FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts
A Coral Room
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THIS run of features…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
casts a light on the deep cuts that get overlooked when thinking of Kate Bush. Most of the songs of hers played on radio are better-known singles and bigger hits. It is quite rare that something deeper and less-known is spun. I aim to focus about twenty songs or so before concluding. Maybe overlooking 2011’s Director’s Cut (as that is reworked songs from The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993), I might time songs from Lionheart, The Red Shoes, Aerial and 50 Words for Snow until closer to November (when they all celebrate anniversaries). I might publish those features in October, so I am going to look at deep cuts from other albums before then. Today, I will actually take a song from Aerial. Released on 7th November, 2005, Bush’s eighth studio album arrived twelve years after The Red Shoes. Many didn’t know whether there would be another Kate Bush album or not. An album that was embraced and loved by critics, Aerial combines Folk, Renaissance, Classical, Reggae, Flamenco, and Rock. Thinking back to her classic 1985 album, Hounds of Love, Aerial is divided into two thematically distinct collections. The first disc (as Aerial is a double album), A Sea of Honey, features a series of unconnected songs. The second disc, A Sky of Honey, consists of a single suite of music (nine tracks in total) that is about a single summer day, beginning in the morning and ending twenty-four hours later with the next sunrise. Like Hounds of Love, there is this concept and series of wonderful songs connected that tell this bigger story.
A song from the first disc, A Coral Room, is a gem that doesn’t really get talked about that much. Maybe I have heard it on the radio a couple of times, but when it comes to songs that are better known or played, this is very low down the list. It is a shame, as Aerial is one of Kate Bush’s best albums. Aside from the single, King of the Mountain, the rest of the tracks are relatively unexplored. I think that Hounds of Love still has this dominance when it comes to radio play and hegemony. A few singles from other albums, but it is a shame the deeper cuts do not get a good showing. In terms of the tale of A Coral Room, this is what Bush said about its origins and intention:
“There was a little brown jug actually, yeah. The song is really about the passing of time. I like the idea of coming from this big expansive, outside world of sea and cities into, again, this very small space where, er, it's talking about a memory of my mother and this little brown jug. I always remember hearing years ago this thing about a sort of Zen approach to life, where, you would hold something in your hand, knowing that, at some point, it would break, it would no longer be there. (Front Row, BBC4, 4 November 2005)”.
The purpose of this run of features is to throw light on songs that showcase Kate Bush’s full talents. I have nothing against the singles, but these deeper cuts are where we see those weirder and wonderful moments. Songs that unfold over time or have something about them that takes you somewhere else. A Coral Room is one such song. With Michael Wood providing the male vocal and Bush on vocal and piano, A Coral Room is one of the simpler tracks from Aerial. I have looked at this song before, and I noted how the lyrics are among Bush’s very best and most evocative. The first verse alone take you to another place: “There's a city, draped in net/Fisherman net/And in the half light, in the half light/It looks like every tower/Is covered in webs/Moving and glistening and rocking/It's babies in rhythm/As the spider of time is climbing/Over the ruins”. Bush sings the song so emotionally and tenderly! It is a wonderful track that should be on everyone’s radar. The verse where she references her mother is especially stirring and touching: “My mother and her little brown jug/It held her milk/And now it holds our memories/I can hear her singing/"Little brown jug don't I love thee"/"Little brown jug don't I love thee"/Ho ho ho, hee hee hee”. A Coral Room is magnificent and one that maybe only the big Kate Bush fans know about. The deeper cuts are fascinating songs. Kate Bush’s are among the most diverse, unique and varied. It is definitely…
WHERE some of her best moments lie.