FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work at Thirty-Four
Whether Overused or Perfect in Anything, This Classic Endures and Inspires Still
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A Kate Bush single…
I have written about a fair few times, I want to bring together a feature reviews and interviews about it. Whilst This Woman’s Work was released as a single on 20th November, 1989, the fact is that it appeared on the film soundtrack of John Hughes’s She’s Having a Baby the previous year. It is definitely one of Bush’s most emotive and memorable songs. Before moving on, here is some interview archive where Kate Bush talked about the wonderful This Woman’s Work:
“That's the sequence I had to write the song about, and it's really very moving, him in the waiting room, having flashbacks of his wife and him going for walks, decorating... It's exploring his sadness and guilt: suddenly it's the point where he has to grow up. He'd been such a wally up to this point. (Len Brown, 'In The Realm Of The Senses'. NME (UK), 7 October 1989)
There's a film called 'She's Having A Baby'. And John Hughes, the director, rung up and said that he had a sequence in the film that he really wanted a song written to be with. And I'd only worked the once before on the 'Castaway' film - where I'd really enjoyed that - so I was extremely tempted by the offer. And when he sent the piece of film that the song was going to be part of, I just thought it was wonderful, it was so moving, a very moving piece of film. And in a way, there was a sense that the whole film built up to this moment. And it was a very easy song to write. It was very quick. And just kind of came, like a lot of songs do. Even if you struggle for months, in the end, they just kind of go - BLAH! - You know. [Laughs]. So that was the first song that I wrote for 'The Sensual World' album. In fact at the time we weren't even sure whether to put it on the album or not. And I must say that Del was very instrumental in saying that I should put it on the album, and I'm very glad I did. Because I had the most fantastic response - in some ways, maybe the greatest response - to this song. And I was really - I was absolutely thrilled, that you felt that way about it. (Kate Bush Con, 1990)”.
Whereas Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) has been used in various places but took off when it appeared on Netflix’s Stranger Things in 2022, This Woman’s Work has not had the same explosion. Even so, it has been used quite frequently. I will come to an article that argues, perhaps, the song is a bit of a go-to. Seen as an emotional song that is a little easily deployed and, therefore, common, I think that This Woman’s Work has elevated many a moment. I will wrap up with thoughts about a stunning song that is as impactful and emotional as it has ever been. Vulture wrote about how This Woman’s Work was used effectively in season 2 of The Handmaid’s Tale:
“This Woman’s Work,” a ballad originally written by Kate Bush for a 1980s John Hughes movie, has appeared many, many times over the years in film and on television. Unlike other songs that suffer from pop-cultural overuse — like “Hallelujah,” in all its incarnations — this gut puncher about trying to summon strength in a moment of profound weakness never loses its power. Instead, it has accumulated additional, profound layers of meaning.
Most recently, “This Woman’s Work” shows up in season two of The Handmaid’s Tale, during the horrifying opening sequence in which June (Elisabeth Moss) and several other Handmaids realize they are about to be executed. As each woman is shoved toward a noose, the first, delicate trembles of Bush’s voice break through the silence. Suddenly, with “This Woman’s Work” laid on top of it, a moment that is already terribly sad becomes utterly devastating. That musical choice injects the scene with a sense of futility — “All the things we should have done though we never did” — and also a tinge of irony.
“This woman’s world / Oh, it’s hard on the man,” Bush sings, even though the bleak dystopia these women inhabit is run by men, and it’s monumentally harder by the longest of long shots for women. “I know you’ve got a little life in you yet,” Bush continues. “I know you’ve got a lot of strength left.” That may be a message that June and her fellow women are trying to convey to themselves, even as they appear to be facing the end, but it’s also one sent from the show to those of us watching. June’s got more than a little life in her yet, it says. You’ll see after she and the others survive this moment. Indeed they do, as the floor beneath their feet never drops away and they escape the gallows, shaken but still alive.
“It was shattering and perfect,” Bruce Miller, creator of The Handmaid’s Tale adaptation, told Vulture’s Maria Elena Fernandez about the track. “One of the things I really like about the song is that on its face, there’s a bit of very interesting lyrical play. It’s nice that that’s going on while you’re watching.”
That kind of lyrical play and juxtaposition wasn’t something that Kate Bush necessarily envisioned back in the ’80s. As she explained in a 1989 interview with the BBC’s Radio One, she wrote “This Woman’s Work” specifically for a scene in the John Hughes movie She’s Having a Baby, about a couple, played by Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Montgomery, navigating marriage and the imminent birth of their first child. Originally, the track was meant to underscore a moment of crisis and reflection for Bacon’s character, as he waits to find out whether his wife and about-to-be-born baby will make it through a potentially dangerous delivery.
“This is actually the moment in the film where he has to grow up. He has no choice,” Bush explained in the BBC interview. “There he is, he’s not a kid anymore; you can see he’s in a very grown-up situation. And he starts, in his head, going back to the times they were together. There are clips of film of them laughing together and doing up their flat and all this kind of thing. And it was such a powerful visual: it’s one of the quickest songs I’ve ever written. It was so easy to write. We had the piece of footage on video, so we plugged it up so that I could actually watch the monitor while I was sitting at the piano and I just wrote the song to these visuals.”
It’s obvious while watching that scene that it was designed to sync up with its story and emotional beats, which makes it a little on the nose, but still certainly moving. Yet Bush’s lyrics are so brilliantly universal that the song has proven to be applicable to an array of significant pop-culture moments.
In the years since She’s Having a Baby was released, “This Woman’s Work” has provided the soundtrack for: other men having breakdowns (the Party of Five episode “Hitting Bottom”); young men and women grappling with abuse and what it means to be a victim (the second act of the Felicity two-parter “Drawing the Line”); double agents grappling with grief over the loss of their fiancés (the second episode of Alias); longtime friends having sex for the first time (the movie Love and Basketball, which features the Maxwell cover); and, of course, for women having babies. That last one happens in an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, of all things, that opted for a cover by Swedish musician Emma Ejwertz. The FXX comedy isn’t known for its sentimentality, but when “This Woman’s Work” popped up in season six after Dee delivered a baby in what turned out to be a surrogate pregnancy, a normally absurd sitcom about classless dopes actually got sweet for a couple minutes.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
When there’s an element of irony involved, Bush’s otherwise cathartic, ultraserious ode to pain and regret can even succeed at scoring laughs, as it did in the season one finale of You’re the Worst, when a deflated and drunk Lindsay sang a karaoke rendition of “This Woman’s Work.” As played by Kether Donohue, Lindsay did so beautifully, sincerely, and with absolutely no awareness that she’s never done any actual work in her whole damn life.
But in the past year or so, “This Woman’s Work” has more often been used to reflect the mood and mind-set of those fighting injustice, or those just trying to find shreds of hope in hopeless times. That trend may have started because of the way that Maxwell — who first covered the song for MTV Unplugged in 1997, then recorded it on his 2001 album Now — began to frame it during his 2016 live shows, flashing images of lives lost, often to police violence, on the screen while he performed. “As this violent year draws to a close, this song became protest, dirge and battle cry,” a writer for the Economist put it in October 2016. “Night after night, by juxtaposing black and white, man and woman, today and yesterday, ‘This Woman’s Work’ has been reborn as a plea for social change and an olive branch of inclusivity.”
It made complete sense, then, when Maxwell’s take on the song was featured in a trailer for Fox’s limited series Shots Fired, which explored racism and police brutality. In that context, the song captured exhaustion and trauma of seeing the same tragedies play out over and over again (“Make it go away”).
When Spike Lee used it in the penultimate episode of She’s Gotta Have It, again within a story line about cops and racism, it had a similar effect. Maxwell’s cover slips in after the protagonist, Nola, insists on being taken into custody after an uppity white neighbor accuses her homeless friend Papo of spraying graffiti on the steps of a Brooklyn brownstone. Both Papo and Nola, who tries to take responsibility for the infraction, end up getting arrested and head to the station while Maxwell, again, insists in that desperate falsetto that they can find strength. To an even deeper degree than it does in that admittedly brief Shots Fired trailer, the song communicates how tired Nola is of having to defend herself and her friends, again and again having to do the work of a black woman living in a gentrifying neighborhood.
Now that we’re two years out from Maxwell’s 2016 concert tour and his reimagining of the subtext for “This Woman’s Work,” it’s obvious why the song resonates even more now. “Pray God you can cope” isn’t just the first lyric of this beautiful dark night of the soul set to music; it’s what people whisper to themselves in 2018 before they check their news feeds. “Make it go away” is what we say once we start processing what’s there. There’s a sense in the air that the country is stuck in some limbo between despair, surrender, and stubborn perseverance. All those feelings are conjured up by Kate Bush’s song, which was originally conceived to capture a moment of profound personal crisis but works just as well at capturing a social or political one.
That makes it just right for a drama like The Handmaid’s Tale, which is often received as if it’s the worst-case scenario of America’s future. In every episode, June and her fellow Handmaids are trying to summon the fortitude to press on, to get to a place where they don’t feel like they should be hoping, but where they can just hope. By placing “This Woman’s Work” in that near-hanging sequence at the beginning of season two, the show emphasizes through music that the possibility of death always hovers over June and her Handmaid sisters, but their fight to find a little life — not just by bearing children but by someday being free enough to build lives for themselves again — is going to continue. In other words, this woman’s work is never done.
“This Woman’s Work” is also a fitting in the Hulu drama for an simpler reason: Once again, a song that Kate Bush wrote just a few years after Margaret Atwood published The Handmaid’s Tale is being used to convey just how scary it is when a pregnant woman finds her life in danger”.
A new version of the song, by Max Tundra, was released earlier this year. It is a song that sounds great and interesting when others tackle in. Maybe some see This Woman’s Work as a personal song to Kate Bush or one that should not be wilfully and too overly used and incorporated into film and T.V. It is intriguing how it was perceived when featured in the recent Netflix film, The Mother, starring Jennifer Lopez. The Daily Beast had their say on a song that is a needle drop go-to to many – perhaps a track that should remain relatively chaste and untouched:
“Rumor has it that I enjoyed The Mother, Netflix’s new action film starring Jennifer Lopez. But really, I’m not so sure if that’s true. I’ve been a little too hung up on one moment, right at the very end of the movie, to remember what came before. Everything up until those last 10 seconds was more than serviceable—at least, I think it was. It all turned into flat, static noise the second I heard two piano notes, followed by the familiar coo of a certain English chanteuse, rattling over a shot of a resolute and triumphant-looking J.Lo: Ooooooohhhhhh haaaaooooooooooo.
If you’ve not yet experienced the phenomenon of music supervisors plopping Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” into a piece of visual media that you’re watching, then you either have hobbies that don’t include mindlessly staring at a screen all day (good for you!), or you haven’t yet seen The Mother (a curse unto your firstborn). At this point, “This Woman’s Work” is starting to veer on, well, any song on the Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks in terms of sheer overuse.
It’s kind of like when a lot of us cried watching that one gay episode of The Last of Us, before the most annoying people online cropped up to say, “Stop weaponizing Max Richter’s ‘On the Nature of Daylight.’” Since its release in 2004, Richter’s song appeared in notable moments in The Last of Us, Arrival, Shutter Island, and several other films and television shows as well. I don’t really have much of an ear for recognizing the repetition of a sappy orchestral piece, but I certainly do for a bravura vocal performance from one Kate Bush. And I fear that too many music supervisors are misunderstanding the intention behind “This Woman’s Work” and using it as a slapdash form of emotional exploitation.
“This Woman’s Work” was written by Bush for John Hughes’ 1988 film, She’s Having a Baby. The song is introduced in a pivotal moment during the film, which is by-and-large a romantic comedy—until the titular baby that she’s having comes a-knockin’, and the movie suddenly takes on a very real gravity. In a hospital waiting room, Jake (Kevin Bacon) reflects upon his relationship with his wife Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern), whose health is in danger during labor, when their child reaches the breech position. Jake understands that he could lose Kristy, their child, or the both of them, and he can’t even be near them in this moment. As he waits for news, a flashback montage of his life with Kristy plays, set to “This Woman’s Work.”
It sounds almost a bit corny—and distinctly ’80s—but the scene is incredibly effective in its context. That’s especially true, considering that this was the first time audiences ever heard “This Woman’s Work;” it was written by Bush about experiencing a crisis during childbirth, from the man’s point of view. The video for the song made these details a bit murkier, so it could resonate with a larger audience, but the crux of the song’s meaning stays the same. Put simply: If you’re going to use “This Woman’s Work” in a film or television show, it should stay far away from the thin line between sentimental and hokey.
In the past five years alone, I’ve seen two shocking and unforgettable debasements of “This Woman’s Work,” which were equally appalling, but for different reasons. The first was in the second season premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale, where a group of 50 or so handmaids are sent to a barren, dystopian version of Fenway Park and made to climb up to gallows, where they think they are about to be hung under the glare of stadium lights. As nooses are put around their necks, that Bush’s memorable warble sings out. “I know you have a little life in you yet/ I know you have a lot of strength left,” she croons, while the handmaids, who have had their mouths muffled, silently exchange glances and tearfully try to accept their fate”.
Constantly appearing on the top ten and twenty lists of Kate Bush songs, This Woman’s Work is played fairly regular on radio. Still homogenised as an artist when it comes to a limited number of songs played, I can understand why This Woman’s Work resonates. Rather than it being specific to Kate Bush, the lyrics - which talk about dealing with a crisis - are relevant constantly. At a very bleak and tough time, it is going to be a song that filmmakers gravitate towards. Neon Music, in a feature from August, explored the legacy and continued relevance of This Woman’s Work. If Daily Beast felt it was an over-used part of soundtrack and not deployed carefully or skilfully, this article was a little more open-minded:
“As Kate Bush recalled in an interview with The Guardian, she wanted to write a song that would “make people cry”. She said, “I was very moved by the story. It was about a man who suddenly realises how much he loves his wife when she might die. It was such a powerful idea.” She also revealed that she had to work under pressure to finish the song in time for the film’s release. She said, “I had to write it very quickly. They sent me a video of the film, and I wrote it for the visuals. It was very difficult because there were lots of sound effects and dialogue over the top.” She also faced some technical problems while recording the song in her home studio. She said, “The tape kept breaking, and we had to splice it back together. It was a nightmare.“
LYRICS AND MUSICAL ELEMENTS OF THE SONG
At the heart of This Woman’s Work lie its poignant lyrics, which delve deep into the emotions of fear, guilt, regret, love, and hope experienced by the husband during his wife’s life-threatening situation. The song’s musical composition is a masterclass in evoking emotion. The piano melody, which sets the tone, builds tension throughout the song, drawing listeners into its narrative.
Bush’s vocal performance is nothing short of mesmerising, showcasing her range and emotion and bringing the meaning of This Woman’s Work to life. The strategic use of silence, pauses, and breaths adds drama and contrast, while the background vocals provide depth and harmony. The inclusion of strings further amplifies the song’s emotional impact, making it a timeless piece.
The lyrics of This Woman’s Work are divided into three verses and a chorus that repeat throughout the song. The first verse introduces the husband’s situation as he waits outside the operating room while his wife undergoes an emergency caesarean section. He reflects on how he has taken her for granted and how he wishes he could have done more for her:
I should be crying, but I just can’t let it show. I should be hoping, but I can’t stop thinking Of all the things I should’ve said that I never said, all the things we should’ve done that we never did All the things I should’ve given, but I didn’t. Oh, darling, make it go. Make it go away.
The chorus expresses his fear of losing her and his hope that she will survive:
Give me these moments back. Give them back to me. Give me that little kiss. Give me your hand.
The second verse shows his regret for not being more supportive of her dreams and aspirations:
I know you have a little life in you yet I know you have a lot of strength left. I know you have a little life in you yet I know you have a lot of strength left. I should be crying, but I just can’t let it show. I should be hoping, but I can’t stop thinking. Of all the things we should’ve said that we never said All the things we should’ve done that we never did All the things that you needed from me All the things that you wanted for me All the things that I should’ve given but I didn’t
The third verse reveals his love for her and his gratitude for their life together:
Oh, darling, make it go away. Just make it go away now.
The musical elements of This Woman’s Work complement and enhance its lyrics, creating a powerful and moving song. The piano melody, composed by Bush herself, is simple yet effective, consisting of a few chords that repeat with slight variations. The melody sets the mood of the song, which is sombre and melancholic, and builds up tension throughout the song, mirroring the husband’s anxiety and anticipation. The melody also matches the rhythm and pace of the film’s visuals, creating a seamless integration of sound and image.
RECEPTION AND LEGACY OF THE SONG
Upon its release, This Woman’s Work received acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Although it only reached No. 25 in the UK charts, it has since become one of Bush’s most beloved creations. The song’s emotional depth and relatability have made it a classic, touching on themes of womanhood, motherhood, and gender roles. Its influence can be seen in its numerous covers, references in other media, and its use in social movements.
Critics praised This Woman’s Work for its lyrical and musical brilliance, as well as its cinematic connection. Rolling Stone called it “one of Bush’s most stunning achievements”, describing it as “a devastating ballad that captures a man’s fear of losing his wife during childbirth”. The New York Times described it as “a haunting song that matches words to images with eerie precision”, noting that “it is rare for a pop song to be so perfectly suited to a movie scene”. The Guardian ranked it as one of Bush’s best songs, stating that “it is hard to think of another song that packs such an emotional punch in such a short space of time”.
Audiences also responded positively to This Woman’s Work, especially women who related to its themes of womanhood, motherhood, and gender roles. Many women found the song empowering and inspiring, as it highlighted the strength and resilience of women in the face of adversity. Some women also used the song as a source of comfort and support during their own experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, or loss. For example, one woman wrote on a fan forum: “This song helped me through a very difficult time in my life when I had a miscarriage. It made me feel less alone and more hopeful.“
This Woman’s Work has also been covered, sampled, referenced, or used in various forms of media, demonstrating its widespread appeal and influence. Some of the most notable examples are:
She’s Having a Baby (1988), where the song was originally featured and synced with the climax scene.
In the film Love & Basketball (2000), Maxwell’s cover of the song was used in a similar scene of a woman giving birth while her partner plays basketball.
The TV show ER (2001), where the song was used in an episode where a pregnant woman suffers a stroke and her husband has to decide whether to save her or their baby.
The TV show The Handmaid’s Tale (2017), where the song was used in an episode where a handmaid gives birth in a dystopian society where women are oppressed and enslaved.
The TV show Pose (2018), where the song was used in an episode where a transgender woman undergoes gender confirmation surgery and faces complications.
The social movement #MeToo (2017–present), where the song was used as a rallying cry for women who have experienced sexual harassment or assault.
MOST NOTABLE COVERS OF THE SONG
One of the most renowned covers of This Woman’s Work is by American singer-songwriter Maxwell. His neo-soul rendition, first performed for his MTV Unplugged session in 1997 and later released as a single in 2001, brought a fresh perspective to the song. Maxwell’s Woman’s Work introduced an urbanised sound with a longer instrumental intro and a distinct vocal delivery and interpretation. The cover found its way into movies like Love & Basketball, showcasing its widespread appeal.
Maxwell’s version of This Woman’s Work differs from Kate Bush’s original in several ways, both musically and lyrically. Musically, Maxwell’s version has a more contemporary and urban sound, featuring elements of R&B, soul, and hip-hop. He also extends the instrumental intro of the song, adding drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and horns to create a groove and a build-up. He also changes the key of the song from A minor to C minor, making it lower and darker”.
As it turns thirty-four on 20th November, I wanted to approach This Woman’s Work from a different perspective. Only reaching twenty-five in the U.K. when it was released as The Sensual World’s second single in 1989, I do feel that the song deserved better on the charts. It has been used a lot through film and T.V., though I feel it is good This Woman’s Work has widespread appeal. It goes to show…
WHAT a powerful song it is.