... The relationship between Miles and Miss G follows the pattern of that between Quint and Miss Jessel... Miles seems to possess the strength of a man, and their attic struggle (after Miss G has seen the picture of Quint) appears to turn into a violent embrace... Then there's the diabolical threat of Quint's 'handsome and obscene' ghost; Quint who befriended Miles - took advantage - and now seems out to hunt the children down... Miss Grose says that Quint had 'such power over people' and Miles 'worshipped' him... "What shall I sing to my Lord from my window?" ... Are the children lying? Are they playing ('or being made to play') a monstrous game? Have they made terrible and terrifying identifications? Are they in spiritual peril? ... "The children are watching! The children are watching! The children are watching! ... Love me! Love me! Love me!"
'There are two of them... two of those abominations... We must try to learn what it is these horrors want!' ...
'Look at them. What do you think they're saying? ... Talking horrors!' ...
'They can only reach each other by entering the souls of the children and possessing them! The children are possessed! They live and know and share this hell! ... They must be made to admit what is happening!' ...
Has Miss G become obsessed and possessed of the sexuality between Quint and Miss Jessel?
T.