Wednesday, December 12, 2007

k.d. lang

There are very few singers whose albums I could play from beginning to end and enjoy every second of every track. k d lang is one of them.

She was born Kathryn Dawn Lang in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on 2 November 1961. Astrotheme gives a birth time of 2.03am.



Journalists frequently harp upon the fact that she's gay. It's irrelevant. She is an exceptional songwriter and performer, a powerful voice capable of great passion, but allied to a certain delicate sensitivity - a rare combination.

Her natal Sun lies in sexy and passionate Scorpio conjunct dreamy, imaginative Neptune, along with dynamic Mars all in 3rd house (an Air house related to communication). Her Virgo (perfectionist, workaholic) ascendant, has powerful Pluto, ruler of her Scorpio Sun close to it, with Moon and Uranus also in Virgo. This Virgo cluster must outweigh Scorpio in overall astrological strength. k.d. was included in my Virgo Dominant video.

k.d. lang blends passion and eroticism with delicacy. Mercury and Venus, conjunct Libra, add sweetness and tact to the mix. Jupiter and Saturn lie close together in common-sense Capricorn, and bring business sense to her more passionate side.

k.d.'s natal planets form a bowl configuration, spanning only Capricorn to Virgo - here is the focus which has earned her success and fame. As for polarities, her Yin(female, negative) beats Yang (male, positive) by 8 to 2.

I'll try to relate factors in her natal chart to remarks gleaned from an on-line article and an interview.

"Always an experimenter, she resists neat categorization.(Moon conjunct Uranus the rebel and innovator) But her sincerity(Virgo), charm(Libra), and compelling(Pluto, Scorpio) voice continue to attract a wide variety of listeners."

"A natural iconoclast, she has for years eschewed the use of capital letters in her name." (Moon conjunct Uranus).

".... while her musical interests have continued to evolve, in keeping with the vastness of her talent, some things about her remain consistent-her honesty, for one.(Virgo planets and Saturn in Capricorn)

"Performing is like being possessed sometimes, because when I sing and it's really on and it's Zen, I have nothing to do with what's coming out. Honestly, I don't. All I do is provide the channel. Because the voice is not really mine at all". (Sun conjunct Neptune in Scorpio - mystery, illusion, psychic phenomena)

"I want to be huge, huge, huge as an artist, but it doesn't have anything to do with fans. It's because I want to say something. It has to do with touching people. It has to do with spreading this goo that's coming out of me" (Sun (self) and Mars(dynamism) in 3rd house of communication, Pluto on the ascendant)

"I'm trying to make art that my mother will like, but to be contemporary and progressive at the same time. It's not easy." (Moon conjunct Uranus wants to be progressive, but Jupiter and Saturn in Capricorn lean towards more traditional themes)

One of k.d. lang's songs can be heard on the Virgo Dominant video linked above.
Here are two more, via YouTube. You can feel the Scorpio and Pluto in her own song, "Sexuality", and in Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"!!




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing that. i enjoyed it and found it interesting. i'm a big of her's and astrology.

R J Adams said...

Great voice, great talent. One of my favorites, though I was disappointed in her album, "Hymns of the 49th Parallel". Her version of Orbison's "Crying", is breathtaking.

Twilight said...

Janina - Hi! Thanks for your visit. Glad you enjoyed.

.......

RJ - I don't have "Hymns of the
49th Parallel" - it came out when I was in the midst of moving, I suspect. I've just had a look on Amazon for the track list - and in spite of your disappointment with it, I think it's a must for me - "A Case of You" is one of my favourite songs, and "Bird on a Wire" too. She'll have to go some to beat Diana Krall's version of "Case of You" though!

I think k.d. is at her best with her own compositions, "Crying" excepted, of course. :-)

janina said...

thanks for posting it. i'm a fellow european in usa from poland.

i was also disappointed with hymns but her voice is just so incredible and she is even better live. a new original album called watershed is coming out from her if you're interested.

music is a blessing.

happy holidays!

Twilight said...

Yes, music is a blessing, janina. what would we do without it?

I shall watch for the release of "Watershed" - thanks for the tip.

It's nice to meet another fellow-European over here in this mad, mad world of the USA :-)

Happy holidays to you too, janina!

Anonymous said...

http://www.groups.msn.com/langisms

A k.d. lang Arts Group for info and reviews.