Uhm, I never really thought the song This Woman's Work was about death per se... a matter of subjective opinion I suppose, it definitely deals with some sort of unspecified and possibly life-threatening struggle... but I do feel a number of other of Kate's songs are. She seems, in fact, a bit obsessed with the concepts of death, loss, seperation, the survival of the personality after death and even reincarnation. Personally, I'd've nominated this Kate song, from The Dreaming, for this thread, and I also think it's one of her most beautiful:
ALL THE LOVE
The first time I died
Was in the arms of good friends of mine
They kissed me with their tears
They hadn't been near me for years
Say, why do it now
When I won't be around?
I'm going out
We needed you
To love us too
We wait for your move
Only tragedy allows the release
Of love and grief never normally seen
I didn't want to let them see me weep
I didn't want to let them see me weak
But I know I have shown
That I stand at the gates alone
I needed you
To love me too
I wait for your move
All the love, all the love
All the love you should have given
All the love, all the love
All the love we could have given
All the love, all the love
All the love
The next time I dedicate
My life's work to the friends I make
I give 'em what they want to hear
They think I'm up to something weird
And up rears the head of fear in me
So now when they ring
I get my machine to let them in
I needed you
To love me too
I wait for your move
All the love, all the love
All the love you should have given
All the love, all the love
All the love we could have given
All the love, all the love
All the love...
<samples from Kate's answering machine:>
"Take care, toodle-oo."
"Bye-bye."
"Bye, so long now."
"Bye!"
"Later."
"Bye-ee!"
"Cheerio."
"Bye!"
"Bye-bye."
"Bye."
"stay healthy."
"Love you!"
"Bye."
"Cheers."
"See ya, luv."
"Bye!"
"Good bye."
"I'll see ya soon."
"Good night."
We needed you
To love us too
We wait for your move
As an interesting note, the very next song on the album, Houdini, about the relationship between famous magician Harry Houdini and his wife, is also in keeping with the death theme. For anyone who might not be familiar with the story, they spent a great deal of time and energy researching the possibility of afterdeath survival, consulting all the famous mediums of the time and exposing all whom they could verify as frauds. While Harry was alive, he made a pact with his wife that which ever of them should die first would do everything in their power to communicate with the other. Of course, he died first, of an appendicitis attack while performing his famous underwater straight-jacket escape. His wife tirelessly consulted mediums for many years afterward to no avail. She had worked as her husband's stage assistant for many years and they had developed an extremely elaborate and complicated code, known only to themselves, whereby they could, while seemingly making idle stage prattle, spell out words and phrases to one another while performing. Finally, Mrs. Houdini met with a medium, who, without having conscious knowledge of what he was doing, delivered her a complex set of messages which, using their private code, spelled out the words "Rosabelle, believe," which was the message they had agreed upon before Harry died...
HOUDINI
I wait at the table
And hold hands with weeping strangers
Wait for you
To join the group
The tambourine jingle-jangles
The medium roams and rambles
Not taken in
I break the circle
I want this man
To go away now
With a kiss
I'd pass the key
And feel your tongue
Teasing and receiving
With your spit
Still on my lip
You'd hit the water
Him and I in the room
To prove you are with us too
He's using code that only you and I know
This is no trick of his
This is your magic
I'd catch the cues
Watching you
Hoping you'd do something wrong
Everybody thinks you'll never make it
But every time
You escape
"Rosabelle believe"
Not even eternity
Can hold Houdini
"Rosabelle believe"
Through the glass
I'd watch you breathe
Bound and drowned
And paler than you've ever been
With your life
The only thing in my mind
We pull you from the water
"Houdini"
You
And I
And Rosabelle believe
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