FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s Moments of Pleasure at Thirty-Two
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993
A Song Underrated and Overlooked in Spite of Its Beauty
__________
I have written…
about Moments of Pleasure a few times. It was released as a single on 15th November, 1993. The third single from Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes, it reached twenty-six in the U.K. I love that the single had some really interesting B-sides. The 12-imnch featured an instrumental version of Moments of Pleasure and Home for Christmas. The C.D. featured Show a Little Devotion, December Will Be Magic Again, and Experiment IV. In addition to marking its thirty-second anniversary, I wanted to react to some critical assessment. Before I get there, it is worth bringing in some background from Kate Bush. What this incredibly moving song was about and how it came to her:
“I think the problem is that during [the recording of] that album there were a lot of unhappy things going on in my life, but when the songs were written none of that had really happened yet. I think a lot of people presume that particularly that song was written after my mother had died for instance, which wasn’t so at all. There’s a line in there that mentions a phrase that she used to say, ‘every old sock meets an old shoe’, and when I recorded it and played it to her she just thought it was hilarious! She couldn’t stop laughing, she just thought it was so funny that I’d put it into this song. So I don’t see it as a sad song. I think there’s a sort of reflective quality, but I guess I think of it more as a celebration of life.
Whereas it might not be an ignored song, I feel like some of the critical reaction in 1989 was a bit odd. I wrote about this song earlier in the year. Rather than repeat what I published then, I wanted to approach the song from a different angle. Although there was positive reaction to Moments of Pleasure, there was one comment in a review that caught my eye. Let’s take a look at some of the reactions. Music & Media noted, "For most singers a ballad is just a slow song, but for Bush it seems like it has to be an emotional confrontation which classic composers would like to be credited for". Terry Staunton from NME commented, "Her personal exorcisms reach new heights on 'Moments of Pleasure', a deceptively simple ballad with a swooping chorus and a coda where she namechecks the people who've been important to her over years. It's a song that may baffle the world at large, but it wasn't written for us; Kate's just decided to share it”. It is that final line about Moments of Pleasure not being written for us. Whilst many applauded the beauty and swell of the song, there was also a whiff of sexism or condescension. I know NME were probably not attuned to more emotional and personally revealing music in 1989, yet you get the sense that there was this dismissal of women who put out heartfelt or personal songs. True, there are personal elements. Kate Bush name-checking friends lost. She sings about her mother (who died in February 1992). There is a lot of loss. Raw and evocative, there is also hope and strength. It is a song that swells and builds like this choral piece. Bush never saw it a sad song, thought that reflective quality gives it some sadder undertones.
Reapproaching it for 2011’s Director’s Cut, I do love both versions. I feel there was some sense of dismissal. Even if Moments of Pleasure meant something to Kate Bush, it was very much for everyone. I don’t think a whiff of sexism was reserved to magazines like NME. It is great that Moments of Pleasure was appreciated by others. Even so, I do feel like it remains underrated. Streamed over four million times on Spotify, it has done well but not nearly as good as other Kate Bush singles. She never really ever got the approval of all critics. Melody Maker wrote how “Moments of Pleasure' is The Big Literary Effort, Kate at her very tremble-inducing, vocal-range-like-the-Pyrenees best”. The Independent only had this to say: “A smile and a tear from the Welling siren”. Music Week, in spite of its positive take wrote of the “off-her-trolley lyrics”. That insulting and dismissive attitude. Was it just Kate Bush that was receiving this kind of sexism in 1993? Not by a long way! One could say, at a time when British music was embracing the early signs of Britpop and Moments of Pleasure was detached from that, I feel like successful and original women were viewed with cynicism and misogyny. Moments of Pleasure is an extraordinary and arresting song that is filled with stunning imagery and soul-baring sentiments. Especially touching is where Bush names people at the end of the song. Bill Duffield, a lighting technician who tragically died after the warm-up show for Bush’s The Tour of Life in 1979, still very much in her heart.
A song that should have got this rapture and genuine praise seems to have been laced with something sour and sniffy. Maybe if Bush had produced a stonking Rock song or uplifting Pop number than she would have been given an easier ride. However, in 1993, we were eight years past Hounds of Love. The scene had shifted and maybe it was felt that she was out of step with modern music. Not forward-thinking and as innovative as before. This is unfair. The Red Shoes is a fantastic album with some of Kate Bush’s best music in it. I love Moments of Pleasure and wanted to mark its thirty-second anniversary (15th November). However, some of the critical reception baffled and annoyed me. Some of Kate Bush’s most striking and affecting lyrics. “Just let us try/To give these moments back/To those we love/To those who will survive” is an example. If men of the music press were not particularly fond or sold by Moments of Pleasure, I do think that others have taken it to heart. That says, it is still an underrated song. The Red Shoes is an album not as streamed and discussed as others. Go and hear this magnificent song. Thirty-two years after its release and it still has lost none of its wonder. I heard it many years ago and was transfixed then. I play it now and feel the same. A track that deserved more genuine love than it got, Moments of Pleasure is a gem that everyone should listen to. One of the standout songs from…
KATE Bush’s seventh studio album.