FEATURE:
C’Mon and Blow It a Kiss Now
Kate Bush’s The Big Sky at Thirty-Five
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I almost overlooked…
a terrific song from Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. I didn’t forget that it existed; instead, I was unaware that The Big Sky is about to celebrate its thirty-fifth anniversary. Released as the fourth and final single from the album on 28th April, 1986, it reached number thirty-seven in the U.K. singles charts. With some phenomenal musicianship throughout - Kate Bush – vocals, Fairlight CMI, piano, Paddy Bush – didgeridoo, Alan Murphy – guitar, Martin Glover (Youth) – bass guitar, Charlie Morgan – drums, handclaps, Del Palmer – LinnDrum programming, handclaps, Morris Pert – percussion-, I think The Big Sky is the best song from Hounds of Love. The third track on the album, it is a moment of joy and ebullience after Hounds of Love and before Mother Stands for Comfort. The former song has a spirit and energy that definitely gets into the head, though the lyrics are quite heart-aching and emotional. Mother Stands for Comfort is chiller and more anxious. It is a song that ends the first side of the album with a sense of something a little eerie and disturbed. I feel The Big Sky is one of most uplifting and joyful songs in Bush’s catalogue. In terms of the background to the song, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia gives us some more details:
“Someone sitting looking at the sky, watching the clouds change. I used to do this a lot as a child, just watching the clouds go into different shapes. I think we forget these pleasures as adults. We don't get as much time to enjoy those kinds of things, or think about them; we feel silly about what we used to do naturally. The song is also suggesting the coming of the next flood - how perhaps the "fools on the hills" will be the wise ones. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, Issue 18, 1985)
'The Big Sky' was a song that changed a lot between the first version of it on the demo and the end product on the master tapes. As I mentioned in the earlier magazine, the demos are the masters, in that we now work straight in the 24-track studio when I'm writing the songs; but the structure of this song changed quite a lot. I wanted to steam along, and with the help of musicians such as Alan Murphy on guitar and Youth on bass, we accomplished quite a rock-and-roll feel for the track. Although this song did undergo two different drafts and the aforementioned players changed their arrangements dramatically, this is unusual in the case of most of the songs. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, Issue 18, 1985)
'The Big Sky' gave me terrible trouble, really, just as a song. I mean, you definitely do have relationships with some songs, and we had a lot of trouble getting on together and it was just one of those songs that kept changing - at one point every week - and, um...It was just a matter of trying to pin it down. Because it's not often that I've written a song like that: when you come up with something that can literally take you to so many different tangents, so many different forms of the same song, that you just end up not knowing where you are with it. And, um...I just had to pin it down eventually, and that was a very strange beast. (Tony Myatt Interview, November 1985)”.
Not only is the composition propulsive and full of life; it was a difficult song that took a while to get together. Earlier versions are dramatically different to what we hear on Hounds of Love. The lyrics, in true Kate Bush style, have so many different elements and layers. I think there is fascination, whimsy, oddity and beauty through the song. Lines like ”That cloud, that cloud/Looks like Ireland/C'mon and blow it a kiss now…” evoke a sense of wide-eyed wonder and child-like glee. When she sings “You never understood me/You never really tried”, I wonder whether Bush is singing about the sky or someone in her life. “This cloud, this cloud/Says "Noah,/C'mon and build me an Ark/And if you're coming, jump” is another fantastic image that brings another smile. Bush, as a child and an adult, was clearly fascinated by the sky and its evocative and calming influences: “You want my reply?/What was the question?/I was looking at the Big Sky”. The chorus is mesmeric and has this momentum that builds and builds. I especially love the video. Directed by Bush, it features a cast of wonderful characters that seems like a fever-dream. Some fast and wonderfully insane editing means we get a range of striking images that never really coalesces into a flowing story. Instead, it is this collage that hooks you in and demands repeated viewing. Ahead of its thirty-fifth anniversary on Thursday, I wanted to nod to one of my favourite Kate Bush songs. Whilst it is played on the radio less than bigger Hounds of Love singles like the title track and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), it is a real gem that deserves to be played endlessly. Decades after I first heard the song, it still manages to make me tingle…
AND smile.