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Stepping out of the Page: Song Adaptations of Literature by

BA Thesis English Language and Culture, Utrecht University

Kiki Drost

4147529

Dr. Roselinde Supheert (Supervisor)

Dr. Sarah Chambers (Second Reader)

June 2016 2

Contents

Contents P. 2

Introduction P. 3

Chapter One: P. 5

Chapter Two: P. 10

It’s me, Your Cathy P. 11

Conclusions P. 14

Chapter Three: The Red Shoes P. 16

Dance You Shall P. 16

The Line, the Cross and the Curve P. 18

I’m Gonna Dance the Dream P. 19

Conclusions P. 22

Chapter Four: P. 24

Our Arrows of Desire Rewrite the Speech P. 24

Stepping Out of the Page P. 27

Conclusions P. 28

Conclusion P. 30

Works Cited P. 32

Appendix One (Song Overview) P. 35

Appendix Two (Lyrics) P. 38

Appendix Three (Stills) P. 42

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Introduction

Kate Bush is a British singer-, musician and , who was born in , Kent on the 30th of July 1958. She first became famous when she was 19, when she topped the British pop charts with her debut single “Wuthering Heights” in 1978.

Since then she has released many songs and and became a famous and influential individual in the music industry. One of Bush’s trademarks is that she writes songs that allow her to put herself into fictional situations and, in a way, become someone else and tell stories from this perspective (Reynolds, and Press 282, 292). Some of these storytelling-songs have been inspired by existing stories or literature. In the first appendix a list of all songs that were inspired by literature can be found, which shows Bush’s connection to literature. These songs can be seen as adaptations: the original sources are interpreted by Bush and placed in a song.

Bush pretends to be part of the fictional world in question and adapts this world and the character. By using adaptation theory, this study will give a comparative analysis of the work of Kate Bush and the originals she based her songs on.

In order to be able to appreciate Bush’s work as adaptations it is important to understand adaptation theory. The first chapter will therefore consist of an overview of some studies in adaptation theory and will also provide an academic background on Bush, which shows her importance and places her in an academic context. Three songs will then be discussed in detail: “Wuthering Heights,” “The Red Shoes,” and “The Sensual World.”

“Wuthering Heights” will be discussed because it is not only Bush’s best-known song, but also because it is the most obvious example of an adaptation: it bears the same name as the original and adapts a well-known . “Wuthering Heights” is often mentioned when Bus is discussed, especially when she is discussed within the context of adaptation studies. “The Red

Shoes” will be discussed because of similar reasons: it shares a name with its original and adapts a well-known fairy tale. Furthermore, it adapts more than one work, which makes it 4 interesting to see how this influences the adaptation. “The Sensual World” will be discussed because it is a less obvious adaptation, which makes it interesting to see what this means for the adaptation process. The lyrics of the discussed songs can be found in the second appendix.

With a basic understanding of adaptation theory in mind and by looking in close detail at three different songs, it can be argued that the most important thing Kate Bush does is that she takes the characters of the source texts she adapts out of their original context and gives them a different voice and, in a way, frees them from their sources.

Although Bush also creates interesting music videos for her songs and the music itself is also worth analysing, this study will mainly focus on the lyrics, because they resemble text and a comparison with the originals is therefore easier. Furthermore, by not taking the other aspects of the song into account, there is room to discuss three different examples, which will strengthen the argument. However, it will sometimes be necessary to discuss the or music of one of the songs, so they will not be ignored completely. Important stills from the videos, as well as other important stills can be found in appendix three.

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Chapter One:

Deeper Understanding

When analysing Kate Bush’s literary allusions and adaptations, it is important to consider two types of criticism; that concerned with Kate Bush and her music, and that concerned with adaptation theory. When a basic knowledge about Bush’s music is combined with an understanding of adaptations, Bush’s literary songs can be appreciated and understood much better.

Although Kate Bush is not a traditional academic subject, several academics from different disciplines have written about her and her career. This resulted in interesting studies about her fans, her influences, the influence she has had on others, her lyrics and more. The present literature review will mainly focus on studies that looked into her influences; what has driven Bush to write the songs she has written. Ron Moy analysed all Bush’s albums, excluding her 2011 albums and Director’s Cut, in which he focussed on three different aspects; issues of (British and Irish) national and ethnic identity, auteur theory; notions of authorship, authenticity and artistic intent, and the relations between her musical and her video performances (3-4). He argued that Bush has an obvious connection to film and loves referencing film in her music (132-3). Some of the films she adapts are in turn adaptations themselves, so it seems that Bush uses literature indirectly rather than making a direct adaptation of a novel. Moy further concludes that Bush’s most successful albums are those that are conceptual in nature: mainly focussing on her 1985 , but also her 2005 album Aerial. Films have been mentioned as an influence on Kate Bush by other scholars as well, such as Graeme Thomson, who mentions it on various occasions in his biography Under the Ivy. The song “Wuthering Heights,” for example, is perhaps Bush’s most obvious example of an adaptation and has been inspired, not by the eponymous novel by

Emily Bronte, but by the 1967 BBC adaptation, of which a scene with Cathy at the window 6 had caught Bush’s attention (FitzGerald-Morris 31). She wrote her song after having also read the novel and both the novel and the BBC adaptation have inspired her song, making it a palimpsest. Within adaptation studies, a palimpsest refers to an adaptation that does not adapt just one source, but also the adaptations that came after that.

Something else that has been mentioned as an influence on the young Kate Bush is her mother’s nationality; her mother, Hannah Daly, originally came from Southern Ireland.

Bush’s brother John Carder Bush has said that their mother “filled [their] house with her

Celtic beauty and her singing; her philosophy of life always referenced her childhood and upbringing in the rural south of Ireland” (11). Thomson also comments on Bush’s connection to Ireland, describing that as a child she lived in a “more mythical England, a pre-Christian

Celtic land, a deep, green dream of a country that has never truly existed except buried deep within [people’s] minds” (11). He also mentions children’s literature as an influence on the young Bush (11) and the family’s connection to spiritualism (16). The loving, artistic family with Irish Celtic influences she grew up in is something that is often mentioned when critics describe her influences. When she grew older, and later when her career took off, film became another important influence. The Irish Celtic background will become relevant in the discussion of “The Sensual World.” The influence of film is very relevant when discussing the songs “Wuthering Heights,” as has been briefly mentioned before, and “The Red Shoes.”

Although more studies about Kate Bush have been carried out and more could be said about what influenced her, these previously discussed sources capture the essence of the influences relevant for the songs that will be discussed.

More has been written about adaptation theory than about Bush. Most studies in adaptation theory look into film adaptations, although other forms of adaptation, such as literary adaptation have not been ignored. A better understanding of film adaptations can in turn also give more insight into Bush’s adaptations. Linda Hutcheon explains that adaptations 7 are nothing new. However, when film came into the picture, adaptation theory developed. At first, most critics were not fond of film adaptations of literature (2-3). Since then adaptation theory has developed; with the coming of postmodernism people no longer felt that one form of art was superior to the other and people found new ways to look at adaptations (Slethaug

20).

In the 1950’s George Bluestone explains that films based on were preferred and were more likely to succeed and win awards. He furthermore makes a distinction between film and novels; comparing the two is unfair, since they are completely different media, even if the story of one is based on the story of the other. Robert Stam agrees on this and argues something similar: a more intertextual and nuanced take on film adaptations rather than a judgemental take is preferable, since it takes the differences of media into account (45-46).

Although both Bluestone and Stam focus on film adaptations, their comments are not untrue for other forms of adaptation; whenever something is adapted from one type of media into another, change is bound to happen. Bush’s adaptations adhere to this theory since much has been changed, partially due to the change in media.

Another thing Stam argues is that nearly all films are adaptations, in one way or another. Even those which do not adapt literature often still adapt something else, such as news, comics or music, for example, and if they do not adapt anything at all, intertextuality still plays an important role, since no work of art stands on its own, but is always placed within a certain context of similar works (45). This again is not only true for film, but could be argued for almost any work of art, including music albums or songs. This is also something

Moy commented on with reference to the success of Bush’s first album : if it had been produced later on in Bush’s career it would not have been so successful or have had the same critical impact, because circumstances would have been different (11). Anne

Gjelsvik has described that one of the changes that takes place when a story is adapted from a 8 novel to film is the downplaying of taboos. She mainly focusses on violence, sex and other transgressive representations, which are less portrayed or even left out in many film adaptations (246). This highlights what has been discussed before; the difference in media creates differences in the story, whether it is in the actual plot or in the amount of detail that is shown. Furthermore; if nothing is changed, there hardly is a point in adapting something in the first place.

Hutcheon point out there is a difference between a knowing and an unknowing audience: she raises the question whether the audience knows the original work of art the new product is adapting or not and, furthermore, whether they know if it is an adaptation or not. A knowing audience will automatically fill in gaps the adaptation leaves with their knowledge of the original. She furthermore argues that the adaptation also influences the way the original will be seen; a knowing audience will connect aspects of the adaptation to the original (120-

7). As can be seen in the first appendix, Bush has written numerous songs which do not necessarily adapt a work of literature, but rather namedrop an author or novel, or which are merely based upon a literary work and echo the original, such as “The Sensual World”.

Therefore certain songs will sooner be recognised as adaptations than others. “Wuthering

Heights”, for example, is likely to be recognised by people, especially people in the English speaking world, as a either an adaptation or at least something that was based upon the eponymous novel, while the reference to ’s in “The Sensual World” is far less obvious and is therefore less likely to be noticed by most people.

When it comes to adaptation theory many scholars point out the difference in media between the original and the adaptation. When a novel is adapted into a song, as is the case with the songs by Bush that will be discussed in the next chapters, this is perhaps even more relevant than with film adaptations: an entire novel or story has to be condensed into a few minutes. Furthermore, socio-historical factor play a role as well; modern audiences are 9 different from the audiences of the originals. Ian Inglis has argued that songs are appropriate source material because they are an appropriate medium for storytelling and in a way resemble a long oral tradition of storytelling. This may work the other way around as well; because the song is able to convey a story, it is apparently able to adapt an entire novel or film into a few lyrics and a melody. Apart from Inglis, not much research has been done about songs in adaptation studies or how these literary songs work in comparison with their original.

This study hopes to give an insight into how the adaptation process works for musical adaptations and how much general adaptation theory applies on songs.

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Chapter Two:

Wuthering Heights

“Wuthering Heights” was released as Kate Bush’s debut single in January 1978. It also appeared on her debut album: The Kick Inside. As has been mentioned, Bush only caught the last ten minutes of a television adaptation of Emily Brontë’s eponymous novel. She then later read the novel and wrote the song. Although it was the fragment that caught her attention, she mainly adapts the novel, although both can be found in the song. In a radio interview Bush has explained what interested her in the fragment she saw:

It's about the end of the film where Cathy has actually died and she's coming back as a spirit across the moors to come and get again. And it just struck me very strongly because it shows a lot about human beings and how, if they can't get what they want, they will go to such extremes in order to do it. This is exactly what she did. She wouldn't even be alone when she was dead. She had to come back and get him. I just found it really amazing. (The

Kick Inside Promo)

In an interview with Robert Henschen Bush has described that she “wrote the song from

Cathy's standpoint. Cathy wants to take Heathcliff's soul so that they can be together in their spiritual world”. In another interview, with Mary Ann Ellis, Bush stated that “it was a real challenge to précis the whole mood of a book into such a short piece of prose.” This suggests that she aimed to include the novel into her adaptation too: the image from the film caught her attention, but she ultimately adapted the story from the novel. To understand how Bush adapted the novel it is important to first establish what aspects of Cathy’s character have been taken from the novel and then see how they are used in the song.

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It’s Me, Your Cathy

More than just Cathy and Heathcliff’s history is portrayed in Brontë’s novel: Mr

Lockwood’s experiences at Wuthering Heights play a crucial part and it is through him the reader discovers the complex history and romance. However, at the core of the novel are

Heathcliff and Cathy and in a way the story can be split into two parts: the past, as discovered by , and the present. The past follows Cathy and Heathcliff from childhood to

Cathy’s death and the present sees Heathcliff as he is from when Mr Lockwood first arrives until his death. The Cathy that is described in Bush’s song, however, is not the living Cathy from the past, but the ghost that returns to haunt Wuthering Heights, or, as Nicky Losseff described it, it is Cathy from the Otherworld (227-8). This word choice is interesting, as the

Otherworld is a common theme in Celtic mythology and literature, which is one of Bush’s influences. Bush’s Irish Celtic influence therefore helped shape her adaptation.

One of the most important things Bush does in her adaptation is giving Cathy her own voice. Losseff points out that in the song it is “Cathy's statement, in a first-person narrative of bald simplicity whose exact angle we never hear in the novel, since everything there is filtered through the voice of the chroniclers, and Lockwood” (228). According to John

Whitley, the reader moves through Lockwood’s narration and then through Nelly’s to arrive at the core of the novel (xv), which is the story of Heathcliff and Cathy. Although Cathy speaks in the novel, there is no insight into her thoughts and feelings, apart from what is reflected in her words and actions. In her song, Bush has given Cathy a (very high-pitched) voice of her own. This voice then talks directly to Heathcliff; remembering things from their childhood, such as “we’d roll and fall in green”, but also the famous scene at the window that inspired Bush:

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“Heathcliff, it’s me, your Cathy. I’ve come home. I’m so cold! Let me in-a- your window”.

An interesting difference between the novel and the song is that in the novel it is Mr

Lockwood who meets Cathy at the window, while in Bush’s version it is implied that it is

Heathcliff, although in the novel Cathy does not seem to be aware that it is not Heathcliff she is speaking to and is simply begging “let me in - let me in!” (Brontë 17). This is also the case in the song and nowhere in the song does Bush describe the one Cathy is addressing.

A comparison Losseff has made is that “like Bronte, Kate Bush enjoys playing with tenses in her text, mixing the framing present with description of the past” (228). The song’s lyrics start in the past tense and resemble memories, as told by Cathy. The first describe happier times from, most likely, Cathy’s and Heathcliff’s childhood: “Out on the wiley, windy moors. We’d roll and fall in green.” The song then quickly problematises the relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy by explaining Heathcliff’s temper and Cathy’s jealousy, which are described as “too hot” and “too greedy,” respectively. The rest of the verse continuous to problematise the relationship by portraying how both characters leave:

Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights and Cathy behind, much to Cathy’s discontent, which can be read in the lines “how could you leave me, when I needed to possess you”, and Cathy leaves by dying, which is described in the lines: “they told me I was going to lose the fight.

Leave behind my […] Wuthering Heights”. Cathy’s departure is more dramatic, but this would not necessarily be clear from the lyrics if the audience was unaware of the original. For an unaware audience the song would still make sense, as they could think she just left, but a knowing audience would get the meaning of these lyrics; as Hutcheon explained, they would automatically fill in the gap Bush left. With the chorus Bush switches to the present tense. It is here that she adapts the scene that inspired her to write the song; Cathy at the window, 13 begging to be let in. The rest of the song continues in the present tense, so the words sung by

Bush are to be interpreted as what Cathy would say to Heathcliff as she is begging him to be let into the house. The distinction between a Cathy in the past, presented by memories, and a

Cathy in the present, haunting the window, corresponds with the two different Cathy’s from the novel.

As has been mentioned, Bush focusses on the story of Heathcliff and Cathy, and not on the framing story of Mr Lockwood or the other characters of the second generation.

Moreover, focus is narrowed down further; Bush only selects certain aspects of the romance for her song adaptation. Losseff agreed by stating that “by allowing Cathy in effect to give her own version of the relationship with Heathcliff, Kate Bush can emphasise whichever elements seem important to her as a reader of the original text” (228). She does not, for example, hint towards Edgar and , while they play an important role in the novel as the lovers’ spouses. Nor does she mention the class differences between Heathcliff and Cathy, or other elements from the novel. Bush instead focusses on the intensity of the relationship, which is captured in two short sentences: “I hated you. I loved you, too”. These lines, plus the lines “let me have it. Let me grab your soul away”, show that despite heightened emotions, clashes of character and problems, Cathy still cannot live without Heathcliff and will not even let death separate them. Bush’s version of the song emphasises the emotions concerning the intense relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff.

Cathy as portrayed by Bush continually addresses Heathcliff, but interestingly enough there is one instance where she sings “I’m coming back to his side” rather than “your side.”

So although Bush has given Cathy a voice and lets her speak to her beloved, she apparently addresses at least one other person as well. This other could perhaps be the listener.

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Conclusions

“Wuthering Heights” is an obvious example of an adaptation: it was the image of

Cathy at the window that caught Bush’s attention and made her want to write the song, although she mainly based her song on the novel. This ties in with Inglis’s argument that songs are an appropriate medium for storytelling, because despite the fact that Bush apparently found it a challenge to convey the mood, the song has often been described as

“haunting”, which is exactly the element of the novel’s mood Bush focusses on.

Bush is quite successful in capturing one of the moods of the novel. Furthermore, she can expect that at least a part of her audience is a knowing audience. Hutcheon has pointed out the difference between a knowing and an unknowing audience, and since Wuthering

Heights is a well-known piece of literature in English-speaking societies, at least some of

Bush’s audience are likely to be to some extent familiar with one or more of her sources, whether that is because they have read the novel, seen an adaptation, or even because they have discussed it in school. Adapting for a knowing audience can be easier, because certain elements do not need to be explained, and Bush seems to rely on this, assuming that her audience will thinks of a dark love story when hearing the title “Wuthering Heights,” enabling her to simply focus on some aspects without having to explain the entire story. For an unknowing audience, however, the song can still be enjoyable, although the broader context might be lost on them.

Obviously much has been changed, since the story of Cathy and Heathcliff moved from one medium to another and this causes change to happen, as Bluestone and Stam have explained. Of course, other things would account for change as well; since 1847, when the novel was first published, and 1978 much had changed in the world. Because of the feminist movement, for example, Bush had the possibility to give Cathy a voice of her own; something 15 that would not have been as easily accepted a hundred years earlier. However, by capturing the romance between Heathcliff and Cathy, combined with musical genius, Bush has managed to create an adaptation that lives on in cultural memory.

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Chapter Three:

The Red Shoes

“The Red Shoes” is the title track from Kate Bush’s seventh studio album The Red

Shoes. The single was released in April 1993 and the album followed in November. The album was accompanied by a short film called The Line, the Cross and the Curve, which serves as a sort of extended video clip for several of the album’s songs, including “The Red

Shoes”. Both the song and the film were inspired by a 1948 film, also called The Red Shoes, which was in turn inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Red

Shoes. To understand Bush’s adaptation it is therefore not only important to understand the original fairy tale by Andersen, but also the 1948 film. On her 2011 album Director’s Cut

Bush released a new version of the song, but since all changes were to the music, and the lyrics were kept the same, this version will not be further discussed.

Dance You Shall

Anderson’s tale tells the story of Karen, a pretty, young, but vain, girl, who loves her pretty red shoes so much that she wears them to inappropriate occasions and cares more for a ball where she can show them of than for the sick, old lady who takes care of her. As a punishment for her behaviour the red shoes start dancing and cannot stop, nor can they be taken off. An angel tells Karen that she has to dance “in [her] red shoes till [she is] pale and cold, till [her] skin shrivels up and [she is] a skeleton” (Andersen 1050). In the end Karen escapes her fate by asking an executioner to cut off her feet. When she has repented enough, she is finally able to attend church again, then dies and is let into heaven. Andersen’s story is didactic in nature and aims to teach against vanity. It also puts much emphasis on religion.

The 1948 film The Red Shoes tells the story of Victoria “Vicky” Page, who is cast to dance in a ballet called The Red Shoes. Soon a tragic love triangle develops between Vicky, 17

Boris Lermontov, the impresario, and Julian Craster, the composer. Vicky is torn between her love for Julian and her love for dancing. When there is a literal choice, Vicky chooses dancing and Julian leaves for the station. However, she has a sudden impulse and runs to Julian at the station. She then falls in front of an approaching train and when she lies dying asks Julian to remove the red shoes she was still wearing for the performance. This story is not very similar to Andersen’s plot, but there are some resemblances. Apart from the title and the red shoes, which have been turned into red pointe shoes, Vicky feels an uncontrollable urge to dance.

When asked by Lermontov why she wants to dance, she asks him why he wants to live. He tells her he is not exactly sure, but that he must. She then answers him: “that is my answer too” (The Red Shoes). This urge to dance eventually leads to her death, much like Karen dies because she cannot stop dancing. Karen has no other choice, of course, but Vicky’s fate still echoes that of Karen.

The ballet within the 1948 film is much more similar to Andersen’s tale: it is about a girl who buys a pair of red shoes. She goes to a carnival with her boyfriend, but soon leaves him to dance with every other man she can find. She soon cannot stop dancing because of the red shoes, which are controlled by an evil shoemaker in this version. She ends up in an underworld with horrible creatures. She eventually dances past a church where a funeral is going on and asks the priest to remove the shoes. He does so and she dies, and the shoemaker retrieves his shoes and goes in search of another victim. This story is closer to Andersen’s original, because it keeps the magical shoes which will not stop dancing. Moreover, it also keeps some emphasis on religion, as it is a priest who eventually saves the girl. However, the motivation for wearing the shoes and her sin differ from those of Karen.

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The Line, the Cross and the Curve

Although this study focusses on Bush’s lyrics, the analysis of “The Red Shoes” requires the film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve (hereafter: The Line), to be taken into account as well, because its story bears many resemblances with the story of the ballet in the film. Moreover, “The Red Shoes” is the core of the plot in The Line, and provides an interpretation of the lyrics. Bush’s unnamed character (hereafter: Kate) in the film is a dancer who is confronted by a mysterious dancer who comes out of the mirror (see: appendix three).

She asks Kate to draw three symbols (a line, a cross and a curve; hence the title) and offers her red shoes as a reward. The red shoes in this version are red pointe shoes, just as in the

1948 film. The shoes again cannot stop dancing. Kate then involuntarily dances into the mirror, where she ends up in some sort of hell-like place, reminiscent of the underworld the ballerina in the 1948 film is forced to dance through. The remainder of the film revolves around Kate trying to escape the shoes and the mirror-world. She is aided by an older lady called Lily, who could be an allusion to the older lady in the fairy tale who takes care of

Karen after her mother dies. Kate eventually escapes.

When the lyrics of the song are placed within the context of The Line certain lines make more sense than they would if the song were to be interpreted without the background of the film. While the lyrics are sung, the characters playback along with some of them, to imply that they are speaking the words. Lines that are clarified because of the film are the lines:

“And this curve, is your smile. And this cross, is your heart. And this line, is your path.”

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In the film the mysterious dancer holds up the pieces of paper on which Kate has drawn the symbols, so when the line “and this curve, is your smile” is sang, a drawn curve is held in front of the dancer’s mouth to resemble a smile (see: appendix three). By addition of the video clip, Bush’s audience is prompted to interpret the song as Bush had intended her adaptation, rather than making her audience try to find their own interpretations, possible meanings and links to the original.

Another aspect of the song that starts to make sense when the lyrics are read in context of the film is the constant changes of pronouns: Bush switches between the use of “I”, “you” and “she” and Bonnie Gordon has argued that this makes it look “as if the dancing girl is both speaking and being spoken about” (44). What could be added is that she is also spoken to. In the film this is indeed what happens; the dancer tells Kate to “just take off my red shoes. Put them on and your dream’ll come true”, while Kate speaks the words “oh the minute I put them on, I knew I had done something wrong”. Finally there are lines where she is spoken about, such as in the lines:

“she gotta dance, she gotta dance. And she can’t stop ‘till them shoes come off”

This again affects the audience’s interpretation of the song; instead of wondering what

Bush means by the switching of pronouns and figuring out who the different characters in the song are, they will interpret the song the way Bush has intended her adaptation.

I’m Gonna Dance the Dream

Although “The Red Shoes” has many similarities with the originals it is adapting, especially when the video is also taken into consideration, there is also a crucial difference, in which the lyrics move away from the originals: the female character wearing the shoes is not 20 punished. Gordon has argued that in the fairy tale “Karen’s forced dance represents a struggle to constrain female sexuality and raw passion by violently punishing the female body” (38).

In the 1948 film both Vicky and the ballerina die by means of punishment for their passion for dance, symbolised by the red shoes. In The Line the shoes are in many ways similar and the entire plot is driven by the desire to remove the shoes, but the lyrics also focus on a different aspect: the pleasure that can be experienced when control is let go.

This is firstly achieved by changing the motivation for wanting to wear the shoes. The song opens with an expressed wish to dance, while in the original fairy tale dance is merely a punishment for vanity. In this way, the song bears more resemblance to the 1948 film, where both Vicky and the ballerina want to dance. In Bush’s song, dance is not portrayed as something sinful. Although Kate is also, in a way, punished for this desire and her passion, which according to Gordon ties in with female sexuality, by uncontrollable dancing, the pleasurable aspect of dance is also highlighted. This can especially be seen in the following lines:

“Feel your hair come tumbling down.

Feel your feet start kissing the ground.

Feel your arms are opening out.

And see your eyes are lifted to God.

With no words, with no song,

I’m gonna dance the dream.

And make the dream come true.”

Another element Bush has changed in the story to show that dancing is not sinful or something that has to be punished, is the fact that Kate gets to keep her feet. In The Line 21

Karen’s fate is echoed when Kate asks the man in the mirror to “get a knife and cut them [her feet] off”, but he instead helps her by finding another way of freeing her. Moreover, in all stories the heroin dies at the end, but in Bush’s version Kate does not only find another, and less gruesome, way to remove the shoes, but also survives the adventure. The 1948 film had already departed from the amputation of feet of the main characters, but remained close to the fairy tale in terms of their deaths after the removal of the shoes. In Bush’s version the shoes are removed and instead of finding her end, Kate finds her way back home.

Although Bush has taken out the emphasis on religion, two references to it can still be found. The first reference to religion is in the line: “and see your eyes are lifted to God.” This is line comes from the part that shows the pleasure and sensuality of dancing. It is interesting because the song celebrates female sensuality, while religion often does the opposite. In all the originals this adaptation was based on, which all have stronger focus on religion, especially Andersen’s fairy tale, the girl gets punished for liking her physical body and celebrating it. Bush, however, seems to imply that celebrating female sensuality is not sinful, and that it could therefore exist alongside religion. She therefore acknowledges God in her song.

The other reference to religion is far more subtle: Kate is trying to escape the red shoes and asks for a priest. The lines “call a doctor, call a priest” show the desperation Kate is feeling: she wants to escape the shoes and is willing to try anything. Perhaps a doctor could help her, or perhaps a priest. In Andersen’s fairy tale and in the ballet, the shoed girl finds true liberation from the shoes -and therefore her sins- because of a priest, so Bush echoes this by means of suggesting a priest as a way of liberation. However, by addition of the doctor as a possibility of liberation from the shoes, she moves away from religion and the suggestion that the shoes are something sinful which can only be forgiven by a priest or the grace of God. 22

Despite the fact that the song follows Andersen’s story in some ways, and that there are many similarities with and references to both the fairy tale and the stories in the 1948 film,

Bush has also moved away from them by portraying the story with a different motivation: a motivation that does not condemn, but rather celebrates female sensuality and the ways in which it can surface, in particular through dance. Bush portrays dancing and finding pleasure in doing so as desirable. Gordon has argued that this is not only reflected in the lyrics, but also in the music and that “rather than fixing them only as a punishment for desire, the sound of the music invites listeners to move their bodies” (46). However, some aspects from the fairy tale are kept, such as some subtle references to religion, which played an important role in

Andersen, but is not the focus of the song. The most important aspect of the fairy tale that is kept, however, is of course the existence of uncontrollable, dancing, red shoes.

Conclusions

In a way Bush adapts not one, but three stories in “The Red Shoes”. However, at the heart of the adaptation lies Andersen’s fairy tale. His The Red Shoes has inspired the 1948 film, with the ballet in it, and all of these have in turn inspired Bush. Gjelsvik has argued that taboos, such as sex, are downplayed when something is adapted from page to screen, but this does not seem the case with Bush’s musical adaptation of this tale. In fact, the opposite could be argued. While Gordon has found (female) sexuality in the fairy tale in the condemning and punishing of Karen, it is never explicitly mentioned and there is no obvious focus on the pleasure dancing can bring: Karen is first and foremost punished for her vanity. Bush, however, has focussed on the pleasure of dancing by portraying it as something desirable, something that can be enjoyed. She furthermore gives her character a happy end. Dancing is a physical activity and therefore, in the song, places emphasis on the female body. Moreover, the fairy tale is very religious and religion usually does not celebrate sensuality. Bush does the 23 opposite of downplaying a taboo: she finds sensuality in a story where it does not appear to be the main focus. She then enlarges this underlying theme in her adaptation by celebrating it and portraying the supposed taboo as something positive. Gjelsvik’s theory does therefore not apply to her song.

Inglis’s argument that songs are an appropriate medium for storytelling can be applied to Bush’s song. She captures the mood of Andersen’s fairy tale by taking the key element, dancing red shoes, and creating her own story. She puts the story about dancing to danceable music and by doing so succeeds in portraying an uncontrollable urge to dance. Her success in portraying this is strengthened by the fact that she has a knowing audience, as described by

Hutcheon: most people in the Western world are familiar with Andersen’s fairy tale.

24

Chapter Four:

The Sensual World

In October 1989 Bush released her sixth studio album, The Sensual World. The title track, also named “The Sensual World” was released as a single in September 1989. Bush had originally intended to use ’s final soliloquy from James Joyce’s 1922 novel

Ulysses, but was not given permission by the Joyce estate, because “they felt it wasn’t good for Joyce’s work” (Bush). She therefore rewrote the lyrics into something that echoed Joyce’s text and cleverly included the line “our arrows of desire rewrite the speech”, which is both a reference to William Blake’s poem “Jerusalem”, and to sensuality, which is the main theme of the song.

In 2011 a re-recorded version of the song was released on Bush’s album Director’s

Cut and this song, called “Flower of the Mountain” did include Molly Bloom’s soliloquy, as

Bush had originally intended it, because this time she was given permission. For this song she took three passages from the very last part of the novel and tied them together with a chorus.

Bluestone and Stam have argued that change is bound to take place in case of adaptation from medium to another. However, “Flower of the Mountain” has changed far less than “The

Sensual World” because although the words have been set to music and Bush still selected what material from the original she wanted to use, the words themselves have literally been taken from the novel. Since this study mainly focusses on the lyrics, this chapter will focus on

“The Sensual World”, although “Flower of the Mountain” will also be mentioned.

Our Arrows of Desire Rewrite the Speech

Bush’s song is written from Molly Bloom’s perspective and in her adaptation, she gives Molly a voice of her own; a voice that differs from the voice Joyce has given her. In the novel, Molly is not portrayed as a very positive character; she is not too intelligent and 25 adulterous (Richard Brown 101). However, above all, she is portrayed as a very sexual and sensual character. Her sexuality is also reflected in her adulterous tendencies and thoughts. In her adaptation, Bush leaves out the adulterous part and focusses on the sensual aspect of

Joyce’s novel. She conveys this by copying the repetitive use of “yes.” In Ulysses Molly

Bloom’s soliloquy famously has no punctuation and is presented as a stream of consciousness. It is also marked by the repetitive use of the word yes in between thoughts.

“The Sensual World” opens with “mmh, yes” and these words come back every other line and the song also closes with them. Bush has taken the affirmative aspect of the novel and used that in her song to convey the same feeling. For Molly Bloom, the entire memory is coloured by her answer, which is shown by the constant use of the word yes. For her, “yes” reflects both her answer to Leopold Bloom’s proposal and her sensual pleasure. Bush is not concerned with Molly’s answer to Leopold, but instead focusses on the sensual aspect of Molly’s memory, hence also the title of the song. This is also reflected in the addition of the sensual sounding “mmh” before every “yes”.

Bush then continues to write her own lyrics that echo Joyce’s text. “First I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth” (681) becomes “then I’d taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth” and “so we were flowers all a womans body yes” (681) becomes “but now

I’ve powers o’er a woman’s body, yes”. Although she originally did this because she was not allowed to use Joyce’s text, the effect this has is that she gives Molly back the autonomy over her own body. In the soliloquy Molly gives seedcake to Leopold, while in the song, she takes it back. Furthermore, in Joyce’s text Molly is compared to a flower, while in Bush’s adaptation she has “powers o’er [her] body.” Joyce’s Molly is can be seen as a strong and independent female character too, but she is also seen through a male gaze, which seems to suggest that the main source for female pleasure is arousing and pleasing male partners

(Christie L. Burns 75). Bush gives Molly control, both over her body and her life, and allows 26 her to enjoy sensuality without portraying it as something that is only present for the pleasure of men.

Not all lyrics are so obvious an echo as the previous examples. Bush’s “going deep

South, go down, mmh, yes, took six big wheels and rolled our bodies, off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes” does at first sight hardly resemble “it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes” (681). Here the similarities are more subtle; “16” can still be found in “six”, and Joyce’s “breath” sounds similar to

Bush’s “flesh”. Apart from things that sound similar to Joyce’s original text, there is another layer in this line; a reference to Howth Head, where the scene in the novel is set; it is where

Molly Bloom famously said “yes”. Even when Bush strays from Joyce’s original when it comes to literal text and sound she puts in references that allow her to remain close to the novel.

The next two stanzas are based on the eight last lines of the novel. Bush continues to echo the lyrics in a similar way; some lines are very similar to Joyce’s text, while others might not, at first glance, seem to derive from the novel, but are full of clever references:

“shall I wear red” (682) is changed into “I could wear a sunset”, echoing not only the red colour Molly is considering to wear, but also a line by Joyce: “the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets” (682). Furthermore, Bush again gives some control to Molly. In

Joyce’s original, she asks whether she shall wear red, while in Bush’s version Molly gives herself the possibility to wear red, or a sunset. Another reference includes the line “and the down of a peach says mmh, yes”. Molly Bloom often compares the female body to food

(Hsing-chun Chou 476), and even peaches: “a better pair of tights than that look how white they are the smoothest place is right there between this bit here how soft like a peach” (670).

Bush’s decision to rewrite the words into something that includes “peach” is therefore no coincidence. 27

Stepping Out of the Page

When Bush found out she could not use Joyce’s words she decided to rewrite the lyrics using a different approach, “painting a scenario where Molly, the sensualist in excelsis, steps out of the two-dimensional confines of the page […] to experience the joys of the real world” (Thomson 239). Molly is a very sensual character, and in this song Bush depicts

Molly’s sensual experience moving to the real world. This can be seen in several of the song’s lines: first of all in the song’s chorus, which literally consists of Bush singing about Molly

“stepping out, of the page, into the sensual world”. This line is also present in “Flowers of the

Mountain”, where it is also used as a chorus and where it is the only thing that is not literally taken from the novel. Bush thus not only describes what the character would feel if she were to be in the real world, but also describes how she gets there from the page, the novel she exists in.

Another line that shows how Bush frees Molly from the page is:

“and how we’d wished to live in the sensual world.”

This illustrates Bush’s intention to free Molly, and can be seen in other lines as well; it is described how the characters “rolled [their] bodies, off of Howth Head and into the flesh”.

Bush uses imagery here; the scene is set on Howth Head, as mentioned before, and the lovers can almost be seen rolling of a green, Irish hill into the real world. The line “he said I was a flower of the mountain, yes, but now I’ve powers o’er a woman’s body, yes” could be seen as

Bush going against Joyce: Bloom compared Molly to a flower of the mountain, but Bush is in charge now and has power over Molly’s body and decides to free her, instead of metaphorically changing her into a flower. By thus changing the text and freeing Molly from the novel, Bush answers one of Molly’s wishes: during Molly’s final soliloquy she thinks “o 28

Jamesy let me up out of this” (670). John Henry Raleigh has agreed with other Joyce scholars that Molly is here speaking directly to her creator, James Joyce, and is asking him to let her out of the novel (9).

Although the video clip for the song will not be analysed in detail, it should be mentioned nevertheless, as it adds to the idea of Molly getting out of the novel and experiencing the sensuality of the real world. The video is fairly simple, and has a lot of focus on nature and natural phenomena. It shows Bush dancing through a forest and enjoying natural phenomena around her, such as fire, a sunset and snow (see: appendix three). Bush has said that this depicts “what the song “The Sensual World” is about, which is the sensuality of this planet” (Sky Art); the images from the video strengthen the sensual vibe from the lyrics.

A fictional character suddenly stepping out of the page could have various reactions to all the new elements and senses around her, or him, and based on Molly’s character in the novel, it is very likely she would find it a very sensual experience to suddenly be able to feel the planet.

By illustrating this in the video clip, Bush once again makes clear that Molly is escaping the pages she was up until then confined to.

Conclusions

Because of a combination of the unwillingness of the James Joyce estate to grant Bush usage of the novel’s words and the change of medium, as explained by Bluestone and Stam,

Bush’s song had to move away from Joyce’s novel and has become something that can perhaps better be described a song inspired by Molly Bloom rather than an adaptation.

However, despite only focussing on one passage in the novel, consisting of only one character’s thoughts, Bush does capture the feeling of sensuality of this part of the novel and is able to convey this. Songs are a good medium for telling stories, as Inglis argued, and Bush does not only tell the story of Molly’s sensuality, but through her adaptation also creates a 29 new story; the escape of a literary character from a novel. Moy believes that Bush fails to make the vocals convey the sensuality and desire that she has managed to put into the lyrics

(106-7), but it can be argued that, with the addition of “mmh” to the, already sensual, “yes”-es by Molly and the use of her somewhat lower singing voice, Bush does indeed manage to make the vocals fit the sensual lyrics. Moreover, the lyrics are sensual and convey the sensual part of Molly’s character. Gjelsvik has argued that certain things, such as violence and sex, are downplayed in film adaptations. Bush’s musical adaptation of Ulysses does not adhere to this theory; she embraces the sensuality in the original novel.

30

Conclusion

Virginia Woolf once complained in an essay that film adaptations were not able to portray the complex emotions and the depth described in literature, but with her song adaptations, Bush does seem to be able to do this. In fact, she does not adapt entire novels and often ignores the story as a whole, but instead only focusses on one or two of the complex emotions or feelings from the original. She carries across the feeling of an aspect of the original by singing the story from the perspective from one of the characters. Because she, in a way, becomes this character, she is able to portray at least one of their characteristics. This ties in with Inglis’s argument that songs are an appropriate medium for storytelling; in her songs Bush is able to write appropriate lines to tell her story and set that to music that fits the mood of the story.

Stam and Bluestone have argued that when stories are adapted from one medium to another, change always occurs. However, not all changes in Bush’s adaptations are due to the change of medium; she chooses to stray from the original and only focus on one or two aspects or characters. All three examples of musical adaptations by Bush that have been discussed have one thing in common: Bush focusses on the female main characters and frees them from their confining environment. She does this by singing from the heroine’s perspective and giving her a voice; a voice she either did not have in the original, or a voice that differs from the voice she had in the original. With this new found voice, the characters in

Bush’s adaptations tend to portray female sensuality. In “Wuthering Heights” Cathy is given a voice of her own, something that she never had in the original novel by Emily Brontë. This voice allows Cathy to explain her love story with Heathcliff from her perspective and to share her emotions. In “The Red Shoes” Bush takes the red shoes from the original novel, but instead of using it as a device that punishes female sensuality, she uses it as a way of celebrating female sensuality and the female body. In “The Sensual World” Bush takes things 31 even further when she literally lets Molly Bloom out of the novel and describes the sensuality of Molly’s experience.

Bush makes adaptations of stories to empower female characters and celebrate female sexuality. Gjelsvik argument that sex is a taboo topic that is downplayed in adaptations does therefore not apply to Bush. The opposite seems to be true; Bush embraces female sexuality and portrays this in her adaptations. Reynolds and Press have argued that Bush belongs to a group of female artists who identify with female characteristics, such as female sexuality and sensuality, and portray and sometimes overplay this to provoke and confound the male gaze

(289). Whether Bush has this intention when making her songs is questionable, but she can definitely be argued to be the opposite of prudish (Thomson 23). No matter how much Bush does or does not adhere to Reynolds and Press’s theory, one thing is certain: the female characters in her adaptations get some control over their own lives and do not have to hide their voices or emotions and feelings.

Limitations and Further Research

Although this study has tried to provide a clear idea of how Bush adapts source material and makes them into songs, one crucial element of these songs has been ignored: the music itself. The chosen instruments, rhythms, pitch and more might prove very interesting and relevant for this type of adaptation. Future research could combine all elements of Bush’s songs; lyrics and music, but also an analysis of the video clips and perhaps even of the album the songs appeared on, to see how a specific works within that context.

32

Works Cited

Andersen, Hans Christian. Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Auckland: Floating,

2010. PDF.

Bluestone, George. Novels into Film. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1957. Web.

Brown, Richard. James Joyce and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. Web

Burns, Christy L. Gestural Politics: Stereotype and Parody in Joyce. Albany: State U of New

York, 2000. Web.

Bush, John Carder. Kate: Inside the Rainbow. : Sphere, 2015. Print.

Bush, Kate. “Flower of the Mountain.” Director’s Cut. EMI, 2011. Mp3.

Bush, Kate. “The Red Shoes.” The Red Shoes. EMI, 1993. Mp3.

Bush, Kate. “The Sensual World.” The Sensual World. EMI, 1989. Mp3.

Bush, Kate. “Wuthering Heights.” The Kick Inside. EMI, 1978. LP.

Bush, Kate. Kate Bush - The Sensual World (Sky Arts Documentary). Sky Arts HD,

1989.Youtube. Web. 5 June 2016.

Bush, Kate. "Kate's Fairy Tale." Interview by Mary Ann Ellis. Record Mirror. 25 February.

1978. Gaffaweb. Web. 25 May 2016.

Bush, Kate. “The Kick Inside Promo LP/cassette.” Self Portrait. EMI America. 1978.

Gaffaweb. Web. 18 May 2016.

Bush, Kate. “The Sensual Woman.” Interviewed by Maureen LittleJohn. Network. February

1990. Gaffaweb. Web. 3 June 2016. 2 June 2016.

Chou, Hsing-chun. "“I Eat; Therefore I Am”—Molly and Food." EurAmerica 42.3 (2012):

459-96. Web.

Corbijn, Anton. Kate Bush. Picture. Interview Magazine. Published 22 June 2011. Web. 15

June 2016. 33

FitzGerald-Morris, Krystyna, and Peter FitzGerald-Morris. "Retracing the Scenes. Wuthering

Heights and The Kick Inside: 1977 to 1978." HomeGround The Kate Bush Magazine.

Anthology One: Wuthering Heights to The Sensual World. Ed. Dave Cross.

Maidstone: Crescent Moon, 2014. 31-33. Print.

Gjelsvik, Anne. "What Novels Can Tell That Movies Can’t Show." Adaptation Studies: New

Challenges, New Directions. By Jørgen Bruhn, Anne Gjelsvik and Eirik Frisvold

Hanssen. N.p.: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. 245-64. Web.

Gordon, Bonnie. "Kate Bush's Subversive Shoes." Women and Music: A Journal of Gender

and Culture 9.1 (2005): 37-50. Web.

Henschen, Robert. "She'll Crush The Lily In Your Soul." The Music Journal. 1978: n. pag.

Gaffaweb. Web.

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge, 2006. Web. 27 May 2016.

Inglis, Ian. "Music into Movies The Film of the Song." A Companion to Literature, Film and

Adaptation. Ed. Deborah Cartmell. Chichester: Blackwell, 2012. 312-29. Web.

The Line, the Cross and the Curve. Dir. Kate Bush. Picture Music International,

1993. Youtube. Web. 18 May 2016.

Losseff, Nicky. “Cathy’s Homecoming and the Other World: Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering

Heights’”; Popular Music 18.02 (1999): 227. Web.

Joyce, James. Ulysses. London: Wordsworth Classics, 2010. Print.

Moy, Ron. Kate Bush and Hounds of Love. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate,

2007. Web. 13 May 2016.

Raleigh, John Henry. The Chronicle of Leopold and Molly Bloom: Ulysses as Narrative.

Berkeley: U of California, 1977. Web. 22 May 2016.

Reynolds, Simon, and Joy Press. The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1995. Web. 20 June 2016. 34

Slethaug, Gordon. Adaptation Theory and Criticism: Postmodern Literature and Cinema in

the USA. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014. Web. 10 May 2016.

Stam, Robert, and Alessandra Raengo. "Introduction: The Theory and Practice of

Adaptation." Introduction. Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of

Film Adaptation. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. 1-52. Web. 12 May 2016.

The Red Shoes. Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. General Film Distributors,

1948. Youtube. 2 June 2016.

Thomson, Graeme. Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. London: Omnibus, 2010.

Print.

Whitley, John S. "Introduction." Introduction. Wuthering Heights. London: Wordsworth

Classics, 2000. V-XXII. Print.

Woolf, Virginia. "The Cinema | Woolf Online." Woolf Online. The Leverhulme Trust, 1926.

Web. 13 May 2016.

35

Appendix one

An overview of all albums and their literary references.

The Kick Inside (1978)

-“Wuthering Heights” > based on a film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights

Lionheart (1978)

-“Oh, England, My Lionheart” < namedrops Shakespeare and Peter Pan

-“In Search of Peter Pan” > J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow

Up and later novel Peter Pan And Wendy. Also quotes Disney’s Pinocchio film.

-“Coffee Homeground” > Allegedly based upon Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace.

-“Hammer Horror” > Inspired by , who were sometimes inspired

by literature.

Never For Ever (1980)

-“The Infant Kiss” > Inspired by the 1961 film The Innocents, which was inspired by Henry

James’

-“The Wedding List” > Film La Mariée était en noir, based on ’s novel The

Bride Wore Black

The Dreaming (1982)

-“Get Out Of My House” > based on Kubrick’s film The Shining, based on the novel by

Stephen King

36

Hounds of Love (1985)

-Hounds of Love’s side two is called The Ninth Wave > from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of

the King

-“Cloudbursting” > Peter Reich’s A Book Of Dreams

The Whole Story (1986)

-“Wuthering Heights (new vocal)” > See The Kick Inside

-“Cloudbursting” > See Hounds of Love

The Sensual World (1989)

-“The Sensual World” > Inspired by Molly Bloom’s speech in James Joyce’s Ulysses

> allusion to William Blake’s Jerusalem

The Red Shoes (1993)

-“The Red Shoes” > Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s film, based on the fairy tale by

Hans Christian Andersen.

Aerial (2005)

-

Director’s Cut (2011)

-“Flower of the Mountain” > Parts of James Joyce’s Ulysses put to music.

-A new version of “The Red Shoes” > see The Red Shoes 37

Fifty Words For Snow (2011)

-

38

Appendix two

Lyrics of discussed songs

“Wuthering Heights “ My only master.

Out on the wiley, windy moors Too long I roam in the night. We'd roll and fall in green. I'm coming back to his side, to put it right. You had a temper like my jealousy: I'm coming home to wuthering, wuthering, Too hot, too greedy. Wuthering Heights, How could you leave me, When I needed to possess you? Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. I hated you. I loved you, too. I've come home. I'm so cold! Let me in-a-your window. Bad dreams in the night. They told me I was going to lose the fight, Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering I've come home. I'm so cold! Wuthering Heights. Let me in-a-your window.

Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. Ooh! Let me have it. I've come home. I'm so cold! Let me grab your soul away. Let me in-a-your window. Ooh! Let me have it. Let me grab your soul away. Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. You know it's me Cathy! I've come home. I'm so cold! Let me in-a-your window. Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. I've come home. I'm so cold! Ooh, it gets dark! It gets lonely, Let me in-a-your window. On the other side from you. I pine a lot. I find the lot Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. Falls through without you. I've come home. I'm so cold! I'm coming back, love. Let me in-a-your window. Cruel Heathcliff, my one dream, Heathcliff, it's me, your Cathy. I've come home. I'm so cold!

39

“The Red Shoes” Feel your feet start kissing the ground Feel your arms are opening out Oh she move like the Diva do And see your eyes are lifted to God I said "I'd love to dance like you" With no words, with no song She said "just take off my red shoes I'm gonna dance the dream Put them on and your dream'll come true And make the dream come true With no words, with no song I'm gonna dance the dream You can dance the dream with your body And make the dream come true on And this curve, is your smile She gotta dance, she gotta dance And this cross, is your heart And she can't stop 'till them shoes come off And this line, is your path These shoes do, a kind of voodoo They're gonna make her dance 'till her legs Oh it's gonna be the way you always fall off thought it would be Call a doctor, call a priest But it's gonna be no illusion They're gonna whip her up like a helicopter Oh it's gonna be the way you always dreamt about it Really happening to ya But it's gonna be really happening to ya Really happening to ya Really happening to ya Really happening to ya"

Oh the minute I put them on I knew I had done something wrong All her gifts for the dance had gone It's the red shoes, they can't stop dancing And this curve, is your smile And this cross, is your heart And this line, is your path

"Oh it's gonna be the way you always thought it would be But it's gonna be no illusion Oh it's gonna be the way you always dreamt about it But it's gonna be really happening to ya"

She gotta dance, she gotta dance And she can't stop 'till them shoes come off These shoes do, a kind of voodoo They're gonna make her dance 'till her legs fall off

Feel your hair come tumbling down 40

“The Sensual World”

Mmh, yes,

Then I'd taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth Going deep South, go down, mmh, yes, Took six big wheels and rolled our bodies Off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes,

He said I was a flower of the mountain, yes, But now I've powers o'er a woman's body, yes.

Stepping out of the page into the sensual world. Stepping out...

To where the water and the earth caress And the down of a peach says mmh, yes, Do I look for those millionaires Like a Machiavellian girl would When I could wear a sunset? mmh, yes,

And how we'd wished to live in the sensual world You don't need words--just one kiss, then another.

Stepping out of the page into the sensual world Stepping out, off the page, into the sensual world.

And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mmh, yes, And then he whispered would I, mmh, yes, Be safe, mmh, yes, from mountain flowers? And at first with the charm around him, mmh, yes, He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts He'd rescue it, mmh, yes, And his spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes, I said, mmh, yes, But not yet, mmh, yes, Mmh, yes.

41

"Flower Of The Mountain"

Yes, first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth And it was leap year like now, yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I nearly lost my breath, yes He said I was a flower of the mountain, yes So we are flowers on a woman’s body, yes

Stepping out Of the page Into the sensual world Stepping out

And Gibraltar as a girl where I was a flower of the mountain yes When I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used Or shall I wear a red, yes And how he kissed me under the Moorish wall And I thought well, as well him as another

Stepping out Of the page Into the sensual world [x2]

And then I asked him with my eyes to ask again, yes And then he asked me would I, yes, to say yes, my mountain flower And first I put my arms around him, yes and drew him down to me So he could feel my breasts or perfume, yes And his heart was going like mad and yes, I said yes, I will, yes

42

Appendix Three

Important and relevant stills from videos and films.

Still of the mysterious dancer coming out of the mirror. (The Line, the Cross and the Curve)

“and this curve, is your smile” (The Line, the Cross and the Curve). 43

Kate Bush dancing through a forest, enjoying natural phenomena. (The Sensual World)