FEATURE:
Dreaming, Nightmares and Reawakening
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and her mother Hannah in the video for Suspended in Gaffa, 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush and Little Brown Book Group (from KATE: Inside the Rainbow)
Kate Bush 1982-1983: Her Most Transformative Career Period?
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I have written about Kate Bush…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studios on 15th October, 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport/GI
and the year 1983 before. I will come back to that. I am writing a run of features around albums of hers that have anniversaries this month. One of them is 2005’s Aerial. That year and double album was a real revelation. Many did not think there would be another Kate Bush album after 1993’s The Red Shoes. Many might think that both 1993 and 2005 are crucial years and transformative periods for Bush. The former was a busy year where Bush reached a point where she could not really carry on how she was. Perhaps exhausted and not at her peak, she would step away and was growing weary of being seen as weird and reclusive. Perhaps still being labelled and judged, she need time away. Not that she had a breakdown or was ground down. You could tell that this was a time in her career when she needed an extended time away without demands. In 2005, Bush came back to music seemingly renewed. With a different sound and type of music, this was a very different artist to the one that the public heard in 1993. After the birth of her son Bertie in 1998, you get the sense Kate Bush was reinvigorated and given fresh purpose and inspiration. It is arguable to say 1993 and 2005 were pivotal times in her career. I would say, in terms of transformation and revival, looking at 1982 and 1983 are the most crucial two years.
I shall not revisit 1982’s The Dreaming too much, as I did so when writing features for its to mark its fortieth (which happened in September). I am thinking back forty years and what Kate Bush’s world must have felt like. Consider the fact she was immersed in recording and promoting The Dreaming in 1982. The album seemed to be most exhausting for Bush. The first she produced solo, Bush threw everything into it. From the density, depth, and originality of songs, through to the amazing sound, use of the Fairlight CMI and the breadth of the compositions, this was her most compelling, layered, and innovative album to that point. The effort, attention and time committed to getting it finished did not gel too well with EMI – who wanted to something sooner (her previous album Never for Ever, came out in 1980) and commercial -, and there was a slight sense of confusion from some critics. In retrospect, one might see 1982 (and the period from September 1980 when she started recording) as a year when Bush burned out or, in an effort to have autonomy and prove herself as a serious artist, pushed herself beyond the limit. I actually think it was a moment when Bush wanted to follow music heroes and innovators like David Bowie and release something almost artistic. A record that would last for decades. I have raved about The Dreaming and how important it is. Acclaimed now and considered one of her best albums, there were repercussions and effects.
Before getting to that, Frieze recently looked at The Dreaming and ended with some profound and thought-provoking words (…“the transmutation of her sweet (if ‘kooky’) aesthetic into something rambunctious and resistant. But a description, too, of how we ought to behave as belated adepts of such a creation. The icon, no matter how loved or venerated, is not the artist – let alone a substitute for the waywardness of the work. Before and after The Dreaming, and likely for different reasons, Bush shied from her wildest instincts, or directed them to more melodic or commercial ends. But here, for a moment, all is suspended, all is possible. Am I doing it? Can I have it all?”). There are some sections of the article that really caught my eye and are relevant to this feature:
“In some ways, The Dreaming – Bush’s first commercial failure following three hit albums – is very much an artefact of 1982. It was the year that avowedly primitive, if futuristic, synth pop gave way to something more lush, wild and expansive. ABC’s The Lexicon of Love, The Associates’ Sulk, Prince’s 1999: like The Dreaming, these are records on which the rigours of inherited forms – pop, funk or post-punk – are thrown to the wind and all whims indulged, whether recording in an abandoned swimming pool (Bush) or filling the drum kit with water (Associates). The new technologies of digital synthesis and (especially) sampling began to recast mainstream pop as pure aural adventure, everything suddenly vaster than it had sounded months before.
Of course, some versions of this moment were more extreme than others, but the shift, which lasted until the middle of the decade, was towards a kind of digital psychedelia, distinct from the one then emerging in dance music of the same period – more sheerly strange new sounds on the radio than anyone had heard since 1967. In 1982, nobody expected Bush to be at or near the hard edge of a new aesthetic. From her first hit, ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1978), onwards, the combustion was all in her melodies and skyrocketing voice.
By contrast, the instrumental texture of her records sometimes sounded as if confected by the house orchestra of a 1970s chat show. But Bush had lately become fascinated by the potential of the Fairlight CMI: a digital synthesizer, workstation and sampler she’d employed sporadically on her 1980 album Never for Ever. And she was impressed by the huge, gated-reverb drum sounds attained on recent albums by Peter Gabriel and Public Image Ltd. Bush engaged the recording engineers Hugh Padgham and Nick Launay, who’d worked on those records, but produced The Dreaming herself; the result, as Richard Cook wrote at the time in New Musical Express (1957–2018), is an album on which ‘at any one moment, everything is going on’.
“After The Dreaming, Bush retreated, built her own studio, went deeper with her machines and returned on Hounds of Love with a sleeker sound for the album’s four singles, while also establishing a simple division between these and the record’s eerie, conceptual second side, titled The Ninth Wave. Suddenly, she was perceived as a mature artist, an avant-gardist of the hit parade, a pioneer of a modern, studio-bound version of female independence in the music business. All of which is in play now when we speak of her legacy among artists since: Björk, Fever Ray, FKA Twigs, Lorde, Joanna Newsom, Caroline Polachek, SOPHIE and Tricky. Such lists, and regular interview namechecks, can feel dutiful and obvious, pointing to superficial resemblances. Whereas the actual influence (if that is at all the word) of a work like The Dreaming is more fleeting, submerged, a matter of textural spectre or unlocatable atmosphere”.
How bad, transformative, and challenging was 1982? It was definitely a busy year. I think, in terms of media perception and what she was being asked in interviews, there was still a feeling that she was not a serious artist. Perhaps too kooky to be considered relevant and serious. Before wrapping up the 1982 section with a sense of how she was feeling and how essential 1983 was, I want to quote from the BREAKTHROUGH 5 interview that Abby Sheffield conducted circa 1983:
“Home for Kate Bush means both her parents' house in Kent and the place that she and her brothers, Paddy and John, have bought about seven miles away. The location of the new house is a closely guarded secret <no longer where Kate herself lives> and they bought it so that trips up and down to London would be easier. Home also means seeing her friends--some new ones from the music business, some old ones from school days and from her brother's old band, with whom Kate used to sing before going solo. Finally, home means being with her boyfriend, about whom she is understandably secretive.
"It's hard because my life is so unpredictable. He's an artist, by the way, but not in the music business.<This is a rare instance where Kate has made an outright lie to the press.> It's the one area of my life that I really do consider private. And I can't keep it private unless I keep it close."
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Griffin
Have three years as a superstar changed her at all? "Yes," she admits; "I've become a perfectionist, for one thing." Although not a lonely teenager, she did spend a lot of time on her own, singing, reading and writing the poetry which forms the basis of her songs. "I wasn't a daydreamer," she says. "Writing songs and poetry is putting into words and music my real feelings. Without being too critical of Wuthering Heights, I do think that it was a bit misleading; it seemed to suggest too much fantasy and escapism"
Kate wants to dispel the notion that she is someone who writes about fantasy. "I think my lyrics have a far tougher edge to them now. I always thought that ultimately I would be super tough...presuming that as I gathered experiences I would learn to accept situations for what they are. That has worked in some ways, but in others I'm far more vulnerable."
One new song on her next album has Kate talking about herself and her new awareness of life, its goals and inevitable pressures. "The song is called Get Out of My House ," she says, "and it's all about the human as a house. The idea is that as more experiences actually get to you, you start learning how to defend yourself from them. The human can be seen as a house where you start putting up shutters at the windows and locking the doors--not letting in certain things. I think a lot of people are like this--they don't hear what they don't want to hear, don't see what they don't want to see. It is like a house, where the windows are the eyes and the ears, and you don't let people in. That's sad because as they grow older people should open up more. But they do the opposite because, I suppose, they do get bruised and cluttered. Which brings me back to myself; yes, I have had to decide what I will let in and what I'll have to exclude.
"While I was working on this album I was offered a part in a TV series. I've been offered other acting roles, but this was the first totally creative offer that has ever come my way. I had to turn it down--I was already committed to the album. Sadly, I don't think that offer will be made again, but you have to learn to let things go, not to hang on and get upset, or to try to do it and then end up making a mess of everything else. It's like wanting to dance in the studio when I'm recording--I want to but I know that I can't because it will just tire me. I wish I had the energy to do everything," she says, sighing at her limitations, "but at least I'm healthy and fit."
Kate is one of those lucky people who never puts on weight. <Well...> She's a slim, elf-like, five foot three and has been a vegetarian since sixteen because, she says, "I just couldn't stand the idea of eating meat--and I really do think that it has made me calmer." She smokes occasionally--though she admits she shouldn't--and hardly drinks. "Champagne, I love champagne...but I don't really call it alcohol!" She confesses that she doesn't do breathing exercises, though she is very aware of breath control when she is singing. She regards her voice as a "precious instrument: it can be affected by almost anything: my nerves, my mood, even the weather." On stage she's a bundle of energy--a complete contrast to the calm, mature, pretty girl who sits drinking coffee in the elegant farmhouse drawing room.
"My plans for the future..." she muses. "Well, I want to get into films. And I want to do more on stage. I love staging my own shows, working out the routines, designing the whole package, and using every aspect of my creativity." What kind of films would she like to make? "My favourite is Don't Look Now. I was incredibly impressed by the tension, the drive and the way that every loose end was tied up. I get so irritated by films which leave ideas hanging."
Singing, she says, will always be with her. So will songwriting. Never satisfied with her voice or with her work, she strives all the time towards some impossible goal of perfection. "But, I suppose," she says, "that if the day ever came when I was 100 per cent satisfied, that would be the day that I stopped growing and changing--my deatch knell."
Despite her stardom, Kate Bush has remained amazingly gentle and sensitive. She is well aware of how easy it would be to be sucked into the music business, drained of all her natural creativity in and artificial world. To her the most important thing is, "To feel that I am progressing with my own life and my work. I also desperately want to feel some kind of happiness in what I am creating. Not contentment," she pauses, "but pleasure”.
1982 was a year where Bush released the album she had always wanted to make. In retrospect, maybe she put too much into it and needed to balance the experimental and esoteric with more commercial and accessible. Also, one cannot deny how influential The Dreaming was. As a female artist in 1982, there were not many peers releasing music like this, let alone writing it themselves and producing it! Consider 1982 was the year Madonna released her debut single. Worlds away from The Dreaming, there are a tiny amount of other female artists I could compare to Bush – maybe Laurie Anderson is close in terms of brilliance and the type of music she was making. Working tirelessly, not eating a balanced diet and sleeping far less than would be recommended, there was a degree of mental and physical draining. Throw into the mix the promotion and barely having time to have a day off, and it took its toll! I know Bush liked a certain amount of buzz and activity. In May 1982, The Dreaming is completed after a combined work period of more than sixteen months. Bush goes off to Jamaica for a holiday. It was not a chilled and relaxed bliss-out. The quiet and lack of noise, busyness and bustle was almost deafening! That inability to relax and recharge was due to the way she was living before that point. Suffering mental fatigue this year, her father, Dr. Bush, diagnosed nervous exhaustion and recommended bed-rest. Bush signed copies of The Dreaming in Oxford Street, London, on 14th September (1982). On 21st September and 1st October, she made T.V. appearances. This continued into November. Changes needed to be made…
There is a useful timeline here that shows what was happening with Bush in 1982 and 1983. Interestingly, in May 1983 (the month I was born), Bush’s book, Leaving My Tracks, was shelved indefinitely. I was not even aware of this! Bush released Hounds of Love in 1985. In January 1984, she had pretty much finished constructing a studio bespoke for her and was ready to get going. 1984 was the year when work resumed full-scale and there was this new period of intensity. A different method and experience with 1982 (1980-1981) with The Dreaming, this was defined by more space, family, nature, countryside, rest, and health. Even if Hounds of Love was quite demanding to record at times, lessons had been learned. It is clear there was this instant shift from the end of 1982 to 1983. There was a U.S. mini-album in 1983, and further attempts to get Bush noticed and her profiled raised there. An interesting exert from that timeline site takes us to November 1983:
“To continue the buzz in the U.S., EMI conceive the idea of touring the Live at Hammersmith Odeon video around the American colleges. 32 venues are set up, with a competition for the college radio programmers for the best presentation. The prize will be a trip to the U.K. to interview Kate. One college hires an art gallery and combines the event with a wine tasting. Another invites 700 guests, including the local state Senator, and the then Speaker of the House of Representatives "Tip" O'Neil. The debut date of the tour is held on the fourth floor of the Danceteria in New York, where the College Media Society are meeting”.
Go back to September 1983, and Bush started to demo material for the future album. Under a year after she released The Dreaming, Bush was now working on her fifth studio album. It is the period between the end of 1982 – when Bush would have been spent and unsure of her next move -and before September 1983 that interests me. Unlike some albums where singles were released the year after the album and there was still a lot of press and attention (Hounds of Love being a perfect example), that was not really the case with The Dreaming. There Goes a Tenner (in the U.K.) and Suspended in Gaffa (in continental Europe and Australia) were released on 2nd November, 1982. The only other single from The Dreaming, Night of the Swallow, was released in November 1983. As buzz was growing in America, this single was released for Ireland only. Closer to home, Bush needed rest. I think there was this click in the mind and a big moment when Bush moved away from London briefly (she would live there again) and had to take stock. Rather than recording at several studios, the next album would be recorded in her own one for the most part. She spent a lot of the summer of 1983 relaxing with friends and her boyfriend Del Palmer (her engineer and band member). Pursuits like gardening, driving her car and going to the cinema. It was a normalisation and more modest life that did usher in a more natural-sounding and relaxed Kate Bush. Someone less anxious and paranoid in her music. Hounds of Love is expansive and embracing of the elements. The Dreaming had a haunted house, cigarette smoke, a drowning escapologist, bungled robberies, regret, explosion, anger and personal introspection. One could definitely paint a portrait of Bush’s mind and creative angle in 1982!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush (with her dogs Bonnie and Clyde) in an outtake from the Hounds of Love cover shoot, 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
1983 was a chance for her to find the space and loving bosom to both rest and also rebuild in a different setting. If 1982 was pivotal and transformative in terms of Bush achieving goals and producing a masterpiece, it also burned her out and highlighted how something needed to go. What went was this working method - and her spending countless hours in small studios and intensely working. 1983 did see her make plans and start work, but it was a year where not too much happened in terms of promotion and media rounds. In fact, for the most part, Bush was building foundations and taking things slower. It would pick up in 1984. If The Dreaming was a nightmare in some senses, Hounds of Love also had a title one could take in another direction. Bush has mooted that it could be about hounds of love chasing someone away. It could be a positive force. You only need to look at the cover of both albums to sense a difference. The monochrome/duller-coloured cover of The Dreaming shows Bush with a key in her mouth. Playing Houdini’s wife, Bess, it seems to be about a woman herself looking for escape or sensing deeper psychological questions. It is based on a song on the album, Houdini, and is based on how Bess Houdini would pass a key to Harry Houdini by a kiss so he could escape from peril. The cover of The Dreaming, to me, is more about Bush and that need to escape.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in October 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Sunday Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
By contrast, Hounds of Love sees Bush in a gorgeous purple swathe with her hounds, Bonnie and Clyde, in her sleepy embrace. Both photos were taken by John Carder Bush, but they are dramatically different. 1983 was a year that, in some ways, transformed Bush’s life and introduced a new colour palette. Some would say years like 1987, 1993 and 2005 are the most important, transformative, and important in Bush’s career. To me, the years 1982 and 1983 were the most crucial and impactful. It was the end of one way of working and phase of life and the ushering in of a new one. Whilst I love The Dreaming, if Bush continued working how she was, we may have lost her from music. In 1983 and 1984, she started work on Hounds of Love. It culminated in a triumphant 1985. I am glad that Bush did revive and find the strength, support, and determination to build her own studio and produce an album that was very different to The Dreaming. EMI did not want her to produce another album after a relative commercial downturn. Thank God she prevailed. The fact that she came back stronger than ever is…
A huge relief.