FEATURE:
Just Being Alive It Can Really Hurt
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
Kate Bush’s Moments of Pleasure
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THERE are a couple of reasons…
why I wanted to throw the spotlight on Kate Bush’s track, Moments of Pleasure. So far as I can determine, it is one that I have not yet explored in real depth. The second U.K. single from her 1993 album, The Red Shoes, the album as a whole is one that is underrated and largely under-appreciated. With a song like Moments of Pleasure coming before the side one closers, The Song of Solomon and Lily, the track also boasts one of Bush’s finest videos. Not only that. Moments of Pleasure appeared on Bush’s 2011 album, Director’s Cut – similar to a few of her tracks that I have covered recently. On 16th May, Director’s Cut turns ten. Whilst I prefer the version on The Red Shoes, the newer version is very interesting. I think that Moments of Pleasure is one of Kate Bush’s absolute best songs. If you need some more information, this article from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia:
“Song written by Kate Bush. Premiered on television (see below) and officially released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. The song was subsequently also released as a single on 15 November 1993. Bush wrote the chorus "to those we love, to those who will survive" for her mother, who was sick at the time of recording. She died a short time later.
“I think the problem is that during [the recording of] that album there were a lot of unhappy things going on in my life, but when the songs were written none of that had really happened yet. I think a lot of people presume that particularly that song was written after my mother had died for instance, which wasn't so at all. There's a line in there that mentions a phrase that she used to say, 'every old sock meets an old shoe', and when I recorded it and played it to her she just thought it was hilarious! She couldn't stop laughing, she just thought it was so funny that I'd put it into this song. So I don't see it as a sad song. I think there's a sort of reflective quality, but I guess I think of it more as a celebration of life. (Interview with Ken Bruce, BBC Radio 2, 9 May 2011).
I wasn't really quite sure how "Moments of Pleasure" was going to come together, so I just sat down and tried to play it again-- I hadn't played it for about 20 years. I immediately wanted to get a sense of the fact that it was more of a narrative now than the original version; getting rid of the chorus sections somehow made it more of a narrative than a straightforward song. (Ryan Dombai, 'Kate Bush: The elusive art-rock originator on her time-travelling new LP, Director's Cut'. Pitchfork, May 16, 2011)”.
I think that Moments of Pleasure also contains some of Bush’s best lyrics. The imagery that she summons throughout the song is fantastic. One cannot help but follow Bush and her imagination when she sings “I think about us lying/Lying on a beach somewhere/I think about us diving/Diving off a rock, into another moment”. Aside from evocative imagery are lines that switch between conversational and romantic: “The case of George the Wipe/Oh God I can't stop laughing/This sense of humour of mine/It isn't funny at all/Oh but we sit up all night/Talking about it”. Alongside moments of pleasure and love are lines and images that are very personal and pained: “Just being alive/It can really hurt/And these moments given/Are a gift from time”. The lines that Bush writes about ailing mother are particular heart-aching and striking “To those we love/To those who will survive”/”And I can hear my mother saying/"Every old sock meets an old shoe"/Isn't that a great saying?”.
The Red Shoes is an album that has been criticised by some because of its lyrics. Those who feel laziness creeps in on a few songs. One cannot say that about Moments of Pleasure! It is full of life, emotion and incredible lines. One verse sounds like it could have been included during a song from 2011’s 50 Words for Snow: “On a balcony in New York/It's just started to snow/He meets us at the lift/Like Douglas Fairbanks/Waving his walking stick/But he isn't well at all/The buildings of New York
Look just like mountains through the snow”. I wonder whether there was any inspiration and overlap when Bush recorded a new version of Moments of Pleasure and began work for 50 Words for Snow. I have covered most songs from The Red Shoes, not only to reappraise songs that have been overlooked; I also wanted to highlight that it is a strong album that only has a few weak moments. It is a lot more solid and rewarding than many critics have given it credit for (when Bush’s albums are ranked, The Red Shoes and Lionheart often spar it out for the bottom position). I listen to Moments of Pleasure now and it keeps offering up something new. Together with its dazzling video through to its incredible vocal performance, it is a song that stands proud and high in Bush’s cannon! Whether on 1993’s The Red Shoes or 2011’s Director’s Cut, Moments of Pleasure is…
A transfixing song.