FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Four
A Possible Third U.K. Single: Wuthering Heights, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, Then…?
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I am going to bring in…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in March 1978
information about the two U.K. singles that were released from Kate Bush’s amazing 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside. As the album turns forty-four on 17th February, I want to look at a subject that interests me. The two best-known songs from the album were released as U.K. singles. Wuthering Heights (20th January) and The Man with the Child in His Eyes (28th May) were very successful – Wuthering Heights is Bush’s only U.K. number one as a solo artist – and were good choices as singles. There were singles released in Japan (Moving and Them Heavy People) and Brazil (Strange Phenomena). Whilst the international singles fared well, America was a nation that didn’t connect with or buy Kate Bush’s music. It is a country that would take a long time – if it has ever done – to catch up and appreciate Bush. I can understand that Japan was a big market and, to be fair, Bush was taken to heart there. Maybe releasing the U.K. singles in Japan might have meant lower chart positions. By releasing different songs in Japan as singles, it meant more of the album was out there. I always wonder why EMI only decided to release two singles in the U.K. That was also true of the 1978’s follow-up, Lionheart. Maybe it took until Bush really started to get attention and commercial success that EMI had more faith. By 1980’s Never for Ever, there was no doubt that Bush’s music was being appreciated around the world – and, as such, more singles were released from the album.
One reason why I bring up the subject is because a third single would have meant another music video. After captivating in the videos for Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes, another video would have been intriguing. A live version of Them Heavy People was released, though there were no videos made for Moving or Strange Phenomena. It might be an obvious to the question as to which song could have been the third U.K. single: one of the songs released in Japan or Brazil. In theory, that makes sense. I think that Moving and Them Heavy People are in the top five best songs from the album. Whilst there is a video for the latter, I would love to have seen what could have been created for Moving. Moving, to me, would seem like an obvious third single. I am going to select the song that I actually think should have been the third U.K. single soon. Before that, here is some information – in the form of interview snippets – where Bush talked about Wuthering Heights:
“I wrote in my flat, sitting at the upright piano one night in March at about midnight. There was a full moon and the curtains were open, and every time I looked up for ideas, I looked at the moon. Actually, it came quite easily. I couldn't seem to get out of the chorus - it had a really circular feel to it, which is why it repeats. I had originally written something more complicated, but I couldn't link it up, so I kept the first bit and repeated it. I was really pleased, because it was the first song I had written for a while, as I'd been busy rehearsing with the KT Band.
I felt a particular want to write it, and had wanted to write it for quite a while. I remember my brother John talking about the story, but I couldn't relate to it enough. So I borrowed the book and read a few pages, picking out a few lines. So I actually wrote the song before I had read the book right through. The name Cathy helped, and made it easier to project my own feelings of want for someone so much that you hate them. I could understand how Cathy felt.
It's funny, but I heard a radio programme about a woman who was writing a book in Old English, and she found she was using words she didn't know, but when she looked them up she found they were correct. A similar thing happened with 'Wuthering Heights': I put lines in the song that I found in the book when I read it later.
I've never been to Wuthering Heights, the place, though I would like to, and someone sent me a photo of where it's supposed to be.
One thing that really pleases me is the amount of positive feedback I've had from the song, though I've heard that the Bronte Society think it's a disgrace. A lot of people have read the book because of the song and liked it, which I think is the best thing about it for me. I didn't know the book would be on the GCE syllabus in the year I had the hit, but lots of people have written to say how the song helped them. I'm really happy about that.
There are a couple of synchronicities involved with the song. When Emily Bronte wrote the book she was in the terminal stages of consumption, and I had a bad cold when I wrote the song. Also, when I was in Canada I found out that Lindsay Kemp, my dance teacher, was in town, only ten minutes away by car, so I went to see him. When I came back I had this urge to switch on the TV - it was about one in the morning - because I knew the film of Wuthering Heights would be on. I tuned in to a thirties gangster film, then flicked through the channels, playing channel roulette, until I found it. I came in at the moment Cathy was dying, so that's all I saw of the film. It was an amazing coincidence”.
I have speculated and tossed about song suggestions when it comes to that theoretical third U.K. single from The Kick Inside. I have come to a firm decision – which I shall explain and explore in a bit. Prior to that, again, here is some more information revelation. Bush talked about what influenced The Man with the Child in His Eyes:
“The inspiration for 'The Man With the Child in His Eyes' was really just a particular thing that happened when I went to the piano. The piano just started speaking to me. It was a theory that I had had for a while that I just observed in most of the men that I know: the fact that they just are little boys inside and how wonderful it is that they manage to retain this magic. I, myself, am attracted to older men, I guess, but I think that's the same with every female. I think it's a very natural, basic instinct that you look continually for your father for the rest of your life, as do men continually look for their mother in the women that they meet. I don't think we're all aware of it, but I think it is basically true. You look for that security that the opposite sex in your parenthood gave you as a child. (Self Portrait, 1978)
I just noticed that men retain a capacity to enjoy childish games throughout their lives, and women don't seem to be able to do that. ('Bird In The Bush', Ritz (UK), September 1978)
Oh, well it's something that I feel about men generally. [Looks around at cameramen] Sorry about this folks. [Cameramen laugh] That a lot of men have got a child inside them, you know I think they are more or less just grown up kids. And that it's a... [Cameramen laugh] No, no, it's a very good quality, it's really good, because a lot of women go out and get far too responsible. And it's really nice to keep that delight in wonderful things that children have. And that's what I was trying to say. That this man could communicate with a younger girl, because he's on the same level. (Swap Shop, 1979)”.
I have previously said how either Moving or Them Heavy People would seem like a likely third single choice in the U.K. Thinking deeper, I think Moving is too close in tone to The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Bush expressed desire for Them Heavy People to come out as a single. Of course, EMI wanted James and the Cold Gun to be the first single. Bush won the battle to have Wuthering Heights as that debut single. If you go for a third single, it has to be different in tone to the others. Both of the U.K. singles are from the first half of The Kick Inside (tracks five and six), so the third single should come from the second half, I feel. Although it has a similar energy to Them Heavy People, I think that Oh to Be in Love should have been the third single in the U.K. Oddly, it was the only song from The Kick Inside Bush did not perform live for 1979’s The Tour of Life. I don’t think that signals a dislike. I feel a good video concept could have come from the song. It is a cut that has a good energy and a great, soaring vocal. One of my favourite songs from The Kick Inside, it shows a different lyrics angle to the other tracks. Even though it was not a single, it was included in a four-track E.P. called 4 Sucessos, released in Brazil. Bridging a commercial sound with something distinctly that of Kate Bush, I predict Oh to Be in Love could have been a top-twenty success. It also kind of pairs nicely with Hammer Horror. The first single from her second album, Lionheart, the two have a similar sort of pace. That song was released on 27th October, 1978. Strange Phenomena (the last single from The Kick Inside) was released on 1st June, 1978. I reckon an August release of Oh to Be in Love could have worked. Although Bush was recording Lionheart in France then and may not have been able to go on Top of the Pops, she could have done some promotion.
I think there are a few songs on The Kick Inside that are overlooked. I am not sure whether Oh to Be in Love has ever been played on U.K. radio. Maybe it has, though I have not encountered that. I love some of the images Bush paints with her lyrics. This is a great example: “All the colours look brighter now/Everything they say seems to sound new/Slipping into tomorrow too quick/Yesterday always too good to forget/Stop the swing of the pendulum! Let us through!”. It is a shame that the song did not get a chance to be staged and fully brought to life. A song that seems to indicate a fear of being trapped in a bad relationship, this is a track that I have a lot of love for. Even though one cannot turn back time and make suggestions about the single releases from The Kick Inside, Oh to Be in Love would have been great after The Man with the Child in His Eyes. The three U.K. singles would have shown the full sonic, lyrical and vocal range of Bush. Perhaps EM felt that a third U.K. single would give too much away. The runaway success of Wuthering Heights took over a lot of Bush’s 1978. Maybe I will explore this concept more in a future feature: which ‘lost’ or possible singles could have been released from her studio albums, were there to be another one? It is curious to ponder. The Kick Inside is forty-four on `17th February, so I wanted to write one more feature about my favourite ever album. On an album full of great tracks, maybe the brilliant Oh to Be in Love could have been a popular single. Who knows. All I do know is that it is a track that…
PEOPLE need to listen to!