FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside at Forty-Five
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performs James and the Cold Gun during 1979’s The Tour of Life
The Case of James and the Cold Gun
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THIS is the final feature…
I am going to do about Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside. Well, the final one that marks forty-five years since it was recorded. I may well come back to it later this year in preparation for the actual forty-fifth anniversary (which happens in February). What I wanted to focus on now is the song that was suggested as the first single from the album. James and the Cold Gun was the song EMI felt would best introduce Bush’s debut album to the world. Given the fact they knew what The Kick Inside sounded like and that it was not a conventional or commercial album, perhaps choosing the most conventional song on it as the first single might have been a bad idea. From a record company’s perspective, it would have done well in the charts and would guarantee some fame. From Bush’s perspective, she wanted to put out a song that was truer to her own artistic visions. Maybe a track that was more unusual and less obvious. When it comes to unusual and less obviously commercial, Wuthering Heights is pretty much unbeatable. EMI would not have seen the reason why Wuthering Heights is the best debut single. From their view, it was a risk that could have sunk The Kick Inside and Kate Bush. There were heated words that almost escalated into something bigger. When Bush was with the label and in a meeting, someone popped their head around the door and said something to the effect that they loved Wuthering Heights and that should be the single. That sort of silenced the argument. As it was, Wuthering Heights went to number one in the U.K. That was her only U.K. number one until Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) this year.
I wanted to raise a particular question. Was James and the Cold Gun a song that was put away and not considered after Bush won her fight to have Wuthering Heights released as a single? With one other U.K. single, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, two Japanese ones (Moving and Them Heavy People) and, for no apparent reason, one in Brazil (Strange Phenomena), James and the Cold Gun did not appear as a B-side. In another feature, I asked what her career would have been if James and the Cold Gun was released as the first single. It is a song that Bush played live as part of the KT Bush Band prior to recording her album in July and August 1977. If you do not know about James and the Cold Gun, then the Kate Bush Encyclopedia provides some guidance:
“Song written by Kate Bush in the first half of the Seventies and it became one of the songs performed by the KT Bush Band during their performances in the pub circuit in 1977. Brian Bath, member of the band, recalled later: " Rob got a dry ice machine from somewhere. We used that on stage for 'James And The Cold Gun' and it looked great. We had a bit of a show going! Kate did a costume change, she'd put on a bloomin' Western cowgirl dress for the second set! The theatrical thing was starting to get there." Del Palmer recalled: "She was just brilliant, she used to wear this big long white robe with coloured ribbons on or a long black dress with big flowers in her hair. She did the whole thing with the gun and [the audience] just loved it. She'd go around shooting people."
The song was recorded in the studio in 1977 and released on her debut album The Kick Inside. When she embarked on the Tour of Life in 1979, the live performance of 'James And The Cold Gun' used and enhanced elements of those original performances from 1977”.
Actually, reading back at my feature from January, and I didn’t go into too much depth as to what would have been if James and the Cold Gun were the lead single. As The Kick Inside was recorded forty-five years ago this month, it has got me thinking. A song that Bush performed live more than a few times, perhaps it is at its best in that forum. Even so, I feel it would have gone to number one in the U.K. Not as captivating as Wuthering Heights, there is a space for James and the Cold Gun. Maybe a third U.K. single after The Man with the Child in His Eyes, we could have seen that song enter the charts. I think it was a song that spoke to the logical part of the record label’s brain. It is a great track that has a rush and a bit of an edge to it. Definitely with a radio-friendly vibe, Bush would have had a hit on her hand. Even so, it is arguable whether she would have made such an impact with this song compared with Wuthering Heights. I do not really hear James and the Cold Gun played on the radio all that much (or at all). Whilst people know about Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes, not many know much about the other eleven. James and the Cold Gun opens the second side of The Kick Inside with style! It is a pity that there is this sort of ‘what-if’ with Kate Bush. What if EMI had won and James and the Cold Gun was her debut number one?! As it is, it is seen as a good-not-great song by many critics. Fans regard it with greater esteem. I don’t think that this fine song should be seen as…
JUST another album track.