THE DREAMING

It was one of those happy coincidences. Maybe a year or so before Hounds of Love came out, I was driving home and only had a crappy radio in my car. By that time I had pretty much started staying away from commercial radio. So I was tuned into a college radio station and Suspended In Gaffa came on. I knew Kate by name only, this was my first time hearing her music. There was something about it that gave me the Goosebumps. At the time I had already been well immersed in many of the classic prog groups. I suspect many people in a similar situation might have found the material on the Dreaming a bit grating. But, then again already being a Zappa fan meant that I had already acquired a taste for the weird. I suspect the also fairly weird, Peter Gabriel III, which came out two years before influenced her here.

All of the musical styles here are fairly eclectic. Some of the songs here tell little tales. There Goes A Tenner is about safe robbers in action. Pull Out the Pin is the about a guerilla fighter, most likely Vietnamese fighting Americans. The Dreaming is about the Australian Aborigines and their intersection with the supernatural. Houdini, of course is about Houdini's last performance.

I don't think I've ever heard a song with lyrics quite like Sat In Your Lap, the quirky album opener. It's about the nature of knowledge. "Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap. Some say that knowledge is something that you never have.". "Some say that heaven is hell. Some say that hell is heaven.". "I must admit, just when I think I'm king, (I just begin.) " I must admit, Kate's absolutely right.

Others are about relationships. Suspended In Gaffa indecisiveness in matters of love. Leave It Open is about closing your mouth and opening your mind. Night of the Swallow is about breaking up and musically has more in common with the material from Never For Ever. Although on all her subsequent albums there's always at least one track with a strong Celtic sound.

The real icing on the cake here for me is Get Out of My House. A spooky ghost story. Excellent heavy prog thing happening here. Chilling!

The Dreaming is not like anything else in Kate's discography. When you compare it to her previous album, Never For Ever, it's almost like you've got a completely different artist. With the following album, Hounds of Love, she returned to a somewhat more accessible sound. She's categorized here as Prog Related, but the Dreaming is surely a masterpiece of Avant-Prog.