FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s The Dreaming at Forty
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn
Things That Decay, Things That Rust: In Support of Leave It Open
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IF you look through the ten tracks…
of Kate Bush’s The Dreaming, which are the ones that you call highlights and which would you avoid? With every truly great album, there are songs that might not be as great as your favourites. On 13th September, The Dreaming turns forty. Once was the time when it was not that highly regarded an album. Critics were slow to praise any of the tracks and, if they did, you got this overall sense of confusion or disappointment. In years since, there has been this retrospection which has cast The Dreaming in a new light. What are the songs that are seen as the very best? The first single, Sat in Your Lap, is definitely up there. Houdini and Get Out of My House are a brilliant last two tracks. I think most of the album now gets its share of acclaim. Maybe there are one or two songs that are still not as acclaimed and loved as they should be. There Goes a Tenner was the third single from the album, and it was a chart disaster. The Dreaming’s wonderful second track, I really like There Goes a Tenner. Though many others disagree. I have read so many reviews for The Dreaming in preparation for a run of features I am doing ahead of its fortieth on 13th September. Looking at so many reviews, and there is a song that either does not get mention or rated that highly. That is Leave It Open.
The song that ends the first side of The Dreaming, a lot of fans I know do not think too much of the song. Maybe it is the effects and themes that alienate them. Perhaps it is a little less tangible or interesting as others. Whatever it is, Leave It Open is, ironically, a song that many would like left shut. I really love the song! I think Leave It Open is fairly similar to Pull Out the Pin in some ways. Both are songs that are quite heavy and layered. There is so much to appreciate when it comes to Leave It Open. Looking at a couple of interviews that the Kate Bush Encyclopedia has found, it is interesting reading what Bush says about the song:
“Like cups, we are filled up and emptied with feelings, emotions - vessels breathing in, breathing out. This song is about being open and shut to stimuli at the right times. Often we have closed minds and open mouths when perhaps we should have open minds and shut mouths.
This was the first demo to be recorded, and we used a Revox and the few effects such as a guitar chorus pedal and an analogue delay system. We tried to give the track an Eastern flavour and the finished demo certainly had a distinctive mood.
There are lots of different vocal parts, each portraying a separate character and therefore each demanding an individual sound. When a lot of vocals are being used in contrast rather than "as one", more emphasis has to go on distinguishing between the different voices, especially if the vocals are coming from one person.
To help the separation we used the effects we had. When we mastered the track, a lot more electronic effects and different kinds of echoes were used, helping to place the vocals and give a greater sense of perspective. Every person who came into the studio was given the "end backing vocals test" to guess what is being sung at the end of the song.
"How many words is it?"
"Five."
"Does it begin with a 'W'?"
It is very difficult to guess, but it can be done, especially when you know what the song is about.
I would love to know your answers. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982)
'Leave It Open' is the idea of human beings being like cups - like receptive vessels. We open and shut ourselves at different times. It's very easy to let you ego go "nag nag nag" when you should shut it. Or when you're very narrow-minded and you should be open. Finally you should be able to control your levels of receptivity to a productive end. (Richard Cook, 'My Music Sophisticated? I'd Rather You Said That Than Turdlike!'. NME (UK), October 1982)”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982
If Pull Out the Pin is about actual war and a very physical stench and shock of something quite hot, intense, and dangerous, Leave It Open is similarly evocative, but it is more in a psychological and intellectual sense. I see this as a bedfellow to The Kick Inside’s Them Heavy People. That song is about absorbing philosophical and religious teachings and learning as much as possible whilst young. Keeping the mind open to these influences. I feel that Leave It Open, whilst sonically vastly different, takes some of those lessons to heart. More complex, vocally busy, and layered and intense, Leave It Open is extraordinary! With some of Bush’s best lyrics on the album, Leave It Open is a perfect closer for the first side – and then we open the second with the title track (which, intellectually, is just as profound and challenging). I want to bring in a few of my favourite lyrical sections. The first is sublime: “Wide eyes would clean and dust/Things that decay, things that rust./(But now I've started learning how,)/I keep 'em shut/I keep 'em shut/Harm is in us/Harm is in us, but power to arm/Harm is in us/Harm in us, but power to arm/Harm is in us/("Leave it open!")/Harm is in us, but power to arm”. I think there is one line – that becomes a mantra at the end of the song – that stands out as a key lyric on The Dreaming: “We let the weirdness in”.
Bush said in interviews after the album’s release how many might see this as an album where she went mad. She kind of felt that to an extent. There is a lot of weirdness and wild on The Dreaming. There is also a tonne of fun, genius, and hugely impressive songs. The weirdness is part of what makes The Dreaming so brilliant! I have a lot of love for Leave It Open, but I don’t think it necessarily ranks high when it comes to fans and critics’ views of the best from 1982’s The Dreaming. As we look to the fortieth anniversary of one of Kate Bush’s greatest albums, I am going to highlight some truly astonishing tracks that might already get a bit of love. Leave It Open is a song I do not hear played and, if we are honest, people might feel intimidated or unusual when first they hear it. It is a song that melts the mind and gets into the blood. The more that you hear it, the more Leave It Open makes sense and leaves its mark. I think that it should be seen as one of the very best songs from The Dreaming. Bush’s production on this song is simply phenomenal! I love the decisions she makes in terms of the different vocal parts and the sound that she adopts for the track. With an amazing band performance (drums: Preston Heyman; bass: Jimmy Bain; electric guitar: Alan Murphy; acoustic guitar: Ian Bairnson; piano, Fairlight: Kate Bush) and lyrics that could only come from Kate Bush, Leave It Open is a song that you should definitely…
OPEN your minds to.