AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #403 : KATE BUSH

A guest posting by The Robster

I’m not sure there’s much I can write about Kate Bush that could ever do her justice. Quite frankly, she’s one of the greatest musical talents that walked the earth. I’m not going to qualify that statement. There’s no need. Those who disagree are nothing to me.

I do accept, however, that there are many people who are not overly familiar with her work. I mean, everyone knows a few of Kate’s biggest and best known songs, but in terms of her albums, they remain something of a mystery to most.

To put right a clear (and I’m sure unintentional) wrong – that there is a glaring lack of Kate Bush posts on this otherwise wonderful site – I’ve compiled an ICA of deep cuts (no singles) from Kate’s studio albums (plus a b-side) in chronological order. Hopefully, those of you who think you love Kate but can’t profess to knowing a whole lot of her stuff other than the big hits will gain a Deeper Understanding of her work and investigate further. For everyone else, those of us who adore her, well we can just revel in her genius for 45 glorious minutes and argue over what tracks should have been included over those that actually were.

Deeper Understanding : A Kate Bush ICA for the (new) vinyl villain

SIDE ONE

1. Them Heavy People (1978, from ‘The Kick Inside’)

My no-singles rule could face a challenge right from the off. Them Heavy People was a standout from Kate’s astonishing debut album, but though it wasn’t actually released as a single in the UK, it was in Japan. It was also the lead track on the live EP ‘On Stage’ the following year, but the album version counts for the purposes of this article, and it’s long been a fan fave, so there!

2. Don’t Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake (1978, from ‘Lionheart’)

A live version of this one also featured on the ‘On Stage’ EP. Kate’s second album came out the same year as her debut, and perhaps suffers because of it. It has some excellent stuff on it, but it isn’t considered in the same league as what came before it. Or after it, for that matter. Heartbrake perhaps should have been the single instead of Hammer Horror.

3. Violin (1980, from ‘Never For Ever’)

Kate had been writing songs for years before her first single, and aged just 15, she recorded a number of them on a simple tape recorder while at the piano. Two of those earliest songs, Babooshka and Violin, weren’t recorded properly until her third album. The latter of these is a highlight from ‘Never For Ever’, an album that begun some of the experimentation she furthered on her next couple of releases.

4. Get Out Of My House (1982, from ‘The Dreaming’)

Kate refers to ‘The Dreaming’ as her “I’ve gone mad album”. It was her first entirely self-produced record, and it’s fair to say it baffled critics and much of her audience with its far-from-conventional instrumentation and arrangements. Over time, though, it has become an essential part of her discography. It’s my favourite of all her albums, probably because of its weirdness. It does get rather intense in places, none more so than on Get Out Of My House, the album’s closing track, in which Kate drew inspiration from Stephen King’s novel ‘The Shining’.

5. Under Ice (1985, from ‘Hounds Of Love’)

Basically, if you’ve never heard ‘Hounds Of Love’, then why are you even here? It’s Kate’s ‘Rumours’, her ‘Automatic For The People’, her ‘Nevermind’. It’s the one everyone knows, or at the very least, the one everyone claims they know. Aside from THAT song – which is fast becoming the latest in a long line of great songs we’re becoming completely sick of hearing (thanks, social media) – it’s one of her finest sets, and is perhaps a more focussed follow-up to ‘The Dreaming’ in that it continues the experimental approach (Side 2 in particular), but doesn’t jump from style to style like its predecessor. Under Ice forms part of ‘The Ninth Wave’, essentially the suite of songs about the fear of drowning that make up side 2.

6. Rocket’s Tail (1989, from ‘The Sensual World’)

Compared to her previous couple of albums, ‘The Sensual World’ was in many ways a more conventional record. That’s not to say it was any less interesting. Many of the songs are influenced by the James Joyce novel ‘Ulysses’. Rocket’s Tail totally blows me away whenever I hear it. It features Bulgarian vocal group Trio Bulgarka, and sounds absolutely incredible.

SIDE TWO

7. Ken (1990, b-side of Love And Anger; from the Comic Strip Film ‘GLC: The Carnage Continues’)

There are those who think musicians like Kate take themselves far too seriously. As if to completely disprove that theory, Kate teamed up with the comedy outfit The Comic Strip. She appeared as The Bride in Les Dogs and while she didn’t have many lines, she had plenty of screen time. I’m sure I’m not the only straight bloke who saw Les Dogs and melted at the sight of her… Kate also provided two brand-new songs to the soundtrack of another episode entitled GLC: The Carnage Continues. Ken is about the show’s anti-hero Ken Livingstone (played by Robbie Coltrane playing Charles Bronson playing Livingstone…) and his rise to leader of the Greater London Council. She portrays him in the song as he is in the show – the one man who can ultimately overthrow and kill the evil Ice Maiden, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Jennifer Saunders as Brigitte Nielsen…)! It’s a lot of fun, though sadly only fiction…

8. Why Should I Love You? (1993, from ‘The Red Shoes’)

The three years following ‘The Sensual World’ were traumatic for Kate. First her guitarist Alan Murphy passed away, then her mother. She also split from her long-term partner. You’d have forgiven her for taking a break, or if her next record was going to be a more downbeat affair. But instead, ‘The Red Shoes’ was a triumph and was lauded by the critics. There were guest appearances a-plenty, including Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Nigel Kennedy. Why Should I Love You? features Trio Bulgarka again, plus Prince, whose presence is most definitely felt in the chorus. Apparently, comedian Lenny Henry is in there too…

9. ∏ (2005, from ‘Aerial’)
Kate did take that break after ‘The Red Shoes’ and wouldn’t emerge again for 12 years. When she did, it was with something incredible and unexpected – a double album. Even more unexpected was her homage to ∏ (pi) in which she recites the number to its first 78 decimal places (then, oddly, from its 101st to its 137th). Look, I’m not going to question her obvious genius, I’m just so pleased she did it because, let’s face it, who else would?

10. 50 Words For Snow (2011, from ’50 Words For Snow’; featuring Stephen Fry)

It was another 6 years before Kate followed up ‘Aerial’, and it was with not one, but TWO albums. Firstly, ‘Director’s Cut’ featured analogue re-recordings of tracks from ‘The Sensual World’ and ‘The Red Shoes’, which were both digitally recorded to Kate’s regret. The second record of 2011 was particularly audacious though – seven songs sprawling across a double-album set lasting more than 65 minutes, “set against a background of falling snow”. It was nothing less than we expected from her, and once again it wowed the critics. The title track features the great Stephen Fry in character as Professor Joseph Yupik, rising to Kate’s challenge of citing 50 snow-related words and phrases. What’s not to love?

And that’s the last we’ve heard from Kate, at least in terms of new material. It’s been more than 14 years, yet somehow she remains remarkably relevant. A new record would be nice, a thing of wonder and joy I’m sure, at a time when the world desperately needs it. But until then, here’s a couple of things you may not have heard before to tide you over…

SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION BONUS 7”

Remember I mentioned Kate’s home demo recordings when I was talking about Violin? She was just 15/16 when she sat at her piano and recorded 23 songs to a cassette tape. This tape found its way to family friend David Gilmour who secured a studio session to professionally record the demo that ended up getting Kate signed. Only a handful of those original 23 songs were eventually done over and put out on her albums, the rest of them have never been officially released. They have been bootlegged though, and I’m lucky enough to have them in that form. So, as a special sign off from me, here’s a couple of practically unheard Kate songs performed by the precocious teenager at home in 1974.

1. Never The Less
2. Coming Up

The Robster

JC adds…..

By coincidence, a Kate Bush song appeared on the blog yesterday, courtesy of FFF’s guest offering.   Chaval asked if this had been Kate’s first appearance on the blog…not quite, as each of Wuthering Heights, the On-Stage EP and Wow have featured (November 2019, January 2017 and May 2016 respectively).