FEATURE:
Kate Bush Plans the Job…
IN THIS ILLUSTRATION: Kate Bush from the Suspended in Gaffa video/ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: iniminiemoo
Forty Years Since the Release of the Singles There Goes a Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa
__________
I wanted to focus on an anniversary…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and an extra during the shoot/rehearsals for the There Goes a Tenner video in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from the book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow)
that is quite important. We celebrated The Dreaming turning forty back in September, but there are a couple of singles that turn forty on 2nd November. Not an album with commercial choices and anything that would necessarily get her big radio play and chart success, it was tough deciding which songs would be put forward to promote the album! Prior to 2nd November, 1982, Bush had already released two singles from her fourth studio album. Sat in Your Lap came out in 1981, whereas The Dreaming was released in July 1982. As the album itself came out in September, there still needed to be a bit of momentum and promotion towards the end of the year. I have said in other features how songs like Houdini and All the Love could have been singles. I guess Bush was more concerned with the album itself and making sure that sold and people listened. Whereas its follow-up, Hounds of Love, had ready singles and was deliberately more commercial (to an extent), The Dreaming did have a big challenge when it came to singles. I love the fact that two different singles were released in different parts of the world on the same day! That doesn’t really happen today, and I guess it was a chance to get different songs out and ensure that more of the album was shared. There Goes a Tenner was released only in the U.K. and Ireland. Suspended in Gaffa was released in continental Europe and Australia (in 1983).
As The Dreaming’s title track concerned Aboriginal Australians, the single did not do too well there (it got to ninety-one). Maybe not a nation that understood The Dreaming and its complexity, Suspended in Gaffa got nowhere. It was a single release cycle that did not yield success or any new attention. Although The Dreaming album reached the top forty in many countries (including Australia), the singles struggled quite a bit. I did want to note forty years since the release of two very different songs from an amazing album. It is interesting reading interviews where Bush spoke about each song. As a single, There Goes a Tenner marked her lowest chart position yet. Here is Bush discussing a song that did not get the chart adulation and reception that it deserved:
“It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they just freaked out, and paranoid and want to go home. (...) It's sort of all the films I've seen with robberies in, the crooks have always been incredibly in control and calm, and I always thought that if I ever did a robbery, I'd be really scared, you know, I'd be really worried. So I thought I'm sure that's a much more human point of view. (The Dreaming interview, CBAK 4011 CD)
That was written on the piano. I had an idea for the tune and just knocked out the chords for the first verse. The words and everything just came together. It was quite a struggle from there on to try to keep things together. The lyrics are quite difficult on that one, because there are a lot of words in quite a short space of time. They had to be phrased right and everything. That was very difficult. Actually the writing went hand-in-hand with the CS-80. (John Diliberto, Interview. Keyboard/Totally Wired/Songwriter (USA), 1985)”.
Following the cinematic and unusual video for The Dreaming – that was not an orthodox and traditional promotion, in the sense that it relied on wide shots and few quick cuts -, the video for There Goes a Tenner had more action and energy. Directed by Paul Henry, it depicts Bush planning the job and, with her crew, breaking into a bank and trying to get away with the loot. It sort of nods back to old crime capers of British cinema. I can imagine Bush thinking of some of those classics when she was writing There Goes a Tenner. Many critics attacked a lack of political intent and a certain shallowness. Others felt There Goes a Tenner was inaccessible and weird. A lack of chorus and big hook, it is a song that was not destined for chart glory. I really like There Goes a Tenner, as it was something different and interesting! Not relying on easy hooks and something too mainstream, I feel it should have fared a lot better in the charts. Maybe not a natural single, I am still glad that it was released. People were at least talking about There Goes a Tenner, whereas it might have languished had it not been released. I have seen the song score fairly high in polls of Bush’s best songs ever. The Guardian placed it at twenty (out of twenty-nine) in 2018. Classic Pop recently produced a special edition dedicated to Kate Bush. When choosing her forty best tracks, they placed There Goes a Tenner at twenty-six! They bemoaned the fact that the sound of Bush practically inventing (the band) Blur did not push the single past number ninety-three. That is as high as it got in the U.K., yet forty years after its release (on 2nd November), There Goes a Tenner deserves a lot more love!
Perhaps more accessible and with a very different sound and rhythm, Suspended in Gaffa has an interesting story. Its music video sees Bush dancing in an old barn. The sets are quite simple, and there were no special effects or anything flashy. It is a video that features Bush’s own mother. Bush recalled how proud she was her mum was in the video. Before carrying on, here is what Bush said about the song:
“Whenever I've sung this song I've hoped that my breath would hold out for the first few phrases, as there is no gap to breathe in. When I wrote this track the words came at the same time, and this is one of the few songs where the lyrics were complete at such an early stage. The idea of the song is that of being given a glimpse of 'God' - something that we dearly want - but being told that unless we work for it, we will never see it again, and even then, we might not be worthy of it. Of course, everybody wants the reward without the toil, so people try to find a way out of the hard work, still hoping to claim the prize, but such is not the case. The choruses are meant to express the feeling of entering timelessness as you become ready for the experience, but only when you are ready. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982)
'Suspended In Gaffa' is, I suppose, similar in some ways to 'Sat In Your Lap' - the idea of someone seeking something, wanting something. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic and had the imagery of purgatory and of the idea that when you were taken there that you would be given a glimpse of God and then you wouldn't see him again until you were let into heaven. And we were told that in Hell it was even worse because you got to see God but then you knew that you would never see him again. And it's sorta using that as the parallel. And the idea of seeing something incredibly beautiful, having a religious experience as such, but not being able to get back there. And it was playing musically with the idea of the verses being sorta real time and someone happily jumping through life [Makes happy motion with head] and then you hit the chorus and it like everything sorta goes into slow mo and they're reaching [Makes slow reaching motion with arm] for that thing that they want and they can't get there. [Laughs] (Interview for MTV, November 1985)”.
Whereas There Goes a Tenner is the second track on The Dreaming (after Sat in Your Lap), Suspended in Gaffa is track four (after Pull Out the Pin). I really like this song too and, again, it features quite highly when it comes to poll of Bush’s singles and songs. A remarkable and beautiful song, it did at least chart in some countries around Europe. Not a song easy to penetrate, I think that Suspended in Gaffa has fared better in years since. I do love the fact that Bush and EMI released it as a single! On 2nd November, both Suspended in Gaffa and There Goes a Tenner turn forty (next year it will be forty when we consider the Australian released). On the B-side of Suspended in Gaffa, Ne T'enfuis Pas appeared, except in France, where the record company opted for Dreamtime instead. Like There Goes a Tenner, Suspended in Gaffa has this bounce and lighter tone. Quite nimble and springy, the lyrics particularly interest me. Bush’s way with words has always been different to her peers. More conversational and intellectual, there is also this mystery and room for interpretation: “He's gonna wangle/A way to get out of it/She's an excuse/And a witness who'll talk when he's called/But they've told us/Unless we can prove/That we're doing it/We can't have it all/We can't have it all/"I caught a glimpse of a god, all shining and bright". Even if There Goes a Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa were not successful for Bush, I think that the fortieth anniversary of the singles’ release warrants respect. From a tremendous album, these songs showcase Bush’s incredible range as a writer, composer, and singer. Prior to their fortieth anniversary on 2nd November, I think that we should…
GIVE them new love.