FEATURE:
The Glory and Grace
Kate Bush and The Man I Love
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THIS is a song that I have covered before…
PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
but I feel that it warrants a repeat. As much as I love Kate Bush’s original material. She is also an excellent interpreter. I have recently written about her take on Elton John’s Rocket Man – that was a single from a 1991 tribute album to Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Some artists are quite faithful when it comes to taking on someone else’s material. For Bush, it is an opportunity to make the song her own. She achieved this when she recorded the George and Ira Gershwin song, The Man I Love. I have been thinking about her rendition, as it is not one that we hear on the radio much – the same can be said of most of her back catalogue. I especially love what Bush did with the song. In terms of some background and some detail from Bush, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia provides more detail:
“Song written by George & Ira Gershwin. Originally written for the 1927 Fred and Adele Astaire musical, 'Lady Be Good'. The song received a lukewarm reception and was subsequently dropped from the 1930 version of the show. Lady Mountbatten came across the tune in America and she asked George Gershwin for an autographed copy that she could take back to England, prompting British dance bands to start playing the song. A few years later, a recording by torch singer Helen Morgan finally made the song a success in the US. Other artists who have covered it include Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand.
Kate Bush recorded a cover version of this song in 1994 for the album The Glory Of Gershwin, with Larry Adler on harmonica. The song was released as a single on 18 July 1994 in advance of the release of the album.
“This romantic song was written by George and Ira Gershwin and when Larry Adler put an album together of their songs, called The Glory of Gershwin, he asked me to sing this beautiful song. The album was produced by George Martin. I was very fond of George - such a special talent and creative spirit, a really gentle man, very kind and incredibly interesting. It was a great honour to work with him and Larry. George and Larry were very different personalities (Larry was a real character), but they made a great creative combination.
It was released as a single and Kevin Godley directed the video. I loved working with Kevin - so imaginative and great fun. I’d worked with him and Lol Creme when they directed the video for Peter Gabriel’s song, Don’t Give Up. Kevin chose to present the video in a very traditional way which suited the song extremely well. Godley and Creme are huge talents who left their mark not just in the music industry with their intelligence and wit in the band 10CC but also in the visual world with their groundbreaking videos, working with an impressive list of diverse artists”.
Although Bush did not include any cover versions on her studio albums, one can discover these gems on other albums. In terms of comparing her vocal performance on The Man I Love to any of her albums, one can sort of see a connection between the song and the 1989 album, The Sensual World. There is a sensuality and gracefulness to her voice. It is rich and powerful when it needs to be. It is one of my favourite vocals from her. Although Bush has not released a cover version recently – I think the most recent one was Sexual Healing (the B-side to the 2005 single, King of the Mountain) -, one cannot rule out the possibility of one in the future. I think she inhabits The Man I Love and gives it her everything. I do often say how radio stations are restrictive regarding which Kate Bush songs they spin – one can narrow it down to fewer than a dozen songs; there are so many gems that have never been played. I would love to hear The Man I Love played a lot more. It is a wonderful song I can come back to time and time again and get something new from. With some incredible production and mixing (the song was mixed by Giles Martin and Rupert Coulson; it was produced by George Martin), one cannot ignore the beauty and nuance of The Man I Love. In a year that was fairly quiet for Bush (1994), her take on a classic allowed people to see yet another side to her incredible voice. I have heard the song so many times and it…
PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
STILL hits me hard.