FEATURE:
As the People Here Grow Colder
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Kate Bush’s Deeper Understanding at Fourteen
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THIS is a song from Kate Bush…
that is a little divisive. I will write more about the album closer to its fourteenth anniversary in May. The only single released from the album was Deeper Understanding. Director’s Cut is an intriguing album. If someone consider it to be one of Bush’s less remarkable works – it is placed low alongside 1993’s The Red Shoes when it comes to ranking her album -, it was unique. In the sense that this was Kate Bush revisiting past material. Something she had not done too often previously. This was a selection of songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes reworked. Rather than this being an album where Bush lazily revisited older tracks as a sort of greatest hits thing, Director’s Cut was very much a new album. The songs sounding very different to how they did originally. It was divisive because it was not seen as a properly new album, in the sense the songs were fresh and unheard. However, I love Director’s Cut because we got to hear these known songs in a new light. Whilst some of the inclusions might have puzzled people – And So Is Love perhaps could have been replaced by something else; Flower of the Mountain (originally The Sensual World) not as impactful as it was in 1989 -, there were tracks on the album that gained new strength and meaning. Included are The Song of Solomon and Never Be Mine. There are two songs on Director’s Cut that very much take on a whole new meaning on the 2011 album. This Woman’s Work was from The Sensual World but originally appeared in the 1988 film, She’s Having a Baby. Bush singing the song as a woman in her fifties. There was this whole new dimension and layer revealed.
Perhaps it was always a bit of a gamble reworking a song that was impactful first time around because of its prescience. In 1989, this idea of someone losing themselves technology and having this sort of obsession seemed far-fetched. I always wonder why this was not released as a single from The Sensual World. In 2011, with technology and the Internet very much gripping people and it being everywhere, one can understand why Kate Bush wanted to revisit the song. Release it as the single from Director’s Cut. Released on 5th April, 2011, the new Deeper Understanding features a newly recorded main vocal by Bush, and the voice of her son Bertie (Albert) on the chorus. The single was released as a digital download. It charted in the U.K. at number eighty-seven. The music video was directed by Kate Bush. I am going to move to interview snippets where Bush discussed Deeper Understanding. Before getting there, it is worth sourcing reviews for the 2011 version of Deeper Understand:
“Michael Cragg wrote in the Guardian (UK) in 2011: “The 2011 retwizzle is two minutes longer, seems to have a new vocal and, naturally for the music climate of today, a lot of vocal processing and vocoder. The chorus is much more explicitly meant to be a conversation between human and computer: “I bring you love and deeper understanding” croons the machine like a malfunctioning ZX Spectrum. It’s not a disaster, in fact once you get used to the vocals it’s still a great Kate Bush track, but if revisiting songs is going to mean adding an extra minute and a half of harmonica solos to each one then we may have problems.” The New Yorker added: “Where the original chattered and cracked, this version susurrates and warps, a bit more like life online”.
I will move to 2011 and some words around Deeper Understanding. Interesting why Kate Bush reapproached the track and whether the song was more or less relevant in 2011 than it was in 1989. Before then, there are interviews where Bush spoke about Deeper Understanding. Back in 1989 and 1990. It is interesting what she says:
“Yes, it is emotional disconnection, but then it’s very much connection, but in a way that you would never expect. And that kind of emotion should really come from the human instinctive force, and in this particular case it’s coming from a computer. I really liked the idea of playing with the whole imagery of computers being so cold, so unfeeling. Actually what is happening in the song is that this person conjures up this program that is almost like a visitation of angels. They are suddenly given so much love by this computer – it’s like, you know, just love. There was no other choice. Who else could embody the visitation of angels but the Trio Bulgarka? [laughs]
John Diliberto, ‘Kate Bush’s Theater Of The Senses’. Musician, February 1990
I suppose it’s looking at society where more and more people are being shut away in their homes with televisions and computers, and in a way being encouraged not to come out. You know, there’s so many people who live in London in high-rise flats – they don’t know their neighbors, they don’t know anyone else in the building. People are getting very isolated. It was the idea of this person who had less and less human contact, and more and more contact with their computer, where they were working on it all day and all night. They see an advert in a magazine for a program for people who are lonely and lost, so they write off for it. When they get it back in the mail and put it into the computer, it’s the idea – a bit like an old sci-fi film, really – where it would just come to life and suddenly there’s this kind of incredible being there, like a great spiritual visitation. This computer is offering this person love, and the idea that they’ve had such little human warmth, they’re getting this tremendous affection and deep love from their computer. But it’s so intense it’s too much for them to take, and they actually have to be rescued from just being killed with love, I suppose.
It is amazing that so little has been written about Deeper Understanding. The original has got a bit of attention, though the new version has virtually nothing. Reviews have been mixed around it. Some prefer the production on the Director’s Cut version and feel it works really well. Some object to the vocal processing. This sort of Autotune sound that is less naturally than the 1989 version. On an album that is seen as a lesser Kate Bush work, Deeper Understanding has got fewer press inches than many other songs on the album. The only single from Director’s Cut, it was quite a bold choice. Some might have liked Flower of the Mountain, This Woman’s Work, or even Moments of Pleasure. I have seen some criticism for the video. Graeme Thomson, in his biography of Kate Bush, calls it the nadir of her work. In the sense that it is a mess. I don’t think it is that bad. However, I do really like the track. I can appreciate why Bush wanted to reapproach the song in the 2010s. She was ahead of the game in 1989. Comparing the original song and the 2011 version. Deeper Understanding was also a chance for Bush to feature her son, Bertie. He would feature more prominently and less obscured on the follow-up album, 50 Words for Snow (you can hear him on the track, Snowflake). It is interesting seeing how Deeper Understanding (2011) fits into Bush’s cannon. Look at that run of singles. In 2005, King of the Mountain came out. The only single from Aerial, it reached four in the U.K. In 2007, Lyra was released and reached 187 in the U.K. Deeper Understanding came out in 2011 and reached eighty-seven. Wild Man was the single from 50 Words for Snow and reached seventy-three. Lower chart positions and perhaps less commercial engagement. Maybe the songs are less radio-friendly or commercial. One could argue Bush’s albums more essential than singles. Is Bush a singles artist anymore? If Bush does release a new album soon and a single come, will it have the same appeal as King of the Mountain or will it chart low? Given the fact she has not released an album for over thirteen years, I would expect a high chart position.
Deeper Understanding was important, as it arrived six years after King of the Mountain and was this new chapter. Many did not know when we would get another Kate Bush album after 2005. Nobody could predict two Kate Bush albums would arrive in 2011! One cannot really compare Deeper Understanding with Wild Man. Two very different-sounding songs from two very different albums. It is unfair that Director’s Cut gets overlooked or dismissed. It was tough to revisit Deeper Understanding, as it was so futuristic. I love the original. In 2011, when technology was advancing and social media was coming through in a big way, it was important for Bush to address this. Remodelling a song for that period. She was always someone who was ahead of her time. Technology such a big part of her work. On 5th April, it will be fourteen years since Kate Bush released the amazing Deeper Understanding. I love the interview from that time. Bush speaking with Ken Bruce for BBC Radio 2 and the subject of this song came up. A chance to bring her young son into her work. An important update on a song that was positively far-fetched in 1989. The idea of someone being enslaved by technology or seeing it as a substitute for friendship. Something not many people have spoken about, Deeper Understanding does warrant more spotlight and focus. Fourteen years after its release, technology and its obsessive nature has increased. A.I. has also come in. I know Bush fears the advance of A.I. and is wary of its dangers. I will write about Director’s Cut closer to its anniversary in May. Its one and only single is fourteen very soon. The first glimpse inside an album where Bush revisit and re-recorded songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, the reaction to it was mixed. In my view, it is a song that should be…
TALKED about more.