FEATURE:
This Woman's Work: Anthology 1978–1990 at Thirty
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
Kate Bush’s Best Five Opening and Closing Tracks
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I am writing this…
IMAGE CREDIT: EMI
on the day Kate Bush’s This Woman's Work: Anthology 1978–1990 turned thirty (22nd October). She had put out a greatest hit collection in 1986 with The Whole Story, but this boxset included B-sides and tracks fans might not have heard. Kate Bush News explains more:
“It’s surreal to think that this box set is actually 30 years old. Released a year after The Sensual World while Kate was in the the thick of recording what would become The Red Shoes, it was the first time she had officially gathered together a lot of the “odds and sods”, B-sides and 12″ mixes from her then 12-year career. The box sets contained all 6 of Kate’s studio albums released up to that point. Expensive sets at the time for fans, especially those just wanting those extra tracks, they are just as sought after today on the collector market. In fact the huge 9 vinyl disc LP version of the set (8 CD and 8 cassette versions were also released) fetches eye-watering prices now, depending on condition and the inclusion of those all important KT stickers! The box set even contains some tracks that didn’t make it to The Other Sides remastered rarities collection from 2018, including The Empty Bullring, Not This Time and the four Live on Stage EP tracks”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional shot for Director’s Cut (2011)/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from his book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow)
Since that boxset came out, there has been a little bit of revisionism and, in 2019, Bush released The Other Sides as a standalone set. The album collects together B-sides and cover versions, and it was a great way to introduce new fans to Bush’s work – alongside the boxsets and remasters of the studio albums that were released in 2018, it was a rare occasion where Bush looked back. Because of the thirtieth anniversary of This Woman's Work: Anthology 1978–1990, I wanted to look at Kate Bush’s studio albums and, rather than put together her greatest hits or top-twenty singles, I want to focus on opening and closing tracks. On all of her ten studio albums, the opening and closing tracks are among the strongest songs on each album. Bush is masterful when it comes to kicking things off with a real impression and ensuring the listener gets a bang right at the end! It is hard to select the five best opening and closing songs but, as I have set myself the challenge, here are the essential opening and closing tracks from Kate Bush’s amazing studio albums.
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The Best Opening Tracks
Symphony in Blue (Lionheart, 1978 (single; Canada and Japan only)
It might seem a bit controversial to ignore my favourite album’s (The Kick Inside, 1978) opening track, Moving, as it is the first song on Kate Bush’s debut album. With whale song and some captivating piano, it is spine-tingling and unusual in equal measures. I really love that track but, with such hot competition, I had to sacrifice Moving! The reason Symphony in Blue is such a great opening track, is that it starts an album that is considered to be one of Bush’s weaker. I think people need to re-evaluate Lionheart, because Symphony in Blue is only one of many gems. One of few new songs written for her second album, Bush’s voice is soothing, soulful, and sensual in one of her most underrated and finest songs. Even though most of the songs on Lionheart were written before The Kick Inside arrived, she showed that, even when given little time to write new material, she could create these brilliantly beautiful and unique songs. In a career of gorgeous and heart-melting moments, Symphony in Blue is right up there with her very best efforts.
Babooshka (Never for Ever, 1980 (single)
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from his book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow)
There are two types of Kate Bush album openers: beautiful, sumptuous songs that beckon you in, and tracks that are physical, direct and have this great energy. The Kick Inside, and Lionheart begin with romantic and slower numbers, whereas Never for Ever’s opener, Babooshka, boasts a fiery chorus and one of Bush’s best vocal performances to that point. Making full use of the recently-discovered Fairlight C.M.I., Babooshka opens another album that remains quite under-appreciated. I think Babooshka perfectly announced an album that is full of new sonic inspiration and a broader vocal and lyrical palette. In terms of bookends, Never for Ever is, perhaps, the best album – in that we kick off and end with songs that are utterly captivating and memorable. There are one or two weak tracks on Never for Ever, but I think Kate Bush was beginning to take more control of her music direction – as she co-produced Never for Ever with Jon Kelly -, and she was becoming bolder and more experimental.
Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) (Hounds of Love, 1985 (single)
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from his book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow)
One cannot talk about Kate Bush’s best opening tracks without mentioning Hounds of Love’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Hounds of Love boasts many different moods and stories, but I think it is defined by a sense of movement and space. This is exemplified in Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), which opens with galloping drums and mewing Fairlight/synthesiser. There are those who prefer Hounds of Love’s second side, The Ninth Wave, as there is less gated reverb and percussion; a broader soundscape and more natural instruments. I think there is a perfect blend of the Fairlight C.M.I. and synthesisers and some brilliant percussion, bass, and drum. With Alan Murphy on guitar, Del Palmer (who also was one of the engineers on the album) on bass, and Stuart Elliott on percussion, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is intense, passionate, and thought-provoking. A track where Bush asks if she could do a deal with God and swap places with a man so they can better understand one another, it is a subject that had not really been covered before in Pop. Bush’s vocal is typically stunning - and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is one of the strongest songs on Hounds of Love; a brilliant introduction to Bush’s best-acclaimed and popular album.
The Sensual World (The Sensual World, 1989 (single)
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from his book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow)
The Sensual World is one of Kate Bush’s albums that I need to spend more time with, as I am familiar with some of the bigger songs on the album, but I have not really immersed myself and spent too much time with it as a whole. The Sensual World is another album with a hard to beat opening and closing track (more later), and the title track is one of Bush’s greatest ever songs. The Sensual World was later re-recorded using only words taken from Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's Ulysses, as Bush had originally intended whilst recording The Sensual World album. That version, re-titled Flower of the Mountain, appears on the 2011 album, Director's Cut. I prefer the original version on The Sensual World, as I love the richness of the composition – everything from a swished fishing rod, fiddle, bouzouki, fiddles, and Uilleann pipes are combined with guitar, bass, percussion, and some truly arresting vocals! On every album, Bush brings in new sounds and instruments, and I really love the depth and variety on The Sensual World. I adore Bush’s voice on the title track and, right from the start, the lyrics are wonderfully intriguing and beautiful: “Mmh, yes/Then I'd taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth/Going deep South, go down, mmh, yes/Took six big wheels and rolled our bodies/Off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes”.
King of the Mountain (Aerial, 2005 (single)
Not only is King of the Mountain fifteen today (24th October), but I think it is one of Kate Bush’s best opening tracks. I have mentioned it quite a lot, but King of the Mountain was Bush’s first single since 1994’s And So Is Love. After The Red Shoes arrived in 1993, there was a twelve-year wait to see if she would ever release any new albums. The excitement of hearing King of the Mountain was immense, and it was Bush treading a fairly similar path to The Sensual World in terms of sound/dynamic. That said, the subject matter for the two songs can’t be compared – Bush sings about Elvis Presley and can be seen in King of the Mountain’s video moving and grooving through his mansion! Featuring especially striking percussion from Steve Sanger, King of the Mountain is classic Kate Bush! Aerial’s second disc, A Sky of Honey, is bonded around a single theme, but the A Sea of Honey opening disc is a typically interesting assortment of sounds and subjects. I love all the songs on Aerial, but I think King of the Mountain is my favourite - and no other song could have opened such an important album!
The Best Closing Tracks
The Kick Inside (The Kick Inside, 1978)
Like her opening tracks, it is hard to whittle down Bush’s closing tracks to the best five! I think The Kick Inside’s title track is not only the only track that could have ended her debut – as she ends the song with a very definite full-stop -, but it is such an original song! Boasting some incredible sequencing, The Kick Inside builds to this track based on the murder ballad, Lizie Wan – where the heroine (called variously Lizie, Rosie or Lucy) is pregnant with her brother's child. Her brother murders her. He tries to pass off the blood as that of some animal he had killed (his greyhound, his falcon, his horse), but in the end must admit that he murdered her. He sets sail in a ship, never to return. Bush imagines herself as the sister who, having fallen pregnant, takes her own life so that she does not bring shame on the family by giving birth as the result of an incestuous union. On an album with songwriting that was far more inventive and interesting than most of what 1978 produced, Kate Bush’s debut album ends with such a sad and gorgeous number. Here, Bush turns in an amazing vocal performance that captures the emotion, tragedy and guilt of the situation – ending the album with her voice trailing and letting her brother/family know that, by the time they read her suicide note, she will be gone…
Breathing (Never for Ever, 1980 (single)
I have mentioned how Bush built her confidence on Never for Ever, and this was the first album where politics were playing a bigger role. Never for Ever’s penultimate track, Army Dreamers, addresses the callousness of war, whereas Breathing concerns nuclear war and a view from the perspective of a foetus. Again, no other track could have ended Never for Ever, as it is so heavy and symphonic! Including some unexpected and gripping backing vocals from Roy Harper, Bush’s voice goes from calm and sweet to a raw growl near the end. Similar to Babooshka, one could hear a slightly rawer and more masculine edge come into her voice, and this is apparently on Breathing. Her longest song to that point (at 5:29), Breathing is so far removed from the songs she put onto The Kick Inside only two years previous! Perhaps her greatest closing track of all, Breathing only reached number-sixteen in the U.K. charts, but it is viewed as one of her most important and accomplished songs. Listening to it now, and it still elicits shiver and evokes such a vivid and powerful images!
Get Out of My House (The Dreaming, 1982)
If Breathing was one of Bush’s most intense and moving tracks to that point, The Dreaming upped the ante! At the very end of the album, we hear a track that is, in my view, the rawest and most frightening Bush ever put her name to! I love the experimental nature of The Dreaming and how many vocal sounds are evident through the album. Other artists and producers might have put Get Out of My House at the very start or near the top of The Dreaming but Bush, as producer, knew that Get Out of My House had to end things. Again, it is too big and intense not to end an album, and any song that followed it would not sound as good or have the same physicality. Based on The Shining, Get Out of My House is, as Bush described it in an interview from 1982: “The setting for this song continues the theme - the house which is really a human being, has been shut up - locked and bolted, to stop any outside forces from entering. The person has been hurt and has decided to keep everybody out. They plant a 'concierge' at the front door to stop any determined callers from passing, but the thing has got into the house upstairs”. The Dreaming is Kate Bush’s ‘I’ve gone mad album’ – her thoughts/words and not mine! – and, on an eccentric and quite dark album, Get Out of My House is perhaps the most disturbed and revealing song Kate Bush ever put her name to.
This Woman’s Work (The Sensual World, 1989 (single)
I was going to select Hounds of Love’s closing track, The Morning Fog, as one of her best, as it ends The Ninth Wave – the woman/protagonist is being rescued from the sea after a turbulent and frightened time waiting for salvation. Instead, I could not ignore the perfect way This Woman’s Work ends The Sensual World. Having started with the lush and immersive title track, Bush ends with a song that, appropriately, was the title of her incredible boxset that arrived in 1990. This Woman’s Work was originally released on the soundtrack of the movie She's Having A Baby, in 1988. A year later, the song was included in Kate's sixth studio album. The lyric is about being forced to confront an unexpected and frightening crisis during the normal event of childbirth. The vocal is absolute devastating in its beauty and emotional pull, and This Woman’s Work is a huge fan favourite. Like Get Out of My House, if any other track had followed This Woman’s Work on The Sensual World, I think we would have been too overwhelmed to appreciate it – the B-side of The Sensual World single, Walk Straight Down the Middle, was included as the bonus track on the 1989 and 2011 C.D. versions of the album, but I think that track, if one is to include it on The Sensual World, is best added to the middle of the running order!
Among Angels (50 Words for Snow, 2011)
Marking the first appearance of Bush’s latest studio album, 50 Words for Snow, in this feature, there are a couple of reasons for nominating Among Angels as one of Bush’s best closing tracks. On an album concerning snow and more wintery themes, Among Angels is an anomaly as it is not snow-related – featuring just Kate Bush on piano, it is a beautifully sparse and tender track with some sublime lyrics (“And they will carry you o'er the walls/If you need us, just call/Rest your weary world in their hands/Lay your broken laugh at their feet/I can see angels around you/They shimmer like mirrors in summer/There's someone who's loved you forever but you don't know it/You might feel it and just not show it”). Among Angels is not only the final track from the newest album we have had from Kate Bush, but it was included in the encore of her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn – after coming back on stage after performing Aerial’s title track, she then delivered Among Angels (and Cloudbusting brings things to a close). In a stage show that heavily featured songs from Aerial, and Hounds of Love (as they both have conceptual suites), it is clear Bush has affection for this terrific song – and, at 6:49, Among Angels is the shortest track on 50 Words for Snow (but it is also one of the sweetest).