FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s Breathing at Forty-Three
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the set of the Breathing music video/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
A Reason Why People Should Not Overlook Never for Ever
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I know that the title track…
from The Red Shoes has an anniversary before this song (it was released on 4th April, 1994), but there is not a lot of information about the single out there. I might come to that when I look at The Red Shoes album nearer its thirtieth anniversary in November. Another song that has its anniversary this month is Breathing. Taken from the mighty third studio album from Kate Bush, Never for Ever, it boasts some of her finest production (she co-produced it with Jon Kelly), songwriting and vocals. Released on 14th April 1980, this is a song I have written about a few times before. I think that this was the most accomplished and symphonic track Bush wrote to that point. One can listen to Breathing and look ahead to Hounds of Love and some of the tracks from the conceptual suite, The Ninth Wave. I have argued before why Babooshka wasn’t the lead single from Never for Ever. It is more commercial and would chart higher (five to Breathing’s sixteen), but Bush was quite deliberate I think in that choice. Criticised and almost written off in interviews before recording Never for Ever as she was not seen as political or serious, there was a conscious effort to bring politics into her music. Whilst it, luckily, did not dominate albums like Never for Ever, it continues through 1982’s The Dreaming with songs like Pull Out the Pin. Breathing was a signal that she was venturing into new territory and, for those who doubted her credentials and the fact that shows was a serious musician, this song left no minds in doubt!
I think it was journalists like Danny Baker who scoffed slightly and wrote her off as a hippy or someone who was writing weird songs with no real depth or social conscience. To be fair, Bush was writing in a hugely original way. By 1979/1980, Punk was not as potent a force as it once was, and I feel many were clinging onto it desperately and expected all artists to write political songs. Even if the nation was under Conservative rule at the time (with Margaret Thatcher as the Prime Minister), female artists like Bush could not be expected to fit into the old boys’ club in terms of expectation, image, and sound. Breathing was very much Bush showing that she was conscious and caring. Delivering something far more arresting and interesting than the far too boring, direct, and unsophisticated music from the Punk scene, Breathing is almost operatic and Progressive Rock. It also features one of her most startling and memorable music videos. Before continuing, this is what Bush said about Breathing and where the idea came from:
“When I wrote the song, it was from such a personal viewpoint. It was just through having heard a thing for years without it ever having got through to me. 'Til the moment it hit me, I hadn't really been moved. Then I suddenly realised the whole devastation and disgusting arrogance of it all. Trying to destroy something that we've not created - the earth. The only thing we are is a breathing mechanism: everything is breathing. Without it we're just nothing. All we've got is our lives, and I was worried that when people heard it they were going to think, 'She's exploiting commercially this terribly real thing.' I was very worried that people weren't going to take me from my emotional standpoint rather than the commercial one. But they did, which is great. I was worried that people wouldn't want to worry about it because it's so real. I was also worried that it was too negative, but I do feel that there is hope in the whole thing, just for the fact that it's a message from the future. It's not from now, it's from a spirit that may exist in the future, a non-existent spiritual embryo who sees all and who's been round time and time again so they know what the world's all about. This time they don't want to come out, because they know they're not going to live. It's almost like the mother's stomach is a big window that's like a cinema screen, and they're seeing all this terrible chaos. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. Zigzag (UK), 1980).
From my own viewpoint that's the best thing I've ever written. It's the best thing I've ever produced. I call that my little symphony, because I think every writer, whether they admit it or not, loves the idea of writing their own symphony. The song says something real for me, whereas many of the others haven't quite got to the level that I would like them to reach, though they're trying to. Often it's because the song won't allow it, and that song allowed everything that I wanted to be done to it. That track was easy to build up. Although it had to be huge, it was just speaking - saying what had to be put on it. In many ways, I think the most exciting thing was making the backing track. The session men had their lines, they understood what the song was about, but at first there was no emotion, and that track was demanding so much emotion. It wasn't until they actually played with feeling that the whole thing took off. When we went and listened, I wanted to cry, because of what they had put into it. It was so tender. It meant a lot to me that they had put in as much as they could, because it must get hard for session guys. They get paid by the hour, and so many people don't want to hear the emotion. They want clear, perfect tuning, a 'good sound'; but often the out-of-tuneness, the uncleanliness, doesn't matter as much as the emotional content that's in there. I think that's much more important than the technicalities. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. Zigzag (UK), 1980)”.
There are a lot of reasons why Never for Ever should not be overlooked. Breathing was a first shot of brilliance from a ten-track album with no filler. Bush was co-producing for the first time, and I feel that she was eager to show her true depth and range. The fact that singles like Breathing and Babooshka had original B-sides rather than other album tracks. Breathing has the brilliantly original The Empty Bullring as the B-side, whereas Babooshka featured the quirky and risqué Ran Tan Waltz. I have written before how there was such a great atmosphere in the studio when recording Never for Ever. As producer, Bush made sure there was plenty of fun. It was a laugh most of the time. Takes and days would often go into the night, as there was this great environment and connection between the musicians. I think it is the first album where she was truly making music with the people she wanted and thew way that suited her. If she has since said that it was not until Hounds of Love when she was fully ‘her’ and pleased with what she was recording, Never for Ever is a terrific album. Breathing is forty-four on 14th April, and I wanted to celebrate that. The first single and final track from Never for Ever, I love the fact the lead single was the album’s swansong! That does not happen often. Another political song, Army Dreamers, would be the third single (released in September 1980). It is interesting that Army Dreamers is track nine and Breathing is track ten.
I guess the epic Breathing just had to end the album, but the two more political songs are at the end. This was not to hide them away. Quite the opposite. It was ending it with a high and real potency. To ensure that the listeners was intrigued what came next. The Dreaming arrived two years later and took a lot of people by surprise with its experimental and dense sound and production. It is a real shame there are not photos from inside the studio when Never for Ever was being recorded. No real footage of that process happening. I can imagine how keen Bush was to ensure the production and process was very much to her liking. Exacting more than a perfectionist, I also feel that Never for Ever beautifully balances experimentation and accessibility. There are more commercial tracks like Babooshka and even Army Dreamers with darker tracks such as Breathing or Violin. The strangeness and beauty of The Infant Kiss alongside the propulsive Violin, gorgeous Delius (Song for Summer), The Tour of Life-connected Blow Away (For Bill) – a track written in tribute to lighting assistant Bill Duffield, who died in a tragic accident after the warm-up gig for Bush’s tour -, right through to the majestic and hugely underplayed The Wedding List.
Songs like The Wedding List and All We Ever Look for could have been successful singles. The bridge track, Night Scented Stock, is a tantalising snippet that links The Infant Kiss and Army Dreamers. So much to enjoy and revel in, I think that Never for Ever remains underrated and under-explored. If radio stations play anything from the album, it is usually Babooshka. There are at least five or six tracks from the album almost never played or extremely rarely. Only twenty-one when Never for Ever was recorded, it came into the world in September 1980. At the start of Bush’s most successful decade, she put into this world a phenomenal album that sounds so freeing and liberated. An artist truly expressing herself without other producers in the mix. Yes, there was Jon Kelly, but as they were pretty much the same age, there was more of an easy connection. Breathing is forty-four very soon, so I wanted to salute that song and also shout out to Never for Ever. It is an album that…
EVERYONE needs to hear.