FEATURE:
A Bunch of Purple Flowers for Mammy’s Hero
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from the book, Kate: Inside the Rainbow)
Never for Ever at Forty: Kate Bush’s Army Dreamers
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IN the run-up to the anniversaries…
of Kate Bush’s Never for Ever (forty on 8th September), and Hounds of Love (thirty-five on 16th September), I am concentrating on various aspects of the albums and drilling down to the core of certain songs. When investigating Never for Ever, I have taken a look at the sheer beauty of the album, and I have investigated Breathing, and Babooshka. When we think of Never for Ever, there is a third massive song that makes the album so underrated and extraordinary. Army Dreamers is the penultimate track on Never for Ever, and its position on the album is very intriguing. The second side of Never for Ever is one of the best-arranged of Kate Bush’s career in terms of impact and tone. After the excitement and variation on the album’s first side, we open with The Wedding List: a terrifically inventive and under-played track that leads us into the rockier Violin. The Infant Kiss provides a moment of beauty and a change of pace and, anticipating two heavy tracks to end the album, there is a beautiful little segue in the form of Night Scented Stock. Consisting of wordless vocals that rises and swoops, this choral-like track gives us something gorgeous and spine-tingling before Army Dreamers arrives. When listening to the vocal, one might assume that Army Dreamers is playful and light, yet I think the decision for Bush to adopt an Irish accent is inspired.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at the launch of Never For Ever in 1980
Breathing is a very heavy and powerful song where Bush is at times breathless and roaring the next; the lyrics of nuclear holocaust leave you in no doubt that this is a very serious and potent song. Army Dreamers does not have the same sound and vocal weight. As effecting as Breathing’s vocal is, Bush’s lighter accent makes her lyrics more striking, I feel, than if she had chosen a similar course to Breathing. Following Breathing, and Babooshka, Army Dreamers was the third single released from Never for Ever. Released on 22nd September, 1980, the song reached number-sixteen on the U.K. chart (it hit two places higher on the Irish chart) – Babooshka hit number-five, whilst Breathing reached number-sixteen. It is interesting that the two political singles from Never for Ever reached the same chart high in the U.K., and neither was really a match for Babosohka in terms of sales. Less than a few weeks after Never for Ever was released, I am surprised that Army Dreamers did not chart higher (as I have argued before). Maybe people were not used to a more political edge to Bush’s music; perhaps Babooshka’s energy and composition provided greater accessibility and catchiness, whereas Army Dreamers’ sound – with some bodhran, mandolin, and programmed gun cocks – is quite different. It is hard to explain. I love that, like the other two singles (and other songs on Never for Ever), Army Dreamers has some male backing vocals that contrast and compliment Bush’s – on Army Dreamers, Brian Bath and Paddy Bush chime in and add this great sense of foreboding and comradery.
I have mused before what accounted for Bush including a more political aspect to her music. Thematically, she has always been original and covered deeper subjects, but very few of her songs prior to Army Dreamers took a stand against subjects such as warfare and army drafting young men. A 1979 interview Bush conducted with Danny Baker could have been one reason why she wrote songs like Army Dreamers. I think there was an assumption from him that she was a bit lightweight compared to the Punk music of the day and quite airy-fairy. Obviously, Bush was already a writer who was unafraid to stray away from the conventional, but there was very little of the political in her work – maybe the effect of that interview compelled her to take a slightly different direction. The fact Never for Ever was the first album of hers to embrace the Aladdin’s Cave that is the Fairlight CMI meant that she had sound effects and a broader palette at her disposal, so there was no wonder she was moving away from the sound of her first two albums, The Kick Inside, and Lionheart. With co-producer Jon Kelly, Bush created this masterful song that could not fail to move anyone who heard it. I want to bring in an article that gives details regarding Army Dreamers’ video, and Bush’s input on the song:
“The music video opens on a closeup of Kate Bush, dressed in dark green camouflage, holding a child. She blinks in synchronisation with the song's sampled gun cocks. The camera pulls out and shows that Bush has a white-haired child on her lap. The child walks off and returns in military combat uniform. Bush and several soldiers (one of whom has "KT8" or "KTB" stencilled on the butt of his rifle: "KTB" was a monogram used by Bush early in her career) make their way through woodland, amid explosions. As the song progresses, Bush reaches out for the child soldier, but he disappears. Finally, one of the soldiers is blown up.
It's the first song I've ever written in the studio. It's not specifically about Ireland, it's just putting the case of a mother in these circumstances, how incredibly sad it is for her. How she feels she should have been able to prevent it. If she'd bought him a guitar when he asked for one. (Colin Irwin, 'Paranoia And Passion Of The Kate Inside'. Melody Maker (UK), 10 October 1980)
The Irish accent was important because the treatment of the song is very traditional, and the Irish would always use their songs to tell stories, it's the traditional way. There's something about an Irish accent that's very vulnerable, very poetic, and so by singing it in an Irish accent it comes across in a different way. But the song was meant to cover areas like Germany, especially with the kids that get killed in manoeuvres, not even in action. It doesn't get brought out much, but it happens a lot. I'm not slagging off the Army, it's just so sad that there are kids who have no O-levels and nothing to do but become soldiers, and it's not really what they want. That's what frightens me. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. ZigZag (UK), 1980)”.
There are a couple of interesting points regarding the information above. The fact Bush adopted an Irish accent and viewpoint on Army Dreamers was inspired. Bush’s mother was Irish, so it is almost like Bush inhabiting her mother, or (she was) considering how she would feel if her daughter was drafted to war – or one of Bush’s older brothers was.
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Laratff
Bush wrote Army Dreamers in the studio, and that is a rarity! To that point, she was very much someone who would have written and had songs prepared before she stepped into the studio. I always feel that she would have been too caught up in recording the tracks and making sure they were as good as could be, rather than spending spare time in the studio writing. Bush would write other tracks in the studio/during an album recording – such as Rubberband Girl from The Red Shoes -, but Army Dreamers’ creation suggests a sense of urgency and breakthrough for her. The lyrics to Army Dreamers are very poetic and vivid. There are so many lines and passages to highlight for commendation, but I do love the first verse: “Our little army boy/Is coming home from B.F.P.O./I've a bunch of purple flowers/To decorate to mammy's hero”. That is such a powerful start, and one is instantly affected and involved in the song! I think it is the chorus that provides the biggest hit, and the combination of Bush’s acrobatic and nimble vocal, combined with backing vocals (in parenthesis) is exceptional: “But he didn't have the money for a guitar/(What could he do)/(Should have been a politician)/But he never had a proper education/(What could he do)/(Should have been a father)/But he never even made it to his twenties/What a waste/Army dreamers/Ooh, what a waste of/Army dreamers”.
The video for Army Dreamers is a reason why I wanted to highlight this song and extoll its virtues. In a Profiles in Rock interview from 1980, Bush explained how Army Dreamers’ video was her most realised and favourite to that point – from 5:55 onwards –, and it is easy to see why she is so proud of it! Almost forty years after the song was released as a single, I still feel it holds such power. One does not need to be a parent or a solider to relate to the words and the scenes Bush describes. It is such a stirring and impactful song, and I think many people have overlooked Never for Ever; Army Dreamers is not played as often as it should be and, whilst Hounds of Love is a phenomenal album that deserves all the praise it gets, I feel there are a lot of tremendous songs on Never for Ever that are not often explored. Army Dreamers is one of the best tracks of Kate Bush’s career and I think, together with Breathing, it marked a turning point regarding her lyrics and stepping into weightier territory. If proof were ever needed, Army Dreamers is clear evidence that Kate Bush is undoubtedly such…
IN THIS PHOTO: An outtake from the Army Dreamers video shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (published in Kate: Inside the Rainbow)
A rare and brilliant songwriter.