FEATURE: Spotlight: Mabes

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Mabes

__________

I thought that…

I had already spotlighted Mabes. She is an Essex-born artist who I have been following since her 2019 debut album (or does she class it as an E.P. at seven tracks?), Wait & See. Maybe I had published something but I cannot find it. Anyway, Mabes is the moniker of Mabel Rogers. She is an extraordinary artist that I would love to see featured more on massive stations. BBC Radio 6 Music for one. I know it has been six years since her debut album, but she is prolific and released her latest single, Ready to Go, last month. Recent singles like Want Me Now, Death of a Hero and Sleep Tonight will be dropped in here. Although there are not many recent interviews with the amazing Mabes, I did want to source a few different chats. So we can understand why this is an extremely special artist that is worthy of so much love and praise. A truly distinct and original voice who is consistently brilliant. Growing and expanding her sound with each release. A lot of demand for a second studio album. I am going to go back five years to an interview from NOTION about her then-new single, Sugarush. Mabes was embarking on a  “new chapter bookmarked by fierce passion and a clear vision”:

“Bringing the youthful vibrance of a girl from Essex with her lifelong obsession with Nashville’s authentic song writing, her music is a unique brand of pop crutched by elements of country, soul and Americana. 

Refining her brand of fearless pop that first bloomed into existence at the young age of 15, Mabes underlines upbeat, sassy soundscapes with relatable lyricism on brand new single “Sugarush,” which sees her break free from the shackles of a “nice girl,” image stepping into something bolder and more mature.

What is the inspiration/message behind Sugarush?

I was hanging out with this guy I really wanted to commit to me, but he was playing it too cool and never did. It made me feel so shit, like, what’s wrong with me? Why will he give me only some of his time, why not exclusivity? He made me feel like I wasn’t enough. So I ended that little love affair and came out the other side feeling so damn worthy of myself. He was not worthy, I realise now. Sugarush is like, ‘look what you’re missing, dude’.

What was it like working with Kate Bellm on the visuals? Did you have any creative inputs for the video?

Kate Bellm has always been an inspiration to me, I love her trippy vibrant style and so when she agreed to work with me it was a dream come true. She was incredible to work with, and totally got my 70s psychedelic vision for the video. We spent a day travelling around Deia Mallorca capturing the island in all its sunny scenic glory.

The soundscape for this single is described as hinting at the “new Mabes.” How has your sound evolved over time?

I’m super excited to share this next chapter of my creative evolution. I’ve always written on guitar, inspired by Laura Marling from an early age. I guess now I’m growing as a person as well as a writer, I’m broadening horizons and wanting to experiment a bit more.

For the future, how would you like to improve or change further?

I think it’s time for me to break out the shackles of my once ‘nice girl’ country era and head in to my next phase of womanhood, embracing myself and finally owning some self-confidence.

Your music is a mixture of several genres and influences, are there any specific genres you haven’t yet experimented with that you’re interested in?

Country will always be the bare bones of my sound, and any genre I experiment with next will always be a hybrid.

In terms of song writing, do you draw your inspiration from the world around you or are you more introspective?

I draw inspiration from anything and everything, from my own personal experiences to stories of my friends and family, to past current world events. ‘Too Young To Love’ was about personal heartbreak, ‘Caught Up’ was about my dad and his girlfriend being separated over lockdown, and ‘Danny’ is about a soldier that goes to war.

If listeners could take away one message from your music what would you want it to be and why?

I want people to hear good hooks, good melodies, interesting and clever lyrics, and honesty”.

Another rant I always have is how ever f*ckign artist is seen as ‘back’ or ‘returning’ if they spent a few months or even a couple of years before new material comes out. Artists like Mabes are not Oasis. They have not called it quits and then come back. The media puts such pressure on artists to constantly release things, or they are seen as retired or away. The truth is, for Mabes and nearly every artist that is subjected to this kind of pressure, that they have always been active and they never stopped touring and making music. In any case, skirting around TuneFountain and their ignorant and unforgivable wording, it was at least a new step and phase for Mabes. The brilliant No Regrets was Mabes’s first release for a while, but that is not to say she was done and making this giant comeback:

‘No Regrets’ is your first release in four years-and your first as an independent artist. How does it feel stepping back into the spotlight on your own terms?

I’m rediscovering myself as an artist, and it’s totally liberating! I’m doing it all for me this time, and putting aside the premises of anything external. And my loyal following, of course - I can’t wait to finally give them all something fresh and new.

The line “Since the day I left I’ve got no regrets” feels incredibly powerful. Was there a specific moment or turning point that inspired this lyric?

The song is about me breaking free from a toxic relationship, and having that moment of enlightenment when realising I am so much better without that person dragging me down and making me doubt my self-worth. It is both an anthemic shout from the rooftops and a sigh of relief.

This track balances a soulful pop energy with hints of your folk and country roots. How intentional was that blend, and where do you see your sound heading next?

I’ve often found my writing style aligns with my taste in music at that moment. Lyrics hold core values of folk and country, the repetitive hook sucks me into the pop world - and I’m totally okay with it! This is my next chapter, and time to organically grow and experiment with my evolving sound.

You worked with Matt Newman and Dan Holloway on the songwriting, and the late Nick Webber mixed the track. Can you tell us a bit about that creative process and what each of them brought to it?

I had the idea for the guitar riff when I was on a train to Dan’s studio - I rushed through the door and we laid it down almost immediately. Dan added a beat and some bass and the song came to life voluntarily, and the chorus flowed as Dan and I bounced off each other’s excitement. I took the short demo idea to Matt who I have worked with a lot over the years - he knew exactly the ingredients to turn it from an idea into a full-blown anthemic performance. We then sent it over to Nick who was always intuitive to my sound, and he mixed it to perfection. He added a vinyl crackle that’s happily dancing over the top of the first verse, his sprinkling of glitter that I now hold very dear.

There’s a real sense of empowerment in the lyrics. Did you write ‘No Regrets’ with a message for anyone in particular-or was it something you needed to say for yourself first?

This song is for anyone who needs a reminder that ‘you will get over them!’ The day will come when you rear your head from the heartbreak and realise that you deserve better. I’ve definitely said that to myself a few times over the years after some questionable relationship choices.

It’s been a few years since Keeping the Noise Down, which had a more introspective, acoustic tone. How do you look back on that era now in contrast to this new chapter?

My journey as an artist is ever-evolving - cliché but so true! I am ready to experiment with a bigger bolder sound to echo my new chapter. It’s still very me, and very raw emotionally vulnerable, just heavily seasoned with pop vibes

You’ve been praised for your emotional honesty and vulnerability in your songwriting. With ‘No Regrets’, how do you balance personal storytelling with creating a more radio-ready, bold sound?

That’s a great question - and it gets to the heart of what makes a song like ‘No Regrets’ resonate on multiple levels.

When artists are praised for emotional honesty and vulnerability, it’s often because they’re willing to expose the messy, unfiltered truth of what they’ve lived through. But with a track like ‘No Regrets’, the challenge becomes: how do you keep that rawness intact while packaging it in a sound that can hit hard on the radio?

The balance lies in intention and production choices. The songwriting might still come from a deeply personal place - heartbreak, growth, defiance, acceptance - but instead of a soft, acoustic delivery, you push that emotion through bold arrangements: big drums, heavy synths, or a defiant hook. The vulnerability is still there; it’s just wearing a louder jacket.

In ‘No Regrets’, that bold sound becomes part of the story. It says, “I’ve been through hell, but I’m not staying there. I’m moving forward with power.” That’s what makes the track resonate - it’s not vulnerability for vulnerability’s sake. It’s evolution”.

Bringing things to 2026. The most prolific and productive year for Mabes. I hope that media pressure and that feeling that an artist is obsolete or out of sight if they are not constantly making music did not contribute to a feeling that this year needed to be one where a lot of new music came out. I feel this year is more Mabes stepping into this busy year. One where we may get an E.P. or album. A string of great singles, Ready to Go is the sound of one of our finest artist in full flight. She spoke with Babystep Magazine about embracing change, optimism and escapism:

“With her new single Ready To Go, Mabes captures the restless urge to leave the ordinary behind and chase something more meaningful — whether that means freedom, adventure, emotional growth or simply a new version of yourself. Atmospheric, uplifting and full of quiet optimism, the track marks the latest step in an exciting new chapter for the Essex-born country-pop artist, blending heartfelt storytelling with a bolder, more expansive sound.

Written during a period of personal reflection, Ready To Go leans into themes of escapism, possibility and self-belief, all wrapped up in Mabes’ warm, emotionally resonant vocal delivery.

Ready To Go captures a desire to break free from the ordinary and seek something more. What was happening in your life when you wrote the song, and what inspired its central message?

I wrote Ready To Go during a period where I felt stuck between comfort and curiosity. On paper, everything looked fine, but there was this restless feeling underneath it all – like I was craving something bigger and brighter. I think a lot of us experience those moments where we look around and wonder, "Is this really it?" and the song was born from that feeling. It's about wanting to throw open the windows, leave the mundane routine behind for a while, and chase whatever is calling you forward. Whether that's a place, a person, a dream, or even just a new version of yourself. I wanted to capture that mix of frustration, hope, excitement and possibility that comes with standing on the edge of change.

The track explores themes of escapism and hope. Do you think those feelings are particularly relevant in today's world, and how do they shape your songwriting?

Absolutely. I think we're living in a time where people are constantly balancing responsibilities, pressures and uncertainty, so it's natural to dream about somewhere else or something more. Escapism often gets a bad reputation, but I think there's something really beautiful about allowing yourself to imagine a different future. Hope has always been a huge part of my songwriting. Even when I'm writing about heartbreak or difficult experiences, I find myself searching for the light at the end of the tunnel. Ready To Go isn't really about running away from life – it's about believing that growth, adventure and new beginnings are still possible, even when you feel stuck.

There's a real sense of emotional restraint in Ready To Go, allowing the song's atmosphere and vocals to carry the weight of the story. How did you approach the recording process to achieve that balance?

It was important to me that the emotion felt honest rather than over-performed. The song lives in that space between longing and action – you're dreaming about leaving, but you haven't quite taken the leap yet. Because of that, I wanted the vocal to feel intimate and conversational, almost like someone sharing a thought they've been carrying around for a long time. In the studio, we focused on creating space rather than filling every moment. We let the production breathe and trusted the melody and lyrics to do a lot of the storytelling. The song builds intentionally throughout with the marching band snare in the second verse, and then the cinematic explosion of harmonies and vocals in the last chorus for the ultimate crescendo.

As this single marks a new chapter for you, what can listeners expect from your upcoming music, and how does Ready To Go set the tone for what's to come?

Ready To Go feels like the perfect introduction to this next chapter because it's all about movement, growth and possibility. Over the last few years, I've grown so much as a songwriter, and I think my new songs reflect that. They're still rooted in storytelling with a country twang which has always been at the heart of what I do, but they're also bolder, more confident and more willing to explore the pop-music side to my writing. I think this next chapter perfectly reflects where I am both artistically and personally. It feels like a transition from the more youthful, wide-eyed perspective of my earlier music into something stronger, more self-assured and more willing to embrace change. In many ways, these songs feel like the most honest representation of who I am right now”.

If you have not discovered this incredible Essex queen, then you need to connect with Mabes. Such brilliant singles from this year, she does warrant bigger and more consistent focus from our biggest and most influential radio stations. Someone who has such an immense talent and potential, we will be hearing music from Mabes for years or decades more. I have loved her music for so many years, so I am glad she is still putting out wonderful singles. Never stepping away from music but growing and working at her own rate, let’s drop this idea that artists need to be producing material non-stop or else they are retired. As we see with Mabes, leaving a bit of a gap means her newest work seems more focused, unhurried and stronger. Show some love to Mabes, as she is such…

A wonderful artist.

___________

Follow Mabes

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thisismabes/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@thisismabes

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSlUhRrYZxizFqCVkCcJ-XA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/thisismabes/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1kTrYYWMLQsBKlbINUg1Su?si=Nqmu6jkjQZiqmE-BpqXZZQ

FEATURE: Wave After Wave: Nodding Back to the Original… Queens of Music That Were Inspired or Affected by Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love

FEATURE:

 

 

Wave After Wave: Nodding Back to the Original…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985 in a publicity shot for Hounds of Love

Queens of Music That Were Inspired or Affected by Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love

__________

I have written…

IN THIS PHOTO: Tori Amos in San Francisco in 1992 (her 1992 debut album, Little Earthquakes, drew comparisons to Kate Bush and 1985’s Hounds of Love)/PHOTO CREDIT: Jay Blakesberg

a few features recently around Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 book on Hounds of Love. There is a chapter called Wave After Wave. It is about how Hounds of Love has influenced artists since its release in 1985. I have discussed Kate Bush and how she has inspired so many artists. I am going to dip into that well one more time. This album is a Pop masterpiece. Visionary and ground-breaking, the album has a new life today. Perhaps heightened and buoyed by the success and new life of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) after it was featured in Stranger Things (in 2022), there are artists who have definitely been struck Hounds of Love. Perhaps still her most influential album, it goes beyond its sound and ambition. Leah Kardos writes how its legacy on self-producing non-male artists is huge. It cleared a path in 1985. It still does today. In terms of how these innovators and incredible artists would be free from being labelled eccentric or weird by a misogynistic music press. It still happens a bit today. Though I do hear artists today, producers or not, who have taken strength from Kate Bush and her 1985 masterpiece. Just a detour for a second. I am going pop in an interview from June when Charli xcx visited BBC Radio Music to discuss her work. Nick Grimshaw interviewed her. I do feel that she has been guided and affected by Kate Bush. She has mentioned The Kick Inside and Wuthering Heights (both 1978). Heads We’re Dancing from The Sensual World (1989). However, you can feel the influence of Hounds of Love. Songs of hers that nod to Hounds of Love. This review of Chains of Love – from this year’s “Wuthering Heights” soundtrack, which Charli xcx wrote the songs for – mentions Hounds of Love’s title track (and Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights). This Rolling Stone review of Wuthering Heights does also mention Kate Bush: “Wuthering Heights isn’t a soundtrack or a score. It’s a fully realized album, with great songs that add a whole new musical texture to her always-changing sensibility. She didn’t really take the bait of Fennell’s horny screenplay, and instead turned in a love letter to the whole Gothic-romantic canon — from the Brontë sisters to the second side of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love to windswept Eighties pop weepers to Nine Inch Nails. The results would make any Cure-addicted teenager or high school English teacher proud”.

I am fighting a case for other Kate Bush albums being more influential. The Dreaming and The Kick Inside are having more impact and being mentioned more. Even so, the boundary-breaking scope and brilliance of Hounds of Love is no doubt connecting with modern queens. If Hounds of Love has not specifically been name-checked by modern artists who are Kate Bush fans, you can tell its impact and legacy feeds into their own work. Olivia Rodrigo, Halsey, ROSALÍA, Hayley Williams, St. Vincent and Björk. I was watching an interview between Graham Norton and Madonna (I am writing this in June but sharing it in August). She was promoting her album, Confessions II. I do think Hounds of Love actually influenced her. She is very much her own artist, but Hounds of Love took Madonna’s Like a Virgin of the top of the U.K. album chart in 1985. I think there was something in Hounds of Love and the way Kate Bush was reshaping and reframing Pop. How she was working on her own terms. Building her own home studio, producing the album solo and kicking down the door. Even if Madonna was doing that before Hounds of Love came out, she would do so more emphatically and ambitiously after 1984’s Like a Virgin. By 1989’s Like a Prayer, you can see this very much coming to fruition and in full bloom. Phoebe Bridgers has mentioned Kate Bush in interviews like this and this. Whilst Bridgers’s music may differ to Hounds of Love, you feel that “imagistic songwriting and immersive productions” which Leah Kardos writes “stretched the boundaries of what pop music could be” have no doubt been taken to heart by incredible modern greats like Phoebe Bridgers.

Whether it is the way Hounds of Love broke ground or, in the words of writer Dorian Lynskey “Some artists open the door to a new room in the house of music; Bush is one of a handful whose imagination revealed the existence of a whole new wing”, you can feel that to this day. Tori Amos’s debut album, 1992’s Little Earthquakes, found her compared to Kate Bush. Perhaps lazy, Leah Kardos writes how there is a “quality to the big, gated production on ‘Precious Things and ‘Crucify’, with the latter song’s melismatic ‘Cha-ee-a-ee-a-ee-a-ee-ains’ recalling something of the ‘Yea-ee-yeah-ee-yeah-eee, yooo’ from ‘Cloudbusting’”. Other songs on Little Earthquakes compared to tracks on Hounds of Love. Little Earthquakes influenced Alanis Morissette’s 1995 breakthrough, Jagged Little Pill. Writer Tom Doyle noted that. He interviewed Tori Amos in 1998. Amos revealed she was blown away when she heard Kate Bush. In terms of incredible and innovative artists who have been impacted by Hounds of Love, you can name Florence + The Machine, PJ Harvey, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Madison Beer, The Anchoress, Tate McRae, Sienna Spiro, Olivia Dean, Lorde, and St. Vincent. There is a whole new generation of Pop artists who have been affected by Hounds of Love (or Kate Bush in general). Many first hearing Kate Bush through Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Modern and young greats like Adéla have been inspired by Bush and you feel Hounds of Love has influenced their own work and production. It is that aspect of Kate Bush self-producing the album and doing it on her terms that is powerful. Few women in music could afford this luxury in 1985. Look now, and there are more and more women taking control and ensuring their vision is realised. Björk is a big fan of Kate Bush. She has cited The Dreaming as one of her favourite albums. She did shout out to Kate Bush in 2022 when Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was back in public consciousness. Promoting her album, Fossora, the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was a triumphant moment. This vindication for an artist often seen as odd, a witch, and labelled all sorts of things by sexist and misogynistic people in the media.

Björk said it (2022) was a moment when matriarchal music was being accepted. The world finally ready for female-produced music. It may be an exaggeration, though the chart dominance of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) did change things. Björk said this to Pitchfork. How Bush was the producer and creating this environment. In a patriarchal music scene in 1985, Hounds of Love was this masterpiece that was a major commercial success. In 2022, this woman in her sixties was enjoying new accolades and acclaim. There are so many artists today that I feel are empowered and driven by Hounds of Love. Or the album has impacted them somehow. Caroline Polachek is another artist that springs to mind. I have mentioned Fiona Apple. A song on her 2020 album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, does reference Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Such a timeless Kate Bush song. The title track, in fact. That entire album has similarities to Hounds of Love.  The album has impacted women behind music. Leah Kardos herself, though musical, does not see herself as a musician. Though Hounds of Love gave her strength to work on her own terms and realise her goals and visions without comprises. Following “your muse uncompromisingly”.

The success of Hounds of Love meant Bush could take time between albums. The gaps lengthening after 1985. Previously, the longest gap between albums was three years (1982’s The Dreaming to Hounds of Love). Four years until The Sensual World; a further four until The Red Shoes; twelve years after that until Aerial, and then six further years until Director’s Cut. Now, as the album is in the culture and hugely influential, its creator has not released an album in almost fifteen years. She has the power to do that now. Working on her own terms at her own pace. That has given so many other women that courage. In an industry that demands constant output unless you be seen as invisible or inconsistent, even artists who are prolific – such as Charli xcx – still are carrying the spirit and messages of Hounds of Love. Its messages of love’s triumph over isolation, darkness and pain is especially important at an incredibly violent and depressing moment in history. Something, as Leah Kardos finishes the chapter off with, we need to feel now more than ever. Artists coming through very much adopting that objective.

I am going to finish off with this feature that I have mentioned before. Reviewing Sarah Kinsley’s album, Escaper (2024), she is among Gen-Z artists like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Rina Sawayama and Mitski who are Kate Bush fans. Artists like Solange (who is a Millennial). Strong and accomplished artists and producers who are mixing sophistication and youthfulness. You can see that Hounds of Love has impacted them. An album that is as relevant and influential today more than ever, we will see this album continue to ignite and infuse so much of today’s best and most extraordinary Pop music:

“So far, the 2020s has become one of my personal favorite decades in terms of popular music. Even if I don’t listen to them regularly, millennial pop queens who found success in the 2010s such as Charli XCX and Carly Rae Jepsen continue to release albums that appeal to mass audiences despite being creative and well-crafted. However, I’ve more so been attracted to the prominence of Gen Z women making catchy, witty, sex-positive mainstream dance-pop albums influenced by the 1970s and 80s, such as Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (2023) and Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet (2024). Even more appealing to me is the increase of popularity with singer-songwriters of Asian descent in this decade, including Joji, Mitski, beabadoobee, Michelle Zauner from Japanese Breakfast, and Rina Sawayama, to name a few very well-known examples. In addition, social media has caused obscure Asian musicians to become better known. One of my favorite new artists, Luna Li, became viral on social media with her jam sessions that showed off her impressive ability to skillfully play several instruments. The amazing young artist I’m about to rave about in this review, also found initial success on TikTok. Her name is Sarah Kinsley.

At the young age of twenty-four years, Sarah shows an impressive ability to write and record musical compositions that are mature and wise beyond her years, while still displaying youthful optimism at the same time. This is also apparent in how she speaks and performs on stage, in social media videos, and in interviews. She has spoken about how important it is for her to record and produce her own music in an environment that caters mainly to men, and she believes in giving recognition to other women producing music like she does, which I find encouraging in any industry. Escaper may be her debut album, but she has produced singles and EPs prior to it, and while she is fairly new to the music scene, she does not feel like she is”.

I have dropped in a Charli xcx interview, but this one is also worth watching. She talks about BRAT (2024) and female messiness. That openness and honesty. Whilst not the BRAT of its day, there is this sense of vulnerability and empowerment on Hounds of Love. Also, the singles from “Wuthering Heights” and her new album, Music, Fashion, Film, sees this generation-defining megastar and genius take Kate Bush and Hounds of Love to heart. In terms of this lack of compromise. Charli xcx always shifting and doing such interesting and bold work. She said in an interview with Fashion Neurosis how there is all this critique placed on women in music. Finding this confidence in her music. One can definitely find thematic similarities between Hounds of Love and BRAT. Beyond Charli xcx, there is a score of women in music who have been influenced by Hounds of Love, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). From producing on their own terms or allowing a sense of messiness and frankness to come through against potential backlash or criticism, Kate Bush definitely pathed the way. Although women in music before Kate Bush did this, I do think that many came after 1985. Women being who they are and taking control of their voice and vision, many owe a nod to…

THE pioneering Kate Bush.

FEATURE: A Beautiful Song: The Influence of Blackbirds on Kate Bush

FEATURE:

 

 

A Beautiful Song

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993 in a promotional photo for The Red Shoes/PHOTO CREDIT: Anthony Crickmay

The Influence of Blackbirds on Kate Bush

__________

THIS might be something…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush shot in 1989 at Worx Studios, London/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

people associate more with Aerial. That 2005 double album features blackbirds. I shall explain how and where. You may think that the influence of blackbirds in Kate Bush’s music is small. Another features connected to Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 Hounds of Love book, she dedicates a section to blackbirds. I do want to explore some of what she wrote. I think bird song in general is something that compels Kate Bush. If you asked her what her favourite singer is, she might not choose a human. In a 1996 radio interview, Bush said her favourite singers were the blackbird and thrush. No surprise that someone who lives in beautiful homes with wonderful gardens would revel in the wonder of nature. If you look at Kate Bush’s music, there is nature and the natural world woven through it. Perhaps more present on albums like Hounds of Love and Aerial, the latter does have that sublime second disc which is a suite called A Sky of Honey. It is the cycle of a summer’s day. You get the light coming up and birdsong. Then we go through the night and into the next day. Listen to songs like Aerial Tal and Prelude. They are resplendent with the sound of birdsong. I love Aerial Tal. Kate Bush recorded blackbirds in her garden, transcribed their birdsong, and replicated the intricate melodies with her own voice. The iconic cover of Aerial features the actual visual soundwave of a blackbird's song. Some of Kate Bush’s albums were impacted by cities and smog. The anger and rush of the city. The music perhaps reflected that claustrophobia and tension. Aerial definitely does not suffer this. Whilst you get wonderful moments on albums where Bush was recording in London, those where she was at home and had the garden and nature around her impact me hardest.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing during 2014’s Before the Dawn/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex Features

I do love how she has this attachment to birds like the blackbird. I feel, when another studio album does arrive, the blackbird might make another appearance. It is one of the most graceful and pretty birds I feel. They are very small but have this beautiful song. To be woken by the chatter if blackbirds is a real luxury. Their influence stretches wider than Aerial. Leah Kardos notes that bird with black feathers – included are blackbirds, crows, ravens and corvids – are symbolic keepers of transitional realms in Celtic stories. The spaces between light and dark; sunset and the new dawn. Celtic legends say that if you put blackbird feathers under someone’s pillows then they will reveal their innermost thoughts and secrets. This all will be known to Bush. Someone who has always connected with things beyond the ordinary and ideas that provoke curiosity and wonder, the blackbird is this powerful bird. I do love where Leah Kardos lists where blackbirds feature in Kate Bush’s work. They did not feature until 1980 and her third studio album, Never for Ever. Among the things emanating from under her skirt – Nick Price illustrated Kate Bush and all manner of birds and animals flowing out, we can see a blackbird flying out with a trail of music notes accompanying it. Listen to Waking the Witch from Hounds of Love (1985). Featuring on The Ninth Wave, we hear the line “Help this blackbird!”. The image evoked as part of this ducking trial. Leah Kardos notes how the imagery is drawn possibly drawn from The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Guido Harari did a photoshoot with Kate Bush for The Sensual World in 1989. The images were manipulated years later “to include iridescent black plumage decorating Bush’s ace and hair. Harari named these images ‘Wings’ and ‘Birdfish’, in 2016”. An early demo of Why Should I Love You?, a song that features on 1993’s The Red Shoes, included these lyrics: “If I could sing like a blackbird, just like my heart was filled with summer/Of all the people in the world, why should I love you?”. Also in 1993, there are these great photos by Anthony Crickmay where bush wears a black and red gown. A blackbird is positioned on her head like a fascinator hat. Also staying in that year, in Bush’s short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve, she encounters a trapped bird in the video for And So Is Love. She releases the blackbird, though it hits a window and dies. She picks its body up and kisses it to sleep.  When Bush enters the mirror world to break the curse of the red shoes, she is dressed in the feathered gown from the Crickmay shoot. The blackbird is on her head and its wings are pointing up. Kate Bush’s favourite singer as of 1996 was the blackbird. I think she placed the thrush second. I am not sure if that order has changed and any humans have made the mix!

I forgot to mention that Sunset from Aerial also features the blackbird. On Aerial Tal, Bush mimics the blackbird song in the style of Indian Tala music. On the title-track finale, the blackbird is given an entire section of the song to sing. When speaking with MOJO in 2005, Bush said of blackbirds, “It’s almost like they’re vocalising light… And I love that it’s a language we don’t understand”. Bush said that some of blackbird song is aggressive and territorial. It is a complex sound and blend. If you listen to 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, the title track is where Bush names fifty imaginary words for snow. The fourth, Blackbird Braille, is another nod. In 2014, Bush brought her Before the Dawn residency to Hammersmith. Blackbird feature heavily. The Ninth Wave linked with A Sky of Honey. At the end of Waking the Witch, Bush can be seen dressed in black wings. At the gig’s conclusion – before the encore – when she performs Aerial, she takes flight. I think it is really great that the blackbird took on various forms through the years and weaved its way into her music. Its subtle appearance on the Never for Ever cover, though to more prominent placements on Aerial and Before the Dawn, Bush never losing her fascination with the majestic song of the blackbird. It goes beyond the purity and complexity of its song. Its symbolic meaning and connecting with Celtic stories. There has not been a lot written about Kate Bush and blackbirds. Her appreciation of birds and the natural world. Though she has a particular admiration for the blackbird. I am sure these are birds who are seen in her garden. Their glorious song greeting her as she wakes from sleep. Captured for Aerial and visually explored in photoshoots and during her residency, we may well see them appear again in the future. The blackbird has all these layers I think. In terms of their language and song. How they are depicted in Celtic stories, as we have seen. This 2017 blog piece on the blackbird makes some interesting observations: “Seeing a blackbird in meditation may mean you are on the cusp of a great change in your life. It may also mean that something that has been static or stagnant in your life for a long time will start to resolve itself, or move forwards. This could be a stale relationship, a job you feel stuck in, or perhaps a period of depression”. Above all things, the look, grace and song of the blackbird is…

UTTERLY majestic.

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Sheryl Crow

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Seliger

Sheryl Crow

__________

ONE big reason…

for including Sheryl Crow in this The Great American Songbook is that her second studio album turns thirty on 24th September. Sheryl Crow one of the best albums of the 1990s in my view. I am going to finish with a mixtape of the best Crow songs. Prior to that, AllMusic provide some biography of the Missouri-born artist:

“With a personalized spin on classic roots rock and songwriting that's smart, fun, and often more complex than it first lets on, Sheryl Crow has become one of the more lasting and influential presences in mainstream rock music. Both her 1993 debut Tuesday Night Music Club and self-titled 1996 follow-up were not just massive commercial successes but included signature hits like "If It Makes You Happy" and "Every Day Is a Winding Road," which established Crow as a dependable star with a knack for creating consistently high-quality material with an organic flair. Crow's platinum success carried into the 2000s and she continued to evolve musically, embracing vintage soul and R&B on 2010's 100 Miles from Memphis and country music on 2013's Feels Like Home. Throughout her career, Crow has collaborated with a wide array of high-profile musicians, a trait that culminated with Threads, a star-studded 2019 album she initially intended as a farewell. After her induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, Crow returned with Evolution, a 2024 album that played into the tuneful strengths of such '90s hits like "All I Wanna Do." In 2025, she delivered the standalone "I Know."

Sheryl Suzanne Crow was born February 11, 1962, in Kennett, Missouri. Her parents had both performed in swing orchestras, her father on trumpet and her mother as a singer; her mother was also a piano teacher, and ensured that all her daughters learned the instrument starting in grade school. Crow wrote her first song at age 13, and majored in music at the University of Missouri, where she also played keyboards in a cover band called Cashmere. After graduating, she spent a couple of years in St. Louis working as a music teacher for autistic children. She sang with another cover band, P.M., by night and recorded local advertising jingles on the side. In 1986, Crow packed up and moved to Los Angeles to try her luck in the music business. She was able to land some more jingle-singing assignments, and got her first big break when she successfully auditioned to be a backup singer on Michael Jackson's international Bad tour. In concert, she often sang the female duet part on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You." After spending two years on the road with Jackson, Crow resumed her search for a record deal, but found that record companies were only interested in making her a dance-pop singer, which was not at all to her taste.

Frustrated, Crow suffered a bout of severe depression that lasted about six months. She revived her career as a session vocalist, however, and performed with the likes of Sting, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Foreigner, Joe Cocker, Sinéad O'Connor, and Don Henley, the latter of whom she toured with behind The End of the Innocence. She also developed her songwriting skills enough to have her compositions recorded by the likes of Wynonna Judd, Céline Dion, and Eric Clapton. Thanks to her session work, she made a connection with producer Hugh Padgham, who got her signed to A&M. Padgham and Crow went into the studio in 1991 to record her debut album, but Padgham's pop leanings resulted in a slick, ballad-laden record that didn't reflect the sound Crow wanted. The album was shelved, and fearing that she'd let her best opportunity slip through her fingers, Crow sank into another near-crippling depression that lingered for nearly a year-and-a-half. However, thanks to boyfriend Kevin Gilbert, an engineer who'd attempted to remix her ill-fated album, Crow fell in with a loose group of industry pros that included Gilbert, Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald, David Ricketts, Brian MacLeod, and Dan Schwartz. Dubbed the Tuesday Night Music Club, this collective met once a week at Bottrell's Pasadena recording studio to drink, jam, and work out material. In this informal, collaborative setting, Crow was able to get her creative juices flowing again, and the group agreed to make its newest member -- the only one with a recording contract -- the focal point.

Crow and the collective worked out enough material for an album, and with Bottrell serving as producer, she recorded her new official debut, titled Tuesday Night Music Club in tribute. The record was released in August 1993 and proved slow to take off. Lead single "Run Baby Run" made little impact, and while "Leaving Las Vegas" attracted some attention, it reached only the lower half of the charts. A&M took one last shot by releasing "All I Wanna Do," a song partly written by poet Wyn Cooper, as a single. With its breezy, carefree outlook, "All I Wanna Do" became one of the biggest summer singles of 1994, falling just one position short of number one. Suddenly, Tuesday Night Music Club started flying out of stores, and spawned a Top Five follow-up hit in "Strong Enough" (plus another minor single in "Can't Cry Anymore"). Crow was a big winner at the Grammys in early 1995, taking home honors for Best New Artist, Best Female Rock Vocal, and Record of the Year (the latter two for "All I Wanna Do"). Her surprising sweep pushed Tuesday Night Music Club into the realm of a genuine blockbuster: After close to a decade of dues paying, Crow was a star.

Having made her first album as part of a large collective of songwriters, Crow set out to prove her legitimacy with her second album. Bill Bottrell was originally slated to produce the record, but fell out with Crow very early on, and the singer ended up taking over production duties herself. However, she did bring in the noted team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as assistant producer and engineer, respectively. Froom and Blake were known for the strange sonic experimentation they brought to projects by roots rockers (the Latin Playboys) and singer/songwriters (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega), and they helped Crow craft a similarly non-traditional record. Released in the fall of 1996, Sheryl Crow definitely bore the stamp of the singer's personality and songwriting voice, especially in the idiosyncratic lyrics; plus, she was now doing most of the writing, usually with her guitarist, Jeff Trott, proving that she could cut it without her previous collaborators. The singles "If It Makes You Happy," "Everyday Is a Winding Road," and "A Change Would Do You Good" were all radio smashes, and "Home" also became a minor hit. Sheryl Crow went triple platinum, and Crow brought home Grammys for Best Rock Album and another Best Female Rock Vocal (for "If It Makes You Happy").

Crow toured with the Lilith Fair package during the summer of 1997 (the first of several tours), and subsequently wrote and performed the title theme to the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. In the fall of 1998, she returned with her third album, The Globe Sessions. A more straightforward, traditionalist rock record than Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions didn't dominate the airwaves in quite the same fashion, but it did become her third straight platinum-selling, Top Ten LP, and it won her another Grammy for Best Rock Album. It also spawned two mid-sized hits in the Top 20: "My Favorite Mistake" and "Anything But Down." In 1999, she contributed a Grammy-winning cover of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" to the soundtrack of the Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy. She also performed a special free concert in New York's Central Park, with an array of guest stars including Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde, the Dixie Chicks, Stevie Nicks, and Sarah McLachlan. The show was broadcast on Fox and later released as the album Live in Central Park, just in time for the holidays. "There Goes the Neighborhood" won her another Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal.

Hit with a case of writer's block, Crow took some time to deliver her fourth studio LP. In the meantime, she produced several tracks on Stevie Nicks' 2001 album, Trouble in Shangri-La, and also recorded a duet with Kid Rock, "Picture," for his album Cocky. Finally, in the spring of 2002, Crow released C'mon C'mon, which entered the LP charts at number two for her highest positioning yet. It quickly went platinum, and the lead single, "Soak Up the Sun," was a Top 20 hit and another ubiquitous radio smash. The follow-up, "Steve McQueen," was also a lesser hit. At the beginning of 2005 it was announced that there would be two simultaneously released new albums available by the end of the year. The project was then scaled back to the single-disc Wildflower, which saw release at the end of September. Crow was forced to take time off from her musical career in 2006 after being diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. After successful treatment, she returned in 2008 with her sixth studio album, Detours. The soul-inspired 100 Miles from Memphis followed in 2010 and featured guest spots from Keith Richards, Justin Timberlake, and Citizen Cope. By the end of that year, she had performed with Loretta Lynn and Miranda Lambert on the title track of a Lynn tribute album, Coal Miner's Daughter. This country-focused collaboration was an early indicator of the direction that Crow's work would eventually take in the years that followed.

A creatively quiet 2011 ended with her appearance on William Shatner's space-themed third studio album, Seeking Major Tom. Crow's delicate, piano-fueled cover of K.I.A.'s "Mrs. Major Tom" was generally received by critics as one of the highlights of the disc. Then, in summer 2012, she revealed details of another health scare. Although Crow had been diagnosed with a brain tumor at the end of 2011, it was found to be benign, and six months on she was quoted in many news reports as feeling healthy and happy. That November she issued the download-only, politically charged "Woman in the White House." It was her first self-penned material to appear in a couple of years and was her most out-and-out mainstream country track to date. March 2013 saw the release of "Easy," the first single to appear ahead of Feels Like Home, a country-steeped full-length that appeared in September of 2013. Feels Like Home debuted at seven on the Billboard Top 200 -- and number three on the country chart -- but generated no country hits, so Crow changed direction for 2017's Be Myself by reuniting with her '90s collaborators Tchad Blake and Jeff Trott. The politically charged 2018 single "Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" saw Crow pairing up with St. Vincent's Annie Clark. That track later landed on her star-studded duets album, Threads, which recruited a wide array of guest artists including Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Chuck D, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Willie Nelson. Crow released Threads in September 2019, citing that while it would be her last full-length studio album she intended to continue performing and recording occasional new music. She was later the subject of the subject of director Amy Scott's feature documentary film Sheryl, which was released in May 2022. A hit-packed double album, Sheryl: Music from the Feature Documentary, accompanied the film and featured three new songs including the single "Forever."

Sheryl helped lay the groundwork for Crow's 2023 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Shortly after earning that honor, Crow released Evolution, a 2024 album co-produced by Mike Elizondo and John Shanks that spliced the sunniness of C'mon C'mon with the lanky roots-rock of Tuesday Night Music Club. The tender acoustic single, "I Know," appeared in May 2025, teasing another full-length”.

With such an extensive and impressive body of work, it was hard honing things down to twenty songs. I really love what she has produced, and I hope there will be more albums from Sheryl Crow sometime soon. This is one of the greatest songwriters ever. As you will hear from…

THE mixtape below.

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Weezer

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

Weezer

__________

FOR this…

part of The Great American Songbook, I wanted to focus on a band who started out in 1992. The brilliant Weezer. Their debut album, Weezer (or The Blue Album), came out in 1994. They have another eponymous album coming out in August. The Gold Album will be their twelve. To celebrate the tremendous band, I am compiling a twenty-song mix. The California band have released some incredible albums. I will get to a mixtape soon. I want to start out with this biography from AllMusic:

“As one of the most popular groups to emerge in the post-grunge alternative rock aftermath, Weezer merges the heavy power pop of arena rockers like Cheap Trick and the angular guitar leads of the Pixies while injecting their melodies with doses of '70s metal gleaned from bands like Kiss. What truly sets the band apart, though, is their implied geekiness. None of the members of Weezer, especially leader Rivers Cuomo, were conventional rockers: they were kids who holed up in their garage to play along with their favorite records when they weren't studying or watching TV. As a result, their music is infused with a quirky sense of humor and an endearing awkwardness that made songs from their debut, Weezer (aka "The Blue Album"), into big modern rock hits during the mid-'90s. Weezer's early singles turned into hits with immeasurable help from clever videos, and the quickly canonized 1994 debut was followed by a more artistically than commercially motivated 1996 sophomore effort, Pinkerton, which was adored by critics and set the tone for what became the band's long and winding career. As years turned into decades, Cuomo's idiosyncratic personality seeped more and more into his songwriting, resulting in albums that ranged from the catchy nerd rock of 2009's Raditude to the enduringly tender orchestral pop songcraft of 2021's OK Human, as well as their ambitious four-part EP series SZNZ in 2022. 2026's "Shine Again" offered the first taste of Weezer's 20th album.

Raised in Massachusetts, Rivers Cuomo moved to Los Angeles to attend college in the late '80s. During high school, he had played with a number of metal bands, but upon his move out west, his interests broadened to include alternative and post-punk music. By early 1992, he had fused such interests together and formed Weezer with bassist Matt Sharp and drummer Patrick Wilson. Over the course of the next year, the group played in the competitive Los Angeles club scene, eventually landing a deal with DGC during the post-Nirvana alternative signing boom. Three days before Weezer began recording a debut album with producer Ric Ocasek, they added guitarist Brian Bell to the mix. Upon completing the record, Weezer went on hiatus; Cuomo was studying at Harvard when their eponymous debut record came out. With the support of DGC and a striking, Spike Jonze-directed video, "Undone (The Sweater Song)" became a modern rock hit in the fall of 1994, but what made Weezer a crossover success was "Buddy Holly." Jonze created an innovative video that spliced the group into old footage from the sitcom Happy Days and the single quickly became a hit, making the album a multi-platinum success as well.

By the time the album's final single, "Say It Ain't So," was released in the summer of 1995, the group had gone on hiatus once again, with Cuomo returning to Harvard. During the time off, Sharp and Wilson formed the new wave revival band the Rentals, who had a hit later that year with "Friends of P." During the hiatus, Cuomo became a recluse, disappearing at Harvard and suffering writer's block. When Weezer reconvened in the spring of 1996 to record their second album, he had written a loose concept album that featured far more introspective material than their debut. Ironically, the band sounded tighter on the resulting album, Pinkerton. Released in the fall to generally strong reviews, the record failed to become a hit, partially because Cuomo did not want the band to record another series of clever videos. Grudgingly, the remainder of the bandmembers contented themselves being a supporting group for Cuomo, largely because each member had his own solo project scheduled for release within the next year. DGC, however, had the band make one last stab at a hit with "The Good Life," but by the time the single was released, MTV and modern rock radio had withdrawn their support not only of Weezer but their style of guitar-driven punk-pop in general.

Shortly after the tour in support of Pinkerton was completed in 1997, it appeared as though Weezer had fallen off the face of the planet. Stung by the public's initial reaction to their sophomore effort (Rolling Stone even named Pinkerton the Worst Album of 1996), the band took time off to regroup and plan their next move. Unhappy with the sluggish rate of the reassessment period, Sharp left the group to concentrate more fully on the Rentals, fueling rumors that Weezer had broken up. But a funny thing happened during Weezer's self-imposed exile -- while their copycat offspring were falling by the wayside (Nerf Herder, Nada Surf), a whole new generation of emocore enthusiasts discovered Weezer's diamond-in-the-rough sophomore effort for the first time, and their audience grew despite not having a new album in the stores.

Once Weezer's members wrapped up work on their side projects (Bell with Space Twins; Wilson with the Special Goodness), the band recruited former Juliana Hatfield bassist Mikey Welsh to take the place of Sharp and began working on new material. Before they could enter the studio to record their third release, however, Weezer tested the waters by landing a spot on the 2000 edition of the Warped Tour, where they were consistently the day's highlight. Hooking up again with the producer of their 1994 debut, Ric Ocasek, Weezer recorded what would be known as "The Green Album" (an informal title given by fans, since it was actually their second self-titled release). The album was an immediate hit, debuting at number four in May 2001 and camping out in the upper reaches of the charts for much of the spring/summer, during which such songs like "Hash Pipe" and "Island in the Sun" became radio and MTV staples, reestablishing Weezer as one of alt-rock's top dogs. During their tour that summer, Welsh fell ill and was replaced by Scott Shriner, also of the band Broken. (Welsh died in Chicago in October 2011 at the age of 40.) That fall and winter, the group busied itself with touring alongside bands like Tenacious D and recording their next album, Maladroit, which arrived a year after The Green Album's release.

Just before Maladroit's release, former bassist Matt Sharp sued Weezer, seeking compensation and songwriting credit for songs such as "Undone (The Sweater Song)," "El Scorcho," and "The Good Life." The band eventually reconciled with Sharp, though he didn't rejoin, and Weezer continued on with the lineup of Cuomo, Bell, Wilson, and Shriner. The limited-edition live EP Lion and the Witch appeared in May 2002, and Maladroit's "Keep Fishin'" was released as a single. Most of 2003 was spent on side projects; Cuomo did some hired-gun songwriting, Bell's band the Space Twins put out End of Imagining, and Wilson's Special Goodness project issued Land Air Sea. Weezer returned to the studio in 2004, working with Rick Rubin on their fifth full-length album. Make Believe appeared in May 2005, prepped by the single "Beverly Hills," and eventually went platinum in multiple countries. Weezer (Red Album) followed in 2008 and featured a more collaborative approach, with several bandmembers contributing songwriting ideas and lead vocals to the tracks. One year later, the group returned with Raditude. Greeted with mixed reviews, Raditude marked Weezer's last album for Universal. They jumped to the indies in 2010, releasing Hurley on Epitaph. The new album was quickly followed by two archival releases: an expanded deluxe edition of Pinkerton and the outtakes collection Death to False Metal.

Weezer took their time returning to the studio, finally re-emerging in the autumn of 2014 with Everything Will Be Alright in the End, a record produced by Ric Ocasek and released on Republic Records. Greeted by generally good reviews, the album debuted at five on the Billboard 200 upon its October 2014 release. In the fall of 2015, the band delivered a pair of new singles -- "Thank God for Girls" and "Do You Want to Get High? -- the first fruits of their sessions with producer Jake Sinclair. One other single, "King of the World," appeared in January 2016, timed to arrive at the announcement of their tenth studio album. Another self-titled, color-coded (this time, it was white) album saw release in April. Weezer's White Album peaked on the Billboard 200 at number four and was followed by an extensive tour with Panic! At the Disco.

A year after the release of the White Album, the band returned with "Feels Like Summer," the first single from their 11th LP, Pacific Daydream. Released in October 2017, Pacific Daydream boasted a more modern sound than its predecessor and rose into the Top Four of the Billboard Alternative and Rock charts. Months later in 2018, the group placated social media fan demand by delivering a faithful cover of Toto's classic "Africa," but not before they first issued a cover of that band's "Rosanna." "Africa" became Weezer's first Hot 100 hit since 2009's "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To," entering the chart at number 89. Toto returned the favor by covering "Hash Pipe" in August 2018.

"Africa" turned out to be the cornerstone of the surprise January 2019 release Weezer (The Teal Album), a collection of covers. Two months after The Teal Album, Weezer finally delivered Weezer (The Black Album), a record Cuomo began teasing during the promo cycle for Weezer (The White Album). Produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, The Black Album appeared in March 2019. In 2020, the band issued the singles "Hero" and "The End of the Game," both of which were slated to appear on their forthcoming album and return to huge, Van Halen-inspired guitars, Van Weezer. After multiple setbacks related to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the completion of Van Weezer, the band returned to material they'd first conceptualized and started work on several years earlier. A collection of songs inspired by Harry Nilsson and the Beach Boys, complete with string parts played by a 38-piece orchestra, OK Human was released in January 2021 as Weezer's 14th full-length album, with Van Weezer pushed back for a release later that year when touring could resume. Van Weezer wound up appearing in May 2021, just prior to their summer tour.

Weezer quickly followed their twin albums of 2021 with a four-EP project called SZNZ. A mock abbreviation for "Seasons," each of the four EPs is pegged to a different season in the calendar; the intent is for the music to match its respective season. SZNZ: Spring arrived in March of 2022, followed by SZNZ: Summer in June, SZNZ: Autumn in September, and SZNZ: Winter in December. Each EP consists of seven new songs. The band toured behind the releases, then headed back out on the road in late 2024 in conjunction with a deluxe reissue of their debut album. Released in April 2026, "Shine Again" marked Weezer's first new track in four years and inaugurated a new contract with Reprise Records”.

I will leave it there. Continuing on strong over three decades since they released their debut album, I hope that we get more music from Weezer years from now. They have one of the most distinct and compelling catalogues…

IN all of music.

FEATURE: Under the Light of the Tawny Moon… Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Twelve

FEATURE:

 

 

Under the Light of the Tawny Moon…

PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Twelve

__________

I am going to mark the…

tenth anniversary of its live album in November. In 2014, Kate Bush took to the stage in her first residency. Her first major live work since 1979’s The Tour of Life. When news was announced that Before the Dawn would take place in the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London, there was this rush for tickets. Extra dates were added and it was this sold-out extravaganza. I was unfortunate not to be able to get a ticket. Though I have the live album and know a few people who were there. All agreeing that it was a life-affirming and life-changing experience. I can believe that. For fans of Kate Bush who had known her for years and perhaps not seen her live, there was this emotional hit and expectation. Some had seen her in 1979 and noted how Before the Dawn even surpasses the incredible The Tour of Life. Before the Dawn ran from 26th August to 1st October, 2014. There are a couple of reviews that I want to come to. I am going to repeat things I have put in features previously, as I have discussed this stunning residency a far few times! I do want to start out with the Kate Bush Encyclopedia and their resource about Before the Dawn. The residency is significant because it pairs the suite from1985’s Hounds of Love, The Ninth Wave, with A Sky of Honey, the suite from 2005’s Aerial. Both very different but equally powerful, it is an extraordinarily visualisation. The Ninth Wave about a woman lost at sea and struggling to stay alive. A Sky of Honey is the course of a summer’s day. Separate tones and energies, they were paired and brought to life wonderfully. Before those acts, there are a few songs, including a couple from 1993’s The Red Shoes (Lily and Top of the City). The band she recorded with are phenomenal:

“The band playing with Kate Bush on stage consisted of David Rhodes (guitar), Friðrik Karlsson (guitar, bouzouki, charango), John Giblin (bass guitar, double bass), Jon Carin (keyboards, guitar, vocals, programming), Kevin McAlea (keyboards, accordion, uilleann pipes). Omar Hakim (drums), Mino Cinélu (percussion). Backing vocalists were Sandra Marvin, Jacqui DuBois, Jo Servi, Bob Harms and Albert McIntosh. Some actors were involved as well: Ben Thompson played Lord of the Waves, Stuart Angell played Lord of the Waves and the painter’s apprentice, Christian Jenner played the blackbird’s spirit, Jo Servi played witchfinder and Albert McIntosh appeared as painter. Supporting actors were Sean Myatt, Richard Booth, Emily Cooper, Lane Paul Stewart and Charlotte Williams.

Attending celebrities

During the run of the show, several celebrities were spotted in the audience, while others took to social media to confirm they saw the show. Some of the names of celebrities that have seen the live show are Lily Allen, Marc Almond, Gemma Arterton, Bjork, Peter Gabriel, Dave Gilmour, Guido Harari, Holly Johnson, Lauren Laverne, Annie Lennox, Paul McCartney, Caitlin Moran, Frank Skinner and Ricky Wilde.

Kate about Before The Dawn

I’d got to a point where I’d down two albums very quickly, one after the other and I didn’t want to go in and make another album. So I thought maybe I should do some live shows. (Laughs) That’s what happened. I didn’t want to do the shows without Bertie because I thought he’d be a very valuable part of the process, which he was, and it needed to fall at a time that worked around his schedule and that happened to be a good time for him.
I thought the whole idea of putting a show together would be a lot of fun. Not that being in it would be fun, that was very frightening. But putting a show together was something I thought I could do. (…)
I really liked the idea of trying to move from what seemed to be a straight rock concert into a piece of theatre. And what I thought would be fascinating – which I’d not seen done before – was moving from obvious rock show, rhythmic lighting to theatrical lighting.

Jim Irvin, ‘Waving… Not Drowning’. Mojo (UK), JaNuary 2017”.

 I ended that section with an interview quote. I want to move now to a fuller one. Speaking about the live album with The Independent in 2016, Kate Bush recalled taking to the stage. Somewhere she originally performed at in 1979. Things had changed a lot since 1979. However, her talent, ambition and brilliance was as sharp and peerless. Mounting this stunning show for adoring fans. Putting it all together was a labour of love. Inspired by her son to come to the stage at a time when she would have been doubtful, we are all so glad that Bush delivered the masterpiece that is Before the Dawn:

“I’ve always loved birdsong,” says Kate, “and I suppose that was the starting point for that piece on the record, speculation about whether it’s a language. The key idea was this connection between birdsong and light, that singing seems to be triggered by the breaking of light, and in the absence of light, they stop singing.” She pauses. “Though there’s a few exceptions – nightjars, reed warblers, blackbirds. And of course, the owl!”

In that suite, an artist appreciates the changing light from sunrise through sunset into night, a progress musically evoked in green and golden tones and timbres. It’s balanced in the show by another suite, The Ninth Wave, from 1985’s Hounds of Love, which presents the drifting ruminations of a woman slowly drowning, alone in the ocean at night. The extraordinary staging for the work involved the skeleton ribs of a boat’s hull, a floating buoy, a helicopter, and a Caligari-esque room of odd angularity, while a huge back-projection of a life-jacketed, singing Kate presented her and her crew with one of the production’s more difficult challenges.

“We shot it in a deep water tank at Pinewood Studios,” she explains. “I’d never worked in water before, and we didn’t know, purely from a technical point of view, if we could find a microphone that could cope with being submerged. So a lot of research went into that. Also, lying on your back, it’s a different way to sing, and we weren’t sure we were going to achieve what we wanted, certainly from an audio point of view. What was probably most difficult, particularly on the first day, was that I was in the tank of water for so long that I actually got really cold. Hour by hour, it was becoming more realistic!”

It’s a measure of the dedication with which she approached the project, and of the degree of logistical control she exercised over proceedings.

“The big thing for me, and it has been from quite early on, is to retain creative control over what I’m doing,” says Bush. “If you have creative control, it’s personal. What I didn’t want to do was step into someone else’s show. Also, that was what was exciting for me, the idea of putting this big visual piece together. Though there was the most extraordinary team of people working on the show: there wasn’t a single person on that team that didn’t have very important input on what the show became.”

This includes people like novelist David Mitchell, who wrote the dialogue for some scenes, and her son, Albert McIntosh, who not only acts and sings in the show, but was crucial to its conception and realisation.

“Bertie’s input was absolutely huge on this show,” she says. “His input of ideas was very creative and intelligent, he was a large part, creatively, of the show. I would run all my ideas past him. For instance, I had this idea to have this helicopter flying over the audience, and he said, ‘Maybe it could be more abstract, maybe it should just be a light’, and I thought, ‘Oh yes, that’s so much better’, and from there we took the design further with the lighting designer.”

As writer, producer, star and director of the show, Kate was often required to wear different hats, figuratively; during rehearsals, she would sometimes sit out in the stalls, checking the production worked, while one of her keyboardists stood in for her on vocals.

“Sometimes it was frustrating for some of the band, but I genuinely had to spend a lot of time out in the stalls, watching it, so I could check it all works,” she says. “It was like putting a huge jigsaw puzzle together, and it took a long time to get it all put in place. It was probably about 14 months from deciding to do it, to the first night.”

She was helped, as director, by her experience making videos and short films, an interest which effectively supplanted her interest in live performance. Despite being one of pop’s more naturally gifted and inventive stage performers, Kate had not done live shows since her initial tour in 1979, a hiatus that led to her reputation as something of a recluse.

“It wasn’t designed that way, because I really enjoyed the first set of shows we did,” she says. “The plan at the time was that I was going to do another two albums’ worth of fresh material, and then do another show. But of course, by the time I got to the end of what was The Dreaming album, it had gone off on a slight tilt, because I’d become so much more involved in the recording process. And also, every time I finish an album, I go into visual projects, and even if they’re quite short pieces, they’re still a huge amount of work to put together. So I started to veer away from the thing of being a live performing artist, to one of being a recording artist with attached visuals.”

It must have been quite difficult, then, to return to live performance after such a time away from the stage?

“Yes, I was very nervous,” she says. “I wasn’t sure if I would be any good, that was my concern. I knew that I would enjoy putting the show together – in a lot of ways, I approached it as if I was making a really long video, because a lot of my visual work is quite theatrical, so this theatrical work would be quite filmic, it would be a natural progression. But I was very nervous about going onstage and performing. But the response was just beyond anything I could have wished for, every night, the audiences were so excited and so responsive.”

The initial impetus for the show, she explains, came from the balance between the two suites.

“What made it an interesting project for me was that there were these two narrative pieces, very much in opposition to each other, and that would allow me to create a piece of theatre, rather than just be a concert with added theatrics. And I felt they were so contrasting: one is full of deep, dark water, and the other one is full of golden light”.

I will finish off with a couple of reviews. Those fortunate enough to see one of the twenty-two shows. That first night on 26th August, 2014 brought celebrities and embers of the public together. It was one of the most anticipated live shows ever. I can only imagine the excitement in the air! Even though DIY acknowledge that Before the Dawn is overblown and prosperous in places, it is a unique and captivating experience:

“Barefoot and dressed in elegant black, she strolls around the stage gently, occasionally twirling. It begins with ‘Lily’ as she leads a small group of backing singers that includes her son Bertie (who, she says, has given her the "courage" to return to the stage). The band that line up behind her are as tight as you would imagine. They play ‘Hounds Of Love’ and ‘Running Up That Hill’. They sound huge, they sound brilliant. If there’s one thing you notice most it’s that her voice is remarkably powerful and it’s brilliant on ‘King Of The Mountain’ which brings the opening ‘scene’ to a close, heralding a storm as a bullroarer fills the air and cannons fill the theatre with confetti.

It's now time for the drama of 'The Ninth Wave', the second half of 'Hounds of Love'. Here we see a story of resignation and resurrection played out in the most theatrical of ways. We see Bush in a lifejacket floating in water, looking up at the camera as if waiting to be rescued (she’s reported to have spent three days in a flotation tank at Pinewood Studios to create the special effects). At one point fish skeletons dance across the waves, at another a helicopter searches the crowd, before a living room (yes, a living room) floats across the stage in which a son and his father – played by Bertie and Bush's husband Danny McIntosh – talk at length about sausages.

It’s hard to comprehend exactly what’s happening but the band skilfully navigate the pastoral prog and Celtic rock. Even when the music isn’t captivating, the sheer sense of spectacle means you can’t avert your eyes for a second. As the ‘The Morning Fog’ brings the performance to a close with another standing ovation.

After a twenty minute interval – during which time the bars buzz with delirium – the third act sees her play out ‘Sky of Honey’, the entire second half of 'Aerial'. It’s so intricately detailed that you get the feeling Bush had always planned to perform these two scenes live.

‘Honey’ is a grandiose daydream moving through a summer's day. Again the scope of her vision is immense – even when the songs don’t enthral the enormous paper planes and human birds do, as we see a wooden mannequin finding himself lost and alone. Bertie plays a major part throughout dressed as a 19th-century artist – and at one point telling the mannequin to "piss off". It ends, as only it could, with Bush gaining wings and flying.

She returns to earth to perform a solo version of ‘Among Angels’ on the piano, before the band return to help close the show with a joyful ‘Cloudbusting’. "I just know that something good is going to happen", she sings as a now even more euphoric crowd jump to their feet.

Then she’s gone. You’re left with the image of a singer who has managed to retain her mystery and surprise. An enigma, the mythic artist who is intensely human. It’s overblown and preposterous and brilliant. All its startling achievements, magical highs and am dram faults – its relentless ambition and human imperfections – make it the only document you could possibly have asked for from such a unique artist. Before the Dawn is everything you would expect but couldn’t imagine”.

I am going to finish with a review from PROG and their review. It would be, as they suggest, no exaggeration to say that Before the Dawn is one of the most important music events of this century. It does make it all the more painful that I was not there! However, I am dropping in songs from the Before the Dawn live album. You can get a sense of the sense of awe and wonder at the Eventim Apollo twelve years ago:

“On the opening night of the run, the applause as Bush and band walk on is deafening. Luckily our hearing returns to register that the 56-year-old, barefoot, wearing black, is singing Lily, Hounds Of Love, Joanni, Running Up That Hill, Top Of The City and King Of The Mountain. It’s a conventional – if uncommonly adept – set-up for this introductory spell, the musicians (two guitars, two keyboards, two drummers, bass, five backing vocalists) vigorous yet smooth. We acclimatise to the fact that Kate Bush is onstage, confident and potent.

Then comes the evening’s pinnacle: the ground is swept from beneath our feet and things get giddy. The Ninth Wave is performed: an epic production, almost an opera. The narrative is enacted, gliding from film of a floating-in-water Bush, singing in a life jacket, through the tale of a woman lost at sea as her life flashes before her. This includes stunning trickery (the stage becomes the sea bed, peopled by fish skeletons and other surreal creatures); visuals not witnessed since Pink Floyd’s stadium heyday (a lighting rig posing as a helicopter swoops in and out of the crowd, emitting lasers and voices); and some distinctly odd acting cameos (Kate’s son Bertie plays prominent roles).

At one point Kate appears from nowhere, Houdini-like, in a mock living room, complete with sofa, lampshade and TV. In another scene she’s rescued from beneath the ice, in a hole carved from the stage. There’s a jig, there’s a wake as the fish-people carry her away, and there’s catharsis. Everyone emerges for the intermission blinking, a bit speechless and completely overwhelmed.

Clearly, performing The Ninth Wave is something the singer’s envisaged for a long time. You have to deduce she feels it’s her masterpiece. The total absence of any early-career hits here may bother some (those who wanted Wuthering Heights or Babooshka have come to the right venue in the wrong decade), but this is a legacy-redefining appearance by pop’s Maria Callas. There can never again be any argument that she isn’t prog..

Can the second half live up to the first? Almost, if not quite. Giving us A Sky Of Honey (the second disc of Aerial) in full, it’s (relatively) a more relaxed affair. Loaded with imagery nonetheless – birds, paintings, moons, mannequins – it ripples through its course, Bush in exquisite voice, her musicians dextrous, until its extraordinary crescendo. Now the rhythms get manic, guitars squeal, and to top this chaos of multifaceted motion, Bush grows wings and soars – albeit momentarily – into the air. The audience gape.

After she thanks us profusely for our “warm response”, there’s an encore of Among Angels performed solo at the piano, followed by a euphoric full-band singalong of Cloudbusting. The crowd are still roaring five minutes after the house lights have gone up.

‘Big concept’ shows like this have hidden away since Bowie’s Glass Spider tour took a kicking. It may be that Kate Bush has brought mannerisms often reductively labelled as prog back to mainstream acceptance. Or it could just be that Britain’s most gifted female star can do anything she wants, such is the love and adoration displayed here. The young girl who once yelped ‘Wow’ is now a mature woman confirmed as the genius godmother of art rock. Thirty-five years on, the moment is hers again”.

On 26th August, it is going to be twelve years since the first date of Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn. One of the most acclaimed concerts in decades, fans got to see The Ninth Wave and A Sky of Honey brought to life. Backed by a phenomenal band and crew, Bush wowed audiences and critics alike. Before the Dawn has its flaws, though it is a masterpiece. You can see artists today who stage these incredible productions who were clearly nodding to Kate Bush in a way. By what she did in 2014. Her staggering residency is one of the greatest live events…

IN music history.

FEATURE: Spotlight: zeyne

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Vicky Grout

zeyne

__________

THIS artist might not…

be on your radar, but she really should be. I am going to come to some interviews with the magnificent zeyne. I am going to start out with this feature from GRAZIA. They published it in 2024. Although it was a couple of years ago, it does provide some useful background to this amazing human. One that everyone should support, know about and show love to:

“Zeyne’s musical journey blends passion, heritage, and creativity. Born in Jordan to Palestinian parents, she grew up in a home where music was always present. From a young age, Zeyne’s family encouraged her to explore her musical talents. She began learning the piano at just three years old and was performing in a dabke (traditional Palestinian dance) group by the age of five.

However, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 lockdown that Zeyne fully embraced her musical calling, marking a turning point in her life. Stranded in Jordan when the pandemic closed borders, Zeyne found herself isolated. During this time, she began posting cover songs on Instagram to build confidence, and soon the world began to take notice of her talent. Her breakthrough came with Ma Bansak, a performance on the Colors show, which pushed her into the spotlight.

Her debut single, Minni Ana, blending Arabic R&B with contemporary Western influences, gained praise worldwide. Since then, Zeyne has continued to redefine the boundaries of Arabic music, releasing tracks like Balak, Bala Wala Shi, Atoul, and Ana Wein. These songs not only showcase her extraordinary voice but also her ability to tell deeply personal stories that resonate with listeners.

The Sound of Zeyne

Zeyne’s music is a reflection of her dual cultural heritage. With roots in Palestinian and Jordanian traditions, she blends sounds of the Arabic world with Western genres like R&B and soul. Drawing inspiration from Arabic legends such as Fairouz, Zeyne combines the beauty of Arabic melodies with contemporary Western rhythms, taking influences from Lauryn Hill and H.E.R. Zeyne’s sound highlights the power of cross-cultural collaboration, gainning her a unique sound and a loyal following, not just in the Middle East, but worldwide.

Her songwriting process is deeply personal, tackling topics not often discussed in her culture, such as mental health, anxiety, and the struggles of being a young woman. In her music, she gives a voice to those who feel silenced by society, particularly women.

Zeyne believes that music must come from the heart, which is why she focuses on writing songs that reflect her own experiences. Her first single, Minni Ana, explored her relationship with herself, while Nostalgia expressed her longing for Palestine, particularly Nablus, her family’s hometown. In Atoul, Zeyne delved into the complexities of falling in love, and in Balak (featuring Saint Levant), she captured the frustrations of a long-distance relationship.

Zeyne at Bottega Veneta’s Waves Event IN DUBAI

Zeyne’s performance at Bottega Veneta’s Waves event in Dubai marked a significant milestone in her career. Held at Concrete in Alserkal Avenue, the event combined fashion, art, and music to create an immersive experience in Dubai. The venue, designed by Lebanese architect Carl Gerges, featured soft, concentric seating and sand-coloured textures that reflected the timeless beauty of the desert, creating the perfect backdrop for Zeyne’s performance.

In this unique setting, Zeyne’s performance felt like an extension of the backdrop  itself, blending contemporary style with rich cultural heritage. Her performance, alongside Palestinian-Canadian artist Nemahsis, highlighted the event’s theme of cultural resonance, a key part of Bottega Veneta’s commitment to cultural advocacy to foster music, innovative sound, and creative exchange under the direction of Matthieu Blazy.

The Future of Zeyne

Zeyne’s unique ability to blend the old with the new and the West with the Arab world, positions her on a track to become a global popstar. Her collaborations with artists from across the MENA region and beyond, combined with her growing following from international platforms like Colors, have set her as a trailblazer in the new wave of Middle Eastern music.

Zeyne’s growth signals a new chapter in the evolution of contemporary Arabic music, bridging cultural gaps and resonating with a global audience. With her powerful voice, innovative sound, and commitment to strong storytelling, Zeyne’s influence is bound to grow, not just in the Arab world, but globally”.

There is an interview from earlier this year I will come to. Most of the recent interviews are from last year. She released her astonishing album, AWDA, in October. That word translates to ‘return’ in Arabic. I am starting out with DAZED and their great interview. The spoke with an artist “making ‘Arabic alt-pop’ to reclaim her voice”. I am going to repeat a little bit of the background that we have read and know. But it is interesting reiterating her pat and road into music. It is fascinating:

“A few years ago, singer and former Dazed 100er Zeyne graduated from the University of Sussex with the intention of pursuing a career in media and communications. Blocked from starting her new job in London thanks to the pandemic, she began posting song covers on Instagram from her home in Amman, Jordan. Eventually, she gained enough traction online that the idea of doing music full-time became a real possibility. “Keep in mind, my parents sent me off to uni. I was meant to do work in PR, research and media,” she tells me over Zoom. “I told them about music, and they looked at me and they were like ‘you know what, OK if that makes you happy do it, we are behind you’, I remember the immediate sigh of relief, and I started crying.”

In 2021, just a year into posting covers online, she released her debut single “Minni Ana”. Now Zeyne is finally ready to show her full self to the world, releasing her anticipated debut album. Entitled AWDA – meaning “return” in Arabic – the project features 12 songs which seamlessly blend Arabic anti-pop and smooth R&B.

Throughout the project, Zeyne unpacks the idea of belonging, identity and cycles of intrusive thoughts. At the start of the opening track, “Asli Ana”, there is a monologue where she recites: “I will not take off my Thobe before they take off my skin / Record that I am an Arab / And I know my origin”. From her opening speech to the final song, which features a recording of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, AWDA reminds us that culture is strengthened through connection. Below, she speaks to us about the making of her album, learning to write songs, and finding her voice.

What would you say was your earliest memory of music?

Zeyne: At three, I remember seeing my eldest sister, Lina, playing the piano. It was so funny, I was trying to copy her. I looked at my mom, pointed at my sister, and said, "I want to be just like her. I want to play the piano." I'm so grateful to my family for introducing me to music in that way.

When was the moment that you decided that you wanted to pursue music as a career?

Zeyne: I think it was around December 2020. Back then, I had my cover page for a few months. I had met my current producer. I went to his studio, and he was just like, ‘what do you want to do? Why are you here?’ I thought, what an odd question to ask, because I’m here to record a cover, what do you mean? I had never thought of [making original music]. I told him I did not know how to write music but had never tried. He looked at me and said, ‘how can you say you don’t know how to do something if you’ve never tried it?’ I went back home that same night, sat on my piano, and started rambling. I took that to the studio, and we built on that together, and that’s how I ended up coming out with my first-ever debut single.

I wanted to ask about your sonic influences. How do you hear and define your own music?

Zeyne: Before working on this album, I really was experimenting with the R&B sound in Arabic, because I felt like that was an unexplored territory in the region. Making R&B in the Arabic language with our Arabic scales and instrumentation, sonically, I thought that was a very interesting way to start, and I took that with me throughout the album. I was always so scared of going out of a certain genre, because I didn’t want people to think that I'm confusing or whatever. But then I was just like, the story itself is going to communicate the feeling overall; it does not have to stick to a certain genre. But if I were to define it, it's definitely Arabic alt-pop, R&B.

I tried to make the album sonically very inclusive of Arab cultures in general, not just Jordan and Palestinian, but even branching out to like North African sounds, especially in places like Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, just borrowing sounds. We are cultures that borrow a lot from each other, and we support each other a lot as well, even in the Palestinian cause, our North African brothers and sisters who have stood so much by us. This is a celebration of all of our cultures merged together.

What is the message or feeling you hope people take away from this album?

Zeyne: The feeling is definitely to be empowered. I think growing up, I always lacked the feeling of empowerment. I did not have a lot of confidence in myself to share my music or my voice with the world. When it came to writing the album, I wanted people to feel empowered by love, identity, womanhood, girlhood or feeling proud enough to embrace themselves and who they are. Empowerment and reclamation of who you are, that’s definitely an undertone of this whole album; just confronting and being honest with yourself”.

I am interested to bring in Wonderland. They chatted with zeyne in October. A spectacular artist lighting the flames of resistance. Wonderland. spotlighted someone who had released “her most personal and potent project with debut album AWDA. She talks finding her voice, searching for hope, and pushing her boundaries”. If you have not listened to AWDA or are a little hesitant, I would thoroughly recommend it. It is so atmospheric and transcendent. She blends Arabic alternative Pop, early-2000s R&B, and Ambient Soul:

“You are adept at combining traditional elements from your cultural lineage with a pop-centric sound. How important is it to celebrate your roots within your music?

It’s really important to me, but it’s not something I approach in a calculated way. It’s more natural than that, like I mentioned earlier, it’s in the way I sing, the melodies I gravitate towards, the language I use. Growing up, those sounds were always around me, so they’re just part of who I am. I think celebrating my roots through music isn’t about putting tradition on display, it’s about letting it live in a way that feels current and personal. It’s my way of honouring where I come from while also pushing forward into newer spaces.

How do you transform the darkness of these current times as light within your own music?

At the moment, with Palestine, it doesn’t feel right to talk about light in the face of what’s happening. Watching a genocide unfold in front of us, I don’t think there’s a way to rationalise it or frame it as anything other than devastating. What I can do, and feels like the least I can do, is to make sure it lives in my work and in the platforms I have access to. For me, that’s not about trying to turn something so dark into light, but rather about speaking on it with honesty and responsibility. The music becomes a place to carry that grief and anger, to refuse silence, and to honour our culture and our people. If there is light in that, it’s in the act of remembering, resisting, and insisting on our presence.

What does the album mean to you? What do you hope it achieves?

For me, AWDA is a milestone, and not because its my debut album, but It’s the first time I’ve been able to put all these different parts of myself into one complete story. It feels like a home I can always return to, no matter where I go next. And I hope it achieves connection where people can listen and find pieces of themselves in the songs, or for it to spark conversation about identity and where we come from, if that’s achieved then it’s done its job. I don’t think music has to give answers, but I do hope it makes people feel seen and understood.

Aside from the project, what’s to come from you, this year and beyond?

I can’t give too much away just yet, but I will say that taking AWDA on tour is something I’m really excited about. There are a few surprises lined up and I’m excited for people to see different sides of me as an artist. For now, I’ll let the music do the talking… but stay tuned”.

There is one more 2025 album I want to come to. I am going to end with a review of AWDA. Hunger spent time with zeyne. Someone who creates music from the heart, she “reflects on trusting intuition, returning to oneself and the collective responsibility to confront injustice”. I am very new to her music, but the more I learn about her and the more I hear, the deeper my affection and respect runs;

“When I ask about representing Palestinian identity from the diaspora, Zeyne is equally thoughtful. “It’s my own identity, and of course, I wouldn’t have the same experience as someone living in Palestine, but what I can do is represent my own experience of living in a diaspora, living just right next door, and feeling so close yet so far from where I belong,” she shares. “It comes with great pride, but also immense responsibility, because it is a very sensitive and important cause that affects so many families, and I want to do it justice every time I talk about it.”

Zeyne’s family are from Nablus, Palestine, approximately forty kilometres as the crow flies from where she currently lives (and was born and raised) in Amman, Jordan. The short distance belies the reality of the journey, which requires visas, border crossings and checkpoints, if entry is granted at all. “I don’t know how safe it is for me to go now, especially after what I’ve put out and released as an artist,” she tells me. “In the past, I didn’t have a digital footprint or a platform where I was so vocal about Palestine and everything that goes on there.” Zeyne has visited Palestine three times — at six months old, sixteen and nineteen — and describes the experiences as “some of the best trips of my life”. “Not all Palestinians have the privilege of going to Palestine,” she observes. “I was privileged enough to be able to go, so I’ll never take that for granted.”

Her new album, Awda, is steeped in Levantine culture, spanning Dabke, a traditional Levantine folk dance, to the mijwiz, a traditional Arabic wind instrument, before culminating in the closing track ‘kollo lena’ a recording of Mahmoud Darwish reciting in Arabic, “On this land, life is worth living”. The thirteen-track album was born out of two transformative years for Zeyne, filled with highs and lows. It explores identity, empowerment, reclamation, self-love and “finding love, and falling out of it”. Reflecting on the album, she says it traces a now complete journey — from hitting rock bottom and confronting personal struggles to finding herself again within her community. “It’s a full-circle moment for sure,” she says.

PHOTO CREDIT: Vadym Yatsun

But Awda is as much for Zeyne’s audience as it is for her. The title itself, meaning ‘return’, offers listeners an open invitation. “I wanted to give listeners space to decide where they want to return,” Zeyne explains. “Is it to themselves? To their identity? To their first love, their issues, their family?” And for Zeyne, who describes herself as not particularly vocal online, the album speaks where words cannot. “I’m not very vocal online. I let the music say what I feel,” she explains. “I spoke about everything — finding love, falling out of love, discovering my mom was ill, facing my mental health issues and my identity. Things I wouldn’t normally talk about online.” Writing from personal experience, I learn, is therapeutic for Zeyne. She’s drawn to music that emerges from vulnerable, deeply personal places — a quality she admires in Lebanese icon Fairuz. “She has this ability to express vulnerability in a very contradictory way musically, and I love that kind of contradiction — what you’re saying against the type of music that’s playing with it. I find myself using that.”

Beyond Awda, 2025 has been a landmark year for Zeyne. She performed to tens
of thousands at Abu Dhabi’s OFFLIMITS Festival and, as an ambassador for EQUAL Arabia, took over a Times Square billboard, celebrating Arab and Palestinian identity and female empowerment. She became the first Levantine woman to appear on COLORS with ‘Ma Bansak’ and the first Arab artist to join YouTube’s Foundry Program 2025, joining a roster of global artists at the forefront of today’s music landscape, such as Rosalía and Dua Lipa. Zeyne is ending the year by playing with Saint Levant in Bahrain and at Sole DXB.

When I follow up with Zeyne a few weeks after the release of Awda, her gratitude is evident. “The response to Awda has been beyond anything I could have imagined,” she effuses. “Seeing people connect to the songs, not just in the region but around the world, has been really emotional and so beautiful to see.” This is especially true for the singer since, as well as sharing her culture on the album, she also filled it with her own story. “This album came from such a personal place,” she reiterates, “and to know that its stories and sounds are resonating so deeply with others makes me so grateful and so inspired to keep creating from the heart.” Zeyne’s artistry, then, lies in her courage: to speak openly, fearlessly and to turn life’s complexities into music that resonates. She stands as one of music’s most important voices today, not only for what she sings, but for the conviction with which she sings it”.

This Schön! interview is incredible. In conversation with one of the most compelling and important voices of her generation, they write how “Everything the Palestinian-Jordanian singer puts forward is done without negotiating her identity”. This is an artist who I feel we are going to hear a lot more from in the next few years:

“Let’s talk about the opening monologue on the first track  ‘Asli Ana.’ It introduces these ideas very powerfully. What did starting the album that way mean for you?

The whole album starts with ‘Harrir Akla [Free Your Mind]’ and ‘Asli Ana [My Origin].’ They’re a statement at the beginning of the album to let the listener know exactly who they’re listening to. Someone who is unapologetic about their identity, about who they are, where they come from, their roots, their heritage, their lineage – everything that makes them who they are.

It feels like artists of your generation are shaping a whole new language around what it means to be an Arab singer today. What does that look like from your perspective?

As time will pass, more and more artists are going to emerge. Growing up I didn’t have that. I didn’t have a Palestinian female artist to look up to or someone that I could resonate with from my own generation. Hopefully it also inspires the younger generation to be proud of where they come from and not shy away from that. I remember when I was in university people would ask, “where are you from?” I would say “Palestine, Jordan,” [and] they would just give me a weird look. I’m pretty sure if this happened now it might evoke a different emotion which is really cool. I think the shift is not only in music, it’s the general conversation around the world about Arabs in general. I feel like everything Arab related is now becoming more popular.

What does singing in Arabic mean to you?

There’s a shift in how people look at the Arabic language. We have the most poetic and romantic language to exist. It’s so cool to see people from all around the world sending me messages saying they don’t understand Arabic but they’re starting to learn the language.  It’s very touching when I get these messages because it feels like we’re bringing people closer to who we are and not trying to bend over to kind of get to them. The Arabic language is becoming a bridge in my music.

You’ve described yourself as a dreamer. As you look ahead into the new year which dreams feel realised and which ones are still calling you?

I’m finally doing my headlining tour in the spring which I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. It’s very surreal for me. You know what I would love to do? I’d love to sit down with Fairuz. Just for lunch or breakfast or anything she wants.

PHOTO CREDIT: Vadym Yatsun

GQ Middle East shared their thoughts on zeyne’s AWDA. It is a no-skips debut. One of the very best of the past few years. She has some gigs coming up, and there is a date at KOKO on 1st September. A London crowd who will show her a lot of love:

“Zeyne has built a sound that defies borders and easy labels, fusing contemporary R&B with the pulse of Arab percussion and the ache of diaspora. Honing in on her influence, her long-awaited debut album, AWDA, is a 13-track emotional map that feels both intimate and universal, and rooted yet future-forward.

“AWDA,” meaning return in Arabic, is much more than a title alone. Across its layered soundscape, Zeyne explores what it means to belong, to love, to lose, and to return to oneself after being fragmented by expectation and exile. Zeyne’s story has always been about multiplicity. With over 52 million global streams and stadium shows alongside Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour, she’s become one of the Arab world’s most magnetic cultural exports – a rare artist who can shift from viral dabkeh at a Bottega Veneta show to raw conversations on mental health with ease. Her ascent hasn’t gone unnoticed. In 2025, she became the first and only Arab artist selected for YouTube’s Foundry Program, joining the ranks of alumni like Rosalía and Dua Lipa.

Produced primarily by Nasir Al Bashir with contributions from Khalil Cherradi, Ratchopper, and Sofian Grillo, AWDA blends early-2000s R&B nostalgia with Arabic instrumentation and ambient soul. There’s a rare emotional intelligence to its construction, where each track feels like a page from Zeyne’s diary. “7arrir 3aqlak (Asli Ana) opens with a reclamation of Palestinian identity through dabkeh and poetry, and “Yom wara yom (OCD)” dissects the spirals of mental illness with tenderness and precision.

She keeps features minimal – Bayou appears on “6 il Sobh,” and Saint Levant adds saxophone to “Arrib Minni” – allowing the focus to remain on her voice. In many ways, AWDA isn’t designed for playlists. It plays like a continuous story without a clear beginning or end, echoing the cyclical nature of identity and healing.

In an era where Arab artists are no longer waiting for Western validation, Zeyne stands as a voice of her generation. AWDA is her homecoming, but it’s also an invitation of self-acceptance, ancestry, and the stories that live in our bones”.

Make sure that you follow zeyne. She is such a fantastic artist who released a new single (a collaboration with Marina Satti), A’ti earlier last month. I wonder what the rest of the year holds for her. As a new fan and someone who was instantly struck by her music, I am going to keep a close eye. It is clear that zeyne is going to be talked about…

FOR many years to come.

__________

Follow zeyne

PHOTO CREDIT: Vicky Grout

Official:

https://zeyne.co/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/zeyne/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@zeyne

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@zeyne_

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4yuZxu7joQOFtplpMAsxlf?si=tB8eY6g7QzySZtlyYoGltA

FEATURE: Pick the Rare Flower: Fifty Years of Kate Bush’s The Phoenix Demos

FEATURE:

 

 

Pick the Rare Flower

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: David Bailey

Fifty Years of Kate Bush’s The Phoenix Demos

__________

THERE are a few different phases…

of Kate Bush’s early recording career. The Cathy Demos that date back to 1973. She recorded some songs professional in 1975. The final stage was recording the remainder of her debut album, The Kick Inside, during the summer of 1977. Before that, around July 1976, Bush recorded a collection of songs later known as The Phoenix Demos. Some of them were Cathy Demos re-recorded. Songs, mostly, that did not find their way on an album. I am going to drop in a few of her demos. Making fifty years of The Phoenix Demos. To get some background and insight as to why they were called that, Dreams of Orgonon published a fascinating feature in 2018:

“It remains astonishing that we have 31 of Cathy Bush’s demos. This is the happy product of some tapes changing hands several times. The first person to circulate these songs was music publicist Ricky Hopper, a friend of Cathy’s brother Jay, who was given between twenty and thirty songs to send to record companies. No luck was had attracting labels, although Bush would eventually get lucky via other avenues. None of Bush’s demos were publicly available for years until tapes made their way into the hands of DJ John Dixon, who had acquired them at EMI around the time Bush signed to the label in 1976. Six years later, he broadcast twenty-two of the songs from his Phoenix-based KSTM radio station (this was around the time Bush was putting out The Dreaming. For David Bowie fans, this would be like hearing “The Laughing Gnome” when Scary Monsters came out). Gradually, the earliest demos were released, with the Cathy demos surfacing in 1997. So there’s our point of origin.

There is no First Kate Bush song. We established off the bat that “Wuthering Heights” is not the beginning of the Kate Bush story by choosing to begin the blog with “Something Like a Song.” This is designed to give a fuller picture of her music. In its beginnings, the Bush story is tumultuous and malleable. It’s reasonably well-documented for what it is, but still trying to shape itself like any young person trying to express themselves for the first time. Recording dates are uncertain — we have a small handful of demos recorded in 1973 called the Cathy Demos, and several more dating from around 1976 dubbed the Phoenix Demos (after the aforementioned broadcast). There’s an overlap in material from the two sessions, leading to us having two demos each for some songs that were never professionally recorded. Even the titles of the songs were applied retroactively, and not by Bush herself. To navigate this labyrinth of obscure music, the Bushologist must choose a trajectory and follow it. I chose “Something Like a Song” for the first post because of its relative malleability and accessibility; there’s not a lot to unpack in it, which allowed me to sketch out the approach of the blog. With “Queen Eddie” (or “The Gay Farewell,” whatever you wish to call it), another early Cathy song from both the Cathy and Phoenix sessions, we’re free to play around a little with ideas”.

I am not sure whether all of these 1976 demos were recorded in July, at the time Bush finalised a deal with EMI. However, there is this consensus that they came together at that point. You can see the songs that form part of The Phoenix Demos here. There is a lot of uncertainty as to exactly when the demos were recorded and finished. I think it is the summer of 1976. In July 1976, Bush was taking up dance and she had finalised that deal. Perhaps extending into the middle of the summer, it is clear that these recordings were hugely important. That transition from the slightly rougher Cathy Demos to what we would hear on The Kick Inside. Record Collector published a feature in 2011 about Kate Bush demos and the dangers of revisiting earlier work:

“In 1989, a batch of demos from this period surfaced, representing the first significant leak of Kate’s demo material. Initially dubbed the Phoenix collection, they went under this moniker as the recordings were originally broadcast on Phoenix radio station KSTM by former EMI employee John Dixon, who had been instrumental in plugging The Kick Inside to America. Confusingly, the broadcast seems to have taken place some seven years prior to the leak, so it seems uncertain as to why the tapes took so long to reach wider circulation. It consisted of 22 piano demos including five songs that turned up in more developed form over her first three albums: The Kick Inside and Oh To Be In Love, on The Kick Inside; Hammer Horror and Kashka From Baghdad on Lionheart; and Violin on Never For Ever. Three tracks from The Early Years tape also appeared in more refined form – Something Like A Song, The Gay Farewell and Disbelieving Angel – while the other 14 remain unique to this collection. There has been some debate over the correct titles of these tracks and they have circulated under a bewildering variety of names. Fortunately the titles were read on air during the Phoenix broadcast, presumably from the original tape box, and we present those titles here as they are, most likely, the titles as written by Kate: The Kick Inside (Brother)/Hammer Horror/It Hurts Me/Stranded At The Moonbase/Kashka From Baghdad/Surrender Into The Roses/Oh To Be In Love/ Rinfry The Gypsy/On Fire Inside A Snowball/Dali/ Where Are The Lionhearts/Violin/ The Craft Of Love/The Gay Farewell/Something Like A Song/Frightened Eyes/The Disbelieving Angel/Nevertheless You’ll Do/Come Closer To Me Babe/So Soft/The Rare Flower/While Davy Dozed. The set first appeared in
cassette form and suffered from major quality degradation: the tracks ran too slowly and the levels were muddied. However, a series of bootleg EP releases titled The Cathy Demos – issued in five 7” volumes over the following few months – had clearly been pressed from the master recordings as they had a remarkably clear sound and none of the speed issues horribly clear on the tapes. As a final surprise, the fifth volume debuted a song titled Organic Acid, a lengthy piece consisting of Kate singing and playing to accompany brother John’s reading of one of his poems. It wasn’t present on any recordings from the Phoenix broadcast”.

There is a little mystery as to exactly when in 1976 the demos were completed. I feel they were started either in July or August. By the time they reach the U.S. and this broadcast, Kate Bush was in a very different stage of her career. I do think that there should be some recognition of The Phoenix Demos. Bush herself did not want to see them made public. They were these songs that showed a very brilliant and assured talent. Her music would become better, more experimental and assured. Though there are seeds and wonderful moments to be found. Fifty years after they were laid down at her London flat, we can only imagine what the atmosphere was like! Her neighbours hearing her play. What it was like hearing a teenage Kate Bush capture these fascinating and relatively unknown songs. Even if they are largely musically similar, you can see that she was exploring subjects and ideas that her peers were not. I do wonder how many other songs from The Phoenix Demos were considered for The Kick Inside. The titles changing does make it a little tricky to pin some of the songs, as people know them as something else. I did want to mark fifty years. Whenever the first and final demos were recorded, we do know that it was in 1976, sometime between the EMI deal being finalised in July 1976 and later that year. Obviously Kate Bush now would not want an official release. She might have dim memories of that time. Work that was in progress. These embryonic songs. Though, when we think about the road to The Kick Inside and these huge moments, you cannot ignore these demos from 1976. Their weird route to America and why it took so long. What the reaction was there. I do really love them! Listening to these recordings, however primitive you see them, it is evident that there is…

NOBDOY at all like Kate Bush.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Whole Story: Reacting to the Incredible KBC Article, Issue 14 (Autumn 1983)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Griffin

Reacting to the Incredible KBC Article, Issue 14 (Autumn 1983)

__________

I will move away…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studios in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport

from this website for the next edition of Kate Bush: The Whole Story. I will come back to it. The last feature I published in this series was Kate Bush’s writing for Issue 13 of the Kate Bush Club. I wanted to come to the next one. Issue 13 was the summer one. Though it was published at the start of summer or just before, so we did not get to know what Bush’s summer was like. The year is 1983. That is where we are. This Issue 14 piece was Bush discussing summer of 1983 – one of her best and happiest. This is the issue. I am going to comment on the article she wrote and the interview in this piece. The photo I have included at the top of this feature is Kate Bush from 1983. She was hot by Brian Griffin. Replicating Depeche Mode’s A Broken Frame (1982) cover, I am not sure whether it was shot in the first or second half of 1983:

“Dear Friends,

Since we last spoke, the weather has been incredible—it was the best July since 1659, they say—but for me it’s like 1976. Do you remember that year? It was a particularly special year, when things were full of adventure.

I was dancing every day, and singing and writing all night. I used to go to London by train every day. It was the time of bomb scares, and everyone would stare uneasily at unattended bags, and the trains were full of paranoia. It was brilliant for me—I’d get back to my newly acquired roommates, Zoodle and Pye, who were only kittens, then, and I’d open all the windows and wail away all night. I only got one complaint from someone who had to get up at 4:00 a.m., and as I was creating noisily until at least that time, they were somewhat unhappy at their lack of sleep. But only that one complained.

I feel in many ways that ‘76 and this year are linked together, for me. This year I’ve been seriously trying to work for an album, but found that in the first part of the year I just needed to rest, really. It’s hard to say how I was feeling after the last album, but I needed to breathe. There are always post-album blues, but this time I think I just wanted a break, just to think and to gather stimulus for a new direction. After the demanding lands that my last set of songs took me to, I had to think again about where to go—maybe somewhere a little sunnier. I can honestly say I feel so much more relaxed having had time to put my pieces back together; have some time with my family and friends, which I was really missing; and also to indulge in some books, films and records.

I do like Kate Bush’s memories of 1976. Whilst it was a scary or tense time in the U.K. and there was a sense of fear in the air, it was a very hot summer. 1983 seemingly the same. By 1983, she really needed a break after The Dreaming. It is quite a dense and smoky album. Quite smoggy and dense. There are lighter and sunnier moments, though The Dreaming has tension and edge. I can understand why Bush would want to step back a bit. 1976 was when Bush was she moved out of her childhood home of East Wickham Farm. I think she moved to 44 Wickham Road in her late teens. The property was owned by her father. She lived in the middle floor, in between her brothers Paddy and John Carder. It was during this time that she wrote the song Wuthering Heights and started performing live with the KT Bush Band. She wrote Wuthering Heights in March 1977. Different pressures in 1976 and 1983. Bush was putting her debut together in 1976. Demos were recorded. She had already recorded a couple of the tracks for The Kick Inside in 1975 (The Saxophone Song and The Man with the Child in His Eyes), and she was putting together other tracks.

After lasting three months on Chinese take-aways during the last part of the album, I realised food was a terribly important factor to a healthy mind and body. So now I make sure I cook one good meal a day, and have cut out all junk food--which is unbelievable for me. It is definitely true that convenience is not always a good thing. Cooking, especially when you're not handling carcasses and gristle, can be a delightful thing. I always find it a miracle to turn a few vegetables and some flour and margarine into a complete meal--it's a bit like the five loaves and two fish. It's times like this, when I'm doing a lot of cooking, that I realise how glad I am and how lucky I am to be a vegetarian, to be eating nothing but fruit and vegetables--all the wonderful colours and textures. Of course, the big trouble with cooking is time, but I make myself set aside the time to cook an evening meal, and I really miss it now if I'm out and not able to devour my nutritious foods, and it'll take a while yet before I'll be able to handle a Chines take-away.

I have also found a wonderful new dance teacher. Her name is Dyane Gray, and she is an incredibly beautiful dancer. Not only did I feel I needed to be fit again, but I really wanted the stimulus and inspiration that comes from true teachers.

Having found her, and since taking more care of my body, I feel recharged again. It's too easy to let bad food and no sleep catch up. I can't tell you how good and happy I feel since I've taken these few steps.

As you probably know, a trip to America and Canada was due, and was unfortunately cancelled. It was very disappointing, as I was greatly looking forward to trying to help The Dreaming along out there. But I feel I was probably meant to carry on with the album and perhaps also to have been able to enjoy the first British summer for seven years. [The papers printed stories that Kate's scheduled American trip was scratched solely because her planned mode of transportation, the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner, was diverted from its schedule for service in the Falklands at the last minute. According to the news reports, Kate simply cancelled the America junket rather than consider flying, allegedly because of an overpowering phobia of airplanes. Although she does seem to have made such a decision, her heavy reliance on air transportation up until this time discredits the stories of air phobia.]

I have written before how Kate Bush had an unhealthy diet when recording The Dreaming. Not giving herself time to cook meals, there were a lot of takeaways. It is not only bad for physical health. It also affects mental health. An overhaul was needed. In 1983, there were not a lot of vegetarian options. Difficult for someone like Bush, who was and is a vegetarian. More choices today. Though fruit and vegetables alone would not be all she ate. Protein and other stuff. Her body and mind healthier for having this fresh produce. Not the processed food that was often cooked in fat and grease. Bush did undertake dance. You can find out more about Dyane Gray here. There is some confusion around the date of Issue 14 of the Kate Bush Club. It was published in 1983 and not 1993. The official Kate Bush Club (often referred to as KBC) ended its primary run in 1993, wrapping up twenty-four print magazines. Issue 19 was published in spring 1987, so we cannot assume issue 14 was published in autumn 1993. In any case, it is clear Kate Bush is talking about the aftermath of The Dreaming and starting work on Hounds of Love, rather than her experience after The Sensual World and preparing for The Red Shoes (1993). Bush specifically mentions The Dreaming, so I am not sure why there are some sources feel Issue 14 was printed in autumn 1993. Anyway, there are some interesting words from Bush. She does end her writing by talking about a compilation video. It was for The Single File. The Video Collection was released in the U.K. on 28th November, 1983, this video compilation features twelve of her music videos from Wuthering Heights to There Goes a Tenner.

I had a really good birthday this year. In fact, it was definitely one of the best ever. Thank you all so much for your lovely presents and wishes. It means a lot to know you're all thinking of me.

Just a word about the compilation video that was promised in April!! (you must be used to this by now.) Unfortunately, due to delayed business transactions, there is still no release date, but we really do hope it will be settled before the end of the year! (Hopefully, there will be advertisements around the time, to let you know if we can't get an official release date to you.) But as a sneak preview, here is a proof of the artwork at this stage.

Well, I'll return to my work, and wish you a very happy autumn.

Until our next letter.

Lots of love,

Kate xx

Interview

Do you watch the chart positions of your albums and singles? Do you know their positions before they are broadcast, or do you have to wait and listen to the radio?

"Yes, I suppose I do keep an eye on the charts to a certain extent, but I don't know the chart positions until the day you hear them on the radio. I usually hear via a telephone call from the record company, and they don't know them until that morning."

Have you ever sung in any foreign language other than French?

"Yes, but only once, when I was in Japan at a Japanese business conference. I sang a well known song of their country, in their language."

Who is Tamlain, mentioned in The Empty Bullring?

"Tamlain is a girl in a traditional fairy story, who is locked up in an ivory tower."

Do you actually read up and research for your songs, or is it information already in your head--especially Breathing?

"This really depends on the subject matter of the individual song; but in the case of Breathing, most of the information came from a documentary about a man who had been following up the negative results of nuclear products."

On Never For Ever and The Dreaming, you are credited as playing a CS-80. What is this?

"The CS-80 is a synthesiser made by Yamaha. It has been a particularly favourite synth. of mine, as it is one of the few that has a touch-sensitive keyboard."

I forgot that Kate Bush sang in Japanese when she visited the country in 1978. That would have been quite a challenge! I did not know about the inspiration behind Breathing I don’t think. In the sense that Bush was taking from a documentary. The questions in this interview are quite random, though we do get some insight into older songs. It was a period before Hounds of Love came out, so it was natural to nod back to her previous two albums.

Do you ever go to concerts? If so, who?

"I very rarely go to gigs, as I don't really have much free time; but it's always nice to go and see artists whose music I enjoy, especially when the shows are as spectacular as The Wall."

Who is the man on the cover of The Dreaming?

"Why, Houdini, of course!"

Were the brightly coloured trousers with zips and ties that you wore for the Virgin p.a. last year and for a number of photos specially made for you, or did you buy them?

"Quite a few people have assumed that they were specially made. However, I did buy the trousers--from a boutique called Splash."

Do you know of any records available featuring whale music?

"I think if you look around, there have been quite a few, but I understand that some, including The Song of the Humpback Whale, have been deleted, so you would probably only find them in second-hand record shops”.

Kate Bush enjoying Pink Floyd’s The Wall. That must have been an incredible gig to go to. The Wall Tour ran between 1980 and 1981. This would have been eye-opening for Bush. Perhaps absorbing some of the sound and visions into The Dreaming in 1982. Breathing is often compared to Pink Floyd. Perhaps she had them in mind when she wrote that track. I have been trying to find photos of Bush with those brightly-coloured zips and ties. I can’t seem to find any! I have said before how Kate Bush is a fashion icon. It would have been amazing seeing her in this bright and colourful outfit! A weird final question about whale music. I am surprised we did not get whale song during Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave. Maybe Bush could not have found any. She was recording natural sounds by that point, although getting close enough to a whale would have been quite a feat! I will reference Kate Bush’s writings for the KBC. Their amazing newsletters. We are in autumn 1983, so I will look at issues after 14. We do get a sense of what she was doing in the summer of 1983. Rebuilding and refocused, she was taking up dance again, easting healthier and spending time with friends and family. All vital and crucial when it came to the sound of Hounds of Love. A sunnier album than The Dreaming. Hounds of Love would not arrive until September 1985, though Bush was updating fans and giving them insight into happenings. Maybe an early pioneer in terms of how she communicated with fans, though I guess a few artists and bands had fanzines?! The equivalent of Instagram posts and social media?! Today, we get the odd post from Kate Bush, though I am sort of envious of fans who read her writing in the 1970s and 1980s (and into the 1990s too). What we get from Kate Bush in Issue 14 is…

SUCH a revealing treat.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: My Mother/My Father/My Brothers (The Morning Fog)/Moving Stranger (Moving

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

My Mother/My Father/My Brothers (The Morning Fog)/Moving Stranger (Moving)

__________

THERE are not many…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Italy in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Angelo Deligio/Mondadori via Getty Images

more edition of this series to go until I am out of characters. I have four more to go after this. Two more songs from The Kick Inside. I am ending this feature by looking at the brilliant opening song on Kate Bush’s debut album. I am starting off with the final track on Hounds of Love. Opposite ends of albums, they both are connected in a way by water. They also mention or are a tribute to very important people. The latter song wis about a sadly-departed influence on Kate Bush who very much helped shape her as a dancer and, to an extent, an artist. I am beginning with The Morning Fog from Hounds of Love. It is the final moment in the suite called The Ninth Wave. This is where Kate Bush’s heroine is in the sea and presumingly has gone overboard a ship. Trying to stay alive, we see these scenes and songs infold where she struggles and fights. Visions and hallucinations. Ghosts and dangers. Something under the ice and things below the water. I have always seen this as Kate Bush being in the water rather than a heroine, as she does mention her relatives in The Morning Fog. I am leaving out “My Loved Ones”. She does mentioned My Mother, My Father and My Brothers. Those close to her that she is so glad to see. Before exploring ideas around this song, it is worth reading some words with Kate Bush about this song. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia provide us with some useful resource:

“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]

Richard Skinner, ‘Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992”.

I do like that idea of it being this curtain call and little show. There are a number of different ways we can look at The Ninth Wave. Even if Bush says in that interview how it is about a person thankful for everything they have, there is clear personal relevance. The importance of Kate Bush’s family. I will come onto that.

I do want to stay around this idea of The Ninth Wave being this theatrical piece. Bush did perform it in its entirety in 2014 for Before the Dawn. I was not there, but from people who were at those shows, they remarked how immersive and amazing those shows were. Being in the audience when you get to see The Ninth Wave unfold. It does have this old-time sensibility. The thank you and goodnight moment, as she said. You do not really get that much from albums. Maybe a thing of the past. The Beatles had a song called Goodnight, which was the final track from their 1968 double album, The Beatles. Ringo Starr sang that number. Not that there was a concept around The Beates. But they very much used this number to wrap things up and calm things down. The final words are these: “Close your eyes and I'll close mine/Good night, sleep tight/Now the sun turns out his light/Good night, sleep tight/Dream sweet dreams for me/dream sweet dreams for you/(Whispered:) Good night, good night everybody/Everybody everywhere/Good night”. Kate Bush might have used that for inspiration. In any case, The Morning Fog is this lively and bouncing track after what has been quite a turbulent ride. When it seemed like nobody could reach the struggling woman, there is this rescue. It opens up a question as to whether Bush was rescued. She liked to think that is how The Ninth Wave ended. I am going to turn to Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 book on Hounds of Love that was published in 2024. She attended Before the Dawn and saw The Morning Fog performed. There was an idea that The Ninth Wave would be turned into a film. Bush wanted to do that. I guess work got in the way or it wasn’t possible. For a 2005 MOJO interview, Bush saw The Ninth Wave as her first novelette. This idea of music being a journey. I have written before how The Ninth Wave would still make a great film. You could saw its ultimate interpretation and visual representation happened on stage in 2014. That is fair enough. Those who were not at the residency will never know what it was like. Also, there are limitations being on the stage. You can achieve more with a film. And Kate Bush herself has never said that there is no point to a filmed The Ninth Wave. I think I cast Saoirse Ronan as the heroine in the film idea. Maybe shifting that casting choice to someone like Margaret Qualley, I would still love that come to life. Set in New York and with a first act that sets up the tragedy and woman going overboard, we would then go into the woman falling overboard. Or she ends up in the water somehow. The idea of the songs being sung by Kate Bush and someone else playing the lead role. I feel it would still work. What you could get from a filmed The Ninth Wave is The Morning Fog being realised. That moment of relief and joy. Leah Kardos notes how, in Before the Dawn, “Bush sings about falling ‘like a stone, like a storm’, which could suggest to some tat she is being pulled down into the water’s depths one last time, or alternatively that she is falling to earth with gravity, back to safety. Her feeling of being ‘born again into the sweet morning fog’ is a transforming rebirth;  alive or not, she emerges into the light on the other side of the ordeal, understanding herself and how to love  and appreciate others in a better way”.

I never considered Hounds of Love to be a concept album. However, there is that arc of someone learning how to love. I have written before about The Morning Fog. The love that she had before for her loved ones and family stronger and better now. Appreciating them anew. Her brothers, John and Paddy, definitely in her mind. They both appear on Hounds of Love. Paddy is playing and does some backing vocals, whilst John can be heard reciting a poem during Jig of Life. Her mother and father very dear to her. Although uncredited, I think Paddy Bush does provide one of the vocals on Waking the Witch. He and John are on Cloudbusting. Paddy provided the voice of a helicopter pilot for Before the Dawn. That is during Waking the Witch. Through her life and career, her brothers hugely important. In terms of supporting their sister and enlightening her. Music, poetry and culture. Her mother and father also hugely important. It is natural that any artist would feel fondly about their family and they would mention them in a song. Though Kate Bush’s career is unlike others. How instrumental her parents were. Her brothers always so supportive. I did not mentioned the loved ones Bush sings about. Though you know they would include Del Palmer. He was her boyfriend at the time. He was an engineer on Hounds of Love. The two of them had this very close working relationship. Although there were some arguments and differences, there was immense trust. Palmer worked on her albums up to and including 50 Words for Snow in 2011. He sadly died in 2024. His role in Hounds of Love and Kate Bush’s career as a whole was massive. What you get in this track is that rebirth and realisation. The affirmation of showing love for her family. There is also that survival after an ordeal. Even if Leah Kardos suggests that things may have turned out tragically, I still think that it was a good ending. Kardos did have some words to say about the live version.

Bush said in the programme for Before the Dawn how she wanted to mix film and theatre. How the real-life events happen on a screen. They were pre-filmed. The nightmares and delirium happen on the stage. That crossfade between the two. “In another pre-filmed clip from the chilly Pinewood tank (Bush filmed the video for And Dream of Sleep in a giant water tank and caught mild hypothermia), Bush sings the verse in water brilliantly illuminated by a halo of reflected moonlight. With the words ‘I get out of my car’, she grasps the edge of the buoy while, in a dream, a gigantic buoy also appears, glowing with bright red light and floating on an ocean of reflected stars. Members of the chorus ride upon it, holding red flares aloft as they sing the mournful Georgian chorale ‘Zinzkaro’. The Lords detach Bush’s seemingly lifeless body from the buoy, slowly carrying her off the stage and down the venue’s aisle in a sombre funereal procession. Suddenly on the screen a hand reaches down, another hand grasps back, and halfway down the aisle Bush stirs. Gathering at the front of the stage, now bathed in the warm light of dawn, the whole company joins in with an acoustic rendition of ‘The Morning Fog’. Now unmasked, the lords hoist their fish heads onto the shoulders and dance gracefully with the members of the chorus. Bush walks back through the venue and on to the stager to gigantic cheers”.

I think that The Ninth Wave has influenced artists since. You can look at Taylor Swift’s most recent album, The Life of a Showgirl, and how it is similar to the back cover of Hounds of Love. That photo of Bush in the water. Shot by John Carder Bush, more than a coincidence. On The Life of a Showgirl, there is a song called The Fate of Ophelia. Although The Ninth Wave was inspired in part by a poem from Alfred Lord Tennyson, the photo on the back of Hounds of Love evokes William Shakespeare’s Ophelia. A character in Hamlet (1599–1601), Ophelia is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet. Due to Hamlet's actions, Ophelia ultimately becomes mad and drowns. I feel Taylor Swift was influenced by Hounds of Love more than Hamlet when it comes to that album cover. This article explores how The Ninth Wave takes its title from an Alfred Lord Tennyson poem. How The Coming of Arthur (1869) influenced Hounds of Love’s masterpiece suite:

“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’

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’

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush shot for Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

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’”.

Let’s move to the Moving Stranger that features in The Kick Inside’s opening track, Moving. In fact, the first two words on that opening track are “Moving stranger”. That character is not necessity inspire by anyone real. However, the song is a tribute to Lindsay Kemp. I want to come to a reliable and trusted source, Dreams of Orgonon and what they ay about Moving. If The Ninth Wave’s The Morning Fog connects to water in a different way to Moving, they are connected. Water very much a fascination and pull for Bush. If The Ninth Wave is about the brutality of the ocean and that struggle to survive, Moving presents it in a more intimate, calm and beautiful way. The first sound we hear on The Kick Inside is whale song. That ‘moving stranger’ could well be a dance instructor like Lindsay Kemp. How he impacted her. Bush was quite shy and would stand at the back of class. Kemp pulled her to the front in a sense and forced her into action. Rather than it being a cruel act, it was someone spotting her potential. The line, “You crush the lily in my soul” is about him and how this timidity and fear was squashed:

“From its opening moments, “Moving” has a sense of weight and motion, commencing with a fifteen-second sample of whale song from environmentalist Roger S. Payne’s LP Songs of the Humpback Whale (“whales say everything about ‘moving’…it weighs a ton and yet it’s so light it floats”). Then Bush’s vocals and piano greet the listener with “moving stranger, does it really matter?/ as long as you’re not afraid to feel.” Bush requests a stranger’s partnership in a no-string-attached arrangement — the ability to dance together is an adequately precious union. Dance a mediator, like a precisely choreographed one-night stand.

Bush has credited multiple instructors in the development of her dancing skills, including jazz-influenced instructor Robin Kovac and American mime Adam Darius. But her most influential teacher is one of the world’s most famous mimes, Lindsay Kemp. Kemp’s legacy is enormous, boasting experience teaching and working with David Bowie, maintaining a status as a gay icon, and his extravagant theatrical performances. One of these stage shows is particularly crucial for Kate Bush. In 1975, she saw Kemp for the first time in a performance in Bloomsbury. Flowers, an adaptation of Jean Genet’s proto-Beat debut novel Our Lady of the Flowers, is an astonishing vision of decadence, material brutality, and bodily liberation

“Moving” is explicitly Bush paying her debt to Kemp, applying his lessons to her work in the same way she’s channeled the songwriting of Bowie or Ferry into her music. Bush’s anti-gnosticism in particular is inherited from Kemp, viewing dance as an art form that can be radical, liberating, and innovative. “You give me life/please don’t let me go,” says the hedonistic Bush, “you crush the lily in my soul.”

Salient in “Moving” is a use of aqueous language. From its whale sample onwards, it fixates upon water as a metaphor for dance. “Moving liquid/yes, you are just as water,” Bush realizes about her partner, as if she’s realized he has the face of a genius. She invests greatly in malleability, letting motion transform her — Bush has explained the “moving liquid” lyric by explaining it as “what the Chinese say about being the cup the water turns into” (this also touches on George Gurdijeff’s Fourth Way, in which an essence is governed by the form is takes. We’ll get there soon). For “Moving,” form is as crucial as substance”.

I want to come to that idea of the moving stranger and whether it is about romance and sex or dance. Lindsay Kemp definitely is at the heart of Moving. Kate Bush slipped a copy of The Kick Inside under his door when it was released and he saw her tribute him. He did not even know she was a singer until he heard the album! Bush explained in an interview how he “needed a song written to him. He opened up my eyes to the meanings of movement. He makes you feel so good. If you’ve got two left feet it’s ‘you dance like an angel darling.’ He fills people up, you’re an empty glass and glug, glug, glug, he’s filled you with champagne”. In 1982, Zaine Griff approached Kate Bush to sing on his song, Flowers. A tribute to his and Bush’s mentor – Bush met Griff at a dance class years earlier -, she happily obliged. The cover of the song is evocative of Kate Bush’s The Ninth Wave and that John Carder Bush-shot photo. You can read more about that collaboration here. There is no exaggerating how important Lindsay Kemp was to Kate Bush. Not just when it came to him teaching dance and bringing that love from her. His staging of Flowers impacted her career. You can feel so much of The Kick Inside nodding to that. The production features music from, another others, Pink Floyd and Billie Holiday. Kate Bush was a big fan of Holiday and obviously Pink Floyd. David Gilmour another mentor and close friend. If David Bowie’s final performance as Ziggy Stardust in 1972 affected a young Kate Bush in one way and perhaps inspired something in her music, Lindsay Kemp – he and Bowie were in a relationship at one point it is said – and Flowers opened her eyes and mind. In terms of the culture she was digesting at a young age, it was verry advanced, provocative and liberal. Consider what she would have witnessed:

“Inspiration: Kemp’s extremely free interpretation of Genet’s novel “Our Lady of the Flowers”, with himself playing the central role of Divine, a transvestite transcending gender in a world of criminals, whores and angels: prisons and sexual fantasies, Genet’s verbal violence and poetry transformed into music and gesture, silence and stillness. A dreamlike journey to destruction, through seduction, shock, laughter, poetry and total emotion.

Creation: First performance in September 1970, in the ex-Edinburgh Rock factory in Edinburgh, manually converted into something resembling a theatre by Kemp and a cast of willing young acquaintances, and named The Edinburgh Combination. Further extremely experimental versions were created and evolved from 1970-72, in small Scottish theatre spaces or English universities, transmitting raw “poor theatre” energy, sex, parody and violence. In January 1974, in London, transferring from the tiny Bush Theatre to the West End, came the transformation into the show that would tour the world and open the doors to all the other Lindsay Kemp Company productions.

Ingredients (post-1974): A set built of stark high scaffolding, soaring ladders, platforms and a balcony. High impact lighting by John Spradbery, bold stylised colours, light bursting out of darkness and breathing with the music and smoke.

A potent recorded sound track with live percussion by Joji Hirota: an extreme contrasted collage of electronic effects and voices with music from Mozart to Pink Floyd via La Vie en Rose, Al Jolson, Schumann and Billie Holiday. Plus total silence.

Boldly stylised make-up, simple costumes and nudity. Prisoners, sailors, whores, transvestites, but also angels, masked furies and white bodies smeared with blood.

A closely knit cast of ten performers infused over time with Kemp’s performance technique but also inspired by his example to deeply develop their own performing personalities, backed up by 5 equally passionate technicians and assistants”.

It is clear that some of the lines are about Lindsay Kemp and what he gave to Kate Bush. “How I’m moved/How you move me/With your beauty’s potency/You give me life/Please don’t let me go”. There is that dedication and tribute to Kemp. But there are also those aspects of sex, dance and water. What Dreams of Orgonon analysed and discussed. The poetry in Bush’s Moving. The line “Yes, you are just as water”,  referring to Kemp’s fluid, graceful nature and his ability to flow past any obstacles in his path. Ultimately, the song serves as a beautiful, biographical thank you for teaching her how to let go and translate emotion into art. There is a mix of the desire and lust in some of the lines together with that tribute to Lindsay Kemp. I do love how water is elemental too. Hounds of Love, water appears at the core of The Ninth Wave. It also plays a part on Cloudbusting and The Big Sky from the first side. Thinking about the words “moving stranger”. That idea of a stranger being someone unknown and malleable. Stranger as in something odd. The first experience Kate Bush had of Lindsay Kemp was likely nerves. Although she is a fantastic dancer, it perhaps was not a quick transformation. That scene and setting might have seemed strange to her. She and Kemp becoming friends. He appeared in her 1993 short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve. Here are examples of where Kate Bush talked about Lindsay Kemp and his impact on her:

“I couldn’t believe how strongly Lindsay communicates with people without even opening his mouth. It was incredible, he had the whole audience in his control, just with his little finger. And it was amazing. I’d never seen anything like it, I really hadn’t. And I felt if it was possible to combine that strength of movement with the voice, then maybe it would work, and that’s what I’ve tried to do.

Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 4 (UK), 21 February 1979

Once I’d left school I tried to get into a dance school full-time, but no one would accept me as I had no qualifications in ballet. I had almost given up the idea of using dance as an extension of my music, until I met Lindsay Kemp, and that really did change so many of my ideas. He was the first person to actually give me some lessons in movement. I realized there was so much potential with using movement in songs, and I wanted to get a basic technique in order to be able to express myself fully. Lindsay has his own style – it’s more like mime – and although he studied in many ballet schools and is technically qualified as a dancer, his classes and style are much more to do with letting go what’s inside and expressing that. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t perfect technique.

Electronics & Music Maker, 1982

To call him a mime artist is like calling Mozart a pianist. He was very brave, very funny and above all, astonishingly inspirational. There was no-one quite like Lindsay. I was incredibly lucky to study with him, work with him and spend time with him. I loved him very much and will miss him dearly. Thank you, dear Lindsay.

Lindsay Kemp, performer and Bowie mentor, dies at 80. BBC News, 25 August 2018”.

When Lindsay Kemp died in 2018, Kate Bush did post a tribute to him on her website: “The world has lost a truly original and great artist of the stage. To call him a mime artist is like calling Mozart a pianist. He was very brave, very funny and above all, astonishingly inspirational. There was no-one quite like Lindsay. “I was incredibly lucky to study with him, work with him and spend time with him. I loved him very much and will miss him dearly. Thank you, dear Lindsay”. You can read more about Kemp’s life, work and legacy here. What else can we take from Moving? In terms of its live performances and where this song featured, it had this wide and interesting visibility. I do love how this song enjoyed many outings:

“Soon after the release of The Kick Inside, Bush performed ‘Moving’ alongside with ‘Them Heavy People’ on 25 February 1978 on the BBC TV show Saturday Night at the Mill.

On 12 May, she took part in a Dutch special TV show dedicated to the opening of the Haunted Castle, the new attraction of the amusement park Efteling. She performed six songs in six videos filmed near the castle and across the park.

In June 1978, Bush sang ‘Moving’ at Nippon Budokan during the Tokyo Music Festival. The performance was retransmitted on the Japanese television on 21 June and was followed by a 35 million audience. She won the silver prize alongside with the American R&B band The Emotions.

Kate also performed ‘Moving’ on the Japanese TV programme Sound in S.

In 1979, Bush included ‘Moving’ on her first tour, The Tour of Life. Her performance can be seen on the video Live at Hammersmith Odeon”.

I am going to finish up here. Two songs with a connection to water. Both referencing beloved and dear people as their ‘characters’. Kate Bush’s family on The Ninth Wave’s The Morning Fog. On Moving, a dear friend and mentor. We can’t forget other people who brought movement and love of dance from Kate Bush. Robin Kovac and Arlene Phillips among them. If the brilliant Lindsay Kemp crushed the lily in Kate Bush’s soul, he also helped bring her brilliance, love of dance and this curious sense of wonder…

INTO full bloom.

FEATURE: With No Problems… Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at Forty-One

FEATURE:

 

 

With No Problems…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake from the Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) shoot in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at Forty-One

__________

I don’t feel I can add anything…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) with Michael Hervieu (now Misha Hervieu)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

new to features I have previously written about Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). However, I do want to mark the song on its anniversary. Released as the first single from Hounds of Love on 5th August, 1985, this timeless song has spanned generations. From its initially released forty-one years ago through to its use in 2022 on Netflix’s Stranger Things, to now, where it is still being played widely and discovered by new people. It is a track that has been streamed nearly two billion times on Spotify. Of time of writing this (21st June, 2026), the song has been streamed 1,754,277, 628. I do think it gets talked about pretty much as the only Kate Bush song. It dominates when people think of her. Those who don’t know the rest of her catalogue do at least recognise this song. It is good that people know Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), though I do feel that they need to dig deeper and not just stop here. Even so, I am charged with writing about Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) forty-one years after its release. When it was released as a single after featuring in Stranger Things, it got to number one in the U.K. Only the second time Kate Bush reached number one here. The first was when her debut single, Wuthering Heights, was released in 1978. It originally reached number three. I will start with some background and interview archive from the Kate Bush Encyclopedia:

“Song written by Kate Bush. The song was reportedly written in one evening in the summer of 1983. It was the first song recorded for the subsequent fifth studio album Hounds Of Love. The electronic drums, programmed by Del Palmer, and the Fairlight part were present from the first recording of the song. The lyrics speak of Bush’s impossible wish to become her lover, and he her, so that they could know what the other felt. Kate played the first versions of the songs to Paul Hardiman on 6 October 1983. He commented later: “The first time I heard ‘Running Up That Hill’ it wasn’t a demo, it was a working start. We carried on working on Kate and Del’s original. Del had programmed the Linn drum  part, the basis of which we kept. I know we spent time working on the Fairlight melody/hook but the idea was there plus guide vocals.”

The track was worked on between 4 November and 6 December, with Stuart Elliott adding drums, but closely following the programmed pattern. Alan Murphy added guitar parts whereas Paddy Bush, always providing the most ingenious instruments, played the rather better known balalaika on this track.

‘Running Up That Hill’ was intended as a fond farewell to dance, at least as far as Kate’s video appearances were concerned. The music video, directed by David Garfath, featured Bush and dancer Michael Hervieu (who won an audition after Stewart Avon-Arnold was not available due to other commitments) in a performance choreographed by Diane Grey. The pair are wearing grey Japanese hakamas. The choreography draws upon contemporary dance with a repeated gesture suggestive of drawing a bow and arrow (the gesture was made literal on the image for the single in which Bush poses with a real bow and arrow), intercut with surreal sequences of Bush and Hervieu searching through crowds of masked strangers

It is very much about the power of love, and the strength that is created between two people when they’re very much in love, but the strength can also be threatening, violent, dangerous as well as gentle, soothing, loving. And it’s saying that if these two people could swap places – if the man could become the woman and the woman the man, that perhaps they could understand the feelings of that other person in a truer way, understanding them from that gender’s point of view, and that perhaps there are very subtle differences between the sexes that can cause problems in a relationship, especially when people really do care about each other. (The Tony Myatt Interview, November 1985)

‘Running Up That Hill’ was one of the first songs that I wrote for the album. It was very nice for me that it was the first single released, I’d always hoped that would be the way. It’s very much about a relationship between a man and a woman who are deeply in love and they’re so concerned that things could go wrong – they have great insecurity, great fear of the relationship itself. It’s really saying if there’s a possibility of being able to swap places with each other that they’d understand how the other one felt, that when they were saying things that weren’t meant to hurt, that they weren’t meant sincerely, that they were just misunderstood. In some ways, I suppose the basic difference between men and women, where if we could swap places in a relationship, we’d understand each other better, but this, of course, is all theoretical anyway. (Open Interview, 1985)

It seems that the more you get to know a person, the greater the scope there is for misunderstanding. Sometimes you can hurt somebody purely accidentally or be afraid to tell them something because you think they might be hurt when really they’ll understand. So what that song is about is making a deal with God to let two people swap place so they’ll be able to see things from one another’s perspective. (Mike Nicholls, ‘The Girl Who Reached Wuthering Heights’. The London Times, 27 August 1985)”.

There is a lot to unpack when it comes to this song. Aside from one or two idiotic takes on the song – Melody Maker said Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) “She’s precocious, dated, and dull. This record is dismally uninteresting” -, it gained universal acclaim. I do feel that it is this track we will be talking about generations from now. I feel it is so powerful and relevant. That idea of switching shoes and places with someone to better understand them. If you see it about two lovers breaking that barrier or a wider sense of divided people on the same wavelength, Bush doing this deal with God. It has this almost spiritual nature. It is wonderful that Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) had this new life and was not just resigned to the 1980s. New generations discussing and listening to this epic track. In 2022, Classic Rock told the story behind Kate Bush’s best-known song:

“Yet 37 years after it initially reached number 3 in the UK (her biggest hit apart from 1978 debut Wuthering Heights), Running Up That Hill seems to have snowballed beyond that tie-in success and is encouraging many young viewers, who perhaps only knew of Kate Bush as somebody Florence Welch gassed on about in interviews, to investigate her back catalogue and embrace the worlds of albums such as 1985's Hounds Of Love (which yielded this song), The Kick Inside (1978), The Dreaming (1982), The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993). When Bush made her first live appearances for 35 years at a Hammersmith Apollo residency in 2014, her albums made a return to prominence, taking up lofty positions in the charts. It’s plausible that the knock-on effect of Running Up That Hill’s revival will detonate a comparable explosion of interest in all things Kate.

The Hounds Of Love album itself prompted something of a change of fortune, as its predecessor, The Dreaming, hadn’t sold too well.  Hounds Of Love, on the other hand, gained rave reviews, the number one spot in the UK, a respectable showing in the US, and passed a million sales by 1998. Bush was in love with the Fairlight CMI synth and, after recording her demos, spent over a year on overdubs, mixing and tweaking. The result was effectively two mini-albums, with Side One the “pop” side (albeit art-pop), and Side Two an unapologetic prog concept suite about a woman drifting alone at sea at night.

Running Up That Hill opens Side One, which also contains Hounds Of Love's equally dramatic title track, The Big Sky and Cloudbusting, which was EMI’s preferred choice as lead single. Kate insisted on Running Up That Hill, as she deemed it more representative of the album’s direction. Another factor which had unnerved the label was the song’s original title of A Deal With God. On that issue, Kate gave way. (She may, as a teenager, have persuaded the label to release Wuthering Heights - not their choice -  by bursting into tears, but now surrounded by a supportive family and business framework, she was savvier regarding which battles to choose). “For me, A Deal With God is the title”, she told Q in 1989, “but I was told that if I insisted, the radio stations in at least ten countries would refuse to play it – Spain, Italy, America, lots. I thought that was ridiculous. Still, especially after The Dreaming, I decided to weigh up priorities. Not to compromise creatively, but to not be so obsessive that I cut my own throat…I had to give the album a chance, I had to be grown up about this”.

The song, anyway, was about a man and a woman, with God as a secondary character. “I was trying to say that a man and woman can’t really understand each other because we are a man and a woman”, she told Richard Skinner on Radio 1. “And if we could swap our roles, be in each other’s place for a while, I think we’d be very surprised! It would lead to greater understanding. I thought the only way it could be done was, you know, a deal with the devil. And then I thought: well no, why not a deal with God? Because that’s so much more powerful…”

With its of-its-time interpretive dance video and a memorably incongruous showing on British 80s TV staple Wogan, the single took off and rebooted Bush’s career, allowing the album to loosen the reins and release its hounds. (That year, NME awarded it third best track of the year, behind two Jesus & Mary Chain toe-tappers). And while everyone from Placebo to First Aid Kit to Chromatics have subsequently concocted cover versions, none come close to the original’s rhythmic intensity - a blend of LinnDrum programming from Del Palmer and the drumming of Stuart Elliott, who’d worked with Cockney Rebel and Al Stewart and on all Bush’s albums up to that point. “He’s so easy to work with because he knows what I’m like”, Bush enthused. Kate’s brother Paddy’s balalaika is there too, subliminally shading in the arresting atmospherics. That bridge – “come on baby, come on darling…let’s exchange the experience” – remains thrilling”.

People today appreciate Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) as being a great song. I don’t know if they understand its importance in 1985. It was not like Kate Bush was adored and quickly followed her last single with a new one. It was a difficult road. The Dreaming came out in 1982. There were singles released, though there was little chart success. Bush suffered exhaustion after the album and there was this tough period. Days before Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) arrived, people were wondering where she was and if she was done. Rumours she was retired, a recluse, overweight, a drug addict. Misogyny as popular and prevalent in 1985 as it is now. If you are a female artist and dare to take time between albums then you are subjected to abuse and insults. In what is one of the biggest mic drops in history, Bush not only shut up moronic critics, a dubious EMI – who felt that, after producing The Dreaming solo and the album being seen as inaccessible and uncommercial by some, that it would not be wise to do it again – and anyone who doubted her, she released a track that is considered among the greatest ever. Showing that she was more than capable of producing a massive hit and staying try to herself. I guess, if she had continued along the lines of The Dreaming or released another flop, there would have been danger of being dropped or EMI stepping in. The success of the single and Hounds of Love – which came on 16th September, 1985 – meant that she was definitely back in their good books! I guess, when the song reaches two billion streams on Spotify – which may be as soon as next year -, more will be written about it. The Quietus published a feature in 2022. They asked, with regards Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), “what does it mean and why has it connected so strongly with a younger generation?”:

“In the summer of 1985, Bush re-emerged. She’d been out of the public eye for three years. Back then, in the hyperactive, costume-changing, style-shifting ’80s, it felt like a lifetime. On August 3, NME ran a Where Are They Now? feature. Two days later, a single hit the shelves; EMI’s first choice had been ‘Cloudbusting’. As with ‘Wuthering Heights’, she called the shots, and opted for ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’, that original title safely bracketed off.

Bush stared out from the cover with steely determination, bow in hand, arrow ready to fly. Like an archer setting its sights on a target, this was no mere comeback, but in her brother John Carder Bush’s words, "an act of spiritual, mental and physical focus". (He photographed the image and the moody reverse shot, taken at East Wickham Farm in a room so smoke-machine-filled that it had to be evacuated.)

A steady rhythm took ‘Running Up That Hill’ straight onto the dancefloor. Lofty proposals met it there. A lover yearns to strike a deal with the divine, to swap genders with her partner. Theirs is, for Bush, a love "that’s almost too big for them, with the potential for misunderstanding too great". Surging with optimism as it envisions the impossible, the track strives for that "inaccessible elsewhere", that misty hilltop where differences dissolve and true understanding exists. The gulf between humans had always been Bush’s forte, (the track’s distant balalaika echoing ‘Babooshka”s marital drama), but since ‘Wuthering Heights’, so had the imperious desire to cross it, at all costs. In its own mystical way, ‘Running Up That Hill’ is driven by that very ’80s imperative: Go For It!

The Fairlight is central; that original riff galloping throughout, the reverbed atmospherics bookending the song and those deep chords that tug the heartstrings, while the beat moves the body. Bush’s vocal is combative and sensual. Backing vocals mirror the mixed emotions, yay-yo-ing ecstatically, unleashing battle cries, akin to ‘Kiai!’, the cry made in Japanese martial arts – before Bush learnt dance, she studied karate (Stevie Nicks compared her to a ninja). The imagery is at turns passionate and menacing, thunder in hearts, bullets buried deep. In the orgasmic middle eight, Bush urges her lover to swap and exchange female/male pleasure, moving from traditional sex roles to something approaching the omnisexual (many of the song’s lines could be describing two men flip-fucking). Things intensify in its wake, lightning strikes with real drums, and Murphy’s guitar, all Gilmour-esque ‘feel’ squalls, as if the almighty has responded.

Unease threatens to tilt the radio-friendly axis, voices writhe and wriggle, souls stuck in the purgatory of their lonely skin, begging to break free and merge. The storm calms and a male/female voice sing its last lines, morphed like Bush and dance partner Michael Hervieu in the accompanying video. Kate Bush was going to the disco but it was on her terms, with this maelstrom of a song, conjured from earth and ether; male/female, human/machine, spirit/flesh and light/dark locked in an endless interplay. As with all the best pop music, the immediacy was a Trojan horse carrying an army of subversive ideas.

On its flip-side, she was alone at the piano, singing ‘Under The Ivy’; one of her best-loved B-sides. Seeking refuge, "away from the party", it’s the wallflower to the A-side’s diva, amongst the green and the grey like a gothic heroine. It comes straight from her East Wickham childhood pastorale, candid yet cloaked in secrecy. Here as on the album, the piano’s "rich and resonant", a Grotrian-Steinweg Grand, captured in a live room with an ambient mic, creating an "Erik Satie, alone after the guests have left the ballroom" vibe (Bush’s favourite pianists included Satie, Chopin and Windham Hill’s George Winston).

She performed ‘RUTH’ on Wogan, bow on back, standing before a lectern, Terry visibly awed. It featured repeatedly on Smash Hits‘ singles page, entrancing reviewer Ian Cranna. It sailed to No.3 in the UK singles chart, her biggest hit since ‘Wuthering Heights’. The video, shot at Hammer Horror HQ, Bray Studios (directed by Terry Gilliam’s cameraman, David Garfield), blended modern dance – Bush and partner Michael Hervieu, clad in Japanese Hakama trouser-skirts – and surreal sci-fi”.

I am going to end with the 2022 interview between Kate Bush and Emma Barnett. Bush would speak with Barnett again in 2024. However, this 2022 interview was rare. The first time Bush had conducted an interview around her work for many years. It was exciting to hear from her and the reaction to the runaway success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). As The Guardian reported, Bush had not listened back to the song a lot before it was included in Stranger Things:

“Speaking to Barnett, Bush said she hadn’t listened to Running Up That Hill “for a really long time” before its return to the charts, adding: “I never listen to my old stuff.” She last performed it in 2014 for her theatrical London concert series Before the Dawn.

Bush said its original title was A Deal With God, but “I think they were just worried, the record company, that it wouldn’t get played on the radio. That people would feel it was a sensitive title.”

On the meaning of the song, she said: “I really like people to hear a song and take from it what they want. But originally it was written as the idea of a man and a woman swapping with each other. Just to feel what it was like, from the other side.”

In a previous interview in 1986, she elaborated on the song’s meaning, saying it was “about the fundamental differences between men and women, I suppose trying to remove those obstacles, being in someone else’s place; understanding how they see it, and hoping that would remove problems in the relationship.”

In her Radio 4 interview, Bush described 2022 as “an incredibly exciting time … OK, so it’s an awful time on a lot of levels for people. Very difficult. But it’s also a time when incredible things are happening. Technology is progressing at this incredible rate. That’s pretty overwhelming, really. But, you know, there’s so many advances in medicine and there are positive things – you just have to look a bit harder to find them at the moment, I think”.

Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) turns forty-one on 5th August. I cannot blame people for talking about this song and it being their entry point into Kate Bush’s music. What I hope is that people explore her wider catalogue. The music video has been viewed more than 412 million times. Getting close to two billion streams. Widely played on radio since it was launched back into public consciousness, it is a work of genius. Few felt Kate Bush could survive or would produce anything great after The Dreaming received some mixed reviews. Singles that were not recorded to be singles and struggled to get much focus. This grand silencing bomb that arrived when she was about to be written off, forty-one years later, and we are still listening to this masterpiece. Kate Bush still very much active and relevant. A track that has a powerful message that is embraced and understood around the world. There are few songs ever released as powerful as Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) I think. This is a song that affects me…

EVERY single time I hear it.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Annabelle Dinda

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Annabelle Dinda

__________

THE brilliant…

Some Things Never Leave is the latest album from Annabelle Dinda. Born in Pennsylvania, Some Things Never Leave is her fourth studio album. I will end with a review of it. I am starting out with some interviews. Ones to Watch spoke with Dinda to discuss her album, “how she approaches her music after going viral on TikTok, and DIY-ing her album cover”:

“We are here to talk about the album, but I want to talk about “The Hand” first. What was it like for you when you posted it, and then all of a sudden it was this giant viral moment?

It was nuts, it was crazy. As much as when you’re posting you’re always going “Well who knows...” when it happens, especially at that volume, even when I was saying who knows what could happen, I really didn’t think that anyone was knowing that this was going to happen. It was crazy, it was a real mix of emotions, it was so exciting, and still is exciting in a belated sense. It’s such an incredible privilege to make anything that that amount of people are vibing with. I’m still rolling on that high, honestly.

Did “The Hand” going super viral impact your approach towards releasing music? Were you nervous to release your next thing after that?

No. If anything, I was more fueled. So far, I’ve gotten the feeling that because there is demand, I will supply, I think that’s fun. I really was excited to get more music out quickly, and I am continually excited to get more music out. Not in a way that’s crazy and not honoring the music that came before, but I love making music, and I’m so eager to do as much of it as anyone will let me do. Who knows, in five years, if I’m still lucky enough to do this, then maybe I’ll be kind of like, “I don’t know what to say to these people that are watching me,” but right now I’m like, “Listen to me! I got things to say!”

I love that. You mentioned that the title came very late in the recording process. What was it like choosing the title? Did it hit you all of a sudden?

We had been workshopping titles, and by that I mean I would come into the studio like “What about this one?” and they’d be like “Yeah…” I’m not a titler. I think some people start with a title, they start with the concept, and this was very much like “I don’t know.” But like anything that is named properly, it did come. Once I said it, I was like “Oh!” and everyone I said it to they were like “Oh!” and that’s how you know. When enough people say it in that little sassy voice.

Did “The Hand” going super viral impact your approach towards releasing music? Were you nervous to release your next thing after that?

No. If anything, I was more fueled. So far, I’ve gotten the feeling that because there is demand, I will supply, I think that’s fun. I really was excited to get more music out quickly, and I am continually excited to get more music out. Not in a way that’s crazy and not honoring the music that came before, but I love making music, and I’m so eager to do as much of it as anyone will let me do. Who knows, in five years, if I’m still lucky enough to do this, then maybe I’ll be kind of like, “I don’t know what to say to these people that are watching me,” but right now I’m like, “Listen to me! I got things to say!”

I love that. You mentioned that the title came very late in the recording process. What was it like choosing the title? Did it hit you all of a sudden?

We had been workshopping titles, and by that I mean I would come into the studio like “What about this one?” and they’d be like “Yeah…” I’m not a titler. I think some people start with a title, they start with the concept, and this was very much like “I don’t know.” But like anything that is named properly, it did come. Once I said it, I was like “Oh!” and everyone I said it to they were like “Oh!” and that’s how you know. When enough people say it in that little sassy voice.

I wanted to make sure we talk about the album cover. I had seen one of your TikToks, where it looked like you might have been physically crafting the album cover. Did you kind of arts and crafts the album cover yourself?

Yes! One of my very best friends, Lia, who does all of my pictures and visual stuff with me, we made that. We went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn and we took hundreds of photos, and we wanted to do this crowded cover. We cut out all these pictures and laid them out. I liked the idea of seeing the actual, physical pictures over the base photo. We ended up taking a lot of them out and keeping it pretty simple because, like everything, once it’s a little edited, it’s better. But yeah, we took the pictures, printed them, scanned them, it was really fun!”.

I want to bring in this interview from CLASH They spoke with Annabelle Dinda, among other things, the viral success of The Hand. It is a song that “held up a mirror to our humble humanity and supplied words for the grief we didn’t even know was fermenting within”:

“Which artists planted your musical seeds?

AD: My answer to this question sucks. I’ve been asked this a couple times and it’s so bad because I want to be the cool kind of person but Frank Sinatra was what my mom played in the car. A lot of Broadway, Stevie Wonder. Wonderful artists, just not what I sound like at all musically.

There’s certainly a through-line there when it comes to being narrative-centric. When building out your songs, do you feel like you’re pulling from inward or are you being influenced externally?

AD: I write a lot and not enough happens to me to support the amount that I write. During certain periods of time in my life I’ve written a lot because I’ve been feeling a lot, but I kind of always write a lot even when I’m not feeling a lot. In those moments I’ll pull from other things, like I did a lot of prompts on TikTok where I was just like “You guys tell me what to write about,” and that’s fun.

Every album I’ve done has a song or songs about my friends, oftentimes they’re named after my friends’ names. I really like to pull from other people’s lives. What naturally kind of happens is as I’m writing about someone else, because I am a mere animal person, I end up writing about myself a little bit too because you only have your own perspective.

You mentioned that you made ‘Some Things Never Leave’ during the fall, which it very much feels like seasonally. What was your mindset when making this album?

AD: This project came together quicker than any other project I’ve ever done. Six months ago, in a period of time where I could have never imagined this happening, I made music in a vacuum. I’ve made music for such a long time and I made it just because I have always done it and I knew I always would do it. It was not this curated experience. It was like, here is a year gone by. Here are the songs that I wrote in the year. And then I would take off some that I didn’t like.

If I wrote like, 40 songs in a year, then I would pair it down to like 15. This was much more like, “Okay, now people are listening to me.” I feel like the person I was was somebody who was living to write songs. Like it was my project of the time. I naturally kind of do this thing where when I have a feeling I translate it into a song at some point or another, but I was doing it very intentionally. Like ‘Big News Day’, which is the first song on the record, I literally just had a weird Tuesday and I wrote down two lines from it. It’s a collection of common and mundane experiences. That’s why I think people don’t really want to know what they’re about, because if you boil them down to the center, they would be boring.

How does your inner child feel right now?

AD: I’m really trying to take deep breaths and focus on how much fun she would be having. When I released this album, I had a day where I was really trying to focus on that and also trying to keep very present with it because I am conscious of building something standing the test of time if I’m lucky enough, but there is not a single guarantee. There’s not a guarantee in career. There’s not a guarantee in life. And the things that I have achieved thus far, the things I’ve experienced thus far and gotten to witness are so rare and so fun that even just this has been wonderful. I’ve been having a real ball.

Child me made music and probably wanted to do this more than me a year ago did. She would be shocked that my whole thing for such a long time was “I think that I could be a songwriter but I don’t think people are going to want to hear me sing.” I had a complex because by like 12 I was listening to so much Demi Lovato that I was like, “If you can’t sing like Demi Lovato you cannot sing,” and I cannot sing like Demi Lovato.

With the album being out, what is next for you? Are you considering visuals at all?

AD: Yeah, definitely. I think it’s what I’m liking about this album. It feels kind of like a nice, slow intro. Now I’m just gonna sit here and do what I have meant to do for a while. Visuals definitely, we’re going to do a live video. I think it’s going to be ‘Everyone Likes To Be Forgiven’. I’m feeling very confident about that because I want to do an arrangement thing if I can swing it. I just really want to introduce myself in a nice broad fashion and take my time doing so. My main goal is to release a ton of music”.

Atwood Magazine spent some time with Annabelle Dinda. Some Things Never Leave is one of the best albums of the year. If you have not heard the album yet, I would thoroughly recommend that you do so. Dinda has a run of North American dates. I hope that she plays in the U.K. at some point, as it would be wonderful to see her live. I can imagine her music is at its most powerful and affecting from the stage:

“Who are some of your musical north stars, and what are you most excited about the music you're making today?

Annabelle Dinda: I love Sigur Rós and Bowie and Belle and Sebastian and Rufus Wainwright. This is both a predictable and slightly unconventional combined list, but I would call them all some of my north stars in different ways. I’m excited to go more orchestral with music whenever I can, and to also lean into the rock side of things. I expect to be doing full rock operas by 40. (This is a joke but if this was my path I would be very happy, so maybe it’s not a joke.)

There’s an invigorating energy to this record – it’s sprightly, raw, emotionally charged and deeply alive! Can you share a little about the story behind this album?

Annabelle Dinda: Thank you! I think a lot of that energetic, raw sound simply emerged from the timespan we gave ourselves to record it, which was about two weeks all told. It shocked me how much detail we were able to include on the ten songs in that amount of time, but it was also so novel and great– having to make editorial choices and leave some moments open and largely unornamented, relying on the song itself to do most of the heavy lifting. The songs were written in not much more time, it’s basically a sampling of some of the songs I wrote within a three month time period, like a little snippet of life!

As a lyrically forward artist, do you have any favorite lyrics in these songs? I’d love to dive into a couple of your highlights?

Annabelle Dinda: “Everyone Likes To Be Forgiven” has some more of my favorites. “Do you hate when people love you / or do you not relate to them?” and “Do you hate when people know you / or do you know they never can?”

The other day I was listening to “Gunpoint, Headlock” again, and I had some reflective pride over the lyric: “there’s a kid killing soldiers in his video games / they build worlds on the screen, but they leave in the pain.” Sometimes I’ll write something and I won’t fully get it or like it until a month later”.

Some Things Never Leave has been billed by many as Annabelle Dinda’s debut album. It is not. She released three albums previously, so I am not sure why people are calling it a debut. In any case, many people are hearing her music for the first time. Atwood Magazine provided their review for Some Things Never Leave. You can tell that Dinda is going to be releasing music for many years to come:

“The greatest songwriters always seem to have a quiet, steady resolve. A sense of inner confidence that begets presence, as if you could somehow still feel them in an otherwise silent studio. Annabelle Dinda possesses that intangible trait on her debut LP Some Things Never Leave. It’s not that she out sings her range, vies for epic crescendos, or crafts a series of stunning instrumentals. There’s just this natural energy she brings to each moment – earthy, breezy, and effortlessly catchy melodies intertwine with introspective lyricism across forty minutes of emotionally-charged folk music. It’s no-frills, but sometimes simply being yourself and owning the moment is all that’s called for.

As Annabelle Dinda’s first album unfurls, its beauty speaks for itself. ‘Big News Day’ transforms from upbeat acoustic strumming to breathtaking self-harmonizing, and all in the name of lamenting that people, as she sings repeatedly in the refrain, are boring. ‘Doesn’t Matter’ is one of the most graceful and free-flowing songs on the record, with a chorus that will have you unconsciously swaying while Annabelle sneaks little gems like “blood doesn't matter 'til you get cut open” into the verses. ‘The Hand’ is an equally whimsical and offhand track that observes the gender gap in society, but does so with relative neutrality: “this isn't rage, it's worth a mention / this is no statement, I'm complicit / this is a dream, god put me in it.” While all ten songs deliver either some sort of memorable hook, intriguing message, or emotional gut-check, ‘Satellites’ somehow pulls off all three. Elegant acoustic guitars shimmer tranquilly in the background while Dinda’s voice gradually swells toward a beautifully layered rebuke of what could be perceived as relational, political, or just general hypocrisy – “don't bark like it's high divining, don't bite and expect no bruise / don't start with the diatribing, then spite all the love you lose” – adding in, “you put me into space, then hate me when I ask for it.” It might very well be the best song of her early career.

While her bolder statements are worth highlighting, there really isn’t a single part of Some Things Never Leave that doesn’t leave some sort of lasting impression. On ‘Everyone Likes To Be Forgiven’, it’s the way Dinda’s voice alternates between passive (almost spectral) and directly powerful, culminating with the subtle drum kick when she sings “frozen like a fossil, this overflowing cup / do you hate when people move you?” On ‘To Reconcile’, it’s the ice-tinged classical pianos that lend the song its detached, wintry air. On the curtain-call ‘London Plane Trees Grow in Philly’, it’s the sheer power of her words which linger well beyond the record’s expiration. Dinda seems to find inner peace in the give-and-take of the forces of the universe: “when I start catastrophizing, I call you to stem the rising / ache of living, fear of dying / they're the same, says Fate, while sighing.” It’s moments like these that don’t feel overly important at first, but become cornerstones of the album over time.

Once again, Some Things Never Leave’s charm boils down to the artist’s unique sense of self – and the distinctive expression that comes with that. If I had to draw a direct comparison to another musician it would be Katie Crutchfield (for those who don’t know, that’s a massive compliment), but I’d rather say that Annabelle Dinda is simply the first of her. While Annabelle’s debut leaves room for her to experiment and grow, it’s about as perfect a launching pad as any artist could create for themselves. On ‘The Body Remembers’, she sings about having “no map and no tour guide” – respectfully, I don’t think she needs one at all”.

I will leave it there. A tremendous artist that is one of the most talented and distinct songwriters in the world. I do really lover her music. Some Things Never Leave one of the best albums of this year for sure. I was keen to spend some time with and spotlight…

A wonderful artist.

___________

Follow Annabelle Dinda

PHOTO CREDIT: Lia Whitman

Official:

https://www.annabelledinda.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/annabellesays/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@annabellesays

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@annabellesays

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4iS7gVZUawLaXYADeRZL36?si=dSwI-XvQSgictdP4Aiz-LQ

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from the Best Albums of 2026

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Mitski

Songs from the Best Albums of 2026

__________

I haven’t yet…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ella Langley

looked back at the year so far. We are over half-way, so I wanted to collate a mixtape featuring songs from the best albums of 2026. I think we will see some huge contenders in the coming weeks. I am writing this on 20th June, so I am thinking back at the first six-and-a-half months and the very best of the best. There have been so many contenders for album of the year released already. This mixtape is a great one and gives you an idea of the quality that has come out. Given the wonderful albums that have already arrived, I do wonder what is in store for…

THE rest of the year.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Charlotte OC

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Stewart Baxter

Charlotte OC

__________

EVEN though…

I have been following her for a while now, I have been a bit remiss in not including Charlotte OC in my Spotlight series. The Blackburn artist released her latest single, Start of Summer, recently. Her latest album, Here  Comes Trouble, was released in 2021. I know there will be demand and exactment around a new album. I love everything she has put out. Even though I have heard her music on the radio, it is not played as widely as it should. She is a treasure of an artist that you should connect with. I shall get to some interviews from last year. I want to start out by sourcing some biography from Charlotte OC’s official website:

“It takes a special kind of fearlessness to bare your soul in song. The Blackburn-raised singer-songwriter Charlotte OC has entered a new phase of her career, one where ruthless lyrics about mistakes made and lessons learned take precedent. Born Charlotte O’Connor to an Irish father and half-Indian, half-Malawian mother, this wild and willful artist has endured everything the industry could throw at her. Already the subject of praise in Billboard, Vogue, Fader and The Independent, she was snapped up by a major label aged 18 then, when she refused to sacrifice her integrity at the behest of faceless executives, was unceremoniously dropped. After a few tumultuous years living in London and releasing music, she returned home to Blackburn, undergoing a reset that has led her to here; to her best and most authentic work to date. 2025 sees the start of a new chapter for Charlotte OC”.

To date, Charlotte OC has released two acclaimed albums, ‘Careless People' and ‘Here Comes Trouble’ and the EP 'Oh The Ecstasy, Oh the Agony' in 2020 which garnered attention from Paper Magazine, Nylon, Clash, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and entered the charts in Germany. Her music has over 70 million streams and she has performed on the Seth Meyers Late Late show, Radio 1 Big Weekend, Governor’s Ball, Field Day and Pitchfork Paris”.

Even though there has not been an album since 2021, Charlotte OC released the extraordinary 2025 E.P., Seriously Love, Go Home. I am going to go back a bit further than last year to start, as Fifteen Questions spoke with Charlotte OC around the release of 2021’s Here Comes Trouble. She spoke about her creative process. If you have not heard Charlotte OC until now, you really do need to check out her music:

“Where does the Impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I hear melodies and lyrics more when I'm full of stress or feeling lost. Or if I've heard a beautiful piece of music. I think I've realised music becomes my mate when I feel rock bottom low which is nice isn’t it. (laughs)

I heard the most beautiful song in one of my dreams the other night and I'm still kicking myself that I didn’t wake up and record it when I woke up as it’s now vanished forever.

I'm quite an observant person so most of my lyrics come from things I've noticed from others or myself.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

It depends. It's usually the melody for me, or both lyric and melody.

Sometimes I have the full song ready and it needs tweaking. Every song is different.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Sometimes they come together, usually when I write on my own.

I remember when I wrote "Inevitable" I wrote all the lyrics down on the tube on my the way to the session whilst crying my eyes out in front of lots of strangers.

But then sometimes lyrics can take a while - months or even a year – to feel fully happy with how you’ve said something.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Again it’s one of those unfortunate things for me, I need to be full of a certain emotion, or there needs to be an element of not giving a shit. All or nothing. My general vibe.
Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

With this album, the demos sounded like finished pieces. We left them for a month, then came back to them. Breathing space is important and we made a conscious effort to not listen back to the demos after we’d done them. Which was very hard, but it gave us a clearer idea when revisiting.
The song hits you differently and you hear it for what it is instead of making a demo and listening to it till you have no idea what it is anymore”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stewart Baxter

Last year, EUPHORIA. interviewed Charlotte OC around the release of her latest E.P. This is an artist I have loved for years now. I can’t imagine why I have not spotlighted her. I feel this is the most important time in her career, so I am glad I can get to her now and right a wrong:

“When Charlotte OC took to the stage earlier this year, it had been years since her last performance. Even longer since she’d last released new music, but she is set to break that streak of almost four years with the release of her new EP, Seriously Love, Go Home.

Returning feels a little bit like having to find her feet all over again, Charlotte confesses when I speak with her over Zoom. “Even just like when I’m talking on stage, I’m like, what the fuck am I going to say? How do I even introduce myself? I don’t want to go on about the fact that I’ve not been around for so long. How many times can I swear? How many times can I swear? How many times can I get away with it?” She half-jokes. “It was so many things, but by the second show I was like – right. I know what I’m doing. That’s the whole process of this whole thing, you just gotta keep doing it, and you learn. But it’s petrifying, I was petrified. I’ve not felt like that for a long time.”

It didn’t help that she’d gotten really ill right before those first two shows. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a chest infection like that,” Charlotte tells me. She’s only now, two weeks later, getting at the end of it. “I hated every minute of it. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it, but I hated it. That first show was shit, I knew it was, but everyone was like – it’s your first show back, don’t worry. But that second show, I was so disappointed that I had in my mind what I wanted to happen, how I wanted it to be. I knew what worked, what didn’t work. I went into the next show with that in mind and just pushed the illness aside. And yeah, that was really good. Still not the best vocally, but performance-wise it was great.”

Charlotte’s being really humble here, as her vocals on a bad day far exceed most artists’ best vocals by a mile. It’s no surprise, then, that a lot of avid music listeners have been happy to see her back on stage. Especially after a couple of rather difficult years. She was battling with a breakup, had been forced to move back to London, and was dealing with the grief of her dad’s passing. On top of it all, she no longer had management. “It was enough for me to be like, the world is fucking shit,” she says. “I always felt like there was something always up against me. I guess that’s what makes a good song sometimes, where you feel like your world’s lost its color. However, I did a writing session the other day and I wrote this song in the headspace that I’m in now, and it’s honestly one of the saddest songs I’ve ever written and one of the best songs I’ve ever written. I’m so proud of it, and I thought – so I don’t have to be in this headspace whilst I’m writing. It doesn’t always have to be like this, where it feels like the world is ending in order for me to make great art. And now, when I held my vinyl the other day, I had this moment where I thought. It’s so weird that all of that has culminated in this. I really had to work for this one, and I feel like I didn’t have anything while I was making it. And now to have it, and to be able to hold it, it feels like I’ve done my homework for the first time. Like I’ve done my coursework and handed it in.”

In other words, she’s proud of this EP – as she should be. The songs are evocative, vulnerable, and have that signature smoky sound that gives so much depth to each track and lyric. But maybe for the first time, it also sounds like Charlotte knows exactly how to wield it like a weapon and a warm embrace; whichever the song needs. Perhaps it’s because, also for the first time, she has a different way of relating to the tracks herself as well. “I think this is the first set of music I’ve done where I feel like if someone was to tell me their reaction to a song and how much it’s helped them, that I’d actually understand. I felt like some of my older stuff, I was so young when I was doing it, or not present – I felt like it was just happening. But now, knowing what I went through making it, and then hearing that somebody else has taken something from this, I’d get it and understand their emotion much more,” she adds.

Because making this album in many ways feels like a fresh start, after having taken a break from music altogether. It was a strange alienating experience for Charlotte – going from music being your lifeline, and an embodiment of who you are, to something that you want to avoid at all costs. “I feel emotional talking about it,” she starts. “I can’t believe that I was even in that dark of a place. It’s weird to think that somebody who loves music so much, that it was literally like there’s nothing else about me. I’m obviously a sister, an auntie, a daughter, but music is so everything that I was. I think when it all started to go tits up, and you’re not feeling great about yourself, I’d always thought – no fuck it, everything’s fine. Until suddenly I was like, no, I don’t want to go near it. And I had the luxury to do so, because I took two years out. I was living with my mum, who’s been helping me. But I think they could tell that I was a real mess. It almost feels like a different person – that version of me. My dad would have been livid that I would’ve even been like that. So I’m glad that period of my life is over.”

Turning the page and stepping back into the light has come with a hard-earned sense of pride and satisfaction, and rightfully so. “I think my main focus [when making this] was just to fall in love with music again, because I didn’t even pick up the guitar for about a year, maybe two years. Whenever anybody spoke about music, I’d walk out of the room – I was not in a good place. The fact that this even happened, yeah, I’m proud of myself. And I don’t often say that, because I just didn’t think I’d get there. I didn’t think this would happen.”

She didn’t go at it alone, and mentions how she worked together with her producer Dimitri on this EP after messaging her label as a long shot. “There was a long period of time where these songs just sat on a hard drive and didn’t do anything. I was stuck in a rut for a long time. But then I got taken to the Lake District, and we had some chocolate mushrooms, and I started listening to my music again. It’s when I messaged Dimi and said, ‘These songs are great – what are we doing?’ I didn’t have a manager, I didn’t have anything, so I messaged my label honestly off my nut, being like – ‘I’ve got this idea.’ Because I felt like I was finally hearing the music for the first time. And I actually said to myself, I’m not shit. I just had this confidence of like, this is what we’re doing. And I didn’t even know if I still had a label at the time, but I just sent them the idea I had. And they luckily said, ‘Yes, we’ll help with this.’ So I ended up going to London for two weeks, and we just worked on these demos and that was it.”

Now that she’s gotten a chance to start afresh, Charlotte’s made sure that her involvement in her own team is a lot bigger. “I’m very much involved in what’s happening at the moment, and that was never the case. I was almost babied, but now I’m in every meeting and I’ve got a seat at the table. I’m being held accountable for a lot of things, and it’s refreshing. I feel like I’ve got a proper job now, I’m not a little girl anymore. It felt like that for a long time, especially when you don’t have a steady income. You don’t feel like you’re living a normal life. Now it really feels like I am holding the reins. I’m 34, and that’s genuinely a first, which is a bit mad.”

It’s why, to Charlotte, this EP very much feels like a stepping stone. “Writing these songs, listening to the music, I know it’s going to help me make whatever’s about to happen next. So I just want people to enjoy this for what it is, and know that it’s me getting my feet back on the ground.”

Because there is definitely a whole lot more coming, if it’s up to Charlotte. She’s currently working on booking more dates to perform all over the world, but is also looking forward to recording a full-length album in September. In fact, some of the first sessions have already taken place. “I’ve been writing on my own for a while, but I recently had this session with Craigie Dodds. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him?” She asks me. Dodds is a multi-instrumentalist who, just like Charlotte, has roots in Malawi. “Nobody is from Malawi, but he has a coffee shop next to his studio. And they make amazing coffee from all over the world. So he was letting me smell the different buckets to see which coffee I wanted, and he went – oh this one’s from Cuba, this one’s from Malawi. I looked at him and said, ‘That’s where I’m from.’ And he went, ‘No, that’s where I’m from!’ He’s been wanting to work with me for ages, but yeah, we didn’t realise. He was like, ‘I cannot fucking believe this.’ It turns out he knows my family in Malawi. So it was mad, but I think that enabled me to open up,” Charlotte smiles. “We started the session at 12, and I didn’t leave until 2 am. Maybe for only one hour of that I wasn’t crying. It was just really special, probably one of the best sessions I’ve ever had in my life. It made me realize how much I love collaborating, but also how much it needs to be right and you need to be able to connect, and not just go in to make a hit or anything like that.”

At the end of the day, that’s what music is about. For so many listeners out there, music is what allows them to put words to their feelings – it helps them understand themselves and others around them, as well. But you need an artist to be brave enough to bare their own soul through sound, and Charlotte OC can be proud that she’s done exactly that. She’s ready to turn the page, ready for a new creative chapter, and we can’t wait to hear it, starting with this EP”.

Atwood Magazine spent time with Charlotte OC last July to discuss her most powerful work to date. It is interesting getting her insight into the songs and the route to Seriously Love, Go Home. I would love to see her perform live. I am not sure whether she has any dates coming up. A London gig would be amazing:

“Few artists deliver emotional extremes quite like Charlotte OC. The British artist (née Charlotte Mary O’Connor) has long dwelled in the space between grandeur and grit, balancing lavish arrangements with lyrical intimacy and vocal performances that smolder, soar, and scar. A two-time Atwood Editor’s Pick, she’s been praised for “owning her grief, her messiness, and the undeniable beauty of trying,” and for creating “beautiful, dramatic, and moving soundtrack[s] to the human spirit.” Across her 2017 major label debut Careless People and 2021’s masterful, independently-concocted Here Comes Trouble, O’Connor has established herself as a fearless force – a modern siren conjuring cinematic soul from the depths of human ache. Released July 11th via Embassy of Music, Seriously Love, Go Home doesn’t just continue that legacy – it crystallizes it, distilling her artistry into five gut-punching tracks that soar with heart, honesty, and heat.

The EP’s title says it all – and yet, it barely scratches the surface. “After a few things blew up in my face while I was living in London, it felt like the universe was screaming at me to go home,” O’Connor explains. “Not quietly either like, ‘Seriously mate….you’re a big mess, go home.’ So I did.”

“I was definitely in a self-destruct spiral,” she adds. “I think I moved to London to run away – officially I was supposed to be in sessions, but everything was just falling apart and I wasn’t dealing with anything.”

The road to Seriously Love, Go Home was far from straightforward. These songs began to take shape during a creatively unmoored period. A chance studio session with Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Dimitri Tikovoi (whose past credits include Charli XCX, Blondie, Purple Disco Machine, and Ghost) became the unexpected spark for her next chapter. “When I first met Dimitri, we had this really honest conversation about where I was at, what had been holding me back, and what I felt I needed to do next,” she recalls.

“We ended up making music later that day, and there wasn’t any big plan or motive. I think we both just agreed to let whatever needed to happen, happen. At the time, I felt quite lost and in desperate need of an outlet. These songs ended up being the result of that strange, uncertain period.”

“After a while, I had the tracks just sitting there. I didn’t have management, I didn’t really have a plan, and I hadn’t even listened back to them. To be honest, I’d kind of given up. The people closest to me could see I was losing purpose, so they booked a little trip to the Lake District to help shake me out of the rut I’d gotten comfortable in.”

While there wasn’t a grand vision when she began working on these songs, there was a need to exorcise her demons – and music became her way forward. “At the start, there wasn’t really a vision beyond survival,” she shares. “I needed an outlet. As I started writing, I realised I wanted this record to sound like truth. It didn’t have to be perfect or polished – it just had to be real. And somewhere along the way, I found myself again.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Stewart Baxter

That clarity, as refreshing as it is still raw, fuels every corner of this EP. These songs don’t posture or pretend – they bleed. They’re rooted in lived experience, personal growth, and artistic renewal. “It’s unlocked something in me,” O’Connor says. “I’ve been writing a lot lately, and releasing these tracks has made me realise what I’m really here for. I feel closer than ever to my purpose as an artist. This EP is the start of a new chapter and a new kind of confidence in my work. It’s made me fall back in love with music again, and I’m just so grateful for that and buzzing for what’s next!”

O’Connor beams as she calls this EP “just the beginning” – and in truth, there’s lots to love about her spiritual and creative rebirth. Seriously Love, Go Home is a compact but powerful offering, capturing the arc of a heartbreak and the journey back to self. Opener “God, We Tried” sets the tone with stunning vulnerability, lingering in the ruins of a love that was never going to last. “From the soul-shaking cries of ‘God, we tried’ to the aching acceptance of ‘we just need to bleed,’ O’Connor’s words are heavy, weighted down by emotional turmoil – dark storm clouds that have yet to clear up,” we previously wrote for an Atwood’s 117th Editor’s Picks.

It’s a personal highlight for her as well. “I loved making it,” she says of “God, We Tried.” “It fell out of me like it had always been there. The lyrics are straight to the point, not trying to be fancy, it’s just very literal and the emotion in my voice takes me back to how much of a state of I was in around that time, I’m proud that none of that got lost in the process.”

Charlotte OC’s songwriting has always balanced the visceral with the poetic, and Seriously Love, Go Home is no exception. Her favorite lyrics from the EP reflect the duality at the heart of this record: Sensuality, sorrow, surrender, and strength. “You levitate my heart until it’s in my mouth. You elevate the art of what I cannot live without,” she sings on “Strange Influence” – a line that captures the ache and intoxication of emotional entanglement. From the hot, unhinged energy of “Cider and Black” comes the searing image: “Thursday, angel, you’re facing the wall. Your whole body shakes like a Super 8 ball.”

Charlotte OC has emerged from the chaos not only intact, but reignited – her artistry sharpened, her voice clearer than ever, and her passion fully restored. This EP doesn’t just mark a return; it’s a reawakening – a bold, brave reclaiming of self through sound.

“For me, making this record helped me remember who I am. It showed me that I can still find magic in myself and in music, even after everything I thought I’d lost. And I really did feel like I’d lost it all. It’s taught me to trust myself again and also, mum is where the heart is.”

Charlotte OC has always made music that speaks to the soul, but Seriously Love, Go Home hits deeper – not because it tries to, but because it simply tells the truth. Her songs don’t just chronicle a chapter of heartache, healing, and growth; they live it. They pulse with pain, resilience, and grace, delivered through a voice that knows how to shatter and soothe in the same breath. It’s Charlotte OC at her most raw, most radiant, and most real – standing tall in the wreckage, singing her way back to life”.

I will finish with an interview from last August. I do like Bartek Music’s conversation with Charlotte OC. A snapshot of her in action. A truly wonderful artist who grows stronger with every release. I feel that her 2026 work so far signals a new phase and peak. Though Sorry Love, Go Home, lingers long in the mind:

“The two albums you released in 2017 and 2021 show a consistent approach to your sound, blending acoustic elements with touches of electronica, creating a clear artistic identity. How would you describe your creative process, and do you find consistency limiting or liberating?

I just want the music to feel good to me.

In the past, I think I got a little lost and let a lot of outside noise influence me. But recently, making music has just felt joyful again. I’m constantly learning who I am and what feels truly authentic. That’s what I love most about making music. It teaches me about myself in a way nothing else can.

I find your latest EP, “Seriously Love, Go Home” to be a bit of a departure from that consistency, a sort of evolution in sound and lyrics. Was that intentional?

The main focus was to let me come through, without getting lost trying to be something I’m not.

I’ve spent years doing just that, and it got me nowhere. I’m a pretty “what you see is what you get” type of person, so for that not to be reflected in my music felt like a shame. I was in a really fragile place when I made this, and I think I had no other option but to fully dig into who I am.

Any artist (dead or alive) you’d love to collaborate with and why?

I’d love to write with CMAT. Her melodies are incredible and her lyrics are brilliant.

And I’d love for Stephan Bodzin to use one of my vocals. I think I’d actually combust if that ever happened.

Also, George Michael. I would’ve loved to write with him and just be his mate.

Back to “Seriously Love, Go Home” and my favorite track, “Cider and Black.” Shivers and strong Bond movies vibes. Is there a story behind the making of that one?

I was in a really self-destructive mindset at the time.

I wasn’t being a good person or the kind of person I was raised to be. My morals had completely flown out the window, and I was kind of reveling in that. It became my whole personality. I was just really lost, and this song is basically a snapshot of me in action during that time.

And finally, a big step back into your past. Do you remember your first music-related memory? How do you think it has shaped you as an artist?

When I was younger, I was incredibly quiet. My parents were actually worried about how silent I was. And if I did speak, it was usually about my imaginary mouse, Kenny, who I blamed everything on. So yeah, I was a bit of a strange child.

Then one day, I watched “Wayne’s World” for the first time, which also meant hearing “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time. I was completely transfixed and met the first love of my life, Freddie Mercury.

That evening, my parents had friends over for a dinner party. My sisters were doing a talent show, and after they finished, I whispered to my mum to put Queen on. I stepped into the center of the room and mimed the entire thing, despite only hearing it for the first time that morning”.

Go and follow the majestic and magnetic Charlotte OC. I think I first heard her music back in 2017. Since then, she has become one of our most accomplished songwriters. With a voice that gets straight into the heart and head, I am interested to see what the summer holds in store and whether she has some festivals on the cards. I would really love to see Charlotte OC perform. This is a spotlight, shout out and love letter to…

A brilliant queen we all should know about.

___________

Follow Charlotte OC

Official:

https://www.charlotteocmusic.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/charlotteocofficial/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@charlotteocofficial

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/CharlotteOCOfficial/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1sfvAxK5elhRO3saZIif4A

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7ySHyUSqpKzGnDqOxLiCFH?si=biM5ykJGSUeLrm_Vah5jbg

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Whole Story: Inside the KBC article Issue 13 (Summer 1983), Untitled

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Pierre Terrasson

Inside the KBC article Issue 13 (Summer 1983), Untitled

__________

THIS one…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1983

should be called The Summer of Love. In terms of where Kate Bush was. Starting work on construction a bespoke home studio next to her family place at East Wickham Farm. Allowing herself some time to relax, see friends and spend time with her boyfriend, Del Palmer. Her family around her, Bush was also working on songs for her masterpiece fifth studio album, Hounds of Love. I have a few more inclusions from this site that is the Complete Kate Bush Club Newsletter Writings of Kate Bush. I do love her diary entries, short stories and entries. Submissions to the fan club is important. Although she starts by saying not a lot has happened, I think the summer of 1983 was her best. In terms of personal happiness and laying the foundations, physically and musically for Hounds of Love. I did want to comment on her writing to the Kate Bush Club. Maybe a bit quiet recently, this was filing in some of the gaps. A great and insightful summer 1983 article from Kate Bush. It looks back on her 1982 and the start of 1983. She would update fans about her summer in the next edition:

“It's been a long time since our last issue, and I must apologise for the long absence, but due to lack of activities, there has really been very little to tell you about.

Last year, after the album was finished, I decided to promote it as fully as possible. When you've spent nearly a year making an album, you can't let it go out into the world without helping it. In fact, the business has certainly changed in the last couple of years. Everyone has to work much harder, and with an absence of two years from the public eye, I had to show my face again, to prove I was still alive. I did lots and lots of press--I haven't done so much since the first album. It was refreshing to find that the majority of journalists actually really appreciated and understood the album, but I had to explain time and time again that the album hadn't taken two years to make! [I suppose that in 1989, when KBVI is finally released, she will have to explain time and time again that the album hadn't taken four years to make! ]

I also did some TVs in England and Europe, with two dancers: Gary, who you all know, and Dougie, a dancer I had met years ago when he was working in Lindsay Kemp's company.

We worked in Italy and Germany, and the response was wonderful. It was interesting that as we worked more and more on the routine, The Dreaming, it became tighter and tighter, and little bits were added here and there, until it was so much better than the video that I wished we had had made the video after the TVs.

There is a bit of tragedy, as one of her beloved dancing partners, Gary Hurst, would die in 1990 due to complications related to AIDS. He is remembered in The Red Shoes track, Moments of Pleasure. It was a period where Kate Bush was getting back into dance. That gruelling promotional schedule didn’t allow her much time to dance and unwind in general. She did a bit for The Dreaminmg – the 1982 album she was promoting -, and she was still promoting The Dreaming in 1983. Bush and pieces of things here and there. That album was one where she was in the studio and inside a lot. A really intense period. In 1983, there was this decision to recommit to her first love. Or one of her first! That is interesting what she says about the videos. Live exposure meant that there was this finesse and tightening. New elements that could have been incorporated into the videos. Interesting to see how a song like The Dreaming or There Goes a Tenner would look after they were performed live. It was an odd promotional roll-out, as there was not massive commercial acclaim around Europe. The Dreaming did well and there were some positive reviews, but there was as much bafflement and a lack of intense buying compared to what she was used to.

It was a very interesting trip--we went to Rome, and as Lindsay Kemp was visiting at the time, we got a chance to see Lindsay, and we had a lovely evening. He cooked us a meal, and after we were so full that we could hardly move, he got out boxes of his old photos and we fingered each one with magical memories: shots of Flowers from The Collegiate Theatre, the first time I saw Lindsay perform. Lindsay dressed as Mr. Punch, leaping for joy. I remember the theatre being full of adults rather than children, and all of us shouting "Look behind you!" and "Oh, no, you don't!" Adults transported to childhood in a matter of moments--but that's the craft of Lindsay's magic.

Fond memories spread across the floor--the passionate and dramatic, Lindsay's shows in photo form. We carefully put them all back in their boxes, a farewell dance and a big kiss goodbye.

There is a fountain in Rome where you can make a wish and throw a coin--a very magical place [the Trevi Fountains]: marble horses, pulling themselves from marble waves, being driven by a marble Neptune. They say the wishes come true. I've yet to see. And there's a hotel in Rome where we stayed, and on the night we arrived, there was a diplomatic meeting on a higher floor. The hotel was full of young soldiers--boys with guns just in case of any trouble. It was a very sad sight.

I had to rehearse my number in my room, and not having a European plug, I took the old one off and began to stick the bare wires into the plug socket, which was hidden behind the table. All the lights went out in the room, so I ran into the hall--no lights. I was half expecting to see soldiers cocking their rifles, having traced the source of the light failure. I went into my room, and a few minutes later the lights came back on. Gary and Dougie came up later, and when I told them they started laughing--apparently the whole hotel had blacked out, and the soldiers in reception had been a little on edge, to say the least. So I won't do that again, and I recommend calling reception to see if they'll help you out if you ever find yourself with two bare wires in a foreign hotel!

I do love those memories of Rome. Lindsay Kemp was so crucial to Kate Bush. In terms of opening her eyes to a world beyond traditional dance. Its theatrical possibilities. How it could mix so many emotions, genre asnd styles. Camp and serious together. Kemp was someone Bush learned so much from. He sadly died in 2018. It is a shame that Kate Bush didn’t chronicle her stay in Rome. No video of her. She wanted to keep it private, so we are left with our imaginations. From the romance of a beautiful fountain and a catch-up with Lindsay Kemp to the comedy and tension of Kate Bush almost getting everyone in a hotel shot! You can sort of imagine that blind panic then the relief when the lights came out. It would have been such a treat for fans to read these words in 1983. Something is lost on social media. If you got this in an Instagram post. I guess supporting photography is a benefit, but something about this physical fanzine and these words from Kate Bush!

We travelled to Milan, and then to a place near Venice, where they were holding the Venice Festival. We performed The Dreaming. The festival is held in a theatre with an audience of a few hundred, and goes out on TV at the same time, so it was a live event, but performed to pre-recorded backing tracks. The Italian audiences are absolutely wonderful, they adore anything to do with art and applaud quite spontaneously if they like something. Each time they liked a step in the routine there would be a ripple of applause, and it was quite hard to keep going without badly needing to smile because it was such a lovely feeling.

The video The Dreaming had been made in between press and radio and the trip abroad, and we were very lucky to be able to do all the shooting in one day. It was an extremely ambitious shoot, which included live birds, lasers, flying wires, people being buried completely under sand, not to mention a beautiful set which was built of polystyrene rocks, dead spikey trees and a cardboard moon and sun.

As the hours rolled on, we were sure we would have to leave at least one idea out, but with a crew who were just as eager as us to see the film complete and as it should be, we worked on into the night--past the rope made of laser light and the painted men who walked out of trees to a mouth moving in the sand (all we can see of a man deep under the sand; somehow it looks remarkably like Paddy, and it's the last shot in our video).

It is amazing how vivid and interesting a Kate Bush video shoot is! Rather than them being formulaic or simple, you get all these characters and supporting actors. Animals, birds and who knows what! I did not know that The Dreaming’s video was done so quickly. The single did not do well at all, but I do like how Bush wanted its film to be ambitious. It is unconventional in the sense there are wide shots and no close-up and quick cuts, which is more traditional for Pop videos. Though, as people were becoming aware, Bush was stepping away from traditional Pop like never before!

Within two months we had done Europe, P.A.s and two other videos. I have never made so many videos in such a short space of time, but there was too much to do, so no more time could be spent on them. A video of There Goes a Tenner was made to promote a single in this country, and a video of Suspended in Gaffa was made for the single release in the rest of the world.

As we all know, There Goes a Tenner bombed in this country, with no airplay and a handful of the worst (and funniest) reviews I've read. The video was not shown at all, but a compilation video called Kate Bush: The Single File is due out some time soon, so keep your eyes open for an official release date in the music papers. Perhaps then you could get a chance to see it, along with all the others. There Goes a Tenner was set in a derelict old room where there was a big safe. There are five of us in the gang, and you might just recognise two of the faces belonging to two of my favourite musicians in the band!

Although the single in this country did not do well, it is nice to know that in Europe, Suspended in Gaffa has been quite warmly received.

The video of Suspended in Gaffa was to be done as simply and quickly as possible; as always with very little time to complete it in, the simpler the better.

I saw it as being the return to simplicity, a light-hearted dance routine, no extras, no complicated special effects. [In fact, however, there are many very sophisticated and subtle technical effects in this video, and the production design is very impressive.] As we were all so pleased with the previous sets--put together under the supervision of a very clever man, Steve Hopkins--we asked him to build another, this time an old barn with large gaps in the walls where we could allow the light to streak through. We used a combination of natural and artificial light, and everyone was thrilled with the sense of realism that the set achieved. Steve brought in huge branches of trees that were behind the gaps in the set, and a dedicated helper called "Podge" sat up on a piece of scaffolding for six hours and enthusiastically shook a piece of tree to make the light move and dance as if motivated by a furtive wind. The video did remain uncomplicated--just a few effects and just one extra: but a very special. one. There is one section where a child's voice says, "Mother, where are the angels? I'm scared of the changes." And there was only one person that could be addressed to--my mother.

It is great that Hannah Bush, Kate’s mother, appeared in the video for Suspended in Gaffa. It seemed like the shoot was enjoyable and I think it is one that warrants an HD upgrade. It is one of her most engaging videos. There Goes a Tenner is one of her most divisive singles. A shame that it was pretty much ignored and left to drop like a stone. She seemed pretty light-hearted about the reception it got, though it must have stinged to work on the song and video and then people overlook it. Or attack it. A song about these bank robbers bungling a job and screwing up. Critics perhaps delighting in this major artist trying something different or ambitious and it not coming together! Even though the Suspended in Gaffa video was simple, there was a lot of waiting around. I guess that is the same for every video. The debuting mother Bush was the definite standout, as Kate Bush explains…

 

When I asked her to appear in the section, contrary to my concern about her nerves, she was more than obliging and said, "Yes." She was definitely the star of the day, and waited patiently hour after hour as we slowly moved through the bulk of the shooting to eventually reach her debut. I was amazed at her grace and stamina: as all of us began to wane and wilt, my mother continued to blossom and glow, and her only worries were getting back home in time to get dinner and hoping she would not succumb to an attack of giggles during the vital moments of being on screen.

She needn't have worried, for she is a natural professional, a real star and my favourite mum. (You can see us together in action on the back page.)

Besides all the promotional activities, because of the decision to release another single, a 'b-side' had to be written. It is always this way for me: even if things are carefully planned, things always happen at once--and in a big way. I've always loved the idea of singing in a foreign language, and I thought this b-side would be a perfect excuse for doing so.

Really the only language I know enough of to be able to work creatively with is French, so I thought of all the odd words I know, and tried to piece a story together. It's surprising how inspiring it can be to work from a slightly different tangent.

The tune came straight away, and I filled in all the lines that I had no proper words for with pseudo-French sounds. Luckily Patrick, who worked on Lionheart with us in Superbear [Studios, in France] was staying with Paddy to work on some tracks, so, between him and a friend Vivienne, we worked out the complete lyrics, and Ne T'enfuis pas was put to tape.

Ne T'enfuis pas is a great B-side and I love how Bush was fearless when it came to other languages or accents. She was so bold and unrestrained. The story of Hannah Bush being so patient on the set and trying not to giggle! I do wonder why she did not appear after that in videos. Seeing in her in the video for Hounds of Love’s The Big Sky or even The Red Shoe’s Eat the Music would have been great. Paddy Bush popped up here and there, but only the one credit for Hannah Bush.

Just one more trip abroad, to Paris and Germany to promote Suspended in Gaffa, and that was nearly the end of the promo, and the year.

I had a wonderful Christmas, very quiet--a nice end to a very busy year. This year has been very positive so far. It doesn't have the same air of doom that '81 and '82 seemed to hold--I hope it's the same for all of you.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thankyou with a hug and a kiss for all of you who sent the beautiful Christmas presents and cards. I'm afraid I can't thank you all personally, but they're very much appreciated. It's incredible that so many of you should think of me when there's always so many people to think of at Christmas. Also, thank you to all of you for the feedback on the album. I've had so many letters saying that you really like it. It's wonderful that you are all so open enough to try to understand it. It means a lot to me that it's got through to the people that matter.

It was also really good to see those of you that made it to the P.A.s again. Your feedback on the album was so positive--I really needed it then, it had only just been released and it certainly helped to ease my anxiety a little.

It must have been so difficult promoting The Dreaming so heavily after the difficulties recording it. In the sense it took a lot of time in studios and there would have been all-night sessions. Getting to relax a bit at Christmas in 1982 after a pretty relentless past year. The fans sending gifts and cards. Always sweet that Kate Bush acknowledges them and gives them love. That relationship was something that has endured through her career. I do miss the days of fanzines and this unique interaction between artist and fans. Can we go back to that time, however briefly?! Bush doing personal appearances and getting to see her fans. A big artist could easily hide away or want to remain distant. Bush was keen to get that direct feedback from fans and thank them in the flesh!

Already that seems such a long time ago--last year, all over. I was really hoping to put a show together this year, but it just seems impossible yet again. Will it ever happen, I wonder? Yes, but when? I don't know.

The problem is that if I don't make an album this year, there will be at least another two-year gap before another one, and the way that business and politics are, it would be a negative situation. [We can all be grateful now that Kate resisted the "business and politics" enough to take two full years, after writing this letter, to complete Hounds of Love. ] So here I am writing away, or trying to write--determined to get a new album together. If only time would slow down a little for me, I could do it all and go away on holiday!

I seem to have hit another quiet period. I intend just to keep on writing for this first part of the year, so yet again I slip away from the eyeball of the media to my home. [Actually, Kate was busy moving to a new home outside the city during this period.]

It's almost impossible for us to put an interesting newsletter together while all my energies are channelled into the creative side of making an album, and so, if you can bear with us for a while, we will only be issuing a magazine when we have enough information and pictures to fill it, and will probably not be able to bring a quarterly issue this year, but hope that our part-colour issues will make up for this.

Thank you for being so patient.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Thanks for caring.

Thanks.

Lots of love,

Kate xx”.

That possibility of a show or shows that never materialised. As we see from the editorial additions, if Bush had engaged with politics and business, Hounds of Love might not have arrived when it did or sounded like it did. I do wonder what a live show just after Hounds of Love would have been like. Combining songs from The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. She did bring nearly all of Hounds of Love’s songs to Before the Dawn in 2014. The Big Sky and Mother Stands for Comfort did not make the cut, though the former was performed live and was a successful single; the later this loner that I feel is one of the strongest tracks on the album. Summer 1983 was to be this magical time. Moving home, spending some time writing and being with her family. A true Kate Bush Summer of Love in 1983. That was the year I was born (in May), so I like to think of me coming into the world as Kate Bush was embarking on one of the happiest and most astonishing periods in her personal and professional life. I have not yet included Issue 14. That arrived in the autumn of 1983. I might pop this in soon. Bush opens that newsletter by saying how lovely the weather has been. The summer of 1983 was very hot. She likened it to the sweltering summer of 1976. I will not quote too much, but this was right near the top: “I was dancing every day, and singing and writing all night. I used to go to London by train every day. It was the time of bomb scares, and everyone would stare uneasily at unattended bags, and the trains were full of paranoia. It was brilliant for me--I'd get back to my newly acquired roommates, Zoodle and Pye, who were only kittens, then, and I'd open all the windows and wail away all night. I only got one complaint from someone who had to get up at 4:00 a.m., and as I was creating noisily until at least that time, they were somewhat unhappy at their lack of sleep. But only that one complained”. I do love this series, as I get to source Kate Bush’s writings for the Kate Bush Club. Those treasured revelation and entries from our favourite artist. Bush updates her official website. There are not long regular posts, through she does post a Christmas message each year. Reminiscent of her writing for the Kate Bush Club and that stunning newsletter. As you can read above, Kate Bush’s 1982 and start of 1983 was…

A very happy one.

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Alicia Keys

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

Alicia Keys

__________

THE  phenomenal…

PHOTO CREDIT: Amanda Charchian

Alicia Keys was born in Hell’s Kitchen, New York in 1981. I am including her for this feature as her debut album, Songs in A Minor, turned twenty-five on 5th June. It is one of the best debut albums from the 2000s. Many people knew about her as the single, Fallin’, came out on 28th March, 2001. An incredible debut single! Songs in A Minor reached number one in the U.S. Songs in A Minor influenced R&B and albums that followed it. Albumism recently celebrated twenty-five years of Alicia Keys’s remarkable debut album:

“Born and raised in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, Keys was a prodigious, classically trained musical talent throughout her early childhood. While she has consistently cited the masters Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart among her earliest inspirations, throughout her later adolescence and teenage years, she immersed herself in more contemporary musical forms and developed a profound reverence for soul, jazz, and hip-hop in particular.

“[Marvin Gaye’s] What's Going On and [The Notorious B.I.G.’s] Ready to Die was that whole realism, talkin' about what was really going' on right in their face,” Keys reflected during her 2001 Rolling Stone cover interview. “Biggie and Marvin told me, write what you know; you don't have to make it up, it's right there. Then I wanted to discover every type of music like that—Donny Hathaway, Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Rakim, Prince—everyone who had that thing. That true emotion. For real. Not for fun, not for money, for real. That's what I listened to, that's what I lived, that's what I fell in love with."

Even before she was named valedictorian of New York City’s Professional Performing Arts School at the age of 16 and received a full scholarship to attend Columbia University, Keys was heavily pursued by the major record labels. At the behest of her manager Jeff Robinson, Keys signed her first contract with Columbia Records. Columbia formally introduced their prized new talent by featuring her debut single “Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)” on 1997’s Men in Black Soundtrack, alongside tracks by urban music heavyweights A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Destiny’s Child, Nas, The Roots, Snoop Dogg, and Will Smith.

Despite the prospect of success and fame that Keys’ deal with Columbia augured, the working relationship soon soured, with early recording sessions for what was supposed to be her debut album running afoul. Columbia’s cookie-cutter roadmap for Keys’ career never jived with her own more expansive musical ambitions, which resulted in the hiring of producers that proved incompatible with the sound she aimed to develop. “It was a hard, depressing, frustrating time," Keys recalled to The Guardian in 2001. "The record label had the wrong vision for me. They didn't want me to be an individual, didn't really care. They just wanted to put me in a box.”

After two years with Columbia, with no album to show for it, the disenchanted Keys was able to terminate her contract and explore other landing spots. Enter industry luminary Clive Davis, who helped launch the careers of Aerosmith, Earth, Wind & Fire, Whitney Houston, Billy Joel, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, and Bruce Springsteen, among many others.

Davis took Keys under his wing at Arista and soon thereafter, took her along with him to J Records, the company he founded in the wake of his ousting as head of Arista in 2000. “Did I know [Alicia] was going to sell a million records?" Davis contemplated during a discussion with Rolling Stone. "Of course not! I knew she was unique, I knew she was special. I knew she was a self-contained artist. But did I know with Janis Joplin? Did I know with Springsteen? Did I know with Patti Smith? When you sign them, you don't know, but you feel this is something special and unique, so waiting for artistry to flower and giving them the space to do it is the thing. Then, when the album is done, you take nothing for granted.”

After years of enduring a label that never offered her the creative freedom she deserved, Keys finally discovered the support system she needed to kick her career into high gear, and by her own rules.

Determined to reclaim control over the recording sessions for her debut LP, the empowered Keys wrote, arranged, and produced most of the songs that ultimately comprised Songs in A Minor. “I knew the only way it would sound like anything I would be remotely proud of is if I did it,” she confided to Rolling Stone. Evoking a maturity and poise that belie her 20 years of age at the time of the album’s release, Songs in A Minor is a masterpiece of piano-blessed soul, a grand encapsulation of Keys’ ambition, vision, and far-reaching breadth of musical influences.

The opening “Piano & I” sets the traditional-meets-contemporary tone for the rest of the album. It begins as an operatic interlude that lifts Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” but the beat drops around the 50-second mark, suggesting that this is most definitely not your standard sonata-based song suite.

Propelled by a sample of James Brown’s 1966 single “It's a Man's Man's Man's World,” the piano-tinkling, gospel-tinged “Fallin’” finds Keys examining the emotional vicissitudes of love, attempting to reconcile the inevitable give-and-take, push-and-pull dichotomy that defines most relationships. On one hand, it is unequivocally the album’s high water mark, deserving of all of the praise lavished upon it. On the other hand, its ubiquity also overshadowed, to some extent, Songs in A Minor’s many other excellent songs that warrant plenty of applause as well.

Chief among the stellar fare are four memorable compositions featured across the album’s first half, beginning with the headnod-inducing “Girlfriend,” which finds Keys expressing pangs of envy for her man’s platonic connection with an old female friend. More than any track on the album, “Girlfriend” reinforces Keys’ penchant for merging urban grime with melodic soul, largely due to Jermaine Dupri’s production and a flawlessly incorporated sample of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s 1995 hit “Brooklyn Zoo.”

Originally included on the 2000 soundtrack to the John Singleton directed film Shaft, the romantic ode to emotional fidelity “Rock wit U” harkens back to 1970s soul, thanks to strings and flutes provided by the Isaac Hayes Orchestra. Appropriately enough, mind you, considering that Hayes was the sonic mastermind behind the original, GRAMMY-winning Shaft soundtrack released in 1971.

The Rhodes-blessed anti-chauvinism anthem and second official single “A Woman’s Worth” rivals “Fallin’” for the album’s most inspired moment, with Keys extoling the virtues of the real men who know how to treat a woman with dignity and respect. Not far behind in terms of emotional firepower is Keys’ solid cover version of Prince’s lament for a lost love “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore” (minus the “Anymore” here), the B-side to The Purple One’s classic 1982 single “1999.” Covering Prince is typically considered musical hubris, but Keys manages to do the original justice while asserting her own voice through her rendition. Also worthy of praise is the plaintive, subdued “Troubles,” in which Keys reassuringly suggests that “you just gotta let it go” when confronted with whatever adversities life throws your way.

The second half of Songs in A Minor admittedly fails to match the consistency of the first half, but a few standouts exist nevertheless, most notably the streamlined piano and acoustic guitar ballad “Butterflyz,” one of Keys earliest compositions. Other highlights include “Caged Bird,” a poignant nod to Maya Angelou’s celebrated autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and “Lovin’ U,” the hidden track that concludes the album and contains more than a few echoes of Aretha Franklin’s most soulful stylings.

A masterfully executed hybrid of classic and contemporary soul with an acute streetwise sensibility to balance its creator’s musical intelligence and passion, Songs in A Minor garnered five GRAMMY Awards for Keys at the 2002 ceremony, including Best New Artist and Best R&B Album. More importantly, Keys’ debut was the catalyst for the remarkable career she has cultivated over the past two decades. Keys has released eight superb studio albums since and each LP has showcased the grace and passion she infuses throughout her sterling songcraft”.

To celebrate Alicia Keys’s Songs in A Minor turning twenty-five, I have compiled a mixtape of her twenty best songs. Some from Songs in A Minor. It is an extraordinary debut that everyone needs to listen to. An introduction from…

A music great.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: Crippen (Coffee Homeground)/G (Strange Phenomena)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

Crippen (Coffee Homeground)/G (Strange Phenomena)

__________

I  am pairing songs…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Japan in June 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Koh Hasebe

from Kate Bush’s first two albums, as I still have characters to explore afterwards. It would mean no album bar The Kick Inside and Hounds of Love have more than one character. I will pair them down the line. However, focusing on two songs that were included in albums that came out in 1978, you can see a real diversity and range. Very different tracks that have their own narratives. The second character might not be one at all. They are so mysterious. Referred to as ‘he’, they are known by an initial, but they arrive in a song that is deeply fascinating. I will start with a standout track from Lionheart. Coffee Homeground is one of three new songs Kate Bush wrote for her second studio album. I cannot imagine what Kate Bush was facing in the second half of 1978. The Kick Inside came out on 17th February. She was promoting it heavily and travelling around the world. It would have been enough for her to promote the rest of the year and think about a second album the following year. As The Kick Inside struck a chord and Bush was this unique artist, EMI wanted to get another album from her before the year was done. That is an insane ask of a new artist! She had to go back into the archives to get songs for a second album. I guess the aim would have been that she would have time to write from scratch. The debut album obviously was going to feature songs written before she started recording. Older tracks. She would not have been keen to look into the archives for a second album. She was forced into a corner. Even if Lionheart does surprisingly have a leap and different sound, I think that is a conscious decision. The songs selected for The Kick Inside had to have some sort of similarity and arc. A cohesiveness. Not songs that sound exactly the song, though they are not widely separate from one another. Lionheart is more eclectic and genre-hopping. The new songs that Bush wrote demonstrate this. Symphony in Blue is tis gorgeous piano-led song that discusses sex, love, passion and death. Bush associating red and blue with different emotions. Fullhouse (changed to Full House for future editions of Lionheart) is full of paranoia. The overwhelming psychological stress, paranoia, and self-doubt she experienced following her sudden, meteoric rise to fame. This was her most revealing song to date. Very open and raw.

I feel Coffee Homeground also shows this fearful and paranoid aspect. Bush wary of outside forces. People trying to poison her or create harm. Many assume Kate Bush first visited the U.S. in December 1978 when she was on SNL. Her only performance on the show. It seems she was there in May 1978. I am not sure whether this was promoting The Kick Inside. Her 1978 was exhausting. It must have been a strange trip. It is worth looking at Kate Bush’s April and May 1978. Coffee Homeground written during a trip to the U.S. She was back and forth to the country it seemed. I don’t think she ever really enjoyed it:

“April 4, 1978

Wuthering Heights moves down to number 3. The Kick Inside reaches its chart peak at number 3.

Kate is off to Europe to promote single and album in the Netherlands, West Germany (a second time) and France. In The Netherlands, Kate makes a 25-minute promotional film of six tracks [Peter inexplicably writes "seven", though only six tracks were filmed] at De Efteling is in Kaatsheuvel, a gothic horror theme-park. Her visit is commemorated by a new gravestone. She performs on the Voor De Vuist Weg television programme. In Germany Kate appears on the television programmes Scene '78 and Top Pop, performing Wuthering Heights on both shows. Other guests on the former programme include Dr. Feelgood and The Boomtown Rats.

During this month Kate also makes a brief trip to the United States for promotional purposes, arriving back in the U.K. by April 21st.

Tour plans are put back to the end of the year.

May, 1978

Kate makes her first promotional trip to the U.S.A. and Canada (although she gives no performances and makes no U.S. television appearances), and then takes a short holiday. [This must be the same trip which is mentioned immediately above, for April. The U.S.-made interview album Self Portrait may have been cut during this trip.]

Wuthering Heights goes gold in the U.K. (500,000 sales). Kate presents the disk to Tony Myatt. For four years it hangs in the foyer of Capitol Radio's London base.

EMI allow Kate to have her way over the choice of the follow-up single in the U.K. It is to be The Man With the Child in His Eyes, which Kate had always wanted to be a single, as she felt it showcased her real songwriting talent. It is less of a novelty, and more of a standard. Dave Gilmour (executive producer on the track, which actually dates from the June, 1975 demo-sessions) is also pleased. In Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere the follow-up later in the year will be EMI's first choice, Them Heavy People”.

I do think that Coffee Homeground refers to some of her doubts and stresses. A hectic year where she had to record a second studio album. She mentioned Crippen. That is Dr. Hawley Crippen, who gained infamy after poisoning his wife. Is he a representation of the industry? Bush casting herself in this song and avoiding this coffee homeground. This brew that could poison her. In a café or coffee shop where anything on the menu could kill her. They have a picture of Crippen on the wall. It is sort of a mix between Sweeny Todd and the demon barber and the idea customers would be killed. One potential influence is a 1959 short story by Roald Dahl, The Landlady. In terms of its synopsis: “A young man named Billy Weaver arrives in Bath, England, and finds a cozy, seemingly innocent bed and breakfast managed by a pleasant but slightly eccentric older woman. While drinking a cup of tea she serves him, he notices it tastes faintly of bitter almonds—a classic sign of cyanide poisoning. The Twist: It is heavily implied she poisons her guests, kills them, and then stuffs their dead bodies to add to her collection of taxidermy pets”. It would have been fascinating having a video for this song. If Fullhouse is a more overt expression of the horrors and turmoil Kate Bush was experiencing being pushed and pulled, I do think that Coffee Homeground is another glimpse into her psyche.

Let’s get to some background about Coffee Homeground, so that we can learn how Dr. Crippen features. It seems like a trip the U.S. and a time when Bush was in a cab that inspired the song. It gets me thinking about a young Kate Bush in the U.S. and how she took to it. Here is where we learn where Coffee Homeground came from:

“[‘Coffee Homeground’] was in fact inspired directly from a cab driver that I met who was in fact a bit nutty. And it’s just a song about someone who thinks they’re being poisoned by another person, they think that there’s Belladonna in their tea and that whenever they offer them something to eat, it’s got poison in it. And it’s just a humorous aspect of paranoia really and we sort of done it in a Brechtian style, the old sort of German [vibe] to try and bring across the humour side of it.

Lionheart Promo Cassette, EMI Canada, 1978”.

No stranger to the U.S. in 1978, it would have been an overwhelming experience. She was promoting there, in a country that she did not want to break and was not a major focus. Going to New York and traveling around, a girl from Kent who was used to London but still very much not a city dweller, it would have been head-spinning., Having this cabbie rant on or tell weird stories could have put her off the country. Instead, it influenced one of her best early songs. I still think there is something of her in there. It is interesting considering the music of the song. That Germanic influence. Nothing like it on The Kick Inside. Bush eager to add something fresh and bigger. Going beyond the piano. It does have this jaunty and comedic tone. Though I sort of feel it is a companion to Get Out of My House from The Dreaming. That is inspired by The Shining. Bush inhabiting the spirit of this hotel. This was the manifestations of Bush pushing herself to the limits producing The Dreaming. Mixing a known source to what was in her head. A feeling that she was maybe going mad or had to fight for autonomy and respect. Few people discuss the psychology in her songs. What we can detect about Bush’s mindset and psychology. Coffee Homeground is a polar opposite in terms of mood. Less percussive and more oddly romantic, there is still plenty of horror and hazard in Coffee Homeground. Bush is in this coffee house, and poison is being made in the basement. A glass of wine set aside where the poison will reside. The mantra is “And I don’t want any coffee homeground”. I shall end this section by discussing how that name had a life beyond this song. It is very Sweeny Todd-esque. Bush notes how were plumbers who went missing. A tall man and his companion. Never seen again. They no doubt were poisoned and disposed off. The line about Crippen is very vivid. I do think that the traps and tainted treats is Kate Bush singing about the lure of the music industry and how promotion and things that might seem positive are not. That they cause harm. “Well, you won’t get me with your Belladonna – in the coffee/And you won’t get me with your arsenic – in the pot of tea/And you won’t get me in a hole to rot – with your hemlock/On the rocks”. Is this her talking about interviews and now saying the wrong thing? Having to tread carefully or fear hurting her career?

“Pictures of Crippen/Lipstick-smeared”. That is an odd and intriguing vision. The proprietor kissing those pictures. A murderous idol, they are following his lead. If a cabbie in the U.S. planted the seeds, no doubt the tale of Dr. Crippen was known to her early. It is worth knowing about more about Dr. Crippen and why he is so notorious. A story and horrible unfolding that would no doubt have made Kate Bush curious:

“In September 1905, Dr Crippen and his wife took a lease on 39 Hilldrop Crescent in Holloway. Part of the thinking behind this move was that the pair could now have separate bedrooms. Belle had never really been a sexual person and according to what Crippen would later say, all physical relations between them ceased in 1907. Crippen, meanwhile, had fallen in love.

The object of his desire was Ethel Le Neve, a typist who worked for him. At about the same time that Crippen stopped having sex with Belle, he and Ethel became lovers. This situation continued until 1910.

On the evening of Monday, 31 January 1910, the Crippens threw a dinner party for two close friends of Belle’s: Paul and Clara Martinetti. The meal passed pleasantly enough, except for one incident. Paul Martinetti had asked to use the toilet and because Crippen didn’t escort him upstairs to show him where it was, Belle berated him. By the time the Martinettis finally left, it was around 1 a.m. on Monday, 1 February. It would be the last time that anyone saw Belle Elmore alive.

Over the next week or so people began to ask where Belle was. Crippen said that she had gone to America. As the days passed, this story was amended and now she had fallen ill. Finally, Crippen told people that his wife had passed away. There was, however, one problem with this. Ethel Le Neve had started wearing some of Belle’s jewellery and, by the end of February, she had moved in with Crippen at Hilldrop Crescent. Friends grew suspicious and in due course those suspicions were passed on to the police.

On 8 July, Chief Inspector Walter Dew called at Hilldrop Crescent where he found Ethel alone. Crippen, it seems, was at work, so Dew visited him there and the two returned together to Hilldrop Crescent where Crippen happily showed the officer around the house. He also told Dew a different story. Belle had left him for another man, almost certainly Bruce Miller, an American she had met in late 1903. Dew told Crippen that it would be better if Belle contacted him to confirm this story and Crippen said that he would place an advertisement in certain newspapers, asking for her to make contact.

Things now moved very quickly. The next day, 9 July, Crippen shaved off his distinctive moustache and with Ethel Le Neve disguised as a boy, travelled to Brussels. There they bought tickets for passage to Canada, travelled on to Antwerp and there boarded the SS Montrose, travelling as father and son.

At about the same time, Chief Inspector Dew returned to Hilldrop Crescent. He was surprised to find Crippen and Ethel missing and decided to make another routine search of the house. In the cellar he noticed some loose bricks in the floor. Officers were ordered in to make a more thorough search and beneath those bricks they found the remains of a body. The body was headless, limbless and boneless – little more than pieces of flesh, but it was female. It was time to find Crippen.

Aboard the Montrose, the father and son were watched with interest. They seemed to be unduly affectionate and were constantly holding hands. Added to that, the boy’s clothing seemed to be very ill-fitting. Captain Kendall had his suspicions and telegraphed a message to Scotland Yard. Dew, now determined to intercept the ‘father and son’, boarded a faster ship, the SS Laurentic, and the hunt was on.

On Sunday, 31 July, Dew and other officers boarded the Montrose as it sailed up the St Lawrence. The father and son were identified as Crippen and Ethel Le Neve, both were arrested and, after three weeks, were escorted back to England to face trial.

It was decided that the pair should not be tried together. Crippen would face his trial first and, once that verdict had been determined, Ethel Le Neve would take her turn in the dock, to be tried as an accessory. So it was that on 18 October, Crippen stood alone in the dock at the Old Bailey before the Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Alverstone. The proceedings would last until 22 October.

Crippen’s defence was simple. The body found in the cellar of his home was not Belle’s. The body must have been of some poor unknown woman and been placed there before he and Belle had moved in. It was, therefore, crucial to the prosecution to prove that the body was Belle’s.

One piece of the flesh found in the shallow grave had borne a scar and medical records showed that Belle had such a scar on her lower abdomen. More conclusive was the fact that the remains had been wrapped in a pyjama jacket and a tag inside that jacket led to the manufacturers: Jones Brothers. They confirmed that this particular cloth and pattern were not issued until late 1908, proving that the body must have been placed there after that date. This, and the scar, was consistent with the body being that of Belle Elmore”.

I do think that this lipstick-smeared figure in a coffee house of poison and murder is much deeper than this being something fictional. I do read more into it. Dr. Crippen representing something bigger. It is also worth thinking about the victim, Cora Crippen, as she is under-discussed and misunderstood. Though it is not strictly relevant to Coffee Homeground. This song would become Homeground, a Kate Bush fanzine, that started in 1982 and ran until 2011. I do love how it fitted. It was a homemade fanzine, so that title is apt. Also, a Kate Bush song that not a lot of people talk about. Brilliant that it had a life beyond Lionheart. I have said before how we do need a Kate Bush fanzine today. I do love how Coffee Homeground is much more fascinating than people imagine. Dreams of Orgonon spotlighted Coffee Homeground in 2019. There are some observations that I want to highlight: “Her play at a German accent is willfully funny, one of the silliest things on Lionheart. Bush was often mocked for her gurning and high-pitched vocals (by such comedians as Faith Brown and Pamela Stephenson), and “Homeground” suggests she’s in on the joke to some extent, or least just as capable of having fun with it. On the track she engages in Sprechgesang, a kind of singing in which a singer rapidly moves back and forth between speaking and singing”. They go on to say how “The decrepit house of “Homeground” is as much a stage for the song itself as it is for Bush. In a period where she’s torn between the obligations of touring and her desire to give her songs the time they need, “Coffee Homeground” is the sort of song Kate Bush is bound to produce. Her shortcomings and her ambition clash violently, and the result is as fascinating and vexed as anything she’s ever made”.

Let’s move to the second side. From her rushed-but-brilliant second studio album, Lionheart, we go back a few months to The Kick Inside. I have covered a few songs already from The Kick Inside. I think there are three more tracks on the album I will write about. Moving, Wuthering Heights and Them Heavy People. The latter song is the final one I will include, as the title of this series takes its name from that song. The mysterious and enigmatic G is spoken about Strange Phenomena. Let’s get some background from Kate Bush about a gem from The Kick Inside:

“Strange Phenomena” is about how coincidences cluster together. We can all recall instances when we have been thinking about a particular person and then have met a mutual friend who – totally unprompted – will begin talking about that person. That’s a very basic way of explaining what I mean, but these “clusters of coincidence” occur all the time. We are surrounded by strange phenomena, but very few people are aware of it. Most take it as being part of everyday life. (Music Talk, 1978)”.

I am going to reference Dreams of Orgonon again, as they are a really useful and comprehensive source when it comes to getting to the core of songs. Even if you do not think of him as a character, G is a ‘he’. “A day of coincidence with the radio/And a word that won’t go away/We know what they’re all going to say/“G” arrives–“Funny, had a feeling he was on his way!” We don’t know if G is God, or someone else whose name starts with that letter. Kate Bush never revealed the source. Maybe we imagine him as a spirit. This lifeforce that brings about these coincidences. This is a case of Kate Bush going beyond the obvious girl-meets-boy Pop. The Kick Inside is as much about human experiences, psychology and subjects that go deep. Make you think.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Fievez/ANL/REX/Shutterstock

I do wonder who this G is. I feel this is a case of Kate Bush being influenced by Steely Dan. The sort of thing they would sling into a song. Not that the themes excluded on Strange Phenomena are comparable to Steely Dan! However, they would drop a G into their songs (Daddy Gee is a character in Countdown to Ecstasy’s My Old School). It might be God. Someone or something that is like this lifeforce. A thing inside people, especially women, that is an institution. This is one of two songs on The Kick Inside that mentions mensuration. “Every girl knows about the punctual blues/But who’s to know the power behind our moods?”. The punctual blues is obviously about periods. This was not taboo in 1978, though it was definitely not common for women in music to discuss this through music. Kite starts with a line where Bush says, “Beelzebub is aching in my belly-o”. I have included this song in this feature but never associated the aching with period pain. Bush never says this is specifically what it was, but Laura Snapes reviewed The Kick Inside and this is how she interpreted the line. These cycles and coincidences. A rare case of Bush lifting women. In the sense of this positive message about their powers and strength. Bush not often seen as a feminist, you can read many of her songs as feminist. I think Strange Phenomena is one where women, these “Soul-birds of a feather”, flock together. The lines “You hear your sister calling for you/But you don’t know where from”. I never quite knew the meaning there. There is spirituality and philosophy on The Kick Inside. It is definitely present in Strange Phenomena. Bush repeats the line “Om mani padme hum”. “Om mani padme hum is the most famous and widely revered six-syllable mantra in Tibetan Buddhism. Associated with Avalokiteśvara (the Bodhisattva of Compassion), it embodies universal love, wisdom, and the ultimate transformation of the mind, body, and speech into the pure state of a Buddha”. The closest English translation is “praise to the jewel in the lotus”. In a song where God could be this G, Bush also brings in Buddhism. As we learn, “In Tibetan Buddhism, this is the most ubiquitous mantra and its recitation is a popular form of religious practice, performed by laypersons and monastics alike”.

Dreams of Orgonon looked inside Strange Phenomena. They muse that the ‘G’ could be David Gilmour. He was a mentor and a big reason why she got signed and got to where she is. He supported her work and paid for her first recordings at AIR Studios. Knowing that Bush was a very special talent, maybe this is her honouring him. Though many feel The Man with the Child in His Eyes is about Gilmour. I don’t think either song is. Bush might have been inspired by a 1972 novel. Written by English author John Berger, G is set in pre–First World War Europe. Its protagonist is named G. They are a Don Juan/Casanova-like lover of women who gradually comes to political consciousness after misadventures across the continent. It would be fascinating if this was the source. How it changes our perception of Strange Phenomena. There is mysticism and religion. There is philosophy and wonder. Beautiful twists of language. This passage from Dreams of Orgonon stood out: “In addition to her quasi-musical coinage of “the punctual blues,” she calls a period the phase “where people tune in.” To be sure, menstruating a subject people discuss in private, bringing discomfort to cisgender women and often triggering severe bouts of dysphoria in transgender men. It’s an aspect of life that unites lots of people in their unease by widespread patterns and, more importantly, rhythms of nature. Bush dignifies menstruating by making it a musical process. If there’s a central idea to The Kick Inside, it’s that everything is music”. The website is run by a transgender woman, Christine Kelley. Not just because Bush dignifies a subject that would make people uncomfortable. Even though menstruation is a key part of the menstrual cycle, it is not something many women brought into their music pre-1978. Not that it is common in modern music through, through the decades, there have been cases of women bringing the menstrual cycle and PMS into music. Princess Nokia’s Period Blood. Heavens to Betsy’s My Red Self. Perhaps Melanie Martinez’s MOON CYCLE (2022) is closest to Kate Bush’s Strange Phenomena. I guess one of the challenges for Kate Bush was how to mount this for 1979’s The Tour of Life. It was on the setlist, though it is quite hard to conceptualise. Though a lot of her songs are easy to perform live, visualising them was a bit harder. Bush’s lyrics are often quite complex and changeable in terms of subjects and themes. Threading everything together would have been a challenge.

Prior to finishing up, I do think that there are those who feel Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside is defined by this hippy-dippy vibe. That image that stayed with her. Like she was more drawn to music and attitudes of the 1960s than the time she was living in. Strange Phenomena gets lumped into similar-natured The Kick Inside songs and are written off. This review lumps a few cuts together. Thinking they are a bit hippy-like and lack depth: “In some quarters, due to songs like “Room For the Life,” a reductive paean to the “Earth Mother” archetype, and the reggae-ish “Them Heavy People,” which namechecks spiritual gurus like George Gurdjieff, Kate was dismissed as something of a starry-eyed, modern day hippie (the tabloids liked to poke fun at her use of the words “wow” and “amazing”). “Strange Phenomena” is of similar ilk, casting a glance at the “other world” with a somewhat obvious checklist of supposedly otherworldly happenings (the power of the full moon, ESP, synchronicity), though the somber chanting of “om mani padme hum” in the fade out does add a spooky touch”. Many do pass by Kate Bush’s earliest albums, as they get this idea that there is this woo-woo kind of thing. Lots of stuff about spirits, mysticism. Music that would connect with hippies of the 1960s. However, if you listen to the songs and give them your attention, there is so much more to them. It is also nothing to be seen as a negative. It is important that people listen to albums like The Kick Inside. Strange Phenomena is an amazing song. So much packed in there. Not least who G is. I still think it is God, which would take us to angles around religion and how God made his/her way into Kate Bush’s music. Bush, whilst not devout, was and is a believer. She said making an album was a mission from God. Something that was a divine calling. Not a shock that she would bring God into her music. It is nice that there is something of the unknown about this man in Strange Phenomena. Less an immortal thing or spirit, there is that personal connection. Kate Bush wanted to keep him anonymous. Though you can sort of feel and sense an image of who the man is. Lots to dig into. Each listener will have their own theories. Pairing this unknown G together with Dr. Crippen. Showing, once more, how varied Kate Bush is regarding characters and inspirations. It gives new dimensions and layers to her…

IMPRESSIVE and district catalogue.

FEATURE: A Good SPIN: Looking Back at a 1994 Kate Bush Interview and a Different Approach

FEATURE:

 

 

A Good SPIN

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the set of her short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve in 1993

Looking Back at a 1994 Kate Bush Interview and a Different Approach

__________

I  wanted to come back…

IN THIS PHOTO: Laura Dern shot for Elle Spain (January 1994 edition) in 1993 in Los Angeles, California/PHOTO CREDIT: Lance Staedler/Corbis Outline via Contour RA by Getty Images

to a 1994 interview that appeared in SPIN. It was a conversation between Kate Bush and Laura Dern. I recently featured it in another piece, where I discussed Kate Bush and her relationship with female interviewers. Perhaps more evident earlier in her career, there was a certain amount of hostility. Bush more comfortable being interviewed by men, or feeling like it would be easier to control the conversation and narrative. Women perhaps steelier or a bit edgy towards Bush. The dynamic maybe not something Bush was used to or felt comfortable doing. That changed later in her career. In fact, some of her best interviews ever have been with women. I feel an interview that sees Bush at her most comfortable and open is with actress Laura Dern. One of the most respected women in Hollywood, it was great that This clear Kate Bush fan had a chance to talk with her in 1994. I wanted to comment on the interview, as it leads to that idea of celebrity admiration. Kyle McLachlan and Rayvn Lenae recently chatted about Kate Bush and her magic (you can see the entire interview here). It was great to hear these very different and big names show love to Kate Bush. It is important that journalists and broadcasters interview Kate Bush. In terms of the perspective they provide. Also, they work for music publications and radios. There are not many opportunities for high-profile names to interview someone like Kate Bush. Though you would love to see Kyle MacLachlan or Rayvn Lenae chat with Kate Bush! They bring something that you would not get from other interviewers. How she impacts their works. If there is another studio album from Bush, you know there will be a long list of admirers who want to chat with her. Having an artist interview Kate Bush would be amazing. I am not sure how giving and open Kate Bush will be in terms of promotion if another album does come.

It takes me to that Laura Dern interview. I do not know how that commission came about. In terms of where she was in her career, Dern appeared in prior to that 1994 interview, she had this amazing run. Jurassic Park in 1993. In 1991, she appeared in the acclaimed Rambling Rose. In 1996, Dern would appear in Citizen Ruth. This incredible actress doing these varied and amazing projects. She might have seen something in Kate Bush that was similar to her. The way her music changed the decisions Bush made. I am sure Laura Dern was known to Bush and she watched her films. Dern was twenty-seven when she interviewed Kate Bush. Bush was thirty-five. She released The Red Shoes and The Line, the Cross and the Curve in 1993. It got its premiere then but a wider release in 1994. A reason, possibly, that they were put together. It may have seemed like a bit of a publicity stunt at the time, but this was actually two very similar-minded people enjoying a great conversation. Here is the interview. Another reason for highlighting this interview is because I feel The Line, the Cross and the Curve is a great short film that people should check out. If it is good enough for Laura Dern, then that should compel people to seek it out:

“What do you say when someone has truly inspired you? How do you express to an artist how deeply their work has affected you? Well, for better or worse, I just had my opportunity.

I wanted to ask Kate Bush every obvious fan question in the book. I wanted to let her know how much her work means to me. I wanted to ask the right questions.

I have no conscious memory of our conversation, because I went into some altered state of panic. Luckily, I realized that my duty of being Lois Lane, reporter extraordinaire, would get in my way. So I just tried to chat with Kate.

With the release of her new album, The Red Shoes, Kate was in the U.S. for her first visit since 1989. She and I have both recently completed our directorial debuts on short films -- hers, a 50-minute feature, The Line, The Curve and The Cross, which links six of the new songs through a fairy tale.

How fantastic it was to speak with her! It was so unusual to hear that magical voice that I've heard singing into my inner ear (through headphones) since 1985. I remember first encountering Kate's music while filming Blue Velvet. I listened to Hounds of Love, and instantly felt I had found what I always longed for music to be: a discovery of self, a journey full of imagery and passion; and now this voice, this creator and I were having a conversation.

SPIN: Tell me about your new short film, The Line, The Curve and The Cross. I understand that Michael Powell, the director of the old classic movie The Red Shoes, is a hero of yours. Is your film adapted from his?

Kate Bush: It was something I thought of when we finished the album: to make a short film that would include some of the songs from the record but also tell a story. The only stuff I've worked on before has been short videos.

You can feel that there was this awe from Laura Dern. She was this huge actress, but quite early on her career. That link of the two of them directing short films. That Blue Velvet mention links to Kyle MacLachlan, so it would be great if he got to interview Kate Bush! The two were in different stages of their career in terms of acclaim. Laura Dern maybe still seen as a rising actress, and Jurassic Park was her biggest role. She was taking on all these interesting films. From huge-budget flicks to something smaller. Bush had enjoyed her regency and, by 1994, there was a bit of a downturn in terms of reviews and fortunes. In 1994, there was a bit of a depression that shadowed Kate Bush. She did struggle and was stepping away from the spotlight. Still promoting by the time the SPIN interview came out, I can imagine that this interview was a lot more of a pleasurable prospect than traditional ones. Bush might have had a reputation for not always clicking with female interviewers. Laura Dern, this massive fan, impossible not to love! I like how there was talk about directing:

Spin: You've directed almost all of yours for years now.

KB: But I've never done anything like this before, and it was just such an education for me. I think the most demanding thing was being in it as well as directing, and I don't think I'd do that again. I found it very difficult --just having the sheer stamina. But what a wonderful experience, and it's so different from making an album because you've got this big group of people all working together on something that has to be done quickly and the albums are almost completely opposite to that.

Spin: I've read in interviews where you talk about how exciting it's been for you in the process of mixing, and I thought to myself, "Oh my God, as a director what an exciting new world that must be for you, with all that you can do with the visual side." Were you like a kid in a candy store?

KB: To a certain extent, but we were very restricted by having no money and so little time. But some of it was so new to me -- like working with dialogue, which I found fascinating. I really enjoyed it. The film is meant to be like a modern fairy tale. We worked on it so intensely and it's not been finished for very long, so it's really difficult for me to know what people will think of it and whether they'll get a sense of story from it.

Spin: The thing I remember when I was a teenager and saw The Red Shoes was the struggle of this woman's: having to choose between being a dancer and being with her man. That the passion for love and the passion for dance couldn't coexist really affected me. I don't know what you think about that. I hope to believe -- well, I hope to believe a lot of things -- but I hope to believe that we can be consummate artists as women or revolutionaries, or whatever women want to be, and also have love, not only for ourselves but from a partner.

KB: I have to believe that too. It's just not fair to think that it's not possible. But I suppose the consuming nature of being obsessed with one's work, or one's art, is obviously something that we probably all struggle with to try to find a balance”.

Spin: In interviews, people always refer to you as this great perfectionist. Do you agree with that? Do you perceive yourself that way?

KB: Well, if perfectionist means taking a long time, then I would agree with it. But I really don't think that it's possible to make things perfect, really. In some ways, there's almost an attempt to try to achieve something that is quite imperfect. Do you know what I mean? And to be able to find a way of leaving it with certain raw edges, so that the heart doesn't go out of it. I don't think of myself as a perfectionist at all.

Spin: Critics, especially men, seem to describe women who are brilliant at what they do as perfectionists or loners or difficult to get at. I always find that so hilarious because I think someone who is connected to their work must be easier to reach than others.

KB: I think so too, it's just that maybe they're going to be a little more weary.

That last question is particularly interesting. Laura Dern must have had some difficult experiences with male interviewers. I don’t think a female interviewer would ask a question like that. Laura Dern approaching music as a creative herself. An actress’s perspective. It is an interesting dynamic. That insightful look into The Red Shoes. It must have been refreshing for Bush to get these type of questions. To discuss The Red Shoes (1948). Influencing The Red Shoes album, it was arguably the first visual album by a female artist. How many other women before Kate Bush had released a visual album? Had Janet Jackson or Madonna done that? I am curious how America took to The Line, the Cross and the Curve. The Red Shoes reached twenty-eight in the US Billboard 200. It did not get many great reviews, though the commercial impact was impressive. I do think that The Line, The Cross and the Curve has some wonderful moments.

Spin: Do you struggle to balance your desire to keep a raw, spiritual edge to your music and a need to make the music accessible? Do you feel confident enough to just express what you believe and hope the audience catches up?

KB: There's kind of a driving force involved in the whole process of putting music together, to ultimately ending up with a finished album. I think there's a lot of stuff that I don't even question until other people come in and listen to the music, and it's almost like suddenly you're listening to things through other people's ears. I suppose that's when it gets a bit difficult. Sometimes I'm aware that things were actually a little more personal than I'd realized. But I suppose I feel if, when you are actually creating something, it feels kind of honest, it feels good, then that's the point where the intenion matters, and then from that point onwards it's just a matter of being brave enough to actually let it go.

Spin: That's why I've always loved film more than theater, and film may be more closely related to making a record because you have that ability to go in and do your work and have no judgment around it, and feel honest. Then, much later, it's presented to people. But in theater, people come backstage after a performance and you're about to do the same play again the next night, and people say, "Well, I didn't really believe that emotion" or whatever. It's really hard for me, I like to be closed up and just do the work.

KB: That's a very interesting observation, I'd not actually thought of it like that, but you're quite right. Films are kept very personal for quite a long time.

Kate Bush being asked about that raw edge in her music. Arguably, The Red Shoes suffered because of its production and a less warm sound. The C.D. age where things with edgy and actually a bit tin-like and compressed. The Red Shoes arguably more commercial and less open and raw than The Sensual World (1989) and Hounds of Love (1985). It is interesting, as most major actors who have had a career for as long as Laura Dern have appeared in plays. Dern has focused on film and T.V. I can see why she would not like a play. That repetition or that critique from the audience. That reaction from the audience could impact other performances. With a film, you keep things secret until it reaches cinemas. The work is done, so you do not get the pressure and that demotivating reaction!

By the start of 1994, Bush was looking to step away from promotion. Her mother died 1992, and she really only had chance and space to grieve after the completion of The Red Shoes. Though she stepped right into The Line, the Cross and the Curve. She was still carrying a lot of that loss around. Also, there was this negative reaction to album and film. The first time in her career where she had this sort of backlash. Together with fatigue and grief, it was an impossibly hard time. She was married to Dan McIntosh and happy with him, though it was still a difficult period. She gave birth to her son Bertie in 1998:

Spin: I've always been so curious to know if there are certain of your own songs or albums that you feel most proud of, or most connected to?

KB: I suppose, like most people, I tend to feel closest to the work I've most recently done. In a lot of ways, it's like extracts from a diary: If you look back at things in your past and consider events, it's like, "Oh God, no." You tend to feel differently about things as you move through two or three years. And I suppose also, hopefully, you like to think that you are getting better at what you do, more mature in your craft. Quite soon after that, there comes a point where you just want to do something completely different from the most recent piece of work in order to shake it off.

Spin: Have you ever gone back and either thought about songs you've written, or listened to your music from years before, and learned something you hadn't recognized, or understood something that at the time you didn't understand?

KB: I'm not sure I've ever reinterpreted something, but I have definitely been able to hear things in a different way from how I did at the time. I very rarely listen to any of my old music; it's the last thing I ever want to do. But occasionally I end up in a situation where I do, and if enough time has gone by, I can actually hear how I would do things differently.

Spin: But if art is a contribution, and I certainly know that your music has been, the one thing that I'm excited about as a listener is that you've been at different places in your life and have written pieces of music where you may now think, "if I had only done it that way," but somehow the place you were at allowed you to write it that way and it affected people who were in the same place.

KB: There was a reason for it happening then.

Spin: I've always wanted to ask you if you have interests in the shadow side, in understanding the repressed self -- things we are in denial about.

KB: Creative art is an awfully positive way of channelling the shadow side, and I think it's much more healthy to explore it and have fun with it within the boundaries of art. I'm not sure that it's something terribly good to go looking for. Do you know what I mean? I think it's actually something that ends up coming to you anyway”.

It is an interesting end to the interview. Those questions around reappraisal and looking back at her work. Bush would revisit songs from The Red Shoes for 2011’s Director’s Cut. Quite spooky that Laura Dern asked the question. Not that she knew these songs would need to be reworked but, as Bush has been releasing music since 1978, she must have felt that some of her songs could be done better or she was not completely happy with them. This 1994 SPIN interview brings different sides out of Kate Bush. I wanted to bring it back to the fore. I would love if Laura Dern got the chance to speak to Kate Bush again. Or a superfan like Kyle MacLachlan. There are publications where artists can speak to other artists. Or someone well-known chats with an artist. I find journalists and broadcaster ask the same questions and they approach Bush’s music in a way that can be samey. Actors come at it from another angle. There have been some terrific Kate Bush interviews through the years, though this 1994 loving chat between two amazing women…

MIGHT be the very best.

FEATURE: Under African Skies: Paul Simon’s Graceland at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

Under African Skies

Paul Simon’s Graceland at Forty

__________

I  am writing this…

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul Simon in 1986

quite far ahead of its fortieth anniversary. Though I am excited to write about Paul Simon’s Graceland. It was released on 25th August, 1986. This was one of the biggest leaps in terms of Simon’s career. 1983’s Hearts and Bones is not a disappointing album, though it wasn’t a big commercial success. It has gained more retrospective acclaim. Some critics at the time feeling it was not one of Paul Simon’s best. I did want to come to some features and reviews around Graceland, as its fortieth anniversary is an important one. This is one of the best albums ever released. So many Paul Simon classics. Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Graceland, The Boy in the Bubble, and You Can Call Me Al. There are some controversies around Graceland. Paul Simon faced backlash and criticism from organisations like Artists United Against Apartheid, who felt that Simon was breaking the cultural boycott on South Africa imposed for its policy of apartheid. Some felt that Simon was appropriating African culture on the album. Simon had to come out and say that Graceland was a political statement that showcased collaboration between black and white people. One that was intended to raise international awareness of apartheid. It is one of these albums that did get some criticism in 1986 and in years since there has been this reappraisal. Seen as a landmark album and one of the most important albums ever, I wonder how Graceland’s fortieth will be marked. I want to start out with The Guardian and their feature from 2012. It coincided with Paul Simon’s decision to play Graceland in London, and the release of the documentary, Under African Skies:

“There had already been a batch of songs attacking the brutality of apartheid, from Stevie Wonder’s It’s Wrong to Peter Gabriels’ powerful Biko and Jerry Dammers and the Special AKA’s classic protest song, (Free) Nelson Mandela. And there were campaigns to stop musicians performing in South Africa, with the likes of Dylan, Springsteen and Bono joining Steve Van Zandt in the recording of Sun City, attacking those who performed in the South African entertainment complex in the so-called “homeland” of Bophuthatswana.

Those who did so were accused of breaking a UN-approved cultural boycott, which had been in effect since December 1980. After all, the wording of Resolution 35/206 was surely clear: “The United Nations General Assembly request all states to prevent all cultural, academic, sporting and other exchanges with South Africa. Appeals to writers, artists, musicians and other personalities to boycott South Africa. Urges all academic and cultural institutions to terminate all links with South Africa.”

The resolution was enthusiastically endorsed by the Artists Against Apartheid movement, and offending musicians including Rod Stewart and Queen, who had been attracted by generous fees to play at Sun City, all promised not to return. Simon’s reasons for working in the country were very different, but surely he had still broken the boycott?

That was the question he would inevitably be asked at the Mayfair launch, but he clearly wasn’t happy about it. He had no regrets, he told us, because he hadn’t gone there to perform – indeed, he had turned down a lucrative request to play Sun City. But after hearing Gumboots Accordion Jive Vol 2, a bootleg tape of South African musicians, he was eager that “such rich music” should be introduced to the rest of the world.

That, surely, didn’t answer the question, and so I then asked him whether he had taken any advice before making the decision to go. He replied that he had checked with the veteran civil rights campaigner Harry Belafonte, who “had mixed feelings ... it was the first time that he had dealt with someone not going to perform but to bring back the music”. It later became clear that Belafonte had told Simon to “go and talk to the ANC”, advice he clearly didn’t take.

When I pressed him further, he suddenly came out with a quite remarkable outburst, explaining his view on music and politics.

“Personally, I feel I’m with the musicians,” he said. “I’m with the artists. I didn’t ask the permission of the ANC. I didn’t ask permission of Buthelezi, or Desmond Tutu, or the Pretoria government. And to tell you the truth, I have a feeling that when there are radical transfers of power on either the left or the right, the artists always get screwed. The guys with the guns say, ‘This is important’, and the guys with guitars don’t have a chance.” I remember him looking round the hall as he added: “I haven’t said that before.”

The result, predictably enough, was that the row rapidly escalated. Dammers, then heavily involved with Artists Against Apartheid, was among those to react furiously, asking: “Who does he think he is? He’s helping maybe 30 people and he’s damaging solidarity over sanctions. He thinks he’s helping the cause of freedom, but he’s naive. He’s doing far more harm than good.”

Further twists followed in the months after Graceland was released. In early 1987, Simon announced that he had been cleared by the ANC, but Dali Tambo, the founder of Artists Against Apartheid and son of ANC president Oliver Tambo, replied by saying that no such clearance had been given.

Then the PR battle swung the other way, thanks not to the ANC, but to leading black South African musicians who had been closely associated with the anti-apartheid struggle. Hugh Masekela, exiled from South Africa because of his attacks on the apartheid regime, had known Simon since the 60s; he had appeared alongside Simon and Garfunkel at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. He suggested that they tour together, in a show that would include an array of black South African musicians, including the country’s finest female singer Miriam Makeba, and that songs from Graceland should be performed alongside black South African music.

It was an inspired idea, and when I went along to the rehearsals in a former warehouse near London’s Pentonville prison, it became instantly clear that this was going to be something special. In one room, Masekela was rehearsing a female chorus that included Makeba, his former wife, while in another studio, the 10-man vocal team Ladysmith Black Mambazo were practising their spine-chilling harmonies and dance steps, backed by members of another South African band, Stimela, while Simon watched and made suggestions.

Masekela, always an outspoken rebel, explained why he was co-operating with Simon and not condemning him. He was delighted that the Graceland tour was bringing black South African musicians together and giving their music global exposure. “South African music has been in limbo because of apartheid,” he told me. “Exile and the laws have parted us and caused a lack of growth. If we’d been free and together all these years, who knows what we could have done?”.

There is not a load written about Graceland. In terms of the story behind it and how it was made. You would feel there would be an extensive feature collecting interviews with those involved in making the album. There doesn’t seem to be. I did want to lead to this 1986 interview with the Los Angeles Times. He talks about Graceland. It comes out of a period of commercial downturn and personal unhappiness. Personal struggles and a studio album, Heart and Bones, that was not as acclaimed as his best:

“The backbone of the 11 cuts on “Graceland” is the bright, up-tempo rhythms of the supporting South African musicians whom Simon enlisted to help shape the album.

“On a certain level this is really the evolution of an idea that began with ‘El Condor Pasa,’ ” Simon said. “It was then that I thought there was no reason why music from another culture couldn’t be popular music. ‘Condor’ was Peruvian--I don’t think there were any Peruvian hits before that--but I liked it.

“With ‘Mother and Child Reunion,’ I went to Jamaica to record; I realized that if I want to write in that genre, for it to really work I had to go to the place and work with the musicians. That’s what happened with the South African music.”

Simon was hooked a couple of years ago by a record called “Gumboots,” “which sounded to me like ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll, but a little bit odder.” Loaded with accordions, dense drums and electric guitars, the structures of the music came out of the streets of Soweto, where it is called “township jive.”

Simon, who has never been more than vague in song about his politics, made contacts in South Africa, but he was concerned that a trip there “would be making some kind of statement I didn’t want to be making. Simon & Garfunkel had been asked to play Sun City, and we refused.

“I called Quincy Jones, who is a friend, and said, ‘How does this sound to you? Do you think it’s all right?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I think it’s all right, just make sure everybody gets paid right and that everybody likes you.’ ”

Simon found after he arrived that a black musicians’ union had voted to work with him, in part because Simon was an international outlet for cultural exchange.

“Politics inevitably inserts itself into everything in South Africa,” he said. “And by making big political statements, you could be in a position of danger from the government on the right and the radicals on the left.”

Simon kept his opinions private and stifled any urge to inject into “Graceland” any statements that might reflect on the people who worked with him. “For one thing,” he said, “I’ve no reason to assume they’d all hold the same political opinions.”

The title cut, by the way, isn’t about Elvis, “and I hadn’t been to Graceland. I don’t know why I began to write that song, but I kept singing those lyrics. Now, I’ve reached a point in my writing where, if it won’t go away, I just accept it because I just can’t get it out of my head. Sometimes I don’t really like that. But it just won’t go away, and that’s that.”

In structure, Simon crafted most of the album in reverse order, first laying down backing tracks and then writing the melodies and lyrics.

“It’s not unheard of to write this way,” said Simon, who used the same method with “Cecilia” and “Late in the Evening.”

Simon recorded in London, Louisiana and Los Angeles (where the East L.A. band Los Lobos joined Simon to cut “All Around the World”) and then went into the studio with producer Roy Halee, using digital technology and electronics “to create a larger sound.”

Whether “Graceland” hits or misses, Simon expects he’ll move on. “I find repetition doesn’t make for better work. If you have to stretch and twist yourself up a little bit, the problem becomes more interesting to solve, and anyway, you always learn something.

“There are other forms of writing I fool around with, some poetry and a play . . . but poetry on a page has to sing just as strong as the poetry in a song, and the poetry in a song has the enormous advantage of music underneath it. In songs, I try to make the right mix of conversational speech, cliches and enriched language. On a page, the language has to be more exact, more right.

“In a song, if I have to make a choice between fitting in a really good phrase and making the melody contort to hold the phrase--or losing the phrase and keeping the melody--I’ll pick the melody. I haven’t always, but that’s my thinking now.”

For all of his musical maturation and experimentation, Simon still adheres to a basic tenet that goes all the way back to “Homeward Bound” and “Sounds of Silence”: Keep it simple.

“A song is better off being easy, always easy,” Simon said, pushing back his round eyeglasses. “And when the lines that are special come out, they have to fit. If you have a really special line and it doesn’t fit, save it, because it won’t be what people remember. It’s the ease and naturalness of songs that people love”.

There are articles like this that look at a morally questionable side to Graceland. One that is ignored when we write these anniversary features. Some of the decisions Paul Simon made are not questioned or examined. Do we overlook these when we celebrate the album? It is interesting. I do want to finish off with a couple of reviews for Graceland. In 2012, Pitchfork reviewed the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Graceland. It is an album that “gave a human face to the perception of South Africa during apartheid by synthesizing geographically disparate musical strains that turned out to be remarkably complementary”:

“The stories Simon tells on Graceland wouldn't have been told without the collaboration of the mostly South African musicians he worked with on the record. Their music sparked Simon's imagination after the commercial disappointment of 1983's Hearts and Bones, and the jam sessions he recorded with them in South Africa gave rise to all but a few of these songs. Simon learned to write differently by homing in on the ways guitarist Chikapa "Ray" Phiri varied his playing from verse to verse, and by grounding his vocal melodies on the basslines of Bagithi Khumalo. Khumalo's playing has such fluency and personality that, at least on the five songs he's a part of, this is nearly as much his record as anyone else's. On the brief disc of outtakes included in this set, there's a version of "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" that's stripped down to just vocals and bass, and his line so completely frames the song (rhythmically, harmonically, and melodically) that the other elements of the album version's arrangement are barely missed.

So we get songs where the groove came first, and the lyrics long after. Simon considered writing political songs about apartheid but quickly concluded that he wasn't very good at it and owed it to the other musicians involved to stick to his strengths. Still, the album's opening song, "The Boy in the Bubble", is a thriller that ties together threads of technological progress, medicine, terrorism, surveillance, pop music, inequality, and superstition with little more than a series of sentence fragments, all tossed off in the same deadpan delivery. The song sets a monumental stage on which the small dramas and comedies of the other songs can play out, and it also establishes the record's unsettled tone-- out of all these songs, only "That Was Your Mother" is sung from a settled place, and even that one is a reminiscence about itinerant life.

To have Simon's songs mingling with mbaqanga, township jive, shangaan music, zydeco and chicano rock, all played by their real practitioners, complemented the themes of dislocation, misplaced identity, and the meeting of worlds. "You Can Call Me Al" traces Simon's own arc on his trip to South Africa, beginning in confusion and ending in ecstatic realization-- he goes from"far away, in my well-lit home" to, "He sees angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity/ He says 'amen' and 'hallelujah.'"

Graceland was the first many of Simon's fans had heard of South Africa's black music. When I saw that this set included a two-hour documentary on the album, I wondered whether it would shy away from the issue of Simon's violation of the cultural boycott on South Africa, but to its credit, it doesn't. In fact, director Joe Berlinger uses a one-on-one conversation between Simon and Dali Tambo, the founder of Artists Against Apartheid and a one-time vocal critic of Simon, as a framing device for his story.

But more than Simon's single-minded devotion to his art and Tambo's ideological politics, the experience surrounding this album is best conveyed by the musicians who made it. They were violating the boycott, too, just by participating in a dialogue with non-South African musicians, and there's a moment where Ray Phiri describes a meeting he was called to in London with African National Congress officials while touring to support the album that speaks volumes. The ANC officials told Phiri that he was violating the boycott and had to go home, and his response was that he was already a victim of apartheid, and to force him to go home would make him a victim twice. In the end, Simon's assertion that Graceland helped put an emotional, human face on black South Africans for millions of people around the world doesn't seem off the mark. This set also comes with a DVD of the concert Simon and these musicians played with South African exiles Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1987, and the joy visible on stage and in the audience certainly speaks to that.

It's easy to overstate what Graceland was. It wasn't the first world-music album, as some critics claim. But it was unique in its total, and totally natural, synthesis of musical strains that turned out to be not nearly as different from each other as its listeners might have expected, and the result resonated strongly around the world and across generations”.

I am going to finish with Rolling Stone and their 1997 review of Graceland.. There are a range of different approaches to Graceland. Focusing on its politics and controversy. The legacy it has now. Whilst it is a masterpiece, are there too many issues associated with Graceland that mean we cannot see it as this perfect work? It will be interesting seeing how people approach Graceland ahead of its fortieth anniversary on 25th August:

“In his typically understated way, Paul Simon has been an ardent musical explorer since he went solo in 1972. His songs have incorporated almost every style of American music, including doo-wop, gospel, blues and jazz, as well as reggae, minimalism, salsa and South American folk. But because he’s never based an entire album on any one of these, Simon is probably best known for pop hits like “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” On Graceland, his first album in three years, Simon completes his decade-long drift away from the pop mainstream with a topical dive into South African music, politics and controversy.

Nine of the eleven songs emanate from Simon’s interest in mbaqanga, a broad category of South African pop music; much of the recording was done with South African musicians, often in Johannesburg. (The other two songs feature the romping zydeco two-step of Good Rockin’ Dopsie and the Mexican rock of Los Lobos, but these tracks play like afterthoughts.) The African contributions fuse easily with overdubs by American musicians, including the Everly Brothers and Adrian Belew. But the music is not a westernized hybrid; it’s dominated by mbaqanga, and those who aren’t interested in foreign rhythms and chants shouldn’t waste time looking for another “Sounds of Silence.”

Although Simon’s lyrics avoid the accusatory stance of Sun City or UB40’s new album, his engagement with black musicians who are ruled by apartheid is inherently political. In the liner notes, Simon explains that he was initially attracted to mbaqanga because of its similarity to Fifties R&B, and that music’s exuberance suffuses the album. In the most moving track, the a capella “Homeless,” Simon’s soft, ageless voice harmonizes with the vocal group Lady-smith Black Mambazo in a way that suggests a natural link with doo-wop. The unity of their voices expresses beauty, strength and endurance, despite the song’s grim subject. Simon’s goal is not to rouse further conflict over apartheid but to provide a hopeful tonic.

Examples of blind faith recur in these familiar, often mirthful songs. In “Gumboots,” Simon simply declares, “You don’t feel you could love me/But I feel you could,” as though the strength of his belief could change the facts. And in the brilliant “Graceland” (a peak in Simon’s career), Elvis Presley’s gaudy, impenetrable home stands as a glorious symbol of redemption. The narrator, who’s running from a broken relationship, announces he has “reason to believe” he’ll be welcomed in Graceland. The knowledge that Presley died bloated, addicted and isolated doesn’t deter the song’s giddy faith in his legend.

But even as a musical diplomat, Simon courts controversy.

Both he and his collaborators have technically violated the United Nations cultural boycott of South Africa, the same resolution behind the musical ban on playing Sun City. And although Simon has twice rejected offers to appear at that South African resort, Graceland features an appearance by Linda Ronstadt, who has unapologetically played there. Simon has already begun to respond to these issues. But politics should not color one’s appreciation of an album as lovely, daring and accomplished as this”.

I hope that I have done some justice to Graceland. In terms of its story and importance. Whilst many will go deeper and there will be more balance, I did want to highlight this incredible album. Graceland is one of my favourite albums. I think that it does have a slightly complicated legacy, though in terms of its music and production, it is this wonderful masterpiece. Graceland is widely seen as Paul Simon’s peak…

FORTY years on.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: The Kangchenjunga Demon/Dipu Marak/The Schoolmaster of Darjeeling (Wild Man)/The New Man (The Dreaming)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

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

The Kangchenjunga Demon/Dipu Marak/The Schoolmaster of Darjeeling (Wild Man)/The New Man (The Dreaming)

__________

APART  from The Kick Inside…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982

the other eight studio albums from Kate Bush (excluding 2011’s Director’s Cut) have one or two more characters to go in this series. I am ending with Them Heavy People (from The Kick Inside) which has a few, and I may pair that with Moments of Pleasure, which also has a few. It will be a packed final feature. However, there are a few more at least before I get there. I am teaming 2011’s 50 Words for Snow with 1982’s The Dreaming. I have been writing a lot about Kate Bush in 1980, 1981 and 1982, so I am going to get to The Dreaming. I want to start out with the final character from 50 Words for Snow. There are a few different names given to him in Wild Man. You could simply call him The Wild Man, though I think The Kangchenjunga Demon is the one that caught my eye. Also called Metoh-Kangmi. I am going to come to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia and an interview where Kate Bush explained why she wrote Wild Man:

“Well, the first verse of the song is just quickly going through some of the terms that the Yeti is known by and one of those names is the Kangchenjunga Demon. He’s also known as Wild Man and Abominable Snowman. (…) I don’t refer to the Yeti as a man in the song. But it is meant to be an empathetic view of a creature of great mystery really. And I suppose it’s the idea really that mankind wants to grab hold of something [like the Yeti] and stick it in a cage or a box and make money out of it. And to go back to your question, I think we’re very arrogant in our separation from the animal kingdom and generally as a species we are enormously arrogant and aggressive. Look at the way we treat the planet and animals and it’s pretty terrible isn’t it?

John Doran, ‘A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed’. The Quietus, 2011”.

I want to start by picking up on that interview. I will get to the itinerary of the album and that song particular. It is one that takes us into the wild. I have said it in other features. Bush has this curiosity for things beyond our world. Her first single, Wuthering Heights, dealt with the spectral and haunted heroine from Emily Brontë. In terms of whether we emphasise with Catherine Earnshaw. Right from the start, Kate Bush was going beyond the ordinary. Not a conventional artist, she had this curiosity with the spiritual world. I do like how Bush has this curiosity. In terms of what she wrote about, those that are attacked or misunderstood. This Kangchenjunga Demon is maligned and seen as something savage. They do not exist, but Bush has said in a promotional interview that she believes in Yetis. That she feels they are out there. It makes me think about her mindset and openness. So many songwriters are limited in terms of beliefs beyond love and their own life. They may mention God and religion. Bush was not especially religious, though religious figures have appeared through her work. The Kick Inside brought in coincidence and phases of the moon. She has talked about philosophy and witchcraft. The latter was discussed in Hounds of Love. Literary figures and influences through film and T.V. Get Out of My House from The Dreaming is about a haunted house and this evil spirit warding people off. Influenced by The Shining. There has been a consistency through her career. In King of the Mountain from Aerial, we are in the mountains and Elvis Presley resides there. You can feel this inventive and unusual blend that weaves through her work. 50 Words for Snow didn’t really have a concept, other than the fact it is seven songs set to the backdrop of falling snow. A wintery feel. Though, as I will explore, it is one where we travel far and wide. I feel it is one of her most fantastical albums. Not to say there is little reality and the personal, as Among Angels could well be Bush reacting to the death of her father (who died in 2008). But her most recent album is one where she brings in the mythical and ghostly. Snowed in at Wheeler Street this time-hopping song of two lovers torn apart through periods of history, where we are in Ancient Rome and New York in 2001. Misty is about a snowman who the protagonist has sex with and he melts by the morning. The title track challenges the myth that the Inuit people have fifty words for snow. Bush invents fifty words. Lake Tahoe about a Victorian woman who died in the lake but legend says that people have seen her rise.

Let’s consider The Kangchenjunga Demon. That is one of the more derogatory names. Though Kangchenjunga is snow-appropriate. This is a wild man that lives in a cold climb. This beautiful mountain is one that could well hold and house something not quite human, though you feel Bush was employing a bit of fantasy. Not that there is credulity on her part. Bush is open to wonder and things we cannot explain. That it is better to believe and have that approach rather than shut things down. Here is more about this stunning mountain:

“Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world. It rises with an elevation of 8,586 m (28,169 ft) in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal that is limited in the west by the Tamur River and in the east by the Teesta River. The Kangchenjunga Himal is located in eastern Nepal and Sikkim, India.Kangchenjunga is the highest peak in India, and the easternmost of the peaks higher than 8,000 m (26,247 ft). It is called Five Treasures of Snow after its five high peaks, and has always been worshipped by the people of Darjeeling and Sikkim”.

The names that people have for the eponymous Wild Man. Metoh-Kangmi translates as ‘man-bear snowman’. I will finish by discussing the geographical broadness of 50 Words for Snow. More commonly associated with the Himalayas, the hunt for The Yeti or Abominable Snowman has fascinated and compelled explorers for years. As we see in this article, there have been potential footprints but, as of now, no concrete proof of an elusive beast:

“And so the legend of the Yeti – its Tibetan name – went global, capturing imaginations and inspiring a century, and counting, of cryptozoological studies, searches and sightings. The hairy, ape-like biped has come in all different shapes and sizes, sometimes said to be much taller than a human and sometimes small yet frightfully strong, and while most famously depicted with white hair to blend into the snow-covered landscape it can also be reddish-brown and live in the Himalayan forests around the mountains. In movies, meanwhile, the Yeti has been both the killer monster of the 1957 Hammer horror The Abominable Snowman, and the cuddly cave-dweller of Monsters, Inc. (2001).

Still, when it comes to evidence for the Yeti’s existence, the closest that anyone’s got has been footprints – although not the ones spotted by Howard-Bury and his team. During another British expedition reconnoitring routes up Everest 30 years later, in 1951, climbers Eric Shipton and Michael Ward saw bizarre tracks that ran for about a mile at an elevation of well over 15,000ft. They had signs of claw marks, too. Shipton took a number of photos, with each footprint almost twice as wide as a human’s and larger than the ice axe and boot laid next to them”.

The Loch Ness Monster also comes to mind. That is mythical too, though people believe it. Kate Bush even travelled to Loch Ness once, and you wonder if she wanted to spot Nessie. Surprised that she has not been mentioned in a Kate Bush song. Perhaps on a future album?! I do like how there are sightings of The Kangchenjunga Demon at Lhakpa-La (a 6,849-metre col about seven kilometres northeast of Mount Everest in the Tibet Autonomous Region), Dipu Marak sees the beast at the Garo Hills (part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Meghalaya state of India). Whilst lesser characters, I did want to also mention The Schoolmaster of Darjeeling. Kate Bush might have seen this 2008 article and been inspired when writing Wild Man:

“In 2003 an Indian forester claimed to have seen a Yeti three days in a row. Dipu Marak, general secretary of the Achik Tourism Society and Yeti enthusiast, followed the man’s trail and discovered strands of hair that he believed belonged to the mysterious creature. According to popular tradition, the Yeti is an ape-like animal that lives in the Himalayan forests.

After close study and DNA tests, researchers discovered that the hairs did not belong to a large unknown primate, but rather the Himalayan goral. The goral is a unique wild ungulate, which possesses characteristics of both antelopes and goats. Inhabiting high elevations, the goral confidently moves along cliff-sides and dizzying heights to escape predators such as wolves, tigers, and snow leopards”.

Kate Bush might have read Frank Smythe’s 1930 book, The Kangchenjunga Adventure. It is “An account of an unsuccessful expedition to climb Kanchenjunga, the world's third highest peak (unsuccessful)”. Talk that you/the beast “drowned near the Rongbuk Glacier (a high-altitude continental glacier located on the north slope of Mount Everest in Tingri, Tibet)”. There are other characters mentioned, though I will bring them in but not expand. “Sherpas of Annapurna to the Rinpoche of Qinghai/Shepherds from Mount Kailash to Himachal Pradesh”. Annapurna is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province. Bush could have been considering the late Humkar Dorje Rinpoche. Mount Kailash is unclimbed by humans, it serves as a central spiritual axis for Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and followers of Bon. Himachal Pradesh is the northernmost state of India. We cover a lot of Asia through this song. Lake Tahoe is a major tourist attraction in both Nevada and California. There are a number of Wheeler Streets, though Bush could have been thinking of the one in London. I did not even mention that Andy Fairweather-Low provides vocals on this song. A chance to explore collaborations on 50 Words for Snow. It is worth mentioning the brilliant percussion of Steve Gadd.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in promotional shot for 50 Words for Snow

The Schoolmaster of Darjeeling took a trip to the Tengboche Monastery. Maybe there was a class of children walking there. Rumours that The Kangchenjunga Demon was dead and drowned. That they were seen in the largest gompa in the Khumbu region of Nepal. The spiritual gateway to Everest, in broad daylight or in some remote and unclimbed mountain pass, this titular Wild Man is not an animal. Part-human and maybe part-beast, Bush takes a myth and this storied Yeti and gives them more flesh. She is nor exactly sure where he may actually be, though we are taken around Nepal, so you assume that he is somewhere there. Though she did name The Schoolmaster of Darjeeling. I may have sourced this 2012 article from Telegraph India. But as Bush named a Darjeeling schoolmaster, I went searching to see why she made that connection. Then this article appeared. There may have been some rumblings and Darjeeling sightings pre-2012:  “Darjeeling, March 30: A group of young storytellers and collectors has started a campaign here to document oral histories, myths and legends on yeti or the “Abominable Snowman” that many believe lives in the Himalayas in Nepal and Tibet. The group under the banner of Acoustic Traditional started a Big Foot campaign here today to popularise the legend of yeti. The “big foot” is a symbol of the animal’s feet and size. Acoustic Traditional was formed in 1999 and the members, mostly young tribals, are working with various communities across the country to record their myths and legends. It is a voluntary organisation based in Bangalore that works to promote oral storytelling and tribal folklore, especially of the mountain and forest-based communities, according to the website of the group. The campaign that started here today will end with a Big Foot March on May 15 during which participants will walk through the town wearing specially designed slippers that resemble the yeti’s feet”. We have a small but fascinating cast of characters in Wild Man. Key among them is The Kangchenjunga Demon. That seems to paint this Yeti as something sub-human and to be attacked. Kate Bush has this sympathetic and compassionate touch. Speaking with Dig! in 2022, Kate Bush did say this about Wild Man and this Yeti legend. One that garners curiosity and discussion nearly fifteen years after Wild Man was released: “It’s about how precious that mystery is, you know? We have such little mystery in our lives, generally, because of how we live now. I mean, of course, mystery is all around us, but the way we live our lives now, we’re too busy to be bothered with it”.

Let’s move to the second side. The Dreaming’s title track does provide us with a character. Even though there are animal noises as a kangaroo deployed to tragic effect, I am using these lines: “Coming in with the golden light/Is The New Man”. The New Man seems to have negative connotations. The New Man can refer to the concept of Milenungu (the ‘new man’ or ‘purified man’) described by anthropologist Kenelm Burridge. In traditional Indigenous Lore, an initiate completes sacred rites, washing away past failings to emerge as a renewed, responsible community member. This is what Kate Bush said about the Aboriginal Australians “who were being wiped out by man’s greed for uranium. Digging up their sacred grounds, just to get plutonium, and eventually make weapons out of it. And I just feel that it’s so wrong: this beautiful culture being destroyed just so that we can build weapons which maybe one day will destroy everything, including us”. On The Dreaming, we get these wild scenes of white vans being driven by white men. How they are charging through the land and running down kangaroos. I am going to source some of the lyrics. I also want to discuss why The Dreaming is a complicates song now, and how it was an unsuccessful single. Also, how The Dreaming could have been a land ackolwdgement song but wasn’t. A land acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes and respects Indigenous peoples as the traditional stewards of the lands where an event, meeting, or institution is located. When Kate Bush was writing songs for The Dreaming, there were riots spreading through the U.K. Thatcherism was in full swing, and it was a tense and bleak time. L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights being challenged and denied. The community having to fight for recognition and visibility. Bush was not bringing this into her songs, though I think it spurred her to become more politically or socially conscious. The Dreaming about land rights of the Aboriginal/indigenous Australians. Pull Out the Pin takes us to the Vietnam War. It would be impossible for the division and violence in the U.K. and rights being stripped of people here to what Bush was writing. Perhaps too risky for her to reference race riots here. She was never going to write her version of Ghost Town (the 1981 single from The Specials). However, Bush was definitely affected. That hot and tense summer of 1981. Dragging into 1982. No surprise that two songs that reference violence and destruction are set in hot and sweaty climbs.

There are positive connotations around The New Man. In Aboriginal culture, it could refer to an elder passing and this new man being a torch or responsibility passed down. However, it does seem to be a white man driving through Australia looking to destroy the land and displace the indigenous people. In terms of its reading, did Bush get it right when it came to the narrative and how she cast it? That vision of The New Man in the van causing terror and destruction. This 1982 song is not history. It applies to the modern day. This 2025 article from National Geographic writes how Aboriginal Australians are still fighting for recognition:

“The Stolen Generations

From 1910 to 1970, government policies tried to assimilate Aboriginal Australians. As a result, 10 to 33 percent of Aboriginal children were taken from their homes. People placed these “Stolen Generations” in adoptive families and institutions and forbade them from speaking their native languages. Their names were often changed.

Most First Nations people did not have full citizenship or voting rights until 1965. Only in 1967 did Australians vote that federal laws would also apply to Aboriginal Australians. This meant that Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders would be counted in Australia’s population. It also meant that Australia could make laws they had to follow.

In 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a national apology for the country’s actions toward the Stolen Generations. Since then, Australia has worked to reduce the social disparities that Aboriginal Australians face.

Aboriginal Australians’ struggle continues

Today, Indigenous Australians still work hard to keep their ancient culture and beliefs. Despite small progress such as the commission findings in Victoria, they continue to fight for national recognition and restitution from the Australian government.

In 2023, Australians overwhelmingly rejected a national referendum that would have recognized Aboriginal people in its constitution. It also aimed to create a group to advise Parliament on important issues. Although a majority of Indigenous voters said yes to the proposal, more than 60 percent of Australians voted no.

Many Aboriginal Australians saw the referendum’s failure as a blow. They proclaimed a week of silence and reflection on its wake.

But progress is still underway on other fronts. Australia is the only country in the British Commonwealth that has never made a treaty with its First Nations people. However, some Australian states are taking action on their own.

The state of Victoria has already established a framework for treaty negotiations, and is expected to broker a first-of-its-kind agreement.

The agreement aims to recognize the sovereignty of Aboriginal Australians and compensate victims of past injustices. It also aims to include findings from the Yoorrook Justice Commission truth-telling committee and make the First Peoples’ Assembly permanent within the state government.

If lawmakers pass the legislation, Victoria would become the second state to have permanent Indigenous representation in parliament. South Australia established its Indigenous representation in 2023.

A similar effort is underway in Queensland and is an attempt to “mend the very fabric of our society,” Aboriginal historian and author Jackie Huggins told the Guardian in 2022.

Still, it will take more than a treaty to heal the deep wounds of Australia’s colonial legacy. Aboriginal Australians say that whether the nation recognizes it or not, they possess sovereignty that, in the words of the national convention that called for the referendum, “has never been ceded or extinguished”.

The Dreaming was the second single from the album of the same name. Sat in Your Lap was released on 21st July, 1981. The Dreaming came out on 26th July, 1982. I wonder whether the turmoil and division that were happening in the U.K. affected their enthusiasm for the singles Bush released from The Dreaming. Sat in Your Lap was a top twenty, though The Dreaming did not get inside the top forty. Although Bush was trying to make a valid point and discuss something worthy, a combination of it being a little out of step with the political and national mood of the time and some slightly clumsy cultural appropriation means it has a complex legacy. I have said this before. The New Man could be this symbolic representation of white Australians plundering the land of Aboriginal Australians. This corruption and displacement. Is Kate Bush, a privileged white artist, the right person to tackle a subject like this? She profited with the song. I think it is less cultural appropriation and more cultural appreciation, though I can see why The Dreaming’s legacy is tarnished. It is amazing she helped introduce the didgeridoo to Western audiences. Though it was played by the disgraced (and thankfully dead) Rolf Harris. Whether you like her Australian accent on the song or feel it isa bit distracting, there was nothing comedic or insincere about the didgeridoo. She understand its importance and how noble it is. Treating with respect. This article reveals that “Bush first discovered the instrument while visiting Australia shortly before writing The Dreaming. One could see Kate Bush’s use of the didgeridoo to be yet another cheap snatching of a revered, foreign instrument for entertainment value. However, that was far from what she was doing, in my opinion. The didgeridoo became a tool for what is, no matter how you look at it, a protest song about the illegal destruction of Aboriginal land”. As we learn here, “Commentators, including music journalists like Ann Powers, have characterised Bush as an artistic ‘pirate’ whose work constantly blends genres and world cultures. The core of the debate focuses on whether her integration of these cultures is a genuine, respectful attempt at cross-cultural exchange or a form of appropriating sacred traditions for personal and economic gain”. It is a stumbling block when you consider the Rolf Harris connection. Also, early promotional copies of The Dreaming featured the phrase "The Abo Song," an offensive racial slur. The title was swiftly recalled and changed prior to the official release. What could have been this great protest song is seen as a little exploitative and ill-judged. Too controversial in hindsight.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for The Dreaming in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

It is a shame. Thinking of The New Man and all that symbolised in 1982, we could use The Dreaming today and show that nothing has changed. Why are more songs not being written by mainstream Western artists to document this ill and evil?! Could we edit out Rolf Harris and some complex lines and aspects and use this as an example of Kate Bush as this forward-thinking artist who was conscious of different cultures and issues. Going against this notion that she was this spoilt or privileged artist that lacked real depth or worldliness. The single did struggle, but the video did not help. Directed by Paul Henry, he would go on to direct video for the next single from The Dreaming, There Goes a Tenner. The Dreaming’s video has wide shots and is more cinematic. Something Bush was keen on. That went against the more conventional and common feel of videos at the time, which favoured closer shots and more cuts. A combination of this somewhat jarring subject matter – given what was happening in the U.K. and perhaps a need for that to be addressed or something escapist to avoid the issue – and the cinematic and unconventional video made its mark. It might not directly be linked. Fiona Apple released Fetch the Bolt Cutters in 2020. She is a big Kate Bush fan and references Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – and maybe The Red Shoes - in the title track – “I grew up in the shoes they told me I could fill/Shoes that were not made for running up that hill/And I need to run up that hill/I need to run up that hill, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will”. Was Apple thinking of The Dreaming when she made this land acknowledgement? It was rare in 1982 but also rare in 2020 (and today). Artists, especially white artists, including a land acknowledgement on their album. Here in a transcript from a 2020 interview where Fiona Apple was promoting Fetch the Bolt Cutters, we learn more about why she wanted to include a land acknowledgement:

“AMY GOODMAN: So, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, the album, includes a land acknowledgment. You’ve described it as sort of a last song of the album. Talk about what this land acknowledgment means to you.

FIONA APPLE: Well, Eryn and I had been talking about doing land acknowledgments. She wanted to start this project, which I think is amazingly smart and would be so nutritious for Americans, is that when artists go on tour, that they acknowledge the lands, the unceded lands, that they’re performing on, and perhaps educate people — and Eryn will correct me on any of this if I’m wrong, but educate people about the tribes that lived on those territories, so that we can keep aware of where we are and what the story is.

Now, the fact that we can’t tour now until probably 2022 maybe or late 2021 means that I can’t do that on the road, so Eryn brought this up to me when the album was finished. She said, “I wonder if you would consider doing this on the album.” And I just thought, “Absolutely, of course. That makes total sense. And yes, I would love to do that.”

And I do think that putting that on my album, as opposed to just like saying something like “I support this cause,” and the act of giving songs, giving sync requests, keeps them close to me and my life, so that it’s not just like a one-time thing that I’m just saying, “Oh, I’m into this cause right now because it’s kind of interesting,” but I’m just going to flit off over there after it’s over and just be done with it. This way, I’m tied into it with something that I made, now has more meaning because it’s attached to them. So, it’s a way for me to also make a life commitment to be listening and to be able to be a friend in whatever best way I can”.

You can feel Kate Bush’s influence on Fiona Apple in more than one way on this masterpiece 2020 album. Perhaps Apple was not thinking explicitly of The Dreaming, yet you can draw a line between that 1982 single and Apple exploring the issue of displacement, land acknowledgement and rights of indigenous peoples. Indigenous rights activist Eryn Wise proposed the idea that musicians should start acknowledging the unceded lands they perform on while touring. On The Dreaming, Bush sings “Erase the race that claim the place”. She elongates the word ‘Dreamtime’. “Dreamtime (also known as The Dreaming) is the foundational cosmological framework of Indigenous Australian spirituality. It represents an "everywhen" period of creation when Ancestral Spirits shaped the land and established the laws of nature and society, existing concurrently as past, present, and future”. You can learn more here. There are a number of Aboriginal groups with notable Dreamtime interpretative variation, including the Butchulla and Pitjantjatjara. Her lyrics do compel deeper dives. In 1982, there was no Internet and quick resource to explore lines and lyrics that compelled curiosity and questions. Now, are there too many negatives associated with the song for people to be invested?! Artists playing on lands that are being taken from indigenous people. Maybe land they should not be playing on. Or they should acknowledge it and recognise the fact. Kate Bush also name-checked Woomera. Since 1947 it has been a Defence-owned and operated facility. The village is located in the Far North region of South Australia, but is on Commonwealth-owned land and within the area designated as the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA). She had done her research and there was this importance. As a woman, in line with tradition, she was not allowed to play the didgeridoo, though she treated it with respect in the song. Not making it comedic or background. Though Rolf Harris’s association brings some disrepute. The Australian tang puts some people off and fuels arguments around the cultural appropriation side. Even though it was not a successful single, Bush was appreciative and sympathetic when it came to Aboriginal people of Australia.

It is not seen as one of her best songs. In 2024, MOJO placed it fifty when ranking her fifty best songs (is that good?!) and said this: “The Dreaming combines didgeridoos, Aussie race politics and daringly daft theatricals in a flummoxing lead-off single (allegedly titled ‘The Abo Song’ on early promo vinyl – oops), where multi-Kates brew a bad-trip babble through which “See the light ram through the gaps in the land” ripples like a seam of gold. Its other meaning was clear: all bets are off”. The Guardian ranked her singles in 2018 and placed The Dreaming twenty-eighth our of twenty-nine (Rocket Man, her 1991 cover of the Elton John song came twenty-ninth). They remarked; “Clearly struggling over what the hell to release from her fourth album – frequently brilliant, but deeply experimental and devoid of obvious singles – her label plumped for the title track, an Aussie-accented tale of the destruction of Indigenous Australians’ homelands in the search for uranium. Not a hit, for some reason”. A bit dismissive. Seen as this oddity and misjudged flop. Though thinking of its relevance now; how an artist like Fiona Apple found spaces on her greatest album ever (not in the music itself but in the linear notes: “Made on unceded Tongva, Mescalero Apache, and Suma territories”), and the ways in which artists are lacking by not tackling subjects like land displacement and acknowledgement. That character of The New Man. It should help generate new appreciation of an album still seen as an oddity and insufficient release. Consider these words from a 2005 review: “‘The Dreaming’ is the sound of Kate striking out. Fighting for her own artistic integrity in a sea of pop banalities”. The title track has this tricky and complex legacy. Pitchfork wrote this in their 2019 review (of the title track): “both holdovers from music hall and vaudeville’s racist “ethnic humor” tradition, a kind of distancing that suggests that settler Australians are somehow less civilized and thus more responsible for their white supremacist beliefs than the Empire that shipped them there in the first place. In telling this story in this way—without accurate depictions of people, and without credit, understanding, monetary remuneration, proper cultural context, or employment of indigenous musicians—she unfairly extracts cultural (and economic) value from Aboriginal suffering just as the characters in the song mine their land. As a rich text to meditate on colonial, racial, and sexual violence, it is actually quite useful—but not in the way Bush intended”. It is a song that is more tarnished and has aged less well (to say that it was relevant or appropriate in 1982!) than others. However, I do feel we can salvage some important lessons from the ashes. How musicians today do need to recognise, as The Dreaming says, “The Pull of the Bush” – which could also be a cheeky name-check from Kate! – and go beyond their four walls and private lives. Subjects such as indigenous people’s rights, land destruction and aboriginal people’s suffering not something documented much in modern music. Innovations like this supports “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander secondary students studying classical music in Australia”. Five years after The Dreaming was released as a single and only reached ninety-one in Australia, Midnight Oil released Beds Are Burning (Indigenous land rights protest anthem. Released in 1987, the song demands justice for the mistreatment and forced displacement of Aboriginal Australians, specifically calling for the return of stolen ancestral lands). Thar reached six in their native Australia and in the U.K. It has a legacy today, as this recent article explored: “Choirs and singing groups across the country are being called on to stand together in song for National Reconciliation Week 2026. Your voice matters and time to be heard is now. The 2026 song is the iconic Australian anthem is Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil, a timeless call to action to be All In for justice and reconciliation, and for all Australians to know our history”. Nearly forty years after the release of Beds Are Burning and ahead of the forty-fourth anniversary (on 26th July) of The Dreaming, there is an urgency for modern artists to…

SHARE their voices.