Musical Retrospective: Kate Bush Part 1

OK let me start talking about Kate Bush by first starting in with Alexander Pushkin.  Pushkin is thought to be the father of Russian literature.  He was born in 1799 and died in 1837 at 37 years old.  At 24 years of age he hit the scene with his first major poems.  For the next 13 years he would change the shape of Russian literature and become the influential voice for the flood of great Russian writers who would follow him.  Pushkin wrote about a lot of things, but I'm guessing when you are a 20 year old Fyodor Dostoyevsky, before you've delved into Eugene Onegin  you are first struck by his romantic poetry.  Pushkin had a way of capturing the pangs of lust and love as a young man like no one else I've ever read.  Take this little poem as translated by D.M. Thomas.

She's gazing at you so tenderly,
Drowning you in sparkling conversation,
Gay and witty, and her eyes
Absorbing you with their yearning.
But last night she was using all her skill
To give me secretly her little foot
Under the tablecloth for me to caress.

                                                    1826

There is so much there in such a short piece.  And I think when you're young and a budding writer yourself to read things like this, well it's something you can so connect with.  He taps into such raw feelings and emotions in such a simple and clever way here.  I write about this because in many ways I think this is the strength to Kate Bush's early work, and why I believe she became so influential to so many female artists who would follow her.

You came out of the night
Wearing a mask in white color
My eyes were shining on the wine and your aura
All in order, we move into the boudoir
But too soon the morning has resumed

I'm hanging on the Old Goose moon
You look like an angel
Sleeping it off at a station
Were you only passing through?

I'm dying for you just to touch me
And feel all the energy
Rushing right up a me
L'Amour looks something like you

The thought of you sends me shivery
I'm dressed in lace, sailing down a black reverie
My heart is thrown to the pebbles and the boatmen
All the time I find I'm living in that evening
With that feeling of sticky love inside

I'm hanging on the Old Goose moon
You look like an angel
Sleeping it off at a station
Were you only passing through?

I'm dying for you just to touch me
And feel all the energy
Rushing right up a me
L'Amour looks something like you

L'Amour looks something like you
L'Amour looks something like you

I don't know that I've listened to another songwriter who has captured these types of feelings and emotions the way Kate Bush was doing on her first album, The Kick Inside, which came out when she was 19. To think this song was written by someone probably younger than 19 is hard to imagine. But to find a young female songwriter singing about such feelings and emotions is very unique.

The video here is taken from her first tour which was done in support of her second album Lionheart which came out in 1978 as well. These two albums I think of as a pair. They were released very close together and in fact Lionheart was rushed out because The Kick Inside had done so well. Both albums have songs dealing with young love and lust, but again like Pushkin, Kate Bush was more than just romance. Pushkin and Bush both looked around them and saw things that inspired them and wrote about those things. They looked at the artists around them and wrote about them. They looked at the world around them and wrote about those things. They looked at God and wrote about God. The ability to write about love and lust will get people in the door. The ability to write about things with more depth and meaning will keep them coming back for more.

Oh! England, my Lionheart
I'm in your garden, fading fast in your arms
The soldiers soften, the war is over
The air raid shelters are blooming clover
Flapping umbrellas fill the lanes
My London Bridge in rain again

Oh! England, my Lionheart!
Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park
You read me Shakespeare on the rolling Thames
That old river poet that never, ever ends
Our thumping hearts hold the ravens in
And keep the tower from tumbling

Oh! England, my Lionheart
Oh! England, my Lionheart
Oh! England, my Lionheart
I don't want to go

Oh! England, my Lionheart!
Dropped from my black Spitfire to my funeral barge
Give me one kiss in apple-blossom
Give me one wish, and I'd be wassailing
In the orchard, my English rose
Or with my shepherd, who'll bring me home

Oh! England, my Lionheart
Oh! England, my Lionheart
Oh! England, my Lionheart
I don't want to go
Oh! England, my Lionheart
Oh! England, my Lionheart
Oh! England, my Lionheart
I don't want to go

I always think it's fun to read what songwriters or poets say about their early work. They always make fun of it which is fine. Kate Bush has definitely not looked upon these first two albums with much kindness over the years, but they have held up in their own special way and still work for what they were and showed a sign of a brilliant writer at such a young age.

With her next album, Never For Ever, things would start to change. Lyrically she starts exploring things like the environment, war, death, and marital strife. But more importantly she began to be involved in the production and so her sound begins to change.

This is also a good time to talk about Kate as a performer. Kate likes to dance, to move, to act, to bring her music to life. She's not just a singer/songwriter, she's an artist and a performer. This next video is taken from her 1979 Christmas Special which aired on the BBC. It gives you a good idea of Kate Bush as a performer and how she is quite different.

In part two of this series we'll talk about Kate Bush the music producer and creator.