FEATURE:
Life from the Other Side
Inside Kate Bush’s B-Sides
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EVEN if I have written about this before…
I wanted to reinvestigate Kate Bush’s B-sides. Not all of them. I am omitting her very best B-side, Under the Ivy, as I am reserving that for a special feature down the tracks. There is some relevance and timing behind the feature. On 30th November, it will be six years since Bush’s B-sides were released as part of her definitive remastering project in 2018. The full set arrived on 8th March, 2019. I am going to focus on five standout B-sides that showcase new sides to Kate Bush. I think the trouble is people focus too much on A-sides. The singles that we all know and hear. People rarely dig to the albums tracks or songs that we do not hear that often. It is a big problem. So many people not aware of Kate Bush’s B-side! So many interesting cuts that are worthy of investigation. I would suggest anyone who does not have the album to check it out. One of the issues is that The Other Sides is largely out of stock. You can find copies through Discogs, but it can come at quite a price. As Kate Bush has reissued her studio albums and they have had recent revision, how about something like The Other Sides?! You can check out the tracklisting here. I think this is as close as we have come to Kate Bush opening up the archives. I think there are rarities and demos that are recorded that we have never heard. In terms of retrospection, she has been pretty dogged about the studio albums. No extras. I do wonder one day whether we can get the studio albums reissued with B-sides and some unheard takes. That may be a long shot. In the meantime, we do have The Other Sides. It is a shame that Selections from ‘The Other Sides’ on Spotify only has a couple of tracks available. There are some golden B-sides and covers that I think people need to hear.
I will talk about her B-sides and why they are so intriguing. I want to spotlight five particularly strong B-sides. The cover versions are great too. Maybe I will leave that for another feature. Her interpretative gift. It is a shame that there is not more written about The Other Sides. The B-sides did get a mention in this review of Bush’s Remastered Part II boxset:
“Sadly The Other Sides does not catch all of the non-album tracks – The Empty Bullring, Ken and the Live On Stage EP in particular are noticeable by their absence, but we do get one previously unreleased track, Humming.
Humming was recorded in 1975 and was produced by Andrew Powell, who also worked on The Kick Inside & Lionheart. It sounds very much of its time, with a mid-70s country lilt to the guitar work, but the song is missing the playful and adventurous arrangements of the songs that followed three years later. Recorded when Kate was 17, its a strong vocal performance and whilst it is good to hear music from Kate’s formative years, I feel that Humming would have sounded out of place on The Kick Inside.
A highlight of The Other Sides is Lyra, Kate’s contribution to The Golden Compass soundtrack. This is the first time the song has been released on a Kate Bush compilation. Its an understated but emotional track, and Lyra reminds me a little of the early recordings from the sadly now inactive Clannad.
Similar to the first collection of remasters, this Part II collection is a must-have if you don’t already own the albums. If you already own them, you will appreciate hearing the albums in these best sounding versions. The album’s are also available as individual releases, apart from The Other Sides, which remain exclusive to the CD and vinyl box-sets”.
B-sides are fascinating. For Bush’s first two albums, 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart, we had B-sides that were albums tracks. The first single from her third studio album (1980’s Never for Ever), Breathing, featured a B-side of The Empty Bullring. Originals and cover versions featured more as B-sides from this point on. Some really interesting cover versions. Cloudbusting, the second single from 1985’s Hounds of Love, featured Burning Bridge and My Lagan Love among its B-sides. Burning Bridge concerns a woman desperately pleading with her lover to step up his level of commitment to her. The 12” edition of the single also included My Lagan Love. A cover of a traditional Irish song. From 1980 onwards, Bush’s B-sides were a mix of originals that were not album tracks, some album tracks and some eclectic covers. I love This Woman’s Work from The Sensual World. The album’s second single, we were treated to Be Kind to My Mistakes. That was on the U.K. 7” single. I’m Still Waiting was also on the 12” and single release. I love how a rare and elusive song like Show a Little Devotion was a B-side on Moments of Pleasure. From The Red Shoes, the single was released on 15th November, 1993. It is a whole world of its own the B-side. Often dismissed as an inferior song or something that was lying around, I think some of Bush’s most revealing or interesting songs were B-sides. We definitely got a more rounded impression of her as an artist. Everyone has their favourite Kate Bush B-side. As I say, I will reserve a special place for Under the Ivy in a later feature. That was the B-side for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God).
It is really hard to select only five great B-sides. Very little is written about her B-sides. Most people, when they concentrate on Bush’s songs, go for singles or album tracks. Very little consideration of those B-sides. I am leaning on the always brilliant Kate Bush Encylopedia for their information and authority when it comes to providing more details regarding Bush’s work. The first B-side that comes to mind when recommending a deeper dive is Be Kind to My Mistakes. Appropriate for This Woman’s Work, it was originally written for a film. This Woman’s Work was written for She’s Having a Baby and was first heard in 1988. It would then appear on The Sensual World the following year. Be Kind to My Mistake, given to the film, Castaway (Bush was approached to appear but dodged a bullet and didn’t have to film with Oliver Reed!), is a great track:
‘Be Kind To My Mistakes’ is a song written by Kate Bush, originally written for the soundtrack of the movie ‘Castaway’ (1987) and released on the soundtrack album. The line “Be kind to my mistakes” is spoken by Oliver Reed’s character at the end of the film, as he anticipates the future publication of Irving’s memoirs about the year she had just completed alone with him on a desert island.
Versions
There are three versions of ‘Be Kind To My Mistakes’: the original version, released on the soundtrack of ‘Castaway’ (1987), a version of that one which was released on a promotional 7″ single, and a remix version, released on the B-side of the single This Woman’s Work in 1989. The original version of ‘Be Kind To My Mistakes’ has a longer intro than the 1989 remix and also has a slightly different ending, with more echo on percussion. The version on the promotional 7″ single fades out, where the album version on the soundtrack crossfades into track 2 of the album.
Formats
‘Be Kind To My Mistakes’ was originally released on the soundtrack album ‘Castaway’ (1987). A promotional 7″ single, featuring Kate’s track plus ‘Chemistry’ by Brian Eno, was released in Germany only. Two years later, a remix of the track appeared on the B-side of the single This Woman’s Work and on the American mini album Aspects Of The Sensual World”.
Burning Bridge is a gem of a song. I doubt most Kate Bush fans are aware of the song. I do hope that we get all these songs back on C.D. and vinyl and readily available, as they do need to be treasured. Whilst one can get the studio albums, The Other Sides has sort of fallen out of favour. Not as much attention paid to it. Even if Kate Bush feels the song is a throwaway, I think it is a great B-side that should get more praise. I would love to see a video or visualisation of the song. It is interesting learning a bit more about Burning Bridge:
“Burning Bridge’ is a song written by Kate Bush. It was originally released as the B-side of the single Cloudbusting in 1985. According to Kate, it’s just a positive and trivial song, with superficial lyrics.
The track was first released on CD as part of the This Woman’s Work Anthology 1978-1990 box set. It was also included in the 1997 ‘EMI Centenary’ re-release of Hounds Of Love.
Kate about ‘Burning Bridge’
Again it was a song that was totally created for a b-side, and I knew that it was going on the other side of ‘Cloudbusting’. ‘Cloudbusting’ is not necessarily an up-tempo song and I feel that flips of records should be something that counterbalances the energy of the other side. So, I wanted something that was relatively up-tempo, and just a fun song. I don’t think the lyrics are by any means profound, but it was something that I felt was fun to do and was a very different energy from the a-side of the record. (Doug Alan interview, 20 November 1985)”.
Because of its importance, Warm and Soothing needs to be mentioned. In terms of its importance and how it links to Bush’s experiences with Abbey Road Studios. It is quite rare as it was a B-side to a single that was not included on an album. It means it is more obscure than many of her B-sides. I can picture Bush and her team recording Warm and Soothing. It is quite evocative to think of her in Abbey Road Studios and performing this song! It is one of my favourite lesser-known Kate Bush songs. One that more people need to know about. One of her very best B-sides:
“Warm And Soothing’ is a song written by Kate Bush. It was originally released as the B-side of December Will Be Magic Again in 1980.
The lyric starts out with a description of the warmth of a family home, but ends up describing a fear of growing old, trapped in a relationship that doesn’t seem to be very warm nor soothing.
Kate about ‘Warm And Soothing’
‘Warm And Soothing’ was a demo-tape which we did basically just to see what Abbey Road sounded like. We wanted to work there, and we went into Studio Two, and really the only way we could tell if it was going to sound good was if I went and did a piano vocal. So I did, and it sounded great. (Peter Swales, ‘Kate Bush’. Musician, Fall 1985)”.
I am going back up the tracklisting for the penultimate B-side recommendation. In addition to the fact it is Kate Bush singing in French – which is among the most beautiful things you could hear! -, it is a B-side that featured on lesser, relatively unsuccessful singles. One fears the B-side was not heard that much when it originally came out. The song is Ne T’enfuis Pas. Most people would not have heard it. This is a song that really needs to be experienced on vinyl. I do hope that there are future plans to reapproach The Other Sides. Here is some more information about a sublime song:
“Ne T’enfuis Pas’ is a song written by Kate Bush with French lyrics by Patrick Jeaneau and Vivienne Chandler.
‘Ne T’enfuis Pas’ (‘Don’t Run Away’) tells the story of a woman, worried that her lover is about to leave, wrestling with her conscience over her plans to make him stay.
Versions
There are two versions of ‘Ne T’enfuis Pas’: the original release on There Goes A Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa and the remix version (featuring ‘cleaner’ sounding vocals) appears on the 1983 single release and on the This Woman’s Work Anthology 1978-1990 box set, released in 1990.
Formats
The song was originally released as the B-side of the singles There Goes A Tenner (in the UK) and Suspended In Gaffa (in Europe). The title was misspelled as Ne T’en Fuis Pas in both instances, which means nothing in French. In July 1983, the song was released as a single in France and Canada, featuring Un Baiser D’enfant on the B-side.
In September 2019, a limited edition 12″ single, featuring the remastered versions of ‘Ne T’enfuis pas’ and ‘Un baiser d’enfant’ was released in France. Copies were sold out within days, but more copies were pressed later in the year.
Critical reception
Although ‘Ne T’enfuis Pas’ was not released in the UK, some copies were imported by Conifer, a record import/export firm. The song was played on BBC Radio 1 a few times and there was even a review in the UK press:
It begins with an earth shattering Linn drum pattern, with Del Palmer adding a rich fretless bass. Kate plays fairlight and breathes sensuously over the top…
Electronics and Music Maker, September 1983”.
Perhaps one of Kate Bush’s most explicit and direct B-sides, it is appropriate that the song appeared as B-side of Babooshka. That song is about a wife that suspects her husband is unfaithful and tests that infidelity. The wife uses the pseudonym of Babooshka and sends notes to her husband in the guise of a younger woman. The B-side, Ran Tan Waltz, also is about fidelity and trust, though far saucier and perhaps not as clever or cryptic. One of the best combinations of songs. Kate Bush perhaps knowingly wanting to keep on a similar theme but do something more humorous with the B-side. I also love how it was wonderfully and eccentrically staged and performed during Bush’s 1979 Christmas special. A visualisation that was more T.V.-friendly but quite odd. I love it! Most people would not have known about Ran Tan Waltz. I think it is much more worthy than being this oddity. A great song that is among my favourite Kate Bush B-sides. If you have not heard the song or know anything about it, then here is a bit more detail:
“Ran Tan Waltz’ is a song written by Kate Bush. It was released as the B-side of the single Babooshka in June 1980.
The tone of the song is rather comic, while switching traditional gender roles. A young husband is left home holding the baby while the wife is out drinking and philandering.
Performances
The song was actually premiered during the Christmas Special Kate in December 1979. It was the only performance of the song ever”.
If you want a deeper dive into her B-sides and demos, this website is exceptional. So much detail! I am not the only one who is shining a light on some of Kate Bush’s B-sides. The very best. Others have had their say. This feature from 2023 mentions two honourable mentions: Home for Christmas and Passing Through Air. The latter is especially important (“Recorded soon after her 15th birthday in 1973, this is the earliest Kate Bush track to be officially released. The song, recorded at David Gilmour’s studio (and featuring Gilmour on guitar), was meant as a demo and shows how very different Bush’s career could’ve been. It’s the kind of light pop one could imagine a more middle-of-the-road female singer performing, though there are some surreal asides in the lyrics (“You mix the stars with your arms”). As Bush has issued so few previously unreleased tracks, this is a rare peek inside her vault”). Something I did not think about but might explore for another feature is which single and B-side combination is the strongest. For me it is Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and Under the Ivy. I don’t think any artist ever has released a better A and B-side. Two perfect songs that perfectly go side by side! This feature ran a poll and presented the results. It shows that other people share my view! However, it is a shame that December Will Be Magic Again/Warm and Soothing did not get more love. We need The Other Sides reissued and more widely available. A more affordable Kate Bush: Remastered in Vinyl IV. Many people are missing out on some wonderful B-sides and covers. I wanted to spend time on some golden B-sides. There are many more that we can explore and discuss. As I say, I am spotlighting Under the Ivy soon. Without a doubt, it is one of the best B-sides…
EVER released.