FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Tour of Life
IN THIS PHOTO: David Bowie in 1973/PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Rock
about some of the artists Kate Bush has been inspired by. In terms of artists who songs she has covered. Those that she had a close association. How she idolised the likes of Elton John and David Bowie. I am going back to David Bowie in a bit. The title of this feature actually is the title of a David Bowie album from 1973. It was Bowie covering songs by artists he admired. It was not that well received. However, it was one of his earlier albums and an interesting project. That year, 1973, seems relevant when talking about Kate Bush. A year when she say the final gig of David Bowie’s final Ziggy Stardust gig. She was also discovering music from popular culture, her brother and family. Actually, let’s go back a year to 1972. A year where there were quite a few uplifting piano ballads in the charts – Simon and Garfunkel and John Lennon among the contributors -, this would have inspired the thirteen/fourteen-year-old Bush. Someone who was writing her own songs and developing aspirations of her own, I want to muse and consider the posters she might have had on her wall. Perhaps vinyl records of various artists. What she was taking from the music she loved. How this affected her and made her a stronger songwriter. It is clear that 1972 and 1973 were formative years. Compared to the end of the decade when there seemed to be a downer mood and a lot of political anger in music, the beginning of the 1970s did seem slightly more optimistic. Bush was still at school but she had already written quite a few songs and demoed many of them in 1973. By 1972, it is safe to say that her tastes extended beyond her brothers’ collections. What they were introducing their little sister to.
Let think about some ‘pin ups’. I would say David Bowie was on her wall. Maybe Bush had a copy of Aladdin Sane. Not much is written about the records she bought. Living in Welling, Kent, it would have been a bus ride to get to her local record store. Someone turning her lyrics into demos (rough but still beautiful), Bush was carefully curating a trove of musical influences. Not many female artists in the mix. Even though she no doubt would have been affected by Carole King’s Tapestry in 1971 and Joni Mitchell’s Blue the same year, she might also have latched onto Mitchell’s For the Roses of 1972. Even if she would say in interviews from 1978 that she was not really inspired by fellow female artists, you can hear shades of them in those early songs from Bush. Maybe not such a fan of Carole King, I do think there is a connection between Tapestry and some songs on The Kick Inside. If Bush’s style was less confessional and her piano playing more inventive, songs such as I Feel the Earth Move and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? are not a million miles away from what Bush was singing. The KT Bush Band’s brief reign revealed a few influences from Bush in terms of songs she covered. Artists like Steely Dan and The Beatles represented. As I have written about previously, she would have had Steely Dan in her mind by 1977. Maybe not in her world in 1973 (the year they released Countdown to Ecstasy). In 1972, The Beatles had only been apart for two years, so I am not sure whether Bush would have had any Beatles’ music or posters in her collection. If Bush was not as drawn to female songwriters of the early-1970s as she was bands, that is not to say their music made no impression. It was an exciting and variegated time for music.
Heavy Metal and Glam sitting alongside one another. Together with a love of Elton John, Bush would also have found a lot to love about bands like Deep Purple and Slade. The differences between them but also a similarity. How individual they were. Glam particularly would have appealed to a side of Kate Bush. The theatricality and fashion. The campiness and beauty. A mystique and strangeness that was not conformative and boring. T.Rex and David Bowie’s music surely important, though the aesthetics and looks that Marc Bolan and David Bowie projected would have struck her hurt in addition to her creative mind. Again, in terms of wall posters and records, was there space for T.Rex? I can feel their presence in some of her earlier work. I think Bush was not a fan of the Americanisation of music. British artists adopting U.S. affectations and accents. Bowie’s intonations and delivery. Roxy Music were particular influential. Bush finding a bond with Bryan Ferry. Resonating deep inside, I guess she would have picked up a copy of For Your Pleasure (1973). Songs such as Do the Strand wowing her. 1974’s Country Life would have stirred something inside her too. It was not only the sounds of the 1970s that were connecting with Kate Bush. Artists from her parents’ generation like Bille Holiday and Elvis Presley were in her record collection. I would love to have been a fly on the wall at East Wickham Farm in Kate Bush’s bedroom and rifle through the records! I guess it would have been an assortment of singles and albums. Maybe making a trip to town to stock up. However, her brothers would have bought quite a bit of music and shared if with their sister.
As Rob Jovanovic writes in his book, Kate Bush: The Biography, Bush would have had a bedroom to herself. In an affluent middle-class household, there would not have been the room sharing and crammed conditions many families faced. Next to her room was a den. In it were comfortable sofas, cushions and a prized record player. Like a nook where she could escape and have a proper environment to experience this eye-opening and mind-expanding music. I know there would have been some room for posters. Maybe vinyl propped up. Bush struck by the artwork on the covers. Bush would have invited friends over for sleepovers and borrowed more and more from her brothers. Putting the needle down on all kind of different albums and having her mind nourished and motivated. All of these experiences formative when we consider Kate Bush as an artist and how that would shape her sound and musical personality. Bush said in an interview how Billie Holiday was an influence. How she loved her voice and it stirred something inside her. So haunted, powerful and beautiful, you can feel that when you listen to some early Kate Bush tracks. Maybe The Man with the Child in His Eyes can be traced back to Holiday. Perhaps too Symphony in Blue from Lionheart? People might have their own thoughts on that. Bush was also seeking out progressive artists like David Bowie and Steely Dan. Bush identified more with male artists. Perhaps the singer-songwriter genre was not as interesting to her. Attracted more to bands like Thin Lizzy and Boomtown Rats. As I have said before, Bush worked mainly with male musicians and personnel. It was the way things were. However, it is clear she has had an impact on so many female artists. Bush definitely had David Bowie on her wall but from which era? I would say Ziggy Stardust and that era (1972-1973).
I will expand on this more when writing about why Elton John was especially important in terms of the piano and how Bush was attracted to that. She did say how she had a crush on John. Maybe another poster that was on her wall. She has name-checked Madman Across the Water as a favourite album. Someone whose piano playing was at the forefront, it was different to all the guitar bands that were fashionable through the 1970s. Bush wrote to Elton John quoting Bernie Taupin and hand-delivered it to the BBC hoping he would get it – though he probably never did. The two did collaborate together in 2011 and are friends. I am not sure whether Bush’s demos she was producing around 1973 were directly inspired by the artists on her walls. Not lyrically at least. Many of her very earliest songs were quite heavy and dark. It is clear that her musical heroes and loves were definitely playing their part. Adoring her walls and her record player, I have always felt it was a missed opportunity Bush did not for her own Pin Ups album and cover songs by artists like Roxy Music and Elton John. Those she did cover an Elton John song, Rocket Man, in 1991, hearing her approach another of his song would be fascinating. It is interesting that perhaps her two biggest music idols did not get on. Elton John and David Bowie somewhat at odds. Bowie feeling that Elton John’s Rocket Man was a low-grade and pale version of Starman or Space Oddity. Bowie acknowledged that other people could write about space but he must have felt John was taking from him. Even so, Bush had room for both artists. Radio Luxembourg was important. If pirate radio had been all but killed by commercial stations like BBC Radio 1 by 1967, Radio Luxembourg was different. When she was in the bath, a then-thirteen-year-old Kate Bush heard Starman for the first time. That was in 1972. Those years of 1972 and 1973 so crucial when we consider the sounds and artists that influenced Bush.
When writing a foreword for a David Bowie MOJO special, Bush recalled her fascination. This insect-thin man who dressed so differently. Theatrical and bizarre, was that a dress he was wearing? If artists of the early-1970s were not noted for their fashion sense, you can feel Bush being lured by artists whose style was as standout as their music. Bryan Ferry. Elton John. David Bowie. Bush, in that MOJO foreword, said how Bowie poster/picture was on her wall alongside a sacred space reserved for Elton John. Two rivals who found harmony at East Wickham Farm. Such a shame that she never collaborated with Bowie. This is something I recently wrote about and mourned. I am not sure how much of this bedroom obsession reflected in live music and gig-going. She definitely saw Bowie’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust, but what of other artists?! Maybe given the fact she was so young meant she was not going to as many gigs as someone older. Having to think of school and be responsible. However, what is clear is that music she discovered and also borrowed from her brothers made its way into her head, heart, wall and onto the record player. From Billie Holiday to Roxy Music, in their own special way, these were pin ups for her. I do think about Kate Bush’s family home and how music affected her. The posters on her walls and the records she cherished. How it would be this source of passion but also sanctuary. Life-changing and enormously vital to her songwriter, it has been interesting exploring these…
IMPORTANT pin ups.