FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Tour of Life
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in December 1979
Kate Bush and the Album Overlap
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THERE is this trend…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
that occurred through Kate Bush’s career that interests me. I have written about it before, but 1978 was a year when Kate Bush was promoting The Kick Inside and also working on her follow-up, Lionheart. Album overlap occurred for quite a while. In 1978, it was very much EMI putting pressure on. This commercial drive to capitalise on the success of The Kick Inside. It was a shame that Bush was not afforded time to properly write for her second album. Instead, she was being pulled around the world promoting and had only a short amount of time to do any preparation for Lionheart. I think The Tour of Life in 1979 was a chance for Kate Bush to (briefly) break this circuit. Rather than being pushed straight into a third album and promoting that heavily and then doing another one, Bush went on tour. It gave her chance to do something that she had control over. However, once she started work on her third studio album, 1980’s Never for Ever, there was to be this period of overlap again. I do wonder whether Bush was keen to be in the studio and was excited to do the albums or there was this pressure to keep momentum going. A particularly busy and difficult period came during 1980. I do think there was a very deliberate decision after 1982 to take longer working on albums. Bush was working on The Dreaming (released in 1982) before Never for Ever was released in 1980. Working at her farm studio in August 1980, Bush was starting in earnest this ambitious fourth studio album. A month later, she would release her third studio album. One can see parallels between 1978 and 1980. Either side of The Tour of Life, Bush was recording albums whilst promoting the previous one. In 1980, Never for Ever came out and saw Bush promote widely and prominently. It was a hectic time. Also, whilst she was managing promotion, she was in the studio putting together the first steps for The Dreaming!
It was not the case that Bush was promoting endlessly and did not get any time off. She did have breaks. However, when she did have breaks, she was working on The Dreaming. If 1978 was a year when the label were almost making Bush record a new album whilst still promoting her debut, perhaps Bush felt that she needed to have this overlap in 1980. The last time she would overlap with her albums and have two projects in her head at the same time was in 2011. I shall come to that. I think about Kate Bush in 1980 and that juggling act. Keeping The Kick Inside alive and talked about as 1978 ended but also having to promote Lionheart. Effectively recording her second album shortly after promoting her debut. Barely any period in the middle. In 1980, Never for Ever was out and it would be in the public consciousness until the following year. What Bush was creating for The Dreaming was very different to what was on Never for Ever. If the 1978 overlap was strange because of the heaviness of promotion and rushing a second album, Bush was in a different headspace through 1980 and 1981. Two very different albums in different parts of her brain. I have talked about this before, so apologies for any repetition. Think about the late stages of 1980 through to 1981. Bush had this success from Never for Ever (it reached number one in the U.K.) and there were single releases and promotion. At the same time, she was leaping to a new plain. Producing solo for the first time, the recording for The Dreaming would be more intense than it was for Never for Ever. Even so, it would have been difficult trying to create something new whilst still talking about your current studio album. In 1981, the Sunday Telegraph published an opinion poll where Bush was deemed the ‘most liked’ and ‘least liked’ British female singer. If it weren’t enough that she was balancing disparate and eclectic albums and also promotion and new recording, she also was in a position where she seemed to be loved by half the popular and disliked by the other!
1979 was a chance for Bush to perform live and find time away from promotion. There were new fans in her camp after that who made Never for Ever a success. However, there still was a feeling that Bush was this odd and divisive artist. I know that is one opinion poll, but all these emotions must have been running through her head. There was a period when Bush experienced writer’s block. It is not surprising when you consider how intense things were and how she didn’t have chance to focus on anything particular. Spread too thin maybe. She did get rid of that block when she saw Stevie Wonder in London and she then wrote Sat in Your Lap. That was the first single released from The Dreaming and it came out in 1981 – a year before the album arrived. However, the more I think about album overlapping and Bush not having too much time to detach, the label once more comes to mind. I have painted EMI as a villain in a number of features. It is unfair considering the money they put behind her and how they stuck with her. A lack of commercial success from The Dreaming’s singles might have been a disaster for any other artist. Bush released Hounds of Love in 1985 and this huge wave of critical acclaim greeted it. Bush knew her own music and knew what was best for her. Moments where she was at odds with the label about various release but proven right. However, when it came to keeping her in the public eye, she did not have that much leverage. A hot new wave of exciting female Pop artists were coming through in 1980 and 1981. Kim Wilde and Altered Image’s Clare Grogan for instance. Nervousness that Bush released an album in September 1980 and a year later no new album. Sat in Your Lap was a chart success and a big departure from anything she had done before. Perhaps my feature should be about Bush competing with artists around her. EMI wanted albums out so they could make money and could keep this artist in their charge. However, there was this sense of rivalry and competition.
If other artists were scoring big chart hits and were in magazines and on T.V., Bush was in the studio working on an album that seemed to be the antithesis of the mainstream Pop sound. Songs that would not grace the radio playlists too much! Bush did take the odd break during The Dreaming’s creation and release. You get the feeling she never truly relaxed or could find peace. The media asking where she was and writing her off. The public divided about whether they loved or hated her. 1978 was an intense period because Bush was new and juggling two albums. Things were different in 1980 and 1981. With a third album out and Bush expected to talk about it, she was also spending days off and evenings putting together a fourth album. That intense year of 1981 when Bush was just about clear of Never for Ever and The Dreaming was very much at the forefront of her mind. 1983 and 1984 was a chance to recharge and change. No album overlap. She would focus on her fifth studio album. Because Bush could focus and work on one project without having to promote another album, Hounds of Love is this extraordinary work that Bush put her all into. The artist taking longer to release albums. Three years between The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. Four years between Hounds of Love and The Sensual World; another four before 1993’s The Red Shoes. At each stage, there were these media pieces and polls. Where Bush was and whether she had retired. Trying to create an album and make it as good as possible but also this feeling that she was invisible. Scandals and rumours printed. It would have been a struggle for her. One could say that albums overlapping meant that Bush had some energy and momentum from the previous album and bring it straight into a new one. Without much time to stop and rest, she could keep the creative juices running. Longer gaps followed. Bush not keen to pump albums out or balance two different projects. She would have to again in 2011. However, this was very much her decision. Kate Bush re-recording songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes for Director’s Cut. That came in May 2011. Bush talking about that album at the same time she was recording and finishing up 50 Words for Snow. That came out in November 2011. It was another year like 1978 or 1980, however the stakes were different and the situation not the sane.
I wanted to focus on this fascinating subject. Album overlapping. I didn’t really consider the reasons why Bush was expected to do this. The larger culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Especially for a female artist, that pressure to do more than their male counterparts to be seen and heard. This sense of rivalry and relevance. A first professional year where Bush was trying to put a second studio album together but still promoting her debut. 1980 and 1981 saw overlap. A third album promise with a fourth being recorded. 2011 found Bush revisiting the past and updating older songs whilst also working on a tenth studio album that was vastly different to Director’s Cut. Parallels with 1980 in terms of two vastly differing albums being promoted/recorded. I don’t think we can rule out another album overlap or period where Bush works on two albums at the same time. I never really considered the factors behind albums overlapping and whether it was largely label pressure or a case of Bush having to prove herself. If this sort of promotional/recording cycle benefitted her in the long run or was detrimental. I can appreciate a label being unhappy with an artist taking a few years to follow up on an album with another. However, it must have been very strange in 1978, 1980, 1981 and even 1982 with Bush never truly being able to hone in and concentrate on a single album. She was dragged back down again in 2011. Having to accomplish this balancing act and, in the process, two very dissimilar albums in her head. Look at everything Kate Bush has achieved and one cannot say confidently that if her early career was conducted differently when it came to expectations and recording albums then she would have been better off. However, I do think of Kate Bush back then and even in 2011. Whether led by a label or her own desire to satisfy fans and herself, it is interesting to imagine how…
DIFFERENT things could have been.