FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Thirty-Seven
Why I Want to Revisit the Delirious The Big Sky
__________
ONCE a year or so…
I do revisit songs like The Big Sky. The reason I am coming back once more is because Kate Bush’s fifth studio album, Hounds of Love, is thirty-seven on 16th September. I am going to repeat myself in a sense, because I need to bring in some information and interview archive from the Kate Bush Encyclopedia. Let’s start with that and some facts about The Big Sky. Released as the fourth and final single from the album on 28th April, 1986, this got to number thirty-seven in the U.K. If you are not aware of how The Big Sky changed and caused Bush some issues, here is some information:
“The Big Sky' was a song that changed a lot between the first version of it on the demo and the end product on the master tapes. As I mentioned in the earlier magazine, the demos are the masters, in that we now work straight in the 24-track studio when I'm writing the songs; but the structure of this song changed quite a lot. I wanted to steam along, and with the help of musicians such as Alan Murphy on guitar and Youth on bass, we accomplished quite a rock-and-roll feel for the track. Although this song did undergo two different drafts and the aforementioned players changed their arrangements dramatically, this is unusual in the case of most of the songs. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, Issue 18, 1985)
'The Big Sky' gave me terrible trouble, really, just as a song. I mean, you definitely do have relationships with some songs, and we had a lot of trouble getting on together and it was just one of those songs that kept changing - at one point every week - and, um...It was just a matter of trying to pin it down. Because it's not often that I've written a song like that: when you come up with something that can literally take you to so many different tangents, so many different forms of the same song, that you just end up not knowing where you are with it. And, um...I just had to pin it down eventually, and that was a very strange beast. (Tony Myatt Interview, November 1985)”.
There are some new points I want to make about this song. I want to talk about the track as part of Hounds of Love. I have covered everything else but, as MOJO have released an edition that has a great spread about the album, it gave me new perspective on The Big Sky. Mark Blake wrote about the song and told of the song’s humour and sense of sunshine. Like the sun coming out after Hounds of Love’s title track. Blake also said that, in spite of the difficulties getting the song to hang together, you can not really detect that at all. I will start with its chart position, album position and video. I guess, by 1986, there was a certain loss of momentum. Later in the year, The Whole Story was released. That is a greatest hits album that was released to capitalise on the success of Hounds of Love. Even so, I think The Big Sky warranted a higher charting. If you think about the songs played on the radio, The Big Sky is never featured. It is quite surprising that the remarkable songs from the first side of Hounds of Love didn’t all chart well upon their release. Aside from the first single, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) getting to number three (it hit the top spot this year), the other three singles had mixed fortunes. Cloudbusting and Hounds of Love just made the top twenty. There was not as much demand for The Big Sky. It is my favourite song on the album, because it is gleeful and child-like. There is some of that on other tracks, but it is one of the most positive tracks on Hounds of Love. Among the struggle, seriousness, and deep thoughts, you don’t see that many moments when Kate Bush can put on this huge smile and embrace the silliness and randomness of nature and the sky. I feel that should have pushed The Big Sky higher up the charts. The incredible and catchy chorus lodges in your head.
The fact Hounds of Love hit the top spot here and thirty in the U.S. might have meant that they didn’t wasn’t to double-up and get The Big Sky as a single. It is a shame. It is the third track on the album. Following the incredible one-two of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and Hounds of Love, The Big Sky keeps the momentum going strong! Bush clearly liked the song, even if it was hard to get it right. I feel it is one of the defining tracks of Hounds of Love and Kate Bush’s experiences in 1983-1985. When she had her own studio built near her family home, she definitely felt the benefit of being in a more rural and quieter location. When making The Dreaming, she was in a few studios but didn’t really have a lot of space, relaxation, and nature. I think the scenery and views compelled some of the best songs on Hounds of Love. I feel The Big Sky is Bush, back home, thinking to her childhood and starting up at clouds in the sky making shapes: “This cloud, this cloud/Says "Noah/C'mon and build me an Ark"/And if you're coming, jump/'Cause”. The video is wonderful too! I have discussed this before but, directed by Bush, it is packed with all kinds of characters and scenes. We see Bush looking up at the clouds and her appearing in various scenes. It was filmed on 19th March, 1986 at Elstree Film Studios in the presence of a studio audience of about hundred fans. The HomeGround fanzine was asked to get this audience together, and they did within two weeks. The whole audience was admitted for the 'crowd scenes'. The scenes were repeated until Kate had them as she wanted. It is a remarkably fun and accomplished video. This was only Bush’s second directing outing (after Hounds of Love). Both videos are very different but equally compelling. She would then go on to direct The Whole Story’s single, Experiment IV, later in 1986. Such an eclectic director with this cinematic ambition and mind!
More than simply writing about The Big Sky because Hounds of Love is thirty-seven on 16th September, it is a song I hope to ‘convert’ people to. When they discuss Hounds of Love, this track does not come up much. In a prominent position on the album, it is a simple song that actually is quite deep. Bush said, of the song, that it is about the pleasures we have as children that we do not have time for now. That act of watching clouds and sitting on the grass. She also said, in the Kate Bush Club newsletter in 1985: “The song is also suggesting the coming of the next flood - how perhaps the "fools on the hills" will be the wise ones”. I can understand why it took a while to get together. The Big Sky is a huge song that rumbles and builds. It is packed with so many great sounds. The production is phenomenal! I love Bush’s vocals throughout; the great handclapping that comes in. The digeridoo from Paddy Bush is unexpected-yet-magnificent. Martin Glover (Youth) delivers one of the great bass performances ever! The drums roll and thunder. Bush carries you off on a wave and leaves a big smile! Alan Murphy’s guitars cut, slash and funk their way through the song. Bush did perform live versions of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), Cloudbusting and Hounds of Love during the 2014 Before the Dawn residency. She also performed Hounds of Love’s second side, The Ninth Wave, there. Mother Stands for Comfort has never been performed live. The Big Sky has had a single live outing. I am surprised it was not included in Before the Dawn, as it would have been wonderful to see it in 2014. All the different characters and interactions during the course of the song! I guess, unlike Mother Stands for Comfort (a loner from the album), The Big Sky did have a video and was brought to life live. As we celebrate the thirty-seventh anniversary of Hounds of Love on 16th September, so many of the songs will be talked about. I am not sure how many will highlight The Big Sky. They should. On a genius album filled with brilliant and timeless songs, the beautiful and uplifting The Big Sky is…
MY favourite track.