FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for Eat the Music in 1993
Eat the Music
_________
I have featured this song a few times…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
but never in the case of it being a Kate Bush deep cut. Even though it has been played on the radio a little bit, many non-Bush fans do not know about Eat the Music. Not only am I writing about the song because it is a deep cut. I am also celebrating its approaching thirtieth birthday. Rubberband Girl was releases as the first single from The Red Shoes on 6th September, 1993. The following day, Eat the Music was released as a single for the U.S. It was released as an E.P. in a few other countries months later, but never in the U.K. as an A-side. The singles from The Red Shoes had moderate success. Eat the Music did virtually nothing in the U.S. Rubberband Girl was a top twenty here, whilst The Red Shoes’ title track and And So Is Love went into the top thirty. Even Moments of Pleasure did not chart as high as it should – getting to twenty-six in the U.K. I am a bit miffed why the singles didn’t perform as well. Maybe fans found Bush’s most energetic and spirited music more accessible and preferable then. Something slower and more ‘composed’ was not seen as all that appealing. The Red Shoes album got to two in the U.K. I recently posted a feature about Rubberband Girl ahead of its thirtieth anniversary next month. When it comes to ranking her songs and fans choosing their favourite, Rubberband Girl does not get a load of love. Bush herself saw it as a silly Pop song; something quite throwaway or slight (though, as I noted, she released two music videos for it and re-recorded it for 2011’s Director’s Cut). Many prefer and would have liked Eat the Music to come out in the U.K.
Both songs share similarities. They are definitely among the most high-energy and catchy songs on The Red Shoes. In fact, I think Eat the Music has this sort of frenzy. celebration and rush that ranks alongside songs such as Jig of Life (from Hounds of Love) when it comes to that spark, dance and energy! With a delightful video (as part of the short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve, it was conceived by Bush herself), it is a song that deserves a lot more attention and airplay. Before I get to some of the lyrics, the musicians who played on the song, and some of the reaction the track has got, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia give us some information when it comes to the release and background to Eat the Music:
“Song written by Kate Bush. It was originally released as the lead single for The Red Shoes in the USA on September 7, 1993, while everywhere else in the world Rubberband Girl was released. In the UK, a small handful of extremely rare 7" and promotional CD-singles were produced, but were recalled by EMI Records at the last minute. A commercial release followed in the Summer of 1994 in the Netherlands and Australia, along with a handful of other countries. The song's lyrics are about opening up in relationships to reveal who we really are inside.
Formats
The USA CD-single featured the album version and 12" version of 'Eat The Music', along with Big Stripey Lie and Candle In The Wind. A 2 track CD-single, released in the Netherlands in the summer of 1994 featured 'Eat The Music' and You Want Alchemy. The Dutch and Australian 4 track CD-singles featured these two tracks plus the 12" version of 'Eat The Music' [which is actually the 4'55 US edit, see below] and 'Shoedance (The Red Shoes Dance Mix)'. It is worth noting that the Australian CD-single came in a 'Scratch And Sniff' card sleeve.
Versions
There are four versions of 'Eat The Music': the 5'10 minute album version, the 4'55 edit that appears on the American CD-single, a 3'25 minute 'edit radio', released on a French promotional CD-single, and the 9'21 12" version”.
Kate Bush has always been inspired by other cultures and sounds. Wikipedia sources a 1993 interview where Bush does discuss the origin of the song ("Eat The Music was inspired by Madagascan music which I was fortunate enough to hear through Paddy, who gave me some tapes that I loved listening to. The music is so joyous and full of sunshine and it's good to drive to. Justin Vali came to Paddy's attention and soon after, they were both playing valihas to a specially written "Madagascan" song. I wanted it to feel joyous and sunny, both qualities are rife in Justin as a person – so I just had to provide the fruit I hope the result is a colourful one. Again, this was a lot of fun to work on and it features Justin's first lines of sung English which he found hilarious. We found both his singing and his reaction to it delightful." Speaking of the song's lyrics, Bush told Melody Maker in 1993, "It's playing with the idea of opening people up, and the idea of the hidden femininity in a man, and the man in a woman”). If lines like “You put your hands in/And rip my heart out” feel almost horrifying or a metaphor for deceit and broken relationships, it is actually joyous and uplifting. People being opened up to reveal new depths and layers. Bush wanted this colourful and celebratory song to resonate. At a time in her life when there was a lot of professional and personal change and stress, she produced one of her most invigorating, yet underrated and under-played, songs.
All sorts of sweet scents and sensations are put into Eat the Music’s fruit bowl. If some feel the lyrics are weird, clumsy, and they opinion the metaphors and imagery is a bit misconceived and clunky, I will disagree. Eat the Music is a sensation! I especially love this verse: “Take a papaya/You like a guava?/Grab a banana/And a sultana/Rip them to pieces/With sticky fingers/Split the banana/Crush the sultana”. I love all the different exotic and unusual instruments used on Eat the Music! If Rubberband Girl is more basic in terms of its instruments – some nice brass is in the mix, mind! -, then there is something more variegated and ambitious on Eat the Music. There is some brilliant valiha and kabosy work by Justin Vali. Kate Bush’s brother Paddy is on valiha. There is also some tenor saxophone, trombone, and some trumpets. If you interested in knowing what those rarer instruments are I have mentioned, you might have to do some Google-ing! Kate Bush would sort of follow up Eat the Music with something fruit-based a year later.
In 1994, she was involved with composed short instrumental pieces for Fruitopia. It was introduced by Coca-Cola in 1994, and it was targeted at teens and young adults. Only really the second time she had leant her name/music to advertising – following her advertising Seiko watches in Japan in 1978 -, it was an unexpected step. As she did not sing or have to see her name on screen, it was a nice assignment and way of doing something new. Going back to Eat the Music, and the reception at the time was a little odd. Melody Maker felt Eat the Music was "misguided", "all ghastly, Lilt-supping, Notting Hill Carnival calypso". In another review (and going back to Wikipedia), Terry Staunton from NME felt the single was "a shopping list of exotic fruit, as if Kate is pulling Carmen Miranda's hat apart looking for metaphors for love". Parry Gettelman from Orlando Sentinel proclaimed the mighty Eat the Music is "The bizarre fruit metaphors on "Eat the Music" are exceedingly pretentious, but the song has a lilting, African high-life feel”. By contrast, I feel that it is one of Bush’s best mid-career offerings. As wild and joyful as Hounds of Love’s The Big Sky, Eat the Music should be played and discussed more. I think the metaphors work well and are backed by a superb video. If 1993 was not the most successful or memorable year in Kate Bush’s career, the fact she gave us The Red Shoes and brilliant songs like Eat the Music shows she was still on form! As Eat the Music turns thirty on 7th September, I wanted to return to it one more time and…
ENJOY its ripe and flavoursome flesh!