FEATURE:
On Guitar, Ms. Kate Bush
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
The Red Shoes’ Big Stripey Lie
___________
I have been highlighting…
various Kate Bush songs. The reason for that is, this month, a few of her albums are celebrating anniversaries. The Red Shoes, however, was released in November 1993 – so we have a little way to go until that anniversary. One song that many may not be aware of is The Red Shoes’ Big Stripey Lie. The title alone is quite curious and interesting! The antepenultimate song from the album, perhaps that last three run of songs is not the strongest on The Red Shoes. That being said, Big Stripey Lie is an interesting song where Kate Bush picks up the guitar. I think it was Danny McIntosh (her other half) who showed her how to play. By all accounts, Bush took to it very quickly and was a natural! Originally released as the B-side of the single, Rubberband Girl, in the U.K., it is a song that, I feel, is most notable because of Bush’s playing. She also plays bass (she next played bass on Misty, from 2011’s 50 Words for Snow). I am not sure whether she wanted to play the guitar and bass part so that she could learn new instruments, or whether she felt that she would give the track something particular she was looking for. As the album’s producer, she would have been calling a lot of the shots. Sounding like nothing else on The Red Shoes, it is a song that would have sounded comfortable on her 1982 album, The Dreaming. I think Big Stripey Lie is quite Grunge and has this experimental and arty angle.
It is definitely not conventional. Quite an accomplished and intriguing performance from Bush, it is a song that, to me, is stronger than a B-side. Buried quite low in the track order, Big Stripey Lie is a gem from The Red Shoes that I have previously ignored or brushed off. I really like how the lyrics make you think and are not obvious. What does she mean when she sings “All young gentle dreams drowning/In life's grief/Can you hang onto me?”. Perhaps there was some relationship strife in her life at the time. She started dating McIntosh around 1993. Previously, Bush was dating Del Palmer (her engineer now, he played with Bush prior to The Kick Inside’s (1978) release). Perhaps there was some tremors there. Maybe Bush was feeling strain and like things were falling apart. The lyrics “Only want to help you/Never want to hurt you/I know I could be good for you” are so powerfully delivered! There is an article I want to grab from. One Week One Band spotlighted Big Stripey Lie a while back and stated why they love it:
“Who even makes music like this? Then, or now, or years from now? The Knife, possibly. Danielle Dax, perhaps. Tori, in her less piano-based moments; Peter Gabriel if Melt lasted forever; Katie Stelmanis, solo. “Nigel Kennedy mudwrestling with Neil Young.” Bush, during The Dreaming, if she’d gone even further. Bush in The Line, the Cross and the Curve, if it had some sort of Jekyll and Hyde confrontation scene or if Lily were far less kindly. You, and your neuroses, during insomnia, at night.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993
A lot of people get “Big Stripey Lie” wrong. It’s hard to blame them. If the music didn’t scare you off, the lyrics close you off even more so; the title never even comes close to explaining itself. But if “The Song of Solomon” was secretly The Sensual World, this is secretly The Dreaming; where one plucks femininity from dudeliness, this plucks terror from obscurantism. It’s an incredibly human moment rendered as horror: caring for someone who’s succumbed to depression at best. It isn’t love yet – “I could be good for you” places the relationship far younger than that – and it’s arguably shading into, if not codependency, then desperation. She drags spirituality into it with a helpless shrug (“sometimes they blow trumpets”), It’s “Sat In Your Lap” again, from the other side; by the end of the track she’s facing down the storm, her words broken: “wanna help you – never hurt you – good for you!” When the track lets up, it’s not on a hopeful note”.
But that track! His name is being called by sacred things, and they’re thrashed by every instrument in the world. Percussion cold and clicking away, almost industrial against wails and roars, singing something but you don’t know what; guitars straining like violin bows (played by Bush, as she does throughout The Red Shoes; she should do it more), then actual violin, courtesy of Nigel Kennedy. I first encountered him on, of all places, a Sarah Brightman record, and from what I gather he was (and is) a bit of a tabloid figure, if not a joke. I never heard him that way; he’s got a very particular style, very yearning, almost like an elegy. (If Kennedy wasn’t available, I’d like to imagine Bush would have sung it herself; she pulls out at least three new voices here, so a legit soprano wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.)”.
One wonders why Big Stripey Lie was not reapproached for 2011’s Director’s Cut. That album was Bush reworking songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. She did do another run of Rubberband Girl – a song that she felt could have been left from the album; one that did not get too much attention -, so one could appreciate her re-examining Big Stripey Lie. It would be great to hear what she would have done with that song. I don’t think Bush was a big fan of the song. It is a shame, as Big Stripey Lie is a song that has many interesting elements. I wonder why Bush did not play guitar more on future albums. She had a flair for it and, when listening to her delivery on Big Stripey Lie, one gets the sense of someone who could have become a really original and inspiring player! I guess, as she has Danny McIntosh, there is not much need. From the striking and emotional lyrics to the playing, Big Stripey Lie is brilliant. Nigel Kennedy played violin on the track, whilst there is some cool percussion from Gaumont d'Oliveira. The second side of The Red Shoes gets ignored somewhat, as it features some of the slightly weaker numbers. I feel Big Stripey Lie warrants greater attention. It is a wonderful song that showcased a new sound and side to Kate Bush. If you have not heard it, then go and spin the song and immerse yourself in a treasure…
FROM The Red Shoes.