I simply could not go to my grave without having a bit of Kate Bush for company. While many would no doubt - and understandably - opt for the masterpiece that is 'Hounds Of Love', for me there was never any question what I'd be going for - its immediate predecessor, the ultra-mad 'The Dreaming' from 1982.
I had long been aware of Kate Bush, mainly as she was one of the biggest pop stars around when I was growing up, but the first thing I bought of hers was Running Up That Hill, cloely followed by 'Hounds Of Love', then the compilation 'The Whole Story'. From there I investigated Kate's back catalogue. When I got to 'The Dreaming', it was like some kind of weird epiphany. It was by far the most bizarre record I'd ever heard, yet it captivated me. Most of it was beyond me in terms of understanding what the hell was going on, yet time and again it lured me back, almost begging me to get to grips with it. It's become like a metaphor for my life, really. I've had all sorts of weird shit happen that I can't make head nor tale of, yet I've somehow continually been drawn to confront it.
And that's probably what 'The Dreaming' was to Kate Bush. She calls it her "I'm going mad album", and it is just that. It is crazy, schizophrenic, unstable and the most uneasy-listening of her entire career. Yet for all that, it is an astonishing piece of work that I can come back to time and time again and manage to pull something new out of.
To think, a song like Sat In Your Lap was deigned to be the most suitable track to put out as the album's first single. Unsurprisingly, the singles that followed flopped. No one on radio dared play them. If you wanted to hear 'The Dreaming', you had to buy it. If you wanted to understand it, you had to immerse yourself in it, deeply, over and over. There's so much going on. There Goes A Tenner, a song inspired by old crime movies, employs a jaunty oompah beat as Kate sings of a failed bank robbery; Suspended In Gaffa, probably the closest thing we get to a so-called 'conventional' song on the whole record, is actually a twisted waltz about wanting something that continues to elude you. The title track is a dark tale of the plight of Aborigines driven by Rolf Harris' didgeridoo and loud tribal rhythms inspired by Peter Gabriel; and Night Of The Swallow draws on her mother's Irish heritage with its reeling uilleann pipes and penny whistles as Kate sings of a criminal's desires to move on to pastures new while his lover pleads with him not to go.
If I had to choose just one song to illustrate the often disturbing nature of 'The Dreaming', it would have to be the closer Get Out Of My House. Influenced by Stephen King's 'The Shining', it is Kate at her most unsettling. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she shrieks; "Eee-aww, ee-aww" she growls, along with her backing singers (who include her early mentor David Gilmour, incidentally). Bizarre isn't the word, but I'm at pains to find a word that is!
'The Dreaming' is chaotic, angry and dark. It's also brilliant, intriguing and constantly full of surprises, even after 34 years. That's probably why I keep coming back to it and want to take it with me.
Following on from last week's post which you may have missed, two more Kate Bush covers this week. Way, way back in time (like the mid-90s), when I was working for my then local rag, I saw China Drum. A local promoter was trying to bring some bigger bands to the area. China Drum were creating a buzz nationally and were available. He booked them for a new venue he managed to get into. This was probably his biggest mistake. For the venue was a pub in the mid-Devon village of Bow. In the middle of bloody nowhere. There were about 12 people there. For what it's worth, China Drum were actually pretty good, and they played their full-blooded version of Wuthering Heights.
Ra Ra Riot hail from Syracuse, NY. Their debut album came out in 2008 and it featured a version of one of Kate's oddest songs, Suspended In Gaffa, from my fave album of hers 'The Dreaming'. It's OK, but fails to set my pulse racing in the way our Kate does. But you have to salute their gumption for trying. They've not made a total hash of it, it's just a bit... meh! That's not something Kate was ever guilty of.
Early followers of this 'ere blog will know I am massively stupidly in love with Kate Bush and her weird and utterly wonderful world. I'm not the only one, you know. Now, if I had much in the way of musical talent, I probably still wouldn't really try to cover one of Kate's songs as there's no way I think I could ever do it justice. There are those who do possess such talent, however, and are brave enough to have a go. There have, as expected, been mixed results.
Jane Birkin is better known for her saucy vocals on Je'taime...Moi Non Plus with Serge Gainsbourg, but she's been making records of her own since the early 70s - 12 studio albums to date. In 2006 she released 'Fiction' which contained a rather lovely version of Kate's Mother Stands For Comfort. Ian Black was once the bass player of Field Music. Nowadays he records as Slug and released his debut album back in the Spring. He's also put out a version of another Kate Bush song from 'Hounds Of Love' - Big Sky. In his words:
"The approach was not try to match the majestic original (for I would have lost....badly) and have some fun with it. It has Rundgren pianos, daft synthesisers, a Led Zeppelin breakdown and myself struggling with the vocal delivery that only Kate would be able to pull off so brilliantly. Hope you enjoy it."
Back in March, when Kate Bush announced her surprise residency in London, her first live shows in 35 years, I posted an article about her, her music and its impact on me. Hardly any bugger read it and no one commented. So I've decided to post it again (slightly edited to keep it current) to mark the beginning of this historic series of concerts, the first show of which took place last night. Chances are you don't want it second time around either, but tough. It's Kate. On your knees, mere mortals, and worship your divine goddess...
Kate and I go back quite a number of years. I first became aware of her whenWow was riding high in the charts back in 1979. I remember mum hating it, taking the piss by wheeling her arms around like Kate didin the video. I thought it was rather quirky, but really didn't get it. The following year I saw her doBabooshka andArmy Dreamers on Top of the Pops and still couldn't quite work out what the hell she was up to.
Then, in 1985, she released Running Up That Hill and that was my Kate Bush epiphany. I mean honestly - What. A. Friggin'. Record. I was 14 and still learning lots about music; Running Up That Hill sounded like nothing else on Earth. I rushed out and bought the 'Hounds of Love' album and became engrossed. If you've never heard it (you should be ashamed of yourself), it's in two defined sections. Side one has all the singles on, while side two is a 7-track concept piece entitled 'The Ninth Wave'. I had to work quite hard to get into the latter half of the album, but learned to appreciate Kate's artistry and uniqueness at a time when pop music was becoming insipid and uninspired.
Naturally, I went out and investigated her back catalogue, discovering 'Hounds Of Love''s even odder predecessor 'The Dreaming', what she herself referred to as her "I've gone mad" album. It is indeed difficult to listen to at first, its multitude of styles and moods come at you from all directions: the Irish folk of Night of the Swallow; the Aboriginal drone of the title track; the jauntiness of There Goes a Tenner. The production is claustrophobic and dense, and despite the relative success of lead single Sat In Your Lap (one of the strangest songs to ever grace the Top 20 - hurrah!), there really is very little that screams "smash hit!" at you. In fact it was Kate's least successful album, yet it's my fave (go figure). It's also a big favourite of Björk, which totally justifies my love for it!
And while we're on the subject of other artists who have been inspired by Ms Bush, here's a few more, just in case you need further convincing of her wonderfulness:
- Tori Amos - the most obvious, of course. - Kate Nash - another really obvious one; even her name is similar! - Joanna Newsome - take one listen to her 'Have One On Me' album and tell me the spirit of early Kate Bush does not reside in Joanna Newsome! - Goldfrapp - in particular the very Kate-titled 'Seventh Tree' album. - Florence Welch, St. Vincent, Feist, PJ Harvey... oh I could go on and on...
Sadly, Kate only makes a new album once in a blue moon these days, but 2011's '50 Words For Snow' was well worth the wait. Again, eschewing any craving for a hit, Kate concentrated on making beautiful soundscapes around the theme of winter. The title track, featuring the bloody marvellous Stephen Fry, was one of my top highlights of that year.
Now 55 (and still looking fabulous), Kate Bush remains an enigma. If she has something to say, people tend to stop and listen, which is why all 22 dates at the Hammersmith Apollo sold out in just 15 minutes. *sigh* How I wish I was there. Just one of them will do... Soundtrack: The original post had Wow, The Dreaming, Running Up That Hill and 50 Words For Snow as its soundtrack. This time I've chosen a few less obvious (and quite odd!) alternatives for your delectation:
At 9:30am GMT today, tickets go on sale for Kate Bush's first live shows for 35 (that's THIRTY-BLOODY-FIVE!) years.
Kate and I go back quite a number of years. I first became aware of her when Wow was riding high in the charts back in 1979. I remember mum hating it, taking the piss by wheeling her arms around like Kate did in the video. I thought it was rather quirky, but really didn't get it. The following year I saw her do Babooshka and Army Dreamers on Top of the Pops and still couldn't quite work out what the hell she was up to.
Then, in 1985, she released Running Up That Hill and that was my Kate Bush epiphany. I mean honestly - What. A. Friggin'. Record. I was 14 and still learning lots about music; Running Up That Hill sounded like nothing else on Earth. I rushed out and bought the 'Hounds of Love' album and became engrossed. If you've never heard it (you should be ashamed of yourself), it's in two defined sections. Side one has all the singles on, while side two is a 7-track concept piece entitled 'The Ninth Wave'. I had to work quite hard to get into the latter half of the album, but learned to appreciate Kate's artistry and uniqueness at a time when pop music was becoming insipid and uninspired.
Naturally, I went out and investigated her back catalogue, discovering 'Hounds Of Love''s even odder predecessor 'The Dreaming', what she herself referred to as her "I've gone mad" album. It is indeed difficult to listen to at first, its multitude of styles and moods come at you from all directions: the Irish folk of Night of the Swallow; the Aboriginal drone of the title track; the jauntiness of There Goes a Tenner. The production is claustrophobic and dense, and despite the relative success of lead single Sat In Your Lap (one of the strangest songs to ever grace the Top 20 - hurrah!), there really is very little that screams "smash hit!" at you. In fact it was Kate's least successful album, yet it's my fave (go figure). It's also a big favourite of Björk, which totally justifies my love for it!
And while we're on the subject of other artists who have been inspired by Ms Bush, here's a few more, just in case you need further convincing of her wonderfulness:
- Tori Amos - the most obvious, of course. - Kate Nash - another really obvious one; even her name is similar! - Joanna Newsome - take one listen to her 'Have One On Me' album and tell me the spirit of early Kate Bush does not reside in Joanna Newsome! - Goldfrapp - in particular the very Kate-titled 'Seventh Tree' album. - Florence Welch, St. Vincent, Feist, PJ Harvey... oh I could go on and on...
Sadly, Kate only makes a new album once in a blue moon these days, but 2011's '50 Words For Snow' was well worth the wait. Again, eschewing any craving for a hit, Kate concentrated on making beautiful soundscapes around the theme of winter. The title track, featuring the bloody marvellous Stephen Fry, was one of my top highlights of that year.
Now 55 (and still looking fabulous), Kate Bush remains an enigma. If she has something to say, people tend to stop and listen, which is why I anticipate all 22 dates at the Hammersmith Apollo will sell out in minutes. UPDATE: 15 minutes, in fact. That's all it took. And of course, eBay is awash with them now for £1,200+...
