FEATURE:
Strange Symphonies
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
Celebrating the Anniversary of Two of Kate Bush’s Best Singles
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I can never pass over…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the cover shot for 1978’s Lionheart/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
an opportunity to celebrate Kate Bush anniversaries. Whether that is an album or single, it means that it is back in the spotlight. I get to talk about these particular moments. Earlier in her career, different singles would be released in different counties. I know I have used a few features to focus on 1978 and 1979, but I want to keep us in 1979 just for this piece. Two of Bush’s best singles got a 1st June release that year. It was a bit of an odd thing releasing different songs depending on the country. I feel it is important to mark forty-four years of Strange Phenomena and Symphony in Blue. One extraordinary thing about the releases is that these were songs from different albums! Strange Phenomena is one of the best tracks from her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside. With Wow (which had already been released as a single in March 1979) as a B-side, this was the final single from that album. I do find it kind of exceptional that Bush was able to promote two albums at the same time. Lionheart, her second album, arrived in November 1978. The year after both were released, and they were still getting focus in the form of single releases. These single releases occurred just over two weeks after Bush completed The Tour of Life. Bush put out Never for Ever in 1980. In the meantime, there was still some momentum from her singles. Today, you probably wouldn’t get a single released so long after an album had come out!
I am going to come to Symphony in Blue in a bit. I like the fact Strange Phenomena was only released as a single in Brazil. Perhaps a nation one would not feel warranted their own single release, I am so curious what promoted that decision! As we see from the Kate Bush Encyclopedia, this arresting and fascinating song did warrant a release. I also feel that it could have been a successful U.K. single. After it was performed widely during The Tour of Life, surely there would have been enough demand:
“['Strange Phenomena' is] all about the coincidences that happen to all of us all of the time. Like maybe you're listening to the radio and a certain thing will come up, you go outside and it will happen again. It's just how similar things seem to attract together, like the saying ``birds of a feather flock together'' and how these things do happen to us all the time. Just strange coincidences that we're only occasionally aware of. And maybe you'll think how strange that is, but it happens all the time. (Self Portrait, 1978)
"Strange Phenomena'' is about how coincidences cluster together. We can all recall instances when we have been thinking about a particular person and then have met a mutual friend who - totally unprompted - will begin talking about that person. That's a very basic way of explaining what I mean, but these ``clusters of coincidence'' occur all the time. We are surrounded by strange phenomena, but very few people are aware of it. Most take it as being part of everyday life. (Music Talk, 1978)”
I could imagine what a great music video could have been created for Strange Phenomena! It is a magnificent song that was not a magnificent success – though EMI felt that momentum should keep going, and there was still life from The Kick Inside.
It must have been confusing for Kate Bush knowing that two of her songs were being released as singles on 1st June, 1979! Still only twenty at the time, she was seeing her music released all over the world. If Strange Phenomena was an attempt to crack Brazil – or at least make them aware of Kate Bush -, then the majestic Symphony in Blue was aimed at Japan and Canada. I have written about this song before but, as it is celebrating its forty-fourth anniversary as a single, I am re-exploring it. I shall come to some thoughts regarding the song. Released in Japan and Canada, it featured Full House as the B-side on the Japanese release; Hammer Horror was the B-side in Canada. Hammer Horror was the lead single from Lionheart, so there was all this crossing over and confusion. Regardless, it meant that a song that ranks alongside Bush’s best did get a single release. I thought this was another sure-fit gem that would be released as a single in the U.K. Maybe EMI felt that they needed to limit the number of single releases at this point. Hammer Horror and Wow came out in the U.K. and elsewhere. Bush did perform Symphony in Blue during The Tour of Life, and she also played it for her 1979 Christmas special. It is a wonderful song that has this real and evocative depth. I wonder whether that was a conscious move from EMI. Bush was keen to be seen more of a serious artist, so it might have been an important and focused move to change perceptions and the narrative.
Symphony in Blue has this almost philosophical quality to it. One of her most beautiful songs, it showed that she was one of the most remarkable songwriters of her generation. This was a brand-new song. Bush was given such a short time to record Lionheart and follow up The Kick Inside, Symphony in Blue was one of three new songs written (the others being Coffee Homeground and Full House). I am glad that two very distinct songs got a single release. On the same day as she was promoting her second album and keeping that in the consciousness, there was also this single from her debut – and this was over a year since that album was released! I am not sure how much Bush had to do with deciding which singles were released where, but she would have known that these songs were going to get single releases in Brazil, Japan and Australia. This was a vital time for Bush’s career and her rising popularity. On 1st June, 1979, she was fresh from The Tour of Life. She would have been working on Never for Ever, but touring alone was not going to be enough to keep her played and talked about. Even if the singles were released in countries that might be massive territories for her (even though she did visit both Japan and Australia), it did mean that new fans were created and confirmed. I have always said how more singles should have been released in those early years. Strange Phenomena and Symphony in Blue are magnificent examples of the sophistication and raw talent Bush displayed at the start of her career! She was writing the sort of songs that her peers were not. Even back in 1978 and 1979, there was nobody in music like…
OUR Kate!