FEATURE:
She’s an Artist, She Don’t Look Back
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978
Kate Bush’s Views on Her Early Work, and a Reluctance to Revisit the Past
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IN this piece…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978 during the taping of the Hammer Horror video shoot
I am going to revisit a subject I have looked at before – as I am prone to do -, and look at Kate Bush as someone who does not really look back/look back fondly at her older work - and I want to also cover Bush’s love of older technology and recording equipment. A lot of artists look forward and do not often discuss what came before. There seems to be this split of musicians who do not mind harking back to their past albums, and those who are a bit hesitant. I guess artists change over time, and it can be a little embarrassing talking about a time that was very different and, maybe, a little below their best. I think Kate Bush is someone who naturally does not listen to her own music a lot. She works on albums for so long, that she must get sick of hearing it by the time it is mixed and released! In so many interviews, she has been asked about her past albums, and she always says how she doesn’t really listen to them. That is understandable, I guess; it might be a bit odd to put on one of your own albums and, unless a song of hers comes on the radio, there are not many occasions when she would be exposed to the past. I have talked about most of her studio albums before, and how it would be good to hear some demos put out. There are some remarkable early demos out there, but they were never really meant for public consumption.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush celebrates after scooping the Top Female Singer Award from Melody Maker in 1979
Kate Bush has always been about moving forward. She did remaster and release her back catalogue a couple of years back, and that was chance to put those albums on her own label, Fish People, and ensure that her studio work was out there on vinyl – before 2018, a few of her albums were hard to find on vinyl. Bush also performed her Before the Dawn residency in 2016, and that found her performing songs from (largely) Hounds of Love and Aerial. 2011’s Director’s Cut was Bush reworking tracks from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes and, as I have said she is not a fan of revisiting the past and talking about older albums, she has touched on the past when the occasion was right. I do like how Bush concentrates on what she is recording and is not really one for nostalgia and reminiscence. When she has been asked which of her albums are favourites, she has named Hounds of Love and Aerial as ones that mean a lot – two times in her life when she was very happy and fulfilled. I will end the feature by briefly mentioning how, even though Bush does not look back that often, she does have a fondness for traditional/older recording equipment and sounds – rather than fully embracing modern technology and the present-day method of consumption. I think one of the most surprising aspects of Kate Bush’s career is how she sort of draws a line under anything before 1985. She loved Hounds of Love (1985), but she kind of feels The Dreaming (1982) was a mad and unsettled time; the albums before then were not quite what she wanted to say and is all about.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993
I can appreciate how Hounds of Love was a peak for her, and it was the result of years of experimentation, growth and hard work. As a big fan of her pre-Hound of Love work, it is a shame that the first four albums are not held in such high regard by her. When she was interviewed by Q, she was asked about her earlier albums – and one particular song was mentioned that, years later, is not one she cherishes:
“She is oddly disparaging of albums like Lionheart and Never For Ever now and even then seemed keen to leave this phase behind, perhaps understandably -- she had been given two years to write the songs for The Kick Inside and, allegedly, four weeks to come up with Lionheart. By 1982 she was under the influence of Peter Gabriel and the revolutionary drum sound of Phil Collins's In The Air Tonight. Determined to do something like this herself, she became locked into a hellishly expensive round of aborted studio stints, finally emerging with The Dreaming, easily her weirdest effort and one that effectively stalled her career, peaking at Number 3 (Never For Ever entered at Number 1) and spawning a batch of flop singles. Wild rumours abounded, including the choice story advanced by the Daily Mail that she had ballooned up to 18 stone. This was patently untrue but she *had* ground herself down into a state of nervous fatigue, not helped by a reputed diet of junk food and chocolate. It was not the happiest of times.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her Tour of Life in 1979
"I look back at that record and it seems mad," she says now. "I heard it about three years ago and couldn't believe it. There's a lot of anger in it. There's a lot of 'I'm an artist, right!'" Fingers burned by the experience of The Dreaming, she decided that a studio of her own and a retreat into her domestic shell was a priority. Thus was ushered in a period of stability from whence came the enormously successful Hounds of Love and, in 1990 [1989], The Sensual World. These later records reflected her growing interest in the studio as a compositional tool and her growing desire to stay well out of the public eye”.
“As someone who's written a very stirring song about England (Oh England My Lionheart), will you always be happiest here?”
(Astonished:) "Do you like that one? That's one of the ones I meant. It makes me just want to die. There's just something about that time. It's such an old song. Ooh God, I haven't heard it for so long. Must have been on tour in 1979. Anyway, England, yeah, I am happiest here. We're a funny race, we give each other such a hard time, don't you think? One thing we take very, very seriously is this whole business of taking the piss, the whole stuff about irony. I think there's a real integrity about us under all the layers and our sense of humour is so strong. I've always felt pulled to Ireland because my mother was Irish, but whenever I've gone, I've never felt very at home. So I've played with the idea of staying there. I'm not sure I really could live anywhere else but here. But it might be interesting. For a while".
I guess it sort of answers my question but, as we await (if it will happen) another Kate Bush album, there are plenty of fans who would die to hear her albums from 1978-1982 (inclusive) re-released with demos or receive new attention. I can appreciate how Lionheart, her sophomore release, was rushed and she was given the impossible task of repeating a successful debut in a matter of weeks. I think it is an album that has some wonderful moments; Never for Ever (1980) is a much-underrated record where Bush become bolder in terms of lyrics and compositions (and her vocals), whilst The Dreaming, to me, is one of her best albums. Bush has said, in so many interviews, how she is never truly happy with anything she records – she is at the time, but there is always something that niggles. Perhaps Bush considers her work pre-1985 to be too controlled by the record label/other people. Hounds of Love was the first album she produced solo where there wasn’t this feeling of strain and burden. Maybe it was freedom and the album she had wanted to make all along but, as I have said in features previously, it wouldn’t have been advisable or possible for her to solo produce too much earlier, as she was still learning and benefited from the advice and expertise of more experienced producers and engineers.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
That reluctance to live in the past and discuss her older records might be a bit stifling for an interviewer – in the next feature, I am going to discuss Bush as a dream interview subject -, but that focus on the here and now is what makes her albums sound so new and original. If she was to try to ‘redo’ The Dreaming or Lionheart, then it would seem regressive and lacking in motivation. I do feel that her first four albums are very impressive, and I sort of struggle to understand why Bush is a bit embarrassed. Certainly, she sounds very different on an album like Aerial compared to The Kick Inside. Not only is there a huge time gap between the albums; Bush would naturally change her sound and music as it was. I think Bush should re-examine her earlier albums, as they sound wonderful, and there are so many incredible tracks to be found – even if she is not a fan of Oh England My Lionheart. Whilst Kate Bush is not massively keen regarding her earliest work or talking about that period too much, she is someone who, from a technical and recording standpoint, is more than happy to look back at the past. I have also spoken about this before, but Bush is not overly-fond of digital recordings and the sort of production sound she had to adapt to in 1993 (for The Red Shoes). She feels that digital recording is less warm and full than what you get from analogue.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush poses for the painted cover of Never for Ever (1980)
Nowadays, she mixes digital and analogue, but I think Bush would happily stick with analogue, if it didn’t take so long to record and layer on that format! She is also – and never has been – a real advocate of the way music is being consumed now. Perhaps it is unconnected with Bush’s lack of fervour for her earlier work, but I wanted to illustrate that, whilst Bush is very much about the here and now regarding her albums and not wanting to hark back; in other respects, she is not that happy about the march of time and how it has affected the industry. Many of us consume music digitally, but Bush much prefers her albums to be heard on a physical format, so that people enjoy them as a full piece, rather than selecting tracks or skipping through them. Also, she loves what a vinyl provides: a great album cover, something you can hold, and a real feeling that this is a very real thing. As the album cover is less important, I feel Bush is becoming more dissatisfied. It is a shame that there is so much reliance on the online, but look at the album cover for 50 Words for Snow (2011) and hoe good that it; the fact that so much effort was expended making the songs sound right and producing such brilliant sound – an album that one simply must listen to as a full thing.
PHOTO CREDIT: Armando Gallo
I think all Kate Bush albums have their own skin, and they are all very different. Whilst her first couple of albums are defined by a more romantic, piano-led tone and a particular vocal sound, she did change fairly quickly and, on 1980’s Never for Ever and 1982’s The Dreaming, she opened up her musical palette and grew in confidence and ambition. It is a pity we might not get a retrospective or revisit of the earlier albums from Bush herself, I don’t think they should be seen as embarrassing or insignificant, as they have affected so many people. Bush has changed her opinions since that 1993 Q interview, but I have heard interviews since then where she almost skips past the albums and feels they were a leaping-off point. I think Bush’s work from 1978-1985 was as important as anything after that point, and what we get to hear is a unique artist entering the scene and, with each album, revealing new layers and possibilities. I do think that nostalgia can be a dangerous thing and, if you are a long-serving artist like Kate Bush, you are not going to wasn’t to discuss previous albums when you want to move forward – and they were so long ago, so it can be hard summoning too many clear memories from that time. Bush will now, as she always has, look ahead and almost draw this dividing line through Hounds of Love. Considering Kate Bush’s (relative) dislike of retrospection, it is unlikely we will see too much revisionism and fresh love of those earlier albums that are, in my opinion, astonishing. Though it will never happen, I would love to hear The Kick Inside, Lionheart, Never for Ever and The Dreaming get a new vinyl release with demos and lesser-heard tracks. It is a bit sad that this, alas, will never…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for The Red Shoes (1993)
COME to light.