FEATURE:
And There's a Rumour That You’re on Ice, And You Will Rise Again Someday
PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
Kate Bush’s Majestic Return, King of the Mountain
__________
WRITTEN a decade before…
most songs on her 2005 album, Aerial, King of the Mountain is a song that could have fitted on 1993’s The Red Shoes. That was the last album Bush released before her ‘return’ with Aerial. The double album ranks alongside her very best. Released on 24th October, 2005, King of the Mountain was a revelation. Her first single in years – since 1994’s And So Is Love anyway -, many did not know whether Bush was returning to music and whether we would hear anything! It is not like she fell off the radar one moment and then came back twelve years later! There were updates and bits of news. Bush was seen in public, and we did get a sense from the 1990s that she was not going away and retiring. What we didn’t know is when she would come back and why that was. The reason it took a while to come back to music is that she needed a break and was starting a family (her son Bertie was born in 1998). I am exploring this more in my features about Aerial (as it is seventeen next month), but Bush’s priorities changed after 1993 and a difficult year. She had already lost her mother, come out of a long-term relationship, and had a short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve, panned. Coming back so soon was not an option. Similarly, when she did return, the album that she released had to be different from The Red Shoes. Not only in terms of its sound, but the way it was recorded and the general tone. Bush was in a much happier place by the end of the 1990s.
King of the Mountain is the only single from Aerial. It is the most-likely single in terms of commercial appeal, but there are other songs from the first disc of Aerial – it is a double album where the second disc, A Sky of Honey, is a concept about a single summer ‘s day (essentially a suite that takes us through the day and the various sights and observations) - that could have also been released. Mrs. Bartolozzi seems the most obvious second single! Some are the lines in King of the Mountain are interesting. Seeing as it seems to be about searching Elvis Presley (Bush’s singing is an homage to him) and the fact that he may be alive or returning to us, it sort of nods to rumours about Kate Bush and the thoughts of many – as to whether she would return or if she was a recluse on some hill or mountainside. Before going into the song more, I want to draw from Tom Doyle’s interview from 2005 where Bush addressed rumours and misperceptions about her:
“Famously, Kate Bush hates interviews - the last was four years ago, the previous one seven years before that. So the prospect of this interrogation, the only one she has agreed to endure in support of Aerial, must fill her with dread. Around us there is evidence of a very regular, family-shaped existence - toys and kiddie books scattered everywhere, a Sony widescreen with a DVD of Shackleton sitting below it. Atop the fireplace hangs a painting called Fishermen by James Southall, a tableau of weather-beaten seadogs wrestling with a rowing boat; it is soon to be familiar as part of the inner artwork of Aerial. Balanced against a wall in the office next door is a replica of the Rosebud sledge burned at the dramatic conclusion of Citizen Kane, as commissioned for the video of Bush's comeback single, King of the Mountain, and brought home as a gift for her seven-year-old son Bertie.
Can she understand why people build these myths around her?
"No," she begins, apprehensively. "No, I can't. Pffff. I can't really."
You once said: "There is a figure that is adored, but I'd question very strongly that it's me."
There is silence. A stare. You did say it ...
"Well supposedly I said that. But in what context did I say it?"
Just talking about fans building up this image of you as some kind of goddess.
"Yes, but I'm not, am I?"
So, do the rumours bug you? That you're some fragile being who's hidden herself away?
"No," she replies. "A lot of the time it doesn't bother me. I suppose I do think I go out of my way to be a very normal person and I just find it frustrating that people think that I'm some kind of weirdo reclusive that never comes out into the world." Her voice notches up in volume. "Y'know, I'm a very strong person and I think that's why actually I find it really infuriating when I read, 'She had a nervous breakdown' or 'She's not very mentally stable, just a weak, frail little creature'”.
King of the Mountain is a confident, alluring, mysterious, very strong and classic Kate Bush song. The last music video to feature her, it sort of keeps the compositional duties in the family. Bass is played by her engineer and former boyfriend, Del Palmer. Her husband Dan McIntosh is on guitar, whilst her brother Paddy provides additional vocals. With Steve Sanger providing some excellent beats, King of the Mountain is a gem of a song. It would have been hard to pleased everyone releasing your first single after over a decade, but the reaction to King of the Mountain was largely very positive. Reaching number four in the U.K., Bush came back strong with her most successful single since Hounds of Love’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) back in 1985. Mentioning Citizen Kane (Rosebud is Kane's childhood's sled), and the pressures of extreme fame and wealth, Bush did say in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Front Row that people are not meant to withstand such heady fame (as Elvis Presley). The more I think about King of the Mountain, the more I think it is a shot to the press and those who pressured her. More autobiographical than many would imagine, it is one of the more anxious or darker songs on Aerial. Even so, there is a lot of light and positivity through King of the Mountain. Beautifully windswept and widescreen, it is one of Bush’s finest vocal performances of her career!
On 24th October, the superb King of the Mountain turns seventeen. It is a magnificent song that was so long-awaited. I don’t think Kate Bush could have disappointed, but she had to judge the single from Aerial right. If she got the wrong song then it could have backfired. King of the Mountain is definitely in the top twenty Kate Bush songs. Ahead of its seventeenth anniversary, I wanted to highlight it. A song that shows that the iconic artist had lost none of her touch and was revitalised at the same time, the mix of mythology and the personal makes King of the Mountain so special. It is a track that is played on the radio quite a bit, and I hope that it gets a lot of love on its anniversary. I will write more about the album as it is seventeen next month. The majestic and intoxicating opening track from Aerial, go and listen to the song if you have not heard it. Or, if it is a Kate Bush song you have not spun in a bit, then go and play it now. It is a shame no more singles came from Aerial, as there are a few songs that suggest themselves. King of the Mountain is an all-conquering, groovy, and fabulous single from…
ONE of her very best albums.