FEATURE:
Ranking Tracks from Kate Bush’s Albums…
The Red Shoes
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THIS part of my mini-series…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993
that ranks the songs from Kate Bush’s albums takes us to The Red Shoes. The 1993 album was the last before Bush came back with Aerial in 2005. Many consider The Red Shoes to be among Bush’s weaker releases. I think it is an album that has many highlights and underrated songs. I will provide my rankings soon. Before then, an overview and some background from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia:
“Seventh album by Kate Bush, released by EMI Records on 2 November 1993. The album was written, composed and produced by Kate.
The album was inspired by the 1948 film of the same name by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film in turn was inspired by the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. It concerns a dancer, possessed by her art, who cannot take off the eponymous shoes and find peace. Bush had suggested she would tour for the album and deliberately aimed for a "live band" feel, with less of the studio trickery that had typified her last three albums (which would be difficult to recreate on stage). However, the tour never happened in the end. A few months after the release of the album, Bush did release The Line, The Cross and the Curve, a movie incorporating six tracks from the album.
Most notably, The Red Shoes featured many more high-profile cameo appearances than her previous efforts. Comedian Lenny Henry provided guest vocals on Why Should I Love You, a track that also featured significant contributions from Prince. And So Is Love features guitar work by Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Gary Brooker (from the band Procol Harum) appears on two tracks as well.
The album was recorded digitally, and Bush has since expressed regrets about the results of this, which is why she revisited seven of the songs using analogue tape for her 2011 album Director's Cut.
Critical reception
NME wrote: "How many of us could stand the self-imposed exile that has been the adult life of Kate Bush. She's elevated privacy to an art-frm... it's her most personal album to date, yet it is her most accessible, in which the listener can identify directly with the pain she's trying to pull herself through..." The Independent on Sunday added: "There is nothing here that quite compares with her most splendid songs - 1980's Breating and 1986's The Big Sky... but The Red Shoes is a triumph nonetheless...". The Observer: "Bush's most pensive album yet... its mood of wistful mystery maintained by elaborate arrangements... the occasional number is overwrought, but the best confirm Bush as an artist of substance."
I've been very affected by these last two years. They've been incredibly intense years for me. Maybe not on a work level, but a lot has happened to me. I feel I've learnt a lot – and, yes, I think [my next album] is going to be quite different… I hope the people that are waiting for it feel it's worth the wait. (BBC Radio 1 interview, 14 December 1991)”.
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12. Constellation of the Heart
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. The lyric describes telescopes being turned inside out and pointed towards the heart, “away from the big sky", which is a direct reference to the track The Big Sky and seemingly a disavowal of old subjects.
Credits
Drums: Stuart Elliott
Bass: John Giblin
Guitar: Danny McIntosh
Hammond: Gary Brooker
Vocals: Paddy Bush, Colin Lloyd-Tucker
Tenor saxophone: Nigel Hitchcock
Trombone: Neil Sidwell
Trumpet: Paul Spong, Steve Sidwell
Keyboards, piano: Kate” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
11. Big Stripey Lie
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released as the B-side of the single Rubberband Girl in the UK. Subsequently released on her seventh album The Red Shoes.
Versions
There are two versions of 'Big Stripey Lie': the album version from 1993, and the remastered version from 2011, included on a new release of The Red Shoes on the Fishpeople label.
Credits
Drums, percussion, FX: Gaumont d'Oliveira
Violin: Nigel Kennedy
Guitar, bass, keyboards: Kate” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
10. You're the One
“'You're The One' was covered by Göteborgs Symfoniker and Justin Roberts.
Credits
Drums: Stuart Elliott
Bass: John Giblin
Guitar: Jeff Beck
Hammond: Gary Brooker
Vocals: Trio Bulgarka
Fender Rhodes, keyboards: Kate” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
9. The Red Shoes
“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.
Music video
The music video for 'The Red Shoes' was also used in the movie The Line, The Cross and The Curve” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
8. Why Should I Love You?
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. Bush asked Prince to contribute background vocals to 'Why Should I Love You' in 1991. She sent him the track, which she had recorded at Abbey Road Studios (Studio Number One), London, England, and Prince added vocals, but also added many instrumental parts to the song, at his Paisley Park Studios. When Kate Bush and Del Palmer listened to Prince's returned track, they weren't sure what to do with it. They worked on it on and off for two years to try to "turn it back into a Kate Bush song". The track also features background vocals by British comedian Lenny Henry, a good friend of Kate's.
Drums: Stuart Elliott
Keyboards, guitar, bass, vocals: Prince
Vocals: Lenny Henry
Tenor saxophone: Nigel Hitchcock
Trombone: Neil Sidwell
Trumpet, Flugelhorn: Steve Sidwell
Vocals: Trio Bulgarka
Keyboards: Kate
Arrangements by Prince and Kate” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
7. Top of the City
“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.
Cover versions
'Top Of The City' was covered by Anna's Fanclub and Goodknight Productions” - Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
6. The Song of Solomon
“There are two versions of 'The Song Of Solomon': the album version from 1993, and the version from Bush's album Director's Cut in 2011.
Percussion: Charlie Morgan, Stuart Elliott
Guitar: Danny McIntosh
Vocals: Trio Bulgarka
Fender Rhodes, Keyboards, Piano: Kate” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
5. Eat the Music
“Song written by Kate Bush. It was originally released as the lead single for The Red Shoes in the USA on September 7, 1993, while everywhere else in the world Rubberband Girl was released. In the UK, a small handful of extremely rare 7" and promotional CD-singles were produced, but were recalled by EMI Records at the last minute. A commercial release followed in the Summer of 1994 in the Netherlands and Australia, along with a handful of other countries. The song's lyrics are about opening up in relationships to reveal who we really are inside.
Formats
The USA CD-single featured the album version and 12" version of 'Eat The Music', along with Big Stripey Lie and Candle In The Wind. A 2 track CD-single, released in the Netherlands in the summer of 1994 featured 'Eat The Music' and You Want Alchemy. The Dutch and Australian 4 track CD-singles featured these two tracks plus the 12" version of 'Eat The Music' [which is actually the 4'55 US edit, see below] and 'Shoedance (The Red Shoes Dance Mix)'. It is worth noting that the Australian CD-single came in a 'Scratch And Sniff' card sleeve” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
4. Lily
“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.”
Versions
There are two versions of 'Lily': 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.
Music video
A music video for 'Lily' exists, as part of the movie The Line, The Cross and The Curve” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
3. And So Is Love
“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 7 November 1994.
Formats
'And So Is Love' was released in the UK as a picture disc 7" single with a large poster and as two CD-singles: one in a regular small case and one in a big case with three 5" x 5" card prints.
All formats feature the lead track and the U.S. mix of Rubberband Girl. The two CD-singles also featured the U.S. mix of Eat The Music.
Performances
After the release of the single, it climbed to number 26 in the UK singles chart. The chart entry marked Bush's first appearance on the chart show Top Of The Pops in nine years. It was a straightforward performance with Kate lipsynching the song in front of the studio audience with two female backing singers by her side” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
2. Moments of Pleasure
“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)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia
1. Rubberband Girl
“Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released as a single by EMI Records in the UK on 6 September 1993. Also released on her seventh album The Red Shoes. The song was subsequently also released as a single in the USA, on 7 December 1993.
Versions
There are four different versions of 'Rubberband Girl': the album version (which was also the single version) and an extended version, both released in September. A year later, a 'U.S. remix', credited to American DJ Eric Kupper, appeared as an extra track on the single release of And So Is Love. And in 2011, a re-recording of Rubberband Girl appeared on Bush's album Director's Cut.
I thought the original 'Rubberband' was... Well, it's a fun track. I was quite happy with the original, but I just wanted to do something really different. It is my least favourite track. I had considered taking it off to be honest. Because it didn't feel quite as interesting as the other tracks. But I thought, at the same time, it was just a bit of fun and it felt like a good thing to go out with. It's just a silly pop song really, I loved Danny Thompson's bass on that, and of course Danny (McIntosh)'s guitar. (Mojo (UK), 2011)” – Kate Bush Encyclopaedia