running up that hill lyrics kate bush meaning

It is like a cryptic tidal warning, or a flag waving to war. The 'big stripey lie moving, coming up behind' seems ominous and threatening. As with other KaTe songs, you can really imagine the lyrics forming as she stares into the vacuum, a crystal, a mirror, or a tarot card. Yes, Rosa, the references to Roses Blue and Consulting the Oracle do bring out the oracular side to 'Big Stripey Lie'. She'll shake her head and treat you like a martyr No, when all your stars are stacked you cannot win

When all the black cards come you cannot barter She'll prophesy your death, she won't say when She's gotten into tarot cards and potionsįriends who come to ask her for their futureįriends who come to find they can't be friendsīecause of signs and seasons that don't suit her The song also suggests a woman's descent into 'mysterious devotions', the unsettling 'black cards' of crystal gazing Rose: Waterhouse depicts a semicircle of women seeking the prophecies of the Teraph (a human skull), and the figure of the priestess as she 'interprets its decree with terror'. wikipedia/commons/2/23/John_William_Waterhouse_oracle_1884.png Your name is being called by sacred thingsīig Stripey Lie reads like a prophetic oracular utterance. It was lovely to work with Nigel Kennedy again – interesting that he didn't need to ask what the track was about. It was very experimental but people seemed to like it. Because the guitar was so wild, the song took on the shape of wandering into someone's emotional world which is jungle-like and 'wild'. I had a fantastic time – completely indulgent but I loved every minute. It was originally a very early song which I'd written to a drum sequence of Del's and I suddenly decided I was going to play guitar all over it – I'd only had one lesson and couldn't get the chords together that I'd been taught so I put up the backing track and thrashed. KB: 'Big Stripey Lie is a law unto itself and nearly didn't make it onto the album. It sounds desperate and frightening in the song because it is being heard by a desperate and frightened patient. The 'Don't want to hurt you' could represent the concern of a friend, relative or psychiatric nurse. The 'big stripey lie moving Like a wavy line' could even refer to an electrocardiogram. A Black-eyed Susan and A Black-eyed dog of depression. Indeed, maybe the song has a clinical setting, like visiting a patient in an acute psychiatric unit. The 'wild animals' could represent a jungle of flowers, their gaping petals stretched out, opening like the mouth of some great African cat. I wonder if KB is referring to Sylvia Plath's Tulips in BSL. They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat.

The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals Holden wants to catch children before they fall out of innocence into knowledge of the adult world, including knowledge of sex' It is highly ironic that the word “meet” refers to an encounter that leads to recreational sex, because the word that Holden substitutes-“catch”-takes on the exact opposite meaning in his mind. The song “Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” asks if it is wrong for two people to have a romantic encounter out in the fields, away from the public eye, even if they don’t plan to have a commitment to one another. He thinks the line is “If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye,” but the actual lyric is “If a body meet a body, coming through the rye.” As Phoebe points out, Holden has misheard the lyric. He says he would like to protect the children from falling off the edge of the cliff by “catching” them if they were on the verge of tumbling over. 'Holden imagines a field of rye perched high on a cliff, full of children romping and playing. and maybe the idea of a mute Sacred Destiny can still the mind or restore humor and Consonance. Despair is met with KaTe's histrionic reassurance. The betrayal (or delusion) unleashes wild-animal confusion as the 'cage' (the stable personality/ideological/paradigmatic structure) is threatened, undermined or demolished. Maybe life & love are the line they promise so much that is phoney. The lie (or delusion) is big, like it's social, political, conspiratorial. They say that the Devil is a charming manĪ treacherous wavefront is coming up like a Tsunami. Though the title can bring to mind Aliester Crowley's 'The Book of Lies', Big Stripey Lie also suggests The American Flag and The American Dream drowning in life's grief.

Big Stripey Lie might suggest crisis, betrayal, fear, delusion or a depression that shakes ontological foundations.

Running up that hill lyrics kate bush meaning