FEATURE:
For Now I Know That I'm Needed, For the Symphony
The Richness and Importance of Instruments in Kate Bush’s Music
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IT has been around five years…
since I last explored this subject. I wanted to revisit it because, at the moment, I am engaged in a multi-feature tribute to Hounds of Love. That turns forty on 16th September. It is not only the range of instruments that have been used in Kate Bush’s music. It is the depth and richness that is created. Even if you feel The Kick Inside and Lionheart was mostly piano-based, it is the beauty and emotion that she summons from the instruments that makes the songs so arresting and enduring. Of course, one could say that the most impactful and effective instrument Kate Bush has at her disposal is her voice. That wouldn’t be an exaggeration! The first few albums from Kate Bush was largely about the piano and putting that firm in the mix. However, look at the credits of her first two albums and you can see a celeste, beer bottles, tenor saxophone and boobam on The Kick Inside. It is the way Kate Bush could meld the traditional and more esoteric and make them work. We saw evidence of this in The Kick Inside, though I think that was more about showcasing her voice and the piano. On her second studio album, there was a little bit of a mix-up regarding the sound palette. We can find strumento de porco, mandocello and pan flute (played by her brother, Paddy), joanna strumentum and Hammon organ. Kashka from Baghdad, in my view, is the standout on Lionheart when it comes to instrumentation. Pulling together some lesser-heard sounds into a song and making it work. Sitting on an album that looked back to her debut album and the prominence of piano, guitar and a more traditional texture – In the Warm Room and Symphony in Blue – and placing them with the unusual and sonically fascinating Hammer Horror, Coffee Homeground, In Search of Peter Pan and Oh England My Lionheart.
I always see Kate Bush as someone who composed and then fitted lyrics around the music. As a producer, she had a lot more control and freedom when it came to compositions. Maybe age and growing ambition connected to Kate Bush extending her music and introducing these rarer instruments. They were present in 1978, though 1980’s Never for Ever and 1982’s The Dreaming was the moment that compositions and the range of sounds at her disposal defined, heightened and evolved her music. Look at the cast of musicians that appear on Never for Ever. The Fairlight CMI itself offered a library of sounds and effects. Bush using various different players for different songs. Quite a few electric, acoustic and bass guitar sounds. A variety of synthesisers and pianos. Many artists would pair instruments from different countries to songs that have a flavour of that part of the world. However, Bush brought a viola da gamba (a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played da gamba (i.e. ‘on the leg’) in for The Infant Kiss. A koto for All We Ever Look For (Japanese plucked half-tube zither instrument, and the national instrument of Japan) and a bodhrán (a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from 25 to 65 cm (10–26 in) in diameter, with most drums measuring 35–45 cm (14–18 in) on Army Dreamers. Some beautiful keys, strings and percussion weaving around and supporting these unusual instruments that were heard in other forms of music. Whether that was Folk or traditional music of nations in Asia and Europe. Never for Ever was a huge success and reached number one in the U.K. I think the colours and sonic layers you find in these songs not only made the album more nuanced and engaging. It also inspired Kate Bush’s lyrics and imagination.
The Dreaming took the palette and colour scheme in a darker and edgier direction. The Fairlight CMI was employed more and did create its own sonic universe. Used on almost every track on the album (played by Kate Bush), it gave her more opportunities and possibilities. Turning songs almost into short films. Without employing a load of musicians, she could have this array of effects and different touches in songs. Something traditional musicians might not be able to achieve. Even if the cast of musicians was perhaps smaller than it was for Never for Ever, The Dreaming does include penny whistle and uilleann pipes on Night of the Swallow, mandolins and strings on Suspended in Gaffa and bullroarer on The Dreaming. Perhaps less wide-ranging than Never for Ever and Hounds of Love, what strikes me is the manpower for The Dreaming. In addition to percussion from the Fairlight CMI, Bush used several bass players, guitarists and percussionists. Not just to up the power and potency. It is the individual talents of each player too. Hounds of Love is forty in September. Even if the Fairlight CMI played its biggest role yet, Bush did not rely on the digital and electronic. The cast increased once more. Rather than it being instruments making up the majority of contributions, there was more in the way of vocal elements. A lot of layers and characters. Including Bush’s own family. The Richard Hickox Singers. Drums, bass and guitars still working seamlessly with the Fairlight CMI. John Sheahan on whistles and fiddles. Liam O'Flynn on Uilleann pipes. If the Dreaming’s use of voices was used more in a tense or slightly darker way, there is more space and openness on Hounds of Love. Images of hills, landscapes, the countryside, the sea and the expanse of the open sky. Emphasis on sonic mood and colours of blue and purple. Expanse and air. The Sensual World of 1989 is a softer and less intense album. It is very warm and sensual. Passionate and curious.
However, that is not to say Bush toned down her musical horizons. If The Richard Hickox Singers provided one of the biggest vocal hits on Hounds of Love, it was the Trio Bulgarka who did so on The Sensual World. Their native language (Bulgarian) brought into a British album. Not something that was common. The Celtic harp used to great effect on The Fog and Between a Man and a Woman. Songs that might have suffered or lacked resonance if they were based around the piano and guitars. Irish instruments, valiha, whip and tupan offering something special and more unusual. Those might be the wrong words! However, I do think they provide a scent and rich energy that mixes once again with a unity of drums, guitars and bass. Rather than rely on a standard band, Bush would use different musicians to ensure each album was different from the last. The Red Shoes is perhaps the first album since Lionheart where there is less in the way of huge variety or the ‘exotic’ in terms of the soundscape. However, Paddy Bush does deliver valiha, singing bowls fujara, musical bow, whistle and mandola. Eat the Music features a valiha and kabosy. The latter is a box-shaped wooden guitar commonly played in music of Madagascar. tenor saxophone and baritone saxophone on Rubberband Girl and trumpet and flugelhorn on Why Should I Love You? is a welcome return to brass and horns. Not elements we had heard a lot of pre-1993. 2005’s Aerial and 2011’s 50 Words for Snow once again have their own sounds. Aerial has orchestration and bird song. Vocals always crucial to Kate Bush. Usually human, here there was more nature and the avian. I think strings and percussion define Aerial more than piano or less traditional instruments. Renaissance guitar, electric upright bass and viol are deployed to extraordinary effect. Percussion from Steve Sanger, Stuart Elliott and Peter Erskine.
50 Words for Snow is cooler and has more winter than any other album. Far fewer musicians involved than her previous albums. I think that Bush wanted to create a more stripped-down album after 2005’s Aerial – Director’s Cut came out in 2011, before 50 Words for Snow, though it was Bush re-recording older songs – and there was a sort of return to The Kick Inside. Perhaps her most ‘traditional’ album ever in terms of that core of piano, drum, guitar and bass. The only exception being bells played (by Del Palmer) on Wild Man. Other than that, there are no songs that have any instrument other than piano, drum, guitar and bass. Keyboards, double bass in there. The album’s finale, Among Angels, is only Kate Bush at the piano. Not often did she ever do that. You can see how Bush’s albums changed in terms of the instruments used and what impact they made. I think as important as anything, it is the way Bush chose her players and what instruments she used in which songs. Even if 50 Words for Snow is her most ‘conventional’ when it comes to instruments, it is amazing how Bush created this amazing and evocative atmosphere and the otherworldly with the piano and her voice for the most part. I do love how she could sprinkle in instruments for other countries alongside the more familiar. She made it work! You do not get this much today with mainstream artists. I don’t think they are as musically and compositionally ambitious and interesting as Kate Bush. They should take a lead from her. What will her next album be? Similar to 50 Words for Snow or a return to a broader album such as Hounds of Love or Aerial? You never know with Kate Bush. She could completely shock people and bring in electronic Dance aspects or Disco vibes! Maybe a longshot, though she never repeats herself, so you can’t write that off. It is always a huge pleasure and privilege to get…
LOST in these incredible worlds.