FEATURE:
Lionheart’s Glorious Opener
Kate Bush’s Sumptuous Symphony in Blue
___________
AS November is such a busy month…
ALBUM COVER PHOTO: Gered Mankowitz
when it comes to Kate Bush’s album anniversaries, I am covering all four. I have written features for The Red Shoes, Aerial, and 50 Words for Snow, and I wanted to include a salute to Lionheart as, on 12th November, it turns forty-two. There is often debate when placing Bush’s albums as to which would be at the bottom of the pile. There is that tussle between Lionheart, and The Red Shoes, and I think both albums get unfair criticism! Whilst I think Lionheart is a stronger album than The Red Shoes, both deserve more praise and respect – there are songs on both that rank alongside Bush’s very best. I may do a more general overview of Lionheart before its anniversary, or perhaps investigate it from an angle nobody has covered before. I am doing quite a few song-specific features about Kate Bush at the moment, as I think we often think about the popular singles and songs we know of hers, but there are not many who stray away and spend a lot of time with the lesser-known tracks. One has to feel sorry for Kate Bush in 1978. She achieved so much in the year, and her dream was to have a record out – something she achieved in February with The Kick Inside. She would have imagined that 1978 would be some promotion of The Kick Inside, maybe a few live dates and she would then be able to recharge and think about a second album.
After all, she was recording The Kick Inside in 1977 and she knew full well that, if the album was a success, then her diary would become a lot fuller! After the enormous success of her debut single, Wuthering Heights, hitting number-one, Bush was travelling and performing over the world on T.V.; the odd stage appearance and lots of interviews. It was a chaotic time, and I think the fact nobody had seen anyone like Kate Bush meant that she was this wonderfully curious artist! To her credit, even with long-haul flights and barely a moment to let her feet rest, she was able to produce a second album by November 1978. Today, a record company could not realistically expect an artist to put out two albums in a year, but I think EMI got caught up in the popularity of The Kick Inside and how Bush was this suddenly popular and successful artist. Also, sadly, I think there was also a sense that, if they did not capitalise and get another album out, then a lot of the focus and heat might go away, so they gave Bush an impossible task: releasing an album so soon after her debut that was as good but sounded different and moved her forward. In terms of personnel, many of the same players appeared on Lionheart – Del Palmer features on a few songs (and was not on The Kick Inside), and Paddy Bush had a greater role this time around.
As Bush was still promoting The Kick Inside at the same time as she was putting together a second album, it is understandable that the material was not quite as strong as on her debut. Many of the songs that do appear on Lionheart were written long before The Kick Inside, so they would have been in her mind for that album - and she probably was hoping to write new songs for a second album. That said, gems like Wow – which wouldn’t have fitted on The Kick Inside sonically – are definite highlights, and older tracks like Oh England My Lionheart, and Kashka from Baghdad are marvellous! I think both of those songs would have worked on The Kick Inside, but maybe Bush felt that they weren’t quite ready or were better suited as B-sides. I love both of those songs and, for the most part, the older songs are successful and slot together very nicely – I can imagine Bush having to quickly assemble a collection of previously ignored songs and make them fit on an album. Alongside producer Andrew Powell, what arrived on 12th November, 1978 was a success. Vocally, Bush retains her distinctive sound but she allows more characterisation and emotions to come in; on songs like Full House, Hammer Horror, and Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake, she creates these grittier numbers that are more raucous and raw than The Kick Inside equivalents like James and the Cold Gun.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake from the Lionheart cover shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
Bush managed to inject more physicality and grit into Lionheart, but I think the new songs that she wrote for Lionheart are phenomenal. Coffee Homeground, and Full House are very new-sounding and different territory for Bush, but I think Symphony in Blue is the finest of the trio. Emotionally and vocally, one can compare the song with The Man with the Child in His Eyes, Feel It, or L'Amour Looks Something Like You, but there is greater maturity and depth to Symphony in Blue. Bush was still only twenty when she recorded the song, and she produced one of her most moving vocals and songs to date. It was released as a single in Japan and Canada (in Canada, the B-side was Hammer Horror; in Japan it was Full House), where it was second single taken from Lionheart - Wow was the second single for the rest of the world. It is a shame that Symphony in Blue was not released as a single outside of Canada and Japan, as I think it would have done really well. Bush released singles for the Japanese market for The Kick Inside but, as Symphony in Blue was released in June 1979 – seven months after Lionheart came out -, it seemed like an odd choice. Also, Bush only released two singles in the U.K. from The Kick Inside – Wuthering Heights, and The Man with the Child in His Eyes – and, on Lionheart, she put out Hammer Horror, and Wow.
One can see Bush performing Symphony in Blue on her 1979 Christmas special, and it was a rare opportunity for people to see Bush perform the song on T.V. – she did include it her setlist for her 1979 The Tour of Life. There is debate as to what inspired Symphony in Blue. Bush herself said It was inspired by Erik Satie's Gymnopedies, whereas others believed that the lyric of the song is an attempt at describing Kate's own belief system. The descriptions of God, sex and the colour blue seem to be inspired by reading about Wilhelm Reich's theory in A Book of Dreams. I think Bush’s vocal is sublime. Some were not hot on The Kick Inside, as they felt the vocal gymnastics and highest notes were off-putting, but Symphony in Blue is Bush taking her voice down a little bit, but she still sounds soaring, gorgeous and impassioned throughout – Bush’s piano is sublime throughout. The colour blue has been used as an emotional indicator in songwriting for decades, but I think Bush, more than most, manages to do something new and wonderous in the opening verse: “I spent a lot of my time looking at blue/The colour of my room and my mood/Blue on the walls, blue out of my mouth/The sort of blue between clouds, when the sun comes out/The sort of blue in those eyes you get hung up about”.
The lyrics mix religious, passion, sadness, and the joys of the piano. It is a typically unique and intelligent song from Kate Bush where one is engrossed in the song and her stunning vocal. I love all of the lyrics, but the chorus is especially entrancing: “I see myself suddenly/On the piano, as a melody/My terrible fear of dying/No longer plays with me/for now I know that I'm needed/For the symphony”. I like how Bush plays with colours and their wider meaning. Blue is simultaneously misery and upset it is also the eye colour and the clearness and beauty of the sky. Bush also talks about red as being her beating heart, anger, and the colour of danger signs. One verse seems to mix blue and red together in a new way. The blue seems to be a sexiness and naughtiness, whereas red seems to be about blood flow, sex, and love – getting a sort of magenta/purple colour?! “The more I think about sex, the better it gets/Here we have a purpose in life/Good for the blood circulation/Good for releasing the tension/The root of our reincarnations” is simple and direct, but it is so evocative and sung in a way where you can hear Bush releasing tension, playing with the words - and her backing vocals add beauty and weight. There are a few players on the song - drums and percussion: Stuart Elliott; bass: David Paton; electric guitars: Ian Bairnson; Fender Rhodes: Duncan Mackay -, but I think there is a sparseness and tenderness that would be lost if the instruments were heavier or Bush layered her vocals more.
Symphony in Blue is one of Kate Bush’s best album openers and, from someone who opened all of her albums with really impactful songs, that is quite an achievement! There is an interesting mix of themes, paces, and dynamics on the remaining four songs of Lionheart’s first side. In Search of Peter Pan follows Symphony in Blue, and it is a childlike and gentler song that replaces sensuality with innocence, but things become more energised by track-three, Wow, and that continues on Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbreak – Oh England My Lionheart ends the side with a stately and regal-sounding paen to England. It amazes me that Bush could write such an accomplished and incredible song in the midst of travelling and promotion! I’d like to think that Symphony in Blue was written much in the same manner as Wuthering Heights: Bush alone at the piano as she looks out of the window on a summer’s night. The reality is probably less glamorous. MOJO recently published a Collectors’ Series magazine for Kate Bush, and they had a top-fifty of her songs – Symphony in Blue did not even make the cut! Apart from Classic Rock History ranking Symphony in Blue as their eighth-favourite Kate Bush song, not many people mention the track. I think it is one of those classic overlooked Kate Bush songs like Under the Ivy – or songs that are not played on the radio enough! Lionheart is forty-two on 12th November, and I think it deserves to be mentioned. It is full of remarkable track and, whilst Wow might get most of the love, I think the opening track, Symphony in Blue, is an amazing and…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush shot in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
GLISTENING sapphire.