FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Harbron
Oh to Be in Love
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PERHAPS I will wrap this feature up…
but, as there has been a general insistence for magazines, radio stations and people in general to gravitate to the best-known and most-played Kate Bush songs, it means that there is a whole raft of Bush songs that are either overlooked or not known about. That is a real shame! As I say all the time, some of her best songs are the deep cuts. Because of that, I want to highlight another one. I am going to plump for a B-side or rarity in the next instalment. Today, and as I am thinking about her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside, I wanted to come back to one of its best songs. The album is forty-five in February, so I will write a slew of features around that closer to the time. I do not think I have written exclusively about the majestic Oh to Be in Love. I think that The Kick Inside is talked about because of its two U.K. singles, Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Recorded first as a demo in 1976, this amazing song does not have a lot of information around it. I cannot find any interviews where Bush has spoken about the song or discussed its origins and story. That might be another reason why it is not known by many people outside of the Kate Bush fandom. There are several love songs on The Kick Inside that are quite intense, adult (considering Bush was a teenager when she recorded the songs) and incredibly original.
Not copying what her peers were doing or discussing love as tragic or necessarily heartbreaking, there is a lot of curiosity, lust, awakening and searching from the bold and wonderful Kate Bush. Not that the love songs are particularly explicit or graphic, but I think there is a suggestiveness and playfulness where you can picture Bush as the heroine in very erotic and sensual situations! Bush talks about attraction like no other lyricists I have encountered! The way she sings Oh to Be in Love is amazing too. Her voice to reach very high notes in the chorus, yet there is a control and tremulous sense of anticipation in the verses. Before getting to the lyrics and its place on The Kick Inside, there are a couple of interesting distinctions when it comes to Oh to Be in Love. The studio version is the only officially released version. A demo version is available, and it appeared on the bootleg 7" single, Cathy Demos Volume Two, in addition to various bootleg CDs. Whereas Bush performed the tracks from The Kick Inside and Lionheart (1978) in her 1979 The Tour of Life, Oh to Be in Love was not included. Bush premiered new tracks like Violin and Egypt, so why did this song from The Kick Inside lose out? Maybe there was literally no more room, or perhaps there was something about the song that would not translate to the stage too well? I think Oh to Be in Love has another distinction, in the fact it is finding a modern audience. It is definitely a deep cut one will very rarely hear on the radio or talked about by Kate Bush fans. I definitely think this is one of the stronger tracks on The Kick Inside.
In terms of the most-streamed songs from The Kick Inside, obviously, there is the obvious one-two of Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes. The former is ahead by miles, and it is one of Bush’s most-streamed songs. In terms of the other tracks, Oh to Be in Love outranks nearly everything else. Even Moving, the better-known opening track, has fewer streams. The third-most-streamed song on The Kick Inside, that is amazing! I am not sure why this particular track has been boosted and gathered new attention in 2022. Of course, because of Stranger Things propelling Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) up the charts and making its sister album, Hounds of Love, a success all over again, other songs and albums have been discovered. People are going back to The Kick Inside, by what is it about Oh to Be in Love? So far as I can tell, there has not been a slew of cover versions. The song has not appeared on any shows or films, so is there something else that people gravitate towards? I shall get to the lyrics next, as maybe there is something in there that resonates. Oh to Be in Love was included in a four-track E.P. called 4 Sucessos, released in Brazil. It is sad there is not wider exposure of Oh to Be in Love because, clearly, there is this curiosity and magnetism that means it is one of the most-streamed songs from The Kick Inside.
A wonderful vocal from Kate Bush, her lyrics also have that blend of vague and direct. This is some of Bush’s best early lyric writing: “I could have been anyone/You could have been anyone's dream/Why did you have to choose our moment?/Why did you have to make me feel that?/Why did you make it so unreal?”. With Paddy Bush (her brother) supplying mandolin, and Ian Bairson doing backing vocals in the chorus alongside David Paton, it is such a beautiful song! Producer Andrew Powell provides some synthesiser too. A remarkable track that is worthy of a lot more love than it gets, Oh to Be in Love is a real treasure! Here is another of my favourite lyrical sections: “All the colours look brighter now/Everything they say seems to sound new/Slipping into tomorrow too quick/Yesterday always too good to forget/Stop the swing of the pendulum! Let us through!”. Delightful, delirious and distinctly the work of Kate Bush, I hope that the increased streaming figures means that Oh to Be in Love gets more airplay and exposure! The Kick Inside’s thirteen tracks are beautiful, but not too much is known about most of them. When it is forty-five in February, I hope songs such as Oh to Be in Love get more acclaim and spotlight. If you have not heard this magnificent song, then go and listen to it…
RIGHT now!