FEATURE:
Definitely NOT a Hammer Horror!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake from the Lionheart photo session/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz/PHOTO CONCEPT: John Carder Bush
In Defence of Kate Bush’s Lionheart
___________
SO many times…
I have extolled the virtues of Kate Bush’s 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside, and how it is my favourite album ever. There are a number of reasons why the album remains so captivating. Songs like Wuthering Heights, and The Man with the Child in His Eyes are classics; Bush had time and freedom to write the songs and bring everything together and, whilst the album was recorded fairly quickly, there was no sense anything was rushed – in fact, Bush wrote The Man with the Child in His Eyes in the early-Seventies! One can sympathise with Kate Bush in the wake of The Kick Inside’s release. The album was put out in February of 1978, and its first single, Wuthering Heights, was official released the month before. Because of the success of Wuthering Heights and the growing attention that came her way, Bush’s promotional schedule was insane! She was traveling all over the world; she visited Japan and Europe, and demands were coming her way – she was offered the support slot in Fleetwood Mac’s massive Rumours tour! Not only was Bush promoting her album/music on T.V., but she was speaking with the press and barely had a moment to rest. Whereas Bush’s debut album was the result of a lot of preparation and material that had been written before she entered the studio, Lionheart was a rushed album that reacted to the success of The Kick Inside. Bush had loose plans for a U.K. tour, but they were held back because of her schedule and everything else happening.
Whilst The Kick Inside was recorded in the reputable (if not glamorous) AIR Studios, London, Lionheart was recorded at Super Bear Studios, Berre-les-Alpes, France. No doubt, the mountain views and swimming pool by the studio would have made for a relaxing and inspiring setting…but recording for Lionheart ran from July to September 1978 – with gaps in that period -; The Kick Inside was released seven months before Lionheart was complete! At times, Bush was promoting The Kick Inside whilst working on material for her follow-up. The fact that both albums overlapped was always going to be a problem. Because EMI wanted a quick follow-up to The Kick Inside, the majority of the songs for Lionheart were from Bush’s pre-debut days – the only newly-written songs were Symphony in Blue, Full House, and Coffee Homeground. Most of the musicians who appeared on The Kick Inside were used for Lionheart – though Bush wanted to her own band to play on the album -, and Del Palmer featured for the first time – he played bass, and would appear on Bush’s albums from then on (and would go on to engineer her albums). As I have said before, Lionheart is a classic ‘difficult second album’, in the sense it follows a massively important debut, and Bush was faced with the unenviable task of completing an album very quickly, with the shadow of her debut very much in her sights.
There were obvious problems that mean Lionheart was never going to ignite the same way as The Kick Inside. Many of the songs on the album were similar-sounding to her work on The Kick Inside, whereas a lot of critics bemoaned the lack of evolution and change. If you release two albums in the same year, there is unlikely to be radical progress between the two. I am not sure what people were expecting, but there are impressive steps forward, even though Bush was demoing songs for Lionheart whilst she was recovering from the promotion of The Kick Inside! Symphony in Blue is one of the most mature and beautiful songs she ever recorded, whereas Wow makes for a wonderful single. I will come to the songs themselves soon but, in terms of the recording experience, she was fighting against different voices. Though Bush was not experienced enough to produce solo, she did assist Andrew Powell – who produced The Kick Inside -, but one suspects that she would have liked more control and the ability to craft the album in her own vision. EMI wanted an album that was similar to The Kick Inside, but Bush wanted one that reacted against that album. As it turned out, neither really got their way. The mix of few new songs and older ones worked up quickly resulted in quite an inorganic and incomplete experience. The luxury of the studio setting and the heat of the setting would have provided positivity, but I think the struggle regarding Bush wanting her own band and Powell/EMI preferring the same band from The Kick Inside would have affected Bush.
Her band lacked necessary studio experience, so I think the right call was made. The final overdubs and bits were added to Lionheart in September 1978, but it was clear that Bush would change the way she worked (and who she worked with) going forward. Bush was a very diplomatic and nurturing artist who gave her musicians room to interpret and experiment a bit but, whilst not a perfectionist, Bush would do multiple takes for various songs – never quite happy with what she was doing. That sort of self-criticism and demand would have been hard enough if she had sufficient time to germinate and mother song but, when faced with a tight deadline, there were clear worries. When Lionheart arrived in November 1978, there was a feeling that a lot of the songs were half-cooked or lacking the depth and fascination of The Kick Inside’s gems. Having read biographies, reviews and articles that mention Lionheart, and few have anything truly encouraging to say about the album! Indeed, Kate Bush herself has sort of dismissed the album – she sort of views The Kick Inside-The Dreaming (1982) as a time when she was still trying to find her peak; Hounds of Love was the breakthrough and truest representation of her sound and brilliance.
In their review, this is what AllMusic wrote:
“Proving that the English admired Kate Bush's work, 1978's Lionheart album managed to reach the number six spot in her homeland while failing to make a substantial impact in North America. The single "Hammer Horror" went to number 44 on the U.K. singles chart, but the remaining tracks from the album spin, leap, and pirouette with Bush's vocal dramatics, most of them dissipating into a mist rather than hovering around long enough to be memorable. Her fairytale essence wraps itself around tracks like "In Search of Peter Pan," "Kashka From Baghdad," and "Oh England My Lionheart," but unravels before any substance can be heard. "Wow" does the best job at expressing her voice as it waves and flutters through the chorus, with a melody that shimmers in a peculiar but compatible manner. Some of the tracks, such as "Coffee Homeground" or "In the Warm Room," bask in their own subtle obscurity, a trait that Bush improved upon later in her career but couldn't secure on this album. Lionheart acts as a gauge more than a complete album, as Bush is trying to see how many different ways she can sound vocally colorful, even enigmatic, rather than focus on her material's content and fluidity. Hearing Lionheart after listening to Never for Ever or The Dreaming album, it's apparent how quickly Bush had progressed both vocally and in her writing in such a short time”.
If Lionheart underperformed from a critical standpoint, one can argue that it was a success commercial. It peaked at number six in the album chart in the U.K., and it reached the top five in several nations. Wow went to fourteen in the U.K. singles chart, and Hammer Horror reached the top forty in various countries – though it only hit forty-four here. Although the public were eager to buy Lionheart and its singles, it must have been an odd experience for many, who were still hearing about The Kick Inside and were possibly not expecting a new album from Bush so soon! Despite some flaws and overly-strict expectations from EMI, I think there are positives that can be found on Lionheart. The cover photo is, in my view, one of her very best. I never really liked the cover for The Kick Inside, as Bush is sort of buried in the design; the Oriental motif seems a bit puzzling, and I thought that the intended single cover for Wuthering Heights from Gered Mankowitz – which was not used because you could see Bush’s nipples in one photo, and that image was plastered around when it shouldn’t have been and was not seen as appropriate – would have made a better album cover – one can see that image (with cropped nipples!) on the Japanese release of The Kick Inside. Gered Mankowitz did get to shoot the cover for Lionheart (from a concept by Bush’s brother, John), and I really love it!
Shot to look like a bit of a dusty-yet-magical attic, Bush is seen on a wooden toybox dressed in a lion’s costume (apart from the head). It is a wonderful shot, and it projects a sense of the mysterious, child-like and beautiful! Whereas one can link the cover of The Kick Inside to songs like Kite (the cover does feature Bush mounted on a kite), I feel one can link many of Lionheart’s songs to its cover – including In Search of Peter Pan, Wow, Oh England My Lionheart, and In the Warm Room. Some have suggested that Lionheart is the sort of out-takes album, as many of the songs included on the album were not considered/used on The Kick Inside. I think it was the case that Bush had so many songs for her debut, that she had to draw a line. Whilst Wow would have made a better lead single for Lionheart than Hammer Horror, I actually really like Hammer Horror. Of course, Bush would take to the stage in 1979 for her Tour of Life, and all the songs from Lionheart were reimagined in the most stunning manner! It might have been the case that the Tour of Life was when Lionheart’s tracks really purred and roared, but I listen to the album now and I can see many positives. Like The Kick Inside, the tracklisting is flawless. We start with the gorgeous Symphony in Blue. The Kick Inside could have led with Kite, or James and the Cold Gun, but it opened with Moving and worked up to its more electric tracks.
Symphony in Blue is one of those ‘new’ songs for Lionheart that is as sumptuous, elegant and arresting as anything on her debut. In fact, I think Symphony in Blue is a track that would have been a successful single in the U.K. – it was released in Japan and Canada -, and it is a stunning opener! In Search of Peter Pan follows, and it is a hugely underrated track. It has the same beauty as Symphony in Blue, but it takes us into a different headspace. This is how Bush described the track:
“There's a song on [Lionheart] called 'In Search Of Peter Pan' and it's sorta about childhood. And the book itself is an absolutely amazing observation on paternal attitudes and the relationships between the parents - how it's reflected on the children. And I think it's a really heavy subject, you know, how a young innocence mind can be just controlled, manipulated, and they don't necessarily want it to happen that way. And it's really just a song about that. (Lionheart promo cassette, EMI Canada, 1978)”.
Wow is perfectly placed as the third track, and it gives the album its first real energy boost. Replete with a hooky and whirling chorus, Wow is one of Bush’s most-loved tracks. Its video is cheeky and beguiling, and we are only three tracks in yet have witnessed so much diversity and quality. As much as I love The Kick Inside, I think Lionheart is more ambitious, lyrically broader and sonically diverse. I think Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake is a more successful rocker than James and the Cold Gun, and it is another track that could have made for a good single – Bush performed a brilliant routine for it for her Tour of Life.
Combining descriptions of heartache and motoring imagery, I think the song is really clever and gutsy, where Bush lets her voice fly. I can see why it would not have been suitable for an album like The Kick Inside, which is more elegiac and already had two faster, harder-flying tracks in Kite, and James and the Cold Gun. Finishing the first side on a similar sonic and soft note as the opening, we get the divisive Oh England My Lionheart. Kate Bush lauded the track when Lionheart came out, but she has, in years since, brushed the track off as being naff and embarrassing. I think the production on the track is not brilliant, and it would have been good to hear Bush’s piano higher in the mix and heard more often. This is what Bush said about the song back in 1978:
“It's really very much a song about the Old England that we all think about whenever we're away, you know, "ah, the wonderful England'' and how beautiful it is amongst all the rubbish, you know. Like the old buildings we've got, the Old English attitudes that are always around. And this sort of very heavy emphasis on nostalgia that is very strong in England. People really do it alot, you know, like "I remember the war and...'' You know it's very much a part of our attitudes to life that we live in the past. And it's really just a sort of poetical play on the, if you like, the romantic visuals of England, and the second World War... Amazing revolution that happened when it was over and peaceful everything seemed, like the green fields. And it's really just a exploration of that. (Lionheart Promo Cassette, EMI Canada, 1978)”.
I really love Oh England My Lionheart and, whilst I am not a big fan of the recorder, we get a sound of classic England and history on this track. It is a beautiful way to end Lionheart’s first side – with a sort of title track! This fascinating article goes into more depth about Oh England My Lionheart and its context:
“The title track “Oh England My Lionheart” engages with this British tradition. It is a classical song in a fair few regards. Unlike most of Bush’s music, the song is played features acoustic instruments exclusively, including Richard Harvey’s recorder and Francis Monkman’s harpsichord. If reading that you thought “huh, this sounds like a Renaissance song,” you would be correct. Bush described the song as being done “madrigally.” It’s not difficult to imagine “Oh England My Lionheart” being used in a classicist production of Twelfth Night. “Lionheart” sounds like a folk song, with its fixed structure of repeated chords, its descending melody, and its lengthy descriptions of scenery. This isn’t the first time Bush has interacted with folk music, of course. Bush often imbues antiquated styles with her own vision of strange things. With “Oh England My Lionheart” she takes the folk ballad and takes it on a tour through England, from the Thames to London Bridge to Kensington Park. Yet for its breadth, “Oh England My Lionheart” is dreary, positively crawling through its three minutes and twelve seconds. Bush is outright crooning in this song, doing little heavy lifting on lyrics like “give me one wish/and I’d be wassailing.” It’s an uncharacteristically mellow performance with an iffy production. Few songs could get over these hurdles, and “Oh England My Lionheart” is put to the test by them.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush poses in her home in September 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
The production does the song a disservice, as it makes “Oh England My Lionheart” sound more conservative than it actually is. It’s easy to read the song as a nationalist ballad, but “Lionheart” is more nuanced than that. The song narrowly treads a line with its war-inflected imagery, but let’s look at exactly what Bush explores here. She’s living in a postwar England where “the air raid shelters are blooming clover.” “Dropped from my black Spitfire to my funeral barge,” Bush sings as if the country is going to land on her. Pastoral England is growing over wartime England. The country is a romantic lead here, giving solitude to those in it. “Oh England My Lionheart” is a return to Bush songs about spying on an inaccessible love. Bush cries “I don’t want to go” in the outro, desperate for her country to stay with her. Without England, there is no Kate Bush, and she knows it”.
I concede the fact that Lionheart’s second side is a little weaker that the first, as it does not contain a song as big as Wow. After the madrigal tones of Oh England My Lionheart, the vinyl flips and we get something that heralds a new direction for Kate Bush. Full House is another underrated jewel, and it is a song that sort of takes us into the mind of Kate Bush and how she was feeling at the time. As Full House was one of three new songs for Lionheart, it is a diary of a woman who was under a lot of strain and pressure.
The pre-chorus – though Bush might claim it is not autobiographical -, is quite haunting: “Imagination sets in/Then all the voices begin/Telling you things that aren't happening/But they nig and they nag/'til they're under your skin”. Bush’s voice swoons and soars, and I think Full House shows the leaps Bush made as a writer in such a short space; never willing to repeat herself and stay in the same lyrical and thematic wheelhouse. In the Warm Room has been simultaneously singled out as a highlight and miss by various sources. I agree that it is very similar to songs from The Kick Inside such as Feel It, and L'Amour Looks Something Like You, it is no way inferior. Lionheart has a nice blend of where Bush would head with Never for Ever (her third album, released in 1980) and where she came from. It might not be one of the best five tracks from Lionheart, but I adore the chorus and the sheer crystal-clear quality of Bush’s singing. Bush was asked onto the children's T.V. programme Ask Aspel, where she wanted to present In the Warm Room, but the BBC felt this song was too explicitly sexual, so she opted for Kashka from Baghdad – a song about two homosexual lovers! I do love how Bush was raising eyebrows! This is what Kate Bush remarked about In the Warm Room in an interview from 1979:
“I'm always getting accused of being a feminist. Really I do write a lot of my songs for men, actually. In fact, 'In The Warm Room' is written for men because there are so many songs for women about wonderful men that come up and chat you up when you're in the disco and I thought it would be nice to write a song for men about this amazing female. And I think that I am probably female-oriented with my songs because I'm a female and have very female emotions but I do try to aim a lot of the psychology, if you like, at men. (Personal Call, BBC Radio 1, 1979)”.
The Kick Inside sported thirteen tracks, whereas Lionheart only has ten. I that concision works in its favour, as Bush might have felt pressured to rush a few new tracks or put some songs on the album that are more B-side material. I have heard some demos from pre-1978, and there are some interesting songs that would have fitted on Lionheart – including Humming (recorded in 1973, in 2018, the track was finally released as part of the Remastered box set, on the album The Other Side 2), and Scares Me Silly (recorded as a demo, presumably in 1977). Kashka from Baghdad is a great track that includes some joanna strumentum and strumento de porco (psaltery), mandocello and pan flute. It is one of her most instrumentally adventurous and exotic tracks, and I do love the subject matter. To add some depth, I want to bring in Kate again and her interpretation (these quotes and recollections are taken from the excellent Kate Bus Encyclopaedia):
“That actually came from a very strange American Detective series that I caught a couple of years ago, and there was a musical theme that they kept putting in. And they had an old house, in this particular thing, and it was just a very moody, pretty awful serious thing. And it just inspired the idea of this old house somewhere in Canada or America with two people in it that no-one knew anything about. And being a sorta small town, everybody wanted to know what everybody what else was up to. And these particular people in this house had a very private thing happening. (Personal Call, BBC Radio 1, 1979)”.
Two of the most original and unusual tracks are reserved until the end. Coffee Homeground inspired a years-running Kate Bush fanzine, HomeGround, and it includes some wonderful synthesizer from Duncan Mackay. Bush was inspired by a taxi driver she encountered – who she described as a bit nutty -, and the song concerns someone who thinks there is belladonna in their tea and that whenever they offer them something to eat, it's got poison in it. One can look at Coffee Homeground as a companion to Full House, in the sense both songs drip with paranoia – can Coffee Homeground be seen as more personal? Bush worried about her decisions and how her career was being directed? The track is one of the weaker offerings, but I love the fact it is humorous and original; not just another love song with a simple vocal. Bush’s voice is characterful and incredible, and I think many people overlook the song unfairly. Taking us into land is the first single from the album, Hammer Horror. I think the chorus for Hammer Horror is deceptively catchy, and, again, it is a track rich with wild and strange images. As I said, it is amazing that Bush was writing such eclectic songs! I don’t think Hammer Horror would have worked on The Kick Inside, but it was another track that signalled she was always looking to venture into new territory, and we would see more experimental and less conventional songs appear on Never for Ever, and The Dreaming (1982).
IN THIS PHOTO: One of the film siren portraits made for general promotional purposes of Hammer Horror in March 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
The story of the song concerns an actor who gets thrust into the lead role of The Hunchback of Notre Dame after the original actor dies in an accident on the film set. He is guilt-ridden ends up being haunted by the ghost of the jealous original actor, who was a former friend. Borrowing from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, here is critical reaction concerning Hammer Horror, and some words from Kate Bush:
“On Radio 1's Round Table on October 27, 1978 the single was reviewed by DJ's John Peel ("I didn't like the album at all and I'm not too enthused with this either") and Paul Gambaccini ("It doesn't grab me immediately as The Man With The Child In His Eyes"). Record Mirror's Ronnie Gurr opined: "Kate keeps up the formula and doesn't upset the fans... sounds like Joni Mitchell popping tabs with the LSO." In NME, Tony Parsons wrote: "Ominous post ELO orchestration with the unrequited lust of a broken affair viewed as living dead love-bites-back as in classic 50's British celluloid, a real nail biter, hypnotic and disconcerting."
“The song is not about, as many think, Hammer Horror films. It is about an actor and his friend. His friend is playing the lead in a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a part he's been reading all his life, waiting for the chance to play it. He's finally got the big break he's always wanted, and he is the star. After many rehearsals he dies accidentally, and the friend is asked to take the role over, which, because his own career is at stake, he does. The dead man comes back to haunt him because he doesn't want him to have the part, believing he's taken away the only chance he ever wanted in life. And the actor is saying, "Leave me alone, because it wasn't my fault - I have to take this part, but I'm wondering if it's the right thing to do because the ghost is not going to leave me alone and is really freaking me out. Every time I look round a corner he's there, he never disappears."
The song was inspired by seeing James Cagney playing the part of Lon Chaney playing the hunchback - he was an actor in an actor in an actor, rather like Chinese boxes, and that's what I was trying to create. (Kate Bush Club Newsletter, November 1979)”.
It is a shame that, in 1978 and now, Lionheart has not been given too much love. This review from 2013 sort of underlines how many feel about The Kick Inside’s follow-up:
“Overall, the album has its faults - a lot of them, and it's probably Kate Bush's worst album although it brings some musical highlights. It's not an annoying listen, it just fails to live up to the standard we would expect from the prodigy and sometime-genius Kate Bush is. Bush herself, too, has expressed that she felt this album was rushed through and consequently, she took over more and more of the production of her albums, marking longer gaps in between and leading up to masterpieces 'The Dreaming' and 'Hounds of Love'.
Maybe my disappointment stems from the knowledge that she would go on to do only better and better things and this is the least essential entry in her discography. Maybe, though, it also stems from the fact that there is less congruence between music and lyrics, and that most of the music is only conceived on quite an average level, except for 'Wow', 'Fullhouse' and 'Hammer Horror', two of which are on the compilation The Whole Story which is a more rewarding summary than this is an album”.
From NME in 2019, BBC America in 2014, through to this blog, to Stereogum, Lionheart is either seen as her worst album or it is in the bottom two or three. I think Lionheart is stronger than both Director’s Cut (2011), and maybe even The Red Shoes (1993); it is not far behind The Sensual World (1989) too in terms of the albums I revisit and love!
It is a pity Lionheart is viewed as the runt of the Bush litter or an album that is a disappointing follow-up to The Kick Inside. Maybe Bush herself feels Lionheart was bad and she would have preferred more time to record, but it is what it is. EMI did not help by expecting such a fast turnaround after The Kick Inside, and one wonders what Bush could have released if things worked out differently. I will admit there are weaknesses on Lionheart – two slightly weak tracks, Full House, and Coffee Homeground, is perhaps too many on a ten-track record; the production does not seem as strong as it did on The Kick Inside; Bush wasn’t given adequate time to complete an album that countered and evolved from The Kick Inside -, but there are numerous strengths: brilliant sequencing (in terms of mood, tone, and placing the slightly weaker tracks further down the order), fantastic performances from Bush and her band; a sonic and lyrical palette that is wide, colourful and rich, and several songs that rank alongside Bush’s very best – including Symphony in Blue, Wow, Oh England My Lionheart, In the Warm Room, and Kashka from Baghdad. I do think the public got a chance to see Lionheart’s tracks revealed in a stronger light for the Tour of Life, but as a studio album, Lionheart is definitely not a failure! There are prophetic and oblique lyrics that point more towards Bush’s feelings at the time (Apart from Full House, In Search of Peter Pan’s lyrics (even though they were written years before Lionheart came out) could be about her situation and struggle in 1978 – “So much crying/I no longer see a future/I've been told when I get older/That I'll understand it all/But I'm not sure if I want to”). Lionheart warrants re-evaluation because it is definitely more of a wow than it is…
A Hammer Horror!