FEATURE:
For Those New to Kate Bush…
The Best Starting Track: Them Heavy People
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ABOUT a week ago…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: David Redfern/Redferns/Getty Images
BBC Radio 6 Music put out a tweet asking which Kate Bush track is the best when it comes to starting out. For new fans of her work, there were a lot of different responses. It got me thinking. I may have sort of touched on this before, but I think one of the songs that got me started out is the one that I would recommend to others. I think that I will also use this feature to start a short run that I am going to write about Kate Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside. One of the best songs on that album is Them Heavy People. I think, because of the ongoing success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) - which went to number one on the U.K. chart on 17th June -, this song has taken on a new life. For many people, this has been their starting point to Bush’s music. Even though that track has been out for nearly thirty-seven years, many younger listeners are listening to it new now! That is a little strange to me. It is played quite widely, but the fact it has featured on Stranger Things has brought it to life for so many. If someone was trying to navigate their way through her catalogue and wanted a song to begin with, it would be something from her debut album. I feel Them Heavy People is a perfect song to begin with. Not one of the singles from The Kick Inside – Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes were the U.K. singles -, it is a great track that incorporates so many of her best qualities. It is accessible and catchy. It has a sense of intelligence and the philosophical, in addition to a having perfect placement on The Kick Inside.
I realise I have covered this song a few times but, as I was intrigued by that BBC Radio 6 Music question and the answers people provided – most of her back catalogue was covered -, it is a good time to bring it up. I will end with a little bit about Them Heavy People and why it means a lot to me. First, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia provides an interview exert where Bush discussed the story behind the track:
“The idea for 'Heavy People' came when I was just sitting one day in my parents' house. I heard the phrase "Rolling the ball" in my head, and I thought that it would be a good way to start a song, so I ran in to the piano and played it and got the chords down. I then worked on it from there. It has lots of different people and ideas and things like that in it, and they came to me amazingly easily - it was a bit like 'Oh England', because in a way so much of it was what was happening at home at the time. My brother and my father were very much involved in talking about Gurdjieff and whirling Dervishes, and I was really getting into it, too. It was just like plucking out a bit of that and putting it into something that rhymed. And it happened so easily - in a way, too easily. I say that because normally it's difficult to get it all to happen at once, but sometimes it does, and that can seem sort of wrong. Usually you have to work hard for things to happen, but it seems that the better you get at them the more likely you are to do something that is good without any effort. And because of that it's always a surprise when something comes easily. I thought it was important not to be narrow-minded just because we talked about Gurdjieff. I knew that I didn't mean his system was the only way, and that was why it was important to include whirling Dervishes and Jesus, because they are strong, too. Anyway, in the long run, although somebody might be into all of them, it's really you that does it - they're just the vehicle to get you there.
I always felt that 'Heavy People' should be a single, but I just had a feeling that it shouldn't be a second single, although a lot of people wanted that. Maybe that's why I had the feeling - because it was to happen a little later, and in fact I never really liked the album version much because it should be quite loose, you know: it's a very human song. And I think, in fact, every time I do it, it gets even looser. I've danced and sung that song so many times now, but it's still like a hymn to me when I sing it. I do sometimes get bored with the actual words I'm singing, but the meaning I put into them is still a comfort. It's like a prayer, and it reminds me of direction. And it can't help but help me when I'm singing those words. Subconsciously they must go in. (Kate Bush Club newsletter number 3, November 1979)”.
Released as a single in Japan (where it reached number three; a live recording of this song was the lead track on the On Stage E.P., which reached number ten in the UK Singles Chart in 1979), I love the live versions of the song and the fact that Bush had affection for the song. Maybe she does not place it high among her best songs now but, in 1978, it is a song that she seemed to really enjoy performing. Track eleven of thirteen, it has quite a prominent place on The Kick Inside. Appearing just before Room for the Life – a track that I sometimes struggle to bond with -, it is an excellent track that means the listener is treated that far down the album. Them Heavy People is quite easy-going when it comes to the composition and vocal, but the lyrics do make you think and show how Bush was very different and original right from the off. I think people hearing Them Heavy People will then provoke investigation of its sister album. It is a tremendous song that should be explored more. I really love the track, as I remember seeing the video (a live version performed in 1979) when I was a child. I was awed by Bush’s performance and the strange sway and sensuality of the song. Rather than go for an obvious song, I would recommend Them Heavy People, as it is from the debut album and it is a good distillation of Bush’s early sounds. One of Kate Bush’s best tracks in my view, if you are new to her work, I would encourage you to listen to Them Heavy People. Once heard it is…
NEVER forgotten.