FEATURE:
In Love with This Woman’s Work
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Stranger Things Season 5: If Another Kate Bush Song Featured, Which Would It Be?
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THIS will be the last feature for a while…
IN THIS PHOTO: The main cast of Netflix’s Stranger Things
relating to Stranger Things. The hit Netflix series, as we know, used Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Because of that, the song has got to number one in several countries and has put Bush back into the spotlight. I know that Hounds of Love track has reached a whole new audience. The success of the song continues, and I feel we might get new records and acclaim for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) before long. It may be unlikely but, as season five of the series might be set around 1988 or 1989, might another Kate Bush song be used? Here are details about what we know at the moment regarding the final season. The placement and use of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was excellent. Bush herself has said how she was really impressed and moved. Ensuring that the song got her approval and that she oversaw where and when it was being used, the success the song has accrued since it was seen on the series has taken her by surprise! Of course, The Duffer Brothers (who created the show) might have different ideas when it comes to music for the fifth season. As there is a love of Kate Bush from the crew and characters in the show, you cannot rule against another one of her songs being used.
If there was going to be a song of hers used, it depends on the year the season is set. If it is 1988, then that was a year before The Sensual World was released. A song that was featured on her 1986 greatest hits album, Experiment IV, has a vibe and sound that could fit into Stranger Things. With quite a spooky and eerie sound, maybe this is a track of Bush’s that could be dusted off. One that a lot of people do not know about (and people sort of overlook), it would be great to hear. More likely, 1989 will be a better setting in which to feature Kate Bush’s music. Thinking about The Sensual World, and there are a few songs from that album that would be terrific for Stranger Things. Whilst Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was already a big song and one that was a single, maybe, if her music were used in some form again, the producers would look for something as big and known. That would leave This Woman’s Work and The Sensual World. The former seems more likely but, as it was originally written for the film, She’s Having a Baby, maybe it would be too obvious. I was discussing this on Twitter recently with fans. In terms of the more appropriate and resonant songs that are not well-known and could well shine a light on a Kate Bush album some people write off, I think The Fog, Reaching Out and Love and Anger could be in the frame. Let’s think about those three tracks and why they would fit…
I think that The Fog is perfect for Stranger Things. A deeper cut from The Sensual World, it features Kate Bush’s dad doing a bit of dialogue. The sound and lyrics seem to be primed for a scene on Stranger Things. Perhaps they do not want to repeat themselves when it comes to Kate Bush but, when you consider the impact and sensation of The Fog…would you miss out on it? The Kate Bush Encyclopedia collated interviews where Bush revealed details of The Fog:
“It's about trying to grow up. Growing up for most people is just trying to stop escaping, looking at things inside yourself rather than outside. But I'm not sure if people ever grow up properly. It's a continual process, growing in a positive sense. (Len Brown, 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)
Again, it's quite a complex song, where it's very watery. It's meant to be the idea of a big expanse of water, and being in a relationship now and flashing back to being a child being taught how to swim, and using these two situations as the idea of learning to let go. When I was a child, my father used to take me out into the water, and he'd hold me by my hands and then let go and say "OK, now come on, you swim to me."
As he'd say this, he'd be walking backwards so the gap would be getting bigger and bigger, and then I'd go [Splutters]. I thought that was such an interesting situation where you're scared because you think you're going to drown, but you know you won't because your father won't let you drown, and the same for him, he's kind of letting go, he's letting the child be alone in this situation. Everyone's learning and hopefully growing and the idea that the relationship is to be in this again, back there swimming and being taught to swim, but not by your father but by your partner, and the idea that it's OK because you are grown up now so you don't have to be frightened, because all you have to do is put your feet down and the bottom's there, the water isn't so deep that you'll drown. You put your feet down, you can stand up and it's only waist height. Look! What's the problem, what are you worried about? (Roger Scott, BBC Radio 1 (UK), 14 October 1989)”.
I keep thinking about some of the lyrics and the way Bush sings them. Almost child-like in its story and narrative, Stranger Things is a series that could place The Fog in a scene and elevate it. These lyrics really jumped out: “This love was big enough for the both of us/This love of yours was big enough to be frightened of/It's deep and dark, like the water was/The day I learned to swim/He said/"Just put your feet down, child/"Just put your feet down child/The water is only waist high/I'll let go of you gently/Then you can swim to me".
The imagery that provoked and moved Kate Bush when she wrote Reaching Out leads me to believe that this is another track that could be featured on a show like Stranger Things. Again, read the way she talks about it. It is one of The Sensual World’s best tracks in my view:
“That was really quick, really straightforward. A walk in the park did that one for me. I really needed one more song to kind of lift the album. I was a bit worried that it was all sort of dark and down. I'd been getting into walks at that time, and just came back and sat at the piano and wrote it, words and all. I had this lovely conversation with someone around the time I was about to start writing it. They were talking about this star that exploded. I thought it was such fantastic imagery. The song was taking the whole idea of how we cling onto things that change - we're always trying to not let things change. I thought it was such a lovely image of people reaching up for a star, and this star explodes. Where's it gone? It seemed to sum it all up really. That's kind of about how you can't hold on to anything because everything is always changing and we all have such a terrible need to hold onto stuff and to keep it exactly how it is, because this is nice and we don't want it to change. But sometimes even if things aren't nice, people don't want them to change. And things do. Just look at the natural balance of things: how if you reach out for something, chances are it will pull away. And when things reach out for you, the chances are you will pull away. You know everything ebbs and flows, and you know the moon is full and then it's gone: it's just the balance of things. (...) We did a really straightforward treatment on the track; did the piano to a clicktrack, got Charlie Morgan [Elton john's drummer] to come in and do the drums, Del did the bass, and Michael Nyman came in to do the strings. I told him it had to have a sense of uplifting, and I really like his stuff - the rawness of his strings. It's a bit like a fuzzbox touch - quite 'punk'. I find that very attractive - he wrote it very quickly. I was very pleased. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”.
Although one of more lyrical simple songs, the chorus has a power and beauty that I think could be translated onto the show: “Reaching out for the hand/Reaching out for the hand that smacked/Reaching out for that hand to hold/Reaching out for the Star/Reaching out for the Star that explodes/Reaching out for Mama”.
Released as a single in 1990 (it got to thirty-eight in the U.K.), this is a track that did not get the credit and commercial success that it deserved. Love and Anger could feature on Stranger Things. It has an interesting history and road to completion:
“It's one of the most difficult songs I think I've ever written. It was so elusive, and even today I don't like to talk about it, because I never really felt it let me know what it's about. It's just kind of a song that pulled itself together, and with a tremendous amount of encouragement from people around me. There were so many times I thought it would never get on the album. But I'm really pleased it did now. (Interview, WFNX Boston (USA), 1989)
I couldn't get the lyrics. They were one of the last things to do. I just couldn't find out what the song was about, though the tune was there. The first verse was always there, and that was the problem, because I'd already set some form of direction, but I couldn't follow through. I didn't know what I wanted to say at all. I guess I was just tying to make a song that was comforting, up tempo, and about how when things get really bad, it's alright really - "Don't worry old bean. Someone will come and help you out."
The song started with a piano, and Del put a straight rhythm down. Then we got the drummer, and it stayed like that for at least a year and a half. Then I thought maybe it could be okay, so we got Dave Gilmour in. This is actually one of the more difficult songs - everyone I asked to try and play something on this track had problems. It was one of those awful tracks where either everything would sound ordinary, really MOR, or people just couldn't come to terms with it. They'd ask me what it was about, but I didn't know because I hadn't written the lyrics. Dave was great - I think he gave me a bit of a foothold there, really. At least there was a guitar that made some sense. And John [Giblin] putting the bass on - that was very important. He was one of the few people brave enough to say that he actually liked the song. (Tony Horkins, 'What Katie Did Next'. International Musician, December 1989)”.
Maybe the least likely of the three to get included on Stranger Things, Love and Anger still has this translatable potency and importance that could score a scene. These lyrics stuck out to me: “Take away the love and the anger/And a little piece of hope holding us together/Looking for a moment that'll never happen/Living in the gap between past and future/Take away the stone and the timber/And a little piece of rope won't hold it together”. Even if The Duffer Brothers have not said Kate Bush’s music will feature again on Stranger Things, it is something that you…
CAN’T rule it out.