FEATURE:
When You Wish Upon a Star
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in an outtake from the Lionheart album cover shoot/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
Kate Bush’s Lionheart: Would a Reorganised Tracklisting Make It a Stronger Album?
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THIS is not the first time…
that I have dove deep into Lionheart. Kate Bush’s second studio album, it is one that often comes in for some stick. When I wrote about it last year, I defended it (as if it needed that at all!). Many people, when ranking her ten studio albums, often place Lionheart last - either that or 1993’s The Red Shoes. Whereas The Red Shoes has a few weak tracks and the production sound is a bit compressed and lacking in warmth, Lionheart is very similar to The Kick Inside. Her 1978 debut (Lionheart was released in the same year) was produced by Andrew Powell. He produced Lionheart with assistance from Bush. Some people have argued that Lionheart lacks songs as memorable and important as Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes – unarguably the two best-known songs on her debut. Wow and Symphony in Blue are stunning. The former track is one of Bush’s older ones, whereas Symphony in Blue was written for Lionheart (she only wrote three new songs for her second album). It is amazing how, given the short amount of time she had to compile a second album, there are so many wonderful tracks! Even if Lionheart is slightly weaker than The Kick Inside, why then is it placed much lower than its predecessor!? Some can argue that, for a second album, it is not a huge leap from the debut. I would disagree to an extent.
Nine months after her debut came out, one could not expect something like The Dreaming or Hounds of Love. Lionheart is broader in terms of its themes. Songs of love and longing seem more varied and diverse. Listen to a track such as Coffee Homeground. It is very different to anything on The Kick Inside. Despite the odd weaker track, there are some stunning tracks on Lionheart. It is baffling that the album has received such unremarkable reviews. In a review that does offer some positives, this is what Drowned in Sound said:
“One of the funny things about The Before Time when you had to buy music to listen to it is that ropey critical reputations could really put you off ever listing to certain records, even by artists you loved. It took me years to get around to Lionheart. And you know, sure, it’s the weakest Kate Bush record but that doesn’t make it bad. If anything the fact it’s routinely dismissed as a rushed follow up to The Kick Inside means it doesn’t have the pressure to compete with the stronger later records. The luminous ‘Wow’ is obviously the best and most memorable song, but seriously, check out those elaborately layered vocals on opener ‘Symphony in Blue’. The songwriting is a bit hazy compared to the laser-definition of later albums, but musically and texturally it’s a really beautiful record - the only Kate Bush album that is content to be pretty and not ask you to commit to it, and there’s something to be said for that, I think. (7)”.
Most reviews are quite dismissive. Many compare Lionheart negatively with The Kick Inside in terms of consistency and songwriting brilliance. Take apart Lionheart, and I feel one could find a lot to love. How many people – who have placed the album so low – have heard it in full lately!? To me, the quality of the songs, production and Bush’s vocals are not that inferior compared to her debut album. So, then, what is it that means the album is seen as the less spectacular of Bush’s cannon? One explanation might be the tracklisting and sequencing. Beforehand, I have argued how her albums are brilliantly arranged so that the tracks are where they need to be. That is true of albums like The Kick Inside, The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. Maybe one could slightly tweak Never for Ever and The Sensual World and make them even stronger. Revisiting Lionheart as I have been, a couple of things struck me. I have been impacted by songs that I overlooked before. In Search of Peter Pan is a gorgeous song where, at the very end, Bush sings lines from When You Wish Upon a Star (a very rare case of her using other people’s words in her song. Leigh Harline and Ned Washington wrote it for Disney's 1940 adaptation of Pinocchio). Oh England My Lionheart has taken on new life and meaning. There is so much to unpack and enjoy through Lionheart. Not that it will be done….though I feel a reordering of the songs would make for a better album.
The quality is there for sure! Perhaps this is a case of the right tracks being in the wrong order. Not that an iPod-like reshuffle would make the album more brilliant and popular than Hounds of Love or Aerial. I don’t think Lionheart would be bottom or in the bottom-two if there was a rearrangement – The Red Shoes and 2011’s Director’s Cut would probably occupy those bottom slots. As it is, Lionheart’s tracklisting is as follows:
Symphony in Blue
In Search of Peter Pan
Wow
Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake
Oh England My Lionheart
Full House
In the Warm Room
Kashka from Baghdad
Coffee Homeground
Hammer Horror
It is a subjective preference in terms of what a ‘new tracklisting’ would look like. In terms of quality, you have two of the strongest tracks – Symphony in Blue and Wow – in the first half. Two other big ones – Kashka from Baghdad and Hammer Horror – are in the second half. If anything, Lionheart is a little top-heavy. I always find it strange that the album’s first single, Hammer Horror, ends the album. It possesses a sweeping sound that suggests producer Andrew Powell might have envisaged this climatic ending. Perhaps Bush herself was instrumental in the track order; or was Jon Kelly (recording engineer, mixing) influential? Whomever gave the final okay for the order of the songs, a reassembling could lead to an album that retains its balance (in terms of the compositions and vocal) but leads to an even more satisfying listening experience.
Many Kate Bush fans ignore Lionheart. For those (like me) who love the album, they would have thought about how, if they had the chance, they would organise the songs. One of my wishes is that, one day, we can have access to the masters and be able to pick apart and rearrange songs – so that vocals can be isolated and we can have different mixes. Lionheart is a fabulous album where the weaker tracks are not in the right place. Not that there are drastic changes, but here is my view of what the tracklisting for Lionheart should look like:
Symphony in Blue
Wow
Oh England My Lionheart
In Search of Peter Pan
Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake
In the Warm Room
Full House
Coffee Homeground
Hammer Horror
Kashka from Baghdad
Actually…there is a fairly drastic reshuffle! The song that definitely has always been in the correct place is Symphony in Blue. Like Moving on The Kick Inside, it is the perfect opener. In fact, when it comes to her albums, the opening track has always felt right and like it could not be anywhere else – maybe 50 Words for Snow’s Snowflake is an exception. This is, as I said, my personal opinion. Others might be of the view that the tracks are fine where they are on Lionheart. I feel that the quality of the material is exceptional. Maybe some who have reviewed the album harshly have had moments where their attention dipped, or they felt there was a lack of surprise.
My ordering provides means two big tracks are at the top. In Search of Peter Pan is another solid song. The first half would end with one of the slightly weaker songs, Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbreak. Even so, we go out with a Rock number that ensures a big finish to that half. I don’t think the first five songs are too samey or there are drastic turns in terms of tone and sound. Perhaps Oh England My Lionheart and In Search of Peter Pan are two similar songs right next to each other. I feel they compliment one another and sound great side by side. After the impassioned end to side one, we open the same way on side two as we did on the first. In the Warm Room, again a track that some dismiss, is in the middle of the pack. It mirrors, in a way, the feel of Symphony in Blue. Whilst the first four songs provided strength and consistency, the final four do too. Full House and Coffee Homeground – two of the more experimental and darker songs – are beside one another and come fairly close to the end. We build to these. Rather than doing a full-180 after Coffee Homeground, Hammer Horror provides a not-too-severe segue. People might argue that I have not exactly moved Hammer Horror too far up the list! That is true…
I do think that it needs to be in the second half. Some may disagree. It seemed strange having it as the final track. I always feel that, when you listen to Hammer Horror last, you are waiting for a finale or something else. With one of the strongest tracks, Kashka from Baghdad – why was this not a single?! -, ending things, we get a beautiful song that takes us to rest. Again, there are similarities to Symphony in Blue. It is pointless trying to re-sequence an album that has been out for over forty years! I get tired of the bashing Lionheart receives. The feeling that the material is weaker and it is a very pale follow-up to The Kick Inside. That is not the case. Also, there is plenty of evolution and growth in an amazingly short space of time! I wonder whether there were a couple of extra tracks that Bush considered for Lionheart but did not include. At ten tracks, it is a tight and fairly short listen of about thirty-seven minutes. Not that two extra tracks would have made the album that much better. It is interesting to imagine and dream what could have been back in 1978. I do hope that more people give Lionheart a try and spend more time with it. I truly believe that it is a record that is overdue fresh love. Maybe, with the ten tracks organised as I have suggested above, people might see Lionheart…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in the ‘redhead’ shoot (1978)/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
IN a new light.