FEATURE:
Back on Track?
The Scrapped Kate Bush Autobiography Makes Me Wonder If We’ll Ever Get a Personal Account from the Icon
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IN 1983…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Griffin
many might not know that Kate Bush had started to write – or at least planned to write – an autobiography. A 144-page book, it was to be published by Sidgwick & Jackson. Likely written and ready to be published, the book was little known of and withdrawn in 1984. It is interesting seeing the cover and what it could have looked like. It is understandable why Kate Bush would have been asked and would have considered it. At that point in her career, she had released four studio albums. Hounds of Love would appear in 1985. Her autobiography was scrapped back in 1984. I wonder whether the need to record a new album meant that she had little time or effort to dedicate to it. I suspect that an autobiography was part of a new promotional drive after EMI felt that The Dreaming (1982) undersold or was taking Bush’s career in the wrong direction. That autobiography title, Leaving My Tracks, has a double meaning. Referring to tracks as songs, it also has this sense of being derailed. Maybe coming off the tracks into danger. In any case, whilst some say the book was written and ready to go and others say that hardly any was written, the fact that a number of pages was announced (144) makes me suspect that somewhere there is the book. Forty years after it was shelved, I wonder why it has not been published. In terms of insight into the career of Kate Bush, many fans would love to read this book!
In 2024, where there has been reissues and revising lately from Kate Bush, the release of Leaving My Tracks would seem like a smart move. It is hard to tell why the book was scrapped. That question around whether Kate Bush will ever write something like that again. Forty years since the autobiography was written/planned, a lot of has happened to her. I have mused before on this subject. Apparently the autobiography was written with a ghost writer, although there is really not much known beyond that. A lot of mystery and what-ifs. You know that there is something in the archives or held away that could be published. Maybe Kate Bush would not want Leaving My Tracks published now. I hardly hear anyone discuss it or consider what could have been in there. Perhaps very few people know about its existence. Interviews are often based around an album and can be quite limited. I know that there is a lot about Kate Bush, her writing process and early life that would be wonderful to read about. Whether Leaving My Tracks was very personal or a little more detached I am not sure. At sixty-five, Kate Bush has a lot to reflect on. I would like to think that, one day, there would be a revision. That she would feel comfortable putting into the world a memoir or autobiography. I feel the 1980s version was more pressurised by the label and a way of getting more people interested in her music.
Now, forty years later, Kate Bush has full control and can approach it from a different perspective. Even though Kate Bush has been busy the past few years with reissues and various stuff, there has not been a whole lot going on in terms of new stuff. You do wonder if she has been working on a new project. Maybe there will not be an album coming at all. The tantalising thought that she may be working on a book of some sort. It is weird that an autobiography might have been ready to go and then was called off in 1984. No real reason why that was and whether there were plans to release it at a later date. Whatever the truth behind it, I guess Kate Bush would not be the only major and legendary artist who has not released an autobiography. Paul McCartney springs to mind. He has put out a lyrics book where he explains his songs though, in terms of a traditional autobiography, nothing like that has ever come about – though there would be a huge demand if he were to consider it. I guess it is this very open thing that requires a lot of focus and time. Not all artists would want to commit to that. (in terms of time and exposing themselves). I just got curious about Leaving My Tracks and whatever happened. One of those great Kate Bush mysteries. A shame that there may be a lot of fascinating pages written that people will never get to see! As there would be great importance publishing the book or revisiting the autobiography, I hope that Leaving My Tracks, one day, finds its way…
BACK on track.