FEATURE:
Ranking Tracks from Kate Bush’s Albums…
Lionheart
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STARTING this mini-series…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the ‘Red Head' outtake from the back cover series of portraits that was shot for Lionheart in August 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
where I rank the tracks from Kate Bush’s albums, I am featuring Lionheart. I may also include Hounds of Love, The Dreaming, The Kick Inside, Never for Ever, The Sensual World and Aerial (though I am undecided). Lionheart has ten tracks. I am relying on the excellent Kate Bush Encyclopaedia regarding song background. I may not be able to provide as much depth here – though I will do my best to flesh out the songs rather than just post a simple ranking. Released nine months after her debut, The Kick Inside, Lionheart was a development from that album - though, with little time to write new material, it was not as big an evolution as Bush would have hoped. I would urge people to get Lionheart on vinyl if they can. The album did get to number-six in the U.K., and it contains some of Bush’s best songs. Lionheart remains seriously underrated. Before ranking the songs, here is some background from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia:
“'Lionheart' is Kate Bush's second album, released by EMI Records on 10 November 1978. Like The Kick Inside before it, the album was produced by Andrew Powell. The album was recorded between July and September 1978, with all the songs written and composed by Kate.
Reception to the album has been average, with the album almost universally being looked upon as an inferior version of her debut. NME's Ian Penman wrote: "'Mature' lyrics sung in that twee irritating schoolgirl-siren voice... Actually most of the time she's nearer a vague British lineage - Barbara Dickson to Lynsey de Paul - than a Joni/Janis wonderland". Record Mirror's Chris Westwood: "A product which is at best moderate, lacking and often severely irritating... This is flat conceived silliness." However, Dave McCullough in Sounds gave the album four stars and wrote: "You have to take her seriously in spite of all the flying sneers and jeers."
Maybe I'm a bit too close to it at the moment, but I find it much more adventurous than the last one. I'm much more happier with the songs and the arrangements and the backing tracks. I was getting a bit worried about labels from that last album; everything being in the high register, everything being soft, and airy-fairy. That was great for the time but it's not really what I want to do now, or what I want to do, say, in the next year. I guess I want to get basically heavier in the sound sense... and I think that's on the way, which makes me really happy.
I don't really think there are any songs on the album that are as close to Wuthering Heights as there were on the last one. I mean, there's lots of songs people could draw comparisons with. I want the first single that comes out from this album to be reasonably up-tempo. That's the first thing I'm concerned with, because I want to break away from what has previously gone. I'm not pleased with being associated with such soft, romantic vibes, not for the first single anyway. If that happens again, that's what I will be to everyone. (Harry Doherty, Kate: Enigma Variations. Melody Maker, November 1978)
[Recording in France] was an amazing experience. I mean it's the first time I've ever recorded out of the country. And the environment was really quite phenomenal, I mean it was just so beautiful, it was so unlike anything I'd seen for a long while. And I think there was so many advantages to it, but there were a couple of disadvantages - the fact that it was so beautiful, you couldn't help but keep drifting off to the sun out there, you know, that sort of thing. But you just didn't feel like you needed a break, because the vibes and the weather and everyone around was just so good, you know, you didn't feel like you were working. It was really, really fun. (Lionheart Promo Cassette, EMI Canada, 1978)”.
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10. In Search of Peter Pan
“Song written by Kate Bush before her debut in 1978. When the album Lionheart was recorded, it was one of seven 'older' songs to be recorded. The song quotes the song 'When You Wish Upon A Star' from the classic Disney film Pinocchio
There's a song on [Lionheart] called 'In Search Of Peter Pan' and it's sorta about childhood. And the book itself is an absolutely amazing observation on paternal attitudes and the relationships between the parents - how it's reflected on the children. And I think it's a really heavy subject, you know, how a young innocence mind can be just controlled, manipulated, and they don't necessarily want it to happen that way. And it's really just a song about that. (Lionheart promo cassette, EMI Canada, 1978)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
9. Oh England My Lionheart
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her second album Lionheart. Kate later all but disowned the song, labelling it as 'embarrassing'.
It's really very much a song about the Old England that we all think about whenever we're away, you know, "ah, the wonderful England'' and how beautiful it is amongst all the rubbish, you know. Like the old buildings we've got, the Old English attitudes that are always around. And this sort of very heavy emphasis on nostalgia that is very strong in England. People really do it alot, you know, like "I remember the war and...'' You know it's very much a part of our attitudes to life that we live in the past. And it's really just a sort of poetical play on the, if you like, the romantic visuals of England, and the second World War... Amazing revolution that happened when it was over and peaceful everything seemed, like the green fields. And it's really just a exploration of that. (Lionheart Promo Cassette, EMI Canada, 1978)
A lot of people could easily say that the song is sloppy. It's very classically done. It's only got acoustic instruments on it and it's done ... almost madrigally, you know. I dare say a lot of people will think that it's just a load of old slush but it's just an area that I think it's good to cover. Everything I do is very English and I think that's one reason I've broken through to a lot of countries. The English vibe is very appealing. (Harry Doherty, Enigma Variations. Melody Maker, November 1978)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
8. Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her second album Lionheart, the song was written a few years before. According to Kate, it was written as a 'Patti Smith song'.
Versions
There are two officially released versions of 'Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake': the album version and the live version from Hammersmith Odeon, which appears on the On Stage EP. However, a demo version from 1977 has also surfaced and was released on various bootleg cd's.
Performances
Kate performed 'Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake' on the Leo Sayer Show on 17 November 1978 and on the 1979 Christmas special. The song was also included in the setlist of the Tour of Life.
Cover versions
'Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake' was covered by Goodknight Productions.
It was sampled in a track by Fonky Family” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
7. Full House
“Song written by Kate Bush in 1978. One of three new songs - along with Coffee Homeground and Symphony In Blue - written for the album Lionheart. The lyric seems to be autobiographical, an insight into psychological struggles she was encountering, with paranoia and self-doubt. The song was also released as the B-side of the single Wow.
Performances
Kate performed 'Full House' during the Tour of Life live shows in 1979” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
6. Hammer Horror
“There are three officially released versions of 'Hammer Horror': the album version and the single version (which omits the sound of the gong at the very end) plus a live version recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon during the Tour of Life in 1979. However, a demo version from 1977 has also surfaced. It appears on the bootleg 7" single 'Cathy Demos Volume One' and various bootleg CD's.
The song is not about, as many think, Hammer Horror films. It is about an actor and his friend. His friend is playing the lead in a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a part he's been reading all his life, waiting for the chance to play it. He's finally got the big break he's always wanted, and he is the star. After many rehearsals he dies accidentally, and the friend is asked to take the role over, which, because his own career is at stake, he does. The dead man comes back to haunt him because he doesn't want him to have the part, believing he's taken away the only chance he ever wanted in life. And the actor is saying, "Leave me alone, because it wasn't my fault - I have to take this part, but I'm wondering if it's the right thing to do because the ghost is not going to leave me alone and is really freaking me out. Every time I look round a corner he's there, he never disappears."
The song was inspired by seeing James Cagney playing the part of Lon Chaney playing the hunchback - he was an actor in an actor in an actor, rather like Chinese boxes, and that's what I was trying to create. (Kate Bush Club Newsletter, November 1979)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
5. In the Warm Room
“Kate was asked to perform on the children's TV programme Ask Aspel, where she wanted to present the new song 'In The Warm Room', but the BBC felt this song was too explicitly sexual, so she opted for Kashka From Baghdad instead. As a result, there are no televised performances of 'In The Warm Room'. The song, however, was performed during the Tour of Life and one of these performances ended up in the Live In Germany TV special.
I'm always getting accused of being a feminist. Really I do write a lot of my songs for men, actually. In fact, 'In The Warm Room' is written for men because there are so many songs for women about wonderful men that come up and chat you up when you're in the disco and I thought it would be nice to write a song for men about this amazing female. And I think that I am probably female-oriented with my songs because I'm a female and have very female emotions but I do try to aim a lot of the psychology, if you like, at men. (Personal Call, BBC Radio 1, 1979)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
4. Coffee Homeground
“Song written by Kate Bush while in the USA in May 1978. It was one of only three songs newly written for the album Lionheart - along with Full House and Symphony In Blue.
['Coffee Homeground'] was in fact inspired directly from a cab driver that I met who was in fact a bit nutty. And it's just a song about someone who thinks they're being poisoned by another person, they think that there's Belladonna in their tea and that whenever they offer them something to eat, it's got poisen in it. And it's just a humorous aspect of paranoia really and we sort of done it in a Brechtian style, the old sort of German [vibe] to try and bring across the humour side of it. (Lionheart Promo Cassette, EMI Canada, 1978)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
3. Kashka from Baghdad
“The studio version is the only officially released version. However, a demo version of 'Kashka From Baghdad' has also surfaced. It appears on the bootleg 7" single 'Cathy Demos Volume Two' and various bootleg CD's.
Performances
Kate performed 'Kashka From Baghdad' live on the piano on Ask Aspel, a TV show broadcast by the BBC in 1978. The song was also included in the setlist for the Tour of Life”
That actually came from a very strange American Detective series that I caught a couple of years ago, and there was a musical theme that they kept putting in. And they had an old house, in this particular thing, and it was just a very moody, pretty awful serious thing. And it just inspired the idea of this old house somewhere in Canada or America with two people in it that no-one knew anything about. And being a sorta small town, everybody wanted to know what everybody what else was up to. And these particular people in this house had a very private thing happening. (Personal Call, BBC Radio 1, 1979)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
2. Wow
“There are two versions of the studio recording of 'Wow': the album version and the single version. The single version is an edited version of "Wow", although it is not labelled as such on most editions. On all European "Wow" singles, the first 12 seconds of synthesiser chords have been removed. There was also a live version from Hammersmith Odeon.
Music video
A video was filmed for the single release, featuring Bush performing the song in a darkened studio, and then backed by spotlights during the chorus. When a video compilation was released in 1986 for the compilation album The Whole Story, a new video was made of "Wow", featuring a montage of Bush performing live in concert.
'Wow' is a song about the music business, not just rock music but show business in general, including acting and theatre. People say that the music business is about ripoffs, the rat race, competition, strain, people trying to cut you down, and so on, and though that's all there, there's also the magic. It was sparked off when I sat down to try and write a Pink Floyd song, something spacey; Though I'm not surprised no-one has picked that up, it's not really recognisable as that, in the same way as people haven't noticed that 'Kite' is a Bob Marley song, and 'Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake' is a Patti Smith song. When I wrote it I didn't envisage performing it - the performance when it happened was an interpretation of the words I'd already written. I first made up the visuals in a hotel room in New Zealand, when I had half an hour to make up a routine and prepare for a TV show. I sat down and listened to the song through once, and the whirling seemed to fit the music. Those who were at the last concert of the tour at Hammersmith must have noticed a frogman appear through the dry ice it was one of the crew's many last night 'pranks' and was really amazing. I'd have liked to have had it in every show. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, Summer 1979)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
1. Symphony in Blue
“Song written by Kate Bush in 1978, released on her second album Lionheart. It was one of three newly written songs for the album, along with Coffee Homeground and Full House. It is believed that the lyric of the song is an attempt at describing Kate's own belief system. The descriptions of God, sex and the colour blue seem to be inspired by reading about Wilhelm Reich's theory in A Book Of Dreams.
Performances
Kate performed 'Symphony In Blue' during the live shows of the Tour of Life. The song also appeared in the 1979 Christmas special.
Cover versions
'Symphony In Blue' was covered by Astral Prince, Big City Orchestre, Kat Devlin, The Kate Bush Experience and Niki Romijn.
Kate about 'Symphony In Blue'
It was inspired by Erik Satie's Gymnopedies” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia