FEATURE:
The First Sign of Snow
Kate Bush’s Wild Man and the Taste of a Very Special Album
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I have written about…
Wild Man before, so I shall try not to repeat myself too much regarding that. This was the first taste of new material. After Kate Bush released Director’s Cut in May, there was no real feeling that she would follow it up so quickly. In terms of sound, 50 Words for Snow is very different to any other album from Kate Bush. Although it does not do great when album rankings come out, it is this incredible work. So atmospheric and grand. Maybe a little sparse compared to other Kate Bush albums in terms of instruments, there is so much beauty and space. In terms of the standouts, Wild Man is right up there. It was perhaps an obvious single as it is the second-shortest track on the album. The shortest, Among Angels, would have also been a great single. Even so, Wild Man is over seven minutes, so it did need a radio edit. Typical of Kate Bush, there were not a lot of obvious singles of 50 Words for Snow. I think this was deliberate. When she released Aerial in 2005, there was this feeling she was releasing a complete body of work and was not considering singles and what could be played on the radio. Even so, there were a few songs that had that single potential. Nothing really like this with Wild Man. Regardless, this was the official single that was released. I am going to mark fourteen years of 50 Words for Snow closer its anniversary on 21st November. On 11th October, it will be fourteen years since Wild Man was released. It was an exciting day. I remember. Kate Bush did say in interviews for Director’s Cut how there was an album coming. However, we did not get an idea or suggestion what it could be. I think 50 Words for Snow took us by surprise. In terms of just how evocative it is. If people associate her work with something lighter and more energetic, perhaps an album that was closer to Chamber Jazz or was a lot slower and more expansive took them aback. I will bring in a critical review soon.
Unlike Aerial or Hounds of Love, 50 Words for Snow is an album that also got rave reviews but does not score high on ranking lists like those other albums. Perhaps seen as inessential. However, Kate Bush’s latest album is tremendous. Wild Man is a song that could only come from her. I am going to reference some information I have include in features before. Let’s start out with stuff you have probably already read. Though it is good to get the reminder and context. Some words from Kate Bush about Wild Man:
“Kate about ‘Wild Man’
Well, the first verse of the song is just quickly going through some of the terms that the Yeti is known by and one of those names is the Kangchenjunga Demon. He’s also known as Wild Man and Abominable Snowman. (…) I don’t refer to the Yeti as a man in the song. But it is meant to be an empathetic view of a creature of great mystery really. And I suppose it’s the idea really that mankind wants to grab hold of something [like the Yeti] and stick it in a cage or a box and make money out of it. And to go back to your question, I think we’re very arrogant in our separation from the animal kingdom and generally as a species we are enormously arrogant and aggressive. Look at the way we treat the planet and animals and it’s pretty terrible isn’t it?
John Doran, ‘A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed’. The Quietus, 2011
I guess in some ways, you could say that it’s the most immediate song on the album… It’s really a song entity for the Yeti – this mysterious creature that no one is sure whether or not it exists. It’s about how precious that mystery is, you know? We have such little mystery in our lives, generally, because of how we live now. I mean, of course, mystery is all around us, but the way we live our lives now, we’re too busy to be bothered with it.
Stephen W. Taylor about ‘Wild Man (with remastered shimmer)’
It was something I worked on with Rupert [Hine]. I added layers of sound to it, but they’re almost inaudible, which was done with Kate’s approval. In fact, fans were pissed off because they felt it wasn’t any different to the original version. In fact, it’s completely different. It has a very different sonic approach. We asked Kate to name it and she said it should be “With Remastered Shimmer” so that’s what it was called. (Anil Prasad, Stephen W Tayler – Experiential evocation. Innerviews, 2020)”.
That last interview relates to a version of Wild Man that appeared on the album The Art of Peace: Songs for Tibet II in 2015. I would love to hear different version of Wild Man. It is this song that could benefit from remixes and new versions. I don’t know if anyone has covered the song before. The musicianship on Wild Man are extraordinary. Steve Gadd is on percussion. He adds something magical to the song. His beats and drive gives Wild Man this mystery, energy and wonder. The late John Giblin provides bass. The late Del Palmer on bells. These two much missed musicians absolutely phenomenal. Dan McIntosh (Kate Bush’s partner) on guitars, with Andy Fairweather Low providing vocals with Kate Bush, who is on keyboards. The first taste of a new album, how did the press react to Wild Man in 2011? With no huge idea of what the other six tracks on 50 Words for Snow would sound like, it was a gamble. Wild Man sits beautiful in the centre of the album. After the epic Misty and Kate Bush’s duet with Elton John, Snowed in at Wheeler Street, Wild Man perfectly bridges the two halves. I would have thought that Bush would also release Among Angels as a single. I kind of thought an edited version of Misty would have come out at Christmas. It is about a snowman, so I would have thought the single would be a popular, if unconventional, single. NME provided one of the most positive reviews for Wild Man:
“For those of us who have been secretly longing for a return to the unflinchingly bizarre and Bush’s ability to conjure up strange new worlds, ‘Wild Man’ is a deep joy.
Lyrically we’re in a literal wilderness, where the ‘Wild Man’ of the title is a revealed to be a Yeti-type figure roaming the wiles of the Himalayas. Bush’s whispered vocal delivery of the lyrics (which are full of geographical intrigue and century old myth) is full of the right balance of fear, intrigue and empathy towards the plight of the shadowy figure (“I can hear your cry/Echoing around the mountain side/You sound lonely,” she sings).
As for the the chorus, it bursts forth mid-eruption; a choir of strange voices; echoing the ‘Wild Man”s own explosion out of habitation into civilization in the narrative of the song. Bush tackles this by a multiple layering of voices, creating several personas and the atmosphere of a village set adrift by the sudden intrusion. It’s a style which recalls some of her most classic work.
Musically, we’ve moved on subtly from the pared down production of ‘Director’s Cut’, and on ‘Wild Man’ a guitar riff-plays pan-Asian and ponderous, but there’s also a layering of sounds in the chorus (tinkling percussion, a bedrock of organs), which suggests her 80s heyday.
Multiple listens on, the references just keep coming; there’s ‘Scary Monsters And Super Creeps’ era Bowie and some of the ‘Tusk’ era Fleetwood Mac and her own ‘Sensual World’ and ‘The Dreaming’.
After the domestic bliss of ‘Aerial’, it’s a deep joy to have Kate roam the narrative wiles of her imagination. The result is her strongest single for decades”.
Billboard were definitely intrigued by Wild Man. In their review, this is what they had to say about a song that I think ranks alongside Kate Bush’s very best. They felt, as the first truly original single since King of the Mountain 2005 (Director’s Cut’s Deeper Understanding is a re-recorded version of the song that appears on 1989’s The Sensual World), it was a slight surprise:
“The weird and whimsical “Wild Man” serves as the first new single from British art-rock craftswoman Kate Bush in a whopping six years (not including the re-tooled tracks from this year’s “Director’s Cut”). A word of advice to first-time listeners: be sure to have an atlas and thesaurus handy. “From the Sherpas of Annapurna to the Rinpoche of Qinghai / Shepherds from Mount Kailash to Himachal Pradesh,” sings Bush in her breathy lisp, somehow sounding erotic while randomly referencing Indian provinces and Buddhist principles. For all of its impenetrable wordplay,”Wild Man” makes for a wicked headphone atmosphere, with Dan McIntosh’s expressionistic digital guitar curlicues wandering around a crisp Steve Gadd kit and John Giblin bass. As an announcement of Bush’s return, “Wild Man” is a tad off-kilter. But then again, when has the ever-singular Bush been anything but?”.
There were not that many reviews for Wild Man. That is understandable. Not a conventional or young Pop artist, there is less attention towards those who are older and are not considered to be ‘current’ or near the mainstream. Even so, The Needle Drop - https://theneedledrop.com/2011-11-kate-bush-wild-man-radio-edit/ - were impressed with a track that could only have been generated by the genius of Kate Bush:
“Wild Man” is the first track to drop from the album, and I’m loving the wintery feel of this song. Yeah, maybe I get that because of the vibe implied by the title of this album, but I really feel like playing this song is making the room I’m in colder. I think I can see my own breath.
But honestly, the icy grooves on this track are pretty pleasant. Kate’s voice guides the track through some quiet verses, and the chorus explodes with the beauty of a 60s psych pop tune. Can’t wait to review the LP tonight”.
This was the first taste of snow. The initial glimpse into Kate Bush’s tenth studio album. 50 Words for Snow is this underrated masterpiece. Wild Man a typically brilliant track that reveals new layers with each listen. I will include some interviews with Kate Bush when I do an anniversary feature for 50 Words for Snow nearer 21st November. However, as Kate Bush News wrote in a feature from 2011, Kate Bush was pleased with how 50 Words for Snow came out and the guests who appear on it. I do wonder if an eleventh studio album will have guests on it:
“Kate says she doesn’t want anyone to mistake this for a “Christmas” album: “That is one concern I had when people heard the title and when they got to see the artwork on the cover . . . that they would think it was a Christmas album…people don’t seem to be saying that, which is great because it isn’t. If they did think that they’d be disappointed.”
Kate is thrilled by her guests on the album. On Stephen Fry, who features on the album’s title track, she tells The Australian: “What I was trying to do was find someone who had a great voice of authority. The idea of the song was that we would start off with straightforward words and then come up with completely ridiculous ones. That really tickles me because it’s meant to be fun.”
Kate also talks about Elton John’s performance on ‘Snowed in at Wheeler Street’: “I love his performance. He has a fantastic voice. If he had said no I don’t know who I would have asked, but luckily he said yes. I was really lucky that everyone I asked to be on the album agreed to do it”.
On 11th October, it will be fourteen years since Wild Man was released. On 10th October, The 7:16-minute version was first played on The Ken Bruce Show and the 4:16-minute ‘radio edit’ was made available for streaming on Kate Bush's official YouTube channel after the radio premiere. It is interesting, as 50 Words for Snow was released on Fish People. That is Kate Bush’s label. Newly-crated so that she could take more control of the music, Wild Man was released through Noble & Brite. That is Kate Bush’s business. It used to be called Novercia Ltd. Even though it is not a major anniversary, I wanted to shine a light on Wild Man. I have not even delved into the lyrics of the song. My favourite lines end the song: “While crossing the Lhakpa-La/Something jumped down from the rocks/In the remote Garo Hills by Dipu Marak/We found footprints in the snow”. I really love Wild Man. I think that 50 Words for Snow should get more respect and love. It is an album from Kate Bush that ranks alongside…
HER greatest moments.