Stan Deely on The Kick Inside
MY HISTORY WITH KATE BUSH
I would have heard the single Wuthering Heights in early 1978. I wasn’t particularly impressed. I was a 14 year old punk fan – Buzzcocks and Sham 69 the new exciting bands on my block. “A squeaky voiced poor man’s Noosha Fox with sub Pan’s People hippie chick dancing” was my considered opinion.
As time went by, I was grudgingly impressed by some of her singles, the batshit crazy ‘The Dreaming’ with its Wurzels meet Aborigine vocals and considered ‘Running Up the Hill’ her standout achievement. I don’t think I actually heard an actual album until The Sensual World and Red Shoes in the 2000’s. I would generally find that I liked two or three songs but found her voice a bit grating over a whole album and generally found myself switching off and losing attention. Basically. the albums weren’t sticking.
When Aeriel was released I rated the single and burned myself a copy. First few listens felt more of a chore than a pleasure but then it clicked and now I’m of the opinion that it’s a pretty good work albeit a bit much to take in in its entirety.
She’s been nagging at me, as do other female artists such as P J Harvey and Bjork that I admire and like the occasional song but don’t really do it for me over album length. Therefore I thought Kate Bush would be a suitable applicant for the second artist in my on-going 12 albums in 12 months project.
For this album I’m carrying on with my format of trying to review blind armed only with what my ears and the record sleeve tell me and eschewing the internet, Wikipedia etc for hard information and opinions. I will probably resort to that and other biographical stuff after posting.
THE COVER
The delectable Ms Bush on a swing with faux oriental lettering and colouring. Screams mid 1976 old wave sophistico-rock ie. Sadistica Mika Band etc – the music record companies were backing in 1976/77, that very quickly became old news in the punk explosion. An iconic image I suppose but not exactly inspired.
THE SONGS
MOVING
Moving, which I think may be a tribute to her (and Bowie’s) dance and mime tutor Lindsey Kemp starts with what sounds like wolves howling then signature 70s singer songwriter piano calling to mind Elton John. The high register vocals (soprano?) I find a bit of a challenge but the song has a lovely airy spacy pop chorus that reminds me of classic Pink Floyd. Multiple voice/chorus style backing vocals (or is it all Kate) is also something I tend to dislike but it seems to work. Segues straight into the next song which has a similar style. I am surprised that it lasts 3 minutes as it all seems over in like 90 seconds ending with seagull noises.
SAXAPHONE SONG
More piano. Slightly corny lyrics The feel is lush and comforting. Skilfully played with nice instrumental touches. Superior songwriting and playing. Interesting jazzy breakdown. Gets quite echo-ey and spacey recalling Supertramp or even Pink Floyd.
In the first two songs she has set out her stall. I hear echoes of Joni Mitchell, Elton John, The Who, as well as the aformentioned two. Superior 70’s AOR but with a feminine touch. You can see why this was such a winner. Nice, good looking, interesting teenage girl takes over the territory normally occupied by bedenimed hirsute boring musos but also with killer tunes and kookiness that will resonate with the ladies. 2 – nil to Kate so far.
STRANGE PHENOMENA
Starts with just piano and vocal – a bit Bohemian Rhapsody-ish before the band come in. Lyrically it tackles religion and ritual (with a nod to menstruation). Pretty heavy stuff for a teenager. It lifts in the chorus. Would work as a stadium ballad. I can see a Hunky Dory connection here – baroque classy pop.
I have had some exposure to the 1970’s classic rock pop cannon – Band on the Run, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Supertramp etc having been exposed to them from older siblings record collections in the mid 70’s but those records didn’t particularly connect and I haven’t gone back to them since getting into more energetic stuff in 1977 but I reckon, so far, this album more than matches them.
KITE
Interesting time signature. A very 1976 rock funk pop concoction like Fox or something. I imagine Kokomo (who I have never heard), would have sounded like this. Catchy as hell with a great uplifting chorus.. A lot of the lyrics seems to be about quite universal themes emotions – feeling good, feeling free, moving, dance etc and whilst a bit cliched on the lyric sheet she makes them work in song. Another one that seems to end too soon.
THE MAN WITH THE CHILD IN HIS EYES
The second single and I remember at the time thinking it was pretty good. More straightforward and less gimmicky than Wuthering Heights. Sung in a lower register and you can understand the words. The melancholic ballads of Abba come to mind with this like an English Rose version to their Scandi-noir take. Pretty perfect at two and a half minutes. Possibly the stand out track on the album.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Coming straight after the last song the vocal at the start sounds a bit high and gimmicky intro.. However I’m willing to concede that like Like Last Christmas, Fairy Tale of New York etc its very ubiquity over the years has battered me into compliance and I accept that is a tune for the ages, a super catchy earworm and an all time classic. She’s calmed down by the chorus and sounds epic rather than shrieky and it gets even better in the coda when she has stopped singing. Kudos to her for holding out for it as the first single against the record company who wanted I think James with the Cold Gun which is one of the weaker tracks here.
Listening to it it’s easy to bring to mind her on Top of the Pops doing her wookie witchy dancey thing and I have to say that the first time she appeared on Top of the Pops was a classic TV pop “Just WTF is this?” moment.
JAMES AND THE COLD GUN
This one reminds me of a Steely Dan tune. The closest the album gets to standard rock albeit with a kooky twist and a more theatrical than most of her competitors could manage. Tells a story and makes one think one possible future for her could have been musical theatre like the Abba boys. One could argue that she tried it with the Tour of Life and, I imagine, discovered that she was more productive and happier making music in the studio than trodding the boards. Makes me wonder how it was portrayed on the Tour of Life. The band just about stop it becoming too lumpen and then we have a switchback to a Queen style piano line followed by a classic 1970’s style soft rock coda to end. A bit out of place in the context of the rest of the album.
FEEL IT
This one has a piano riff that’s also a bit Steely Dan. In fact just Kate and piano. The song itself like something Stevie Wonder would have done on Songs in the Key of Life. I am amazed by the lyrics when I think how I was regarding love and sex at age 19. (I know I’m a male but my female counterparts at the time didn’t seem much more mature in their attitudes). One of the highlights of the album. I’m surprised I’ve never heard it before as it could be a radio staple. Voice still a bit squeaky for my taste though.
OH TO BE IN LOVE
Another mannered vocal but I’m starting to get used to and even liking it. This one is pretty standard kooky Kate, with its operatic vocal, jerky rhythm and multi-voiced male backing vocals. The sort of thing French and Saunders would parody but we’re deep in Kate’s world now and she’s in control and owns it. Another love song. I would guess that this and the previous song would indicate that a) Kate has experienced a pretty strong , mature love affair by this time in her life or b) Had read a lot of literature and was a pretty good empath and actor. She keeps it interesting with understated but effective musical and vocal twists and turns. Nice catchy piano and we even get some Sgt Peppers style horns. I am pretty impressed.
L’AMOUR LOOKS SOMETHING LIKE YOU.
A third song about love and relationships! Are we moving into concept album territory? Just about maintains the standard but doesn’t add that much to the album. Has a surprising lyrical reference to “sticky love inside of me” that I imagine is metaphorical rather than literal. Maybe her mind is less smutty than mine but if not fair play and extra kudos to the lady for telling her truth as it is. At this point in the album I may be struggling at a bit with the vocal gymnastics however to think that I was buying Sham 69 records at the time when I could have owned this. However I subscribe to the mantra of everything comes at the right time and now is my Kate time.
THEM HEAVY PEOPLE
A live version of this was released in 1979 and I remember thinking at the time “This is pretty catchy and better than the rest of her stuff” Once again, a jerky almost funky rhythm and once again a precocious lyric regarding spiritual masters and teachers although she does blow it for me by using the none more 70’s word ‘heavy’ which at the time was on linguistic death row before being finally executed in 1982 by Neil the Hippy in the Young Ones. But I suppose ‘Them Spiritual Masters’, ‘The Awakened Ones’ or ‘Those Self Realised Gurus’ are all a bit clunky as song titles. In fact, it is insanely catchy, the rhythm is well infectious and it’s great to sing along to. A strong contender for my ‘All time go to Drag karaoke song’
ROOM FOR THE LIFE
Very Elton John piano to start. A feminist anthem. Is there nothing that the Mother Teresa of progressive pop rock can’t do? Seriously though, I am pretty much blown away by the maturity and insight she shows in her lyrics. I listened to the album quite a lot before I looked at the lyrics and when I did, I was on the whole, mightily impressed. She takes big subjects in her stride. The songs picks up tempo as it goes along introducing a subtle Latin rhythm for the second verse before going all out Latino rhumba rave up to finish. Definitely a curve ball but it kinda works. Reminds me of Led Zeppelin’s Fool in the Rain where they also do feelgood Latin. (And which I think is great by the way)
THE KICK INSIDE
No band on this Just Kate, her piano and strings making for a relatively understated but haunting. I expected from the song title the song to be about pregnancy but the lyrics left me unsure. Was it a love song? An ode to a sibling even? I must admit I sneaked a cheeky glance at the internet for more info as I didn’t want to appear too stupid in front of my readers and discovered that I was not wrong!
OVERALL IMPRESSION
I’m pretty much blown away. After a month of playing and living with this album it is still growing on me. I am still hearing new stuff and it looks like it will stay in my record collection and get listened to – which I can’t say about the majority of the Bowie albums I reviewed last year.
Its an almost unbelievable achievement as the debut album by a 19 year old. It seems the world felt the same. I believe it cleaned up in all manner of readers and critics polls at the end of the year and immediately put her up there with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Queen etc – acts who were at least a few years and a few albums into their careers. A remarkable achievement.
And you? Your impressions of her debut TOTP performance? Did you buy the album at the time? And how has it aged for you? Any insider gossip. I don’t suppose anyone here saw her live with the K T Bush band. Over to you Afterword Massive.
Excellent!
I heard Wuthering Heights at the time on Radio 1, I liked it, but I thought she is certainly going to be a one hit wonder! But then I heard The Man With The Child in Her Eyes which kind of made a certain impression on me that this 17 yr old had never felt. And she was 13 when she wrote it! (16 when recorded)
I did not buy it at the time. I only really started getting into her heavily around The Dreaming/Hounds of Love era and went back and bought the other 3 albums. I had liked all the singles before that though
Some consider this her best album, it’s a very feminine album and extremely mature. The band are not too exciting and her voice would appeal to me more later. However it is chockful of brilliant songs and I think probably rates in her top 5, or maybe higher. My ex considered it her masterpiece so maybe there is a little more in it for females to get into rather than us hairy, immature, loutish males.
She’s a genius
What @dai said. I thought WH was a novelty hit and then a few weeks later came The Man With…one of my favourite songs ever. She went from curiosity to genius very quickly. And grew from there.
Great! Looking forward to this series of reviews. It will be interesting to read what you make of her various journeys in the 80s and 90s!
The Kick Inside is, in many ways, for me, still arguably her best album (although I have been known to also say Aerial). You are bang on comparing it to sophisticated 70s AOR pop like Supertramp and Elton John – she totally nailed that songwriting style (at a VERY young age) and then when you put her own unique voice on top of that… well, there’s just no one like her.
This album I would say probably has her best collection of actual SONGS – bang, bang, bang, lyrics, melody, whack it out on a piano SONGS. Forget her uniqueness and experimentation, it’s just great songwriting with a great singer. Lyrical touches like “Oh ho ho to be hee hee in looooove” just tickle me in absolutely the right way, and that piercing “Out on the wiiiiiily (octave drop) windy mooooor….” has maybe become a bit dulled and comical through ubiquity, but what an opening line it is (one of those “hairs on the back of your neck” moments in pop history).
If she had stopped there she would have been forever a legend. The wonder is she kept going and kept growing, and this was only the start. One of the colossuses (colossi?) of pop music, and The Kick Inside is not so much the sound of her hitting the ground running but of her lapping her fellow competitors before they’ve even noticed she’s in the race.
A great review and this is still one of my favourite 20 albums ever.
I think you will find it is whales rather than wolves at the start of the album though!
Love your description of the music and look forward to the next one (not my favourite I have to say but still a good album).
Excellent work. Been basically in love with Ms Bush since her first appearance on the Pops and she’s never let me down. Looking forward to hearing what you make of my favourite, Never For Ever.
Just out of interest, what are your other contenders for ‘All time go to Drag karaoke song’?
I’m afraid I was just having a laugh. I’ve never done karaoke in my life – still scarred from getting kicked out of the school choir at age 8 whilst giving it what I thought was a pretty impressive David Bowie Starman style vocal.
I’ve seen my chum Big Bob do Wuthering Heights at karaoke. As dreadful as you can imagine, but nobody is going to tell him that (the clue’s in the name).
It’s my contention that almost no-one can do an impression of Kate Bush without venturing into Dame Edith Evans territory.
“And his seed took life in my handbaaaag”
Well, Wuthering Heights is my star turn for karaoke. I wonder whether your mate Big Bob is as big as me. I have even been asked to sing it at weddings and parties, and been invited on the strength of it, I believe. ASLEF conference is another favourite venue. Jaws continue to drop and, iirc, one member of the house band at the wedding decided to stop drinking after I’d done my a capella thing from the dancefloor. It’s only right that I should cite my influences.
Are you sure he said “stop drinking”?
Great choice for a 12 in 12 – looking forward to it.
I share your initial concerns – great singles but never got into the albums
(PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project is the only one I really enjoy, Bjork – none of them really, still only the odd track).
Was the same with KB – until last year (when finding second hand copies going cheap on Music Magpie) I dived in. Glad I did – I’d missed a lot, and now understood what the fuss was all about. Top spot for me is a dead heat between this one and Hounds Of Love
I’m the same age as Rig and came to this a decade after release, three years after I’d bought the sophisticated pop of Hounds of Love.
It was introduced to me by a girlfriend in my first term at university – we split after a few months, but I kept on with KB for decades.
In 1979, as a callow 15 year old, I bought the On Stage EP, which had Them Heavy People, Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake, James and the Cold Gun and “L’Amour Looks Something Like You on it, all recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in May of that year. It was one of very few records I had at the time. As a result, I played it incessantly. That, combined with the fact that I didn’t own another Kate Bush record for many years has somewhat skewed my view of A Kick Inside.
Of course, I knew the singles Wuthering Heights and The Man With A Child In His Eyes, but I absolutely loved the live versions of Them Heavy People, James and the Cold Gun and L’Amour Looks Something Like You from On Stage and the LP versions seemed to pale in comparison. Also, familiarity with those tracks has meant that I have never really focussed on the others. I am listening to A Kick Inside now, and Room For The Life has just come on – good innit?
Anyway, here’s James and the Cold Gun from Hammersmith. Ms Bush rocks out!
Looking forward to the upcoming reviews.
I’ve just realised that, so skewed was my view, that I couldn’t even get the name of the album correct! The Kick, not a Kick.
Great e.p. – I still play it!
I bought The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never For Ever on the same day – I had very little pocket money earlier, and too much of a sweet tooth to be able to save up for an album…so it took a couple of years before I got a significant raise (and going from a weekly payout to a monthly) and could start buying more albums!
Loved them all and kept buying her albums, The Dreaming being my all time favourite.
But I notice that when I ripped this album to my computer I skipped “James…” and “L’amour…” so they can’t have been favourites!
Looking forward to this new 12 in 12-series!
Funnily enough. Before my final edit I wrote saying saying that these two were the two songs I would leave off or keep for the second album, if I was to play God with the track order.
Excellent review.
Whilst I just about remember Wuthering Heights on TOTP (I was only 11 at the time), I only really started with Kate Bush with “The Dreaming”, which then led me backwards and onwards.
As a Kate Bush fan (well actually an obsessive), I’m looking forward to the rest of these. One question though – there are 10 studio albums (if you include Directors Cut, which is a re recording) – so are you going to include the two live albums (Hammersmith / Before The Dawn) or just stick with the 10?
Stan, if you need the live album I have the 1994 VHS+CD reissue of the 1981 VHS. I can ‘help’.
I thought the same. Aerial could be treated as 2 albums as the 2 discs are quite different (and have different names)
The Other Sides compilation rounds up at least an album’s worth of b-sides and non-album tracks.
Good point. There was also a double album This Woman’s Work in the box set of the same name (with duplication)
https://www.discogs.com/release/1040301-Kate-Bush-This-Womans-Work-Anthology-1978-1990
My current plan is to do the ten, the b-sides compilation and then for the 12th month -do the two live albums. Do people think the 1979 live album/DVD is sufficiently different to the first two albums to justify a separate review?
Sounds like a good plan.
It would be interesting to review the two live albums together – especially given it’s an artist that only played live at the beginning and end (possibly) of their careers without anything in between.
Sounds like a sound plan – so November – The b sides/Womens work /non album stuff, December – the two live albums (although will give the 1979 tour DVD a qucik onceover in late February.
About the cover: I don’t think it’s a swing. I think she’s hanging on to one of the crossbars of an oriental kite (as in the track “Kite”).
This album knocked me backwards when it came out and I still love it. I look forward to reading this series, but especially to your views on The Dreaming, which has not been knocked off the top spot (IMHO) by any of her subsequent albums…
Flying on a kite in front of a massive yellow eyeball*, with eye lashes like the nobbly bits records used to have round the edge of the label to stop them skidding while stacked on auto-changers.
(*) Jaundice? Or just been to the opticians and had the iodine eye drops?
Fluorescein, my good man, fluorescein…
Bleuchhh!
It appears that there is a lot of love for The Dreaming on this site. I was going to say, well ain’t that just typical, but then I remembered that once, in a shared house, three of the four residents had copies of The Dreaming, which was a statistically significant percentage of its sales at the time.
I once posted here or at the other place that it was the greatest album ever made, I had had a few drinks though
I bought WH when it was in the charts and thought it was magnificent. Her odd singing was great, I thought. I bought the first two albums – I think Lionheart is better overall apart from MWTCIHE which I also have on 45 with a few extra seconds on the front with Kate whispering “he’s here…he’s here”. I became less keen when she went all Fairlight and sampling Enfield rifle bolts etc etc. Some great singles but I don’t like the dense arrangements. I recently gave “Aerial” away as you can’t get the original album in Germany (here too?) as Rolf H has been removed and my mate wanted the original album (not that he cares about RH I don’t think).
That little Rolf adventure is a curious and interesting story. No doubt we can talk about it in about 8 months or so when we reach that one! I still have the Rolf Aerial, not the de-Rolfed one. (In fact i have two copies – remember it was re-released with disc two all merged into one big track?)
I think the new one has added Bertie, which scarcely makes it better.
I rest my case.
Rolf is on the title track of The Dreaming also, though not his voice – does that make a difference? Technically I suppose it is his voice, as he is credited with Didgeridoo.
I think he got royalties from one but not the other, Kate didn’t want him to earn anything from the reissue
I should say I mostly like Aerial but not massively and my mate is a big fan so fine. Ironically he probably skips that track.
We will get to Lionheart, it may be about underrated but I think generally it is much weaker (and she feels the same)
Er delete “about” above
I’ll give them a spin tomorrow. Lionheart had better cover especially on vinyl & “Oh England my lionheart” one of my favourites of hers.
Well, it’s great of course. All relative. First one I didn’t enjoy too much was The Red Shoes
Me too I think.
Great review, looking forward to the rest.
My wife and I met at school and became ‘an item’ 40 years ago last month. Three albums in her small collection were The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never Forever (along with Culture Club, a Maggie Bell album and Action Trax volumes 1 and 2). All of those albums are still in the collection, but only Kate’s get an airing. At the time I was immersed in NWOBHM type bands, Thin Lizzy, Queen, reggae and what would now probably be termed ‘urban’ (soul, funk, hip hop etc). I remember Wuthering Heights coming out and liking it, but didn’t really pay much attention until many years later (my interest may have resurfaced briefly when Babooshka came out, (I was a teenager after all). These days I can’t imagine not frequently listening to Kate Bush (and seem to have amassed multiple copies of those three albums). All of her albums are astonishing in one way or another (even The Red Shoes), and they’re the albums that keep on giving, always little snippets of sounds and music I’ve never picked up before. Some songs are a bit clunky, but there’s always something there that’s interesting. I can’t listen to Moving without The Saxophone Song, despite the fact that one merges into the other, they just seem to go together, and the best moments are where the band take a break and it’s just her pouring herself into the piano.
Our kids took umbrage at those jumping on the Stranger Things bandwagaon “we’ve been listening to her for years” they cried. Not willingly at first, but we persisted, and she’s now a permanent fixture on their Spotify lists (in fact most of their playlists are made up of ‘ye olde time music’, don’t think they care for a lot of that ‘modern stuff’).
It’ll be a sad day when Kate Bush stops making music.
Hopefully she hasn’t stopped, incredibly it’s been 12 years now
An hour-long BBC 6music Deep Dive Into The Kick Inside:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hpf9
I was lucky enough to see Kate Bush live on what turned out to be her only tour. April 1979. It was a bit out of character for me: I was a 24 year old working jazz/rock musician whose idols were Steely Dan, Weather Report and John McLaughlin. But I have loved KB ever since that night in Sunderland and have also come to appreciate what a unique talent she is. I remember the band being pretty impressive, certainly very tight, with an extended guitar solo over the outro to Wuthering Heights.