FEATURE:
Edited for Cinematic Release
The Five Best Reworkings from Kate Bush’s Director's Cut
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SOME may overlook the anniversary…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
but Kate Bush’s Director’s Cut turns ten on 16th May. It was the first release of two in 2011 – the second being 50 Words for Snow -, and few were expecting Bush to release an album where she reworked songs that originally appeared on The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993). Before I go on, here is some information regarding an important project for Bush:
“Ninth album by Kate Bush, released by Fish People on 16 May 2011. The album was written, composed and produced by Kate. It is made up of songs from her earlier albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes which have been remixed and restructured, three of which were re-recorded completely. All the lead vocals on the album and some of the backing vocals have been entirely re-recorded, with some of the songs transposed to a lower key to accommodate Bush's matured voice. Additionally, the drum tracks have been reconceived and re-recorded.
For some time I have felt that I wanted to revisit tracks from these two albums and that they could benefit from having new life breathed into them. Lots of work had gone into the two original albums and now these songs have another layer of work woven into their fabric. I think of this as a new album. (Sean Michaels, 'Kate Bush reveals guest lyricist on new album - James Joyce'. The Guardian (UK), 5 April 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2015)”.
To honour the upcoming tenth anniversary of her ninth studio album, I have selected my five favourite reinterpretations/re-recordings off of Director’s Cut. I like most of the tracks from the album, though these are my five selected best. In the run-up to the tenth anniversary of Director’s Cut, I am going to put out another feature or two that explores the album from different angles. In this piece, here are five re-imagined songs that originally appeared on albums years previous. Here are five excellent tracks that deserve to be on the…
HIGHLIGHT reel.
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Flower of the Mountain
Originally Appeared on: The Sensual World (1989; its original title is The Sensual World)
Running Time: 5:14
Background:
“Song written by Kate Bush with text from James Joyce's 'Ulysses', used by kind permission of the Trustrees of James Joyce Estate. Originally released on Kate's 2011 album Director's Cut.
Kate originally asked for permission in the Eighties, when she'd made this song. The Joyce estate refused to release the words. She spent over a year trying to gain permission before accepting defeat. She kept the backing track but 're-approached the words' for a track that would become The Sensual World, released in 1989.
On the 2011 album Director's Cut Kate wanted to include the original version of the song, and so she approached the James Joyce Estate again, and this time, they gave permission” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
Credits:
Drums: Steve Gadd
Bass: Del Palmer
Keyboards: Kate Bush
Pipes, whistles: Davey Spillane
Fiddles: John Sheahan
Canes: Paddy Bush
Lily
Originally Appeared on: The Red Shoes (1989)
Running Time: 4:05
Background:
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. The song is devoted to Lily Cornford, a noted spiritual healer in London with whom Bush became close friends in the 1990s. “She was one of those very rare people who are intelligent, intuitive and kind,” Kate has said of Cornford, who believed in mental colour healing—a process whereby patients would be restored to health by seeing various hues. “I was really moved by Lily and impressed with her strength and knowledge, so it led to a song - which she thought was hilarious” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
Credits:
Drums: Steve Gadd
Bass: John Giblin
Guitars: Dan McIntosh
Keyboards: Kate Bush
Backing vocals: Mica Paris, Kate Bush
Fujare: Paddy Bush
'The Gayatri' narrated by: Lily Cornford
The Red Shoes
Originally Appeared on: The Red Shoes (1993)
Running Time: 4:58
Background:
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. Also released as a single by EMI Records in the UK on 4 April 1994. Lead track of the movie The Line, The Cross and the Curve, which was presented on film festival at the time of the single's release.
Formats
'The Red Shoes' was released in the UK as a 7" single, a cassette single and two different CD-singles. The 7" single and cassette single feature the B-side track You Want Alchemy. CD-single 1 added 'Cloudbusting (Video Mix)' and This Woman's Work, and CD-single 2, released one week after the other formats, features Shoedance (see below), together with the single remix of The Big Sky and the 12" version of Running Up That Hill” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
Credits:
Drums: Steve Gadd
Bass: John Giblin
Guitars: Dan McIntosh
Mandola, mandolin, whistles, musical bow, backing vocals: Paddy Bush
Backing vocals: Colin Lloyd Tucker
Additional vocals: Albert McIntosh, Jacob Thorn
This Woman’s Work
Originally Appeared on: The Sensual World (1989)
Running Time: 6:30
Background:
“Song written by Kate Bush. 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 Sensual World. The lyric is about being forced to confront an unexpected and frightening crisis during the normal event of childbirth. Written for the movie She's Having a Baby, director John Hughes used the song during the film's dramatic climax, when Jake (Kevin Bacon) learns that the lives of his wife (Elizabeth McGovern) and their unborn child are in danger. As the song plays, we see a montage sequence of flashbacks showing the couple in happier times, intercut with shots of him waiting for news of Elizabeth and their baby's condition. Bush wrote the song specifically for the sequence, writing from a man's (Jake's) viewpoint and matching the words to the visuals which had already been filmed.
The song was used in the 21st episode of the third season of Party Of Five. The song was also used in the first episode of the second season of The Handmaid's Tale” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
Credits:
Orchestra arrangement: Michael Kamen
Vocals: Albert McIntosch, Jacob Thorn
Top of the City
Originally Appeared on: The Red Shoes (1993)
Running Time: 4:24
Background:
“There are two versions of 'And So Is Love': the album version from 1993, and the version from Bush's album Director's Cut in 2011.
A live version appears on the album Before The Dawn.
Performances
The song was performed live as part of Kate's Before The Dawn shows in London, 2014.” – The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
Credits:
Drums: Steve Gadd
Bass: John Giblin
Guitars: Dan McIntosh
Piano, backing vocals: Kate Bush
Violin, viola: Nigel Kennedy
Toll: Remi Butler
Rook: Albert McIntosh