FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s The Sensual World at Thirty-Three
This Woman’s Work: Her Most Heartachingly Beautiful Moment?
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I will put out…
a couple more features relating to The Sensual World ahead of its thirty-third anniversary on 17th October. Kate Bush’s magnificent sixth studio album, there are so many great songs to be found. One that I especially love is This Woman’s Work. I have been thinking about Kate Bush and film. Someone whose music has been used on T.V. and film, I wonder how many times she was asked to write for films soundtracks. This Woman’s Work found her writing this beautiful song for the 1988 film, She’s Having a Baby. Directed by John Hughes, it is rare that people heard a Kate Bush song somewhere else before it appeared on a studio album. That was the case here. This Woman’s Work has a bit of a life of its own. Before moving on and going deeper, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia sourced interviews where Bush discussed one of her most potent and remarkable songs:
“John Hughes, the American film director, had just made this film called 'She's Having A Baby', and he had a scene in the film that he wanted a song to go with. And the film's very light: it's a lovely comedy. His films are very human, and it's just about this young guy - falls in love with a girl, marries her. He's still very much a kid. She gets pregnant, and it's all still very light and child-like until she's just about to have the baby and the nurse comes up to him and says it's a in a breech position and they don't know what the situation will be.
So, while she's in the operating room, he has so sit and wait in the waiting room and it's a very powerful piece of film where he's just sitting, thinking; and this is actually the moment in the film where he has to grow up. He has no choice. There he is, he's not a kid any more; you can see he's in a very grown-up situation. And he starts, in his head, going back to the times they were together. There are clips of film of them laughing together and doing up their flat and all this kind of thing. And it was such a powerful visual: it's one of the quickest songs I've ever written. It was so easy to write. We had the piece of footage on video, so we plugged it up so that I could actually watch the monitor while I was sitting at the piano and I just wrote the song to these visuals. It was almost a matter of telling the story, and it was a lovely thing to do: I really enjoyed doing it. (Roger Scott Interview, BBC Radio 1 (UK), 14 October 1989)
That's the sequence I had to write the song about, and it's really very moving, him in the waiting room, having flashbacks of his wife and him going for walks, decorating... It's exploring his sadness and guilt: suddenly it's the point where he has to grow up. He'd been such a wally up to this point. (Len Brown, 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)”.
One of the standout songs from The Sensual World, I was surprised that Bush reworked it for 2011’s Director’s Cut. Like Deeper Understanding (also from The Sensual World), This Woman’s Work is perfect in its original form. Maybe trying to breathe new life into the song, I am of the opinion that This Woman’s Work sounds better and more affecting in its 1988 version. It only reached twenty-five in the U.K. in 1989. In 2008 it reached seventy-six; sixty-three in 2012. A track that has not really hit commercial highs, one cannot deny its sheer quality and importance! One of the most devastating and memorable sets of lyrics Kate Bush ever penned, I feel This Woman’s Work is one of the most remarkable beautiful and moving songs in her catalogue. There have been four different versions of This Woman’s Work recorded. The original version was released on the soundtrack for She's Having a Baby. The version that was featured on The Sensual World was re-edited from the original version. The version released as a single was a third, ever so slightly different mix. The track was then completely re-recorded on Director's Cut. The new version features a sparse performance of Bush playing the piano and singing. Directed alongside John Alexander, the video for This Woman’s Work is beautiful. Bush plays the role of the wife alongside her husband Tim McInnerny. The husband is desperate in a hospital waiting room waiting to see if his wife is okay. A nurse then speaks to him and we are not sure what the outcome is. Though the smile she gives makes us feel that thew wife (Bush) is alright.
Filled with emotional and powerful lines, one of the most recognisable and stirring passages Bush has ever written is this: “Of all the things I should've said,/That I never said/All the things we should've done/That we never did/All the things I should've given/But I didn't/Oh, darling, make it go/Make it go away”. I have been thinking about various songs from The Sensual World ahead of its thirty-third anniversary on 17th October. A wonderful album that features some of Kate Bush’s best songwriting, it all builds to the heartache of This Woman’s Work. I guess it is more about regret and growth. The husband is in a crisis position at hospital when his baby is in the breach position. To this point, he has been a bit silly and immature. Facing potential tragedy, he regrets things he never said and things he never did. It has that sadness. I wonder whether the line about making it all go away refers to the doubts and past struggles, or whether it is actually about the baby. Taking responsibility and facing all this challenge might be too big and much. The way Bush sings the song sends shivers up the spine. It is a song I have heard so many times, yet it always makes me feel affected moved. Testament to the power of her songwriting! Possibly the most beautiful track she has ever written, I do wonder why This Woman’s Work did not chart higher. That is a question for the ages! Taken from the incredible and acclaimed The Sensual World, This Woman’s Work is…
AMONG Bush’s very best songs.