FEATURE:
Isn’t That a Great Saying?
Kate Bush’s Moments of Pleasure at Thirty-One
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THERE might be some repetition…
in this feature, as I have written about Moments of Pleasure a few times now. Let’s get some stats and facts down and done first. Released as the second U.K. single (as the first single, Rubberband Girl, was released in the U.K. and other countries; Eat the Music in the U.S.), it reached number twenty-six. Released on 15th November, 1993, it arrived two weeks after The Red Shoes (released on 1st November, 1993). I am not sure whether that timing was relevant regarding a fairly low chart position. Maybe people had got the album and did not have huge appetite for the single. I think one of the issues is that the single is quite emotional and slower. In terms of it not being as bouncy and upbeat as the singles that came before from the album. There are some fascinating lines to pick over in the lyrics. The title of this feature is a response to something Kate Bush’s mother, Hannah, wonderfully said: “Every old sock meets an old”. I think that Moments of Pleasure is the most intriguing set of lyrics. I mean more so than perhaps even anything on Hounds of Love. That is quite a big claim! In terms of how arresting and personal the song is. There is a mix of fantasy and the personal. The fact Bush talks about something her mother said. How her mum laughed when Bush told her about that lyric. I am going to come straight back to the lyrics. Before I do, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia collates words from Kate Bush regarding the magnificent Moments of Pleasure:
“I think the problem is that during [the recording of] that album there were a lot of unhappy things going on in my life, but when the songs were written none of that had really happened yet. I think a lot of people presume that particularly that song was written after my mother had died for instance, which wasn’t so at all. There’s a line in there that mentions a phrase that she used to say, ‘every old sock meets an old shoe’, and when I recorded it and played it to her she just thought it was hilarious! She couldn’t stop laughing, she just thought it was so funny that I’d put it into this song. So I don’t see it as a sad song. I think there’s a sort of reflective quality, but I guess I think of it more as a celebration of life.
Interview with Ken Bruce, BBC Radio 2, 9 May 2011
I wasn’t really quite sure how “Moments of Pleasure” was going to come together, so I just sat down and tried to play it again– I hadn’t played it for about 20 years. I immediately wanted to get a sense of the fact that it was more of a narrative now than the original version; getting rid of the chorus sections somehow made it more of a narrative than a straightforward song.
This verse really leaves a lump in the throat: “Just being alive/It can really hurt/And these moments given/Are a gift from time/Just let us try/To give these moments back/To those we love/To those who will survive”. That thing about being alive can really hurt. Bush never sounding so rare and exposed. You could feel her reacting to a sense of dislocation and upcoming loss. Her mother died on 14th February, 1992. “To those we love/to those who will survive” seems to relate to Bush and her mother. So heartbreaking. I am not surprised that Bush re-recorded Moments of Pleasure for 2011’s Director’s Cut. Not because she was dissatisfied with the oriignal. Maybe keen to put an older voice on the song. I love the mentions of New York in Moments of Pleasure. That connection to snow. She returned to that coloration and chemistry for Snowed in at Wheeler Street where she sang with Elton John. Her mentioning taking a photo in New York (“9/11 in New York, I took your photograph”). The lines “On a balcony in New York/It’s just started to snow/He meets us at the lift/Like Douglas Fairbanks/Waving his walking stick/But he isn’t well at all”. That was a reference to when Bush met Michael Powell in New York in 1989. That was around the end of that year. Michael Powell co-wrote and co-directed the 1948 film, The Red Shoes, with Emeric Pressburger. The inspiration for Bush’s album title. Powell died on 19th February, 1990. I think there were plans that they would meet again or do something together. A song with loss hanging in the air. Powell dying in 1990. Hannah Bush in 1992. However, there is a lot of love and romance. Scenic visions and strength to be found. I love all the little lines and details. Characters coming in. A reference to the “case of George the Wipe”. George the Wipe was a tape op (a person who performs menial operations in a recording studio in a similar manner to a tea boy or gopher) at Townhouse Studios, where Bush previously recorded.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993
Moments of Pleasure seems to be Kate Bush in a snow globe. This scenic and passionate setting. However, there are flashbacks and these visions of the past. When she sings “Hey there Teddy/Spinning in the chair at Abbey Road”. I know Bush and her crew used to play a game at Abbey Road where they would spin in the chairs to see who could survive it. Who would keep their balance and stomach content! Bush usually won as she could focus on a spot in the distance or keep her composure. The line in Moments of Pleasure seems to be more about Andrew Powell I feel. He produced Bush’s first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart. I believe ‘Teddy’ comes from the nicknames Andrew Powell, Kate Bush and Jon Powell (who co-produced Never for Ever (1980) together) gave themselves at the time (Andy Pandy, Loopy Lou and Teddy, from Andy Pandy). Bush once again mentioning sadly-departed Bill Duffield in lyrics. She did for Blow Away (For Bill) from Never for Ever. “Hey there Bill/Could you turn the lights up?”. A nice nod again to Duffield on Moments of Pleasure. You get the feeling of ghosts from the past, professional or personal. The music video was also used in the short movie the Line, the Cross and the Curve and features Bush rotating around in the snow, lip-synching the song and meeting various actors near the end of the song.
I will wrap up in a minute. There is not much written about Moments of Pleasure. I want to bring in a feature that was published back in the summer. An examination of the brilliance and interesting details that you get from one of Bush’s finest songs. Far Out Magazine went deep inside a song that I feel deserved a much higher chart position:
“Kate Bush is best known as a weaver of narratives. Her albums are rich with stories borrowed from folklore, mythology and Bush’s own vibrant imagination. But for ‘Moments Of Pleasure’, the singer brought her music back to the world of fact, dedicating one lyrical ode to the act of remembrance amidst a period of grief.
There are glimmers of this throughout her discography. In rare instances, Bush seems to suddenly peel back the veil and allow her listeners in. As a famously private musician, and now an utterly and infamously-impossible-to-reach one as she’s retreated out of the public sphere, these momentary glimpses of her life feel like a tender touch and a total privilege for her fans. Hearing about her family life on ‘Bertie’ or her dedication to her dance teacher on ‘Moving‘ are the moments fans get to connect with their audience.
Backstage at Joni Mitchell's show at the Hollywood Bowl
But even if her life doesn’t find its way into her lyricism, her music has always been a deeply personal affair when it comes to her collaborators and team. From her debut album to her last, Bush’s music is crafted by her and a tight-knit circle, including her brother, Paddy Bush, her guitarist and old boyfriend, Del Palmer and her husband, Danny McIntosh. Even when her albums feature big names, they’re always friends first, such as David Gilmour who was a family friend before he agreed to help her out with her first record.
This means that the behind-the-scenes world of her music is a deeply sentimental realm, with her albums not only holding her talent but capturing moments in the lives of her, her family, her friends and her relationships. Some of her most beloved memories are attached to her music, bringing together all of her favourite people in service to her craft.
On ‘Moments Of Pleasure’, Bush flicks through these memories like a kind of sonic photo album. “Some moments that I’ve had / Some moments of pleasure,” she begins as if it stands as a title ahead of a bullet point list of images that have stuck in her mind.
However, specifically, ‘Moments Of Pleasure’ exists as a kind of memory box for Bush’s grief. In the final moments of the song, she calls out into the beyond, recounting lost friends by name as a beautiful dedication. “Hey there, Bubba / Dancing down the aisle of a plane,” she sings, remembering Gary ‘Bubba’ Hurst, a dancer on her 1979 tour. She recalls her frequent guitar player “S Murph, playing his guitar refrain,” after his passing in 1989. She thinks about her Never For Ever sound engineer John Barrett, referring to him tenderly through his nickname as she thinks of “Teddy, Spinning in the chair at Abbey Road.” Another member of her collaborative team remembered is Bill Duffield, who inspired the track ‘Blow Away’ after dying in a tragic accident during Bush’ 1979 tour, singing “Hey there, Bill / Could you turn the lights up?”
There’s also a call out to Michael Powell, the influential British director who co-created the film The Red Shoes, which inspired the record. Powell was a fan of Bush’s and had stated that he wanted her to create the music for one of his films before his death in 1990. As if calling out to her inspiration for approval, she sings, “Hey there, Michael / Do you really love me?”
There’s also another person who now presides over the song’s dedicated remembrance. Bush’s mother passed a year before the album’s release. However, the singer said that she’d already recorded the track and played it to her. “There’s a line in there that mentions a phrase that she used to say, ‘every old sock meets an old shoe,’ and when I recorded it and played it to her, she just thought it was hilarious! She couldn’t stop laughing. She just thought it was so funny that I’d put it into this song,” she explained.
But even after her mother had passed, adding another element of grief to the track, it remained a beloved number to Bush, who saw it as a perfect way to remember these lives and moments that moved her. “I don’t see it as a sad song,” she said, “I think there’s a sort of reflective quality, but I guess I think of it more as a celebration of life”.
On 15th November, it will be thirty-one years since Moments of Pleasure was released. You hear it played on radio now and then, though it is not heard as much as other Bush tracks. It warrants more respect. I mentioned the song when discussing The Red Shoes for recent anniversary features. I wanted to return to the song as it is such a great example of Bush’s gifts and distinctions as a writer. How she can drop in these lines that provoke imagination and beautiful visions. Heartache alongside celebration. Such a touching and rich song that sounds so relevant and poignant to this day! It is one of the sparsest songs on The Red Shoes. In the sense if is Bush at her piano (with lush orchestral arrangements by Michael Kamen). Not cluttered or with that many layers. The Director’s Cut version had a challenge to improve on the original, as Bush did not need strip too much away. Instead, I think the biggest change is her vocal. That new depth and age that somehow adds extra wisdom and potency to things. Giving the song new perspective rather than correcting any production issues or overcrowding. Moments of Pleasure is simply…
A beautiful song.