FEATURE:
The First Sound of the First Track
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
Inside Kate Bush’s Moving and the Majestic The Kick Inside
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THERE are a couple of interviews…
that I wanted to cover off. I will write more about The Kick Inside closer to its forty-sixth anniversary on 17th February. Today, I will discuss it in the context of its remarkable opening track. Although Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush’s debut single, was released on 20th January, 1978, some may not have heard that. In any case, the first track on The Kick Inside is Moving. It is really the only song that could open the album. It is a song I always felt could have been released as a single in the U.K. It clearly meant a lot to Bush. Opening her album with whale song (it is sampled from Songs of the Humpback Whale, an album including recordings of whale vocalisations made by Dr. Roger S. Payne), there is this beautiful meditation on personal growth and crashing the lily in her soul – meaning her timidity and fears were going. Getting rid of any sadness or lack of will, this song about growing and connecting with dance the physical. It was for her mime instructor, Lindsay Kemp. He taught mime in London during the 1970s. Bush attended his class and learned a lot from him. Someone who helped bring Kate Bush out of herself, this first track on her debut album is dedicated to Kemp. There is a lot to love and admire about Moving. One reason I want to cover it off is because it was released as a single in Japan on 5th February, 1978. Time to discuss the song on its forty-sixth anniversary. First, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia give some details about one of Kate Bush’s finest and most beautiful songs:
“Moving’ is a song written by Kate Bush, included on her debut album The Kick Inside. The song is a tribute to Lindsay Kemp, who was her mime teacher in the mid-Seventies. She explained in an interview, “He needed a song written to him. He opened up my eyes to the meanings of movement. He makes you feel so good. If you’ve got two left feet it’s ‘you dance like an angel darling.’ He fills people up, you’re an empty glass and glug, glug, glug, he’s filled you with champagne.”
‘Moving’ opens with a whale song sampled from Songs of the Humpback Whale, an LP including recordings of whale vocalizations made by Dr. Roger S. Payne.
Formats
On 6 February 1978, ‘Moving’ was released as a 7″ single in Japan only, featuring Wuthering Heights on the B-side.
Versions
There are two officially released versions of ‘Moving’: the album version and the live version from Hammersmith Odeon. However, a demo version from 1977 has also surfaced and was released on various bootleg cd’s.
Performances
Soon after the release of The Kick Inside, Bush performed ‘Moving’ alongside with ‘Them Heavy People’ on 25 February 1978 on the BBC TV show Saturday Nights at the Mill. On 12 May, she took part in a Dutch special TV show dedicated to the opening of the Haunted Castle, the new attraction of the amusement park Efteling. She performed six songs in six videos filmed near the castle and across the park. At the beginning of the video for ‘Moving’, the camera shows a tombstone covered with leaves. Then, the wind blows the leaves and lets appear the name of Kate Bush. She performs the song in front of the castle’s door. In June 1978, Bush sang ‘Moving’ at Nippon Budokan during the Tokyo Music Festival. The performance was retransmitted on the Japanese television on 21 June and was followed by a 35 million audience. She won the silver prize alongside with the American R&B band The Emotions. In 1979, Bush included ‘Moving’ on her first tour, The Tour of Life. Her performance can be seen on the video Live at Hammersmith Odeon”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
There are few opening tracks on a Kate Bush album as strong and fitting as Moving. For those who bought the album back in 1978, putting down the needle and listening to Moving come into view must have been an experience for the senses! Like nothing else in music at the time, it is this hypnotic and gorgeous song that takes you somewhere else. You lose yourself to it. Even though The Skinny misinterpreted the ‘crushed lily’ line in Moving, they did acknowledge that it was a perfect opening track on Kate Bush’s debut album:
“Opening track Moving was the only other song to be released before the whole album. However, for inexplicable marketing reasons it was only released in Japan, with Wuthering Heights as its B-side. It begins, and hence begins canonical Kate Bush, with 20 seconds of whale song before segueing into a moving tribute to Lindsay Kemp, with whom Bush had taken mime classes (and also taught, influenced and collaborated with David Bowie). The lyrics invoke a sense of motion as an enveloping state, one which surrounds and affects, that can uplift, 'How I'm moved, how you move me / With your beauty's potency / You give me life...', but can also be destructive, as exemplified in the abstruse line: 'You crush the lily in my soul'. A mixture of gleefully simple sentiment, theatrics and enigma; a perfect introduction”.
I do think that there is not enough focus on The Kick Inside. Kate Bush’s debut album, it is enormously important. I am going to cover it in more detail closer to its anniversary on 17th February. With all thirteen tracks written by Kate Bush, this insanely talented and original teenage artist came into the music world. She would develop her sound. Many argue that she would hit her peak later on. I still think that The Kick Inside is her best album. In terms of its range and the impact it has, there is no other album that leaves the same impressions. I can only imagine the excitement Kate Bush felt entering the studio (AIR in London) when she recorded her debut! It was a new experience for her. Showing no weaknesses or nerves, what she put out into the world in 1978 is this masterpiece. Starting with the stunningly beautiful Moving, you cannot help but be hooked into the album. It gets into your head and heart and stays with you. With so much attention paid to Hounds of Love (1985), I do think that some overlook Bush’s earliest albums. Moving is one of thirteen distinct and fantastic songs. I feel it would have been a chart success if it was released in the U.K. Instead, we had Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Both remarkable songs, Kate Bush was spoiled for choice when it came to potential singles! The wonderful Moving was…
THE perfect introduction.