FEATURE:
A Pseudonym to Fool Them
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush goes through her Babooshka routine in 1980
Another Plea to Radio Stations to Play a Wider Range of Kate Bush Tracks
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I paraphrased a line…
from Kate Bush’s song, Babooshka (the line is, “A pseudonym to fool him…”), as it seems like, when her name comes up on radio station playlists, we hear the same songs played! I wonder whether, if they were presented with a Kate Bush song not played that had a different artist’s name attached (as an experiment), stations would play them without reservation! I don’t mean to keep returning to this subject but, as one tends to hear the recognisable and oft-played Kate Bush songs on the radio, I feel it is worth coming back for another swing. I know it is not the be-all-and-end-all having a selection of her songs favoured, but I think radio is almost as powerful as streaming when it comes to how people discover music. Look at her Spotify page, and I can see a correlation between the songs played a lot of radio and those popular on the streaming site. Maybe the most-streamed Bush song, Wuthering Heights, is not played as much as several cuts from Hounds of Love (on the radio), but I do feel like some of her non-singles and deeper cuts would get more streams and focus were they played on the radio more. Apologies if there is a radio station that does play the lesser-heard Kate Bush songs, but I listen to radio a lot and, from bigger stations on the BBC through to local stations, it does seem to be a case of songs like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), Cloudbusting and Hounds of Love (from Hounds of Love), and singles such as Sat in Your Lap (from The Dreaming), and Babooshka (from Never for Ever) almost being played in rotation!
I think there is this assumption that the bigger tracks should be played because these are the ones that are recognisable and, if we play something that has not been heard, people will balk or turn the station off. There are other legendary artists who are reduced to a small selection of songs, though I feel Kate Bush is restricted in a way that few others are. I listen to BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2 a lot and, whilst her music does get featured a fair deal, the same songs come up time and time again – I can pretty much narrow it does to six or seven songs when the stations say that a Bush song is coming up next! The only time one will hear something more off-piste and under-played is when a caller requests that song. I don’t think there is a limitation regarding the songs that can be played from Kate Bush; stations will have most of her catalogue on their systems to play. It is strange that such a narrow collection of songs should be played. Bush is not an artist who is inaccessible and can only be appreciated through her singles. Even if we talk about singles, there are so many that are not played. Maybe one will hear Wuthering Heights from The Kick Inside, yet the rest of the album is ignored – and it such a wonderful and rich album!
Think about Lionheart and, though I have heard In Search of Peter Pan, and Hammer Horror played on the radio, one will usually hear Wow – and the remainder of the album goes untouched. Move to Never for Ever and, although Babooshka, Army Dreamers, and Breathing get airtime, consider all the other tracks and how great they are – I think the only other tracks from that album I have heard played are Delius (Song of Summer), and Violin. The Dreaming has one or two songs played on the radio – Sat in Your Lap, and maybe The Dreaming -, but there are so many terrific songs that have never been played! Hounds of Love’s first side is probably the most-played on the radio. One single, The Big Sky, almost never gets played, through I think songs like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), and Cloudbusting are played a lot more than any other Kate Bush song. They are both fantastic, but it gets very boring when they are played to death and the rest of Bush’s remarkable catalogue is left out! One can look at albums released after Hounds of Love and, for the most part, we will hear the singles and not the deeper cuts. I don’t think I have heard any non-singles from The Sensual World before. I have heard The Red Shoes’ Why Should I Love You? once but, whilst the singles are rarely played, they tend to be the ones people go to for radio airplay.
Aerial is a double album whose second side is a suite of songs, so maybe not the best choice for radio focus. That said, whilst the single, King of the Mountain, gets the odd spin, not a lot else does – perhaps one or two of the other tracks on that first disc have been spun? I can forgive a lot of 50 Words for Snow being ignored, as the songs on the album are quite long and I am not sure how many radio edit versions there are. Away from the studio albums, there are great B-sides (like Under the Ivy), rarities and covers that do not get touched. One might say that radio stations play the more popular and known songs because that is what people like and are familiar with. That is the same logic as giving someone the same meal all of the time because that is what they like, even when they have tried nothing else! I do feel like radio stations are picky eaters when it comes to Kate Bush. Listen through her albums and there is a world of pleasure, treasure and diversity that many people have never heard. I think, if there was a change, then people would listen to Bush’s albums as a whole and other songs would be streamed more. My fear is that a certain demographic will associate Kate Bush with a few tracks that, let’s be fair, have been played a lot and are becoming overly-familiar! With there being new documentaries or many well-known podcasts out there, it is hard to get her wider body of work to the masses. Like David Bowie, The Beatles or any classic act, I think the biggest revelations occur happen when you go beyond the obvious and…
DIG a lot deeper.