Tray73
இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—
Re: Kate Bush
Okay so I am continuing this thread as before
I recently finished reading an excellent Kate Bush biography, 'Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush', by Graeme Thomson, which I wholly recommend. This too will be a valuable reference point for the thread from here onwards.
So where were we? ...Ok, 1986 and after the release of the compilation album, The Whole Story...
The Whole Story is Kate's best selling album to date, with in excess of six million copies sold. A video compilation was released at the same time, inlcuding all the songs on The Whole Story plus the video for The Big Sky, a track from Hounds of Love.
Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel at The Brit Awards, February 1987,
when they both won their respective categories - Best British Female and Best British Male.
Early 1987 Kate was asked to write a song for an upcoming romantic comedy film called She's Having a Baby, the result, written in next to no time, was the very moving and beautiful This Woman's Work.
In March Kate and a number of other British & American musicians, including Paul McCartney, Gary Moore and Mark Knofler, came together as 'Ferry Aid' to record Let It Be to support the charity set up during the aftermath of the Zeebrugge disaster.
The year saw Kate make a couple of high profile appearances, the first in April at The Secret Policeman's Third Ball, where she performed Running Up That Hill with Dave Gilmour on guitar and backing vocals, and the second as a surprise guest at a Peter Gabriel concert in June (during his 'So' tour) joining him to sing Don't Give Up, much to the crowd's delight.
Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush & David Gilmour
Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush, live at Earl's Court, London
July 30th the following year Kate hit thirty and spent her birthday doing charity work with a number of other celebrities - helping out as shop assistants at a boutique in London to raise money for an AIDS charity. A few weeks later she appeared on the BBC's Rough Guide To Europe choosing her favourite places in London.
By this time work on Kate's next album was in full force, around 18 months had passed but it was nowhere near ready for release yet. Kate was still mulling over ideas and one of those was to, for the first time, collaborate with other female singers. The singers she had in mind were a group of three woman know as Trio Bulgarka who sang Bulgarian folk music. In August Kate flew out to Bulgaria to meet the trio and they joined her in London a few days later to record on three of her songs. All four ladies also did a segment for the BBC series Rhythms of the World.
Kate and Trio Bulgarka
Here's something I found on YouTube, I assume it's from the aforementioned BBC series - it begins with an interview with Yanka Rupkina, one of the Trio Bulgarka, with Kate appearing a little later.
Work on the album continued until May 1989, and it was finally released in the autumn of that year. Just ahead of the album the single The Sensual World was released, entering the charts at 12, but slipping down again straight after.
The Sensual World
The Sensual World
Released 16th October, 1989
Kate said the album was "all about relationships" and saw it as "a strong expression of positive female energy". We do have an album of relationships of different kinds - from lovers, child and parent 'The Fog' (Kate's father provides dialogue) to a woman finding solace and friendship from her computer 'Deeper Understanding' (to say this was written pre-internet age makes you think Kate is some kind of seer!). I think Graeme Thomson sums it up perfectly in his biography: "if The Sensual World has any unifying theme, it is the intrinsic human need to connect to something or someone." It is a very emotionally-charged album moving from one mood to another, with all the ups and downs of emotions relationships bring. From the erotic title track, inspired by James Joyce's character Molly Bloom's closing soliloquy in Ulysses, to the energetic, catchy Heads We're Dancing, a strange, dark tale of a woman in 1939 who spends the evening dancing with an enchanting stranger, only to find out the following day that the man was Adolf Hitler
, there are certainly some lyrically interesting songs!
An array of top musicians guest on the album including Dave Gilmour (I particularly like his input on Rocket's Tail), violinist Nigel Kennedy, Celtic harpist Alan Stivell, Davy Spillane (Uillean pipes and whistle) to name a few, with orchestral arrangements by Michael Kamen.
The Sensual World failed commerically to match the huge success of The Hounds of Love, probably due to receiving very little radio play and Kate being only willing to do the minimum amount of promotion, but it still sold well achieving over 500,000 sales in the US and over 1,000,000 in UK.
The album isn't one of my favourites from Kate, there are a couple of songs on there I feel like hitting the skip button on, a couple that kind of just wash over me, a few I really like and two I love, so a mixed bag for me really. I've already posted one favourite, This Woman's Work, the other song on the album I think is brilliant is Rocket's Tail, the use of the Trio Bulgarka on this track works so well and adds an extra special touch, their voices are hauntingly beautiful and gel with Kate's perfectly.
Rocket's Tail
And I can't help but like this one, despite being about tripping the light fantastic with Hitler!
Heads We're Dancing
Okay so I am continuing this thread as before
I recently finished reading an excellent Kate Bush biography, 'Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush', by Graeme Thomson, which I wholly recommend. This too will be a valuable reference point for the thread from here onwards.
So where were we? ...Ok, 1986 and after the release of the compilation album, The Whole Story...
The Whole Story is Kate's best selling album to date, with in excess of six million copies sold. A video compilation was released at the same time, inlcuding all the songs on The Whole Story plus the video for The Big Sky, a track from Hounds of Love.
Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel at The Brit Awards, February 1987,
when they both won their respective categories - Best British Female and Best British Male.
Early 1987 Kate was asked to write a song for an upcoming romantic comedy film called She's Having a Baby, the result, written in next to no time, was the very moving and beautiful This Woman's Work.
In March Kate and a number of other British & American musicians, including Paul McCartney, Gary Moore and Mark Knofler, came together as 'Ferry Aid' to record Let It Be to support the charity set up during the aftermath of the Zeebrugge disaster.
The year saw Kate make a couple of high profile appearances, the first in April at The Secret Policeman's Third Ball, where she performed Running Up That Hill with Dave Gilmour on guitar and backing vocals, and the second as a surprise guest at a Peter Gabriel concert in June (during his 'So' tour) joining him to sing Don't Give Up, much to the crowd's delight.
Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush & David Gilmour
Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush, live at Earl's Court, London
July 30th the following year Kate hit thirty and spent her birthday doing charity work with a number of other celebrities - helping out as shop assistants at a boutique in London to raise money for an AIDS charity. A few weeks later she appeared on the BBC's Rough Guide To Europe choosing her favourite places in London.
By this time work on Kate's next album was in full force, around 18 months had passed but it was nowhere near ready for release yet. Kate was still mulling over ideas and one of those was to, for the first time, collaborate with other female singers. The singers she had in mind were a group of three woman know as Trio Bulgarka who sang Bulgarian folk music. In August Kate flew out to Bulgaria to meet the trio and they joined her in London a few days later to record on three of her songs. All four ladies also did a segment for the BBC series Rhythms of the World.
Kate and Trio Bulgarka
Work on the album continued until May 1989, and it was finally released in the autumn of that year. Just ahead of the album the single The Sensual World was released, entering the charts at 12, but slipping down again straight after.
The Sensual World
The Sensual World
Released 16th October, 1989
Track List
01 The Sensual World
02 Love and Anger
03 The Fog
04 Reaching Out
05 Heads We're Dancing
06 Deeper Understanding
07 Between a Man and a Woman
08 Never Be Mine
09 Rocket's Tail
10 This Woman's Work
11 Walk Straight Down the Middle (CD bonus track)
Highest UK chart Position: 2
01 The Sensual World
02 Love and Anger
03 The Fog
04 Reaching Out
05 Heads We're Dancing
06 Deeper Understanding
07 Between a Man and a Woman
08 Never Be Mine
09 Rocket's Tail
10 This Woman's Work
11 Walk Straight Down the Middle (CD bonus track)
Highest UK chart Position: 2
Kate said the album was "all about relationships" and saw it as "a strong expression of positive female energy". We do have an album of relationships of different kinds - from lovers, child and parent 'The Fog' (Kate's father provides dialogue) to a woman finding solace and friendship from her computer 'Deeper Understanding' (to say this was written pre-internet age makes you think Kate is some kind of seer!). I think Graeme Thomson sums it up perfectly in his biography: "if The Sensual World has any unifying theme, it is the intrinsic human need to connect to something or someone." It is a very emotionally-charged album moving from one mood to another, with all the ups and downs of emotions relationships bring. From the erotic title track, inspired by James Joyce's character Molly Bloom's closing soliloquy in Ulysses, to the energetic, catchy Heads We're Dancing, a strange, dark tale of a woman in 1939 who spends the evening dancing with an enchanting stranger, only to find out the following day that the man was Adolf Hitler
, there are certainly some lyrically interesting songs! 
An array of top musicians guest on the album including Dave Gilmour (I particularly like his input on Rocket's Tail), violinist Nigel Kennedy, Celtic harpist Alan Stivell, Davy Spillane (Uillean pipes and whistle) to name a few, with orchestral arrangements by Michael Kamen.
The Sensual World failed commerically to match the huge success of The Hounds of Love, probably due to receiving very little radio play and Kate being only willing to do the minimum amount of promotion, but it still sold well achieving over 500,000 sales in the US and over 1,000,000 in UK.
The album isn't one of my favourites from Kate, there are a couple of songs on there I feel like hitting the skip button on, a couple that kind of just wash over me, a few I really like and two I love, so a mixed bag for me really. I've already posted one favourite, This Woman's Work, the other song on the album I think is brilliant is Rocket's Tail, the use of the Trio Bulgarka on this track works so well and adds an extra special touch, their voices are hauntingly beautiful and gel with Kate's perfectly.
Rocket's Tail
And I can't help but like this one, despite being about tripping the light fantastic with Hitler!
Heads We're Dancing
)
