FEATURE:
Ranking Tracks from Kate Bush’s Albums…
Never for Ever
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I am pretty sure…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at the 1980 British Rock and Pop Awards/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix/Getty Images
I will cover off The Red Shoes and The Sensual World before wrapping up this series – one where I look at Kate Bush studio albums and rank the tracks on them. I have not done it yet, so I thought it would be a good idea. I love her albums and feel they deserve a complete listen, though I also admire individual tracks and think there are some that shine above others. Bush’s third studio album, Never for Ever, was released in 1980 and came a year (less) after The Tour of Life (where Bush performed around the U.K. and Europe). I would advise people to get the album on vinyl. Before ranking its eleven tracks, here is some information from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia:
“Third album by Kate Bush, released by EMI Records on 5 September 1980. The album was produced by Kate Bush and Jon Kelly and recorded between September 1979 and May 1980. All the songs were written and composed by Kate.
Critical reception
The album was favourably received by music critics at the time, save for a curiously critical review in Record Mirror: "...one of the most empty dull packets of poop one could ever hope to avoid". Soundswas equally critical: "This album has been a long time in the making, but I'm not sure that this is always a good thing." Melody Maker was more enthusiastic: "Any doubts that this is the best Bush album yet are finally obliterated by the inspired unorthodoxy of the production. I had to look to see if Steve Lillywhite wasn't at the controls - it's that clean and fresh".
Now, after all this waiting it is here. It's strange when I think back to the first album. I thought it would never feel as new or as special again. This one has proved me wrong. It's been the most exciting. Its name is Never For Ever, and I've called it this because I've tried to make it reflective of all that happens to you and me. Life, love, hate, we are all transient. All things pass, neither good [n]or evil lasts. So we must tell our hearts that it is "never for ever", and be happy that it's like that!
The album cover has been beautifully created by Nick Price (you may remember that he designed the front of the Tour programme). On the cover of Never For Ever Nick takes us on an intricate journey of our emotions: inside gets outside, as we flood people and things with our desires and problems. These black and white thoughts, these bats and doves, freeze-framed in flight, swoop into the album and out of your hi-fis. Then it's for you to bring them to life. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)”.
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11. Violin
“The studio version is the only officially released version. However, a demo version of 'Violin' has also surfaced. It appears on the bootleg 7" single 'Cathy Demos Volume Three' and various bootleg CD's.
Performances
'Violin' was premiered during the Tour of Life, when it was performed as the eighth song of the first act. At the end of 1979, Kate performed 'Violin' during the Christmas Special, after which she never performed the song again.
Kate about 'Violin'
'Violin' is for all the mad fiddlers from 'Paganini' to 'Old Nick' himself. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
10. Egypt
“Song written by Kate Bush. She described the song as 'an attempted audial animation of the romantic and realistic visions of a country'. The song was premiered during the Christmas Special in 1979 and released on the album Never For Ever in 1980.
'Egypt' is an attempted audial animation of the romantic and realistic visions of a country. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)
The song is very much about someone who has not gone there thinking about Egypt, going: "Oh, Egypt! It's so romantic... the pyramids!" Then in the breaks, there's meant to be the reality of Egypt, the conflict. It's meant to be how blindly we see some things - "Oh, what a beautiful world", you know, when there's shit and sewers all around you. (Kris Needs, Fire in the Bush. Zigzag (UK), 1980)
Drums, percussion: Preston Heyman
Electric bass: Del Palmer
Fender Rhodes, Minimoog: Max Middleton
Strumento de Porco, Backing vocals: Paddy Bush
Prophet 5: Mike Moran” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
9. Night Scented Stock
“Song written by Kate Bush. Not to be confused with the flower of the same name, 'Night Scented Stock' is an instrumental song consisting entirely of layered vocals. On the album Never For Ever, it leads into the next song, Army Dreamers.
Cover versions
'Night Scented Stock' was covered by Göteborgs Symfoniker and Marie Haddad. It was also sampled in the track 'Les Enfants du Paradis' by Loopzone” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
8. Blow Away (For Bill)
“Song written by Kate Bush. It was dedicated to Bill Duffield. The phrase 'Put out the Light, then put out the light' comes from Shakespeare's Othello, in the scene just before Othello kills Desdemona. The song mentions the names of deceased musicians, in the following order: Minnie Riperton, Keith Moon, Sid Vicious, Buddy Holly and Sandy Denny.
'Blow Away' is a comfort for the fear of dying and for those of us who believe that music is perhaps an exception to the 'Never For Ever' rule. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)
So there's comfort for the guy in my band, as when he dies, he'll go "Hi, Jimi!" It's very tongue-in-cheek, but it's a great thought that if a musician dies, his soul will join all the other musicians and a poet will join all the Dylan Thomases and all that.
None of those people [who have had near-death experiences] are frightened by death anymore. It's almost something they're looking forward to. All of us have such a deep fear of death. It's the ultimate unknown, at the same time it's our ultimate purpose. That's what we're here for. So I thought this thing about the death-fear. I like to think I'm coming to terms with it, and other people are too. The song was really written after someone very special died.
Although the song had been formulating before and had to be written as a comfort to those people who are afraid of dying, there was also this idea of the music, energies in us that aren't physical: art, the love in people. It can't die, because where does it go? It seems really that music could carry on in radio form, radio waves... There are people who swear they can pick up symphonies from Chopin, Schubert. We're really transient, everything to do with us is transient, except for these non-physical things that we don't even control... (Kris Needs, 'Lassie'. Zigzag (UK), November 1985)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
7. The Infant Kiss
“Song written by Kate Bush. It was inspired by the gothic horror movie The Innocents, which in turn was inspired by Henry James' novel 'The Turn Of The Screw'. The story is about a governess who believes the ghost of her predecessor's dead lover is trying to possess the bodies of the children she is looking after. The song was released on the album Never For Ever.
Versions
There are two versions of this song: the original album version and a French version, entitled Un Baiser d'Enfant, released two years later.
'The Infant Kiss' is about a governess. She is torn between the love of an adult man and child who are within the same body. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
6. All We Ever Look For
“Song written by Kate Bush. The Fairlight is used on this track to great effect, with many sound samples being played back. At one point, a group of Hare Krishna followers is singing the 'Maha Mantra', with Kate using a tiny part of a line from this mantra: "(Hare) Krishna, Hare Krishna, (Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare)", presumably to represent the chorus immediately following the sound clips: "a God", followed by birdsong ("A Drug") and then finally applause ("A Hug"). The song was released on the album Never For Ever.
'All We Ever Look For' is about how we seek something but in the wrong way or at wrong times so it is never found. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)
One of my new songs, 'All We Ever Look For', it's not about me. It's about family relationships generally. Our parents got beaten physically. We get beaten psychologically. The last line - "All we ever look for - but we never did score".' Well, that's the way it is - you do get faced sometimes with futile situations. But the answer's not to kill yourself. You have to accept it, you have to cope with it. (Derek Jewell, 'How To Write Songs And Influence People'. Sunday Times (UK), 5 October 1980)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
5. Delius (Song of Summer)
“Song written by Kate Bush as a tribute to the English composer Frederick Delius. The song was inspired by Ken Russell's film Song of Summer, made for the BBC's programme Omnibus, which Kate had watched when she was ten years old. In his twenties, Delius contracted syphilis. When he became wheelchair bound as he became older, a young English admirer Eric Fenby volunteered his services as unpaid amanuensis. Between 1928 and 1933 he took down his compositions from dictation, and helping him revise earlier works.The song was released on the album Never For Ever and as the B-side of the single Army Dreamers.
Music video
A music video for 'Delius' exists, which was shown on television at least twice: during a Dr. Hook television special on 7 April 1980 and during the Russell Harty Show on 25 November 1980. The setting is a quiet, lazy English riverbank filled with reeds and grass. By the bank is a wheelchair-ridden old man, his body covered by a throw-rug, his head obscured by a large yellow disk resembling a sun. This figure presents an image of Delius much like the one which was depicted in the BBC television film by Ken Russell. Gliding along on the river is a young swan-girl, represented by Kate in a gossamer white gown with wings” – Kate Bush Encyclopedialike
4. Army Dreamers
“Song written by Kate Bush. The song is about the effects of war and about a mother who grieves for her young adult son, who was killed on military manoeuvres. Saddened by his unnecessary death, she wrestles with her guilt over what she could have done to prevent it. The song was originally released on the album Never For Ever, and as a single soon thereafter.
The song was blacklisted during the Gulf War in 1991 – joining a list of 67 songs simultaneously banned from BBC airplay, including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, ABBA and Queen
It's the first song I've ever written in the studio. It's not specifically about Ireland, it's just putting the case of a mother in these circumstances, how incredibly sad it is for her. How she feels she should have been able to prevent it. If she'd bought him a guitar when he asked for one. (Colin Irwin, 'Paranoia And Passion Of The Kate Inside'. Melody Maker (UK), 10 October 1980)
The song is about a mother who lost her son overseas. It doesn't matter how he died, but he didn't die in action - it was an accident. I wanted the mother to be a very simple woman who's obviously got a lot of work to do. She's full of remorse, but he has to carry on, living in a dream. Most of us live in a dream. (Week-long diary, Flexipop, 1980)
No, it's not personal. It's just a mother grieving and observing the waste. A boy with no O-levels, say, who might have [??? Line missing!] whatever. But he's nothing to do, no way to express himself. So he joins the army. He's trapped. So many die, often in accidents. I'm not slagging off the army, because it's good for certain people. But there are a lot of people in it who shouldn't be. (Derek Jewell, 'How To Write Songs And Influence People'. Sunday Times (UK), 5 October 1980)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
3. Breathing
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released as the lead single from Kate's third album Never For Ever. The lyrics of the song are about a foetus, very much aware of what is going on outside the womb and frightened by nuclear fallout, which implies that the song is set either during a nuclear war scare or a post-apocalyptic birth. The lyrics also refer to the foetus absorbing nicotine from the mother's smoking. In an interview that year Bush described the song as her "little symphony", adding that she considered it her best work to date. Bush stated that the information within the song mostly came from a documentary she had seen about the effects of nuclear war, while the tone of the song was inspired by Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'. The song was recorded over three days in early 1980.
It's about a baby still in the mother's womb at the time of a nuclear fallout, but it's more of a spiritual being. It has all its senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing, and it knows what is going on outside the mother's womb, and yet it wants desperately to carry on living, as we all do of course. Nuclear fallout is something we're all aware of, and worried about happening in our lives, and it's something we should all take time to think about. We're all innocent, none of us deserve to be blown up. (Deanne Pearson, 'The Me Inside'. Smash Hits (UK), May 1980)
When I wrote the song, it was from such a personal viewpoint. It was just through having heard a thing for years without it ever having got through to me. 'Til the moment it hit me, I hadn't really been moved. Then I suddenly realised the whole devastation and disgusting arrogance of it all. Trying to destroy something that we've not created - the earth. The only thing we are is a breathing mechanism: everything is breathing. Without it we're just nothing. All we've got is our lives, and I was worried that when people heard it they were going to think, 'She's exploiting commercially this terribly real thing.' I was very worried that people weren't going to take me from my emotional standpoint rather than the commercial one. But they did, which is great. I was worried that people wouldn't want to worry about it because it's so real. I was also worried that it was too negative, but I do feel that there is hope in the whole thing, just for the fact that it's a message from the future. It's not from now, it's from a spirit that may exist in the future, a non-existent spiritual embryo who sees all and who's been round time and time again so they know what the world's all about. This time they don't want to come out, because they know they're not going to live. It's almost like the mother's stomach is a big window that's like a cinema screen, and they're seeing all this terrible chaos. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. Zigzag (UK), 1980)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
2. The Wedding List
“Song written by Kate Bush. The song was inspired by a François Truffaut's film called The Bride Wore Black ('La Mariée était en noir'). It tells of a groom who is accidentally murdered on the day of his wedding by a group of five people who shoot at him from a window. The bride succeeds in tracking down each one of the five and kills them in a row, including the last one who happens to be in jail.
The song was premiered during the Christmas Special in 1979. The studio recording was released on Kate's third album, Never For Ever, a little over eight months later.
Revenge is so powerful and futile in the situation in the song. Instead of just one person being killed, it's three: her husband, the guy who did it - who was right on top of the wedding list with the silver plates - and her, because when she's done it, there's nothing left. All her ambition and purpose has all gone into that one guy. She's dead, there's nothing there. (Kris Needs, 'Fire in the Bush'. Zigzag, 1980)
Revenge is a terrible power, and the idea is to show that it's so strong that even at such a tragic time it's all she can think about. I find the whole aggression of human beings fascinating - how we are suddenly whipped up to such an extent that we can't see anything except that. Did you see the film Deathwish, and the way the audience reacted every time a mugger got shot? Terrible - though I cheered, myself. (Mike Nicholls, 'Among The Bushes'. Record Mirror, 1980) – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
1. Babooshka
“Kate performed 'Babooshka' in various European programmes, including Collaro (France), Countdown (Netherlands) and Rock Pop (Germany). Her performance of the song in a Dr. Hook television special remains the first, and is memorable for the costume she is wearing: on her the right side she resembles a staid Victorian lady in mourning dress; on the left side a glittering, liberated young woman in a silvery jumpsuit, with bright lightning-streaks painted down the left side of her face. Her figure is lit so that only the "repressed" side of her costume is visible during the verses of the song, and mainly the "free" side during the choruses.
Apparently it is grandmother, it's also a headdress that people wear. But when I wrote the song it was just a name that literally came into my mind, I've presumed I've got it from a fairy story I'd read when I was a child. And after having written the song a series of incredible coincidences happened where I'd turned on the television and there was Donald Swan singing about Babooshka. So I thought, "Well, there's got to be someone who's actually called Babooshka." So I was looking through Radio Times and there, another coincidence, there was an opera called Babooshka. Apparently she was the lady that the three kings went to see because the star stopped over her house and they thought "Jesus is in there".' So they went in and he wasn't. And they wouldn't let her come with them to find the baby and she spent the rest of her life looking for him and she never found him. And also a friend of mine had a cat called Babooshka. So these really extraordinary things that kept coming up when in fact it was just a name that came into my head at the time purely because it fitted. (Peter Powell interview, Radio 1 (UK), 11 October 1980)
I love the melody line of the bass guitar on this song. We got through a lot of boxes of broken crockery to get the right sound at the end - the canteen ladies were not impressed.
It was really a theme that has fascinated me for some time. It's based on a theme that is often used in folk songs, which is where the wife of the husband begins to feel that perhaps he's not faithful. And there's no real strength in her feelings, it's just more or less paranoia suspicions, and so she starts thinking that she's going to test him, just to see if he's faithful. So what she does is she gets herself a pseudonym, which happens to be Babooshka, and she sends him a letter. And he responds very well to the letter, because as he reads it, he recognises the wife that he had a couple of years ago, who was happy, in the letter. And so he likes it, and she decides to take it even further and get a meeting together to see how he reacts to this Babooshka lady instead of her. When he meets her, again because she is so similar to his wife, the one that he loves, he's very attracted to her. Of course she is very annoyed and the break in the song is just throwing the restaurant at him... (...) The whole idea of the song is really the futility and the stupidness of humans and how by our own thinking, spinning around in our own ideas we come up with completely paranoid facts. So in her situation she was in fact suspicious of a man who was doing nothing wrong, he loved her very much indeed. Through her own suspicions and evil thoughts she's really ruining the relationship. (Countdown Australia, 1980)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia