FEATURE:
The Reggae Kite
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
The Artists and Influences in Kate Bush’s Music
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A slightly short feature…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush circa 1980
I have been thinking about characters in Kate Bush’s work. This is research ahead of a possible book. To see if there is enough to write about. There are plenty of people mentioned in her songs. Named or anonymous, Bush is very much influenced by people. That is what drives and fascinates her. It is not only the characters she includes in her songs. There are artists who she loves or listened to that goes into the songs. That might have shifted later in life. I think up to and including Aerial in 2005, there were touches of other artists. Definitely up to The Red Shoes in 1993. Even though Bush brought in other musicians to albums after The Red Shoes in 1993 or Aerial in 2005, could you listen to songs from those albums, and 2011’s Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow, and say they are influenced by other artists? Maybe this is Kate Bush paying tribute to another artist? It is debatable. Definitely, earlier in her career, Bush was driven by other artists. Kate Bush got compared to artists like Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell. Even though she was compared to those artists, I don’t think that she really was channelling them. You can listen to The Kick Inside and Lionheart and hear shades of those artists. It is only natural for artists, over their early career, to include nods to other artists. Either those who they love or feel add something to the mix. In the case of Kate Bush, as I have explored in previous features, she grew up around a lot of different music. From Roy Harper and English Folk to Irish music, Roxy Music, Elton John, Captain Beefheart and Pink Floyd, you can hear some of this in Kate Bush’s music. I have talked about some songs on The Kick Inside and Never for Ever, where Pink Floyd’s influence can be heard. The Saxophone Song on The Kick Inside and Breathing on Never for Ever. Not a pastiche or heavily leaning on them, you can tell that this band were in her mind when she was writing these tracks. The spritely piano riff on James and the Cold Gun from The Kick Inside, I feel, was Bush’s nod to Steely Dan. That entire track has a Dan quality to it. The band also inspired other moments in Kate Bush’s cannon. A slight hint of Steely Dan on Never for Ever’s Blow Away (for Bill). If not in the lyrics then parts of the compositions, as MOJO suggested.
It is interesting looking at various tracks and noticing spots of other artists. If not in the sound then maybe the title. I have just been writing about The Red Shoes and the lead track, Rubberband Girl, obviously takes its title from The Spinners’ 1976 hit, The Rubberband Man. There are cases where Kate Bush has written songs inspired by distinct artists that people have not picked up on. I want to bring in this article, where Kate Bush discusses Wow (from 1978’s Lionheart) and the inspiration behind the song. Even though she says it was her first go at writing a Pink Floyd song, listen to the end of The Saxophone Song and you can tell this was influenced by Pink Floyd. That cosmic outro definitely channels them! Even so, as she explains, other tracks with distinct artists at their core passed a lot of people by:
‘Wow’ is a song about the music business, not just rock music but show business in general, including acting and theatre. People say that the music business is about ripoffs, the rat race, competition, strain, people trying to cut you down, and so on, and though that’s all there, there’s also the magic. It was sparked off when I sat down to try and write a Pink Floyd song, something spacey; Though I’m not surprised no-one has picked that up, it’s not really recognisable as that, in the same way as people haven’t noticed that ‘Kite’ is a Bob Marley song, and ‘Don’t Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake’ is a Patti Smith song. When I wrote it I didn’t envisage performing it – the performance when it happened was an interpretation of the words I’d already written. I first made up the visuals in a hotel room in New Zealand, when I had half an hour to make up a routine and prepare for a TV show. I sat down and listened to the song through once, and the whirling seemed to fit the music. Those who were at the last concert of the tour at Hammersmith must have noticed a frogman appear through the dry ice it was one of the crew’s many last night ‘pranks’ and was really amazing. I’d have liked to have had it in every show.
I did know about Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake and Kite. The former is from Lionheart. I didn’t peg Kate Bush for a Patti Smith fan! However, you listen to the song and you can hear her influence come through. I love to imagine Kate Bush listening to Bob Marley! As a teenager in her bedroom spinning a record by Bob Marley & The Wailers! Bush experiment with Reggae at other times in her career. Kite is from The Kick Inside. Another track on that album, Them Heavy People, has a touch of Reggae to it. Maybe not Bob Marley per se, but one of his contemporaries. Beyond obvious musicians that she loved and guided her, such as David Bowie and Elton John, there are more obscure or less obvious ones that she was touched by. I listen to Them Heavy People and actually hear a bit of Ska or Two Tone. Maybe The Specials or Madness woven in. Bush is a singular and original artist, though within this comes some distinct guidance from other artists. Critics who did not pick up on the references to Patti Smith and Bob Marley in 1978 also missed the Pink Floyd inspiration on Wow. Did this continue later in her career? Delve into The Dreaming and that world. Kate Bush has said how a lot of the percussion sound on that album was motivated by Peter Gabriel and the work he was doing at Townhouse Studios. There are bits of Lodger-era David Bowie in Sat in Your Lap. A Bowie-esque track, I feel! Get Out of My House, the final track on The Dreaming, could be a mix of various influences. There is something Punk about it. Raw and visceral, one feels that Bush was channelling a combination of Punk artists like Sex Pistols with a bit of her own version of that genre. Definitely, one can hear Captain Beefheart and the more avant-garde side of her record collection through other tracks on that album. Perhaps more delicate and less obvious than earlier references, other sounds and artists played a role throughout.
Kate Bush said how the first single from The Dreaming, Sat in Your Lap, was inspired by Stevie Wonder during a concert she saw in London. A case of another artist having an impact on a song. We rightly commend and salute Kate Bush as this innovator and artists who has influenced so many others. Even if Kate Bush said in her later career that she does not listen to other people’s music when writing albums, I guess you can listen back to some of her albums and detect the importance of other artists. Whether consciously trying to write a song in their style or a subconscious I have been thinking about the split between, say The Kick Inside up to The Dreaming and Hounds of Love to the present day. Whether musical influences were more on the fringes for those later albums and more at the core for the earlier ones? Is that natural for every artist. Legends and newcomers alike operate this way I think. However, if we dig into her work in the 2000s and 2010s, I am sure there will be a song here and there where we can see the colours of another artist. It got me thinking when looking at that article for Wow and how this was Kate Bush channelling Pink Floyd. How Bob Marley and Patti Smith were referenced in other songs. I have suggested a bit of Steely Dan in one song. Billie Holiday is an artist Bush admired and I can even feel her touch in some of the vocal performance on Aerial and 50 Words for Snow.
Folk-influenced songs earlier in her career have a suggestion of Simon & Garfunkel. Kate Bush was a huge fan of The Beatles and actually said how much she admired their underrated 1967 E.P./soundtrack, Magical Mystery Tour. You can hear the kaleidoscopic and psychedelic tones of that work in some of her tracks. Lionheart’s Coffee Homeground comes to mind. In a recent feature from Far Out Magazine, it is clear that The Beatles influenced Kate Bush on every level: “It’s one thing to have a bit of musical influence from The Beatles, but Hounds of Love is the most obvious example of Bush using the Fab mentality. Much like Abbey Road’s second side is constructed like a medley of different tunes, The Ninth Wave, on the flipside of Bush’s magnum opus, takes that mentality one step further by crafting a storyline of a woman lost at sea after her boat crashes”. Maybe people will have their own theories and suggestions. This does sound like I am trying to reduce Kate Bush’s work to the point of parody or copycatting. Quite the opposite! Every single artist has influence and nothing is completely free of other artists’ work. Those Kate Bush admired borrowed from others and were influenced by them. Kate Bush motivated to write songs because of other artists. It is wonderful to hear. I have probably missed some examples so, if you notice any, please let me know. Shades and tones of other wonderful artists flying and flowing in…
THAT diamond kite.