FEATURE:
Lost on Some Horizon
Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Three: The Man with the Child in His Eyes
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IN a song-specific …
feature to mark forty-three years of Kate Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside, I want to spend some time diving into one of its best-known songs. The Man with the Child in His Eyes is a much-storied and celebrated songs, and, to this day, we do not truly know who the true inspiration is behind the song. The Kick Inside was released on 17th February, 1978, whilst The Man with the Child in His Eyes was released as the second single (in the U.K.) on 26th May, 1978. Before investigating the song in more detail, I am fascinated by the background to the album and what was happening in 1977. I have written features before regarding how Bush was discovered and the role Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour played in getting her music to a big label. Bush recorded The Man with the Child in His Eyes in 1975, and it is staggering to think that she was only thirteen when she wrote the song – and sixteen when she recorded it! The Kick Inside remains this unique and very striking album that arrived in February 1978 – at a time when the music scene was, perhaps, not highlighting and encouraging artists like Bush. In terms of music tragedy, we said goodbye to Marc Bolan (T. Rex), Elvis Presley, and three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd in a plane crash: Cassie Gaines, Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines.
In terms of the albums that were released in 1977, we saw legendary records from David Bowie (Low, and “Heroes”), Television (Marquee Moon), Fleetwood Mac (Rumours), Iggy Pop (Lust for Life), Sex Pistols (Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols), and Steely Dan (Aja). It was quite male-dominated but, in terms of sounds, one could not easily see anyone like Bush around! Even though her songs were written before she headed into the studio in the summer of 1977, I know that artists like Bowie and Steely Dan inspired her – and one can feel a bit of them in various songs on The Kick Inside. 1977 was a very strange and important year and, when Bush was recording her beautiful and hugely evocative songs at AIR Studios in London, I don’t think the world was prepared for anyone quite like her! When The Kick Inside arrived in February 1978, things were still very male-dominated; Rock and Punk were more prominent than Pop. Even though Bush’s music is not simple Pop – it is more experimental and Baroque -, it wasn’t necessarily embraced by everyone. Of all the amazing songs on the album, few are more touching and gorgeous than The Man with the Child in His Eyes. To think of a thirteen-year-old Bush writing such moving and mature words is staggering! The song received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding British Lyric in 1979. I can fully understand why, because Bush managed to write a song that has mystery, drama and love at its heart.
Maybe there is not a specific ‘man’ in her mind; there have been theories as to whom Bush was thinking of when she wrote one of her finest songs. I want to bring in an article from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, that gives us some information regarding a masterpiece of a song:
“The inspiration for 'The Man With the Child in His Eyes' was really just a particular thing that happened when I went to the piano. The piano just started speaking to me. It was a theory that I had had for a while that I just observed in most of the men that I know: the fact that they just are little boys inside and how wonderful it is that they manage to retain this magic. I, myself, am attracted to older men, I guess, but I think that's the same with every female. I think it's a very natural, basic instinct that you look continually for your father for the rest of your life, as do men continually look for their mother in the women that they meet. I don't think we're all aware of it, but I think it is basically true. You look for that security that the opposite sex in your parenthood gave you as a child. (Self Portrait, 1978)
I just noticed that men retain a capacity to enjoy childish games throughout their lives, and women don't seem to be able to do that. ('Bird In The Bush', Ritz (UK), September 1978)
Oh, well it's something that I feel about men generally. [Looks around at cameramen] Sorry about this folks. [Cameramen laugh] That a lot of men have got a child inside them, you know I think they are more or less just grown up kids. And that it's a... [Cameramen laugh] No, no, it's a very good quality, it's really good, because a lot of women go out and get far too responsible. And it's really nice to keep that delight in wonderful things that children have. And that's what I was trying to say. That this man could communicate with a younger girl, because he's on the same level. (Swap Shop, 1979)“.
Reaching number-six on the U.K. chart, The Man with the Child in His Eyes is a song that takes the breath. With her voice quite deep and straight, I think we get something different to other songs on The Kick Inside. I like the fact Bush employed different vocal approaches on various songs. In terms of lyrics, one picks over every line and imagines what Bush is singing: “I hear him, before I go to sleep/And focus on the day that's been/I realise he's there/When I turn the light off and turn over/Nobody knows about my man/They think he's lost on some horizon/And suddenly I find myself/Listening to a man I've never known before/Telling me about the sea/All his love, 'til eternity/Ooh, he's here again/The man with the child in his eyes/Ooh, he's here again/The man with the child in his eyes/He's very understanding/And he's so aware of all my situations/And when I stay up late/He's always waiting, but I feel him hesitate/Oh, I'm so worried about my love/They say, "No, no, it won't last forever”/And here I am again, my girl/Wondering what on Earth I'm doing here/Maybe he doesn't love me/I just took a trip on my love for him/Ooh, he's here again/The man with the child in his eyes/Ooh, he's here again/The man with the child in his eyes”. Ahead of The Kick Inside’s forty-third anniversary, I wanted to highlight a song that is so rich and complex. Bush casts herself as a lover/mother/daughter; the hero seems to exist only in her mind, yet Bush projects so much concern and real emotion. Listening to it now, and I am still affected by the vocals, the stirring lyrics and the subtle-yet-powerful orchestration that causes shivers and swells! Not to go back to age but, realising Bush was thirteen when she wrote such a profound song is…
ALMOST too hard to comprehend.