FEATURE:
Kate Bush: Mistress of Suspense
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush pictured in 1985, around the release of Hounds of Love/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan via Getty Images
Mother Stands for Comfort and Hounds of Love’s Darker Side
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I was going to do five features…
based around MOJO’s recent investigation and dive back into Kate Bush’s classic 1985 album, Hounds of Love. I want to combine two threads I was going to separate. One concerns the terror and darker elements of Hounds of Love. I will discuss it more soon, but I wonder how many people think of the album and the fact that it is quite frightening and psychologically disturbing in places. Fear is present throughout the album. From the gripping and dramatic suite, The Ninth Wave, where a heroine is adrift at sea, unsure whether she will be rescued, through to the terror of love’s hounds chasing Bush in the title track, and the anxiety and suspense of Cloudbusting (As the Kate Bush Encyclopedia write: “The song is about the very close relationship between psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and his young son, Peter, told from the point of view of the son. It describes the boy's memories of his life with Reich on their family farm, called Orgonon where the two spent time "cloudbusting", a rain-making process which involved pointing at the sky a machine designed and built by Reich, called a cloudbuster. The lyric further describes Wilhelm Reich's abrupt arrest and imprisonment, the pain of loss the young Peter felt, and his helplessness at being unable to protect his father”). There are various shades of black. One does get redemption, happiness, and relief. The Big Sky is joyful and childlike in its wonder, whereas Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) does provide this big ask as to what it would be like if God put men and women in each other’s shoes so that they could better understand one another. Sandwiched between two fuller and lighter/more positive songs on Hounds of Love, The Big Sky and Cloudbusting, is the skeletal and eerie Mother Stands for Comfort. Before continuing, here is Bush discussing the story behind the song:
“Well, the personality that sings this track is very unfeeling in a way. And the cold qualities of synths and machines were appropriate here. There are many different kinds of love and the track's really talking about the love of a mother, and in this case she's the mother of a murderer, in that she's basically prepared to protect her son against anything. 'Cause in a way it's also suggesting that the son is using the mother, as much as the mother is protecting him. It's a bit of a strange matter, isn't it really? [laughs] (Richard Skinner, 'Classic Albums Interview: Hounds Of Love'. BBC Radio 1 (UK), 26 January 1992)”.
The only song from the first half of Hounds of Love not released as a single, it does stand out somewhat! I never hear this song played on the radio and, when it comes to the album as a whole, not many people isolate the track and discuss it. Look at articles where the songs from Hounds of Love are ranked, and Mother Stands for Comfort comes near the bottom. I think it remarkable, and it neatly ties into a bigger arc and theme that runs through Hounds of Love: fear, loss, and terror. If The Big Sky and Cloudbusting both relate to children and the child-like in some way (The Big Sky is almost a child-like Bush staring at the shapes clouds make; Cloudbusting is about the relationship between Peter and Wilhelm Reich as this rain-making machine is created at their farm), Mother Stands for Comfort is more about the mum protecting a child. It would be interesting writing about these three songs and their relationship to children and parents. Victoria Segal writes about Mother Stands for Comfort in the new MOJO. I want to highlight a few of her observations. She started by revealing how Bush has discussed and covered motherhood and maternal bonds since the start of her career. From The Kick Inside’s Room for the Life to Never for Ever’s Breathing, she has explored this topic. Mother Stands for Comfort is different because it seems to relate more to an older child. Maybe someone who is a teenager or young man. His age is never revealed, but this mother has to decide whether to protect her son or not. He has done something unspeakable. Segal asks: “How far do apron strings stretch before somebody chokes?”. In the context of the song, that question could be literal. The evil, murderous son could throttle his mother with her own apron strings. Some weird irony or poetry in there!
Bush has said how it is a strange matter. Maybe one of her darkest and least conventional songs, you can see why it was not chosen as a single! It raises this interesting conflict. The man/boy is clearly disturbed and has murdered. If you were a strange or not a blood relation, you would turn them in and disown them. This mother, perhaps wrestling between what is right and protecting her son, stands firm and says she will not betray him. Segal notes how the composition and vocals let you know that this is a song about violence and darkness of the soul. She also states how, on The Dreaming’s Get Out of My House, the sense of the possessed has shifted from a haunted house to the once innocent and sweet boy who has maybe inherited that house’s ghosts and schizophrenic voices. This child, “hollowed out, colonised” as Segal notes, has no redemption or remorse. His mother may fear for her life or, if she tells police, then he will be left with nobody. Segal also makes another interesting point. Hounds of Love’s title track sees something possessed coming from the trees to the heroine. Now, the threat is inside the house. Did Bush create these links and narrative joins between five songs that seem disconnected?! The son realises that he has an alibi: “She knows that I've been doing something wrong/But she won't say anything/She thinks that I was with my friends yesterday/But she won't mind me lying/Because/Mother stands for comfort/Mother will hide the murderer”. The uncaring and cold narrative is the son wondering if he is going to do something horrid to his mother. The roles are changing: “To her the hunted, not the hunter”. It is a fascinating, suspenseful, and compelling song! You can only imagine what a music video for this would have looked like!
I will quickly conclude by linking another piece that was in MOJO that one can link to Mother Stands for Comfort. Dorian Lynskey writes how there is horror references throughout Hounds of Love. The voice that we hear at the start of the title track that declares “It’s in the trees! It’s coming!” is from the film, Night of the Demon. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia explains more: “Night of the Demon is a 1957 British horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. It is adapted from the M. R. James story 'Casting the Runes' (1911). The plot revolves around an American psychologist who tries to combat an evil cult leader who can sentence his enemies to death through the use of a runic scroll, given to his victims without their knowledge”. Hounds of Love might be about fear itself being the enemy. Although something is chasing Bush/the heroine through the trees, maybe she is running from something that is trying to enrich or comfort her. Hounds of love are following her - though she may be running from commitment and love itself. In a separate feature, I interpreted Hounds of Love as being terrifying and about someone running from ghouls and spectral visions. In fact, you could see it as someone fleeing her own mind and fears. Maybe all the horror is in her head! Mother Stands for Comfort is similar, in the fact we get a glimpse into someone’s mind. If Hounds of Love is a heroine having anxiety and doubts swirling her mind, the man/son in Mother Stands for Comfort has other voices and psychosis in his. It is fascinating comparing and contrasting these songs! Very different in terms of their sound, both are linked by suspense and horror. Lynskey wrote how there is suspense and the ghostly throughout Bush’s cannon. From the spirit of Cathy from Wuthering Heights (from the song of the same name) trying to get through Heathcliff’s window, to the spirit that haunts the mansion in Get Out of My House, we can see ghosts, demons, and spirits. 50 Words for Snow (2011) also possesses them, as does Hammer Horror (from 1978’s Lionheart) – though this is more about an actor who gets thrust into the lead role of The Hunchback of Notre Dame after the original actor dies in an accident on the film set. Bush has always been fascinated with the supernatural. Whether she took guidance from The Innocence, The Shining, Wuthering Heights, or Night of the Demon, almost every one of her albums has featured some form of the supernatural or fear-drenched. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is about understanding and changing places so men and women can better relate. The Big Sky is about simple pleasures enjoyed as a child, such as watching clouds, no longer as accessible to Bush as an adult. The other three songs deal with darker themes and fear/paranoia/terror.
Dorian Lynskey also expands and highlights how The Ninth Wave’s story of a woman trying to find rescue after being lost at sea. We are not sure how she got there (I assume that she fell overboard), but her hopes of survival fade as the suite goes on. Luckily, she is rescued at the end, though we do not know where she ends up. Many of the songs feature terror and the supernatural. Watching You Without Me is about the heroine almost appearing as a ghost watching her loved ones watching for her to return. Under Ice is teeming with nightmares and fears of the heroine being trapped and drowning under the ice. Waking the Witch has echoes of the 1968 Vincent Price freakout, The Witchfinder General. There are Gothic choirs and vocals on Hello Earth. In the same way there are a couple of lighter songs on the first half of Hounds of Love, Jig of Life and The Morning Fog do offer something more redemptive and calm. It is interesting how, arguably, six or seven of the twelve tracks contain fear, ghosts, terror, and horror at their heart. Perhaps the most stark and disturbing representation is Mother Stands for Comfort. Given the ethical conflict and the undying loyalty from the mother protecting her insidious and killer son, it is a song that both warms the heart and…
CHILLS the blood.