FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Tour of Life
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Lichfield
Never Forever: Rotating the Band
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PEOPLE might not know…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
how songs come together in the studio. Many assume that artists have a set group of musicians that play on every song and every take. That is the case with some. However, there is a lot of trial and error too. Maybe not to the say standard as a band like Steely Dan. They would cast musicians and go through quite a few players. Switching it up between albums. Even other big artists change musicians between albums and often rotate musicians during the same album. If a take is not working then another player will be called in. Maybe not common on Kate Bush’s albums before she became a producer, one of the most notably aspects of her production is how she would do multiple takes and rotate her band. If a player was not working out during a particular take then she would bring in someone else. Maybe get the musician to sit this one out. Perhaps Kate Bush’s band, who she was friends with and close, felt they would be immune. However, Bush knew what her songs needed. She had a particular sound in her head and it was nothing personal. If someone was not quite right then she would need to make a necessary substitution. When stepping into AIR at the half of 1979 to record for Never for Ever, things got off to a good start. The initial sessions saw Bush employ much of her Tour of Life band for cuts like Violin, Egypt, Blow Away (For Bill) and The Wedding List. The band had just come off of tour and there was this close kinship and energy. Brian Bath recalled how the songs were slightly different for the album. Even if they had performed songs like Egypt on tour, numbers took on a different shape for Never for Ever. Bath also noted how Steely Dan’s influence came into the tracks. Not just in terms of the sounds. I think Bush’s working method might have been inspired by The Dan. Perhaps influenced by their recent album, Aja (1977), Bush was not afraid to test and rotate her band members.
Recording at Abbey Road was productive and would go through the evenings and into the early hours. Even if it was a busy and creative time, Bush did admit she was still struggling when it came to properly articulating her thoughts. Translating what she had in her mind and making that understandable and easy for the musicians. Thanks to Tom Doyle and his book, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush, for a lot of the facts and information in this feature. Kate Bush knew her songs had personalities. She wanted to make sure they were given the best performances. Choosing sounds, she said in a newsletter that it “is so like trying to be a psychic”. Seeing into the future to how things would pan out. In the first five months of 1980 in Studio 2 at Abbey Road, songs were taking shape. Bush, as co-producer (with Jon Kelly), was trying out different musicians for her songs. Going through a procession of musicians, sometimes their work was kept, though it was often erased. It may seem brutal but, and nodding to Steely Dan again, it was a case of experimentation and refinement. Songs more complex and layered than her first two albums, Bush was very close to the musicians but she knew that the music had to be just right. Rather than letting sentimentality or emotions cloud her judgement, Bush was trying to find that perfect sound. It did mean players thought they would be kept on a take to find their part was not used. It was never a cruel process. Instead, Bush was trying to get Never for Ever to take shape. After a quick and productive start to recording, there was a sense that things were slowing. Bush, as a new producer and twenty-one/two-year-old (she turned twenty-two on 30th July, 1980), this was still quite new. A producer who had skills but was still picking up a lot. With new technology such as the Fairlight CMI offering a world of possibilities but complexities, it was a challenge wrestling with technology and also trying to connect with her musicians in terms of what she was looking for.
Friend Stuart Elliott knew what Kate Bush wanted. He had been replaced a few times and often replaced other musicians on takes. Bush’s boyfriend Del Palmer was pulled from the odd take or two. Quite shocked by that, Palmer would often let his emotions out. Including quite a bit of swearing! It was never Kate Bush this stern and emotionless producer mechanically working through artists. She could see the worth and value in every take and musicians and it was not an easy decision. It was part of the process. Bush was relaxed and patient. She created these layered songs, so it was only natural she would use various players and cut other so that everything fitted together and sounded natural. A whole host of bass players for Breathing and Babooshka. Perhaps trying to find a sound that didn’t exist, it must have been quite a sight seeing a lot of different musicians passing through Abbey Road and Bush having to cut their part. Like an audition process! There would be a long list of people said Brian Bath. If it didn’t work then people would sit it out. Bush seeing her songs cinematically. Casting the part and rotating the band. When it came to Breathing and Babooshka, The Tour of Life’s drummer Preston Heyman was subbed by Stuart Elliott (who played on The Kick Inside and Lionheart). Bush explained that you have to ”break your back before you even start to speak the emotion”. Stuart Elliott would occasionally offer a suggestion to Kate Bush and she would gently smile but then get on with things. It was not a blinkered or rude approach. She had her method and knew that she had to find the truth. Bush would bring in a bunch of musicians and, if that didn’t work, she would introduce another group of musicians. If she was protective and wanted to use her small band for 1978’s Lionheart, Bush was more flexible and ambitious on her third studio album. Various bass players had tried out for Breathing, but it was John Giblin and his fretless part that opened up the song. It was a revelation. Bush has been listening to Pink Floyd’s The Wall a lot and had seen her creativity stall. Breathing broke her out of that. A single that raised a few eyebrows at EMI. Thinking her “in-out, in-out” vocal part was sexual and pornographic, rather than a foetus in the womb trying to breathe against the harshness of impending nuclear destruction (“Breathing my mother in/Breathing my beloved in”).
Bush was always looking for her music to have this visual quality. The music conveying images and scenes unfolding. She successfully achieved this synchronicity for Never for Ever. I recently wrote a feature where I talked about the vocal and sonic layers that go into Kate Bush’s songs. I forgot to mention a few highlights from Never for Ever. The sound of buzzing bees that go from speaker to speaker on Delius (Song of Summer); a drill sergeant shouting commands during Army Dreamers; footsteps moving from left to right speakers on All We Ever Look for, then there being this sound of a door opening; the faux radio report that can be heard on Breathing. Again, thanks to Tom Doyle for his words! Not only was Bush bringing in more characters, sound effects, colours and layers to her music. She was also someone who was not confined to a rigid band or the same players. This would continue through her next two albums, The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. However, perhaps there was more instinct and new disciplines learned by the time she produced those albums. Never for Ever was about self-discovery as much as anything. Kate Bush still learning the studio and the technology. Finding ways to convey her visions to musicians. It did mean that players were cut and others drafted in. As I have said, the band rotated for particular songs. A long list of bass players of drummers tried for various numbers. It seems tracks like Breathing were especially tough to gel when it came to finding the right musicians to get the sound just so. Bush always making these changes and cuts professionally and kindly. Musicians could not take things to heart or feel like they were singled out. It was what needed to be done. This young and ambitious producer crafting and searching all the time. What emerged from the process was a number one album and one of her finest releases. Even if her method of rotating musicians might have been quite costly and a struggle at times, when you think what she released in September of 1980, Kate Bush was clearly…
ON the right course!