FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980, posing for the painted cover of Never for Ever
The Infant Kiss
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NOT a track I have discussed too much…
I wanted to return to Never for Ever’s The Infant Kiss. This feature series spotlights her songs that are deeper cuts and not well known. As I say with every track I include, I think Bush can have deep cuts – even though she is very popular and admired. You rarely hear non-singles played on the radio, so there is this world of songs out there that are not known. Any track that is seen as a brave choice for a radio playlist can be considered a deep cut. Never for Ever, her third studio album, was release don 8th September, 1980. Aside from singles like Babooshka, I am not sure how many new Kate Bush fans are conscious of the other songs on the album. In fact, The Infant Kiss may be a track that a fair few diehard Kate Bush fans are not overly familiar with. One of her most interested cuts, it has been misinterpreted through the years. In the song, Bush discusses falling in love with a little boy. The fear of kissing someone so young and having these feelings. Were the song released today, I think there would be this wave of comments regarding the slightly inappropriate nature of the lyrics. In fact, nothing of a sort was in Bush’s mind. For anyone who knows her, she is an artist who tackles subjects others do not. Whether it is love, dreams, ambitions or observations on life, she skews conventions and the predictable and takes in inspiration from film, T.V., literature and beyond.
The Infant Kiss is an exceptional song with a wonderful sense of atmosphere and importance. With lironi from Jo Sceaping and viol by Adam Sceaping, these tones combine beautifully in a song that is haunting, sweeping, romantic and full of depth. Definitely, if one did not know about the inspiration and reasoning behind the song, certain lyrics could be misconstrued. This verse is a particular striking example: “Just a kid and just at school/Back home they'd call me dirty/His little hand is on my heart/He's got me where it hurts me/Knock, knock. Who's there in this baby?/You know how to work me”. When it comes to the background of The Infant Kiss, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia provides some details and an interview snippet where Kate Bush mentions the song:
“Song written by Kate Bush. It was inspired by the gothic horror movie The Innocents, which in turn was inspired by Henry James' novel 'The Turn Of The Screw'. The story is about a governess who believes the ghost of her predecessor's dead lover is trying to possess the bodies of the children she is looking after. The song was released on the album Never For Ever.
'The Infant Kiss' is about a governess. She is torn between the love of an adult man and child who are within the same body. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, September 1980)”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in one of her favourite dresses. Bush wore it to pose for the cover artwork for Never for Ever
This is not the only occasion where Bush has talked about something spiritual, supernatural and ambiguous. In terms of a boy being in the body of a man, one can loosely link The Infant Kiss to The Man with the Child in His Eyes. That song (from her debut album, The Kick Inside) is about a man with this child-like wonder. Maybe someone who has not grown up or has something about him not quite developed or normal. The Infant Kiss is about a woman loving a man, though there is this boy trapped inside of him. A fascinating and unique angle for a songwriter, one is captivated by the strangeness and beauty of the song. On Never for Ever, more than any of Bush’s other studio albums, you get tracks that are ethereal and almost hymnal, yet they combine in something gothic, unusual or taboo. Look at songs such as Blow Away (For Bill) or Army Dreamers. Bush’s voice and delivery is superb. Inhabiting this song completely, you are completely engrossed and invested. At times her voice shivers, at others, it is tremulous or almost sensual. A remarkable song that is a deeper cut many might not have ever heard, The Infant Kiss should be on playlists and discussed as one of Bush’s best tracks. In a recent Classic Pop magazine special, they did not include The Infant Kiss in the section that highlighted her forty best tracks. I think they should have. Maybe there is not any awareness of The Infant Kiss. A beautiful song from the sublime and underrated Never for Ever, please go and listen to…
THIS incredible song.