FEATURE:
Blueprints of the Masterpiece
Kate Bush’s January 1984
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FOR a few early features this year…
I am going to go to this website and pick some periods in her career and dissect them. I am going back forty years. There are a few events from January 1984 that caught my eye. In terms of where Kate Bush was in her career, she was in-between The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. The former arrived in 1982. In the period between 1982 and the start of 1984, there has been quite a bit of activity. It is important to look at the year before to see why 1984 was a pivotal one. Where Bush made real strides laying the groundwork for her masterpiece, Hounds of Love. At the start of 1983, Bush was under pressure to tour because of the relative lack of commercial success for The Dreaming. The singles not doing well. There was definitely plans for Bush to do something new after The Dreaming. In May 1983, a couple of months before her twenty-fifth birthday, a book/memoir, Leaving My Tracks, was shelved. One of those great what-ifs! Fans would definitely have loved to read an autobiography or book from Kate Bush. In the middle of 1983, there was some U.S. activity. The Kate Bush five-track mini-album was released in the U.S. and Canada (the Canadian release contained six tracks). Importantly, whilst there were movements towards greater U.S. awareness and impetus to get her commercial stock rising, Bush was in England planning and construction a bespoke home studio. One that would be the centre of one of the greatest albums ever released.
By September 1983, Bush was writing for Hounds of Love. A year after her previous album, there was this shift in terms of her sound and creative vision. A summer where she had time to be with family and relax, Bush was keen to move away from The Dreaming in terms of the recording and tone. Whilst, in November 1983 EMI conceive the idea of touring the Live at Hammersmith Odeon video around the American colleges – another grab at trying to get U.S. audiences interested in her music more -, Kate Bush was more interested in ensuring that her fifth studio album was done very much in her own vision. Rounding up 1983, The Single File video compilation is released. Bush makes personal appearances in Kingston and Holborn. More a year of promoting The Dreaming, some retrospection and U.S. plans. 1984 was one where Bush was much more interested in pushing forward. That said, as we can see below, the first month of that new year saw a couple of interesting moments:
“January 1984
The new studio being more or less ready, Kate begins work on her fifth album, directly demoing the songs and building on the original demo rather than re-recording.
January 16, 1984
Kate helps launch the Sky Channel, the first satellite TV station in the U.K.
January 23, 1984
The Single File box set of singles is released, further fuelling rumours that Kate is to leave EMI.
EMI-America release Lionheart and Never For Ever, begin a heavy back-catalogue promotion under the theme Looking Back to See Ahead”.
The studio completion and demo work is what I am interested in. Even so, I do love the fact that Kate Bush helped launch the Sky Channel. It is one of those weird and wonderful aspects of her career. Also, that detail regarding The Single File box set being released. I think that the release was timed at a great moment. Six years after her debut single came out, it was perhaps overdue that there would be some retrospection. A couple of years after that was released, The Whole Story came out. Capitalising on big moments in Bush’s career. At the start of 1984, there had been this gap since her fourth studio album. Not only an opportunity to keep her music at the forefront, it is a nice bridge between two albums. I can understand why some might feel she wanted to leave EMI. Given the lack of single commercial success from The Dreaming, an artist might feel like the label was not behind them. Instead, rather than it being about dissatisfaction and a way to clear the decks, this was a chance for fans to get the singles in one place. It has not really been done before that. Of course, between 1984 and now, Bush has released old material quite a few times – though only one greatest hits collection (that stops at 1986). There was this period, forty years ago, when there was the final stage between The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. In the same month that there was this collection of singles – perhaps to stoke interest internationally -, Bush was starting to put together songs for Hounds of Love. That idea of the studio having been built and her being inspired to write. I can imagine what an exciting and fertile period it was.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the studio in 1984 recording Hounds of Love/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
I like the fact that Bush did not demo a song and then re-record it. Most artists do that, where you get this basic and sketch of a song before they go back and then re-record with extra elements and layers. Instead, what we hear on Hounds of Love is Bush’s original demos. Only with her going back and adding to them. Classic songs like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and Cloudbusting starting life quite differently. She then played the demos back and then was compelled to add to that mix. I wonder if that is a reason why Hounds of Love is a classic and so loved. A different sound and feel to other albums. Over a year later, Kate Bush would release her most acclaimed album. Thinking back to January 1984 when these songs were taking place. It was a definite moment when she moved from professional studios and an old way of working to this autonomy and home comforts. The fact that she had her own studio and it was by the family home meant that there was less stress and pressure. Able to take her time and work in the same spot – even though there was some recording Windmill Lane (Dublin) and Abbey Road (London). At the start of 1984, Kate Bush was ready to begin work on her masterpiece. Before too long…
SOMETHING wonderful would follow.