FEATURE:
As the Title Says…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport Photography
Kate Bush’s The Dreaming at Forty: All the Love and a Stunning Emotional Maturity
__________
THIS will be the final…
anniversary feature regarding Kate Bush’s The Dreaming. Her fourth studio album was released on 13th September, 1982. I have been eager to examine the album and show it some love. It is well-regarded by many, yet it still splits folk. Many see it as too weird and experimental. Critics at the time were divided. The Dreaming reached number three in the U.K. Its legacy is strong. It has been seen as a head-spinning album that was a brilliant predecessor to Hounds of Love (1985). Bush has said how she was surprised by the angrier tones of the album, but I think this is her stamping out a point and making it clear that this is an important work from a serious artist. Even if I have written about this song before, I had to dedicate the final anniversary feature to All the Love. Although my favourite song on The Dreaming (and my favourite Bush cut) is Houdini, I think that All the Love is the one song I would actually recommend people who want a way into the album or a place to start. I think that there is a nice sort of emotional shift on the second half of The Dreaming. After the title track opens up the side with a real sense of purpose and drama, you get the gorgeous Night of the Swallow. All the Love takes things down even further and provides this very touching and emotional song.
We then lead into Houdini. The track has an eeriness and rawness to it that then leads to the epic and demented closing song, Get Out of My House. Firmly and violently shutting the door on The Dreaming, I think of it as this swansong from a producer and artist who, near the end of recording, must have felt tense, exhausted, and slightly possessed herself (inspired By Stephen King’s The Shining, it is about a possessed house warning people away). In terms of the emotional and sonic spectrum, All the Love seems as far removed from Get Out of My House as you can. Maybe not specifically based on Kate Bush’s feelings and situation, I do read something into the song and lyrics and think All the Love reflects something of what she was going through recording The Dreaming – maybe not spending too much time with family; feeling a little emotionally detached or distant when she was throwing herself into work. The interview below is Bush speaking about All the Love and what it means:
“Although we are often surrounded by people and friends, we are all ultimately alone, and I feel sure everyone feels lonely at some time in their life. I wanted to write about feeling alone, and how having to hide emotions away or being too scared to show love can lead to being lonely as well. There are just some times when you can't cope and you just don't feel you can talk to anyone. I go and find a bathroom, a toilet or an empty room just to sit and let it out and try to put it all together in my mind. Then I go back and face it all again.
I think it's sad how we forget to tell people we love that we do love them. Often we think about these things when it's too late or when an extreme situation forces us to show those little things we're normally too shy or too lazy to reveal. One of the ideas for the song sparked when I came home from the studio late one night. I was using an answering machine to take the day's messages and it had been going wrong a lot, gradually growing worse with time. It would speed people's voices up beyond recognition, and I just used to hope they would ring back again one day at normal speed.
This particular night, I started to play back the tape, and the machine had neatly edited half a dozen messages together to leave "Goodbye", "See you!", "Cheers", "See you soon" .. It was a strange thing to sit and listen to your friends ringing up apparently just to say goodbye. I had several cassettes of peoples' messages all ending with authentic farewells, and by copying them onto 1/4'' tape and re-arranging the order, we managed to synchronize the 'callers' with the last verse of the song.
There are still quite a few of my friends who have not heard the album or who have not recognised themselves and are still wondering how they managed to appear in the album credits when they didn't even set foot into the studio. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, October 1982)”.
One of my favourite things about All the Love is those answerphone messages. People saying goodbye to Bush. On Hounds of Love, the album’s second side, The Ninth Wave, is about someone stranded at sea who is almost having to say goodbye. I have mentioned before, but there is a song called Waking the Witch where voices are heard trying to wake the woman up (who, at this point in the narrative, has drifted off or is exhausted). Among the voices in there is Kate Bush’s brothers, Paddy and John; her mother and father, plus Del Palmer (who was her boyfriend at the time) Family on her mind then and, on All the Love, friends and family providing a driving force. The fact this malfunctioning answerphone squashed together goodbyes from people Bush knew and maybe had not spoken too in a while inspired one of her greatest songs. It is so beautifully composed. We get these very real and different voices from her machine. A heavenly choir vocal from Richard Thornton, together with some beautiful piano from Bush (not discounting the other musical elements; the piano just stands out to me) gives chills and shiver to a gorgeous song! One of Bush’s most emotive, aching, and impassioned vocal performances, I really admire All the Love. The words really dig into the heart: “Only tragedy allows the release/Of love and grief never normally seen/I didn't want to let them see me weep/I didn't want to let them see me weak/But I know I have shown/That I stand at the gates alone”.
The Dreaming is forty on 13th September. I have been writing about it in different ways. It is important to highlight just how good and important the album is. Bush’s production is absolutely brilliant throughout! Ten very full and different tracks, she brings all the songs to life. There are so many separate and varied sounds working alongside one another. One of her least commercial albums, it is a little unfair that it has taken a long time for people to appreciate The Dreaming. There are many still who do not understand it or put it aside. Let’s hope that changes on its anniversary. Recorded between September 1980 (the month her previous album, Never for Ever, came out) and May 1982, Bush the everything into this album. Recorded at various studios, it must have been quite nerve-wracking and sweaty for EMI when it came to the cost of the album and the time it took. Maybe they were disheartened by some of the mixed reviews, but the fact The Dreaming was a chart success showed that Bush was right in her approach – and the fact The Dreaming is a terrific album. Big Boi and Björk have named it among their favourite albums. Songs such as All the Love highlight what an extraordinary songwriter Bush is. Her lyrics hit hard, and the way she weaves together different musical and vocal strands into this beautiful song is amazing! Ahead of 13th September, I wanted to wish The Dreaming...
A happy fortieth anniversary!