FEATURE:
The Woman with the Child in Her Eyes
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix
Kate Bush’s February 1979
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MOVING slightly on…
from a feature I published in November, I wanted to look back almost forty-five years ago to Kate Bush’s February 1979. I know I have spent a fair time in this period. In future features, I am going to look into Kate Bush’s more recent albums and years. Maybe a tip to 2011. It is a good year to revisit, as this was when she released her latest album, 50 Words for Snow. There are some events and moments from 1979 that caught my eye and compelled me to put finger to keyboard. Thanks to this website for the fascinating and crucial timeline around Kate Bush and the important moments that are worth considering. February 1979 was a particularly important time. Not too long before she would start The Tour of Life (2nd April would be the first date), it was a moment between her second studio album, Lionheart, being released and its promotion finished. That album came out in November 1978, though Bush would release Wow in March 1979. I will do an anniversary feature around that next month. I will drop in what happened in Kate Bush’s career in February 1979. Aged twenty, she had already packed so much in. 1979 was a year of completing promotion of her second album and being immersed in The Tour of Life:
“February, 1979
Kate records the song The Magician (music by Maurice Jarre, lyrics by Paul Webster) for the film The Magician of Lublin. [The song has never been released, and is virtually inaudible in the film--a shameful waste of talent.]
Penny Allan, a women's-column feminist for The Guardian, lambasts Kate for "cultivating a childlike voice and encouraging her audience to act like voyeurs."
February 17, 1979
The Man With the Child in His Eyes enters the U.S. Billboard Hot One Hundred, the first of Kate's singles so to do. It remains there for four weeks, peaking at number 85.
There is a bit to focus on from the first half of February 1979. I know that Kate Bush recorded songs for films and there were quite a few collaborations. I was not aware that she had recorded for The Magician of Lublin. It was an early case of people spotting the talent and potential of Kate Bush and how her voice and music translates to the screen. It is a shame that, as fans look for some unheard material or rarities, that we cannot get a cleaned up and usable version of The Magician. I hope that it does see the light someday! She would have been quite picky about what requests she accepted and how she spent time away from her own music. To give you an insight into some of the critical perception of Kate Bush, she was being called out as irresponsible. Faking a child’s voice or maybe doing it on purpose. The fact that her voice was high and quite angelic does not mean she was being child-like. A single like Wow is very powerful and mature. Maybe thinking back Wuthering Heights, there were some who felt that Kate Bush was weird or irresponsible. I am not sure what Bush would have to gain from being child-like or putting on this act. Suggesting that she was employing some odd form of allure or sexuality, Kate Bush constantly had to read and react to critics labelling her. This idea that they had. All artist face criticism and misrepresentation at various points or their career though, for Kate Bush, she faced this for years. In 1978 and 1979, having established herself and not having to prove anything, there was all of this insult and sexism. Even female critics besmirching her!
In the U.S., on 17th January, The Man with the Child in His Eyes makes a small dent on the charts. Wuthering Heights went largely unnoticed. Perhaps more accessible and less eccentric, perhaps U.S. audiences could relate more to The Man with the Child in His Eyes. For a woman who was accused of being a child, it is quite odd that a song with that word in the title – Bush wrote it about how men seemingly have this child-like ‘quality’ in them always – was in the charts. She could not really win either way. Writing mature and extraordinary music, there was this stream of criticism and judgment from critics. It would take until 1985 – and Hounds of Love – for most to fully embrace Kate Bush. Even then, there was still some in the U.S. press who were dubious. There are two more February dates from 1979 that are worthy of highlight. I am particularly interested in 1978 and 1979, as this was the start of Kate Bush’s career. Even though her earliest recordings of her at home in Kent, she seemed to get further and further away – in terms of geography and ambition/scale – very shortly afterwards. It must have been quite disorientating! Unlike some artists of the time, Kate Bush’s promotion was very standout and unusual. Not the routine and dull mimed performances, you could always tell a Kate Bush performance!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush was photographed in 1979 at the Rose d'Or music festival in Montreux, Switzerland/PHOTO CREDIT: Dany Gignoux
I say this because, on 18th February, Bush was very busy on her travels. The Tour of Life would take her across Europe in the spring/summer. A couple of months previous, she was still promoting Lionheart and having to balance this with preparation and set-up for her only tour:
February 18, 1979
Kate travels to Leysin [Lausanne?], Switzerland, to take part in a mammoth European television co-production. The results are carved up into three television shows, and it is planned that Kate will appear in two. For the first, an Easter Abba Special, she records a routine for Wow. At the rehearsals the cameramen and journalists break into spontaneous applause, and the press coverage verges on the hysterical. For the second programme, a Christmas programme to be called The Winter Snowtime Special, she records a version of Wuthering Heights barefoot in the snow of the Swiss Alps. [The latter film was never aired, though photos appeared in the U.K. press.]
On her return to Britain Kate goes into Air Studios in London with Jon Kelly, the engineer on The Kick Inside and Lionheart, to determine the possibilities of working as a co-production team on Kate's next album. [This statement implies that some music was recorded at this time, but if so it has never been identified.]
The video for Wow, the next single, is made at Wilton's Music Hall in East London, directed by Keef MacMillan.
Again, there is quite a lot to unpick and unpack! The amount of travel Bush had done to this point was immense! Another country to tick off of the list, I am not sure how much of a fanbase there was in Switzerland. I am not sure how Bush’s music performed in Switzerland. It is not a nation one would associate with dedicated and significant fandom! Regardless, the fact that there was this reaction and reception that was very warm means that her music was resonating. I would have loved to have been at that ABBA special where she was preparing to perform Wow. The fact that it was pretty cold in Switzerland that time of year would have been draining for her. Regardless, she did undertake this big promotional jaunt there. I wonder what the legacy was and whether it increased her sales in the country. I guess it would have made a difference in some way! The fact that there was a recording of Bush in the snow singing Wuthering Heights is one of those lost treasures. I would love to think that everything assumed missing is found and shared in years to come. Crucial bits of archive that shows just how madly busy and varied her first couple of years in music were!
Coming back from Switzerland, she would head off to make the video for Wow. The second single from Lionheart, Bush’s song about showbusiness, the music industry and actors would see her soon take to the stage. Almost an actor herself in this giant production: the majestic and magical The Tour of Life. The end of February 1979 was Kate Bush back in the U.K. and an interesting event:
February 27, 1979
Kate takes part in BBC Radio 1's first-ever phone-in programme, Personal Call, answering listeners' calls for 60 minutes and jamming the Broadcasting House switchboards”.
She did some of this through her career. Bush appeared on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop with Noel Edmonds on 20th January, 1979. Five weeks or so later, she was doing another similar thing. Taking calls from the public. Maybe a nice and easy way to promote her music without answering the same journalist questions, it was nice that there was definite variety in her life. Bush must have been exhausted by the end of February 1979. Eyeing up her first tour, there was not a great deal of relaxation and downtime between this point and April. She was promoting Lionheart, travelling around and doing the odd bit here and there, at the same time as putting the finishing touches on her tour. It is amazing to think that she put it all together when she was still solidly promoting her music. Not a dedicated time to just focus on the tour alone. If people think that artists like Taylor Swift balanced a lot and straddle the globe, one can look back forty-five years ago and the sort of itinerary that Kate Bush had! March 1979 was about final rehearsals and late stages of The Tour of Life preparation, plus promotion and the release of Wow. The daunting task of a single coming out a month before your first tour. It was mad! This is why I wanted to flip back forty-five years and look at Kate Bush’s…
HECTIC but memorable February 1979.