FEATURE:
To Where the Water and the Earth Caress
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the cover photo from The Sensual World’s single/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Three
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ONE of Kate Bush’s…
absolute best and most enduring singles, The Sensual World was released on 18th September, 1989. The album of the same name came out the following month. The first single from her sixth studio album, The Sensual World featured Walk Straight Down the Middle as the B-side. Also included as a bonus track on the tape and C.D. versions of the album, the song was based on an old backing track, originally intended as a B-side. Bush quickly wrote the lyrics and recorded the synth overdubs and vocals in a single day, using the next day for final overdubs and mixing. It was the last track to be finished for the album, created in just over twenty-four hours. Whilst I prefer the ‘original’ final track on The Sensual World, This Woman’s Work, it is good to have a bonus track. It is a nice song, and one that is different to everything else on The Sensual World. This incredible single has an interesting history. I have written about it before, but it was re-recorded and included on Bush’s 2011 album, Director’s Cut. The reason for this is because the Joyce (James) estate granted permission for her to use words from his book, Ulysses. I like the fact the 2011 version keeps the backing track of the 1989 version, so we hear musicians who appeared on the very first Kate Bush’s albums in 1978. Paddy Bush (her brother) and Del Palmer (her engineer and close friend) remain on Flower of the Mountain.
Let’s go back to the original The Sensual World. It must have been disappointing for Bush to have this idea of using Molly Bloom’s famous and beautiful soliloquy in the song, only for her to struggle to get permission from the Joyce estate. As it was, she approached the lyrics in the spirit of Ulysses and James Joyce. Not what she ideally wanted, but the song is still very powerful and gorgeous. Here we read Bush discussing the 1989 and how it came together:
“The song is about someone from a book who steps out from this very black and white 2-D world into the real world. The immediate impressions was the sensuality of this world - the fact that you can touch things, that is so sensual - you know... the colours of trees, the feel of the grass on the feet, the touch of this in the hand - the fact that it is such a sensual world. I think for me that's an incredibly important thing about this planet, that we are surrounded by such sensuality and yet we tend not to see it like that. But I'm sure for someone who had never experienced it before it would be quite a devastating thing. (...) I love the sound of church bells. I think they are extraordinary - such a sound of celebration. The bells were put there because originally the lyrics of the song were taken from the book Ulysses by James Joyce, the words at the end of the book by Molly Bloom, but we couldn't get permission to use the words. I tried for a long time - probably about a year - and they wouldn't let me use them, so I had to create something that sounded like those original word, had the same rhythm, the same kind of feel but obviously not being able to use them. It all kind of turned in to a pastiche of it and that's why the book character, Molly Bloom, then steps out into the real world and becomes one of us. (Roger Scott, Interview. Radio 1 (UK), 14 October 1989)
There's a few songs that have been difficult to write. I think the most frustrating and difficult to write was the song, 'The Sensual World'. Uh, you've probably heard some of the story, that originally it was written to the lyrics at the end of 'Ulysses', and uh, I just couldn't believe how the whole thing came together, it was so... It was just like it was meant to be. We had this sort of instrumental piece, and uh, I had this idea for like a rhythmic melody, and I just thought of the book, and went and got it, and the words fitted - they just fitted, the whole thing fitted, it was ridiculous. You know the song was saying, 'Yes! Yes!'. And when I asked for permission, you know, they said, 'No! No!' That was one of the hardest things for me to swallow. I can't tell you how annoyed I was that, um, I wasn't allowed to have access to this great piece of work that I thought was public. And in fact I really didn't think you had to get permission but that you would just pay a royalty. So I was really, really frustrated about it. And, um... kind of rewrote the words, trying to keep the same - same rhythm and sounds. And, um, eventually, through rewriting the words we also changed the piece of music that now happens in the choruses, so if they hadn't obstructed the song, it would have been a very different song. So, to look at it positively, although it was very difficult, in the end, I think it was, it was probably worth all the trouble. Thank you very much. (Kate Bush Con, 1990)”.
I can imagine there was a bit of adjustment needed for Kate Bush fans in 1989. Her previous album – not including the greatest hits collection, The Whole Story (1986) – came out in 1985. Hounds of Love’s singles had a certain sound to them. They were a certain rhythm and feel to them that is very different to The Sensual World. More sensual, brooding, romantic and slower to unfurl, the single did get to number twelve. That was her most successful single since 1985’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Happily, The Sensual World got to six in Ireland. Given the fact that James Joyce was Irish and musicians like Davy Spillane (uillean pipes), Donal Lunny (bouzouki) and John Sheahan (fiddle) provide this stunning Irish soul and flavour, you’d hope it would resonate in the country. That was not the case with another single with an Irish feel, Night of the Swallow. From 1982’s The Dreaming, it did nothing there. Giving Bush her joint-highest chart position of any country for this single (alongside the American Alternative Airplay (Billboard), it fared even better than the remarkable and heartbreaking This Woman’s Work (the next single from The Sensual World, it reached twenty-five in the U.K. and twenty in Ireland). I do love the fact that the Irish market gave The Sensual World’s singles more love than her native U.K. The album reached two in the U.K., and I think The Sensual World ranks alongside her best and most important singles. The video includes some of Bush’s best direction. She directed it with The Comic Strip co-creator, Peter Richardson.
I thought it was important to revisit The Sensual World ahead of its thirty-third anniversary. Whether you prefer this version of 2011’s Flower of the Mountain, it is clearly an important song for Kate Bush. Even though The Sensual World doesn’t feature James Joyce’s words, there is something poetic and absolutely beautiful. Here is an example: “To where the water and the earth caress/And the down of a peach says mmh, yes/Do I look for those millionaires/Like a Machiavellian girl would/When I could wear a sunset? mmh, yes”. Bush’s vocal delivery extracts ever drop of sensuality, passion and desire from the lyrics. I like how there is an instrumental version of The Sensual World. The 12" vinyl release of the single had a double-grooved A-side, so that either the song or an instrumental would be played depending on where the needle was placed. That’s quite cool! The sublime opening track from The Sensual World, here is a song that will be played and discovered for decades more. I think a lot of people overlooked The Sensual World as an album or they feel it is not nearly as strong as Hounds of Love. There are some wonderful songs on The Sensual World. Alongside the title track and This Woman’s Work, there is Love and Anger (the third and final single), The Fog, Reaching Out, Deeper Understanding (a song that should have been a single first time around, but it was the single from Director’s Cut, where the song was reworked) and Between a Man and a Woman, I will explore the album more ahead of its anniversary next month. If you have not listened to this magical song for a while then take some to step…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake from The Sensual World’s album cover shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
INTO The Sensual World.