FEATURE:
Never, Never Say Goodbye
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Griffin
Kate Bush’s Jig of Life
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I know that I have given…
Kate Bush’s fifth studio album, Hounds of Love, a pretty good going over. I have ranked its tracks and explored it from different angles. I have also written about the Irish roots of Bush and the Irish themes on some of her tracks. I do not think I have spotlighted Jig of Life and written about it in much detail. I have been re-reading Graeme Thomson’s excellent biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, and I was intrigued about his writing about Hounds of Love. He is especially impassioned about the second side, The Ninth Wave. Jig of Life is the fifth track on that seven-song suite. After Christmas 1983, sessions were moved to Ireland. Thomson notes that, after the success of The Dreaming’s Night of the Swallow – I assume he means Bush felt pleased with the song, as the track was unsuccessful when it was released as a single in Ireland only -, she was interesting in exploring Irish music more. By spring 1984, she travelled to Dublin for sessions at Windmill Lane, where pipes, fiddles and other Irish instrumentation was added to And Dream of Sheep and Hello Earth. The most obvious and intense nod to Ireland comes from Jig of Life. Donal Lunny has said how Bush was pretty exacting and intense when it came to the whistle note at the end of And Dream of Sheep – making him play it over and over for several hours until she got the sound she was searching for. She definitely had an idea of what she wanted her music to sound like and was not going to settle. That being said, she had a great bond and relationship with the musicians she worked alongside.
Bush finished writing Jig of Life at Bill Whelan’s house the day before heading into the studio – Whelan oversaw the Irish sessions and arrangements for The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. Recorded over a few days with some of Ireland’s best session musicians - fiddles, whistles: John Sheahan, bouzouki, bodhran: Donal Lunny, uillean pipes: Liam O'Flynn -, by all accounts, it sounds like the sessions were magical and productive! Del Palmer (bass) recalls how, when they were playing along with him and the rest of the musicians, it was so intense and wonderful! Having Irish family and roots, it was important to Bush to get this authentic sound from musicians who could provide something pure and strong. Jig of Life, to me, is one of the most important and impressive songs on Hounds of Love. It seems like the moment in The Ninth Wave where the heroine starts to sense hope and finds strength. The Ninth Wave is a woman who has been left at sea with only the light form her life jacket providing any guidance. It is a psychological odyssey where our protagonist wrestles with fear, doubt and delirium as she tries to stay awake and safe from whatever lurks beneath the dark ocean. Surviving through to the morning where she is eventually rescued, it is a masterful song suite that is akin to an opera or some huge production!
It is, doubtless, one of Kate Bush defining achievements. Jig of Life is such a spirited and intoxicatingly energetic track! In this piece from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, we discover where Jig of Life fits into The Ninth Wave’s story and chronology:
“At this point in the story, it's the future self of this person coming to visit them to give them a bit of help here. I mean, it's about time they have a bit of help. So it's their future self saying, "look, don't give up, you've got to stay alive, 'cause if you don't stay alive, that means I don't." You know, "and I'm alive, I've had kids [laughs]. I've been through years and years of life, so you have to survive, you mustn't give up."
This was written in Ireland. At one point I did quite a lot of writing, you know, I mean lyrically, particularly. And again it was a tremendous sort of elemental dose I was getting, you know, all this beautiful countryside. Spending a lot of time outside and walking, so it had this tremendous sort of stimulus from the outside. And this was one of the tracks that the Irish musicians that we worked with was featured on.
There was a tune that my brother Paddy found which... he said "you've got to hear this, you'll love it." And he was right [laughs], he played it to me and I just thought, you know, "this would be fantastic somehow to incorporate here."
Was just sort of, pull this person up out of despair. (Richard Skinner, 'Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992)”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
I love how Jig of Life is this sort of dream or vision that gives the protagonist strength to keep going. Maybe, after the struggles and stresses to this point, this is the moment when things change. By the next track, Hello Earth, there seems to be this calm as the heroine floats above the world and looks down. The juxtaposition between the frenetic and rousing Jig of Life compared to the more serene and touching Hello Earth is marked. In terms of lyrics, Hounds of Love is Bush at the prime of her craft. The way she builds in imagery and dialogue is incredible! The opening lines and verses of Jig of Life showcase that: “Hello, old lady/I know your face well/I know it well/She says. "Ooh-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na! I'll be sitting in your mirror/Now is the place where the crossroads meet/Will you look into the future? "Never, never say goodbye/ To my part of your life/ No, no, no, no, no!/Oh, oh, oh/"Let me live!”/She said "C'mon and let me live, girl!”/She said, "C'mon and let me live, girl!" ("C'mon and let me live!")”. At 4:04, Jig of Life seems like the perfect length. It allows for plenty of that incredible musicianship from Sheahan, Lunny and O’Flynn. Her lyrics are so full of poetry and beauty against the wild wind and spiritual energy of the music. The final words are among the most gorgeous and memorable from all of Hounds of Love: “Come over here to where When lingers/Waiting in this empty world/Waiting for Then, when the lifespray cools/For Now does ride in on the curl of the wave/And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools/We are of the going water and the gone/We are of water in the holy land of water/And all that's to come runs in/With the thrust on the strand”. Coming between the more settled and calming songs, Watching You Without Me and Hello Earth (which builds in drama nearer the end) is this burst of life that has a very different sonic palette. It is a magnificent track from The Ninth Wave where one can feel and hear Bush’s heart and soul throughout. In terms of the story and chapters on The Ninth Wave, Jig of Life appears at…
SUCH an important moment.