FEATURE:
Mother’s Instinct
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980
Looking at the Overlooked, Underdiscussed and More Problematic Kate Bush Songs
_________
THIS sort of follows on…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
from a recent post I published about Kate Bush. When discussing how she is misunderstood and there is this problem across radio, in the sense that some of her songs are seen as too out-there or inaccessible. I think that Kate Bush is one of the finest and most original songwriters ever. You cannot deny that she creates her own worlds. With every studio album, you get a wealth of songs that are so distinct and memorable. I will admit that a few of her album tracks might seem a little inappropriate for radio. 50 Words for Snow has long songs. There are one or two others that might seem a little strange. I did argue, when writing about whether Kate Bush is seen as radio-friendly and whether that is actually a thing, that her music is needlessly underexplored. Nothing in her catalogue is so strange or off-putting that it should avoid radio schedules. I am thinking about songs that might not be played because they are perhaps either not known or are problematic. Not to dwell on too many negatives. Maybe it is a case of reframing certain songs and highlighting ones that maybe have not dated well. I am not going to focus on all of them, though there are some clear examples from Kate Bush’s back catalogue that have been misunderstood or do not rank alongside her best. The first example of Room for the Life on The Kick Inside. Her 1978’s debut album’s penultimate track, many have written it off as the weakest number. I don’t think I have heard anyone really discuss this song. It featured on the setlist for 1979’s The Tour of Life, yet it is never played or investigated. In terms of interpretation, Bush was coming from the perspective that women have a much stronger survival unit then men since as they bear children, and thus should use their advantage to help men rather than play games with them. It is a dialogue between two women. Something Kate Bush rarely did. The Kick Inside has a very positive attitude towards men. In fact, many of Bush’s songs do. That need for understanding. One of the reasons I never listened to the song the whole way through, despite the fact The Kick Inside is my favourite album ever, is because the thought that, inside a woman is room for life, was hammered to death. The song seemed too simple. Compared to other tracks on the album, Room for the Life seemed pale. An article worth reading, the gender politics and naivety of the lyrics might be a reason why we do not hear Room for the Life played and explored:
“In addition to its musical tastelessness, “Room for the Life” is out of touch. Bush has identified herself with male artists, admitting that a lack of interesting female songwriters was the reason (she cites Joni Mitchell, Billie Holliday, and Joan Armatrading as exceptions). When she writes about two female characters in “Room,” things fall apart (this isn’t always the case — my favorite Kate Bush song is a woman-centered dialogue, as we’ll see). The song is addressed from one woman to another, telling of the magical power of women, expressed as a singularity with the oddly agrammatical phrase “because we’re woman.” It’s an oddly naïve little song, and one with strange conclusions on how to be a woman. “Lost in your men and the games you play/trying to prove that you’re better woman,” Bush chides her friend. How dare she try to get ahead of men. The audacity of it”.
Even so, I have seen magazine polls rank Room for the Life high. In terms of Kate Bush’s best songs. Is it a case, over forty-five years since the song first came out, it should be re-examined? One could write it off as a bit of teenage naivety. I wonder whether the messages and intent of the song was ever really understood. Is it a case of Kate Bush reaching too far or maybe missing the mark?! I think every Kate Bush song is interesting and has validity. I feel Room for the Life is one that requires some discussion and reappraisal now. There are songs on 1980’s Never for Ever that are dismissed because they are seen as a bit weak. Violin and Egypt have often been spotlighted for this reason. Night Scented Stock is a short passage and segue; Blow Away (For Bill) maybe not an album highlight. Regardless, her third studio album is wonderful. An underrated work. One of the most ‘problematic’ or misunderstood songs on Bush’s 1980 gem is The Infant Kiss. So many people avoid it because of the title. Maybe radio stations do not want to play it. A case of many thinking the song is referring to a grown adult kissing a child. Kate Bush has explained the meaning behind the track:
“It was based on the film, The Innocents. I saw it years ago, when I was very young, and it scared me, and when films scare you as a kid, I think they really hang there. It’s a beautiful film, quite extraordinary. This governess is supposed to look after these children, a little boy and a girl, and they are actually possessed by the spirits of the people who were in the house before. And they keep appearing to the children. It’s really scary – as scary on some levels as the idea of The Exorcist, and that terrified me. The idea of this young girl, speaking and behaving like she did was very disturbing, very distorted. But I quite like that song.
RADIO PROGRAMME, PAUL GAMBACCINI, 30 DECEMBER 1980
The thing that worries me is the way people have started interpreting that song. They love the long word–paedophilia. It’s not about that at all. It’s not the woman actually fancying the young kid. It’s the woman being attracted by a man inside the child. It just worries me that there were some people catching on to the idea of there being paedophilia, rather than just a distortion of a situation where there’s a perfectly normal, innocent boy with the spirit of a man inside, who’s extremely experienced and lusty. The woman can’t cope with the distortion. She can see that there’s some energy in the child that is not normal, but she can’t place it. Yet she has a very pure maternal love for the child, and it’s onlyy little things like when she goes to give him a kiss at night, that she realizes there is a distortion, and it’s really freaking her out. She doesn’t fancy little boys, she’s got a normal, straight sexual life, yet this thing is happening to her. I really like the distortedness of the situation.
KRIS NEEDS, ‘FIRE IN THE BUSH’. ZIGZAG (UK), 1980”.
I am not sure whether an artist today could write a song like The Infant Kiss. People jumping to conclusion. Kate Bush, always inspired by films and literature, was taking from another source rather than her own imagination. Is this why The Infant Kiss could not get played today? Again, this is a song that many fans hold in high esteem. I am working to a song that has an anniversary coming but might be among Kate Bush’s more problematic tracks. This feature is about looking at the misunderstood or maligned songs. Maybe some where the lyrics and themes might not have dated or had best intentions. The Dreaming’s title track is a classic example. Perhaps one of the biggest problems is the involvement of Rolf Harris. Maybe the Australian twang from Kate Bush some see as cultural appropriation. Is her cause and point of view a bit naïve or problematic? It is a big question. I actually love the song, though many people feel that it was not the right move. In terms of what she wrote about. Again, Kate Bush discussed the song and where she was coming from:
“Well, years ago my brother bought ‘Sun Arise’ [by Rolf Harris] and I loved it, it was such a beautiful song. And ever since then I’ve wanted to create something which had that feel of Australia within it. I loved the sound of the traditional aboriginal instruments, and as I grew older, I became much more aware of the actual situation which existed in Australia between the white Australian and the aborigines, who were being wiped out by man’s greed for uranium. Digging up their sacred grounds, just to get plutonium, and eventually make weapons out of it. And I just feel that it’s so wrong: this beautiful culture being destroyed just so that we can build weapons which maybe one day will destroy everything, including us. We should be learning from the aborigines, they’re such a fascinating race. And Australia – there’s something very beautiful about that country.
‘THE DREAMING’. POPPIX (UK), SUMMER 1982
The Aboriginals are not alone in being pushed out of their land by modern man, by their diseases, or for ther own strange reasons. It is very sad to think they might all die. ‘The Dreaming’ is the time for Aboriginals when humans took the form of animals, when spirits were free to roam and in this song as the civilized begin to dominate, the ‘original ones’ dream of the dreamtime.
PRESS STATEMENT BY KATE BUSH, 1982”.
I do feel that The Dreaming has a point to make. The song seems relevant today. Maybe more relevant than back in 1982. A low chart position and not a lot of radio play meant The Dreaming wasn’t a success. It doesn’t really get played now. Kate Bush is often misunderstood as a writer. Maybe judged. I can appreciate that she wanted to write more political and socially conscious songs for her fourth studio album. Perhaps many saw it a step too far. A song that had good intentions but never really did justice to what it was trying to say. I think that a song that is perfectly fine but is never played is Mother Stands for Comfort. The only song from Hounds of Love’s first side not released as a single, it is one of the most under-discussed Kate Bush songs. Considering it is from her most successful and loved albums, it seems like an outsider. It is icier and more skeletal than other songs on that album. Its subject, about a mother covering for her murderous child, is a fascinating and original angle. You could get songs like that today from a Pop artist and they would be played more. Never performed live, this is a song that has practically languished in obscurity. This is what Kate Bush said about Mother Stands for Comfort:
“Well, the personality that sings this track is very unfeeling in a way. And the cold qualities of synths and machines were appropriate here. There are many different kinds of love and the track’s really talking about the love of a mother, and in this case she’s the mother of a murderer, in that she’s basically prepared to protect her son against anything. ‘Cause in a way it’s also suggesting that the son is using the mother, as much as the mother is protecting him. It’s a bit of a strange matter, isn’t it really? [laughs] (Richard Skinner, ‘Classic Albums Interview: Hounds Of Love’. BBC Radio 1 (UK), 26 January 1992)”.
It seems like every Kate Bush album has that one song that stands out for various complex reasons. Perhaps people not understanding her words or jumping to conclusions. In terms of 1989’s The Sensual World, Heads We're Dancing is that one. Its that idea of the charm of evil people. How many can be fooled by them. Maybe it did alienate some in 1989, though this subject seems very relevant today. I have not heard many people discuss Heads We’re Dancing. I like the song a lot. I feel, even if Kate Bush discusses a song and gives her reasons for writing it, many are still put off. Maybe there are these tracks that are cast aside and not really given a fair chance. In any case, here is what Kate Bush said about one of The Sensual World’s standouts:
“That’s a very dark song, not funny at all! (…) I wrote the song two years ago, and in lots of ways I wouldn’t write a song like it now. I’d really hate it if people were offended by this…But it was all started by a family friend, years ago, who’d been to dinner and sat next to this guy who was really fascinating, so charming. They sat all night chatting and joking. And next day he found out it was Oppenheimer. And this friend was horrified because he really despised what the guy stood for. I understood the reaction, but I felt a bit sorry for Oppenheimer. He tried to live with what he’d done, and actually, I think, committed suicide. But I was so intrigued by this idea of my friend being so taken by this person until they knew who they were, and then it completely changing their attitude. So I was thinking, what if you met the Devil? The Ultimate One: charming, elegant, well spoken. Then it turned into this whole idea of a girl being at a dance and this guy coming up, cocky and charming, and she dances with him. Then a couple of days later she sees in the paper that it was Hitler. Complete horror: she was that close, perhaps could’ve changed history. Hitler was very attractive to women because he was such a powerful figure, yet such an evil guy. I’d hate to feel I was glorifying the situation, but I do know that whereas in a piece of film it would be quite acceptable, in a song it’s a little bit sensitive.
LEN BROWN, ‘IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES’. NME (UK), 7 OCTOBER 1989”.
I am going to end with a few songs that, for different reasons, are either not discussed, are underrated or misunderstood. I am going to move to Aerial and 50 Words for Snow. One track from The Red Shoes that has been maligned and not played a lot is Why Should I Love You? It is not problematic or misunderstood. One reason why I highlight it is because it features Prince. Even if it is overloaded with layers and quite busy, I think it deserves more now. It is a randomly odd little cut. The fact Lenny Henry features. Not sure why! I think it is important because it features Prince. Not many opportunities where you get Kate Bush appearing on the same song as another music legend. She sang with Peter Gabriel a few times. Apart from that, there are not many examples of Kate Bush being on the same track as a genuinely huge artist. Bush did appear on a Prince album too. She sang on 1996’s Emancipation. Prince only appeared on one Kate Bush song. I am surprised Kate Bush did not reversion and strip back Why Should I Love You? for 2011’s Director’s Cut. An example of two very strong-willed and passionate producers – Kate Bush and Prince – having different visions of the song:
“Bush asked Prince to contribute background vocals to ‘Why Should I Love You’ in 1991. She sent him the track, which she had recorded at Abbey Road Studios (Studio Number One), London, England, and Prince added vocals, but also added many instrumental parts to the song, at his Paisley Park Studios. When Kate Bush and Del Palmer listened to Prince’s returned track, they weren’t sure what to do with it. They worked on it on and off for two years to try to “turn it back into a Kate Bush song”. The track also features background vocals by British comedian Lenny Henry, a good friend of Kate’s”.
In terms of songs that people never really talk about and you will not hear played. Bertie is one of them. It is on the first disc of Aerial. On A Sea of Honey, this is another track never performed live. It is deeply personal. It is very open and honest. For years, people bemoaned the fact Kate Bush’s songs were oblique or not personal. That she was hiding behind characters and personas. When she did record a song with her heart out there, I saw people mock it. Is it the case that Bertie is too personal?! When reviewing Aerial in 2005, The Daily Telegraph said that this song, alongside Mrs. Bartolozzi, was one people will snigger at. An artist always mocked and insulted, have people truly heard Bertie and appreciated its importance?! Aerial is infused with home and Bush’s love for her new-born son. Even when not explicitly singing about him, he has inspired her thoughts of family and contentment. Someone who was also pivotal in her returning to the stage for 2014’s Before the Dawn. Kate Bush explained what Bertie means to her:
“He’s such a big part of my life so, you know, he’s a very big part of my work. It’s such a great thing, being able to spend as much time with him as I can. And, you know, he won’t be young for very long. And already he’s starting to grow up and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on that, that I spent as much time with his as I could.
So, the idea was that he would come first, and then the record would come next, which is also one reasons why it’s taken a long time (laughs). It always takes me a long time anyway, but trying to fit that in around the edges that were left over from the time that I wanted to spend with him.
It’s a wonderful thing, having such a lovely son. Really, you know with a song like that, you could never be special enough from my point of view, and I wanted to try and give it an arrangement that wasn’t terribly obvious, so I went for the sort of early music… (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 3 November 2005)”.
The last song I want to spotlight comes from 50 Words for Snow. In terms of a song being misunderstood. Misty is a song that has been celebrated and given huge praise by critics. Those who get the track and understand it see it as hugely emotionally resonant. Even if critics have applauded it, there are others who have mocked it. Maybe compared it to The Snowman. Some have mocked it because it involves a snowman in a passionate tryst with a woman. Maybe judging it on its surface and a simple interpretation. Misty goes deeper and should be given more love and exploration. It won’t be played on radio because it is a long track. Regardless, Misty is a symbol of Kate Bush’s restless imagination, originality and undiminished genius. She talked about with BBC Radio 4’s John Wilson in 2011:
“It’s a silly idea. But I hope that what has happened is that there’s almost a sense of tenderness. I think it’s quite a dark song. And so I hope that I’ve made it work. But in a lot of ways it shouldn’t because… It’s ridiculous, isn’t it, the idea of the snowman visiting this woman and climbing into bed with her.
But I took him as a purely symbolic snowman, it was about…
No John, he’s REAL (laughs).
BBC4 RADIO, FRONT ROW, 2011”.
I want to write this feature to examine certain songs that have either been overlooked, misinterpreted or have not aged well. Some that were seen as inappropriate when they were released but seem relevant now. I am sure people can give me plenty of other examples. Not only underrated songs, these are ones that standout because they are either underplayed or have been misunderstood. It is fascinating dipping into her catalogue and thinking about songs that deserve more or perhaps, in rare occasions, were missteps. Some are examples of people misinterpretation Kate Bush’s intentions. People never really understanding her, they never…
REALLY tried.