Ogni artista - in costante ricerca di stimoli e della giusta forma con cui esprimere la propria vena creativa - è la figura umana potenzialmente più tormentata che si possa immaginare. Vittima della propria stessa condizione di portavoce dotato ed eccezionale, ipersensibile e spesso eterodiretto, sembra quasi che il suo non facile destino sia quello di essere perennemente in bilico tra poco gloriosi - quando non avvilenti - compromessi con un pubblico non sempre ricettivo al suo più intimo messaggio e il tentativo (sovente vano) di siglare un faustiano patto di eterna qualità e prolificità di produzione. La nevrosi è sempre dietro l'angolo, per il compositore che si è progressivamente scordato quanto di umano, fecondo ed umile ci sia nell'assecondare solamente il naturale sgorgare della propria ispirazione. Suona poco democratico o "politically uncorrect" sostenerlo, ma è anche vero che non tutti gli artisti sono in grado di erigere - a difesa di questi pericolosi assalti contro la loro fragile psiche - il solido muro difensivo di una effettiva poliedricità espressiva o di una qualsivoglia spiccata dote che li renda immuni - anche in tempi di vacche magre per la suddetta ispirazione - da un vero e proprio tracollo.
Sarà la mia immaginazione, ma le corde vocali della principessina Kate restano una formidabile barriera contro le insidie che il tempo sembrava aver riservato anche alla Musa all'altezza del mediocre "The Red Shoes" (1993) - da poco, e finalmente, oscurato nella memoria dal gradevolissimo (per quanto discontinuo) "Aerial" (2005). Nella voce di questa donna, proprio come nei suoi occhioni da cerbiatto, è ancora oggi riconoscibile la fatina perennemente incantata dal mondo che già a sedici anni sussurrava e urlava (con quattro ottave di estensione!) fiabe gotiche quali metafore delle proprie emozioni e paure. E se gli acuti sussurri di quell'ugola avrebbero spezzato anche il cuore più ibernato ("The Man With The Child In His Eyes"…), erotizzato persino brani su temi sociali (l'immensa "Breathing"), edulcorato l'evidente drammaticità di certi testi (la splendida "Army Dreamers"), gli urli sconvolgenti ed irrazionali della nostra l'hanno sempre caratterizzata non tanto come novella strega malefica quanto come voce, contatto diretto e necessariamente spaventoso con la zona più intimamente tribale e primordiale dell'animo umano, quello che Freud definirebbe "inconscio".
I disumani gridi di "Babooshka" (dallo splendido ed eterogeneo "Never For Ever", 1980) o ancora e maggiormente di "Sat In Your Lap" o "Night Of The Swallow" (dal formidabile e difficilissimo "The Dreaming", 1982, assolutamente da riscoprire) sono un vero e proprio faccia a faccia tra Kate e le sue intime debolezze; un faccia a faccia che ritorna puntuale - sebbene in una confezione più pacata, studiata, apparentemente sintetica ma capace di infiammare con duratura intensità - nell'affascinante perfezione di "Hounds Of Love" (1985), uno dei massimi capolavori degli anni Ottanta. Ne è la riprova immediata la disarmante confessione di impotenza di fronte agli assalti dell'amore nella ritmata title-track, che per mezzo della sua semplice metafora sintetizza con rara icasticità l'irruenza e la misteriosità del sentimento. Ancora più sincopata e claustrofobica l'apertura di "Running Up That Hill" (altro singolo di impostazione quasi "dance", in cui una doppia batteria accosta una delle melodie più note e rappresentative della sua scrittura cantautoriale), col significativo sottotitolo "A Deal With God" quasi a suggerire che l'angelica Kate il suo patto lo ha sancito in zone ben poco mefistofeliche. Il vorticoso crescendo corale di "The Big Sky" e la tetra sensualità di quello che vorrebbe essere un semplice omaggio alla figura materna (la bellissima "Mother Stands For Comfort") fanno da apripista ad uno dei più grandi e originali singoli partoriti dal decennio, la strepitosa danza elettro-celtica di "Cloudbusting" (questa volta sulla figura del padre, nel celebre video impersonato da Donald Sutherland). Il treno sintetico di questo grande pezzo ha appena finito il suo fischio che ha inizio "The Ninth Wave", la lunga suite che copre tutta la seconda parte del disco, e che originariamente doveva, ampliata, esserne il fulcro concettuale. Il filo rosso che la lega è quello degli esperimenti etno-pop di Peter Gabriel filtrati attraverso le melodie spaziali e iperprodotte dei Pink Floyd era "The Wall". In un crescendo di sensazioni scandite da tocchi di piano che bruciano note sconsolate sullo sfondo di paesaggi sonori "ambient" al limite dello spettrale (l'introduttiva, delicatissima "And Dream Of Sheep") c'è posto per scampoli di pop etereo e rarefatto di grande classe ("Watching You Without Me"), sinfonie corali - e proprio di un coro gregoriano si tratta - di sicura suggestione ("Hello Earth"), indimenticabili dichiarazioni d'amore alla tradizione celtica (l'enorme "Jig Of Life"), per concludere in leggerezza con la morbida dolcezza melodica della breve e perfetta "The Morning Fog".
Ne vien fuori quel che ne viene fuori.
Elenco tracce testi e video
02 Hounds of Love (03:03)
"It's in the trees!
It's coming!"
When I was a child:
Running in the night,
Afraid of what might be
Hiding in the dark,
Hiding in the street,
And of what was following me...
Now hounds of love are hunting.
I've always been a coward,
And I don't know what's good for me.
Here I go!
It's coming for me through the trees.
Help me, someone!
Help me, please!
Take my shoes off,
And throw them in the lake,
And I'll be
Two steps on the water.
I found a fox
Caught by dogs.
He let me take him in my hands.
His little heart,
It beats so fast,
And I'm ashamed of running away
From nothing real--
I just can't deal with this,
But I'm still afraid to be there,
Among your hounds of love,
And feel your arms surround me.
I've always been a coward,
And never know what's good for me.
Oh, here I go!
Don't let me go!
Hold me down!
It's coming for me through the trees.
Help me, darling,
Help me, please!
Take my shoes off
And throw them in the lake,
And I'll be
Two steps on the water.
I don't know what's good for me.
I don't know what's good for me.
I need your love love love love love, yeah!
Your love!
Take your shoes off
And throw them in the lake!
Do you know what I really need?
Do you know what I really need?
I need love love love love love, yeah!
03 The Big Sky (04:41)
They look down
At the ground,
Missing.
But I never go in now.
I'm looking at the Big Sky.
I'm looking at the Big Sky now.
I'm looking at the Big Sky.
You never really understood me.
You never really tried.
That cloud, that cloud--
Looks like Ireland.
C'mon and blow it a kiss now,
But quick,
'Cause it's changing in the Big Sky,
It's changing in the Big Sky now.
We're looking at the Big Sky.
You never understood me.
You never really tried.
This cloud, this cloud--
Says "Noah,
C'mon and build me an Ark."
And if you're coming, jump,
'Cause
We're leaving with the Big Sky.
We're leaving with the Big Sky.
And we pause for the jets--
hup! hup!--in the Big Sky!
You want my reply?
What was the question?
I was looking at the Big Sky.
Tell 'em, sisters!
"Rolling over like a great big cloud,
Walking out in the Big Sky!
Rolling over like a great big cloud,
Walking out in the Big Sky!"
04 Mother Stands for Comfort (03:08)
She knows that I've been doing something wrong,
But she won't say anything.
She thinks that I was with my friends yesterday,
But she won't mind me lying,
Because
Mother stands for comfort.
Mother will hide the murderer.
It breaks the cage, and fear escapes and takes possession,
Just like a crowd rioting inside.
(Make me do this, make me do that, make me do this, make me do that...)
Am I the cat that takes the bird?
To her the hunted, not the hunter.
Mother stands for comfort.
Mother will hide the murderer.
Mother hides the madman.
Mother will stay mum.
Mother stands for comfort.
Mother will hide the murderer.
Mother hides the madman.
Mother will stay mum.
05 Cloudbusting (05:10)
I still dream of Organon
I wake up crying
You're making rain
And you're just in reach
When you and sleep escape me
You're like my yo-yo
That glowed in the dark
What made it special
Made it dangerous
So I bury it
And forget.
But every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen.
And I don't know when
But just saying it could even make it happen.
On top of the world
Looking over the edge
You could see them coming.
You looked too small
In their big black car
To be a threat to the men in power.
I hid my yo-yo
In the garden.
I can't hide you
From the government.
Oh, God, Daddy
I won't forget
'Cause every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna to happen.
And I don't know when
But just saying it could even make it happen.
And every time it rains
You're here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Like your son's coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen
And I don't know when
But just saying it could even make it happen
Ooh, just saying it could even make it happen
We've been cloudbusting daddy
The sun's coming out. Your son's coming out.
from the album Hounds of Love released 1985
07 Under Ice (02:21)
It's wonderful.
Everywhere, so white.
The river has frozen over.
Not a soul on the ice.
Only me skating fast.
I'm speeding past trees,
Leaving little lines in the ice,
Splitting, splitting sound,
Silver heels spitting, spitting snow.
There's something moving
Under, under the ice,
Moving under ice,
Through water,
Trying to get out of the cold water.
'It's me.'
Something, someone--help them.
'It's me.'
08 Waking the Witch (04:18)
Wake Up
A good morning ma'am, your early morning call
You must wake up
Wake up
Wake up, man
Wake up child, pay attention
C'mon, wake up
Wake up, love
You shouldn't make the night, but see your little lights alive
Stop your lying and sleeping in bed! Get up!
(C'mon! Your ma needs a shower)
little light
Can you not see that little light up there?
Where?
There?
Where?
Over here...
You still in bed?
Wake up you sleepy head
We are of the going water and gone, we are of the water, and the holy land of water...
Don't you know you've got to wake up?
Look whose hear to see you...
...listen to me...help me baby...talk to me, baby...tell them...listen to me...help me
You won't burn
Red red roses
You won't bleed
Pinks and posies
Confess to me girl
Red red roses
Go down
Spiritus sanctus in nomine...
Spiritus sanctus in nomine...
Spiritus sanctus in nomine...
Spiritus sanctus in nomine...
Poor little thing
Red red roses
The blackbird
Pinks and posies
Wings in the water
Red red roses
Go down
Pinks and posies
Deus et dei domino...
Deus et dei domino...
Deus et dei domino...
Deus et dei domino...
What is it child?
Bless me father, bless me father, for I have sinned...ugh
red red roses
Help me baby, listen to me, listen to me, tell them baby
red whole rose
Help me baby
Don't you know?
I question your innocence
This black bird...
...is a stone around my neck
HA! Damn you woman..AH! Ugh!
This black bird...
...is a stone around my neck
What say you good people?
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
This black bird....
I am responsible for your actions!
Whoa....
Not guilty!
...help this black bird.
Wake of the Witch
Get out of the waves. Get out of the water.
09 Watching You Without Me (04:07)
("What's that?")
("It's four, five, six, seven...")
You can't hear me.
You can't hear me.
You can't hear what I'm saying.
You can't hear what I'm saying to you.
You watch the clock
Move the slow hand.
I should have been home
Hours ago,
But I'm not here.
But I'm not here.
You can't hear me.
You can't hear me.
You can't feel me
Here in the room with you now.
You can't hear what I'm saying.
You don't hear what I'm saying, do you?
Can't let you know
What's been happening.
There's a ghost in our home,
Just watching you without me.
I'm not here.
("You don't hear me.") [backwards]
But I'm not here.
(You can't hear me.)
But I'm not here.
(You don't hear what I'm saying.)
"Don't ignore, don't ignore me,
Let me...[indecipherable]"*
"Don't ignore, don't ignore me,
Let me...[indecipherable]"
"Don't ignore, don't ignore me,
Let me...[indecipherable]"
"We see you here." [backwards]
"We see you here."
"We see you here."
"We see you here."
"We see you here."
"We see you here."
"We see you here."
"We see you here."
You don't hear me come in.
"Help me, baby! Help me, baby! Talk to me! Listen to me,
listen to me! Talk to me! Help--"
("You can't hear me.") [backwards]
"Listen, baby! Listen to me, baby! Help me, help me, baby!
Talk to me! Talk to me! Please, baby, talk to me!"
("You can't hear me.") [backwards]
You won't hear me leaving.
10 Jig of Life (04:04)
Hello, old lady.
I know your face well.
I know it well.
She says,
"Ooh-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na!
I'll be sitting in your mirror.
Now is the place where the crossroads meet.
Will you look into the future?
"Never, never say goodbye
To my part of your life.
No, no, no, no, no!
Oh, oh, oh,
"Let me live!"
She said.
"C'mon and let me live, girl!"
She said,
"C'mon and let me live, girl!"
("C'mon and let me live!")
"This moment in time,"
(She said.)
It doesn't belong to you,"
(She said,)
It belongs to me,
"And to your little boy and to your little girl,
And the one hand clapping:
Where on your palm is my little line,
When you're written in mine
As an old memory?
Ooh, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-
"Never, never say goodbye
To my part of your life.
Oh no, no, no, no, no!
Never, never, never!
Never, never let me go!"
She said,
"C'mon and let me live, girl!'
("C'mon and let me live!")
She said,
"C'mon and let me live, girl!"
("C'mon and let me live!")
I put this
moment..............................................here.
I put this moment.........................here.
I put this moment--
"Over here!
"Over here!
Can't you see where memories are kept bright?
Tripping on the water like a laughing girl.
Time in her eyes is spawning past life,
One with the ocean and the woman unfurled,
Holding all the love that waits for you here.
Catch us now for I am your future.
A kiss on the wind and we'll make the land.
Come over here to where When lingers,
Waiting in this empty world,
Waiting for Then, when the lifespray cools.
For Now does ride in on the curl of the wave,
And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools.
We are of the going water and the gone.
We are of water in the holy land of water
And all that's to come runs in
With the thrust on the strand."
11 Hello Earth (06:13)
"Columbia now nine times the speed of sound."
"Roger that, Dan, I've got a solid TACAN
locked on, uh, TACAN twenty-three."
"The, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned
trajectory are all one line on the block"
"Roger (?) your (?) block (?) decoded (? recorded?)"
Hello, Earth.
Hello, Earth.
With just one hand held up high
I can blot you out,
Out of sight.
Peek-a-boo,
Peek-a-boo, little Earth.
With just my heart and my mind
I can be driving,
Driving home,
And you asleep
On the seat.
I get out of my car,
Step into the night
And look up at the sky.
And there's something bright,
Travelling fast.
Look at it go!
Look at it go!
[A men's choral passage in either Czekh or Russian is sung here.]
("Listen!")
Watching storms
Start to form
Over America.
Can't do anything.
Just watch them swing
With the wind
Out to sea.
All you sailors,
("Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!")
All life-savers,
("Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!")
All you cruisers,
("Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!")
All you fishermen,
Head for home.
Go to sleep, little Earth.
I was there at the birth,
Out of the cloudburst,
The head of the tempest.
Murderer!
Murder of calm.
Why did I go?
Why did I go?
[The men's choral passage is sung again several times here.]
"Tiefer, tiefer.
Irgendwo in der Tiefe
gibt es ein Licht."
Go to sleep little Earth.
12 The Morning Fog (02:34)
The light
Begin to bleed,
Begin to breathe,
Begin to speak.
D'you know what?
I love you better now.
I am falling
Like a stone,
Like a storm,
Being born again
Into the sweet morning fog.
D'you know what?
I love you better now.
I'm falling,
And I'd love to hold you know.
I'll kiss the ground.
I'll tell my mother,
I'll tell my father,
I'll tell my loved one,
I'll tell my brothers
How much I love them
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