Here´s some information about the "we let the weirdness in" bit: Therefore, for the fade-out of "Leave It Open", she first composed the exact musical (melodic) line that she wanted people to hear when they simply played the record straight. Then she set that phrase to the words, "We let the weirdness in." Next, she recorded that melodic line, and listened to the weird phonetic sounds that came out when the passage was played backwards. She then proceeded to imitate those sounds as precisely as possible, following not only the phonetics that the backwards playback produced, but also the new, inverted melody that resulted. Once she had learned this new passage perfectly, she then performed it as though it were a normal chorus; synched that version up with the master tape; and let it play BACKWARDS with the fade-out. The result was a message that was note for note the same as the musical passage she had originally intended, but with sounds altered just enough so that it SOUNDED like backwards gibberish, but wasn't. During the year before someone (a Dutch fan) finally solved the puzzle, a large number of suggestions came in with answers more or less similar to the line, "They said they were buried here;" that line obtained by people playing (BACKWARDS) Kate's weirdly distorted FORWARDS vocal of "We let the weirdness in." At the 1985 Kate Bush Convention in England, Paddy Bush gave a little demonstration of just how Kate went about making the track.
@@nomi.hagen. That's cool. At the time she asked he fan club to send in suggestions of what people though they were saying. Her favourite was "we paint the penguins pink". I, for a long time, thought she was saying "we remember listening". But it is "we let the weirdness in" and it's not reversed, just distorted by electronics.
Menacing, trippy, a bit mad, even…and one of only a select number of Kate’s songs that’s NOT a character-driven narrative. The surprise on your face was fun to see, Matt! Thanks for another great KB reaction!
I'm loving your deep dive into Kate's music Matt. I've been a fan since her very first outing on Top of the Pops singing Wuthering Heights. It's amazing to think this song came from the same person who wrote The Man With The Child in his Eyes! She's just in a genre of her own, you can't place her in any one musical style. I believe in order to get some of the 'texture' for some of the vocals in this song, Kate would eat a whole bar of chocolate just before recording. I'm sure some kind soul will correct me if I've got that wrong. :)
The song is basically about learning to be open or closed to ideas and emotions that are going be good for you. Let the weirdness in. Shut out the negative nagging. She was very influenced by Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne (rhythmic tracks with sampled voices, one is a recording of an exorcism, a middle eastern singer, a preacher etc) but also worked with Nick Launay who had just engineered the Flowers Of Romance album for PIL and she wanted the same drum sounds. So this track has those big drums, then several "characters" in the voices, I think to sound like the voices in your head competing to be heard. Amazing.
Nice, I was already picking up on that "different voices in your head" idea during the reaction but that really makes sense. Cheers, appreciate the insight as always, Mark.
This song covers so much ground. Be true to yourself. Keep an open mind (compare all the love in n side 2), the cruelty in humanity, letting the unorthodox in…. But I also hear a (small) reference to the murder of John Lennon, and the tragic uncomfortable need for someone like Kate to create a safe space from her fans, which she didn’t before. (Hell, fans used to drop in to her mum’s and get served tea and cake, and Kate would sometimes pop in to chat. ). “Things that decay, things that rust”. That’s bodies and guns right there. Pleased we got there with she recorded the final vocal singing it backwards and flipping it. We had great fun trying to guess (and yes, painting penguins pink was in the lead). I almost got “we let the weirdness in but was thrown off by the occasional repeat of “we”. “We….we let the weirdness in” As it says on the album “play it loud!” Ps did we skip suspended in gaffa?? Try singing along and see if you have enough breath! Mike
As others have mentioned this song is about the occasions when we shouldn't have closed minds and instead we should open our minds and "let the weirdness in", the weirdness being confirmed by the last lyric. The amount of effort that Kate put in to create that is amazing, but she has a single minded view of what's she's going to put out and she's not going to be deflected in any way. So to the lyrics: With my ego in my gut, My babbling mouth would wash it up. (But now I've started learning how,) I keep it shut. My door was never locked, Until one day a trigger come cocking. (But now I've started learning how,) I keep it shut. Wide eyes would clean and dust Things that decay, things that rust. (But now I've started learning how,) I keep 'em shut. I keep 'em shut. Harm is in us. Harm is in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us. Harm in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us. ("Leave it open!") Harm is in us, but power to arm. Narrow mind would persecute it, Die a little to get to it. (But now I've started learning how.) I leave it open. I kept it in a cage, Watched it weeping, but I made it stay. (But now I've started learning how.) I leave it open. I leave it open. Harm is in us. Harm in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us. Harm in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us ("Leave it open!") Harm in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us. Harm in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us. ("Leave it open!") Harm in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us. Harm in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us. Har in us, but power to arm. Harm is in us! Harm is in us! Harm is in us! Harm is in us! Harm is in us! Harm is in us-- Harm in you and in me! What you letting in? Tell me what you're letting in. Say what we're gonna let in! "We let the weirdness in.* We let the weirdness in. We let the weirdness in. We let the weirdness in. We let the weirdness in."
You just let the weirdness in! One of (many) things that combine to making Kate Bush both revered and disliked at one and the same time is the fact while yes, she is a great songwriter/lyricist, and yes, she possesses a great singing voice, and yes, she can arrange/produce and so on, but also she is an uncompromising visionary when it comes to her music. Of course she wants you to like it, but she won't sacrifice her vision in order to please you.... you have to come along with her... or else don't... but she will go where her muse leads her come what may. You (we all) have to come to her music on her terms, or not at all. In this song you are now entering into the realm of what I suppose we might call the most "Kate Bush" Kate bush songs: "Leave It Open" is one of those songs. Now, Imagine yourself all alone, late at night. You have been cheerfully refreshed by a few drinks or maybe one of your little friends has left you pleasingly mellow. You are far out in the Australian Outback, there is only the flicker of a fire to keep you company, while above you there is only the great southern night sky. All around your small fire the shadows dance as each flame rises and falls. And then, as you watch, one of the shadows begins to move towards you. Now you hear all of the sounds of the Outback grow louder and among them you can hear ancestral human voices crying out of their pain, of all of the crimes committed against them across the generations. Then the shadow reveals a face as it gets closer. It fixes you in its gaze, and stares you right in the eye, as all around, the noise grows louder and louder…. Welcome to the brilliantly bonkers title track that comes next. Possibly THE most “Kate Bush” Kate Bush track you will ever hear. One of my all-time favourite KB songs. I love every mad shriek and sound of it. There will be much to discuss, pick apart, explain, and speak of. But there will be loads of time to work through its many, many layers, afterwards. For a first listen, forget everything, and Just….. feeeeeeeeel it! Be immersed in it. Let it carry you and move you.
Haha, right on, Tommy. I will indeed try not to think too much in advance (probably a thought or two, but i promise not more than that!) and just let "The Dreaming" unfold. Cheers, love your comments so much!
Here´s some information about the "we let the weirdness in" bit:
Therefore, for the fade-out of "Leave It Open", she first composed the exact musical (melodic) line that she wanted people to hear when they simply played the record straight. Then she set that phrase to the words, "We let the weirdness in." Next, she recorded that melodic line, and listened to the weird phonetic sounds that came out when the passage was played backwards. She then proceeded to imitate those sounds as precisely as possible, following not only the phonetics that the backwards playback produced, but also the new, inverted melody that resulted. Once she had learned this new passage perfectly, she then performed it as though it were a normal chorus; synched that version up with the master tape; and let it play BACKWARDS with the fade-out.
The result was a message that was note for note the same as the musical passage she had originally intended, but with sounds altered just enough so that it SOUNDED like backwards gibberish, but wasn't. During the year before someone (a Dutch fan) finally solved the puzzle, a large number of suggestions came in with answers more or less similar to the line, "They said they were buried here;" that line obtained by people playing (BACKWARDS) Kate's weirdly distorted FORWARDS vocal of "We let the weirdness in." At the 1985 Kate Bush Convention in England, Paddy Bush gave a little demonstration of just how Kate went about making the track.
Oh wow, now that's some detailed and intricate production! Thank you for sharing. I'm just in awe at Kate's musicianship and songwriting.
To me the reversed lyric "we let the weirdness in" sums up how I experience this album. Love it!
it's not reversed, just distorted :)
Actually, if you listen the song backwards you can hear "And they say they were buried here" during that part.
@@nomi.hagen. That's cool. At the time she asked he fan club to send in suggestions of what people though they were saying. Her favourite was "we paint the penguins pink". I, for a long time, thought she was saying "we remember listening". But it is "we let the weirdness in" and it's not reversed, just distorted by electronics.
@@MarkSatchwillArt Ok, not reversed, but the hidden message is clearly there.
I think the distortion was created by singing the line backwards while recording and then flip them around.
Menacing, trippy, a bit mad, even…and one of only a select number of Kate’s songs that’s NOT a character-driven narrative.
The surprise on your face was fun to see, Matt! Thanks for another great KB reaction!
"Evaporative vocals" I don't know what that's really called, but this works extremely well. I like how your brain works, you are a true wordsmith!
For years I always thought she was saying Leave it open let us in. We let the weirdness in makes more sense now.
I'm loving your deep dive into Kate's music Matt. I've been a fan since her very first outing on Top of the Pops singing Wuthering Heights. It's amazing to think this song came from the same person who wrote The Man With The Child in his Eyes! She's just in a genre of her own, you can't place her in any one musical style. I believe in order to get some of the 'texture' for some of the vocals in this song, Kate would eat a whole bar of chocolate just before recording. I'm sure some kind soul will correct me if I've got that wrong. :)
The song is basically about learning to be open or closed to ideas and emotions that are going be good for you. Let the weirdness in. Shut out the negative nagging. She was very influenced by Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne (rhythmic tracks with sampled voices, one is a recording of an exorcism, a middle eastern singer, a preacher etc) but also worked with Nick Launay who had just engineered the Flowers Of Romance album for PIL and she wanted the same drum sounds. So this track has those big drums, then several "characters" in the voices, I think to sound like the voices in your head competing to be heard. Amazing.
Nice, I was already picking up on that "different voices in your head" idea during the reaction but that really makes sense. Cheers, appreciate the insight as always, Mark.
This song covers so much ground. Be true to yourself. Keep an open mind (compare all the love in n side 2), the cruelty in humanity, letting the unorthodox in…. But I also hear a (small) reference to the murder of John Lennon, and the tragic uncomfortable need for someone like Kate to create a safe space from her fans, which she didn’t before. (Hell, fans used to drop in to her mum’s and get served tea and cake, and Kate would sometimes pop in to chat. ). “Things that decay, things that rust”. That’s bodies and guns right there.
Pleased we got there with she recorded the final vocal singing it backwards and flipping it. We had great fun trying to guess (and yes, painting penguins pink was in the lead). I almost got “we let the weirdness in but was thrown off by the occasional repeat of “we”. “We….we let the weirdness in”
As it says on the album “play it loud!”
Ps did we skip suspended in gaffa?? Try singing along and see if you have enough breath!
Mike
As others have mentioned this song is about the occasions when we shouldn't have closed minds and instead we should open our minds and "let the weirdness in", the weirdness being confirmed by the last lyric. The amount of effort that Kate put in to create that is amazing, but she has a single minded view of what's she's going to put out and she's not going to be deflected in any way.
So to the lyrics:
With my ego in my gut,
My babbling mouth would wash it up.
(But now I've started learning how,)
I keep it shut.
My door was never locked,
Until one day a trigger come cocking.
(But now I've started learning how,)
I keep it shut.
Wide eyes would clean and dust
Things that decay, things that rust.
(But now I've started learning how,)
I keep 'em shut.
I keep 'em shut.
Harm is in us.
Harm is in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
("Leave it open!")
Harm is in us, but power to arm.
Narrow mind would persecute it,
Die a little to get to it.
(But now I've started learning how.)
I leave it open.
I kept it in a cage,
Watched it weeping, but I made it stay.
(But now I've started learning how.)
I leave it open.
I leave it open.
Harm is in us.
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us
("Leave it open!")
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
("Leave it open!")
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
Harm in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us.
Har in us, but power to arm.
Harm is in us!
Harm is in us!
Harm is in us!
Harm is in us!
Harm is in us!
Harm is in us--
Harm in you and in me!
What you letting in?
Tell me what you're letting in.
Say what we're gonna let in!
"We let the weirdness in.*
We let the weirdness in.
We let the weirdness in.
We let the weirdness in.
We let the weirdness in."
'They said they were buried here' is in this somewhere.
we let the weirdness in" love kate Bush ...
You just let the weirdness in!
One of (many) things that combine to making Kate Bush both revered and disliked at one and the same time is the fact while yes, she is a great songwriter/lyricist, and yes, she possesses a great singing voice, and yes, she can arrange/produce and so on, but also she is an uncompromising visionary when it comes to her music. Of course she wants you to like it, but she won't sacrifice her vision in order to please you.... you have to come along with her... or else don't... but she will go where her muse leads her come what may. You (we all) have to come to her music on her terms, or not at all. In this song you are now entering into the realm of what I suppose we might call the most "Kate Bush" Kate bush songs: "Leave It Open" is one of those songs.
Now, Imagine yourself all alone, late at night. You have been cheerfully refreshed by a few drinks or maybe one of your little friends has left you pleasingly mellow. You are far out in the Australian Outback, there is only the flicker of a fire to keep you company, while above you there is only the great southern night sky. All around your small fire the shadows dance as each flame rises and falls. And then, as you watch, one of the shadows begins to move towards you. Now you hear all of the sounds of the Outback grow louder and among them you can hear ancestral human voices crying out of their pain, of all of the crimes committed against them across the generations. Then the shadow reveals a face as it gets closer. It fixes you in its gaze, and stares you right in the eye, as all around, the noise grows louder and louder….
Welcome to the brilliantly bonkers title track that comes next. Possibly THE most “Kate Bush” Kate Bush track you will ever hear. One of my all-time favourite KB songs. I love every mad shriek and sound of it.
There will be much to discuss, pick apart, explain, and speak of. But there will be loads of time to work through its many, many layers, afterwards. For a first listen, forget everything, and Just….. feeeeeeeeel it! Be immersed in it. Let it carry you and move you.
Haha, right on, Tommy. I will indeed try not to think too much in advance (probably a thought or two, but i promise not more than that!) and just let "The Dreaming" unfold. Cheers, love your comments so much!