FEATURE: Dream of… Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Dream of…

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication at Twenty-Five

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ONE of the most popular…

and successful albums of the late-1990s, I have been thinking particularly of albums that turns twenty-five this year. Those great albums that were released in 1999. At the end of the decade (century and millennium), it was a fascinating time for music. Some really timeless and extraordinary albums came out. I think one of the best was from Red Hot Chili Peppers. On 8th June, 1999, the band released their seventh studio album. I think that it might be their finest work. Some might argue. Others might not like the band. I have to admit I am not a huge fan, though I do really like Californication. It came out as I was about to leave high school. A few months later, I would leave a school I had been for five years and was about to embark on the next step. I was embracing music and connecting with it in a different way. It was s source of comfort, guidance and inspiration. I am going to come to some features and reviews for the mighty Californication. Produced by Rick Rubin, the album was a number one in several countries, though not the U.S. and U.K. Even so, it was a top-five in both nations. Big singles like Scar Tissue and Californication are indelible and classic. Incredible tracks that have stood the test of time. I think Californication has aged well. It still pops and has a real sense of gravitas. Not only because Rick Rubin is producing. The fact the band are still going today gives the album a real and true sense of relevance. I wonder whether there is anything planned for its twenty-fifth anniversary. You can go and pick up a copy of the album. I wonder if a new vinyl reissue will come about. There is a Deluxe Edition with some extra tracks. I think that a new reissue or expanded edition would be great.

There will be some twenty-fifth anniversary features. Before coming to some reviews, I will look at twentieth anniversary features that came out in 2019. I would seriously urge anyone who has not heard the album to check it out. I discovered it new and carried it through sixth form college. I remember when Californication’s follow-up, By the Way, came out in 2002. It was a big album for my during university. A band I heard earlier in the 1990s, they made a big impression in 1999. I remember buying the Scar Tissue single when it came out in May 1999. It was a real revelation! Even though I do not love all of the tracks, there are at least four or five songs on the album that rank alongside the band’s best. I will start out with Albumism and their 2019 anniversary feature:

“Happy 20th Anniversary to Red Hot Chili Peppers’ seventh studio album Californication, originally released June 8, 1999.

The anecdote goes something like this. In September 1991, L.A funk rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers released their now classic record Blood Sugar Sex Magik. This record was the band’s fifth and took them from a cult concern to international superstardom mainly thanks to the single releases of the mega anthem “Give It Away” and the beautiful rock ballad “Under The Bridge.” The band toured the record globally for years. The strain on the band was immense and the period ended with the band’s genius guitarist, John Frusciante, leaving to pursue a heroin addiction and an undercooked solo career.

In tatters but maintaining a united front (the Chilis’ had a knack for losing members), the band marched on, releasing a series of compilation records and live recordings, and in late 1995 eventually releasing another studio album titled One Hot Minute. Frusciante's replacement, former Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Narvarro offered the band a darker more metal edge to their funk rock sound. Though popular and offering another round of well-received singles (“Warped,” “Aeroplane”), One Hot Minute was not deemed a reputable follow-up to Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The record today is mostly discarded by fans and the bank alike.

Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith later said of the record, “We don't really feel that connected to that record anymore.” And perhaps it’s clear to see why. Musically it was a departure, but on a personal level, Narvarro and the band’s vocalist, Anthony Kiedis, were heavily into drug use. The record affiliates itself with a dark moment in the band’s personal lives.

A pause of several years for reflection and recovery whilst personal issues were ironed out followed. And then in 1999 came Californication, the return of a now fully recovered and clean John Frusciante to the band fold, and a renewed sense of purpose and unity. Californication scored the Chili Peppers a bunch of worldwide hits and saw tours of massive arenas the world over. They were redeemed.

In 2002, the band released their eighth studio record By the Way, which is something of a masterpiece in my own opinion. The record continues the sunny vibes of Californication and adds Beach Boy style harmonies and even more introspective lyricism to the mix. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

In terms of artistry, musical direction, lyrical themes, and stylistics, the distance between Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication may as well be light years. The band were older and wiser for having experienced everything that had come within that decade. Even in terms of aesthetics, the band appears so very different from their 1991 funk-boy incarnation.

Sure enough, compare Blood Sugar Sex Magik’s more risque risqué songs such as “Apache Rose Peacock” and “Sir Psycho Sexy” with anything on Californication and you’ll see the appetite for the carnal has been replaced with a yearning for the spiritual, though there are examples such as the throwaway “Get on Top” and the perverse “Purple Stain” that hollaback to the band’s early primal urges but they don’t gel as well.

Californication spouts enough new-age pop-psychology in its lyrics to make even the most money-grabbing practitioner blush. The song “Californication” itself is a dark meditative reflection on the cheap and tacky underbelly of the sunny side of Hollywood lifestyles. Like Hole’s Celebrity Skin, released a year before, it lays waste to the idea that fame and fortune in Hollywood is a noble endeavor. But it does this in a series of couplets such as, “space may be the final frontier but it’s made in a Hollywood basement,” that capture the absurdity perfectly.

So here’s the crux: the distance in time between the two records is just under a decade. 1991 to 1999. This doesn’t seem a huge leap of time, but the artistic jump the band achieved during that period feels extraordinary. And here’s the other, quite extraordinary thing, the distance in time, as of writing, between Californication and now is twenty years (hence this anniversary article) and every day that time period is lengthening.

Yet, to my mind the band is perpetually stuck in this short artistic timeframe. I haven’t experienced enough post-Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers—with the exception of By the Way—enough to shake them out of what I perceive as a golden period. 1991 to 1999 will always remain the same distance and a brilliant example of an artistic evolution.

But I also feel that the Chili Peppers have hardly evolved from the point of Californication. To my mind they appear to be the same band now—at least in sound—as they were then. I know in some respects I’m wrong. Their current guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer, who has been with the band since 2007 (when Frusciante vacated again), has brought a whole new set of talents to the overall sound of the band. But without experiencing that youthful rush, I’m lost.

Back to the record for a moment. The evolution in sound was not met with overall praise from critics. In its review, NME joked, “Can we have our brain-dead, half-dressed funk-hop rock animals back now, please?” and in some respects the reaction to this can be explained.  Because of the lack of albums to reveal the sonic/lyrical evolution, the Chili Peppers made big leaps that were not fully understood by critics or listeners. This is the Chili Peppers in the lost 1990s. A band that should have, much like they did in the 1980s, released a cluster of records that improved continuously on their sound in a more progressive sense. A band that should have dominated the landscape of rock and funk and MTV culture. Instead we only got one relatively mediocre record bookmarked by two brilliant, yet very different records.

For me and no doubt many others of my generation, the 1990s are an incredible stretch of time. I started the decade still in primary school, by the decade’s end I was legally drinking, I’d had numerous girlfriends, and I’d even had sex, I was staying out late, I was contemplating leaving home. My personality, my very identity was forged during this decade. It took many attempts and many failures to find the rudimentary person I would become in adulthood.

This is the way every generation, at least in the post-war era in which teenage responsibility was vanquished, feels about their youth. The Baby Boomers long for the idealism of the Sixties, Generation X has a deep fondness for the Reaganite Eighties and older millennials like myself long for the ‘90s. It will be the same for future generations I’m sure.

The era in which one finds themselves, in which one grows, will be ingrained as deeply affecting, and these chops and changes will feel like they happen within an eternity whilst experiencing it, but when time stretches away from those moments it all feels incredibly short. Anything after this blissful era is just surplus time. An article by Marc Wittmann in Psychology Today posits that, “It is probably true that life cannot be experienced with the same freshness we felt when we were much younger. That is what ‘experience’ means: losing the sense of novelty.”

As I get older I’m experiencing this loss of novelty and by all accounts so are the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Californication is the Chili Peppers as grown-ups. We would never experience them in any other way again”.

I will move to a feature from Stereogum. They take a deep dive into a classic from the 1990s. Perhaps the defining work from Red Hot Chili Peppers. I listen back to Californication now and memories flood through. Listening to these songs for the first time. It summons so many vivid moments and scenes:

“For many young people around the country, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a gateway band — a popular group through the ’90s alt-rock boom from whom you could trace the paths back to different progenitors than those of their peers. (Plenty ’90s rock acts could point you to Hendrix, but RHCP could also point you to Parliament.) And as such, they were also the first impression of a lot of things for those young listeners, whether you were a teenager when Mother’s Milk came out or whether you were of the next generation, RHCP one part of your introduction by way of their massively successful late ’90s singles.

If you were part of the latter group, Californication might live on as their definitive work, rivaled only by their 1991 breakthrough Blood Sugar Sex Magik. This, in some ways, was the album that seemed to capture everything this band was always supposed to be. It made them feel, at the time and aided by a clutch of singles destined to soon be ubiquitous in every small town shopping mall and on every small town alt-rock station, as the embodiment of a certain kind of late ’90s iconography. Extreme sports and artificial energy drinks and turn of the millennium graphic fonts attendant to both. The same sun-drenched place glimpsed in ’90s alt-rock videos, where everything seemed more saturated than it could possibly look in real life.

It didn’t matter if this was authentic or the stuff of skateboard video games and sunglasses stores. This was yet another small chapter in America’s long history of mythologizing California, the Golden Coast and the frontier and the full realization of this country’s identity. The Peppers, for better or for worse, felt like the total fulfillment of that promise, a vaguely cartoonish one for the end of a century.

“Californication,” the song, despite being named with a very characteristically RHCP pun, was actually about the darker side of things. You see that name, and you’d immediately assume it was another piece of ribald funk with Anthony Kiedis offering up a semi-juvenile rap. Instead, it’s a fairly mournful, balladic composition. There are still some clunkier lines, naturally, but there are also some truly poignant ones. Rather than a celebration of their hometown and its mythology, “Californication” echoed the addiction, alienation, and self-destruction that had actually colored the individual lives of the Chili Peppers’ members.

Californication, the album, is not exactly “dark.” But it is more consistently gentle and somber than they had ever been before. At this point, this band, and its individual members, had been through it. And you could hear that in the music. Californication represented a previously hard-to-imagine prospect: an older, ever so slightly wiser Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Chili Peppers had already come back from horrible circumstances. They had already lost one guitarist and friend to drug addiction, when Hillel Slovak overdosed in 1988. It compelled Kiedis — whose tumultuous upbringing and relationship with substances would be further detailed in his 2004 memoir Scar Tissue, named for one of Californication’s key tracks — to get clean. His struggle would continue on through the ’90s, with one relapse casting a shadow over 1995’s already-troubled One Hot Minute. After Slovak’s death, they’d hired a kid named John Frusciante, and the band went on to release albums that started to gain wider and wider traction, initially peaking with Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The explosion of fame proved a lot to process, and Frusciante departed the band and subsequently battled a brutal heroin and cocaine addiction through the middle of the decade.

The ensuing years were not easy for the rest of RHCP either. Aside from Kiedis’ personal struggles, the prospect of following Blood Sugar Sex Magik was challenging, especially as they tried to find a groove with their new guitarist, Dave Navarro. The chemistry never quite developed, and despite having some strange, enduring RHCP tunes, One Hot Minute was regarded as a disappointment by every metric — the hits weren’t big, it didn’t sell as well, neither critics nor fans embraced it. Navarro would leave the band, and Flea convinced Frusciante to rejoin the fold.

It was a strange place to be. RHCP had already been around since the early days of the ’80s, but they were now approaching the other side of another decade, one that had granted them stardom. They had already undergone runaway popularity, the valleys that can follow; they had already undergone addiction and recovery and loss in multiple cycles. The only album they had released since their breakthrough had been written off as a failure. And so, going into the late ’90s, they had rebuilt what in hindsight can easily be called the definitive Chili Peppers lineup — Kiedis, Flea, Frusciante, and Chad Smith. And they were positioned for, in need of, a comeback moment. They got one.

Whether it was the travails of life or having Frusciante back, RHCP returned with an album that broke new ground for them artistically. Softer, more introspective, more tasteful. Kiedis, suddenly, could really, really sing when he wanted to. (There’re plenty of annoying honks across the album still, but there’s also singing.) It was a rebirth for the band creatively, personally, and narratively. Californication became a huge success, surpassing the heights of its predecessors and unleashing a series of singles that became some of the band’s pivotal tracks.

Along with the aforementioned title track and “Scar Tissue,” Californication also featured “Otherside” — a genuinely pretty and cathartic composition that ranks amongst the band’s very best. It’s hard not to hear the reintroduction of Frusciante as being crucial to songs like these. In his second run with RHCP, there was always something odd about seeing him onstage. He seemed sadder and weirder than the rest of the band, or at least than the music they made. And that in turn pushed RHCP in this era, Frusciante’s guitar work effortlessly shifting between clean and fluid, then percussively funky and precise, classicist then wildly creative. Say what you will about the resulting sounds they made collectively, but RHCP could always boast a small collection of musicians who played off each other perfectly. Frusciante was vey much a part of that, his guitars adding just the right textures to the rhythms of Flea and Smith, his background keens lacing Kiedis’ melodies with melancholy.

All of which is to say that, the more mature iteration of RHCP some of us saw in this stretch of their career wasn’t ever 100% true, nor was the aging/soft version decried by those who missed the partying goofball pranksters of the past. If you still wanted RHCP to be fun and silly and puerile, there was a bit of that on Californication. If you had been curious what would happen if earlier, mellower tracks like “Under The Bridge” and “Breaking The Girl” had not been outliers, you got your answer on Californication. Across its 15 tracks, the album had a whole lot of room for all the moods and sounds this band wanted.

And oftentimes, those explorations, those sounds of a just-about-middle-aged Red Hot Chili Peppers, resulted in some of their best songs, including but also beyond those major singles. “Parallel Universe” remains one of their nimblest and most propulsive rock songs. Working off an inverted structure, “Savior” flipped between thunderous verses and dreamlike, wispy choruses (or chorus stand-ins).

It was fitting that Californication concluded with a tribute to journeys taken together, to the endurance of close bonds amidst trials and defeats. After their respective battles through the middle of the ’90s, Californication was the sound of four guys coming back together, still with some unspoken musical connection between them in their bloodstreams, and revitalizing each other. They crafted themselves a turning point.

From here, their magnitude was confirmed. Rather than continuing a potential decline set off by One Hot Minute, Californication redirected the path upward, to sustained status as one of the world’s last gigantic rock bands, to Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductions, to a striking amount of albums sold.

But more important than material metrics, Californication remains one of the prime arguments in a messy, surprisingly convoluted career if you are going to try and make your case for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As popular as this band has been and will remain, debates will never go away regarding their actual quality. There is certainly a lot of embarrassing output to their name, and they’re being one of those bands you can get into easily at 13 years old always seems to saddle them with a guilty pleasure status as you get older.

Chances are none of that was on the mind of kids who found this album in 1999, though. They weren’t on mine, at least. At the time, it was the sound of these four guys reunited, at the height of their powers, not without missteps but able to evoke some fantasy place somewhere else. Later, you could decipher the darkness hanging at the edges, too. But for a while, the Red Hot Chili Peppers offered music that sounded like a transmission from the West Coast that was just as glamorous as more respectable Californian legends. Whatever you think of this band, that world they created resonated for a lot of young people then. And because of that, there’s something about Californication that still resonates today”.

I am going to end with a couple of reviews for the globe-straddling Californication. This is what Entertainment Weekly had to say in their positive review of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ smash seventh studio album. One that is still played and revered to this day. I hear singles from the album played regularly across multiple radio stations:

“The Red Hot Chili Peppers couldn’t have picked a better year for an attempted comeback. Way back in the ’80s, the Chili Peppers’ overflowing keg of metal, rap, and funk pioneered the funky-white-boy pose, at both its best and worst. After the stumble of 1995’s almost-there One Hot Minute, though, they laid conspicuously low (thanks, in part, to accidents and recurring drug habits), and maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea: How much longer could they have carried on the horny-shirtless-stud shtick before descending into self-parody?

Starting with its elbow-in-ribs title (which makes one think they’ve been spending quality time with fellow sex-pun groaners Van Halen), Californication has the whiff of desperation. And when Anthony Kiedis opens his mouth, the situation grows even more dire: ”All around the world, we could make time/Rompin’ and a-stompin’, ’cause I’m in my prime,” he raps on the first track, ”Around the World.” You’re tempted to hit the stop button on your stereo then and there.

But then something startling happens. Perhaps it’s the return of guitarist John Frusciante, who played such an integral role in 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik. For the bulk of Californication, the Peppers sound more relaxed, less grating, and, in their own way, more introspective than ever before. The soul-searching sentiments of ”Otherside,” ”Californication” (which appears to take digs at Courtney Love and ”celebrity skin”), and the sobriety-imbued ”This Velvet Glove” are set to music that’s lilting and freshly scrubbed.

The rockers are powerful but not obnoxious (or clotted with popping bass lines), and the whirlybird pulse of ”Parallel Universe” also marks new turf for them. The Chili Peppers — Kiedis, in particular — can’t refrain from sub-beat-poetry lyrics, throwaways like ”I Like Dirt,” and the naughty finger-painting ode ”Purple Stain.” But those tendencies are kept to a minimum. Californication is the sound of aging party animals who sense the room is emptying out and that they’d better look for another, healthier buzz”.

I am going to end with a review from Rolling Stone. Although some have been mixed or a bit sniffy towards the album, there are those who find plenty of positives about Californication. It is an album with so much variety and depth. Some incredible and compelling songs that still sound so essential twenty-five years later:

“LET’S KEEP IT real: white boys do not have to be funky; they only have to rock, and that the Red Hot Chili Peppers do quite wickedly, thank you. Historically, though, RHCP albums have been long on sock-it-to-me passion but short on the songcraft that made their hero George Clinton’s most acid-addled experiments lyrically haunting and melodically infectious. Up until this new Peppers joint, Californication, that is. For Lord knows what reasons — age, sobriety, Blonde on Blonde ambitions or worship at the altar of Billy Corgan — they’ve settled down and written a whole album’s worth of tunes that tickle the ear, romance the booty, swell the heart, moisten the tear ducts and dilate the third eye. All this inside of song forms and production that reveal sublime new facets upon each hearing.

Back in the revolving-guitar saddle is John Frusciante, of Blood Sugar Sex Magik fame, who replaces the outgoing Dave Navarro (who, of course, replaced Frusciante himself not so long ago) and proves once again why he’s the only ax slinger God ever wanted to be a Pepper, too. As in days of yore, Frusciante continually hits the mark with slithery chicken licks, ingenious power chording, Axis: Bold as Love grace notes and sublimely syncopated noises that allow the nimble Flea to freely bounce back and forth between bombastic lead and architectonic rhythm parts on the bass. If there were a Most Valuable Bass Player award given out in rock, Flea could have laid claim to that bitch ten years running.

The real star turn on this disc, though, is by Anthony Kiedis, whose vocal cords have apparently been down to some crossroads and over the rehab, and returned with heretofore unheard-of range, body, pitch, soulfulness and melodic sensibility. On “Scar Tissue” he laces out a falsetto purple enough to have made Jeff Buckley swoon with envy; on “Savior” he croons and belts with enough chest-thumping pride to suggest that Vegas is just a kiss away, sustaining supple, buoyant tones with such ease, you know he must be amazing himself, too. (As a friend observed, if she didn’t know it was Kiedis, she would have thought the vocalist a Kiedis clone who could actually sing.) The point being that until you hear Californication, you haven’t ever heard Kiedis truly sang, as they say in the church, nor prove himself so adept and moving in the lyrics department, either. Just in time for Matrix fever, “Parallel Universe” speaks of an “underwater where thoughts can breathe easily/Far away you were made in a sea, just like me” to the beat of a track that hybridinally splits the difference between the Yardbirds and Eurodisco. (Flea and Frusciante’s remarkable handheld trillings on that one are more than a little technically impressive, we should add.)

The band treads more-familiar funk-rap ground on cuts like “Get on Top” and “Right on Time,” and on this album’s “Under the Bridge” reduxes — the title track and the aforementioned “Scar Tissue,” a dreamy Venice Beach pimp stroll with lullaby-lovely slide guitar. But songs like “Otherside” and “Porcelain” are delicate, vulnerable and volatile enough to earn the rubric Pumpkins-esque, while the baroque progressions and contrapuntal maneuvers heard on the hook-drunk “Easily” could have one thinking that the Chili Peppers car-jacked Elvis Costello and made off like musical bandits. The poetry found on “Easily” is no joke: “The story of a woman on the morning of a war/Remind me, if you will, exactly what we’re fighting for/Throw me to the wolves, because there’s order in the pack/Throw me to the sky, because I know I’m coming back.” As dope as all of the above are, however, they’re only the setup for the glistening simplicity and serenity displayed on the disc’s denouement, “Road Trippin’,” a finger-picked Olde English tyle number that ties the album up in a bow while gently inferring that Californication is the recovering singer’s way of reminding himself to wake up and live and be “a mirror for the sun.”

While all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanal, proposing that these evolved RHCP furthermuckers are now moving toward funk’s real Holy Grail: that salty marriage of esoteric mythology and insatiable musicality that salvages souls, binds communities and heals the sick. Not exactly your average white band”.

On 8th June, the fantastic Californication turns twenty-five. Few bands can hit a new peak and level on their seventh studio album. A consistency and sense of importance that is pretty impressive. One of the finest albums from the final years of the twentieth century, I wanted to salute Californication ahead of its twenty-fifth anniversary. It is an album that I would recommend everyone listens to…

RIGHT away.

FEATURE: Every Second Counts: Will the Album Make a Full Comeback?

FEATURE:

 

 

Every Second Counts

IN THIS PHOTO: The cover for Billie Eilish’s forthcoming album, Hit Me Hard and Soft (out on 17th May) 

Will the Album Make a Full Comeback?

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I want to use an entire…

IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift/PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant

BBC article as a focus for an interesting conversation. They looked at artists like Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift and recent albums. In fact, Billie Eilish does not release Hit Me Hard and Soft until 17th May. Even though artists like Eilish have a couple of albums under their belt, it is not the case that they will put out a string of singles prior the release date. I think we have gotten so use to artists releasing three, four or five singles over the course of an album’s release and marketing campaign. I guess we have artists like Dua Lipa who are still going down the singles route. Regardless, Taylor Swift put out very little before The Tortured Poets Department recently. Billie Eilish is going to release her album without putting out singles. Swift and Eilish releasing an album without any singles coming out. It means that fans experience the album as it arrives without any preconceptions or guidance in terms of sound. I think singles can often be red herrings. Too many singles can be overwhelming and a bit full-on! It seems exhausting when you get so very much released from an album. I do know that mainly massive artists can afford releasing an album without singles coming. They will get huge sales and acclaim if an album comes out with no singles. The BBC look at a run of recent albums and how they have been promoted in regards single releases:

“Beyoncé released two in one go, Dua Lipa let her fans have three. Taylor Swift? She kept everything under wraps.

The Tortured Poets Department dropped last week with no singles released in advance and, next month, Billie Eilish says she'll be doing the same.

For years, commentators have been warning that the album is dead and the single reigns supreme.

That's partly down to streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Music which let fans pick and choose their favourite tracks from artists and curate personalised playlists.

But could two of the world's biggest stars opting to ditch singles breathe life back into albums?

Announcing Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie said she wanted her fans to hear the album in one go.

And in an interview with Rolling Stone, she explained why.

"Every single time an artist I love puts out a single without the context of the album, I'm just already prone to hating on it," she said.

"I really don't like when things are out of context. This album is like a family: I don't want one little kid to be in the middle of the room alone."

Even though he's responsible for the weekly Official Singles Chart, Martin Talbot, the chief executive of the Official Charts Company, admits he's more of an album fan himself.

"It's fantastic that Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift are doing what appears to be something designed to push music fans back to the concept of an album," he tells BBC Newsbeat.

"There is a danger that music fans lose sight of what an album is and what an album represents.

"The album represents the kind of apex of the creative vision of a particular artist.

"And it's really important for the creative health of music and the cultural environment we preserve that."

PHOTO CREDIT: Stas Knop/Pexels

Fans take control

In the 70-year history of the charts, Martin says collating the top 40 singles has changed dramatically.

It started with calling around a few record stores each week to ask which singles - specially selected and released by musicians - were their bestsellers.

Now, thanks to streaming platforms, anything can be a single - and anything can enter the chart.

"The great thing about the digital environment is that it puts the control in the hands of the consumer, in the hands of music fans," Martin tells Newsbeat.

"Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift, they may just be releasing albums, but each of those tracks that make up those albums is available to stream in isolation," he says.

"And if those tracks get enough streams, they will go into the singles chart, regardless of whether the artist deems them to be singles or not."

That decision could be a thing of the past for artists as big as Taylor and Billie, although Taylor did release a music video for one song - Fortnight - on the day her album dropped.

That went straight to number one, but other tracks that weren't officially promoted, including Down Bad and the eponymous The Tortured Poets Department, also debuted in the top five.

But for up and coming talents like Beth McCarthy singles are as important as ever.

Beth McCarthy performing on stage. Beth is a 26-year-old white woman with blonde hair dyed pink. She wears a grey denim crop top with a pink tartan tie around her neck. She holds a microphone to her face with her right hand, revealing a black line tattoo on her inner upper arm. Beth's eyes are closed as she sings, holding the microphone stand with her left hand. The staging behind her is lit purple

Singer Beth McCarthy says singles are still important for artists establishing their sound

"Singles are a massive part of what starts your career," the singer tells Newsbeat.

"It creates a way to release music without the pressure of making a whole body of work and figuring out an entire sound.

"It lets people get to know you but in short, little bits rather than having to do the whole big thing."

Beth, from London, will be performing at Radio 1's Big Weekend in May on the Introducing stage, and hopes to release her first album soon.

"I've been doing singles and EPs because they're a shorter way to create something that isn't going full pelt into an album," she says.

"And for me, making an album, I want it to be done properly and done in a way that really works together and feels like art."

Album art for Beyoncé's album, Cowboy Carter. Beyoncé is a 42-year-old black woman. She's styled in a red, white and blue patent cowboy-themed outfit including a cowboy hat, chaps and a buttoned up shirt. She's pictured sitting side-saddle on a white horse, her long silver hair flowing behind her. In her right hand, she holds the horse's reigns and in her left she holds aloft the American flag.

Beyoncé dropped two singles from Cowboy Carter in one go

Aside from refining an artist's sound, another good thing about releasing singles is how they can get fans excited for a new album.

"The single is still one of the most powerful promotional tools for an album," says Martin.

He gives Texas Hold 'Em as an example, one of two singles Beyoncé released from Cowboy Carter which he says "fed directly into the success of her album" - which debuted at number one.

But Martin says for most artists, singles have an important role to play in keeping album sales high.

"Part of the job of releasing singles is to keep the album in the public eye and to continue to ensure that people are reminded it exists," he says.

Vanishing from the limelight might not be a worry for Taylor, who within five days of releasing The Tortured Poets Department broke Spotify records with more than a billion streams.

She also broke UK chart records, with the album reaching number one and outselling the rest of the top 10 combined.

Could it be the start of a comeback for the album?

Billie's brother and collaborator Finneas suggested a return to listening to albums in full was due a comeback.

"We're not even at 'song' anymore," he told the magazine, saying music was increasingly being consumed in trending soundbites on TikTok.

But "everything's a counter-movement to the movement," he added.

"I think that's going to lead back to immersing yourself in an album. I really do”.

I don’t think that we will see a day where every major artists releases an album with no/one single beforehand. It can be quite risky and backfire! What is pleasing is that we have artists such as Billie Eilish keen to let fans experience an album. Not going down the route of singles coming out and there being this endless promotion and cycle. Even Beyoncé, with COWBOY CARTER, took an unusual path with her album. Not quite the same way of doing things. I feel there is a demand, against the brevity and ephemeral nature of platforms like TikTok, for albums and something fuller. Beth McCarthy is right when she says that artists need to release albums to establish their sound. New artists especially need to get singles out so that albums can get some traction and context. It is a complex debate and conversation. It is clear that the rise in vinyl sales and the fact physical music is doing so well is seeing artists react. Maybe they do not want to give too much away. An album is a very special and personal thing. Artists want fans to feel and absorb it as a single thing. If you take it apart and release singles, often people can listen to those singles and maybe skip album tracks. If you only have the album, then you are hearing it fresh and have no bias/favourite songs going in. I do hope that the desire for full albums and some big artists not releasing singles leads to others following suit. I don’t think that any new or rising artists should risk not releasing singles if they can’t afford to.

PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

Vinyl sales are booming and we are also seeing cassettes and CDs taking off – though not hugely. I hope that manufacturers will put out devices so that people can listen to cassettes and CDs. That opportunity to listen to albums on the go. There is still a place for TikTok and artists putting out songs and snippets. Many may still want to release a string of singles before an album. There is nothing wrong with that. I feel that this reliance and way of doing things will fade slightly. Artists maybe not seeing the benefit of releasing singles. Too few views or videos not being embraced the way they once were. Instead, we will get the element of surprise. Not knowing what Billie Eilish’s album will sound like. I think it will result in more album sales and streams that otherwise would have been the case because people have that curiosity and blank canvas. Rather than it being a marketing ploy or anything cynical, these amazing young artists realise how important albums are. They do not want to take them apart or distil them. Albums have always been popular. The art of releasing an album with no singles and prioritising that has not been common with major artists. We will see others do this. Although not every one can or will do the same, there are positive steps towards artists eschewing releasing multiple singles and only doing one or two – or none at all! It is pleasing and exciting discovering artists such as Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift not releasing singles and instead putting out an album. It means that fans get…

A fulsome and dedicated listen.

FEATURE: New Waves of Appreciation: Why Kate Bush Being Discussed More in the U.S. Now Is Especially Timely

FEATURE:

 

 

New Waves of Appreciation

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in Advision Studio, where she recorded and produced her fourth album, The Dreaming, London - April 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: George Bodnar/Archive/IconicPix

Why Kate Bush Being Discussed More in the U.S. Now Is Especially Timely

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I have been compelled…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow

by a recent video in which Kate Bush was being discussed by Rolling Stone contributors. On 24th April, they shared a video where one of her classics, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), was being dissected. More than that, they dissected and explored Kate Bush’s legacy and how her music has impacted through the years. They also speculated on her future in music. It interested me watching. How this U.S. source/video has come at a very interesting time. As part of their 500 Greatest Songs series, they looked deep into Kate Bush’s most popular track:

“Kate Bush has always been a fiercely original art-pop icon. But with “Running Up That Hill,” she achieved a new kind of feat. “Running Up That Hill” was a massive Top Ten hit, dominating U.S. radio all over the summer of 2022—even though it was a song she released back in 1985. Her classic synth-goth anthem sounded ahead of its time in the Eighties, but only Kate Bush could make it a song that STILL sounds ahead of its time nearly 40 years later.

In this week’s episode of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs, hosts Brittany Spanos and Rob Sheffield discuss the long, incredible legacy of Kate Bush and “Running Up That Hill.” They’re joined by their brilliant Rolling Stone colleague Julyssa Lopez, a Kate Bush expert and longtime hardcore fan, to discuss why “Running Up That Hill” speaks to our moment”.

There has been a lot going on recently regarding Kate Bush. I think a lot has shifted and changed since she was inducted (finally!) into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year. I feel that was a moment when Kate Bush was finally embraced and accepted by the U.S. Maybe a lot of that particular heavy lifting was done when Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was used in Stranger Things a couple of years ago. That led the song to top charts – including the U.K. – and connect with a new audience in America. Until very recently, Kate Bush had not really been embraced in the U.S. She never wanted to crack the country and be a success there. She never toured in America. Even so, in the past decade or two, she has had her music used in T.V. and film. It has been a very interesting time. The last few years has been a bit of a rolling ball that has grown larger. I am hearing new and rising artists around the world – and not only in the U.S. – who are inspired by Kate Bush and are discovering her fresh. Rolling Stone sitting down and spending some time talking about how iconic Kate Bush is. Beside some great placement in U.S. media and screen, there is this discussion and debate. I do think that things will accelerate and expand in the next couple of years. I am not saying this response and respect in the U.S. will compel Bush to record a new album. She will see that any album she brings out now will have a larger and more willing U.S. audience – even if 2011’s 50 Words for Snow was quite successful there. I do think that the U.S. could be one of Bush’s most warm and biggest markets. Looking on social media, there are so many followers I have in the U.S. who are either finding her music now or are familiar with her but are discovering new sides and layers. This could have a bigger impact and wave of possibility.

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Jon McCormack

It is humbling and a relief that her music has reached the U.S. in a very real and massive way. A lot of fairly recent documentaries about Kate Bush have come from the U.K. I do think that something could come from a U.S. source. As Bush’s music and career has reached new heights in America, this will lead to other documentaries and projects. Something that unites musicians and well-known fans of Kate Bush. Documents her start but brings things up to date. In the U.K., there have been recent magazine articles and there are books coming up about Kate Bush. Graeme Thomson is producing another issue of Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. I think that we are going to see some U.S. books and a lot more spotlight here. Not that America is the be all and end all. I am curious how it will affect the rest of the world. I am musing here. It was just a nice surprise to see that Rolling Stone video. So much detail and discussion around Kate Bush. Some interesting exchanges and points. I feel like we are going to see Kate Bush love and representation come from all corners. Not only will there be a lot of new material – books and articles – published about Kate Bush. You can feel and see her legacy through so many artists coming through right now. That will only increase. I also think that major artists will pay tribute to Kate Bush in their own way. Whether that means covering one of her songs or being influenced and incorporating some of Bush’s sounds in their own work. I am hearing shades of Kate Bush in new work from artists such as St. Vincent and The Last Dinner Party.

Through all of this, I wonder how Kate Bush feels. I am not sure how much she sees when it comes to these videos and articles. She has posted updates to her websites and knows that there are so many new fans picking up her music. We are in a moment when there is perhaps more attention and detail analyses of her music than recent decades. Perhaps more than back in 1985 when Hounds of Love came out. I do have this sense of something incredible coming along. Maybe not from Kate Bush herself but the wider world. You can feel and see all these dedicated fans old and new more in love with her music and legacy than ever before. Great discussions and new books. We don’t know what the future holds, though I do think about how the U.S. is finally on board. How generations Z and Alpha are invested and finding the music. Maybe they are still quite narrow when it comes to the albums and songs. I do think one of the drawbacks of an album like Hounds of Love getting most of the focus is that so much of the listenership and streams goes there. That said, we have recently seen Army Dreamers go viral. That is from 1980’s Never for Ever. This album could well get some big moments. In that a song or songs from it could make their way to T.V. and film. I always think that there are albums of Bush’s that are ignored or not as regarded as they should be. I guess this is my thinking out loud. 2024 is a year where so much has happened already. There is this crackle and buzz in the air. More love and respect for Kate Bush than I have witnessed in years. This will only increase. I am fascinated what else is going to arrive this year. The more that comes in the way of Kate Bush appreciation, it does the beg the question as to…

WHAT might come next.

FEATURE: A Wonderful Blast from the Past… The Online Return of the Iconic Our Price

FEATURE:

 

 

A Wonderful Blast from the Past…

IMAGE CREDIT: Our Price

The Online Return of the Iconic Our Price

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THERE are signs of reversal and return…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alax Matias/Pexels

to a time that we thought had past. I mean, in the early-‘00s, few people would have predicted record shops would survive long. Also, when digital music started to take more of a hold and charge, it was understandable that physical music formats would prove less popular. Not only have compact discs and cassettes survived and continue to rise (slightly) in sale. We have a booming vinyl market and chains like HMV remain strong. The flagship HMV store on London’s Oxford Street was resurrected and reopened last year. It does seem there are leaves and shoots when it comes to returning – in a small way – to the prosperity of physical music and record shops in the 1990s. Another happy piece of news highlights how Our Price have returned. They will start online, though there is hope that stores will reopen soon. NME report how there the chain is back in business. It is a positive sign that their online presence could return to the high street:

“The classic UK music shop Our Price is set to relaunch later this month.

Our Price was a popular chain of record stores across the UK and Ireland, which launched in the early ‘70s and became a famous presence on high streets across the country up until the early ‘00s.

Founded in 1971 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, the first branch was located on London’s Finchley Road and, for the first five years, the six stores were branded The Tape Revolution and concentrated on selling CDs and eight-track tapes.

From 1976 onwards, the chain was rebranded as Our Price Records, in response to higher demand for vinyl records, then rebranded once again as Our Price Music in 1988, before landing on Our Price in 1993. By this point, over 300 branches had been opened across the UK and Ireland.

Despite having branches in locations such as Kings Road, Chelsea and being named as the second-largest retailer of records and tapes in the ‘80s – with Woolworths benign the first – the business was put under threat by the expansion of HMV.

PHOTO CREDIT: Our Price

After a plethora of issues, the business gradually declined, and closed its final branch in 2004. However, it has now confirmed that it will be relaunching, and set to open its doors again next week.

“For two decades Our Price has held a special place in the heart of many. Today, we’re thrilled to announce we’re making a comeback! Get ready to discover the value and excitement you loved about Our Price as we gear up for a grand re-launch on the 30th April 2024,” reads a post on the store’s website.

Similarly, the shop posted an update on Facebook, building anticipation for the return – two decades after it closed.

“Countdown’s ticking and we’re pumped. And (if I’m honest) pretty jittery. We’re a crew of musos, DJs and enthusiasts reviving a beloved brand,” it began. “We’re not exactly swimming in cash, so no flashy launch. We’re doing things organically, adding new lines every month. For us, it’s all about good vibes and keeping it personal.”

It continued: “Also (and this isn’t PR speak) we want you to be part of the journey. Tell us what you’re into. We want to hear from you. Drop us a line once the site is live telling us what you want from Our Price.

“For day 1 we’ve got about 20,000 vinyl, some very cool tees, and the beginnings of what will ultimately be a carefully curated range of hi-fi and audio equipment. It’s going to be great.”

You can sign up to the store via the official website ahead of its launch on April 30. Those who sign up are offered “free shipping and all the pre-orders, product updates and comp news”.

News of the brand’s comeback comes after it was reported last December that sales of vinyl records in the UK had hit their highest level since 1990.

It marked the 16th consecutive year of rising sales, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which also added that the vinyl market had increased more than four times as fast with an 11.7 per cent rise to 5.9 million units in 2023”. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Vlada Karpovich/Pexels

Our Price was a big part of my childhood and teenage years. Alongside HMV, I would get singles and albums here. Whilst I mainly bought physical music, there were also posters and other bits of music merchandise. At a time when there was not Internet options to order music, these shops were invaluable. One could say they lack purpose and place now. As physical music survives and thrives, Our Price prepares to relaunch. Today (30th April), we will see a once-iconic and legendary name come back. This new success story shows that there is a place for independent and chain stores. It is not only vinyl sales that is responsible for Our Price coming back. Physical music has found a new generation and renewed purpose. I am excited to see how that develops and grows. We end April welcoming back Our Price. One cannot rule out the possibility of its branches appearing on the high street. I wonder whether cassettes albums will play a part. Whether singles will make a comeback. If once-dissolved chains can come back, it does mean there will be questions around expansion and survival. How will Our Price differ from HMV. I feel a lot of music lovers would like to see a mix of multiple physical music formats together with merchandise and electronics. Giving customers options and the likes of Our Price being able to co-exist with independent chains. You can go to Our Price’s website here. Rejoice in the fact that we have another reason to cheer. Think back a few years or so when there was fear that the pandemic was going to threaten the existence and possibility of many record stores. Now, in 2024, we are in a healthy position.

Even though there is a long way to go until we return to the golden days of years past, I think we will see further improvement. The hope that we see waves of people visit Our Price and ensure that they are trading for many years to come. If the website is a success and flourishes, it will lead to a call for stores to open. For people like me who relied on them and would often discover new albums that would stay with me for years, it is a chance for music lovers older and young to have the same experience. Not to take anything away from the Internet, though there is something different about browsing and shopping on the high street. Going into a branch of Our Price and seeing what is in stock. I think it is important now more than ever that we encourage as many people to come into music stores. If you know Our Price or are new to them, go and check out the website today. It is the start of an exciting and promising new path. I think that we will slowly start to see chains return. That would give options regarding layout and stock. Maybe getting ahead of myself, it is good that sites like What Hi-Fi? are sharing the news. It is amazing to think how the industry has seen this revival and growth post-pandemic. The lust and demand for physical music many felt would never happen. I am so pleased. It is very early days, though there is every reason to suggest Our Price will be back in force and have a real stake and physical presence on the high street. Today, online, we wish Our Price all the best. It is very much…

PHOTO CREDIT: Our Price

A welcome return!

FEATURE: Sure Shot: Beastie Boys’ Ill Communication at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Sure Shot

Beastie Boys’ Ill Communication at Thirty

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THERE is not a lot written…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch (MCA), Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) and Mike Diamond (Mike D) in London in 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images

about a hugely important Hip-Hop album. Beastie Boys’ glorious fourth studio album, Ill Communication, was released on 31st May, 1994. It is coming up to its thirtieth anniversary. A wonderful album that is among the best the trio ever release, I wonder why there has not been more celebration and retrospection. Produced by Beastie Boys and Mario Caldato, Jr., it is a hugely varied and eclectic album. The album draws in elements of Rock, Punk and Jazz. Compared to the more sample-based first two albums, Beastie Boys’ Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch, and Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond relied more on live instruments from 1992’s Check My Head and 1994’s Ill Communication. Featuring collaboration and contributions from Money Mark, Eric Bobo and Amery ‘AWOL’ Smith, Q-Tip and Biz Markie, this is a fascinating and hugely wide-ranging album. One of the most impressive and nuanced that Beastie Boys ever released. Ill Communication reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. It was also their second triple platinum album. One of my favourite tracks on Ill Communication is Sure Shot. It is a hypnotic and amazing track, though it is one where Beastie Boys shout at women and offer salute. They were accused or misogyny and sexism in earlier songs, so this was sort of a correct and musical apology. Perhaps the most famous song from Ill Communication is the majestic and towering Sabotage. With its Spike Jonze-directed video – one of the best of all time -, it is the pearl in a golden album. I will get to a couple of reviews for Ill Communication. I will start out with a feature from The Conversation. They write how the album is “an artistic statement, a swag of songs greater than the sum of its parts”:

“The album itself is a kaleidoscope of jazz-infused break-beats (where Herbie Hancock meets the Chemical Brothers), smooth instrumentals, bratty punk interludes and gritty, guitar-driven monsters. These unwittingly expose the group’s musical influences, and define its fundamental essence. This is the Beastie Boys in their natural state, where they have nothing left to prove and only critical appreciation to gain. Ill Communication differed from the band’s usual anarchistic and boyish flavours by gliding into a realm with a deeper appreciation for sampling, musicianship, musical arrangement and storytelling.

With a jazz flute sample taken from Jeremy Steig’s Howlin’ for Judy, and a layered drum break taken from Run-DMC’s Rock the House, the opening track of the album, Sure Shot, bounces into an energetic myriad of break beat drums and lyrically fragmented phrases referencing music and pop culture icons:

‘Cause you can’t, you won’t and you don’t stop

Mike D come and rock the sure shot

I’ve got the brand new doo-doo guaranteed like Yoo Hoo [a popular, chocolate-flavoured soft drink]

I’m on like Dr John, yeah, Mr Zu Zu [Zu Zu Man by New Orleans musician Dr. John]

I’m a newlywed, I’m not a divorcee

And everything I do is funky like Lee Dorsey [Everything I Do Is Gonh Be Funky by Allen Toussaint, recorded by Lee Dorsey]

Cultural obsessions are nothing new for the Beastie Boys, but the breadth of material and the diversity of lyrical citation found here far outstripped their previous work on Licensed to Ill (1986), Paul’s Boutique (1989) and Check Your Head (1992).

The album features tracks such as Tough Guy, a short and sharp interlude reminiscent of their early punk roots referencing Bill Laimbeer (a tough NBA basketballer of the Detroit Pistons) and Root Down, a slippery deviation laced with a Jimmy Smith sample of the same title.

Before too long, the album peaks, reaching the infamous Sabotage. With bone-crunching guitars and fuzz bass, this lyrically and rhythmically heavy song takes aim at the media and paparazzi with the band expressing its disapproval of the constant barrage of propaganda being spread to discredit musicians and celebrities. Their tongue-in-cheek, ’70s cop show, parody video clip, directed by Spike Jonze, received numerous MTV awards.

While Sabotage is now rightly famous, it’s the collaboration between the Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, Get It Together, that for me represents the pinnacle of this album. Teaming up with arguably one of the smoothest and most influential rappers of the era significantly enhances the album’s aesthetic appeal and offers a point of differentiation amid so many nasally driven raps.

Get It Together samples Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In by the Moog Machine, Headless Heroes by Eugene McDaniels, Escape-Ism by James Brown, Four Play by Fred Wesley and The Horny Horns and A One Two by Biz Markie to create a distinct, misty blend of soul-jazz and funk-infused hip-hop that can be now considered quintessentially Beastie Boys.

The instrumental component of this album is nothing short of exquisite. Songs such as Sabrosa, Futterman’s Rule, Ricky’s Theme and Shambala all contribute to its flow.

Where other hip-hop artists couldn’t offer such diversity in live musicianship, the Beastie Boys led the way in adding this instrumental flare to their sound. They left their stamp as innovators, crossing the boundaries of multiple genres.

To conclude, I must draw attention to the album’s final track Transitions. The secret is in the title. Could this be the finale that subtly outlines their sonic signature and confirms that behind all good music is thought, emotion and purpose?

Transitions closes out Ill Communication by providing a moment of instrumental solace with its alluring, harmonic charm, but more so, the absence of the Beastie Boys’ trademark vocals deliberately draws attention to the quality of their musicianship. Ill Communication is undoubtedly a landmark recording for the Beastie Boys and one that defines the end of the Golden Age”.

As there is not a lot in terms of anniversary features and retrospectives about Ill Communication, I will come to a couple of reviews. Assessed by Rolling Stone in 1994, it is a wonderful and legendary album that sounds timeless. You can put it on now to someone not familiar with Beastie Boys and they would be able to connect with it. So varied is Ill Communication, you get so many different angles, stories, moods and highlights. I think that it is still so important and powerful thirty years after its release:

“WHY NOT A Beastie revolution?” proposed the B side of the Beastie Boys‘ first 12 inch back in 1983; 11 years later, it has happened — it’s time to get ill in ’94. Since their comeback in 1992 with Check Your Head, the Beasties — Mike D (Mike Diamond), MCA (Adam Yauch), Adrock (Adam Horovitz) and various cohorts — have bum-rushed nearly every media outlet, starting their own studio, record label, magazine and line of merchandise. Still, the core of the Beasties’ appeal remains their music — as funky as the Ohio Players’, as experimental as Sonic Youth’s.

Ill Communication continues the formula established on Check — home-grown jams powered by live instruments; speedy hardcore rants; and insane rhyme styles buried under the warm hiss of vintage analog studio equipment. (An old-school distrust of the digital age pervades Ill: As Mike D states on “Sure Shot,” “I listen to wax/I’m not using the CD.”) Since the Beasties’ earliest recordings, recently compiled on Some Old Bullshit, their mission remains intact: to explore the unifying threads between hip-hop and punk, taking their basic elements — the scratch of a needle across a vinyl groove, a pounding snare-bass thump, the crunch of a power chord — and slicing them up with a Ginsu knife. The resulting B-boy bouillabaisse blends both genres, living up to Mike D’s boast that he’ll “freak a fucking beat like the shit was in a blender.” Ill maintains the Beasties’ consistency of style, but underneath its goofy, dope-smokin’ antics lies — gasp! — an artistic maturity that reveals how the Boys have grown since they began as pimply New York punks making anarchic noise.

The Beasties’ fourth album lives up to its title — layers of distortion and echo often render the vocals unintelligible, reducing them to yet another rhythmic element. A reggae influence also pops up on Ill, but instead of the stuttering dancehall pulse pervading hip-hop, the Beasties look to the reverb effects of dub innovators like Lee “Scratch” Perry (name-checked in “Sure Shot”) for sonic inspiration. Elsewhere, the Beasties show their roots in “Root Down” — in this case, the strutting bass undertow, organ fills and wah-wah, chicken-scratch guitar of ’70s blaxploitation-era funk. Throughout, the Beasties demonstrate their musical diversity, ranging from the Gang Starr-style minimalist piano loop of “Get It Together” (featuring a virtuoso freestyle cameo by Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest) to “Sabotage,” a bass-driven metallic rapfest. Only on the hardcore punk of “Tough Guy” and “Heart Attack Man” do the Beasties falter. While these tracks have visceral power, they ultimately show the Beasties to be punk classicists, unable to transcend the now reactionary sounding influences of ’80s thrash pioneers like Black Flag, Minor Threat and the Germs. Indeed, if the Beasties gave their hardcore the same sonic complexity they give their funk, they would prove truly dangerous.

The Beasties’ funk emanates from the flow of their call-and-response rhymes, from the play of MCA’s rasp against Adrock’s freaky nasal cadence. Unafraid of the ridiculous, the Beasties remain masters of the absurdist rap lyric, such as when Adrock comes “steppin’ to the party in the Fila fresh/People lookin’ at me like I was David Koresh — yeah!” (“The Scoop”). The Beasties detail their expected obsessions with basketball (“Tough Guy”), golf (Mike D’s “wearing funky fly golf gear from head to toe”) and smoking pot (“Legalize the weed, and I’ll say, ‘Thank heavens,’ ” proclaims Adrock on “Freak Freak”).

Ill also conveys the Beasties’ more serious side as they pay homage to hip-hop’s New York roots. Constantly hyping that “motherfuckin’ old-school flavor,” they drop references like Busy Bee and the Zulu Beat show, romanticizing New York as a mythic rap Mecca. Despite their current status as residents of Los Angeles, MCA states in “The Scoop” that “New York City is the place that I feel at home in,” while Adrock claims in “Do It” that he “got the beats in Manhattan/You can hear the texture.” Even more surprising is MCA’s growing role as the Beasties’ social conscience: On “Sure Shot,” he states that “disrespecting women has got to reduce” and details his interest in Buddhism on “Bodhisattva Vow” and “The Update.”

Amazingly, the early-’80s material compiled on Bullshit prefigures nearly every musical development on Ill, moving from the blaring hardcore of “Transit Cop” to “Jimi,” an anti-drug song (!) whose narrator moans, “Let’s, like, get my bong and do up some heavy weed” over midtempo funky drums and psychedelic guitar. “Cooky Puss,” the Beasties’ first hip-hop release, sounds remarkably contemporary — its references to women as “bitches” predate gangsta rap, and it was a successful phoneprank record long before the Jerky Boys.

Bullshit ultimately demonstrates the nascent Beastie philosophy, which Adrock articulates for ’94 on “Alright Hear This”: “I brought a microphone/And I pick it up/And then I fuck it up/And then I turn it up … with the mighty rockin’ sound/And you know my culture — I came to get down”.

I am going to end with a more contemporary review from the BBC. following on from a third studio album that seemed less impactful and accomplished as 1989’s Paul’s Boutique, form and critical acclaim was restored:

“While it was far from disappointing, the Beasties’ third LP, 1992’s Check Your Head, lacked a lot of the wow-factor that’d graced their sampladelic masterpiece of 1989, Paul’s Boutique. A return to the New York trio’s scrappy punk sound, prominent on early demos, Check Your Head was solid, competent, mixing the band’s trademark rhyme schemes with bombastic percussion and over-amplified riffs. But for their next set, messrs Mike D, Ad-Rock and MCA would have to step their game up.

And didn’t they just. 1994’s Ill Communication mixed together elements of the preceding pair of long-players – the bratty sneer of the group’s 86 debut, Licensed to Ill, was by now forgotten – to present 20 tracks fluttering from low-slung funk to caustic rock’n’roll via bona-fide mega-hits and jazz-tinged instrumentals. Trading lines with such liquidity that, at times, the three voices blend into a perfectly unprecedented stew of consciousness, our protagonists were promptly re-established as both a rap force and a commercially viable proposition. In the UK, Sabotage – this album’s lead single – charted higher than any Beasties cut had since 1987’s No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn, buoyed by its now-iconic cop show-spoofing video. But one track alone couldn’t come close to representing the full spectrum of sounds on its parent LP.

Opening with a canine squeal before breaking into a flute loop cribbed from Jeremy Steig, Sure Shot wastes no time in setting a tone for what’s to follow: pop culture references, in-jokes, shout-outs to the Beasties’ supporting cast, all atop the sort of bread-and-butter hip hop beat that’s backed the dropping of science since day dot. Tough Guy’s a Check Your Head hangover, but at less than a minute it’s over as soon as the racket’s begun. From there, the Beasties slip back into hip hop mindsets – B-Boys Makin’ With the Freak Freak brings distorted vocals to the fore, ahead of Root Down’s appearance as a scratchy partner piece to Sure Shot, its reappropriated sample also drawn from jazz circles, namely Jimmy Smith’s Root Down (And Get It). Sabotage sits at track six – one of this set’s heavier numbers, with an opening riff that’s immediately recognisable (name that tune? Two seconds, max…), it’ll forever be heard with its video firmly in mind.

The album’s numerous instrumentals help to break up the dizzying cavalcade of rhymes coming at the listener from all sides – performed by the Beasties, they’re rooted in lounge-jazz territory, and the likes of Sabrosa and Eugene’s Lament would later feature on an all-instrumental collection, 1996’s The In Sound from Way Out! (the trio has since released a ‘sequel’, 2007’s Grammy-winning The Mix-Up). Of the rap numbers in the record’s second half, Do It welcomes long-standing Beasties buddy Biz Markie for its disyllabic ‘chorus’, and The Scoop positions the three MCs behind the same fuzzy production front erected by B-Boys… several tracks earlier. Heart Attack Man is a two-minute thrash-about introduced by a laughing-himself-apart Mike D; and the penultimate number Bodhisattva Vow is a showcase for MCA’s Buddhist philosophy, tumbling forth over Om-like drones.]

Ill Communication returned the Beasties to the number one position on the US Billboard 200 – the first time they’d topped the chart since Licensed to Ill – and their next two albums, 1998’s Hello Nasty and 2004’s To the 5 Boroughs, would repeat the feat. Clearly, this is the collection that steadied the Beasties after a minor commercial wobble – that, and it represents the moment when three brats from the other side of the Pond properly grew up, developed attitudes that looked to the future rather than live for the present, and became global superstars for all the right reasons. It remains to this day the quintessential Beastie Boys collection – perhaps not the most influential, nor the most critically celebrated; but certainly the most concisely encapsulating”.

Such an important album in the history of Hip-Hop and the legacy of Beastie Boys, the wonderful Ill Communication turns thirty on 31st May. It is still so vital to me. It came out not long after my tenth birthday. I think it was the first Beastie Boys album I heard. If you have not heard the album before then make sure that you check it out. The fourth studio album from Beastie Boys still sounds extraordinary…

THREE decades later.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Leyla McCalla

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Scheurich

Leyla McCalla

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I am going to go back a year or so…

before I come up to date with interviews with the remarkable Leyla McCalla. She is an extraordinary artist that everyone should know about. Maybe you do already know about her. Now a successful solo artist, she formerly played with the GRAMMY-winning band, Chocolate Drops. In terms of genre, she can be placed somewhere before Folk and Bluegrass, though that might be too niche or definitive. I think that her music is far more expansive and genre-less as that. I want to actually head back to 2022. That is where Leyla McCalla was speaking about then-new album, Breaking the Thermometer. Holler. spotlighted an amazing and compelling Americana (so many genres described depending on the interview) artist. We hear how eclectic she is. In terms of her sounds and where her music emanates and originates from:

“While country music remains stubbornly wedded to a narrow set of aesthetic practices, Americana has often taken a more open-ended approach. What began as a rootsier alternative to the mainstream has expanded in recent years to include a vast swath of different sounds and styles, in the process becoming much more inclusive of voices that country music has historically marginalized.

For Leyla McCalla — a singer and multi-instrumentalist whose bonafides include recording and touring with The Carolina Chocolate Drops and co-founding Our Native Daughters with Rhiannon Giddens, Allison Russell and Amythyst Kiah — these are welcome changes. In her solo work, McCalla is as apt to draw from trad jazz and zydeco as from folk and old-time, treating her cello and tenor banjo as portals to vastly different musical worlds. The daughter of Haitian immigrants and human rights activists, McCalla also draws deeply from Haitian folk music, taking inspiration from styles like rara and twoubadou and frequently singing in Creole.

On Breaking the Thermometer, her assured fourth LP, McCalla traces a fragmented history of Haiti, beginning in the present and working backwards. A companion of sorts to a theater performance commissioned by Duke University — who acquired the archives of Radio Haiti, the first independent radio station in Haiti, in 2016 — the album weaves voice recordings from new and historical interviews into traditional songs and original compositions.

The result is multilingual melange that offers an evocative and layered interrogation of identity, belonging and the freedoms that we too often take for granted. Holler spoke with McCalla about her creative process, the timeliness of her message and how she learned to embrace the different genre labels people put on her music.

Let’s talk about the title of the album, Breaking the Thermometer, which I understand takes its name from a proverb. Why did that resonate with you?

Sean Dominique, who was the director of Radio Haiti until he was assassinated in 2000, used that metaphor to describe the role of the independent press in a free society. He was saying that the press is the thermometer of the people. You can crack down on the press, you can repress freedom of speech, but it won’t hide the fever — it won’t fix any of the underlying problems. I love that proverb, because I feel like it sums up the research I was doing on Radio Haiti and also speaks to the human rights violations and attacks on democracy that continue to happen in Haiti and around the world.

Why did you feel like the story of Radio Haiti was important to tell at this particular moment?

In the United States, we tend to think of ourselves as immune from the struggles with the Democratic process that have afflicted places like Haiti. We like to think of ourselves as very far away from things that happen in so-called “shithold countries” — to use a phrase that we’re all familiar with. But if the Trump years taught us anything, it’s that we’re not. We need to recognize that we’re not immune from losing our freedom of speech or otherwise having our civil rights violated, and I feel that the story of Radio Haiti helps us to see our vulnerabilities as well as our strength as people.

There are stories of incredible suffering on the album as well as moments of joy and hope. Why was it important for you to tell both sides of this story?

There hasn’t been a lot of space for nuance in U.S. media and the Western imagination. In the early part of the 20th century, Hollywood films depicted voodoo — which I feel is the ultimate expression of Haitian spirituality — as “black magic”, something evil and bad. Then during the AIDS epidemic in the 80s, the CDC said that there were “Four H’s” that increased your risk of contracting HIV: hemophiliacs, heroin addicts, homosexuals and Haitians. Throughout its history, Haiti has been subject to a misinformation campaign that’s really tied up in racism. In the last 10 years, I’ve been part of a movement of people in New Orleans who are trying to acknowledge the Haitian roots of a lot of our cultural traditions here. Haiti is a big part of U.S. history and continues to be, but we never think of it that way. I also just think that Haiti is beautiful in an extremely nuanced way, in the same way that the United States is beautiful in a nuanced way. There is so much activism and resistance happening at every level of society, and I find that fascinating.

How did you approach turning these historical records into songs?

It’s been a super intuitive process of listening to the material and pulling out the elements that are interesting to me. Sometimes it takes the form of actual music recordings, and other times it’s just the sound of someone’s voice or a particular phrase that catches my attention. I’m not a fluent Haitian creole speaker, so I’ve often had to listen over and over again and really work through what was being said. I’d basically take what I heard and what I felt like I could play along with on my instruments, and that became the basis for the songs. It’s been a lot of experimenting and feeling the natural curves of the music.

One thing I find interesting about this album is how much it pushes against and expands the sonic boundaries of what is considered Americana. Is that something you set out to do?

For me, making music is very intuitive. I wasn’t thinking, I want to expand what Americana is. Honestly, I find it remarkable that this music is considered Americana, and I think that’s more reflective of the times than it is necessarily of the music. Genre lines seem to be getting blurrier, and there are also strategic things that the industry is doing to make the listenership more inclusive. They know that more people need to see themselves in this music, and that means it has to include more than just white guys with guitars. I feel like I still think like a folk musician, even if I’m using electric guitars and a drumset and evolving to a much bigger sound. That's the heart of where we’re coming from, and maybe being so inspired by different folk traditions and traditions in Haiti is what makes it Americana. The other thing is, people will just call your music whatever they want to call it, and I’m coming around to the idea that it’s all good. Maybe none of it completely tells the story of what your music is, but that’s okay — none of it is wrong. I guess my thing is like, if I can fit into your categories, isn't that a good thing?”.

I am going to come to a couple of reviews for Leyla McCalla’s new album, Sun Without the Heat. KLOF chatted with McCalla about her most personal album to date. I am quite new to her music, though I would really recommend it to everyone. She is an artist that you definitely need to know about and have on your playlist. One does not need to know about Bluegrass, Americana or Folk to appreciate the wonderful Leyla McCalla:

“McCalla’s previous outings have embraced Haitian folk music, Latin licks, Creole swing and the nostalgic old-time magic of New Orleans. She’s not been averse to some revved up rock riffs either. Her songs never flinch from reality, hardship or anxiety despite their heartwarming vocals and honey-laced melodies. Sun Without the Heat is perhaps McCalla’s most emphatic album yet, both musically and lyrically. Full of sensual ecstasy, twangy strums and hip-rolling dances, it’s nourished by African roots music but often glides into a mystic herbal haze. Explaining her narrative approach to this project, McCalla says, “I always look to writers and poets, to philosophers and thinkers for inspiration, to help wrap my head around stuff. My friend jackie sumell runs a social sculpture project called The Solitary Gardens in New Orleans, highlighting solitary confinement in US prisons, especially at Angola in Louisiana. I told her I was thinking of songs about the overwhelm of life and she gave me this book called Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. It’s basically about black feminist lessons learned from marine mammals. I’m naturally existentialist so I’m always going, like, why are we here? That book helped me see myself and the challenges in our society, the devastation of this planet, the separation from ourselves in nature. I also read Liberated to the Bone by Susan Raffo. She talks about the original wounds of our society – colonisation, genocide, taking land from people and using the ‘colour’ line to justify it all. All these things resonated as I’ve been studying Haitian history for years. This was the storm of research that went into writing the album.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Scheurich

McCalla’s symbolism is kept simple, yet her songs can embody both joy and suffering. “It comes from trying not to mince words, trying to be specific and not confused about what’s coming through. Sometimes it appears in more figurative language, but this record came out as quite prayerful. A lot of these songs were written in the studio, I arrived with some words here or a verse there, but didn’t know the gaps. There’s a few phrases adapted from other writers, including Frederick Douglass’s poetry from the 1850s.” One source for the new songs was Duke Ellington, whose Far East Suite inspired the stunning track Tree. “I’d been listening to Mount Harissa from that album, trying to remake it with words. Tree is about a woman who feels unloved and turns herself into a tree, isolating herself. I wanted to liberate this woman, maybe myself, from feeling that way. And to push it musically to the edge, make it a little scary. Women are powerful! And trees have these incredible root systems, they’re connected to all of life. They host life.” McCalla came into this album hoping to get an Afrofuturistic angle on the diasporic music that’s been in her mind. “I had some highlife things on the guitar, I was also mining West African grooves and banjo lines. The last album was so much about Haiti and its ancient rhythms, many of which derive from African drumming traditions. It’s not something I hear a lot of in the ‘folk’ world, maybe more in a global music context.” McCalla’s drummer, Shawn Myers, is well-versed in diasporic styles of music, notably from Haiti and Brazil. He plays a key role in building the album’s energy and healing frequencies. McCalla also credits producer Maryam Qudus with ideas and choices about guitar textures. “I played her a lot of music I appreciate from the 60s, or stuff made to sound like that. I love fuzzy trebly guitars and Maryam had lots of pedals and studio tricks.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Scheurich

The stark and moving Give Yourself A Break has some celestial plucking from guitarist Nahum Zdybel. It’s a song tribute to McCalla’s late brother, written from varied perspectives. “I used to call my brother and ask him for advice, or vent to him about what was going on. He was always gentle with me, never judgmental or reproachful. I imagined the song as a lullaby and thought about my daughter while writing it. I wondered what my brother would tell me while I’m parenting this child? It became unclear whether it was my brother singing to me, or me singing to my daughter. Or even my daughter singing to herself. Who knows? I was thinking about the impermanence of life. Give yourself a break while you’re here on this planet. We weren’t born to be just suffering and reckoning with our decisions all the time. We have to rest and allow ourselves some space.” In her media notes for the album, McCalla says she wanted to write a song that could’ve been sung at marches during the civil rights era. The record’s closing cut, I Want To Believe, is that song, a hopeful hymnal backed by the dignified richness of cello and piano. “I Want To Believe came about when I was thinking of the 60s activist Fannie Lou Hamer and the modern BLM protests,” she says. “Then you look at what’s happening at Columbia University right now where students have set up on the grounds, saying they won’t leave until the school divests itself of Israeli institutions that profit from apartheid and genocide. When I think about my life comparatively I’m glad to be in 2024 and not 1963. There has been progress made but there’s more to come. I think of it as a circle, or a spiral, it’s not a linear path. We can never rest on our laurels and say we’ve solved racism.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Scheurich

McCalla is among an incredible generation of black female artists in the UK, US, South Africa and elsewhere. Naming some, she recalls, “I met Matana Roberts when I was a cocktail waitress at a venue she played. To me she’s like a friend, an elder, a hero, an amazing thinker. She gave me one of the original transcripts of her Coin Coin project that I found in a house-moving box recently. It’s like a piece of treasure. I saw Aja Monet perform this year at the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. Kadhja Bonet is the little sister of my friend Bria who plays viola in my band. I feel part of this incredible web of black artistry. And yet it’s like we need more spaces to connect more directly. There has to be an opening for that. It is different to interact with a black woman’s work for me. I feel like I understand where they’re coming from. I don’t think that’s projection, I think it’s experience.” Away from music, McCalla has been busy in her garden. “I just planted so many seeds and I’m really praying it all works out how I’ve imagined,” she says, laughing. “I’m trying to do a wildflower sanctuary for bees and for tracking pollinators. Then I have tomatillos, basil, Thai basil, sweet peppers called Jimmy Nardello’s, some eggplants, bush beans. I’m a real crazy person, I have a garden at home but also a community plot. I got really obsessed about the health food movement in my early twenties. I was a waitress at this vegan and raw food restaurant in the East Village called Caravan Of Dreams. So I was always into cooking healthily and learning about it. When the pandemic hit I got even more into fermented food, sourdough bread and catering at home. I went all in. That’s when my gardening really took off and I learned about things like soil health too. I’ve been away travelling for a week, so I’m in the ‘missing my kids’ part of the cycle. But I love cooking for the family, I’m a real homebody”.

Such a wonderful artist, SPIN shared their take on the magnificent Sun Without the Heat. This is an album that everyone needs to hear. One of the most powerful and memorable that I have heard this year. Even though I am quite new to Leyla McCalla, I am going to follow her and see where she heads next. The New York-born artist is so fascinating. Such a beautiful and rich voice that takes you directed into the music:

“Leyla McCalla, erstwhile Carolina Chocolate Drop and occasional Our Native Daughter, is on a search: “I am trying to be free … I’m trying to find me,” she sings at the start of this album’s first song, “Open the Road.” Then later, near the end of Sun Without the Heat, she delivers herself a message: “Give yourself a break.” In between, she depicts a struggle to balance life as a single mom with her mission as an artist and activist. It’s not that explicit, of course. On multiple levels, the album is an imaginative weave: With her deft band, the New York-raised, New Orleans-based musician (on cello, banjo, and guitar) pairs music from her Haitian-American roots with threads of its Caribbean, Latin-American, and African family tree. She also echoes her past explorations of economic disparity, cultural identity, and colonialism’s pernicious persistence while adding frank, poetic looks at her own heartbreaks, doubts, determination, and hope for renewal. As such, it’s the most engaging, dynamic and, crucially, personal of her five solo albums. She’d recently hinted at this fusion with her gripping multi-media theater work Breaking the Thermometer, which drew both from the violent history of Radio Haiti’s defiance of the nation’s dictatorships and from conversations with her own Haitian grandmother. Heat is something different, though. Even when she sings “Can’t have the sun without the heat,” a line from an 1857 Frederick Douglass speech meaning that anything good comes with struggle and work, she’s covering both cultural history and her own life. But overall, as on the torchy “So I’ll Go” and the quasi-rhumba “Tower,” the latter with a stinging guitar solo from guitarist Nahum Zdybel, McCalla is grappling with matters of her own heart. Does she give herself a break? Well, kinda. The album closes with a prayer in “I Want to Believe.” Emphasis on the want. The struggles—personal and otherwise—will never be over. No sun without the heat. – GRADE: A”.

I am going to end with a review from MOJO. They gave a very positive and interesting review to the wonderful Sun Without the Heat. Ten years on from her debut solo album, Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, I think that Layla McCalla has produced her finest work to date. An artist always building, growing and evolving. I really love what she is putting out into the world:

“LEYLA McCALLA’S previous album, the Obama-approved Breaking The Thermometer, was a song cycle about Radio Haiti-Inter and how the station’s journalists chronicled the suffering of the country’s marginalised people in the face of political instability, corruption and bloodshed. It’s testament to her inventiveness, her deftness, that such weighty material translated to so uplifting a listening experience. The Haitian-American cellist/singer/songwriter pulls off a similarly impressive feat on this follow-up, inspired by Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals, a text by academic Alexis Pauline Gumbs that explores the historic mistreatment of sea life as a metaphor for society’s abuse of oppressed people. Again, heavy stuff. But McCalla once more works her alchemical magic, her Caribbean-rooted folksong engaging with the overriding message of Gumbs’ work: that change is always possible. So there are songs here to soothe, to reassure. Her honeyed vocal is often in comfort mode, as on Give Yourself A Break, where she strings her words of compassion across simple ukulele strum and Pete Olynciw’s contemplative bass. On the keening, closing track I Want To Believe, her tentative optimism is cushioned by reverb-heavy piano chords and a melody retracing Desperado’s steps, the warmth of the familiar offering strength. But these aren’t simply lullabies to pacify. Scaled To Survive is a rumination on the bond between parent and child and the importance of joy, McCalla directly quoting Gumbs’ text when she sings, “Thank you for laughing me into this portal”, over upbeat guitar chimes, an undertow of cello and the chirping of birds. On lines like “What you learned drowning taught me how to breathe” and “How do you let yourself feel all the pain?”, she’s also keenly aware of her parents’ sacrifices as first-generation immigrants, pushing the song into a darker space.

McCalla and her musicians pursue this tension throughout. On Tree, a woman metamorphoses into a sapling for want of love, while another throws herself into the ocean, searching for escape. As if to mirror these turbulent journeys, the song’s shimmering acid-folk itself shifts into intense psychedelic freak-out, Nahum Zdybel’s volcanic fuzz guitar and Shawn Myers’ brittle snare as abrasive as some sublime Zamrock jam. Take Me Away’s yearning for transfiguration – its earnest plea of “Make me unafraid, make me brave” – is soundtracked by guitars that sound like thumb pianos, set to charged, Fela-worthy Afrobeat shuffle. These are songs of hope and transformation. But as on the title track, dedicated to former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Mc-Calla knows you can’t have that hope without fear, and she never ignores that the act of transformation can itself be traumatic. This edge, this acknowledgment of the stakes at play behind her messages of faith, pushes these songs past any risk of empty sentimentalism, and makes Sun Without The Heat truly uplifting”.

For anyone who does not know about Layla McCalla, then do yourself a favour and listen to her music. Her latest album is a wonderful and accomplished album that is very open and moving. A sensational and unforgettable listening experience. The stunning Sun Without the Heat is surely one of the best albums…

OF the year.

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Follow Leyla McCalla

PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Scheurich

Official:

https://leylamccalla.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/leylacello/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/leylamccalla

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Roq56H3IIvY3DZUKrGO7Y

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLU2ydZ3FX_UXICRPMDatDA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/leylamccallamusic/

FEATURE: A Growing Army: Kate Bush’s Ongoing Viral Success and Signs of What Comes Next

FEATURE:

 

 

A Growing Army

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

Kate Bush’s Ongoing Viral Success and Signs of What Comes Next

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THERE has been some great news…

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

recently regarding Kate Bush and her music. One of her lesser-known tracks, Army Dreamers, has found success through streaming services. In fact, it has experienced this explosion over the past few weeks. I know that a lot of Kate Bush fans already know the song, yet there is this new band of recruits who have discovered. Beginning its rise and visibility through TikTok, it is a bit of a mystery how it all started. I do think that there is a case of anime videos using the song and then people latching onto that. Normally, when there is this rise and new popularity for a Kate Bush tracks, it is because it appears in a film or T.V. show. I wanted to look more widely at Kate Bush and her viral success. Before getting to some more success and signs of future potential, it is worth looking at Army Dreamers and how it has made the news recently. Forbes report how Army Dreamers has enjoyed this surge and new lease of life:

“Kate Bush hasn’t released a completely new single in well over a decade at this point. The singer-songwriter seems to have largely retired, but the world isn’t done with her music. Years after one of her most recognizable smashes became a hit all over again, another one of her tunes is surging in popularity, and she may be looking at her next chart win.

The British singer-songwriter’s tune “Army Dreamers” has been going viral for some time now. Snippets of the song and the music video have been racking up plays for weeks, and those views have translated to people heading to platforms like Spotify and AppleApple 0.0% Music to hear the cut in full.

All that attention has led to a massive gain in terms of total streams for “Army Dreamers” in the U.S. Those plays could potentially lead to Bush collecting another hit in the United States, if the tune can keep up its exciting trajectory.

Billboard reports that in the last week, “Army Dreamers” earned 1.1 million plays on streaming sites. That’s up from just 80,000 about a month prior in the U.S.

For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s a growth of 1,291% in just one month, according to Billboard. 1,000-plus-% gains are unusual for any older track, and it takes something very special for any title to explode in popularity in that fashion…but this is an experience that Bush has enjoyed before.

In 2022, Bush’s single “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” went much more viral than “Army Dreamers”—at least so far. The tune was featured in Netflix’sNetflix 0.0% Stranger Things, and that placement helped millions of people hear the ‘80s classic for the first time, and they couldn’t get enough of the single.

“Running Up That Hill” rose into the top 10 on charts all around the world, becoming a late-in-life smash that nobody could have expected. It peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100, easily outpacing its original No. 30 high point, which had stood as her best placement until the track’s revival. The single also rose to No. 1 in her home country of the U.K. for the first time, doubling her total number of champions on that tally”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Keef (Keith MacMillan)/John Carder Bush via Dreams of Orgonon

Kate Bush News raised a few theories as to why Army Dreamers has got this new boom and surge on streaming. There is a mix of this protest and celebration. In 2016, Norwegian artist Moddi covered Army Dreamers. At a time when there is genocide in Palestine and an ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, it is understandable that the song would strike a chord. We are in a time when there are countless people being displaced, killed and injured through conflict and genocide. Even though Kate Bush’s 1980 single – which was on the album, Never for Ever -, was a modest success when it was released (it got to number sixteen in the U.K.), it has now grown in stature. When Kate Bush wrote the original, she was maybe reacting to people who thought she was not serious enough. Not political or engaging with serious subject matter. Bush has always been invested in deeper issues, yet it was not perhaps the right time to put it onto her albums. Army Dreamers was a reaction to war in general, though there were conflicts around the time of the album’s release that could be seen as references – including The Sino-Vietnamese War and The Soviet-Afghan War. Bush was concerned about the wastefulness of war and how men so young were being conscripted and led to death. Now, although the dynamic and situations are different, we are seeing the devastation of violence. It seems bleak that Army Dreamers is successful and catching a new thread because of that. There is some of that. Also, I know there might be some scepticism around TikTok and its impact. The fact that a few videos featuring Army Dreamers then creates this wave.

At the time of writing this feature (27th April), Kate Bush’s Army Dreamers has 37,629,930 streams on Spotify. It has 8.5 million views on YouTube. Evren though Army Dreamers has got this new rise in streaming figures, it is still way behind a lot of other songs. I think it is the sixth most-streamed song at the moment. Think about Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and the way that it got this new life and lease after it was featured during Stranger Things. It got to number one in the U.K. in 2022. Not that the song was ever as ‘obscure’ as Army Dreamers, yet it was helped by this spotlight on a big U.S. show. It is always exciting seeing a Kate Bush viral moment! Regardless of where it came from, you get a new sense of people discovering her music. One hopes that the albums the songs are from gets focus. I would like to think that Never for Ever gets some boost and traction now that Army Dreamers is receiving such attention. Kate Bush has not spoken about the latest news about her 1980 track. It is one that she performed live on T.V., though it was not one that is often spoken about as highly as those who admire her biggest songs. The recent Record Store Day saw a 10” release of Bush’s song, Eat the Music, come out. That appeared on her 1993 album, The Red Shoes. It was originally a single in the U.S., though it did not really make much of an impression here. Since it was reissued for RSD, it has found new success in the U.K. Kate Bush News reveal the good news:

“Who needs streaming?! While it didn’t make it on to the main official UK chart (where streaming now dominates), Kate’s brisk sales all across the UK of her limited edition Record Store Day single Eat The Music, on 10″ pic disc vinyl has secured a brand new entry at the No.2 position of two of the other UK singles charts – the Official Singles Sales Chart AND the Official Physical Singles Chart (beating out new entries from Paul Weller, Daft Punk and Queen). Congratulations to Kate! We will be celebrating this weekend with a montage of photos of YOU with your Eat The Music discs – thank you for sending them in, we are sure Kate will love to see it!”.

Other Kate Bush songs have enjoyed success and popularity. Think about This Woman’s Work and how it has appeared in film and T.V. I know that there are many people who do not know about this track. It originally was written for the 1988 film, She’s Having a Baby, and then appeared on Kate Bush’s The Sensual World. It recently appeared in the 2023’s Jennifer Lopez film, The Mother. This is one of those tracks that is going to get used a lot more. Even if it moves away from the intention and meaning of the lyrics – the woman about to give birth but breaching so that the husband/father has to step in and take responsibility; many see it more as motherhood in general and its importance -, it is pleasing that the song is being exposed more widely. Despite the fact no song has enjoyed the same boom as Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and how that took over, we can see examples of where other tracks have got new success. All for different reasons. The lyrics and themes of the song resonating in the modern age. Army Dreamers’ renewed focus and this contemporary popularity could have happened for a number of reasons. The Last Dinner Party covered it recently.  The track related to warfare and how we are wasting young lives for no reason.

I think, more than anything, there is a curiosity and adaptability regarding Kate Bush’s music. How it is finding an audience on platforms like TikTok. I guess, when one of her song becomes better-known, then people will dig a little deeper and that means other tracks get noticed. It makes me wonder what comes next. I would like to think too that people will dig deeper and there will be fonder regard of some hidden gems. I think that there are clear songs that will get new life very soon. Hounds of Love’s Cloudbusting and Hounds of Love are overdue being feature don our screens. I also think that singles such as Babooshka could get used and see the streaming numbers rise. In truth, Kate Bush’s music is connecting with people like never before. We have platforms that means a track can go from sort of unknown or overlooked to a big success. If some are cynical about the way her songs do get back into the charts, one cannot deny that it is a good thing. It really is. It is wonderful that Army Dreamers has found fresh airs. It is a new salute to…

MAMMY’S hero.

FEATURE: Enticed by the Mysterious Woman: Kate Bush’s The Line, The Cross and the Curve at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Enticed by the Mysterious Woman

Kate Bush’s The Line, The Cross and the Curve at Thirty

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EVEN though I have recently…

published a feature about Kate Bush’s short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve, I am compelled to return to it. It was released originally in 1993. In fact, it was premiered at the London Film Festival on 13th November, 1993. It was released in the U.K. on 6th May, 1994. I am counting that as its thirtieth anniversary because the premiere was for a selected few. Many fans might not know about this chapter in Kate Bush’s career. It was part of a larger promotional angle for 1993’s album, The Red Shoes. A short film which combined eight music videos. Eight tracks from The Red Shoes. This was a rarity for Bush. No album before that had seen so many of its songs get videos and visually representation. For those who overlook The Red Shoes, I would pass them through The Line, the Cross and the Curve. With Kate Bush writing and starring in the film, she also directed it. Although a fairly inexperienced director – she directed several of her music videos to this point through nothing as complex as this -, she adds some wonder sequences and distinct touches. She has said how she took on too much. Her language changed through the years to the point where she has almost dismissed and disowned this film. I think it is far stronger than that! Produced Margarita Doyle and co-starring Miranda Richardson and Lindsay Kemp, The Line, the Cross and the Curve should get more acclaim. It is a shame there is not any anniversary reissuing or showing of the film. I have always felt how it needs an official HD reissue and some extras. Maybe tying together interviews from the time, it would be fascinating to see this film on the big screen. To mark its thirtieth anniversary, I am going to bring in part of a great feature. Before getting down to it, there are some interesting facts and things to note. All of the tracks from The Line, the Cross and the Curve were promotional videos for the singles from The Red Shoes. Excerpt Lily. There are different versions of Eat the Music’s video.

The film version is different from the one released alongside the single. That single has been reissued for this year’s Record Store Day – Kate Bush was this year’s Ambassador – and has made a modest dent in the U.K. singles chart. I can see The Line, the Cross and the Curve making its way to Curzon cinemas and showing for a passionate and small audience. The Line, the Cross and the Curve was released direct-to-video. Many note how the release of the film coincided with Kate Bush fading from public view for many years. Released in May 1994, she was not done with promotion around The Red Shoes. And So Is Love was released in November 1994. The end of 1994 was very much Kate Bush’s going on hiatus. Even though there were public appearances and the odd bit here and there, she did not fully come back until 2005’s double album, Aerial. There is not a great deal out there about the film. I wrote a feature back in November. I may repeat myself here. A thirtieth anniversary of any sort relating to Kate Bush warrants celebration and investigation. The Line, the Cross and the Curve is her only short film. It is an important yet underrated part of her career. A sign that she wanted to direct film and be a bit more hands-on and ambitious as a director. It is a shame that she never attempted anything like this later in her career. I could have seen an Aerial short film coming to light. Maybe one where she conceptualised one of the two discs. A series of tracks forming a story. I recently wrote how Hounds of Love’s (1985) The Ninth Wave has not been brought to the screen. As it stands, The Red Shoes is the album that has been visually represented the most if you see what I mean. Maybe The Line, the Criss and the Curve was one of the first visual albums.. One can definitely compare it to some visual albums that have been released in the past decade or so.

Once more, I am going drop in an invaluable and detailed feature about the film. Kate Bush often said how she was a big fan of director Michael Powell and the film, The Red Shoes. Forty-five years before Kate Bush released her film, The Red Shoes was released in cinemas. The 1948 classic was a directing collaboration between Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell. Based off of a story by Hans Christian Andersen, Bush’s love of that film not only influenced the album, The Red Shoes, but the film that followed. I feel she would have been to have an album based around that film and inspired by it. When recording the songs, it was until she would have thought about doing a short film and paying visual tribute to her own music and the 1948 The Red Shoes film:

“Created as a promotional tool for her 1993 studio album The Red Shoes, this short film is a spin on the classic fairy tale of the same name, in which a young woman puts on a pair of enchanted shoes that cause her to dance unceasingly until and unless she can find a way to remove them. Here, we open on Bush's character in rehearsal with her band until a power outage causes them to take a break. Left alone in the studio, Bush is suddenly confronted by a dark and mystical dancer played by two-time Oscar nominee Miranda Richardson, who implores Bush to help her break the curse of the red shoes by drawing three symbols—the titular line, cross, and curve. However, Richardson's ulterior motive soon becomes clear—by receiving the symbols, she passes the curse onto Bush, and flees through a mirror. Bush pursues her and finds herself in another dimension (an Upside Down, if you will), soon greeted by an otherworldly figure portrayed by British dance legend Lindsay Kemp. He tells her she must "sing back the symbols" to break the curse. After visiting an elderly woman named Lily who gives her advice and comfort, Bush draws on the memories of her loved ones to guide her closer to Richardson's twisted prima ballerina. Giving herself over to the sounds of a jubilant choir, Bush is able to regain the symbols, rid herself of the curse, and escape through the mirror, leaving Richardson crushed under the weight of a cave in with only her feet, once again bearing the accursed shoes, sticking out.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: John Stoddart

Bush had long expressed a desire to collaborate with famed British director Michael Powell, director of 1948's The Red Shoes, itself an interpretation of the classic tale told through the lens of a modern ballet company. However, the two were unable to work together before his death in February 1990, though the inspiration she drew from the film is clear. In essence, the film is en extended music video; it would end up receiving a 1996 Grammy nomination for Best Long Form Video. A recording artist first, Bush's primary storytelling convention is the music itself, and her material is successful in helping express the short's larger narrative arc, taking us through sonic and visual peaks and valleys.

Lead single "Rubberband Girl" kicks off the film—its percussive, steady beat catches the viewer's attention immediately, accompanied by Bush being virtually puppeted by a fellow dancer through a series of simple but effective movements. The whole setup is decidedly unglamorous, a stark contrast to what awaits us shortly. Following the power outage, Bush lights a single candle, drawing us into the atmospheric and moody timbre of "And So Is Love," which also features first-rate guitar work by Eric Clapton. Sensual and dark, it's in direct opposition to the chaotic energy of Richardson's character, a vision in red and black who we meet at the song's end. As she woos and convinces Bush to help her, we hear the album's title track, "The Red Shoes," all Irish jig and pan flute, filled with frenetic and enticing rhythm. Soon, Bush is cursed with the shoes, becoming her own red and black vision, venturing into the mirror dimension and pleading for help. "Lily," named after the wise elderly woman who helps guide Bush on her journey, is a prayer of strength, promising to help Bush "protect herself with fire." Soon, we hear the instrumental strings of the title track once more, and all hope seems lost until Kemp's specter implores Bush to "call on the strength of the ones you love." This leads to the most beautiful song in the film, "Moments of Pleasure," whose lyrics about, "Just being alive/It can really hurt/And these moments given/Are a gift from time" hold perhaps even more significance in light of a world still in the clutches of a pandemic. The final track, "Eat the Music," is a joyous ode to self-expression, self-love, and falling under the spell of the drum, accompanied by Bush swaying along to the sound of an ebullient chorus and visuals of abundant fruit—a signal that the spirit has once again bloomed in her, breaking the curse and allowing her to return to this mortal coil”.

I think that a lot of people ignore or write off The Line, the Cross and the Curve. Perhaps it was a turning point. Bush feeling she was exhausted and maybe was a little overstretched doing so much for the film. Maybe if it was filmed in 1994 and Bush co-directed or she had was guided by a more experienced screenwriter or outsider, then something stronger would have emerged. I know that she experienced headaches and some draining days when making the film. It was quite intense. Regardless, there are some wonderful moments. The fact it exists to start with is brilliant! I love the fact that we got to see so many tracks from The Red Shoes brought to life. A truly underrated album, I would urge people to listen to it and also watch The Line, the Cross and the Curve. You can see it through YouTube but, as I say, there has not been an official HD release. It would sit well on a cinema channel or streaming service. As it stands, here is a minor gem that warrants some upgrade and new attention. It was released in the U.K. on 6th May, 1994. Because of that, I was keen to highlight the thirtieth anniversary. I would be interested to know what other people think about the film. Flicks of Bush’s acting ability. She would have made a film actor, yet maybe one where she was helmed by another director. The directing itself is interesting and contains some wonderful scenes and routines. Miranda Richardson is wonderful throughout. The storyline itself is quite interesting. Bush adapting The Red Shoes film in a way, she is enticed by Richardson’s Mysterious Woman to put on magic ballet slippers. The shoes soon cast a spell, and Bush’s character then is in a battle to free herself from their spell. It was a great endeavour and natural move for Kate Bush. For someone who admired the 1948 original film, she was entitled and perfectly suited to film her own, sized-down and smaller version. I really like it and feel that it stands up thirty years later. If you have not seen it before, then I would suggest that you…

SEEK it out.

FEATURE: Reverb and Amplify: The Need for Greater Action and Allyship Against Sexual Assault in Live Music

FEATURE:

 

 

Reverb and Amplify

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dublin band SPRINTS’ Karla Chubb was recently sexually assaulted during their Letter to Self tour (the second time she experienced this on the tour)

The Need for Greater Action and Allyship Against Sexual Assault in Live Music

_________

AFTER reading a shocking and disturbing post…

IMAGE CREDIT: SPRINTS 

from the band SPRINTS last weekend really moved and appalled me. It relates to their lead, Karla Chubb, being sexually assaulted for a second time on their Letter to Self tour (I would recommend that you check out their hugely acclaimed debut album, Letter to Self). Reported in the music press, it is horrifying that she had to experience something so appealing and unacceptable twice on the same tour. The Irish band are continuing to tour, though it must be unnerving and a real shock that will affect her going forward. Not knowing which audiences to trust and whether she will be assaulted again. One of our very best bands, everyone’s hope is that those culpable for the assaults are named and banned from watching live music. That there are criminal charges. The sad truth is that may not happen. Those who committed the assaults might be free to do the same to other women. Sexual assault and abuse is shockingly common and widespread through the music industry. When it comes to executives and those in power both here and the U.S., there are continuing cases of women being harassed, abused and attacked. There is a misogyny and sense of entitlement that runs through music. An industry that is a boys’ club, there is an assumption from men – though it very rarely applies to women too – that they can do what they want. That women are objects or subservient. Even if the industry is not as toxic and problematic as it was years and decades ago, the fact that SPRINTS have revealed how their lead was assaulted twice on tour proves that something needs to be done. There are no excuses for what is happening. Regardless of the clamour and packed nature of gigs, these attacks are not accidental. Those going out of their way to assault women. Like that is part of the deal. I have heard about so many cases of women being assaulted at gigs. Whether they are the artist, part of the venue or a gig-goer.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels

One of the reasons why it is so prevalent is because it is hard to police venues. Making sure that this sort of thing is weeded out. When there are so many people in a smaller or large space, it can be hard to shield women from this. That is not an excuse. Also, there are not adequate punishments for those culpable of assault. Those who do this are not often arrested and banned from venues. That leaves them out there to do it. Without repercussions or any sort of wider outrage, this pattern and undying wave of assaults is not going to stop. It is happening around the world, yet it seems to be particularly common in the U.K. and U.S. Here, we have some wonderful venues that are proudly staging some amazing artists. These artists rely on these venues to get their work heard and to hone their craft. It is also essential for towns and cities. At a time when so many venues are threatened and live music is in danger, they are a lifeline for so many. People communing to these spaces to share their love of an artist. It is so important that the safety of venues is protected, so that we can preserve these vital arenas. Creating the black marks, I know not every venue experiences an artist being sexually assaulted. Women are leaving the industry because they feel this threat and vulnerability. Alongside misogyny and the fact there is gender bias still at festivals and radio playlists, we are risking losing so many amazing artists because of this. More needs to be done by so many people. Venues do need to make sure that they have security and security cameras that can identify and hopefully deter abusers. For anyone caught and named, they need to be banned from venues and punished accordingly. Police taking these cases very seriously.

At a wider level, the industry needs to address a real plight and horrific side. Something that is far more prevalent than it should be. I know we may never see a day when there are no cases of sexual assault in the industry. That women everywhere at live gigs are safe and will not be assaulted. We are so far from that today. The fact that Karla Chubb was assaulted twice in our tour and not over the course of her entire career should be a massive wakeup call! The industry is still male-focused and a patriarchy. One feels that if men were being sexually assaulted so regularly then there would be greater outcry and action from those in power. It is mainly the women themselves who are speaking out and calling for change. A recent misogyny in music report was spearheaded by women. Although there is outcry on social media when we hear cases of women being sexually assaulted, where are the male allies through the industry?! One rarely hears of artists, executives, journalists or anyone else who is speaking out. As with misogyny and gender inequality, there is a need for men to get together and demand change. It is women mainly who are the ones highlighting the problems and doing all the work. More men need to get involved. Especially those who have the power. They can help ensure that the live music circuit is safer for women. That there are serious repercussions for anyone who commits sexual assault. Campaigns can be published and aired that spotlight the statistics and highlight how prevalent sexual assault is across venues. Ways in which gig-goers can do their part and look out for signs. There are great and important organisations such as Safe Gigs for Women and Safe Gigs that do so much amazing work. They need all the allyship, support and funding possible so that they can continue and create a wider and bigger wave. Thinking about what SPRINTS’ Karla Chubb had to face is both hugely shocking but also common today. Many other women will identify and will share their stories. Many have already. It is a moment when the music industry needs to do more. Where allyship needs to happen and venues need to make commitments. We can not let women feel unsafe doing a career that they love. The industry and every music fan needs to come together to support women and ensure that they are respected and not subjected to sexual assault. The worse we can do is…

PHOTO CREDIT: Marina Pechnikova/Pexels

LET them down.

FEATURE: The Ninth Wave: Revisiting the Promise of a Visual Realisation of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love Masterpiece

FEATURE:

 

 

The Ninth Wave

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Revisiting the Promise of a Visual Realisation of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love Masterpiece

_________

THIS is something…

that I pitched earlier in the year. The idea of Kate Bush’s The Ninth Wave being brought to the screen. It has not happened yet. Bush was toying with the idea of realising it not long after Hounds of Love was released in 1985. When she was writing this seven-song suite, one imagines they were envisaged as screen songs. Part of a narrative that would make their way onto the small or big screen. I do not have much to add to the feature I wrote previously in terms of plot and narrative. I am going to add and update it. It is worth contextualising the song suite and what it is about. What Kate Bush said about it. I am going to end by asking how easy or hard it might be to bring it to the screen. It is interesting how The Ninth Wave, in its title and concept, links to art and classic poetry. It  is a story and concept that is timeless in a way. A woman getting lost at sea and stranded. Waiting to be rescued. Having to battle the darkness, waves and what lies beneath. Whether a modern horror film or a poem like The Lady of Shalott, there have been countless depictions of heroines doomed or endangered on the water. I am going to start with this feature. An explanation of a concept and idea that is terrifying and is a common fear: being lost at sea and vulnerable to the elements:

“Intensely powerful music, strong imagery of a vast ocean, and the emotions that come with it, there’s a lot to love about Kate Bush’s The Ninth Wave Suite. Found on the second side of her 1985 album Hounds of Love, The Ninth Wave consists of seven tracks focussed on the story of a person lost at sea, in Kate’s own words:

“The Ninth Wave was a film, that’s how I thought of it. It’s the idea of this person being in the water, how they’ve got there, we don’t know. But the idea is that they’ve been on a ship and they’ve been washed over the side so they’re alone in this water. And I find that horrific imagery, the thought of being completely alone in all this water.”

In my opinion, Kate is overwhelmingly successful in portraying this narrative, and manages to produce a whole host of other ideas and experiences in a relatively short time. To understand why, and start dissecting the suite, I think it helps to look into how other artists have approached the subject.

In the world of art, seascapes have long been an intriguing subject, and one of the true masters of painting the sea is Ivan Aivazovsky, who also has a painting entitled The Ninth Wave. This work depicts a group of sailors stranded at sea, clutching a piece of their wrecked ship. Their despair is juxtaposed against a beautiful setting sun, bouncing off the waves that build up before them.

Poetry too has often drawn from the sea. An example included by Kate in the Hounds of Love liner notes is from Tennyson’s “The Holy Grail:”

“Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,

Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep

And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged

Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame”

The subject has always been a favourite amongst British artists, being an island nation with a strong history with the ocean. Kate certainly had much material to draw inspiration from.

So in which direction did Kate Bush take her ocean story? Well, many. The tracks do play out like the film which was in Kate’s imagination, beginning with the wonderfully lonely “And Dream of Sheep,” in which the narrator floats alone in their life jacket, drifting in and out of consciousness. As the character falls into the “warmth” of a hallucinatory state, the scene is set for Kate to experiment with their mental state and the dreams they experience.

Beginning with “Under Ice,” the music becomes much darker and more intense. The lyrics of the track give a warped impression of the cold and hypothermia that the narrator is likely experiencing. We transition to the sudden direction to “wake up,” the theme of the track “Waking the Witch” (my personal favourite,) where things start to get more chaotic, the calm voices of the introduction being replaced by broken, fragmented jitters of speech — “Help me, listen to me, listen to me, tell them baby!”

IN THIS IMAGE: Ivan Aivazovsky’s The Ninth Wave

With the most intense section of the suite over, Kate continues her experimentation into mental states, where in “Watching You Without Me” she describes an out of body experience — as a ghost in her own home, watching her loved ones worry. A third hallucination appears with “Jig of Life,” and we are suddenly enveloped in the sounds of Irish folk music — violin, fiddle, pipes, and drums. Confronted by her future self, the narrator is persuaded to fight for their life — the relentless, powerful instrumental driving the story forward.

The final tracks of the suite lead to and take us through the serenity and relief of the narrator’s ambiguous rescue. “Hello Earth” is Kate floating away further and further from the life she knows. We hear samples of NASA communications, conveying the feeling of being so far from human contact.

The iconic “The Morning Fog” is the final track of the album, in which Kate is rescued. The joyful tone highlights the journey we have been through, loss, mental states, hope, and finally the serene, joyous feeling of being safe. Kate stated in interviews that the suite was always intended to end in rescue, but it could be argued that “The Morning Fog” is instead the narrator succumbing to the water, experiencing the final moments of life.

As a concept, being lost at sea is so terrifyingly simple and effective. Kate took the idea to so many different places, and it is a project I truly treasure. Kate has recently experimented more with Ninth Wave. It formed the focus of her Hammersmith shows in 2014, where costumes and sets were made to accompany the music. She also released a video for “And Dream of Sheep” in 2016, where she floats in her lifejacket, her little light blinking”.

There are a couple of other features I need to address before getting to the film idea. Here, we discover more about the links between Kate Bush’s The Ninth Wave and the poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I always listen to The Ninth Wave and think there is something quite gothic and ancient about it. A feel and sound that one could apply to a classic opera or a classic film. It is also a narrative that could be adapted for the modern age:

“‘Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame’ – ‘The Coming of Arthur’

The second part of Kate Bush’s ‘The Hounds of Love’ album takes its title from the first poem of Tennyson’s ‘The Idylls of the King’, ‘the ninth wave’.

Kate Bush uses ‘the ninth wave’, inspired by ‘The Coming of Arthur’, as well Aivazovsky's iconic 1850 painting ‘The ninth wave’ which shows a group of people shipwrecked at sea, as a metaphor for the final wave before drowning, a moment which becomes the anchor of the album and provides its framing narrative. Bush’s referencing to ‘the ninth wave’ doesn’t stop there, during her most recent tour ‘Before the Dawn’ she dropped confetti inscribed with this quotation from ‘The Coming of Arthur’ in Tennyson’s handwriting. Bush’s use of ‘The Coming of Arthur’ has gone on to influence pop generally, such as in ‘Waves’ by the Dutch singer Mr Probz, as ‘wave after wave’ became an iconic phrase.

‘Drifting away
Wave after wave, wave after wave
I'm slowly drifting (drifting away)
And it feels like I'm drowning
Pulling against the stream
Pulling against the wave’ – ‘Waves’

However, what if it’s possible to read ‘The Idylls of the King’ as having more than a passing influence on Bush’s album? The promotional photography for both the tour, ‘Before the Dawn’, and the original album ‘Hounds of Love’, both feature Bush floating amongst flowers wearing a life jacket, in what fans have noted, is a pose that self-consciously echoes that of Shakespeare’s ‘Ophelia’, but perhaps it also echoes that of Tennyson’s ‘Elaine’ in ‘Lancelot and Elaine’ from ‘The Idylls of the King’.

‘And Lancelot answered nothing, but he went,
And at the inrunning of a little brook
Sat by the river in a cove, and watched
The high reed wave, and lifted up his eyes
And saw the barge that brought her moving down,
Far-off, a blot upon the stream, and said
Low in himself, "Ah simple heart and sweet,
Ye loved me, damsel, surely with a love
Far tenderer than my Queen's. Pray for thy soul?
Ay, that will I. Farewell too--now at last--
Farewell, fair lily.’ – ‘Lancelot and Elaine’

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

If Bush’s songs do reference the fates of Elaine and Ophelia, both popular figures during the Tennysonian or Pre-Raphelite period, then it also sees the water that envelopes them as a feminine space, containing possibilities for power (a power on display in the song ‘Waking the Witch’, for example), and rebirth, as in ‘Morning Fog’. In ‘The Idylls of the King’ water is also a realm that is guarded by and controlled by the feminine.

And there was no gate like it under heaven.
For barefoot on the keystone, which was lined
And rippled like an ever-fleeting wave,
The Lady of the Lake stood: all her dress
Wept from her sides as water flowing away’ – ‘Gareth and Lynette’

Bush’s command in the title track ‘Hounds of Love’ to ‘Take your shoes off and throw them in a lake!’ therefore becomes a command that links the first part of the album to the second part, a command that demands the acceptance of the power of the feminine, which both the listener and the subject must give themselves up to in the album’s second part. Throwing the accoutrements of life into a ‘lake’ is, of course, an act taken directly from the death of King Arthur, where he asks Sir Bevidere to throw his sword ‘Excalibur’ into the lake, an indication that he is letting go of his own grip on life.

‘Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush beds, and clutched the sword,
And strongly wheeled and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirled in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn,
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the Northern Sea.
So flashed and fell the brand Excalibur:
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.
And lightly went the other to the King.’ – ‘The Passing of Arthur’

That the final and twelfth track of the album, ‘Morning Fog’ references the last and twelfth poem of the ‘The Idylls of the King’, ‘The Passing of Arthur’, will therefore come as no surprise. The song’s lyrics read:

‘The light
Begin to bleed
Begin to breathe
Begin to speak
D'you know what?
I love you better now

I am falling
Like a stone
Like a storm
Being born again
Into the sweet morning fog’ – ‘Morning Fog’

The Death of Arthur is described by Tennyson:

‘Last, as by some one deathbed after wail
Of suffering, silence follows, or through death
Or deathlike swoon, thus over all that shore,
Save for some whisper of the seething seas,
A dead hush fell; but when the dolorous day
Grew drearier toward twilight falling, came
A bitter wind, clear from the North, and blew
The mist aside, and with that wind the tide
Rose, and the pale King glanced across the field
Of battle: but no man was moving there;
Nor any cry of Christian heard thereon,
Nor yet of heathen; only the wan wave
Brake in among dead faces, to and fro
Swaying the helpless hands, and up and down
Tumbling the hollow helmets of the fallen,
And shivered brands that once had fought with Rome,
And rolling far along the gloomy shores
The voice of days of old and days to be.

Then spake King Arthur to Sir Bedivere,
And whiter than the mist that all day long
Had held the field of battle was the King’ – ‘The Passing of Arthur’

The morning fog and the last ‘wan wave’ are described as arriving whilst Arthur dies, and at the end of the poem, he, like Elaine, is pushed out on a boat into the middle of the lake, and the ‘new year’ is born.

‘he saw, the speck that bare the King,
Down that long water opening on the deep
Somewhere far off, pass on and on, and go
From less to less and vanish into light.
And the new sun rose bringing the new year.’ – ‘The Passing of Arthur’”.

In 1992, BBC Radio 1 broadcast an interview with Kate Bush. She talked about Hounds of Love and its tracks. The Ninth Wave is the second side of this renowned and commercially successful album. The first side has more conventional songs, including singles Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), Cloudbusting and Hounds of Love. The Ninth Wave is the second side. An ambitious and engrossing suite that draws the listener in:

“A: The continuous flow of music on a compact disk masks the fact that Hounds of Love and The Ninth Wave were conceived as two quite separate sides to the album.

K: Yes they were. I started off writing, I think, "Running Up That Hill", "Hounds of Love", and then I think probably "Dream of Sheep." And once I wrote that, that was it, that was the beginning of what then became the concept. And really, for me, from the beginning, The Ninth Wave was a film, that's how I thought of it. It's the idea of this person being in the water, how they've got there, we don't know. But the idea is that they've been on a ship and they've been washed over the side so they're alone in this water. And I find that horrific imagery, the thought of being completely alone in all this water. And they've got a life jacket with a little light so that if anyone should be traveling at night they'll see the light and know they're there. And they're absolutely terrified, and they're completely alone at the mercy of their imagination, which again I personally find such a terrifying thing, the power of ones own imagination being let loose on something like that. And the idea that they've got it in their head that they mustn't fall asleep, because if you fall asleep when you're in the water, I've heard that you roll over and so you drown, so they're trying to keep themselves awake.

K: Well at this point, although they didn't want to go to sleep, of course they do. [Laughs] And this is the dream, and it's really meant to be quite nightmarish. And this was all kinda coming together by itself, I didn't have much to do with this, I just sat down and wrote this little tune on the Fairlight with the cello sound. And it sounded very operatic and I thought "well, great" because it, you know, it conjured up the image of ice and was really simple to record. I mean we did the whole thing in a day, I guess.

K: Again it's very lonely, it's terribly lonely, they're all alone on like this frozen lake. And at the end of it, it's the idea of seeing themselves under the ice in the river, so I mean we're talking real nightmare stuff here. And at this point, when they say, you know, "my god, it's me," you know, "it's me under the ice. Ahhhh" [laughs] These sort of visitors come to wake them up, to bring them out of this dream so that they don't drown.

My mother's in there, my father, my brothers Paddy and John, Brian Tench - the guy that mixed the album with us - is in the there, Del is in there, Robbie Coltrane does one of the voices. It was just trying to get lots of different characters and all the ways that people wake you up, like you know, you sorta fall asleep at your desk at school and the teacher says [song cut's in at "Wake up child, pay attention!" line]

K: Couldn't get a helicopter anywhere and in the end I asked permission to use the helicopter from The Wall from The Floyd, it was the best helicopter I'd heard for years for years [laughs].

I think it's very interesting the whole concept of witch-hunting and the fear of women's power. In a way it's very sexist behavior, and I feel that female intuition and instincts are very strong, and are still put down, really. And in this song, this women is being persecuted by the witch-hunter and the whole jury, although she's committed no crime, and they're trying to push her under the water to see if she'll sink or float. Uooo, ah. [Laughs]

A: And the next track on "Hounds of Love" is "Watching You Without Me".

K: Now, this poor sod [laughs], has been in the water for hours and been witch-hunted and everything. Suddenly, they're kind of at home, in spirit, seeing their loved one sitting there waiting for them to come home. And, you know, watching the clock, and obviously very worried about where they are, maybe making phone calls and things. But there's no way that you can actually communicate, because they can't see you, they can't you. And I find this really horrific, [laughs] these are all like my own personal worst nightmares, I guess, put into song.

And when we started putting the track together, I had the idea for these backing vocals, you know, [sings] "you can't hear me". And I thought that maybe to disguise them so that, you know, you couldn't actually hear what the backing vocals were saying.

A: "Watching You Without Me". Next is "The Jig of Life".

K: At this point in the story, it's the future self of this person coming to visit them to give them a bit of help here. I mean, it's about time they have a bit of help. So it's their future self saying, "look," you know, "don't give up, you've got to stay alive, 'cause if you don't stay alive, that means I don't." You know, "and I'm alive, I've had kids [laughs]. I've been through years and years of life, so you have to survive, you mustn't give up."

K: This was written in Ireland. At one point I did quite a lot of writing, you know, I mean lyrically, particularly. And again it was a tremendous sort of elemental dose I was getting, you know, all this beautiful countryside. Spending a lot of time outside and walking, so it had this tremendous sort of stimulus from the outside. And this was one of the tracks that the Irish musicians that we worked with was featured on.

There was a tune that my brother Paddy found which... he said "you've got to hear this, you'll love it." And he was right [laughs], he played it to me and I just thought, you know, "this would be fantastic somehow to incorporate here."

Was just sort of, pull this person up out of despair.

"Hello Earth" was a very difficult track to write, as well, because it was... in some ways it was too big for me. [Laughs] And I ended up with this song that had two huge great holes in the choruses, where the drums stopped, and everything stopped, and people would say to me, "what's going to happen in these choruses," and I hadn't got a clue.

We had the whole song, it was all there, but these huge, great holes in the choruses. And I knew I wanted to put something in there, and I'd had this idea to put a vocal piece in there, that was like this traditional tune I'd heard used in the film Nosferatu. And really everything I came up with, it with was rubbish really compared to what this piece was saying. So we did some research to find out if it was possible to use it. And it was, so that's what we did, we re-recorded the piece and I kind of made up words that sounded like what I could hear was happening on the original. And suddenly there was these beautiful voices in these chorus that had just been like two black holes.

In some ways I thought of it as a lullaby for the Earth. And it was the idea of turning the whole thing upside down and looking at it from completely above. You know, that image of if you were lying in water at night and you were looking up at the sky all the time, I wonder if you wouldn't get the sense of as the stars were reflected in the water, you know, a sense of like, you could be looking up at water that's reflecting the stars from the sky that you're in. And the idea of them looking down at the earth and seeing these storms forming over America and moving around the globe, and they have this like huge fantasticly overseeing view of everything, everything is in total perspective. And way, way down there somewhere there's this little dot in the ocean that is them.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan/Getty Images

A: The Ninth Wave song sequence concludes with "The Morning Fog"

K: Well, that's really meant to be the rescue of the whole situation, where now suddenly out of all this darkness and weight comes light. You know, the weightiness is gone and here's the morning, and it's meant to feel very positive and bright and uplifting from the rest of dense, darkness of the previous track. And although it doesn't say so, in my mind this was the song where they were rescued, where they get pulled out of the water. And it's very much a song of seeing perspective, of really, you know, of being so grateful for everything that you have, that you're never grateful of in ordinary life because you just abuse it totally. And it was also meant to be one of those kind of "thank you and goodnight" songs. You know, the little finale where everyone does a little dance and then the bow and then they leave the stage. [laughs]

K: I never was so pleased to finish anything if my life. There were times I never thought it would be finished. It was just such a lot of work, all of it was so much work, you know, the lyrics, trying to piece the thing together. But I did love it, I did enjoy it and everyone that worked on the album was wonderful. And it was really, in some ways, I think, the happiest I've been when I'd been writing and making an album. And I know there's a big theory that goes 'round that you must suffer for your art, you know, "it's not real art unless you suffer." And I don't believe this, because I think in some ways this is the most complete work that I've done, in some ways it is the best and I was the happiest that I'd been compared to making other albums”.

I do think that we are long overdue The Ninth Wave coming to the screen. Bush did perform the suite at her Before the Dawn residency. That will only be seen by those who were at one of the dates in 2014. There has not been any representation of The Ninth Wave that can be accessed by the public. Aside from a Before the Dawn promotional video for And Dream of Sheep, it is all in the imagination of the listener. In my feature from January, I pitched a single drama that would star Saoirse Ronan as the heroine. As the women who gets lost at sea. I wanted to add and muse. I think it could be set in New York in the modern day. The New York-born Irish actor would be a perfect choice. She can do comedy and drama very well. The Ninth Wave film would have comedic moments. I like the idea of Kate Bush doing an audio cameo. Either as a voice on the end of a phone that gets a bit profane, or something like an audio guide at a museum of some description. I see this being a story of two recently married people going on a late honeymoon. That is how we get them onto a ship. It would leave from New York and be bound for the Caribbean. Playing opposite Domhnal Gleeson, Ronan’s character would work in New York (set in New York City/Manhattan) as a director. I think of her character as someone being loosely based around Greta Gerwig (a director she has worked with before). The first third of the film would see her in her job – there would be drama and comedy (I imagine a physical scene that is left for a couple of minutes to build an unfold; like getting stuck in a rotating door or on a conveyor belt and there being this awkwardness) – and conversations around her latest project. Back after her wedding and feeling stress in her job, she is angry that her husband ruined their planned honeymoon.

PHOTO CREDIT: Saoirse Ronan/PHOTO CREDIT: Agata Pospieszynska for Harper’s Bazaar

We do see his life and work. How the two interact and their lives together. The main focus is on Saoirse Ronan and her life. How she interacts with her parents (her mother played by Gillian Anderson) and sisters. Her character is experiencing an illness too, so there is an extra strain. The main body of the film takes us to the water and her struggle to be rescued. The songs would be played out though, between them, there are flashbacks and cuts. A mixture of backstory and some stylised pieces. A mixture of fantasy and dream-like sequences. The final act/part of the film takes us back to land and the end. It seems like everything worked out and she was rescued, though there is that potential of twists and possibilities. Is it a dream? Is this a film project of hers? Did Saoirse Ronan’s character die at sea and this is a fantasy? Is it simply straightforward and she is okay, or is the end of the film actually taking us back to the beginning and the narrative and timeline is skewed? I want it to be a mystery. Bush said around the time of Hounds of Love’s release that the ending was happy and the woman was rescued. The Before the Dawn mounting is more ambiguous. Maybe the heroine sadly died. I think Kate Bush would suggest it is a happy ending, though fans have always debated the truth of The Ninth Wave and how it ends. I would love to see this film come to life. Maybe a Netflix or Amazon Prime production. I am keen for there to be a female director. I am not sure who, though.

IN THIS PHOTO: The award-winning composer and musician, Hannah Peel

I see a soundtrack existing for the first and third part of the film. A score too that could be composed by both Hannah Peel and Anna Calvi. Maybe a joint collaboration that would bring their talents to a rich and ambitious production. More than anything, I feel there would be a definite audience for a film. The budget might be quite high – especially the scenes at sea and on the ship -, though no more expensive than most medium-budget films. Getting the idea to Kate Bush is key. I have no reason to suggest she would turn it down. Once was the time she would refuse the idea, though she has been revising her old work and knows how much people connect with Hounds of Love. As she has reissued the album recently and an additional Baskerville Edition, there is no doubt how much she loves her fifth studio album. Also, Hounds of Love turns forty next year. It would be great to have something like a film to accompany it. In terms of title, I think The Ninth Wave would be simple enough. Though that is subject to change. With another writer, it would be a pleasure to start in New York and then take us to the sea (The Caribbean Sea). A 2025 film about The Ninth Wave would be epic and filled with potential. If there was a willing production company, producer, director and writer who could help make it a reality, it would be the first time that this suite has been brought to the screen – forty years after it was first released. I also feel that it is something that Kate Bush…

WOULD love to see.

FEATURE: A Portable Revolution: Looking Ahead to Forty-Five Years of the Sony Walkman

FEATURE:

 

 

A Portable Revolution

IMAGE CREDIT: Richard Jorge

Looking Ahead to Forty-Five Years of the Sony Walkman

_________

I would advise people to read…

PHOTO CREDIT: Stefan/Pexels

articles like this that provide facts about the iconic Sony Walkman. It was released in Japan on 1st July, 1979. I wanted to mark its forty-fifth anniversary. There are those who will say that it seems outdated in the modern age. Even though it went through evolution and was fairly cumbersome and expensive at first, it was refined and more accessible as the years progressed. So many different models and variations were released. In 1979, and for years after, it was a portable revolution. A way of listening to music on the move. Something that was not possible before. Despite the fact its ‘replacement’, the Sony Discman, was flawed, it did allow the same portability for CDs as with cassettes – and that turns forty later in the year. The Sony Walkman was not instantly affordable to all, as it was new technology and it did price many out. However, soon, it was something that became available more to the masses. Enjoying a huge wave of popularity during the 1980s and even into the 1990s, there is something rare and prized about the Sony Walkman today. Original models and pristine versions can go for a lot of money. At a time when people could only listen to music at home or on things that were large and very much not for taking with you, the Sony Walkman was launched in Japan and must have seemed futuristic! It was a definite revelation that forever altered how we would enjoy music. I want to finish with arguing why it was not about isolation. One cannot blame the Walkman for streaming services and more negative aspects of modern music. I will start with a feature from The Verge about the legendary Walkman. On its fortieth anniversary (2019), this feature explored the introduction and legacy of the Sony Walkman:

“The world changed on July 1st, 1979: the day that Sony released the iconic Walkman TPS-L2, the first real portable music player that would revolutionize the way we listened to music in a way that no other device really had ever done before. Boomboxes and portable radios had been around for a while, but the Walkman made portable music private, ushering in a whole new era of people listening to music away from home.

Forty years later and Walkmans aren’t exactly popular to use anymore (outside of things like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, anyway), but the sea change that the Walkman caused in our lives is more apparent than ever.

We don’t use cassettes or CDs anymore. Nearly every mobile device we carry now can play music, storing thousands of songs and streaming tens of thousands more from the internet anywhere in the world. But the whole idea of taking music with you — that you could listen to your favorite songs on the go, without subjecting everyone nearby to your music — started with the Walkman.

And make no mistake, the Walkman was designed mainly for music. It was a simple product in that regard: according to Sony’s photo history, the original device was ridiculed at the time for lacking the ability to record tapes, but it didn’t need that feature. It even offered two 3.5mm headphone jacks (the same hardware that, until recently, was found on our far more advanced hardware today), allowing you to listen with a friend in lieu of a speaker.

The Walkman would go on to see numerous hardware iterations over the years, including “Discman” CD models and MiniDisc players, as well as more modern portable media player devices that Sony still sells today. It’s not quite the powerhouse of a brand as it once was, but 40 years on, the changes the Walkman caused in our lives and in how we relate to both music and technology are still as relevant as ever”.

I do hope that there is proper recognition of the Sony Walkman ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary. I know I am a couple of months early! I will write more about it closer to 1st July. One reason I wanted to get in this early is that there is a real lack of modern-day equivalents. Something that is a sleek and affordable version of the original. I will highlight a few similar models that are on the market – yet none quite like the Sony Walkman. This feature from The Guardian from earlier in the year talked about the collectability and nostalgic currency of something like the Sony Walkman:

“One of the Tiffany Walkmans, originally presented to the Who, was later sold by the ex-wife of the band’s late bassist John Entwistle on a 2011 episode of the US TV show Pawn Stars. After some haggling, the traders at Gold & Silver Pawn in Las Vegas agreed to pay $1,250 for it. “This is one of those weird things that I think someone’s willing to buy just to say they have it,” ­reasoned Pawn Stars’ Corey Harrison to his father, Rick.

But who would spend thousands on a tape player in the age of Spotify and YouTube, when virtually all your entertainment needs can be concentrated into one device in your pocket?

“Time can make easy fetishists of us all,” remarked the culture writer Niko Stratis on seeing news stories reporting that branches of Urban Outfitters in the US were selling iPods for $350 (not far off the price they were on release in the early 2000s). There is plenty of such backward-gazing trading to be found online: eBay seller Retrogadgets-UK offers a “factory-sealed” third-generation iPhone “sold for collectors only” listed at £2,499.99. US brand Retrospekt sells all manner of refurbished old tech. “Our mission is to give you a product with years of history that works like it was made yesterday,” it declares. Elsewhere you can find camcorders and digital cameras, VHS and DVD players, “vintage” Game Boys, clock radios, and everything in between – including the soundtrack to classic teen soap Beverly Hills 90210 on cassette (yours for £15.39, if that’s your thing). And a surprisingly large number of Walkmans.

You never know what treasures may be sitting in your attic. A classic yellow “sports” Walkman, for example, is a popular item among collectors. The WM-F5 from 1983 was the first designed to be “splash-proof” and came with a built-in FM radio. The sharp colour and weather-proofing led to sales soaring, Walkman collector Mark Ip tells me. “I have many of them,” he adds.

Walkmans in general are Ip’s thing. He has more than a thousand, and on his Instagram account @boxedwalkman he displays them to more than 16,000 fellow enthusiasts. The important word there is boxed: he focuses his vast collection on pristine Walkmans housed in their original packaging – though he also has several hundred unboxed ones, too. He bills himself as “cassette Walkman collector on a mission to bring back the long-lost memories of the past”. Ip also owns three Tiffany Walkmans, for which he estimates he spent $10,000.

“I’m a little bit OCD,” Ip tells me from his home in Hong Kong. “Because I’m not satisfied with only single units. I want packaging, user manuals, original headphones.” He has about 20 single Walkmans that he keeps out for personal use. The rest are in storage – they have to be kept dry, otherwise Hong Kong’s humid climate will damage the boxes. “I don’t know exactly how many boxes are in my warehouse. When I die, I’ll leave it to my son maybe,” Ip adds, though he says his son cares more about modern Apple products.

He ties his obsession to his youth. “When I was in high school, a classmate had the first model, the TPS-L2. The stereo sounded so good. And it was portable,” he says, but his family couldn’t afford it at the time (originally the cost was about $150). Later, he was able to get his hands on a Walkman, but it was only about 15 years ago, when the devices were cheap and essentially obsolete, that he began building his collection.

Ip, who is 60, and co-founded an IT and audiovisual company specialising in workplace technologies in 2004, rarely sells anything from his collection. The wider region – Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea – remains a hotbed of interest in ageing tech, including boomboxes, component audio systems, old analogue and 2G mobile phones and pagers. There is also a big local trade in old camera lenses, Ip says, from manufacturers such as Leica and Zeiss. Ip buys and swaps with others to fill gaps in his Walkman collection, while also finding some further afield, in the US and Europe. “Like all collectors, you are seeking perfection,” he says. “What is perfect is a new box, never touched, no scratches, no dust. It’s almost impossible, but I will do my best to patiently wait.”

PHOTO CREDIT: A Sony Walkman WM-2/PHOTO CREDIT: Felicity McCabe/The Guardian

Last year, Ip mounted an exhibition in Hong Kong displaying many of his boxed Walkmans. “This is one of my missions in Walkman collecting,” he says – to let a new generation experience it. At the exhibition, many young attenders were “seeing a cassette player for the first time”, and often had only a vague idea of them from films or their parents. “Most were genuinely curious. They were intrigued by its mechanics.”

Walkman-collecting, it seems, conforms to most tech-collector stereotypes: men in their 40s, 50s and 60s, recalling their youthful encounters with a then-nascent, exciting technology. As Ip says, “When you have a Walkman, and you have a cassette to play on it, you can go out to the street to listen to the music, and all the memories come back.”

On Stephen Ho’s eBay page, he lists old but pristine Walkmans for up to £2,999. Though, he admits, he rarely expects to sell his most expensive wares. They are largely on the site to display the extent of his vast collection and to signal the quality of what he has on offer. Mainly he sells cheaper ones when he has duplicates.

Ho, who is in his late 50s, is also from Hong Kong. He is retired now, but in the 1990s he had a job in Sony’s marketing department, working on the launch of the MiniDisc during the great “format war” between that product and Philips’s DCC player.

“Because I grew up with Sony products and I worked for Sony, I have a passion for their products,” he says. Electronic gadgets from his teenage years in the 80s are his poison. “During those years, Sony was like Apple nowadays. I was a normal teenager. I had Sony Walkman, Sony radio, everything Sony.”

In 2020, he moved to the UK under the BNO visa, allowing Hongkongers to resettle after the Chinese government crackdown on the city’s semi-autonomous status. He brought his collection, which includes hundreds of Walkmans, Discmans and MiniDisc players. He rarely pays more than £500 for an item, but he also owns one of the Tiffany special editions, for which he was willing to go higher (“Less than £2,000,” he says). But he says he’ll never put that up for sale.

He claims to be downsizing and shows me a loft room in his home in Reading, Berkshire, with drawers filled with Sony products. And yet, “I’m buying more than I’m selling,” he jokes. When we speak, he is shortly due to take a trip to Japan to find more at street ­markets.

There are models that were only sold in Japan, while DIY makers in China are keeping the old products alive. “Since the price of Walkmans has gone so high, people are making spare parts, which makes their lifespan longer.” There are curious ways in which older products can outlast newer, more hi-tech ones. “New things use built-in rechargeable batteries,” he says. “Once the battery is dead, the machine is dead. For old stuff they use normal batteries.”

He also likens it to older and classic cars: the mechanics were simpler, more analogue, so it is easier to tinker with and make spare parts for older models. Similarly with complex modern devices, the tech “is so tiny, so small, you can’t do it by yourself”. But with Walkmans “because of 3D-printing technology, they can print those parts. Which also extends the lifespan.”

Ho puts potential buyers into two categories. Younger people jumping on to a new trend for something old, and, inevitably, an older group that grew up with the technology. “Before social media, it was limited to older generations,” he says. “But since social media –Instagram, Facebook, whatever – teenagers have been exposed to old stuff. Old guys are buying for their memories. Young people are buying to try. They think it’s trendy, it’s interesting. It’s not limited to the Walkman; the prices for CCD [digital] cameras are rocket-high on eBay”.

There is a lot to discuss regarding the legacy of the Sony Walkman. How it could be brought up to date. I guess you can get something pretty close to the Sony Walkman today. I would love to see Sony bring out a new range that people could buy for a reasonable price. As cassettes are still around and many people are buying them, they are struggling to find devices to play them on. Rolling out a new Walkman would not seem strange of retro. Instead, it is necessary and would provide popular. Even if it is quite expensive, this cassette player is on the market. There are some more affordable options here. Look on eBay, and you can get some pretty cool options like this. There are guides like this that are useful. None really are abut Sony and a cheaper and cooler version of the original Walkman. Something that could sell for around £50, be available in a range of colours and designs. It does not need to be too high-tech. Something that could come onto the market that is sustainable, environmentally conscious and enduring. Many would say that listening to cassettes on the move is quite a solitary endeavour. Not that it is a bad thing. We are in a society where we are more isolated regarding listening to music. Not as communal as it once was. The original Sony Walkman was never about that. It provided freedom. The chance to listen to music on the move.

PHOTO CREDIT: Beyzaa Yurtkuran/Pexels

What I found, when I owned a Walkman and a Discman, is that it was great sharing music with people. Giving them an earbud and them listening to a cassette or CD that I was playing. Streaming and smartphones do not seem to be about that. I feel that a modern Walkman would perhaps not reverse that. I think it would prompt people to share music. Swap cassettes and be more engaged with one another than they might otherwise have been. On 1st July, it will be forty-five years since the Sony Walkman was introduced. It was a real breakthrough. We have modern equivalents out there, yet none that really match the original. Cassette sales are not booming, though they are steady and attracting new generations. Because of that, there is a place for cassette-playing devices. As we look ahead to an important anniversary for an iconic piece of music history, I feel it is appropriate that a new model comes out. I would definitely be interested in it. You may not be familiar with the Sony Walkman or know what it was about. I would suggest people check it out and do some reading. It was unlike anything else when it arrived in 1979. All these years later, there is this feeling it could slot right back into the marketplace. At any rate, it is well deserving of some salute. We have streaming these days. I don’t think we can blame the Walkman as starting this. Being responsible for making music ephemeral or a more isolating experience. Instead, streaming naturally came from the emergence of digital music. The Sony Walkman was always about buying cassettes and paying for music. It is true that it is at the start of a line that led to streaming, although it would be unfair to say that it killed physical music or can be blamed for what we have today. Instead, it was this explosion and wonderful piece of technology that gave people the option to enjoy music…

ON the go.

FEATURE: The Craft of Life: Kate Bush in 1974: Discovery, Progress and Transition

FEATURE:

 

The Craft of Life

PHGOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

 

Kate Bush in 1974: Discovery, Progress and Transition

_________

I want to travel back fifty years…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alamy

and a very important time in the career of the wonderful Kate Bush. I say ‘ career’, but it was really before her career started. With Kate Bush fifteen/sixteen, it was a big time in her life. In 1974, there was no real progress in her music ambitions. There had been some movement and plans prior to 1974, yet that year also provided an encounter that would change her life. Even if Bush did not officially sign with EMI until the summer of 1976, she did meet with them there and there was a definite plan for her. An unofficial signing perhaps. She was seen as a little young at the time and needed a period for maturation. Noticing her talent, her signature was captured a couple of years later. I am thinking back to 1974 and what Kate Bush was writing. We know that her debut album, 1978’s The Kick Inside, was cut down from a mass of songs that she already had recorded or written. Think about Home-Recorded Demos (1974) & Studio Demo’s (sic) and possible songs that could have appeared on the album. There are the Cathy Demos. Bush had recorded music with David Gilmour prior to 1974. It will all make sense in a minute. 1974 was a particular turning point. Before getting there, let’s look at Kate Bush’s 1972-1974:

“1972

At the suggestion of Kate's family, Ricky Hopper, a friend with music business connections, tries to place "demo tapes" of Kate's songs with a record company, with a publishing deal in mind. At this stage Kate considers herself more of a writer than a singer. These original tapes have over thirty songs on each. [An unfortunate wording, since it may mean that there was one collection of thirty songs which was duplicated, and of which one copy was sent to each publisher; or that there were actually several different thirty-song collections.] All the major companies are approached. None accepts. Kate's songs are described as "morbid", "boring" and "uncommercial".

Kate feels that she cannot pursue a career in music and considers the alternatives: psychiatry or social work.

Unable to help further, Ricky Hopper makes contact with Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, whom he knew at Cambridge University. Gilmour, who at this time is spotting for talent that he can assist, is persuaded to listen to the demos and then to hear Kate perform. He is impressed, and agrees to help.

1973

Kate records at Gilmour's home studio. The backing band is comprised of Gilmour himself on guitar, and Peter Perrier and Pat Martin of Unicorn on drums and bass, respectively. The songs recorded at this stage include Passing Through Air (later to surface on the b-side of the 1980 single Army Dreamers) and a song now known as Maybe.

[Again, a bit more detail would have been welcome here. There is no mention of how many songs were recorded during these recording sessions. Incidentally, an excerpt of this version of the so-called Maybe, which presumably first appeared on Kate's original demos, was played by Kate during a radio programme called Personal Call. It should not be confused with the presumably more professional version of the recording which was made the following year (see below) but which has never been heard by fans.]

The new demos are again circulated to record companies with no result.

1974

With no progress in her musical ambitions, Kate seriously considers a career in psychiatry.

Kate takes her "O Level" examination and obtains ten "Pass" grades, with best results in English, music and Latin”.

Bush got signed to EMI on the strength of her demo tapes. On the recommendation and sponsorship of David Gilmour. It was not really realised and truly official until 1976. In July, Bush gets £3000 from EMI Records and a further £500 to finance her for a year of personal and professional development. The period from 1974 and 1976 is important. Bush sort of being discovered and fostered more by David Gilmour. Her taking up mime and dance. Going from someone who was not yet known widely and officially in music but had that clear potential and gift. Before going forward, I want to bring in a feature from Far Out Magazine, who wrote about Kate Bush’s discovery and that important relationship with David Gilmour:

“How was Kate Bush discovered?

The old music industry adage, ‘it’s who you know’, is very true – there is a reason for why people say that.

“She was the sister of a friend of mine’s friend. My friend came to me and said, ‘listen, my friend has a little sister who’s very groovy – have a listen’,” the famed guitarist and composer, David Gilmour of the seminal experimental rock band, Pink Floyd said – indeed, it was, in fact, Gilmour who helped get her signed to EMI.

In his own words, Gilmour has described the story in the past. Gilmour was given a tape of demos of the young songwriter, from a mutual friend whose sister was the one and only Kate Bush. Of course, at the time, she was only 15-16 years old. While it was clear that Bush possessed a unique sensibility and creative mind, it was Gilmour who picked up on this, and more than that, he knew what it took to capture her sound.

“When we started her off, I put her together with an engineer and a producer and an arranger in a top studio, and I chose the songs. She had about 40 or 50 songs and I picked three. And I have a friend of mine who’s an arranger and producer and I gave him the songs and said ‘listen, get this all fixed up, take her in the studio and do these songs as masters, not as demos. I said, ‘I already got demos.'”

Gilmour was busy at the time working on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, but he was no less determined to help her. Gilmour worked with Bush to get 3-4 solid songs of hers down to get mastered with a producer that Gilmour chose. He added: “So I just spent some time listening to the tapes and doing some demo tapes with her, picked out songs and sent her into a studio, made three masters, which I then took to EMI studios and said, ‘do you want this?’ And they said, yes, we’ll have it, please.'”

“I was kind of busy at the time doing other things, I didn’t really have the time to get deeply involved with it.”

While Gilmour struck gold with discovering Bush, things wouldn’t exactly go off without a hitch with EMI.

Was Kate Bush too young to release her debut record?

The rumour, as Gilmour put it to rest sometime later, was in fact, false. While Gilmour pretty much set everything up perfectly; he paid for the recording time; he picked the three right songs from Bush’s 40 songs at the time; he found a producer and an arranger to help her record – all EMI had to do was step in, take over for Gilmour, and hit it home.

Well, unfortunately, the money-go-round mechanism of the recording industry and the red tape that this entails, didn’t allow for a smooth process. Gilmour commented on this, saying, “And they took two of those tracks which were those demos for her first album which were recorded a few years before. And what they were doing was, they were looking for different producers, they didn’t want to use the guy that I originally used, for some reason.”

Gilmour continued to say, “I think the delay was because of them thinking she didn’t have enough good songs and the producer’s just not getting the right thing out of her because they were putting her with the wrong people.”

It got to the point where EMI nearly gave up on the ordeal. “Eventually, a guy from EMI came to me and said, ‘C’mon David, it’s alright, but admit it, you sold us a dud here.’

Gilmour wasn’t about to back down or give up. He replied to EMI, saying: “I said ‘give me a fucking break, this girl’s really talented.’ And they said, ‘well, we just can’t get anything right.’ So I said, ‘why didn’t you go back to the guy that I put her with originally?’

Adding, “It’s plain and silly, but they wasted two years pissing around with the wrong producers and claimed they were waiting for her to mature, that’s all bullshit.”

How old was Kate Bush when she was discovered?

Kate Bush was only 16-years-old when she was discovered by David Gilmour, in 1974. If her debut record came out in 1978, what happened during this period and why did it take so long?

One of the things that happened was a rumour was created: That Bush was too young at the time and EMI were waiting for her to ‘mature’ before releasing her first record”.

Look ahead to 1975, and everything changed. In that June, Dave Gilmour pays for Kate to record at London’s AIR Studios. The Man With The Child In His Eyes, The Saxophone Song and Maybe are selected to be recorded. The first two are released on The Kick Inside. In the summer of 1975, Bush attends dance classes run by Lindsay Kemp. By that July, EMI start negotiating to sign this young talent. Bush leaves school with an interest in music and dance. I am really fascinated in 1973 and those demos and recordings happening. 1975 is when Bush recorded professionally and was a year away from EMI signing her with an advance. Fifty years ago, there was this bridge and transition moment. On the one hand, the school-age Bush was a bit despondent about her career not happening as quick as she might have liked. On the other hand, David Gilmour had discovered her and was working alongside her. Seeing that huge potential, she was signed to his label. An important fiftieth anniversary. I don’t think people really discuss Kate Bush pre-The Kick Inside. I am going to come to the period leading up to that at the end. I am fascinated by Kate Bush in 1974. There is some ambiguity in terms of exact events. Graeme Thomson goes more in depth about that time in his soon-to-be-reissued biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. When exactly EMI signed her. I guess David Gilmour discovered and mentored her as early as 1973, yet it does seem that 1974 was when that mentorship and discovery went up a step and got to the attention of a label. As it is fifty years ago, it is important to mark that. Turning sixteen on 30th July, it was a changing time of growth and discovery. Even if Kate Bush did not quite know it, 1974 was a year that was to change her life forever! I guess it was right she was given time to grow and have space. To take up mime dance and vocal lessons. When she was ready and right, that is when EMI gave her an advance and then into AIR Studios. This Wikipedia feature takes us from 1975 through to 1977:

“Bush attended St Joseph's Convent Grammar School, a Catholic girls' school in nearby Abbey Wood. During this time, her family produced a demo tape with over 50 of her compositions, which was turned down by record labels. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd received the demo from Ricky Hopper, a mutual friend of Gilmour and the Bush family. Impressed, Gilmour financed the 16-year-old Bush's recording of a more professional demo tape. The tape consisted of three tracks, produced by Gilmour's friend Andrew Powell and sound engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked with the Beatles. Powell later produced Bush's first two albums, The tape was sent to EMI executive Terry Slater who signed Bush.

"Every female you see at a piano is either Lynsey de Paul or Carole King. And most male music–not all of it but the good stuff–really lays it on you. It really puts you against the wall and that's what I like to do. I'd like my music to intrude. Not many females succeed with that."

Bush, speaking to Melody Maker magazine in 1977.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

The British record industry was reaching a point of stagnation. Progressive rock was very popular and visually oriented rock performers were growing in popularity, thus record labels looking for the next big thing were considering experimental acts. Bush was put on retainer for two years by Bob Mercer, managing director of EMI's group-repertoire division. Mercer believed that Bush's material was good enough to release, but he also believed that should the album fail it would be demoralising and if it were successful Bush was too young to handle this. In a 1987 interview, Gilmour disputed this version of events, blaming EMI for initially using the "wrong" producers.

EMI gave Bush a large advance, which she used to enroll in interpretive dance classes taught by Lindsay Kemp, a former teacher of David Bowie, and mime training with Adam Darius. For the first two years of her contract, Bush spent more time on schoolwork than recording. She left school after doing her mock A-Levels and having gained ten GCE O-Level qualifications.

Bush wrote and recorded demos of almost 200 songs, some of which circulated as bootlegs. From March to August 1977, she fronted the KT Bush Band at public houses in London. The band included Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (guitar), and Vic King (drums). She began recording her first album in August 1977”.

I have been thinking about Kate Bush in 1974. A strange yet remarkable time. A few years before she recorded her debut album, she had rough songs and some potential jewels in her locker. It would not be too long until she heading into the studio to record The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Look forward to now, and I am not sure whether Kate Bush in 1974 would have realised all that she’d achieve. A Record Store Ambassador and someone who has had number one albums and influenced countless artists. I am so intrigued by those early years. Living at home at East Wickham Farm. Discovering all sorts of music and bonding with her brothers, Paddy and Jay (whose photographs of her when she was a child are so wonderful). Where she definitely wanted to go into music but was not quite there yet. Even so, she had this broad body of work that would soon be honed and narrowed into the songs that went into The Kick Inside. Back in 1974, there was this period of discovery – of Kate Bush and from her – and the seeds of something truly phenomenal. EMI knew her potential and promise. Very soon, that would truly…

COME to life.

FEATURE: I Give Them What They Want to Hear: The Varied and High-Profile Love for Kate Bush in 2024

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I Give Them What They Want to Hear

PHOTO CREDIT: Assai Records (Glasgow) 

The Varied and High-Profile Love for Kate Bush in 2024

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THERE have been a few releases and occasions recently…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix/Getty Images

that shows there is this varied and huge love out there for Kate Bush. That her appreciate spans far and wide. It may seem obvious but, in 2024, it seems to be at this new peak. Probably broader and more ecstatic than at any other time. Perhaps not at the same extent as a major modern icon like Taylor Swift, it is still amazing to think that an artist like Kate Bush – who has been recording music for fifty years – is still being discussed so much. I shall come to a new edition of a Kate Bush biography that is coming out in July. Yesterday (20th April), Record Store Day happened in the U.K. One of the special releases was a 10” edition of the Kate Bush single, Eat the Music. Looking beautiful and snapped up around the U.K., it was great seeing all the smiling faces of people who got their copy! Queuing up at independent stores, so many Kate Bush fans claimed their copy. Also out at the moment, a new edition of MOJO magazine finds Kate Bush adorning the cover. Inside, writer and author Tom Doyle discusses Kate Bush’s early years. That transition from this teenage songwriter who signed a deal with EMI and soon was thrust into the limelight. It is a wonderful feature from Doyle. He wrote the biography, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush. Later in the year, Baby Bushka are heading to the U.K. A tribute to Kate Bush, they will be performing a selection of Kate Bush material and the Folk songs that inspired her. We also have amazing tribute artists like An Evening Without Kate Bush (Sarah Louise Young), and a recent tribute by Sooz Kempner.

There has been this new swirl of Kate Bush affection and representation. I think that we will see more of that as the year progresses. Look on social media and every day you will see so many people discussing Kate Bush and her music. As I have said before, you can see how Kate Bush’s music has influenced modern artists. New acts like The Last Dinner Party and established artists like Dua Lipa clearly have been affected and inspired by Kate Bush. There is this mix of high-profile acknowledgment from artists and the passion that fans show. From grabbing Eat the Music at independent record shops recently to the daily discussion about Kate Bush, her fandom is rising and expanding. Leah Kardos has written a book about Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love for the 33 1/3 series. It is out in November. As we are still in April, we are going to see a lot more Kate Bush activity in terms of magazine articles and books. Who knows what will come. It is always wonderful seeing Kate Bush’s music and brilliance spread far and wide (though radio stations still stick to the hits/Hounds of Love). From long-time fans who were out there for Record Store Day alongside new fans through to authors and journalists who are ensuring that Bush’s legacy and career is highlighted and dissected, there is this ocean of love and respect out there. One of the greatest Kate Bush authorities – perhaps the best -, Kate Bush News, have their wonderful podcast. Between Kate Bush News reporting all the latest and exciting happenings (including Bush donating and two amazing, signed Boxes of Lost at Sea artworks to the Cabaret vs Cancer charity), and the podcast bringing in guests who have worked with Kate Bush, we are getting all this exposure and revelation. The artist herself engaging with fans.

It is a really amazing time for Kate Bush fandom. So many interesting things happening. One of the big occurrences later this year is when Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush is reissued. Expanded and updated, this is a book everyone needs to pre-order. Not only is there a foreword from the brilliant authour and journalist Sinéad Gleeson (who edited the must-read This Woman’s Work with Kim Gordon), but there are going to be contributions and quotes from some big-name Kate Bush fans. The fact that we now have Gleeson, a wonderful author and writer, adding to this new edition is exciting enough. The revision of the book shows that a lot has happened in Kate Bush’s career over the past few years to justify it. Also, inside the book, there will be contributions from Kate Bush fans such as Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout). That is quite a big coup. I knew he was a fan of hers, though I listen to Prefab Sprout and can see a line between the two. Some definite crossover. Also contributing is journalist Jude Rogers and musician Jim Kerr. Maybe it is not a surprise that there is this embrace and variegated curiosity for Kate Bush. There are artists who have not released albums in a long time/retired who get books and articles written about them. Once more, it makes me feel how we definitely need a new and comprehensive Kate Bush documentary. I am shocked that there is nothing announced already.

Who are still being discussed in the media and are relevant. I remember reading articles written about Kate Bush prior to the pandemic that asked whether she is still relevant. That she has faded from view. Now, there is this sense of revival and explosion. The truth is that Kate Bush has never gone away. It is true that she has gained a lot of momentum and fresh fans since, say, 2019. There are reasons for this. I suppose the fact Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was featured In Stranger Things started this chain and snowball (her song featured in an episode that broadcast in 2022). Kate Bush reissued her lyrics book, How to Be Invisible, last year. The original came out in 2018. She has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame recently. Bush also has been quite active in terms of reissuing her studio albums. Released through her label, Fish People, it gives new fans a chance to pick up these amazing albums. Some felt that the reissues were a cash-grab, though I think it is her making sure that people appreciate and discover her albums on vinyl. Also, they were exclusively released through independent record stores. Bush realising how important these are to the fabric of the high street. With everything she does, there is this passion for physical music. I would like to think she’d be open to expanded anniversary reissues of her albums. Hounds of Love turns forty next year. A perfect excuse to open this album up. Some might say, as it has been reissued recently and in a special presentation, that it may be overkill putting it out again. I do feel that the inclusion of the B-side, Under the Ivy, plus any unreleased treasures from the archive would warrant a fortieth anniversary release.

'It captures not just a single day, but an entire life.' Pleased to see my piece for @DiscoxPogo on #KateBush 'Aerial' looking very lovely in the flesh. 12 pages of KB in total + loads more excellent writing. Do support this terrific magazine if you can. https://t.co/DI3UmlJtmx pic.twitter.com/SzNNQiVV1z

— Graeme Thomson (@GraemeAThomson) April 12, 2024

All of this has combined to ensure that Kate Bush is very much being talked about! It is amazing to see. I do feel that this year will be another busy one in terms of representation and growth. Every time a book is released or we see magazine coverage or there are updates from Kate Bush, this reaches new corners of the globe. The humble and honest Kate Bush superfans alongside respected journalists and famous artists who are showing their love for an icon. All of this makes my mind and imagination race. Possibilities and potential. Not least a new album and whether that will come. Anything planned for The Sensual World’s thirty-fifth anniversary in the autumn. Maybe a new documentary or project that recognises the way Kate Bush has inspired a new generation. More podcasts and books. I think that it is unlikely we will hear any announcement from Kate Bush regarding a new album or anything we have not heard. I feel she is going to provide updates to her website and donate more items to charity. A signed goodie that is going into a prize draw to raise money for War Child is another example of Kate Bush engaging with charity. It also brings fresh love her way. People curious to know more about her and check out her music. Kate Bush proving she is a very special artist and human! Knowing Kate Bush is out there in the world and is at least aware that there is this acknowledgement of her music and importance must be very humbling.

It is a very busy and fascinating time to be a Kate Bush fans. I feel there has been more activity and attention paid to her music than at any time of her career. So many people recognising her impact and originality. Every new magazine feature or book not only is a revelation from someone who adores what Kate Bush does. For people like me, who writes a lot about Kate Bush, there is always something new to discover. I think 1974 is the year when she signed to EMI - I know she signed a contract in 1976, though I think there was some motion and agreement in 1974 -, so it is fifty years after this important moment for a then-teenager. I love how Bush herself is at the stage in her career where she is happy to acknowledge and reissue her older work. Not always the case, I hope that we get a Director’s Cut/50 Words for Snow situation: Bush tackling and addressing previous work to clear the way for new. Yesterday’s Record Store Day created a lot of joy. Music fans attending record stores and finding some rarities and special releases. Among the most awesome images was Kate Bush fans proudly showing off their copies of the 10” of Eat the Music (where I think Lily and Big Stripey Lie is also included). It got me thinking about how it is part of this year where there are Kate Bush projects and salutes through media and print. Through music and social media. Fans well-known and street-level showing Kate Bush…

PHOTO CREDIT: The state51 Conspiracy

ALL the love.

FEATURE: Frequency Modulation: When Will Radio Stations Properly Acknowledge and Represent Women?

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Frequency Modulation

PHOTO CREDIT: mahdi chaghari/Pexels

When Will Radio Stations Properly Acknowledge and Represent Women?

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I am not sure…

PHOTO CREDIT: David Bartus/Pexels

what the official figures are regarding radio stations and gender parity. In terms of the playlists and how many songs are by female artists. We will get a report later in the year. I think that it will make for alarming reading. I listen to a few stations on a fairly regular basis. What I am noticing is that there is barely any movement regarding gender equality! There are some especially bad stations. I always pick on stations such as BBC Radio 2 and Greatest Hits Radio. Radio X and Absolute. Even BBC Radio 6 Music, the best when it comes to striking for equality, have a very long way to go. Programme song schedules that are either heavily skewed to male artists or just about equal. As female artists are dominating music and, as I have said, released the best albums for quite a few years ago now, it is always angering and insulting! Think about all those features that came at the end of last year and early this year. Most of those tipped artists were women. There is no shortage of new female artists that are worthy of being played on a variety of stations. Definitely no issue regarding legacy and older artists. I don’t think many radio stations are so rigid that they have little room for women. Even genre-specific stations – who are quite narrow – still have the potential to do more than they are. I wonder whether there is impetus to actually improve. Even now, as we look to a summer of festivals in 2024, many are struggling to book female headliners. Too many excuses that are covering for the fact that they are not doing enough. The fact that Glastonbury’s two female headliners this year (SZA and Dua Lipa) seems so extraordinary speaks volumes. The first time they have booked two female headline act. It seems exceptional that, in over fifty years, that is the first time! To be fair, Glastonbury could have booked a third female headliner. Kylie Minogue, Björk, Little Simz. It would have been more refreshing and stronger than Coldplay – who are the third headline act this year.

IN THIS PHOTO: SZA/PHOTO CREDIT: Mason Poole for Variety

My point is that there is never a shortage. Any excuses regarding a lack of female headliners is a lie. No festival has anywhere to hide. Even so, things are still dire. Not as much progress as there should be. Radio stations seem to struggle from a similar lack of consideration. How have we got to 2024, in a year when it is obvious female artists are on top, and things are still as they are?! I can’t think of a radio station hat affects a gender-balanced playlist/schedule. Maybe smaller ones do though, when you think of commercial stations and the bigger names, it is hard to think of anyone doing as much as they can. This is inexcusable. It is pretty sorry that female artists are not deemed worthy enough to be on playlists. I don’t think it has anything to do with quality, fitting into their demographic or there being any sort of unwritten rule that says male artists should be in the majority. I feel that festivals and radio playlists should naturally be female-heavy. It would be wonderful to think a male bias is overturned ` and women are finally at the front. Overturn decades of sexism and ignorance. It is so frustrating that radio playlists seem unwavering. I know the situation is worse in Ireland. The entire industry needs to do more. All major festivals in the U.K. have to do more and are not exactly quick when it comes to reversing gender inequality. With more options than ever when it comes to amazing women to book as headliners or further down the bill, many are still being ignored. Many rely on radio airplay to get them noticed by festival organisers.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz/Pexels

It is part of the chain. Venues booking female artists based on what they hear. If they are struggling to make it onto schedules, it makes it harder for them to get to the attention of headline organisers. I would be interested to see officially statistics and findings whenever that comes. Seeing how far big radio stations have come since last year. Even if the situation is not as bleak as it was years ago, I am confident very few can say they have achieved a fifty-fifty balance. Maybe BBC Radio 6 Music are the only ones yet, when I look at various programmes and count how many women are chosen on schedules compared to male artists, so many are still leaning towards men. It is an odd situation. One would feel that every radio station could and should make an instant change. It would not be too hard! I realise many have new artists playlists and there are certain limitations, though none are in the position where they are lacking female artists to add to the mix. It is this weird split between clear dominance of female artists. In terms of original sounds and innovation. Many of the best-reviewed albums are from women. So much of the terrific new music. I hope that radio stations do a lot more to include women. One would feel a fifty-fifty split would be the least they can do. Embarrassingly, I don’t really think any major station is in the position where they are there or near at all. It is a sorry state of affairs that needs to change! As each year comes and goes, only small steps are made. This is a problem that can be fixed incredibly quickly. There seems little effort of impetus to do that. Rather than there being any logical reasoning, this male bias and sexism that is still rife through the industry is present and correct on radio playlists. Gender inequality and a lack of female representation on radio playlists needs to be…

PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

A thing of the past.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Paul Heaton Birthday Playlist

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The Digital Mixtape

The Paul Heaton Birthday Playlist

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ONE of our most loved and respected songwriters…

IN THIS PHOTO: Rianne Downey will be performing alongside Paul Heaton at this year’s Glastonbury Festival

the amazing Paul Heaton celebrates his birthday on 9th May. I am going to come to a playlist featuring some of his best songs alongside his former Beautiful South bandmate, Jacqui Abbott. Paul Heaton will be performing alongside Rianne Downey at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. This year also marks thirty-five years since The Beautiful South released their debut album, Welcome to the Beautiful South. Rather than compile songs from The Beautiful South and The Housemartins (the band Heaton was in prior to The Beautiful South), I am focusing more on his work with the great Jacqui Abbott – someone I hope he works and performs with soon enough. Before I get to that playlist, here is some biography about one of the greatest songwriters ever:

“The mellifluous voice of Paul Heaton has often masked the jagged satirical content of his lyrics. Stamping all of his projects with not only wry wit but a flair for infectious melodies, Heaton was known as leader of popular but short-lived U.K. college rock group the Housemartins in the mid-'80s before forming the Beautiful South in 1988. Contrasting Heaton's lyrics with a sophisticated, jazzy pop sound, that band released ten albums between the late '80s and the mid-2000s, reaching number one with their 1990 single "A Little Time" and the U.K. Top 15 with every single album. After they disbanded in 2007, Heaton focused on his solo career, issuing three records on his own before partnering with onetime Beautiful South vocalist Jacqui Abbott for 2014's What Have We Become? With nods to Motown soul and early rock & roll, the collaboration was a hit, and they went all the way to number one in the U.K. with their fourth LP, 2020's Manchester Calling. Working with the same crew, they were back with N.K. Pop in 2022.

Born in Bromborough in Merseyside, England in 1962, Paul David Heaton was raised in Sheffield from age four until the family moved to Surrey when he was in his early teens. It was there that he and his older brother Adrian formed their first band, Tools Down. At the time, he was still splitting his time between music and football, which he went on to play outside of school at the amateur level.

By his early twenties, he was based in Hull, where he formed the Housemartins with guitarist Stan Cullimore, bass player Ted Key, and drummer Chris Lang in 1984. A demo got them a record deal with Go! Discs. They released their first song, "Flag Day," in 1985 before Norman Cook (later known as Fatboy Slim) replaced Key on bass, and Hugh Whitaker of the Gargoyles briefly filled in for Lang until Dave Hemingway took over on drums. In 1986, the group made it to number three on the U.K. singles chart with their third single, "Happy Hour." Issued that October, their album London 0 Hull 4 also reached number three and hit the Top Ten in Norway and Sweden. Like contemporaries the Smiths, the Housemartins were college radio stars in the U.S., where their jangly riffs and brainy, humorous songs landed in the bottom half of the Billboard 200 with help from MTV airplay. The band's second album, 1987's The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death also reached the U.K. Top Ten and the lower tier of U.S. album chart.

After the Housemartins disbanded in 1988, Heaton and Hemingway formed the Beautiful South. The Beautiful South expanded Heaton's musical canvas, exploring jazz and even country influences with former Anthill Runaways vocalist Briana Corrigan, bassist Sean Welch, drummer David Stead (formerly a Housemartins roadie), and guitarist David Rotheray, who became Heaton's new songwriting collaborator. While many critics and student-run radio stations in the U.S. continued to laud Heaton's talent, the Beautiful South became far more successful in England. In the summer of 1989, they released their first single, "Song for Whoever," on the Housemartins' old record label, Go! "Song for Whoever" climbed to number two, while its follow-up, "You Keep It All In," peaked at number eight in September 1989. A month later, the group's debut, Welcome to the Beautiful South, was released and went to number two, eventually going platinum. The band's only number one single, "A Little Time," helped 1990's Choke replicate both sales feats, and their third LP, 0898, reached the Top Five behind three Top 30 singles. Following the release of 0898, Corrigan left the group and was replaced with Jacqui Abbott, who made her first appearance on the band's fourth straight Top Ten album, 1994's Miaow. It was followed at the end of the year by the greatest-hits collection Carry on Up the Charts, which entered the charts at number one. It stayed there for several months, going platinum many times over and, in the process, becoming one of the most popular albums in British history. The album wasn't released in America until late 1995, after it broke several U.K. records.

Two multi-platinum number one albums followed in the form of 1996's Blue Is the Colour and 1998's Quench before 2000's Painting It Red peaked at number two. Heaton issued a solo album under the alias Biscuit Boy (aka Crackerman) in 2001 that barely cracked the Top 100 before rejoining his band for 2003's Gaze. It didn't fare as well by their standards, though it still reached the U.K. Top 15. After a move to Sony, 2004's Golddiggas, Headnodders & Pholk Songs hit number 11 with a set consisting mostly of covers. The Beautiful South's final album, Superbi, arrived in 2006, and while it reached number six on the album chart, it was their first to not be represented in the Top 40 of the singles chart.

The group called it quits in 2007, having sold more than 15 million records worldwide, and Heaton shifted his focus to his solo career. He released 2008's The Cross Eyed Rambler under his own name. Two years later, Heaton returned with Acid Country, which he helped to promote with a bicycle-led U.K. pub tour. The year 2012 saw the release of Presents the 8th, a stage play that boasted a single conceptual song told in eight chapters, dealing with the seven deadly sins, and featuring guest vocalists. In 2014, he released What Have We Become?, a collaborative album recorded with the Beautiful South's Jacqui Abbott. After the warm reception of that effort, which catapulted to number three on the U.K. albums chart, the duo regrouped for 2015's Wisdom, Laughter and Lines. The success of their renewed partnership was also reflected in an extensive and well-received set of live dates, culminating in a sold-out homecoming gig to a crowd of 20,000 in Hull in 2017. That same year, Heaton and Abbott released their third record as a duo, Crooked Calypso, which was produced by longtime collaborator John Williams (Cocteau Twins, Alison Moyet). The year 2018 brought the career-spanning The Last King of Pop, a 23-track collection representing both of Heaton's beloved bands, solo material, and his partnership with Abbott. It peaked at number ten on the album chart. The pair returned with the Williams-produced Manchester Calling in March 2020. Conceived as a double album in the fashion of the Clash's London Calling, the slightly abbreviated 16-track set topped the album chart in the U.K. They headed back to the studio with Williams and their established backing band (guitarist Jonny Lexus, bassist Chris Wise, drummer Pete Marshall, and keyboardist Stephen Large) for 2022's N.K. Pop”.

In salute of the wonderful Paul Heaton, I have put together a selection of his album tracks with Jacqui Abbott. Many of these I am sure will get an airing at Glastonbury very soon. As he celebrates his birthday on 9th May, it is a good time to listen to the incredible music of Heaton. One of the very best we have ever produced. His amazing and distinct words…

SHOULD be highlighted.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Selections from the National Recording Registry’s Twenty-Five Additions for 2024

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The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Blondie photographed during the Parallel Lines shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: GEMS/Redferns

Selections from The National Recording Registry’s Twenty-Five Additions for 2024

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MAYBE this passed some people by…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Elviss Railijs Bitāns/Pexels

but I feel that the National Recording Registry is really important. Albums and songs that are inducted and preserved for all time. Those deemed culturally significant. There are some great works in there. Recently twenty-five new additions were announced for this year. They will join some of the greatest music ever recorded. I wanted to end this feature with a playlist featuring selected songs (either standalone or from albums) highlighted and chosen for induction into the National Recording Registry this year. Not only will they be in this amazing registry and archive. I think that new ears and listeners will get to hear some stunning albums. Before getting to that playlist, The Line of Best Fit tell us about the songs and albums that will be included in the National Recording Registry:

“Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has named songs and albums by ABBA, Green Day, The Chicks, Blondie, The Cars, Bill Withers, Notorious B.I.G., Jefferson Airplane, Kronos Quartet, and Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, and more, who join the likes of last year's inductees Eurythmics, Queen Latifah, Madonna, and Mariah Carey.

Full list of 2024 inductees:

Lt. James Reese Europe’s 369th U.S. Infantry Band - “Clarinet Marmalade” (1919)

Viola Turpeinen and John Rosendahl - “Kauhavan Polkka” (1928)

Various Artists - Wisconsin Folksong Collection (1937-1946)

Benny Goodman Sextet with Charlie Christian - “Rose Room” (1939)

Gene Autry - “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949)

Patti Page - “The Tennessee Waltz” (1950)

Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats - “Rocket ‘88’” (1951)

Johnny Mathis - “Chances Are” (1957)

Perry Como - “Catch a Falling Star” / “Magic Moments” (1957)

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder (1964)

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (1967)

Lily Tomlin - This is a Recording (1971)

Bill Withers - “Ain’t No Sunshine” (1971)

J.D. Crowe & the New South - J.D. Crowe & the New South (1975)

ABBA - Arrival (1976)

Héctor Lavoe - “El Cantante” (1978)

The Cars - The Cars (1978)

Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)

Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick (MC Ricky D) - “La-Di-Da-Di” (1985)

Bobby McFerrin - “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (1988)

Juan Gabriel - “Amor Eterno” (1990)

Kronos Quartet - Pieces of Africa (1992)

Green Day - Dookie (1994)

The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die (1994)

The Chicks - Wide Open Spaces (1998)”.

From some older and classic work through to some modern classics, an eclectic and fascinating range of music is going to be inducted into the National Recording Registry. It is this amazing and astonishing collection of music that showcases the range and diversity of American recorded sound heritage in order to increase preservation awareness. The sheer diversity of nominations received highlights the richness of the nation's audio legacy and underscores the importance of assuring the long-term preservation of that legacy for future generations. Currently, there are six hundred works/titles on the National Recording Registry. Below are the sensational and hugely important recordings that have been added into the Recording Registry…

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Reche/Pexels

FOR 2024.

FEATURE: From Coachella Queens… How Women Will Define and Dominate Festivals This Year

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From Coachella Queens…

IN THIS PHOTO: Doja Cat at the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival/PHOTO CREDIT: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Coachella

How Women Will Define and Dominate Festivals This Year

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I have been thinking a lot…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Gwen Stefani of No Doubt and Olivia Rodrigo performing at Coachella/PHOTO CREDIT: John Shearer/Getty Images for No Doubt

about women in music. How there is still misogyny and sexism levied at them. In fact, thinking of recent news events, there is still so misogyny in the world. Some really disgusting and unforgivable occurrences. In terms of general attitudes towards women, how far have we come in the past few decades?! This question can be asked of the music industry. Whilst there have been steps made, I still feel like the female dominance we see clearly out there is not being met with respect and opportunity. Still so much imbalance. It is only this year really when Glastonbury has addressed its all-male headliners. I am going to reference and source an article from The Guardian that was published yesterday (14th April) in reaction to the Coachella festival in the U.S. It seems like an odd festival. In the sense many of the acts did not get the crowd response they deserved. Blur were among those who blasted the crowd for not being engaged and properly appreciative. What the article highlighted is how women salvaged and defined the festival. I feel this is something that is going to be repeated throughout all major festivals, begging the question as to whether there needs to be commitment and need guidance at all festivals going forward. Will it also lead to greater progress in the industry regarding tackling misogyny and addressing gender imbalance? Although Coachella is not the best guide as to how every festival this year will pan out, yet it is clear we are seeing a change.

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Not to say there are a lack of exciting make headliners and festival-defining acts. It is the case that women are dominating. Coachella saw Doja Cat, Lana Del Rey, No Doubt and so many others rule. Bringing in guests such as Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish, it was a huge show of female empowerment, talent and togetherness. The Guardian explained why female artists helped lift an otherwise tepid Coachella:

“As someone who attended (for free, as press … though I did succumb to the call of the $16 Claw), I can confirm that rumors of Coachella’s demise are a little premature. Yes, there were fewer people. But the diehards still showed up – with a notable exception being the so-called Queen of Coachella, Vanessa Hudgens, who skipped out this year due to her pregnancy.

Some of the attendees I spoke to were there for the fifth, eighth, or tenth time. It’s a tradition they admitted to planning their year around, no matter who plays. One college-age woman I spoke to ahead of the gates opening on Friday night said she’s come since childhood with her dad, noting with a straight face that, “He’s an OG. He has a vintage Coachella shirt from 2008.”

But a flop year remains valuable for the feedback it gives us. Remove the noise of a once-in-a-lifetime, Beychella-esque headline performance and you can take stock of the tradition as a whole. What’s working: booking surprise special guests who bring the nostalgia points.

My soul left my body for a moment when Kesha walked out to support Reneé Rapp, altering the opening line of her recession-core banger Tik Tok to “wake up in the morning saying fuck P Diddy,” amid allegations of sexual assault against Sean Combs. Not even a rough onstage tumble that left the promiscuous girl herself Nelly Furtado bloodied kept the special guest from working the crowd at Dom Dolla. It was nice to see J Balvin call in a beaming Will Smith, who joined a cast of dancing green aliens for a rendition of Men in Black, reminding us inthe wake of the Oscars slap and whatever Jada’s been up to that he’s ultimately a showman at heart.

One attendee, an influencer-in-her-own-mind type who asked me to film as she delivered a straight-to-camera monologue for TikTok, declared that this year was “for the girls!” I agree, unless said girl was Grimes, whose disastrous, issue-plagued DJ set was ultimately just cut off in a satisfying display of schadenfreude. Or Lana Del Rey, who also did not fare well during her Friday headline set due to constant audio issues and what appeared to be old-fashioned nerves.

But overall, the best of this year’s acts projected girl power, not in the corny, superficial way that’s all too common in pop, but by simply showing up and tearing up. Gwen Stefani climbing on top of stage scaffolding while leading the call-and-response chorus of I’m Just a Girl during No Doubt’s headline set was one of the highest highs of the festival, and Doja Cat’s sapphic mud pit closer alone was worth the price of admission.

Raye, a UK star who’s now on a US ascension, gave early Amy Winehouse during a tight, mid-century styled set. When it came time for Ice Cream Man, a raw and unflinching account of Raye’s sexual assault at the hands of a music producer, she left every woman I could see in my section wiping away tears – myself included – and the many of the men staring solemnly down at their feet, unable to make eye contact.

Coachella is such a well-oiled machine that moments of real emotion can be hard to come by – it’s essentially the music industry’s Disneyland. Raye’s admission served as a rare gasp of authenticity. Ditto for Victoria Monet’s loud and clear call for an end to the genocide in Gaza, a plea that received one of the longest and loudest rounds of applause I heard all weekend. (Levant, a 23-year-old part-Palestinian DJ also roused a crowd with his full-throated call for a free Palestine, and it’s a shame his set conflicted with No Doubt’s reunion.)

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Danish R&B singer Erika de Casier’s early 2pm death slot started with only a dozen or so attendees, but grew into a full crowd as she worked through her polished, ‘90s-tinged slow jams. Anyone in the mood for rave vibes could be found at South Korean DJ Peggy Gou’s tent, where she slung remixes while a cast of gender-queer gogo dancers hyped up the audience.

Admittedly I only went to see pop star Sabrina Carpenter because I thought I might get a glimpse of her potential boo Barry Keoghan (I did not), but the nascent star won me over with unadulterated pop girl charisma. And then there was Rapp, who not only brought out Kesha, but also enlisted the cast of The L Word to introduce her show and performed in front of a giant pair of scissors (because, you know, lesbians).

Ice Spice drew so big of a crowd that I couldn’t even enter her tent. I later learned on TikTok that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were there, but I’m glad that rumblings of a Swift guest appearance on stage didn’t materialize. Spice had the opportunity to dominate all by herself, actually keeping her mic on and not relying too heavily on backing vocals, as many performers do”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Glastonbury Festival

I do think, more and more, the incredible albums released by women translates to festival stages and shows why they should have been represented more years ago. Whilst many of the most notable acts and performances at Coachella were from established artists, there is a wave of newer talent coming through who are shaping up to be future legends. Think about Glastonbury and how Dua Lipa and SZA will be clear highlights showed how women are staking their claim as the most exciting and strongest festival choices. Shania Twain will bring her magic to the legends slot. The other Glasto headliners, Coldplay, seem like also-rans. A tired choice that has little logic. The festival could easily have booked a third female headliner like Little Simz and made a big call – though I feel there is still a fear here for major festivals to have an all-female headliner look (something that I don’t think has ever happened). Even if there is a huge way to go for festivals, I feel Coachella is the start of festivals creating memories and wonderful moments because of its queens. Readings and Leeds is a U.K. festival still struggling to book female headliners. Hopes that they correct their ways and realise they need to do better, Glastonbury’s balanced bill and long-overdue steps to book women as headliners will pay dividends. It may be a big call, but I think this is true: women are going to be the highlight of nearly every festival this year. The fact that the amazing music they have been putting out is being recognised is leading to festival bookings and naturally assured and astonishing performances.

Going forward, it does the beg the question as to whether attitudes will change. There is still a big issue with sexism and a true lack of parity. I hope the face of festivals changes. We should no longer see booking female headliners as something that needs to be done. It should be natural. Normalising having them headliner every year. Festivals need to make that commitment. I also feel festival need to take more risks and book younger and less established artists as headliners. Ensure that the reviews and news we hear from festivals like Coachella – where sets from women are positive and impressive – makes it clear that the male-dominated and focused festival scene should and can reverse easily. That needs to spread throughout the industry. A matriarchy replacing the patriarchy! This summer is going to see some iconic sets from female headliners. Rising artists making their mark. The festival queens coming through and showing why they should have been a larger part of the conversation a long time ago. Coachella is the start of things. This year will be a revolution. Let’s hope that next year builds on that so that all festivals have no issue with booking female headliners and balancing their bills. Not that this will fix inequality and misogyny that still exists in the industry. It does prove how amazing our women are. How they are defining and dominating. Words I have no problem in reusing because it is true. Our queens are going to slay festivals this year. It is wonderful to…

SEE them reign.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: 1979: Danny Baker (NME)

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in London on 29th September, 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky

1979: Danny Baker (NME)

_________

IT might seem strange…

that I am including one of the most disrespectful and dismissive interviews Kate Bush was subjected to for this edition of The Kate Bush Interview Archive. One reason I wanted to put it in here was that it as published in 1979. On 20th October, after Bush had completed The Tour of Life and was preparing Never for Ever. In terms of singles that had come out to this point, we had Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes from The Kick Inside. Hammer Horror and Wow had been released from Lionheart (also 1978). The public perception differed from that of critics. Whilst Bush was popular and her singles and albums sold well, there was this critical perception that she was weird. A hippy. A witch perhaps. Misogynistic and sexist, that view did not really shift until years later. I guess she always had some rough interviews regardless of the album she was promoting. The disrespect and patronising attitudes was probably at its peak in 1978 and 1979. Danny Baker wrote for NME and interviewed Kate Bush. Probably one of the worst hatchet jobs of that year, it is testament to Kate Bush’s professional, maturity – neither of which Danny Baker displays! – and calm that she professionally got through the interviews. I hope she has forgotten this experience. I wanted to highlight it because it shows the sort of attitudes and words levied at her in 1979. Only twenty-one when this interview was published, it must have been crushing and angering reading something like this. Thanks to this amazing website for providing the text to an interview that is a travesty and shitsh*w. It is a chance to see how amazingly dignified Kate Bush always has been. 1979 was also an interesting year.

She has completed The Tour of Life. Thinking about her third studio album, I guess Bush would have been excited to be in this position where she could talk about past work but also look ahead. Not to blame anyone for agreeing to the interview. I suppose EMI were keen for Bush to be as exposed and out there as possible. For the first few years of her career, she was subjected to some awful and rather tense interviews. I have included most of the NME interview here:

“NME had been after a KB interview for a while but, so I'd learned on leaving the office, her management were less than obliging. Me? Well, the truth is that I had no opinions about Kate at all. I knew the singles, but I really couldn't find it in me to go any deeper, to check out her roots (he said, nicking in this piece's most contrived gag). I still don't...such was our meeting.

Hey Kate. Do you feel obliged to sing like that these days?

"What? You mean..."

Y'know, like you could age the nation's glassblowers.

"Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, I don't feel obliged--that is me. See, like in a recording studio, when it's all dark and there's just you and a couple of guys at the desk, well, you get really so involved that to actually plan it becomes out of the question. It just flows that way. As a writer I just try to express an idea. I can't possibly think of old songs of mine because they're past now, and quite honestly I don't like them anymore."

Doing Wuthering Heights must've been murder then.

"Well, I was still promoting that up until 18 months after I'd had it released. Abroad I was still promoting it on TV, where I was able to do it backwards and (she mimes it whilst picking her nose nonchalantly)...just weird." Have you still got people around you who'll tell you something's rubbish?

"My brother Jay, who's been with me since I was writing stuff that really embarasses me--he'd let me know for sure... Yeah, there's a few I can really trust."

She smiles again and I was warm to her. Mind you, she speaks my language, so I could be sympathetic because she's one of the South London rock mafia. I ask her what it's like to be paraded in the Sun and suchlike as the Sex Goddess of POP!

"Hmmm. You see, you do a very straight interview with these people, without ever mentioning sex, but of course that's the only angle they write it from when you read it. That kind of freaks me out, because the public tend to believe it..."

Asking a few more questions, I begin to realise that this isn't the kind of stuff that weekloads of Gasbags <The NME letters page> are made of. I'm searching for a key probe, but with Kate Bush--well, there's not likely to be anything that will cause the twelve-inch banner-headline stuff, is there now? I recall Charlie Murray's less than enthusiastic review of her Palladium shows, which were apparently crammed with lame attempts to "widen" the audience's artistic horizons--y'know, lots of people dressed as violins and carrots an' that. CSM reckons it was one of the most condescending gigs in the history of music. Kate had read the review, but she didn't break down.

"Just tell me one thing," she said in normal tones. "I mean, was he actually at the show that night?"

Yeah, sure. I remember he told me he'd spent a week there one Tuesday.

"Oh, well, in that case that's just his opinion and he's entitled to it."

We all smiled again, and Kate asked me if I'd seen Alien. I wondered if she got out much herself.

"Well, I don't get out to parties often. I have this thing about wasting time..."

Oh really? Which thing is that?

"You know, I nag at myself all the time for being a waster. I think, 'Gosh, you could be creating the world or something.'"

Well, that certainly seems a worthwhile thing to do, all right, although it has in fact been done before. Y'see, occasionally Kate allows the poet and all-round Tyrannosaurus Rex dreamer to slip out, a sucker for Lord of the Rings. For a start I have cut about a hundred "wows" and "amazings" from her speech. She talks at length about how important she feels it is to be "creating" all the time, and when I asked her if she looked to the news for any song inspiration I got this curious answer:

"Well, whenever I see the news, it's always the same depressing things. War's hostages and people's arms hanging off with all the tendons hanging out, you know. So I tend not to watch it much. I prefer to go and see a movie or something, where it's all put much more poetically. People getting their heads blown off in slow motion, very beautifully."

She grins broadly again. Kate is an artist through and through, seeing the world as a crazy canvas on which to skip. Her outrageous charm covers the fact that we are in the midst of a hippy uprising of the most devious sorts. I approach her on the question of being a woman in pop music once more. How do her workmates treat her?

"Well, when I started, I felt really conscious of being female amongst all these fellows. But these days I feel like one of the lads."

That doesn't sound very healthy.

"Oh, yeah, it is. When I'm working, it's really important for me to get on with it in that way. But at the same time, I sense that they're very respectful, because they make me aware of being a woman, and will lay off the dirty jokes and that..."

Incredible. Do you find men in awe of you?

"Socially? Well, I find that--with people that I haven't seen for a couple of years, because they won't treat me as a human being. And people in the street will ask for autographs and also won't treat you as human, but...ah...sometimes I get really scared. Sometimes when I'm going to the supermarket to get the coffee and cat litter, I get freaked out and see all these people staring, and you turn around and there's like forty people all looking at you...and when you go around the corner, they're all following you! You start freaking out like a trapped animal.

"However, I don't notice guys doing it on a personal level. Maybe some will keep their distance, but that may be because they don't get off on me.

"You see, when I first got started, I thought that I'd better watch out for these rip-off artists and stick with old friends. But it's amazing that since I've been in the business, I've made many more real friends, especially on a working basis. I find that I can get so involved with a guy working with me--and usually on a platonic level, which is great! That's so special, like these two minds linked on this one project. And that is a very beautiful thing that I'd never have experienced if I had not been in this business.

"And what's more, I'll keep these friends for life, because not only do they care for you, but they give me information and their teachings. What more could I ask for?"

Do you think there's a danger of becoming detached inside music?

"Probably. I don't read newspapers, and I've said I don't watch the news. I love books, but I don't read much.

"What I do is I get people to read to me, and I put the stories in my head."

A bit like a hat, I suppose.

"And films. I watch an awful lot of TV films."

Do you think you might be avoiding real life?

"Well, no, because I think that all these heavy issues--equality among blacks and whites, etc.--have all been done before, and if you do it now, it has to be very cleverly handled. It all gets too negative and cliched. So I find that, working with fantasy, I can handle the same issues, perhaps, but in a more positive way."

Don't you think that albums can make you feel and think sometimes without er...pussyfooting? I remember the first time I heard The Clash, and...

"Oh, yeah, some of these new bands are amazing. They're just springing up. The Police are just amazing..."

Here, listen, I think you've got the picture. Kate Bush, to meet, is a happy, charming woman that can totally win your heart. But afterwards on tape, when she's not there and you actually listen to all this, well...golly gosh. Don't lose sleep, old mates, it's just pop music-folk and the games they spin. Wow”.

It is a bit of a car crash interview. Danny Baker is truly to blame. I have never really respected him that much. An example of snobbish and dismissive attitude towards an oriignal female artist, I think Baker should have stuck to Punk artists and not really been assigned someone more interesting and intelligent. He was out of his depth! As one of the final examples for The Kate Bush Interview Archive, I was keen to both explore how some corners of the press approached Kate Bush and perceived her. Also, in terms of how Kate Bush reacted to stupid or insulting questions, she was so strong and professional. I am not sure other artists would have handled situations so well. Proof if ever it was needed that Kate Bush is…

A supreme human.

FEATURE: Inside the Essential and Sensual Worlds: Kate Bush’s 1988 and 1989

FEATURE:

 

 

Inside the Essential and Sensual Worlds

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Kate Bush’s 1988 and 1989

_________

I like doing…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush cuts her 30th birthday cake on 30th July, 1988 at Blazers Boutique, where she was raising money for AIDS victims on behalf of the Terrence Higgins Trust (celebrities appeared in shops at Covent Garden, London as shop assistants to sell T-shirts and raffles. The money generated from this, plus 5% of the shops' takings, were donated to the charity)/PHOTO CREDIT: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo

some Kate Bush timeline-related features, as it provides a glimpse into the extraordinary and sometimes mundane things that filled that time. Sometimes you get a packed few months/year with lots of promotion and interesting stuff. Others provide some routine stuff alongside bigger events. In terms of stepping back in time this time around, I have used this essential website to document what Kate Bush did in 1988. I relying on the accuracy of the dates they provide though, if there is any inaccuracy, you can forgive that. One reason why I am looking back at 1988 and 1989 as it is the period when Kate Bush was clearing the way for her sixth studio album, The Sensual World. In fact, it was in May 1989 when The Sensual World was finished. Almost thirty-five years since one of her best and most acclaimed albums was complete. It is interesting hearing about the lead-up to that. How some events of 1988 might have influenced sounds and tones on The Sensual World. Rather than her being an artist who records an album then goes on tour and repeats that cycle, here was someone who was starting to break away from relentless promotion. 1988 is a very interesting year in terms of things she was involved in. Some very worthy causes and commitments:

“1988

Publication of The Kate Bush Club Newsletter is suspended pending the release of Kate's still-unfinished sixth studio album.

Kate attends a concert by Davy Spillane, an Irish musician formerly of the band Moving Hearts, who contributes uillean pipes tracks to Kate's new album. She also attends concerts by the Momentary Lapse of Reason incarnation of Pink Floyd, and by violinist Nigel Kennedy.

April 1, 1988

A report is printed in The Guardian that Kate has taken on a lead role in the longrunning television series Dr. Who. The date of the report is overlooked by some fans.

July 30, 1988

Kate celebrates her thirtieth birthday by participating in an AIDS charity project involving some 200 celebrities. She serves as a shopkeeper for the day at Blazer's boutique.

August 22, 1988

Kate comments on London for a BBC2 television programme, Rough Guide to Europe.

There is a lot to take in before we have even get to September! I wrote a feature back in 2021 regarding how Bush spent her thirtieth birthday (30th July, 1988) volunteering her time for charity. Typically her! Someone always dedicating time and her support to very important causes. It is a shame that ‘report’ about Kate Bush being cast in Dr. Who was an April Fool’s trick. Someone who was offered a lot of acting roles and rarely did any, I think she would have been perfect as a assistant for The Doctor! Maybe playing a villain. I suspect that Bush, were the offer genuine, might have actually agreed to it! That Rough Guide to Europe contribution is quite interesting too. How the offer came her way. I guess she was quite open to various voiceovers and interviews if they were interesting and worth her time. It seems like there may have been rumbles that The Sensual World was coming in 1988. The fact the fan newsletter was suspended was a way of stopping presses ahead of this big release. There would have been so much interest and speculation as to what an album would sound like that followed Hounds of Love. One that came four years after that carried extra weight and responsibility.

It is amazing that, in a year and time when she was still putting the finishing touches to The Sensual World, Kate Bush used the occasion of her thirtieth birthday to do some fundraising. Most of us would have put ourselves first, though Kate Bush was pitching in and doing some retail work at Blazer's boutique. To have been one of the customers and have seen Kate Bush serving and helping out. When we think of her career and events, it is her charity work and commitment that deserves its own chapter. She has done so much through the years. She does much to this very day. War Child are the official charity partner for Record Store Day UK. They have an exclusive Rega turntable signed by Kate Bush as well as a signed test pressing of her upcoming Eat the Music 10" single. You can enter the prize draw and be in with a chance of winning that. Yet another incident of Kate Bush focusing on charity. Let’s move into the remainder of 1988 and what was happening:

September 1988

Midge Ure releases a new album, which features a guest duet vocal with Kate on the track Sister and Brother.

Fall 1988

After making contact with Joe Boyd, co-producer of the Balkana compilation album of traditional Bulgarian vocal music, Kate travels to Bulgaria to meet with Yanka Rupkina, Eva Georgieva and Stoyanka Boneva, nationally famous soloists who perform and record together under the group name Trio Bulgarka. Meeting again with the Bulgarians in England, Kate records three vocal tracks with Trio Bulgarka for the sixth album, and makes an appearance with the Bulgarian vocalists for a video-taped segment of the BBC series Rhythms of the World, which is broadcast in the spring of 1989.

I have touched on this when discussing The Sensual World and the use of the Trio Bulgarka. Kate Bush was no stranger to travel when it came to recruiting artists and getting that particular sound. She would do it for The Sensual World but, for Hounds of Love, she travelled to Ireland and recorded artists there. These Irish sessions were important to her. She is half-Irish (on her mother’s side), so she made that journey. It was a bit stranger and less familiar being in Bulgaria. Led to the trio through her brother Paddy and his discovery of them, they are an essential ingredient on The Sensual World.

1989 was understandably busy and eventful. Full steam ahead getting The Sensual World finished. Having met and worked with the Trio Bulgarka through the autumn of 1988, we would hear these collaborations come to light and life in October. One of her most accomplished and beautiful albums. One where she changed sound and dynamic. A more feminine album. One with a female energy. Hounds of Love has a deliberate masculine energy. Kate Bush, thirty when The Sensual World came out, was perhaps at a stage in life where she was exploring sensuality and life through a feminine lens, musically and lyrical. Even though the article says that Bush finished The Sensual World in May, that would be the spring rather than the summer. Even so, the spring and summer of 1989 was important. Another case of her committing to important causes. Bush has always been interested in ecological matters and conservations. Issues explored occasionally in her music, I wonder whether it was in her mind to feature that more on The Sensual World:

Summer 1989

Kate appears briefly in a video for a worldwide television programme about ecological issues called Our Common Future. She is seen in a London studio with many other artists, singing two lines from a song written for the programme (not by Kate). The song is called Spirit of the Forest. The programme, with the pre-recorded video, is aired on June 4, 1989.

There is also a report that Kate appeared at the United Nations with Peter Gabriel and other artists in support of the campaign to save the rain forests; but as of presstime this report had not been confirmed.

Kate's sixth studio album is finally finished at the end of May.

Fall 1989

Kate's new single, The Sensual World, is released on September 18th, and her sixth studio album, The Sensual World, is released at last on October 16th. The video for the first single is debuted during the week of September 15th. Meanwhile Kate's new U.S. label, Columbia Records, decides to release Love and Anger as their first Kate Bush single, and Kate, apparently trusting the company's knowledge of the American market, must rush to produce an accompanying video.

Back in England, the new single debuts at number 12 in the Music Week/Gallup chart, sinking to number 15 its second week; but the BMIRC chart tells a quite different story, listing the single's chart debut as number 16, but placing the record at number 10 the second week.

The album does rather poorly in England, mainly for two reasons: the radio stations' refusal to play the music, and Kate's unwillingness to offer any more than minimal support for the record. She makes no personal signing appearances, and makes only a few brief television appearances.

At the end of the year Kate's longtime electric guitarist Alan Murphy dies prematurely, and she attends his funeral in England”.

I would disagree about the album’s performance in England. It did poorly in the U.S. (reaching forty-three, which is still not too bad). It got to number two in the U.K. That is a decent chart showing! She gave quite a few print interviews. There were some interesting interviews and features in 1989. Maybe not promoting as hard as she did for Hounds of Love, Kate Bush still put in a lot of time speaking about The Sensual World. She was starting to peel away from the tireless promotion of the past. Something that would be more defined by 1993’s The Red Shoes. I suppose The Sensual World is less commercial compared to Hounds of Love. Nothing quite as soaring and epic as Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) or Hounds of Love. Although The Sensual World is quite an energetic track, a lot of the songs are different in sound. Perhaps more contemplative and emotive. I guess that is why Columbia Records released Love and Anger as their first Kate Bush single. It is one of the more spirited songs. Kate Bush directed the music video, though it is a song few people know about. Not one you hear played at all. In a busy year, the loss of Alan Murphy would have hit her hard. Someone she was very fond of, it was like losing a member of the family.

I really love 1988 and 1989 in terms of Kate Bush’s career. That blend of charity stuff and some promotion. Getting The Sensual World finished by May 1989 (if that is inaccurate then my apologies!). It was quite a distance between the album being finished and being released, through Bush was pretty busy when it came out. I can see interviews where she has spoken at length about making The Sensual World. It is interesting looking at the build-up and year before the album came out. Everything she was involved in. Working with female voice was a rarity. Not something that was part of her studio albums until 1989. She would work with the Trio Bulgarka for The Red Shoes. Bringing new sounds and culture into her music added something special and very powerful. It would be another four years after The Sensual World until we got the seventh studio album. The Red Shoes once more took Kate Bush in a different direction. Before the album was released, she lost her mother (in 1992) and broke up from Del Palmer. It was a changing time. More turbulent than the period between Hounds of Love and The Sensual World. I have a lot of love for The Sensual World. It remains such…

A magnificent and majestic album.

FEATURE: Both Sides, Now: Joni Mitchell’s Clouds at Fifty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Both Sides, Now

Joni Mitchell’s Clouds at Fifty-Five

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I am pleased that…

IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell in 1969/PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Joni Mitchell’s albums have returned to Spotify, as it allows me to include it here. The album I am referring to is her second studio album, Clouds. Many people talk about Joni Mitchell’s career starting with 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon. Many overlook her first two albums, 1968’s Song to a Seagull and Clouds. Released on 1st May, 1969, I am looking ahead to its fifty-fifth anniversary. It is a fine album and demonstrates the blossoming and district songwriting gifts of Joni Mitchell. One of her best songs, Both Sides Now, ends Clouds. It is a magnificently confident work. Even if future albums such as Blue (1971) are more highly regarded, one cannot overlook the importance and sheer wonder of Clouds. After Song to a Seagull gained a lot of exposure, Mitchell recorded the amazing Clouds at A&M Studios in Hollywood. Mitchell produced most of the album herself. Clouds reached thirty-one in the United States. In spite of the fact that Clouds is a wonderful Joni Mitchell album, there is not a lot of press about it. Hardly any features that celebrate it. Compare that to what is written about Blue or Ladies of the Canyon, and it is really surprising that there is so little out there. I hope that someone writes about Clouds as it turns fifty-five. Released when Joni Mitchell was only twenty-five, it showed just what an extraordinary lyricist and musical talent she was. So far ahead of her peers! As I cannot find too much in the way of features that explore the making of Clouds, I am getting down to some reviews. I will start with For Folk’s Sake and their review from 2010. Most of the reviews I have found are quite old now. It would be good to see some fresh words about a brilliant album:

“Clouds was Joni Mitchell’s second album and won her a Grammy for best folk performance in 1970. I didn’t know the album’s biography before I came to write this piece because when you come to an artist with a large back catalogue you don’t necessarily hear their songs, or buy their albums, in the order they were released. I was aware this was early Joni but that was all- and in a way I’m grateful because I think I fell for Clouds without prejudice. I didn’t know that several of these songs had been recorded by other artists prior to Joni singing them herself (they are of course all written by Joni Mitchell), or that some people consider her earlier folk albums to be less accessible.

I think I return particularly to Clouds because it has a song for just about every mood or situation you could find yourself in on it. To have this album with you is to always have something that will comfort, console, quell apathy, inspire optimism and even anger. The record can certainly seem like quite a disparate collection of tunes but I like that range and I do think there is a common thread to be found- and to me it is to know yourself. The album is bound at either end with two remarkable songs, Tin Angel and Both Sides now, but all ten tracks are constantly selected on my i-pod, here are some of the reasons why:

Tin Angel: The refrain of Tin Angel is ‘I found someone to love today’; that should be one of the happiest lyrics a person can write but when you first listen to this song it is all melancholy and melody; it is entirely in a minor key and a stark bare opening for an album. When you listen again- and again- you hear the hope in the final repetition of ‘I found someone to love today’. This is a song about looking back and forward at love, by the end I always feel a little more peaceful and a little more hopeful.

Chelsea Morning: Chelsea Morning is Joni in Big Yellow Taxi mode, it’s optimistic, it paints a picture for you of somewhere exciting, a place where you can’t wait to start the day. For quite a long time I thought it was about Chelsea in London- but really of course it’s about how wonderful everywhere is when you are in love.

I don’t know where I stand: The song for when you don’t know what to do about love. It can also be about not knowing what to do with yourself- or what to do next- if you want. It won’t fix the uncertainty, or the mood that means you find yourself walking around for hours; but it will go walking with you and tell you other people have felt like these things too.

That Song about the midway: This song fascinates me because it has a lovely melody and it is slightly lower, which I prefer for Joni’s voice. I still don’t really know what it’s about, is she following a man like a compass, or as the song goes on is it something more sinister. Great storytelling even if the denouement never comes to me.

Roses blue: This song is all unsettling melody and lyrics- and quite stunning. It grabs and takes hold of you, you can’t listen quietly to this, or do anything else while it is on- it is by far the most dramatic song on the album and it sounds like it could have been released yesterday.

The Gallery: ‘I gave you all my pretty years’ I am sure other people contributing to Joni week are going to write about her being a voice that made sense in music for girls and women but never was it truer lyrically to me than in this song. I know Joni doesn’t like to be called a poet so I will just say she is a great lyricist.

I think I Understand: This is quite a quiet song in all senses; it doesn’t shout to be noticed amongst this collection. It’s sweet though, you might like to listen to it on a long train journey when you are somewhere between being awake and asleep.

Songs to ageing children come: Kate Bush owes a great deal to Joni Mitchell’s vocal here. Joni’s voice is doubled and the guitar is extremely simple. The very phrase aging children never fails to move me.

The Fiddle and the Drum: This is a (sadly) timeless lyrical, melodic, acapella tune in the tradition of folk music. It must have been a sad song when Clouds was first released, when the Vietnam and Cold Wars were raging; it’s even sadder now, now that the children or grandchildren of those wars are fighting more pointless battles, further away from home. It is a reasoned, measured argument against violence and war and a standard for the peace movement. It would be moving sung by anyone but sung by Joni Mitchell it never fails to make a lump in my throat, a crack in my voice, tears in my eyes.

Both Sides Now: One of the songs that people who aren’t Joni Mitchell fans like, or know. Those songs are often the ones I don’t enjoy on albums but in this case it’s not so. I honestly didn’t know this had been sung by anyone but Joni Mitchell or that she wasn’t first to record it, I can’t imagine many other people doing it such justice. This version seems very pure compared with the version she re- recorded recently and which featured on the Love Actually soundtrack which I remember so many people commenting on. It is the song equivalent of a bottomless glass of comfort to me.  I don’t always have the answers but if Joni doesn’t either then that’s okay with me”.

There are two more reviews I am bringing in before wrapping things up. Alt Rock Chick provided an expansive and hugely detailed review in their review of 2013. It gives some keen insight into songs that still sound relevant and powerful to this day. I think that Clouds is one of Joni Mitchell’s more underrated albums:

“The reflective mood of the album is firmly established in the tone and theme of the opening track, “Tin Angel.” Opening with only the sound of single acoustic guitar notes, the music shifts to unusual chords—ninths and sustained seconds—chords that defy expectations and create a sense of detachment from the humdrum of daily life. The lyrics sing of mementos that are “reflections of love’s memories,” the little souvenirs we keep in boxes to help us recall past feelings and, perhaps, past failures. While such physical reminders of existence are an endangered species in our digital world, “Tin Angel” reminds us that tactile and olfactory experiences can make such past experiences seem more alive (I still have a precious little box where you can find odd things like subway tokens, obsolete currency and a small wooden whistle given to me by a Ukrainian woman I met in Vienna). More important to the purpose of the song is that these trinkets from the past fulfill a need during times of sadness, reminding us that we were once happy, once loved. Hence the chorus, “Guess I’ll throw them all away/I found someone to love today.” What is so wonderful about Joni Mitchell at her best is that she is rarely one-dimensional; in this case, the love she has found is a risky proposition: “Not a golden prince who’s come/Through columbines and wizardry/To talk of castles in the sun.” She further describes him as having a “sorrow in his eyes,” and wonders “What will happen if I try/To place another heart in him.” The song ends ambiguously, never describing the consummation of the relationship. This is what is so beautiful about “Tin Angel”—it leaves you on the knife edge of risk, and too often, despite our inherent loneliness, we feel that love represents the greatest risk of all.

Unfortunately, the mood dissipates with the far too sweet “Chelsea Morning,” a song about which Joni Mitchell said, “I don’t think of it as part of my best work.” It’s not, and the lines “And the sun poured in like butterscotch/And stuck to all my senses” make me cringe as if I’d just eaten a mouthful of Duncan Hines Cherry Chip Cake. Fortunately, it’s a brief departure into youthful exuberance, for she quickly returns to nascent womanhood with “I Don’t Know Where I Stand.” Echoing the theme of love and risk we heard in “Tin Angel,” the song starts as if she’s just left the saccharine experience of her Chelsea room where she was “braiding wildflowers and leaves in my hair,” to find her exuberance collapsing with the realization that love involves risk and the possibility of deep pain. In this situation, she wants to tell someone “I love you” but doesn’t know where she stands with that someone. I’ve always found it interesting that fear of rejection often blocks us from taking action to move a relationship forward because it’s a paradox: the relationship can’t go forward unless we make the move, but our paralysis prevents us from the possibility of having the very thing we want. The rationalizations for inaction are plentiful, and we take advantage of every single one to avoid having to face the possibility that the person of interest may not be interested:

Telephone, even the sound of your voice is still new

All alone in California and talking to you

And feeling too foolish and strange to say the words that I had planned

I guess it’s too early, ’cause I don’t know where I stand

“That Song About the Midway” is more of a character sketch than a relationship song, though the intensity with which the narrator follows the intriguing character suggests that she believes there’s something elusive and attractive about this particular soul. It is said that the song is about Leonard Cohen, and the “midway” is symbolic of the life of the traveling musician, of searching for a lucky break and becoming tired of it all. Perhaps, but I’ve always found that once I hear that a famous person wrote such and such song about another famous person, the experience is similar to glancing at the cover of People while waiting at the checkout stand (haven’t done that in a while!) and finding out who’s cheating on whom. Who gives a shit? The knowledge reduces the potential universal appeal of the song, trivializing it by turning it into a secret code for an exclusive club. If I step back from that bias, I would say “That Song About the Midway” has some interesting imagery but there are other more moving songs on Clouds.

“Roses Blue” is one of those. This sketch is about a woman who has found alt-religion (“She’s gotten to mysterious devotions/She’s gotten to the zodiac and zen/She’s gotten into tarot cards and potions.”) It would be out of character for 60’s child Joni Mitchell to condemn someone who had such hip beliefs, and she doesn’t. The real problem is what every religion does to a true believer—it turns a potentially nice person into a flaming asshole:

She’s laying her religion on her friends

On her friends, on her friends

Friends who come to ask her for their future

Friends who come to find they can’t be friends

Because of signs and seasons that don’t suit her

She’ll prophesy your death, she won’t say when

Won’t say when, won’t say when

When all the black cards come you cannot barter

No, when all your stars are stacked you cannot win

She’ll shake her head and treat you like a martyr

It is her blackest spell she puts you in

Puts you in, puts you in.

This song triggers another one of my biases, and in my role as a music reviewer, I have an obligation to disclose such biases. Here goes: if I met the genie in the lamp and he gave me my three wishes, the first two would have to do with certain sexual fantasies and the third would be to order the genie to abolish all forms of religion on earth and wipe the memories of every person on the planet of any religious influence. Religion has caused more pain, death and separation than any single force in human history, and frankly, the benefit of something as ephemeral as faith hardly compensates for the millions and millions of lives that have been cut short or diminished by the violence and oppression that religion generates. While you may not agree with my views, it does explain the anguished attachment I have to this song: Rose’s crime is not religion, but what she has allowed religion to do to her—cut her off from human friendship by giving her the illusion that arcane knowledge entitles her to elevate herself above the unbelievers. I have experienced people like Rose far too often: the glazed look of distant disdain, the pity in the voice as she tells you how limited you are for not buying her shit . . . the works. “Roses Blue” gives me both the creeps and a sense of sadness that I have to accept that there are people on this earth to whom I will never be close, for there’s no way I can break through the religious plexiglass and relate to them as equals. In that sense, the song is a microcosm of the larger sorrow that religion continues to bring to our world today.

The comment box is down below for those of you who want to condemn me to the everlasting fires of hell.

“The Gallery” features one of the loveliest pure melodies on the entire album, supported by equally beautiful harmonies. It is a tale about a woman who admires a man’s paintings then temporarily becomes the painted object until another takes her place. Sadly, she opts for self-immolation and stays to care for his house, dusting portraits and collecting mail from other female admirers. The power of the song comes from the recognition that the value of women in our society is directly related to our fleeting beauty:

I gave you all my pretty years

Then we began to weather

And I was left to winter here

While you went west for pleasure

I should say, “American society,’ for in France, I’ve seen women twice my age who still have “the look” and continue to turn heads. Age is so overrated as a variable in sexual desire; people who feel that way have allowed themselves to be manipulated by Madison Avenue’s definitions of beauty. Look: I intend to be as hot and horny at sixty-four as I am at thirty-two and baby, I will have some serious fucking lessons to share at that point in my life!

Back to our story—“I Think I Understand” has more of the feel of “Tin Angel,” but deals somewhat inadequately with the ongoing battle against fear. It’s followed by one of my least favorite Joni Mitchell songs, “Songs to Aging Children Come,” where chromatic chords and thirds create harmonies I find rather annoying. I cheer her for her willingness to experiment, recognize that some experiments yield less satisfactory results than others and forgive her for irritating me.

The last two songs on Clouds easily make up for the less effective numbers, and both have deep resonance at this time in my life. The first, “The Fiddle and the Drum,” is Joni’s message to an America that at the time chose to embroil itself in the absurd conflict we know as The Vietnam War. I don’t think Americans fully appreciate how frightening America seems to many of the people in the world—Americans tend to accept violence as one of the inevitable prices one pays for living in a so-called “free society,” and because they view the rest of the world with deep suspicion and distrust, they tend to be closed to any foreign feedback. One of the primary reasons I chose to leave America had to do with its culture of violence—its worship of guns and its veneration of the military. In “The Fiddle and the Drum,” our Canadian friend Joni Mitchell mourns the choice that Americans have made “to trade the handshake for the fist,” something that may be even more relevant today in the era of “The American Empire” than it did the Cold War years of Vietnam when at least the evil Russians were around to take some of the heat. The dynamic is still the same, though: fuck the world, we’ll do whatever the fuck we want because we’re Americans and we’re the best fucking country in the world, so fuck you. Such a tragic perspective! Such a waste of human potential and human life!

And so once again

Oh, America my friend

And so once again

You are fighting us all

And when we ask you why

You raise your sticks and cry and we fall

Oh, my friend

How did you come

To trade the fiddle for the drum

You say we have turned

Like the enemies you’ve earned

But we can remember

All the good things you are

And so we ask you please

Can we help you find the peace and the star

Oh my friend

We have all come

To fear the beating of your drum

Joni sings “The Fiddle and the Drum” a capella, and while her version doesn’t quite match June Tabor’s cover (no one sings anti-war songs as powerfully as June Tabor), her performance is still compelling.

Before the release of Clouds, Judy Collins had a major pop chart hit with “Both Sides Now.” I am very thankful that Joni Mitchell decided to record the song herself and rescue its reputation. Judy Collins’ version is a mechanical, lifeless, overproduced piece of crap that sucks all the emotion and complexity from the song, making it sound like background music for Disneyland. Joni Mitchell’s version, stripped down to guitar and voice, is a masterpiece of vocal and rhythmic dynamics that sounds blessedly more human than machine.

“Both Sides Now” is a song about what Blake called “contraries.” As he so wisely wrote in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.” Thematically, this brings us full circle in Clouds, for “Tin Angel” opens the album with the experience of living on the knife’s edge between polar opposites. The learning experience described in “Both Sides Now” is that because truth is something we perceive differently depending on mood and circumstances, the “real truth” can only be found in that no-man’s land between the two sides. The song is also linked to the other polar dynamic in Clouds—the need for love and the risk of loving:

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels

The dizzy dancing way you feel

As ev’ry fairy tale comes real

I’ve looked at love that way

But now it’s just another show

You leave ’em laughing when you go

And if you care, don’t let them know

Don’t give yourself away

She reaffirms the importance of this theme in the opening lines to the final verse, “Tears and fears and feeling proud/To say ‘I love you’ right out loud.” Interestingly, she also links our discovery of love with our discovery of self, and with the inevitable rejection we face when we fail to meet the expectations of friends who were comfortable with the expired version:

But now old friends are acting strange

They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed

Well something’s lost, but something’s gained

In living every day”.

I will end with a review from AllMusic. There are actually some useful links on Joni Mitchell’s website, where you can access more reviews and information about Clouds. With cover art by Joni Mitchell and recorded at A&M Studios, Hollywood, Clouds is a classic that has never quite received the respect and focus that it deserves:

“Clouds is a stark stunner, a great leap forward for Joni Mitchell. Vocals here are more forthright and assured than on her debut and exhibit a remarkable level of subtle expressiveness. Guitar alone is used in accompaniment, and the variety of playing approaches and sounds gotten here is most impressive. "The Fiddle and the Drum," a protest song that imaginatively compares the Vietnam-era warmongering U.S. government to a bitter friend, dispenses with instrumental accompaniment altogether. The sketches presented of lovers by turns depressive ("Tin Angel"), roguish ("That Song About the Midway"), and faithless ("The Gallery") are vividly memorable. Forthright lyrics about the unsureness of new love ("I Don't Know Where I Stand"), misuse of the occult ("Roses Blue"), and mental illness ("I Think I Understand") are very striking. Mitchell's classic singer/songwriter standards "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides Now" respectively receive energetically vibrant and warmly thoughtful performances. Imaginatively unusual and subtle harmonies abound here, never more so in her body of work than on the remarkable "Songs to Aging Children Come," which sets floridly impressionistic lyrics to a lovely tune that is supported by perhaps the most remarkably sophisticated chord sequence in all of pop music. Mitchell's riveting self-portrait on the album's cover is a further asset. This essential release is a must-listen”.

On 1st May, we mark fifty-five years of Joni Mitchell’s Clouds. Her second studio album, it would arguable begin one of the most important and astonishing runs of albums in history. Think of how amazing Ladies of the Canyon, Blue and For the Roses is. Only three years between the release of Clouds and her fifth studio album, For the Roses. Such a prolific artist. I hope that more documentaries and podcasts are made about Clouds and Joni Mitchell’s career in 1969. Such a memorable year for music in general, she released an amazing album that has stood the test of time. Fifty-five years after it came into the world, Clouds is a mesmeric…

WORK of brilliance.