FEATURE:
To Whom All Things Return…
Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes at Twenty-Eight: A Look at a Standout Track, Lily
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RATHER than look at the whole album…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993
I want to spend a bit of time with one of the highlights from Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes. Her seventh studio album, it was released on 1st November, 1993. The album was accompanied by Bush’s short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve. The album reached number two in the U.K. album chart and has been certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for over 300,000 copies sold. The album also reached number twenty-eight in the U.S. album chart. I think that The Red Shoes is one of the underrated Bush albums. Far stronger than many give it credit for, I recently produced a feature where I stated, if the tracks were put in a different order, it might lead to a better and more consistent listening experience. Ahead of its twenty-eighth anniversary, I wanted to have a look at Lily. To me, this seems like a natural opening track. Though the bounce and urgency of the actual album opener, Rubberband Girl – my favourite song on The Red Shoes – is great, the slow fade-in and eventually rapture of Lily is a sublime way to open an album that has so many different moods and layers. I feel that, because of the production sound, it was only natural Bush wanted to rework some of the songs from The Red Shoes (and The Sensual World) for her 2011 album, Director’s Cut.
The Red Shoes is an album that definitely warrants more exposure. It has got some mixed reviews, though the fact that it did so well in the U.K. and U.S. is no fluke. 1993 was a busy and exciting year for music. Although the decade was not as hugely prolific one for Bush, she proved that she could adapt and bring her music into its third decade. Lily is a great song that you hear now and then on the radio. The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia gives some background about the song:
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. The song is devoted to Lily Cornford, a noted spiritual healer in London with whom Bush became close friends in the 1990s. “She was one of those very rare people who are intelligent, intuitive and kind,” Kate has said of Cornford, who believed in mental colour healing—a process whereby patients would be restored to health by seeing various hues. “I was really moved by Lily and impressed with her strength and knowledge, so it led to a song - which she thought was hilarious”.
I like the story’s behind Bush’s songs. You get a real sense of who Lily is through the lyrics. The fact that Cornford narrates gives the song an extra element of authenticity. Bush did not bring too many female voices into her music. The fact that Cornford also appears alongside the Trio Bulgarka (a Bulgarian Folk ensemble) is wonderful.
Whilst we do see a video for the song in The Line, the Cross and the Curve, I would really have loved to have seen the track performed live in 2014. Bush opened Before the Dawn with Lily. It shows that she has an attachment to the track and, as it kind of offers up a prayer, it was the right tone for the audience in 2014 – perfectly introducing them to what was about to unfold. I like the version that appears on Director’s Cut, though I think Lily sounds best on The Red Shoes. The lyrics are remarkable. Some of the words on The Red Shoes are not at Kate Bush’s normal peak. Lily is an exception. Such an evocative song: “Oh thou, who givest sustenance to the universe/From whom all things proceed/To whom all things return/Unveil to us the face of the true spiritual sun/Hidden by a disc of golden light/That we may know the truth/And do our whole duty/As we journey to thy sacred feet”. The bond and trust between Bush and her healer are clear. Bush feels affected and shocked: “Well I said/"Lily, Oh Lily I don't feel safe/I feel that life has blown a great big hole/Through me"/And she said/"Child, you must protect yourself/I'll show you how with fire". The two versions of Lily do not differ too much when it comes to composition. John Giblin is on bass, whilst Dan McIntosh is on guitar. The biggest difference is that Mica Paris provides some backing vocals on the 2011 version for Director’s Cut. Twenty-eight years after The Red Shoes was released, it is an album that I am growing to love more and more. It is thanks to songs like Lily that it remains such a great album. To me, Lily is one of Kate Bush’s…
BEST songs.