There Goes A Tenner: Petty crooks with IRA sympathies?
KB: "It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they just freaked out, and paranoid and want to go home."
1982, Picture Disk, The Dreaming Interview
The song opens in the act of remembering, and we are transported back in time to the start of a crime... We're waiting... Are they waiting for the safe to blow? Are they waiting for political change vis-a-vis Ireland (as perhaps suggested by the video pendulum)? Are we back in the present, with them 'doing time' and waiting for their heavy prison sentence to end?
KB: "One of the bits in the song is all about waiting, and how the first time they're just waiting for something to go wrong, and the second time they're just waiting for the guy to blow the safe up, because when he blows it up, there is so much that could go wrong. It's a dance routine that's based on waiting. - It's just all these ideas of people waiting. And the rest of the dancers are all acting out what the story says, really. It's not so much a dance at all."
1982, Picture Disk, The Dreaming Interview
Three beeps means trouble's coming... 'The Troubles' consisted of about thirty years of recurring acts of intense violence between elements of Northern Ireland's nationalist community (principally Roman Catholic) and unionist community (principally Protestant). The years 1970-1972 saw an explosion of political violence in Northern Ireland, peaking in 1972, when nearly 500 people lost their lives.
I hope you remember To treat the gelignite tenderly for me... Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin, is one of the cheapest explosives. Gelignite was used by the Irish Republican Army in Ireland's fight for sovereignty during the Irish War of Independence. Years later it was also used by the Provisional IRA during the early years of their revolutionary campaign against British forces and Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. (wiki)
Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft played mobsters, gangsters, crooks and tough guys wise to the ways of prison. In their flicks, heroes were criminals. In Shake Hands with the Devil (1959), James Cagney played Sean Lenihan, an Irish Republican Army commander.
The government will never find the money... In your typical robbery, the police do the investigating. So KaTe's use of the word "government" (and her later use of "vote") is clearly a strong, loaded political reference. Responding to the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Thatcher famously declared "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political." But in TGaT, KaTe very much links the crime with politics through the use of "government" and "vote". Indeed, the final line, "That's when we used to vote for him", might also reference Thatcher; i.e. That's when we used to vote for him and not her! . . .
I've been here all day, A star in strange ways... Strangeways and the IRA: The Black and Tan War began in January 1919; within months, the British had captured a number of what they considered to be 'diehard' Republicans, and decided that it would be safer for them to hold those prisoners in England. Thirteen IRA prisoners, under the command of Austin Stack, found themselves incarcerated in Strangeways Prison. Maybe the protagonist became a notable inmate, a la Austin Stack or Bobby Sands?
They'll get nothing from me... Interrogation; intelligence about other operations/activists?
Strangeways Prison has a central dodecagonal hall, with wings A to F radiating off from it. So the "A1, A2,..." whisperings on TGaT could count 'A' Wing cells?
Ooh, I remember That rich, windy weather... There Goes A Tenner is a remembrance of things past and present; and these lines might suggest a childhood memory of "home", i.e. Southern Ireland/Eire...
There's a ten-shilling note...
The Famous 'Lavery' 10 Shilling (10/) Note (10/9/28-6/6/68)
In 1921 the Irish Free State was established. After several years it was decided to reform the currency issued in Ireland. A portrait of Lady Lavery’s head and shoulders appears on the 10-shilling, 1- and 5-pound notes.
Remember them? ... The 'Lavery' 10 Shilling (10/) note? And could the line also refer to forgotten 'heroes' of the Irish cause? KaTe could be subverting the "Ode of Remembrance". Or she could even be quoting Patrick Pearse's The Mother.
That's when we used to vote for him... Mosley? Chamberlain? ... or "and not Thatcher! . . . " Does KaTe conceal her intent behind comic treatment?
There Goes a Tenner was only issued in the UK and Night of the Swallow was an Ireland-only single; again suggesting a political subtext of a divided/violated Ireland to The Dreaming. TGaT became the only song by Bush not to chart in the UK. If TGaT is really a tale about an IRA job prior to The Troubles, imagine seeing Maggie Thatcher's face had it reached Number One . . .
KATE BUSH: A star in strange ways...
There Goes A Tenner: Petty crooks with IRA sympathies?
KB: "It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they just freaked out, and paranoid and want to go home." 1982, Picture Disk, The Dreaming Interview
The song opens in the act of remembering, and we are transported back in time to the start of a crime... We're waiting... Are they waiting for the safe to blow? Are they waiting for political change vis-a-vis Ireland (as perhaps suggested by the video pendulum)? Are we back in the present, with them 'doing time' and waiting for their heavy prison sentence to end?
KB: "One of the bits in the song is all about waiting, and how the first time they're just waiting for something to go wrong, and the second time they're just waiting for the guy to blow the safe up, because when he blows it up, there is so much that could go wrong. It's a dance routine that's based on waiting. - It's just all these ideas of people waiting. And the rest of the dancers are all acting out what the story says, really. It's not so much a dance at all." 1982, Picture Disk, The Dreaming Interview
Three beeps means trouble's coming... 'The Troubles' consisted of about thirty years of recurring acts of intense violence between elements of Northern Ireland's nationalist community (principally Roman Catholic) and unionist community (principally Protestant). The years 1970-1972 saw an explosion of political violence in Northern Ireland, peaking in 1972, when nearly 500 people lost their lives.
I hope you remember To treat the gelignite tenderly for me... Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin, is one of the cheapest explosives. Gelignite was used by the Irish Republican Army in Ireland's fight for sovereignty during the Irish War of Independence. Years later it was also used by the Provisional IRA during the early years of their revolutionary campaign against British forces and Loyalist Paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. (wiki)
Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft played mobsters, gangsters, crooks and tough guys wise to the ways of prison. In their flicks, heroes were criminals. In Shake Hands with the Devil (1959), James Cagney played Sean Lenihan, an Irish Republican Army commander.
The government will never find the money... In your typical robbery, the police do the investigating. So KaTe's use of the word "government" (and her later use of "vote") is clearly a strong, loaded political reference. Responding to the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Thatcher famously declared "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political." But in TGaT, KaTe very much links the crime with politics through the use of "government" and "vote". Indeed, the final line, "That's when we used to vote for him", might also reference Thatcher; i.e. That's when we used to vote for him and not her! . . .
I've been here all day, A star in strange ways... Strangeways and the IRA: The Black and Tan War began in January 1919; within months, the British had captured a number of what they considered to be 'diehard' Republicans, and decided that it would be safer for them to hold those prisoners in England. Thirteen IRA prisoners, under the command of Austin Stack, found themselves incarcerated in Strangeways Prison. Maybe the protagonist became a notable inmate, a la Austin Stack or Bobby Sands?
They'll get nothing from me... Interrogation; intelligence about other operations/activists?
Strangeways Prison has a central dodecagonal hall, with wings A to F radiating off from it. So the "A1, A2,..." whisperings on TGaT could count 'A' Wing cells?
Ooh, I remember That rich, windy weather... There Goes A Tenner is a remembrance of things past and present; and these lines might suggest a childhood memory of "home", i.e. Southern Ireland/Eire...
There's a ten-shilling note...
The Famous 'Lavery' 10 Shilling (10/) Note (10/9/28-6/6/68)
In 1921 the Irish Free State was established. After several years it was decided to reform the currency issued in Ireland. A portrait of Lady Lavery’s head and shoulders appears on the 10-shilling, 1- and 5-pound notes.
Remember them? ... The 'Lavery' 10 Shilling (10/) note? And could the line also refer to forgotten 'heroes' of the Irish cause? KaTe could be subverting the "Ode of Remembrance". Or she could even be quoting Patrick Pearse's The Mother.
That's when we used to vote for him... Mosley? Chamberlain? ... or "and not Thatcher! . . . " Does KaTe conceal her intent behind comic treatment?
There Goes a Tenner was only issued in the UK and Night of the Swallow was an Ireland-only single; again suggesting a political subtext of a divided/violated Ireland to The Dreaming. TGaT became the only song by Bush not to chart in the UK. If TGaT is really a tale about an IRA job prior to The Troubles, imagine seeing Maggie Thatcher's face had it reached Number One . . .