FEATURE:
Past the Point of No Return
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush shot in 2005 as part of the Aerial sessions/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
Kate Bush’s Pi
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I am not sure…
whether I discussed Pi when marking the fifteenth anniversary of Kate Bush’s double album, Aerial, last year. If I did, then I want to return from a very unusual song from an artist who has never really walked on the conventional path! Aerial is such an ambitious and triumphant album. Much like Hounds of Love, there are conventional songs (as conventional as she could be, anyway!) and a conceptual suite. Recorded when her son, Bertie, was a small child, one can hear the warmth and his importance. Rather than it being a homely/soft album, there is a sense of peace, reflection and appreciation of nature and focusing on what is important. Looking at things Bush sang about prior to 2005, it should not have come as a surprise that she wanted to tackle a mathematical constant. As of 2019, π has been calculated to 31.4 trillion decimal places. It would have taken a while for her to get that far! Before quoting an interview where Bush spoke about the idea for writing Pi, an article from 2005 highlights a small error she made in her calculations:
“A great observation from Simon Singh's recent article in the Telegraph.
Chris McEvoy pointed out that Aerial, the new album from Kate Bush, has the mathematically flawed song "Pi". Although Bush seems to be singing the digits of Pi, McEvoy decided to check.
All was well for the first 78 decimal places, but suddenly disaster struck: "Then it went to hell in a handbasket," said McEvoy, "when she missed out the next 22 digits completely before finishing with a precise rendition of her final 37 digits."
He was right to point out Kate Bush's error, particularly as she seems to be trying to capture the essence of being a mathematician: "Sweet and gentle and sensitive man, With an obsessive nature and deep fascination for numbers, And a complete infatuation with the calculation of Pi".
I don’t suspect that Bush would lose too much sleep knowing about a minor error. The fact that she dedicated a song to π is amazing. It is the sort of thing one might hear from an experimental artist or in the underground. As one of the most popular and beloved artists ever, it was quite a risk! Ahead of Aerial turning sixteen in November, I am going to put together a few features about the album. This article from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia highlights an interview I was not even aware of:
“I really like the challenge of singing numbers, as opposed to words because numbers are so unemotional as a lyric to sing and it was really fascinating singing that. Trying to sort of, put an emotional element into singing about...a seven...you know and you really care about that nine. I find numbers fascinating, the idea that nearly everything can be broken down into numbers, it is a fascinating thing; and i think also that we are completely surrounded by numbers now, in a way that we weren't you know even 20, 30 years ago we're all walking around with mobile phones and numbers on our foreheads almost; and it's like you know computers...
I suppose, um, I find it fascinating that there are people who actually spend their lives trying to formulate pi; so the idea of this number, that, in a way is possibly something that will go on to infinity and yet people are trying to pin it down and put their mark on and make it theirs in a way I guess also i think you know you get a bit a lot of connection with mathematism and music because of patterns and shapes... (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 31 October 2005)”.
With her lyrics, Kate Bush tells fascinating stories and takes the listener somewhere special. That is true of Pi. This is my favourite passage: “Oh he love, he love, he love/He does love his numbers/And they run, they run, they run him/In a great big circle/In a circle of infinity/But he must, he must, he must/Put a number to it”. Coming straight after Aerial’s only single, King of the Mountain, I love the fact Bush put Pi as the second track! It is quite brave and bold sequencing. One might assume a song like How to Be Invisible or Joanni would be next. Pi is over six minutes - so it something people have to invest time in. Many fans might put it in the bottom three of their least-favourite tracks from Aerial, but I really like it! Such an engrossing and unusual song, one can definitely get lost in it. I will wrap up in a second. Aerial is such a wonderful (double) album that has these wonderful and individual songs on the first side – A Sea of Honey – that is followed by a suite set over the course of a single day – the magnificent A Sky of Honey. I might delve back into that second side in the next Aerial feature. Go and listen to Pi, and go and investigate to the other tracks on Aerial. A masterful ‘return’ (Bush’s previous album, The Red Shoes, was released in 1993) of 2005, I really love the sounds and songs of her eighth studio album. I think that Pi is an underrated and…
FASCINATING track.