FEATURE:
Kate Bush: Something Like a Song
Rocket Man (Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin)
__________
I was keen to step…
away from Kate Bush’s albums for this Something Like a Song. She has done a few covers through the years. Some have appeared on compilation albums. One such example is Bush’s interpretation of Elkton John’s Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time). Bush shortened it to Rocket Man for the single. That appeared on the 1991 tribute album, Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. The original was released on Elton John’s 1972 album, Honky Château, and was the lead single. When that single came out, Bush was thirteen. Writing songs of her own at this stage, she was inspired hugely by artists like Elton John and David Bowie. In fact, these artists had a bit of a set-to or disagreement because David Bowie released Starman in April 1972 – a matter of days after Elton John’s single came out. That was the lead single from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Elton John and David Bowie having this space race in 1972! However, David Bowie released Space Oddity in 1969. So he was sort of there first! I am not sure if Kate Bush has or would ever be tempted to cover a David Bowie song if there was another tribute album to him. It would be interesting. However, as she and Elton John are friends – and Bush attended his wedding to David Furnish in 2014. Bush attended the civil partnership in 2005 too. Elton John appeared on her 2011 album, 50 Words for Snow, and the two have been closed for decades. However, I want to shift to Kate Bush and her version of Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time). Simultaneously hailed as a classic cover or something that is not a patch on the original, I really love the song! It is covered with affection but done very differently.
This song was included on Kate Bush’s The Best of the Other Sides. Shortened to Rocket Man, it shows that Bush holds love for this song. She directed the music video for the single and gave the track this sort of Reggae tinge. More laidback and groovy than Elton John’s original. Released as a single on 25th November, 1991, the song was recorded back in 1989. I am going to get to some of the reviews for Kate Bush’s take on Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time). It was released as a 7″ single in a poster sleeve, a 12″ single in a poster sleeve, a cassette single and a C.D.-single. All formats features Candle in the Wind (another Elton John song). St Etienne were especially savage towards Kate Bush’s version. Intimating it made them want to vomit, luckily, Billboard were a little kinder. Melody Maker tore it apart! However, in years since, Bush’s version of Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time) has been seen in a kinder light. It was just typical of the press and artists of the time showing their sexism and misogyny. Not a lot to do with the music itself. Kate Bush always being criticised for doing something different. Reaching twelve in the U.K. and two in Australia, I think that there will be new people discovering this cover, as it appears on The Best of the Other Sides. I am going to turn to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia, and some interview archive, where Bush spoke about Elton John and a song dear to her:
“From the age of 11, Elton John was my biggest hero. I loved his music, had all his albums and I hoped one day I’d play the piano like him (I still do). When I asked to be involved in this project and was given the choice of a track it was like being asked ‘would you like to fulfill a dream? would you like to be Rocket Man?’… yes, I would.
Two Rooms liner notes, 1991
I was really knocked out to be asked to be involved with this project, because I was such a big fan of Elton’s when I was little. I really loved his stuff. It’s like he’s my biggest hero, really. And when I was just starting to write songs, he was the only songwriter I knew of that played the piano and sang and wrote songs. So he was very much my idol, and one of my favourite songs of his was ‘Rocket Man’. Now, if I had known then that I would have been asked to be involved in this project, I would have just died… They basically said, ‘Would we like to be involved?’ I could choose which track I wanted… ‘Rocket Man’ was my favourite. And I hoped it hadn’t gone, actually – I hoped no one else was going to do it… I actually haven’t heard the original for a very long time. ‘A long, long time’ (laughs). It was just that I wanted to do it differently. I do think that if you cover records, you should try and make them different. It’s like remaking movies: you’ve got to try and give it something that makes it worth re-releasing. And the reggae treatment just seemed to happen, really. I just tried to put the chords together on the piano, and it just seemed to want to take off in the choruses. So we gave it the reggae treatment. It’s even more extraordinary (that the song was a hit) because we actually recorded the track over two years ago. Probably just after my last telly appearance. We were quite astounded when they wanted to release it as a single just recently.
I think I might actually wrap up in a minute instead. The musicians on the song are Davy Spillane – uilleann pipes, Del Palmer – bass, Alistair Anderson – concertina, Charlie Morgan – drums and Alan Murphy – guitar. I will end with something from Gaffaweb, and observations about Rocket Man:
“Dan King is of the opinion that Kate's recording of "Rocket Man" is "danceable", "light" and "fun", and that the cover photo of Kate is therefore inappropriate because she looks "old" and "sad". This opinion is remarkable to IED because it is in complete contrast to his own.
In IED's view Kate's version of "Rocket Man", in large part because of its lilting (but sporadic) reggae-cum-Celtic folk sections and Kate's final, wordless minute of vocals, seemed (at first listen as much as at the tenth) extraordinarily poignant and sad--an extremely sophisticated and eloquent expression of the song's tragic subject.
By contrast, in IED's opinion, the photograph of Kate which Mercury Records put on the single's cover was a bit too cheerful for the tone of Kate's "Rocket Man"--let alone the even more starkly haunting "Candle in the Wind". Still, even there IED agrees with Richard Caley that the shots (there are actually two) are wonderful--they certainly don't make Kate appear "old" to this fan.
IED suspects that they were given to Mercury by Kate and John Carder Bush simply as portrait photographs to be used inside the liner notes of the "Two Rooms" album. (The photo session took place more than two years ago, and the shots are already very familiar to fans.) Then, when Mercury decided to release the song as a single, they opted (perhaps because Kate would or could not provide further artwork on short notice?) simply to blow up the only photos of Kate that they had been given rights to, and use them as the cover art.
Has anyone else noticed that the typographical error (of "Villean" for "Uillean" pipes) in the credits for "Rocket Man" has been corrected--without doubt at Kate's request--on the outer, poster-sleeve of the seven-inch single? The error remains on the single's normal inside sleeve, which we may assume was printed earlier. Does this correction after the fact not suggest that Mercury probably did not invite Kate to review the cover art before the design went to the presses; but that they made the correction after Kate herself saw it in the first pressings that went on sale last month? If this is true, perhaps Mercury did not invite Kate to suggest a cover design, either?
-- Andrew Marvick”.
A magnificent cover version of a song that was meaningful to Kate Bush. As such a huge fan of Elton John, her contribution to Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin must have been a hard choice. I am not sure whether she considered any other Elton John songs. I do think that this song should be given more love. A beautiful vocal from Kate Bush and this video that was lost for a long time. NME reported in 2019 how this video now came to light. Bush spoke to them about it and the song:
“One of Bush’s favourite songs of all time, her rendition of Elton’s space-faring staple reached Number 12 in the charts back when it was released in December 1991. Now, she has given the high-quality, self-directed music video its first ever official release.
“I remember buying this when it came out as a single by Elton John,” Bush told NME. “I couldn’t stop playing it – I loved it so much. Most artists in the mid seventies played guitar but Elton played piano and I dreamed of being able to play like him.”
“Years later, in 1989, Elton and Bernie Taupin were putting together an album called ‘Two Rooms’, which was a collection of cover versions of their songs, each featuring a different singer. To my delight they asked me to be involved and I chose ‘Rocket Man’. They gave me complete creative control and although it was a bit daunting to be let loose on one of my favourite tracks ever, it was really exciting. I wanted to make it different from the original and thought it could be fun to turn it into a reggae version. It meant a great deal to me that they chose it to be the first single release from the album.”
“I dreamed of being able to play piano like Elton”
– Kate Bush
She continued: “That meant I also had the chance to direct the video which I loved doing – making it a performance video, shot on black and white film, featuring all the musicians and… the Moon!”
“Alan Murphy played guitars on the track. He was a truly special musician and a very dear friend. Tragically, he died just before we made the video so he wasn’t able to be there with us but you’ll see his guitar was placed on an empty chair to show he was there in spirit”.
Go and listen to Kate Bush’s stunning rendition of Rocket Man. It is one of the best covers she ever did and it shows her affection and respect for Elton John and Bernie Taupin I really love what she did with it. A wonderful song that still sounds exciting and different…
ALMOST thirty-four years later.