FEATURE:
To Give Away a Secret
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith
The Solitary Performance of the Majestic Under the Ivy
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IT originally…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
started out as the B-side to Hounds of Love’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). The first single from Hounds of Love was released on 5th August, 1985. I am excited to mark the song’s fortieth anniversary later in the year. Many who bought the single in 1985 were unaware that such a phenomenal song was on its B-side. A month before the album came out, the first taste of it was released. It is a shame that Under the Ivy was not written during the making of Hounds of Love as it would have been a magnificent album track and would have got more exposure and discussion. As it is, this song remains a bit of a curiosity. In my view Bush’s first B-side, not a lot has been written about the song. Under the Ivy was recorded in the studio in just one afternoon. This beautiful song flowed out of Kate Bush. I am going to come to the solitary performance of this song. Ask why it was not include in Bush’s 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, and why the song has not been given more focus. Before discussing the sole performance of Under the Ivy, here is some background about the song. Kate Bush talking about what Under the Ivy is all about:
“It’s very much a song about someone who is sneaking away from a party to meet someone elusively, secretly, and to possibly make love with them, or just to communicate, but it’s secret, and it’s something they used to do and that they won’t be able to do again. It’s about a nostalgic, revisited moment. (…) I think it’s sad because it’s about someone who is recalling a moment when perhaps they used to do it when they were innocent and when they were children, and it’s something that they’re having to sneak away to do privately now as adults.
Doug Alan interview, 20 November 1985
I needed a track to put on the B-Side of the single Running Up That Hill so I wrote this song really quickly. As it was just a simple piano/vocal, it was easy to record. I performed a version of the song that was filmed at Abbey Road Studios for a TV show which was popular at the time, called The Tube. It was hosted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates. I find Paula’s introduction to the song very touching.
It was filmed in Studio One at Abbey Rd. An enormous room used for recording large orchestras, choirs, film scores, etc. It has a vertiginously high ceiling and sometimes when I was working in Studio Two, a technician, who was a good friend, would take me up above the ceiling of Studio One. We had to climb through a hatch onto the catwalk where we would then crawl across and watch the orchestras working away, completely unaware of the couple of devils hovering in the clouds, way above their heads! I used to love doing this – the acoustics were heavenly at that scary height. We used to toy with the idea of bungee jumping from the hatch.
Referring back to Tom Doyle’s book, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush, he has a chapter dedicated to Kate Bush performing Under the Ivy on The Tube in 1986. This show is not one you would think would platform Kate Bush. There is nothing quite like it now. Free-flowing and chaotic, it was hosted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates. Launched on 5th November, 1982 – four days after Channel 4 was launched in the U.K. -, this live show as untameable and exciting. Rather than being filmed out of London, The Tube was filmed in Newcastle for Tyne Tees Television. One of the most memorable moments in the show’s history was when Miles Davis was involved in quite a strange and stilted interview. Apparently, Jools Holland took Davis to a pub across the road after the show. A grumpy landlord looked at Davis and his trumpet case and said that there was no way he was playing that in here! Even though Bush did not travel to Newcastle for her appearance, she was involved in a pre-recorded performance at Abbey Road Studios. Celebrating the show’s one-hundredth episode, Bush was in a safe space at Abbey Road. Somewhere she had recorded before it was the only airing of one of her most overlooked songs. A song that needed to be written quickly so that there was an original B-side for the first single from Hounds of Love, I wonder how many listeners who bought the Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – simply called Running Up That Hill then – flipped over the single and listened to Under the Ivy.
The Newcastle crew came down to St John’s Wood in London to film Kate Bush. Walking across the world-famous zebra crossing, they all started singing The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun. In her introduction, after calling the crew “silly fools”, Paula Yates explained how they were not here “to do The Beatles”. Instead, they were there to “do Kate Bush”. Yates incorrectly said how Bush had her first hit aged nineteen – it was corrected to eighteen in post – and how she broke barriers and crossed boundaries with her music. Even if the tone and wording towards the end of her introduction seemed slightly “piss taking” (as Tom Doyle writes), Bush later said how touched she was. Doyle notes how a song that is about finding a private sanctuary to hide away was appropriate for Abbey Road Studio One. A space Bush often hid way in, I did not know that when she was recording in Studio Two, an engineer led her through a secret route into the rafters of the larger room. They would go up over the ceiling, through a hatch and crawl across a high beam, where they could look down on the orchestral players below. Bush said how she loved doing that. How the acoustics were “heavenly” listening from that height. Bush often imagined herself bungee jumping down. In a stripped-back performance of the song, Bush delivered a sublime performance. Under the Ivy is about the narrator/her slipping away from the party and under the ivy. To a secret spot to meet a lover. Whether they were there to fool around or find some quiet, it was maybe two people who used to have a crush in childhood and are picking up this romance. It is a fascinating song that is not often played or talked about.
For the performance at Abbey Road, Bush was behind a piano. She looked completely calm and composed – though I can imagine she was nervous – and ended the song by looking up and smiling at the camera. It is a shame that this song was never performed live after that. I do wonder why it was not included for Before the Dawn. It would have been good to include in the encore alongside Among Angels and Cloudbusting. There has not been an animated video or anything for the song. Under the Ivy is not available on Spotify. Such a shame that a song as wonderful as this has a brief period of exposure! It came out in 1985 and was performed for the only time the year after. Nearly forty years later, very little engagement with the song. I do think that it deserves a reissue. If there are plans for Bush to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Hounds of Love in September, maybe a new single reissue of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) with Under the Ivy as the B-side again. Without doubt her finest B-side, this gem of a song is worthy of so much more. I would urge people to listen to it now. One of Bush’s most stirring and beautiful vocals. I love the performance she gave for The Tube in 1986. It is a moving and…
HUGELY evocative track.