FEATURE:
Also Known as Rolling the Ball…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Them Heavy People during her 1979 Christmas special/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
Kate Bush’s Them Heavy People at Forty-Five
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I have assessed this song a few times before…
but it is coming up for an anniversary, so I wanted to look it once more. Released as a single in Japan on 5th May, 1978, Rolling the Ball reached number three. The actual title of the song is Them Heavy People, and it appeared on Kate Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside. That turned forty-five in February. One of two Japanese singles released from the album (the other being Moving), I am going to refer to the song as Them Heavy People throughout, as that is the actual title, and the one that most people associate with it. The reason it is called Rolling the Ball as it is a refrain from the song. These words open the song, so it is understandable why the Japanese market would chose that title. Also, they might not understand what the word ‘heavy’ would mean in the context of a song that deals more with philosophy and learning, rather than any weight or feeling of oppression. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia references an interview where Bush discussed the meaning behind Them Heavy People:
“The idea for 'Heavy People' came when I was just sitting one day in my parents' house. I heard the phrase "Rolling the ball" in my head, and I thought that it would be a good way to start a song, so I ran in to the piano and played it and got the chords down. I then worked on it from there. It has lots of different people and ideas and things like that in it, and they came to me amazingly easily - it was a bit like 'Oh England', because in a way so much of it was what was happening at home at the time.
My brother and my father were very much involved in talking about Gurdjieff and whirling Dervishes, and I was really getting into it, too. It was just like plucking out a bit of that and putting it into something that rhymed. And it happened so easily - in a way, too easily. I say that because normally it's difficult to get it all to happen at once, but sometimes it does, and that can seem sort of wrong. Usually you have to work hard for things to happen, but it seems that the better you get at them the more likely you are to do something that is good without any effort. And because of that it's always a surprise when something comes easily. I thought it was important not to be narrow-minded just because we talked about Gurdjieff. I knew that I didn't mean his system was the only way, and that was why it was important to include whirling Dervishes and Jesus, because they are strong, too. Anyway, in the long run, although somebody might be into all of them, it's really you that does it - they're just the vehicle to get you there.
I always felt that 'Heavy People' should be a single, but I just had a feeling that it shouldn't be a second single, although a lot of people wanted that. Maybe that's why I had the feeling - because it was to happen a little later, and in fact I never really liked the album version much because it should be quite loose, you know: it's a very human song. And I think, in fact, every time I do it, it gets even looser. I've danced and sung that song so many times now, but it's still like a hymn to me when I sing it. I do sometimes get bored with the actual words I'm singing, but the meaning I put into them is still a comfort. It's like a prayer, and it reminds me of direction. And it can't help but help me when I'm singing those words. Subconsciously they must go in. (Kate Bush Club newsletter number 3, November 1979)”.
A song that many fans would recognise, but not one that you hear played on the radio (that applies to most of Bush’s catalogue it seems!), I wanted to revisit one of her moments. One of the standout tracks from The Kick Inside, there is so much to love about Them Heavy People. A song that does speak about truth and knowledge, maybe it was a bit intellectual and inaccessible to some during a time of Punk. In 1978, there was nobody like Kate Bush, singing about the sort of things she was. It is understandable that she felt it should be a single, and I am glad that it was released in Japan and did really well. I disagree that the album version is weak or should be looser. It might seem too live-sounding if it was, and the album version is punchy and memorable. Them Heavy People was performed live quite a few times. It soundtracked a Seiko advert Bush was a part of in Japan. She performed it when opening a Dutch theme park. It was also performed on T.V. and numerous times during The Tour of Life in 1979. I always felt that it should have been included on her 1986 greatest hits album, The Whole Story. It is another reason why we need another greatest hits album or collection of her best work. It is always a pity that Them Heavy People didn’t get a music video. Well it did, but it was a live version of the song. It would be interesting to see what would have come to light if something scripted were filmed. That live version was her during 1979’s The Tour of Life. The lead single from the On Stage E.P., I never really classify it as an official U.K. single. I always think of Them Heavy People as being a Japan-only release. In any case, she did release it here on 31st August, 1979, where it got to number ten.
I do also love the different ways the song was portrayed live. In terms of Bush’s clothing, she performed it on BBC’s Saturday Night at the Mill in Eastern/Japanese-inspired wear (a kimono of sorts). Introduced by Peter Cook, she performed it on Revolver in smarter, more formal wear. For her 1979 Christmas special, she was more casual and boho. She wore similar wear for the music video version, but she also performed the song in the U.S. for Saturday Night Live (her only performance for them). This song about religion and Bush trying to learn as much as she could when she was young, it is a very mature and perceptive song from someone who was fresh in her career. Bush grew up around music, and her brother John is a superb and acclaimed poet. I suspect that some of his words and talents inspired his sister. She was an incredible poet herself, and it is always amazing she was writing such advanced and deep songs as a teenager! The studio version features Stuart Elliott on drums, David Paton on the bass, Kate and her brother Paddy doing backing vocals. The late Ian Bairnson provides guitar. His incredible guitar work can be heard through The Kick Inside. It is especially memorable and epic on Wuthering Heights. It is so sad that he is no longer with us. A song that was released as a single in Japan almost forty-five years ago, I was eager to mark the anniversary. On 5th May, 1978, the Japanese market received this treat. In June, to promote the single, The Kick Inside, and get her music better known there, she visited the country. It remains one of the most extraordinary and unusual moments in her career so far. Aside from the Seiko advert, on 18th June, she performed Moving to an audience of 11,000 people at the Nippon Budokan for the 7th Tokyo Music Festival. That single was released in Japan in February, 1978, so she did have a fanbase and visibility there. The majestic and knowledge-seeking Them Heavy People may be forty-five, but it is as mesmeric and important now as it ever was. It is a fabulous and captivating song from…
THE queen of music.