Musical Retrospective: Kate Bush Part 2

After releasing three albums in two years Kate Bush went away and began working on her fourth album.  This one though would be different.  She was now producing the album, guiding the sound as well as the lyrical content.  The two changed drastically on her fourth album.

If the first two albums made me think of Pushkin, I would say her fourth album makes me think of James Joyce and the idea of stream of consciousness.  You feel it in both the lyrics and the musical approach.  So from someone who had been producing very constructed songs, that even in their uniqueness fit conventionality, you get a very experimental album.  This at the age of 24 when most musicians are hitting their prime, Kate Bush was learning how to produce and write music in a completely different way than she had done up to this point.

The content of the songs are all over the place, some being little stories, others being reflective pieces about life, but all written with a quite different voice than her earlier work.

I see the people working
And see it working for them
And so I want to join in
But then I find it hurts me

Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that knowledge is something that you never have

I see the people happy
So can it happen for me?
'Cause when I am unhappy
There's nothing that can move me

Some say that knowledge is something that you never have
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that heaven is hell
Some say that hell is heaven

I must admit, just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)

I've been doing it for years
My goal is moving near
It says, look, I'm over here
Then it up and disappears

Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho-ho

I want to be a lawyer
I want to be a scholar
But I really can't be bothered
Ooh, just gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme gimme gimme gimme!

Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho
Some say that heaven is hell
Some say that hell is heaven

I must admit, just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit
(I just begin)
Just when I think everything's going great
(I just begin)
I get the break
Hey, I'm gonna take it all
(I just begin)
When I'm king
(Just begin)

In my dome of ivory
A home of activity
I want the answers quickly
But I don't have no energy

I hold a cup of wisdom
But there is nothing within
My cup, she never overfloweth
And 'tis I that moan and groaneth

Some grey and white matter
(Give me the karma, mama)
I'm coming up the ladder
I'm coming up the ladder
(A jet to Mecca)
Up the ladder
(Tibet or Jeddah)
(To Salisbury)
(A monastery)
(The longest journey)
(Across the desert)
(Across the weather)
(Across the elements)
(Across the water)

This is a classic example of a transitional album for an artist who is changing how they think about their work. It has hit and misses and in the end it feels over-thought.  But as it is for any critical artist this stepping stone is critical as we then get to her fifth album, Hounds of Love.

Hounds of Love  released in 1985, is essentially two albums in one.  The first five tracks of the album are a collection of songs with no real connection.  Just songs that are meant to stand alone.  The second side of the album or the last seven songs deal with death and rebirth, if what I read is correct.  We see Kate maturing as a stream of conscious writer as she is able to produces songs with rich emotion and feeling like "Running Up That Hill."

It doesn't hurt me
Do you want to feel how it feels?
Do you want to know that it doesn't hurt me?
Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?
You, it's you and me

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
See if I only could, oh

You don't want to hurt me
But see how deep the bullet lies
Unaware I'm tearing you asunder
Ooh, there is thunder in our hearts

Is there so much hate for the ones we love?
Tell me, we both matter, don't we?
You, it's you and me
It's you and me won't be unhappy

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
Say, if I only could, oh

You
It's you and me
It's you and me won't be unhappy

C'mon, baby, c'mon darling
Let me steal this moment from you now
C'mon, angel, c'mon, c'mon, darling
Let's exchange the experience, oh

And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems

So if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems

So if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
With no problems

So if I only could
Be running up that hill
With no problems

(If I only could, I'd be running up that hill)
(If I only could, I'd be running up that hill)

But the biggest change is that Kate Bush learned how to take this experimental sound she was playing with on The Dreaming and turn it into true pop melodies.

Building on this improved lyrical voice and musical skill Kate Bush would follow up Hounds of Love with The Sensual World four years later.

We need to spend a little bit of time on The Sensual World as I think it is her best album.

 Lyrically it is probably her strongest album with songs like "This Woman's Work" and "Never Be Mine," representing the best lyrical voice we've ever gotten from Kate Bush. We also see Kate willing to step away from her complex sound-scape that was introduced in The Dreaming for a more simplified approach like she brings to "This Woman's Work" when it fits the song. The roots of The Dreaming are in there but so are the roots of The Kick Inside and this is very important.

I look at you and see
My life that might have been
Your face just ghostly in the smoke
They're setting fire to the cornfields
As you're taking me home
The smell of burning fields
Will now mean you and here

And this is where I want to be
This is what I need
This is where I want to be
This is what I need
This is where I want to be
But I know that this will never be mine

Ooh, the thrill and the hurting
The thrill and the hurting
I know that this will never be mine

I want you as the dream
Not the reality
That clumsy goodbye kiss could fool me
But I'm looking back over my shoulder
At you, happy without me

This is where I want to be
This is what I need
This is where I want to be
This is what I need
This is where I want to be
But I know that this will never be mine

Ooh, the thrill and the hurting
Will never be mine

The thrill and the hurting

It will never be mine
It can never be
The thrill and the hurting
Will never be mine

Maybe one day I will write about the importance of the song "Never Be Mine" to me, but for me it is not just a great song, it is one of the greatest songs ever produced. I cannot hear the song without stopping everything I am doing to listen and just shows the brilliance of where Kate Bush was at this point in her career, now 11 years in.

We will talk about one more album in Part 2, The Red Shoes. It would come out four years later and is quite different and in some ways stands on its own as an album. One item I read said the album was meant to be toured and that's why the songs are constructed so much more traditionally than her albums of the 80's, but no matter it is a solid album but is missing the same kind of emotional nail that is key to The Sensual World and Hounds of Love.

We have now taken Kate Bush from age 19 to age 34 and when we see Kate next she will be 46. That will be part 3.