Kate Bush 'The Red Shoes': from the archive
This Glimpse was first published on 11 September 2023.
Programming note: From now until August I’ll be running some of the most popular Glimpses from my archive (lightly revised). I am completing a book about a classic album, and the deadline is looming. Although Glimpses are short, they take time to research, so I’m pausing new ones for a few weeks. If you’re a free subscriber, this is an opportunity to see a few of the older posts in the archive. I’m lifting the archive paywall during this time.
The weekly Gems playlist continues uninterrupted, with the next one (#038) due on 15 June 2024.
The Red Shoes was the last of what I think of as the original series of Kate Bush. After an initial record company enforced a flurry of two releases in a year, her albums settled into a rhythm of something new every three or four years. So, at the time (1993) there was no reason to believe The Red Shoes was anything other than the next in a continuing long line of Kate Bush records.
Click here or on the image to listen to The Red Shoes now
Her next release, the double album Aerial, wouldn’t drop for a further twelve years. This, together with 50 Words for Snow, started Kate Bush series two. I’ll think about whether the next album begins series three if (and when?) the time comes.
We’ve got used to long gaps between albums being the natural order of things - not just Bush, but across many artists. As an extreme example, Peter Gabriel’s previous studio album of original songs, Up, was released in 2002 and we had to wait until 2023 for i/o. To be fair, he did release a covers album and orchestral rearrangements of some previously released songs in that time. To put these gaps in context, the entire career of The Beatles, even extending it as far as possible by counting from the formation of The Quarrymen in 1956, was 14 years.
I’m not suggesting artists and bands should be more productive. I’d rather have a great album when it’s cooked than the raw mixture every year. 1
Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Kate Bush.
Coming off the high point of Hounds of Love, and the slightly disappointing The Sensual World, what was The Red Shoes?
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When Kate Bush unexpectedly returned to the stage in 2014, she chose to open each of the 22 gigs with ‘Lily’, from The Red Shoes. At first sight, this was a surprising choice. It was a statement. Without ‘Rubberband Girl’ - and the album was nearly devoid of ‘Rubberband’ as Bush didn’t think it was as interesting as the other tracks - ‘Lily’ might have been promoted to lead track.
What was the statement? In the few years since The Sensual World, life had come at Bush fast, including a series of bereavements. She explained ‘Lily’ is about a friend who taught her about the power of angels, and how all we have to do is ask the angels for help and it will be given. Make of that what you will. ‘Lily’ says Bush is back, but not in the same way as before, after a little help from her friends. Opening ‘Before The Dawn’ with ‘Lily’ offers the same message.
One other song from Shoes made Dawn: ‘Top of the City’. Another surprising choice, at least until we acknowledge that the top of the city offers the view from an angel’s shoulders. Dawn was a thematic show, constructed around ‘The Ninth Wave’ (side two of Hounds of Love) and ‘A Sky of Honey’ (the second part of Aerial).
Elsewhere, ‘And So is Love’ is beautiful as only Bush can do beautiful, and features Eric Clapton rumbling away on guitar. Many of the tracks on this album are given another layer with backing harmonies, including here, turning a simple song into something special.
I remember seeing Bush perform ‘Moments of Pleasure’ on television - the chat show ‘Aspel & Co’. (Seeing Kate Bush appearing as a guest on a chat show seems like a memory from another age - well, the 1990s were another age). The way she uses her voice on the chorus, backed by dramatic strings, might just be peak Bush, although it’s a fool’s errand trying to make that judgment. This song gets me every single time I hear it. It’s heart-meltingly lovely, and all the more so when considering the back story discussed above; although Bush describes it as a reflective celebration of life.
We should reflect on this for a moment: Is the intention of the artist (any artist) the only ‘correct’ interpretation of a work, or are we - as listeners - unable to avoid hearing songs through our own lenses, formed of our own emotional experiences? What do you think?
‘Why Should I Love You’ is a song in a style it seems only Bush can write. Musically, this was a collaboration with Prince. As well as vocals, Prince (being Prince) added plenty of sounds too, to the point where it had to be turned back into a Kate Bush song when the file was returned to her studios. Bush was only in contact with Prince from a distance, swapping files after an initial meeting. Wise move - read Sinead O’Connor’s harrowing experience of meeting Prince in her autobiography [Bookshop.org affiliate link.]
The title track brings plenty of energy to The Red Shoes. Given the inspiration behind the album is the 1948 film; which in turn took its inspiration from a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale concerning a dancer, possessed by her art, who cannot take off the eponymous shoes and find peace, this is fitting. For me, the full joy of this song can be found in the 10-minute remix, released as a 12” single and retitled ‘Shoedance’. Don’t be put off by the descriptor ‘dance mix’ - well, it is a dance mix, just not what that term often delivers.
Lastly, consider ‘Eat the Music’. Another dancy, suggestive, celebration of life uptempo, celebratory backing vocals, brass band (I would love the brass to be higher in the mix and close the track with a bang, not the fade out we have); life overriding painful loss, which in the end is what ‘The Red Shoes’ is about - at least, it is through my emotional lens.
There’s more …
The Line, the Cross and the Curve is a short film/video album featuring Kate Bush, Miranda Richardson, and Bush’s first dance teacher Lindsay Kemp. (https://www.katebushencyclopedia.com/line-the-cross-and-the-curve-the)2. Six of the tracks from The Red Shoes are featured. Perhaps the ‘film’ saw Bush overreaching a little, given she had limited time to complete it; but we want our creatives to stretch, do we not?
Seven songs from Shoes were reworked for the Director’s Cut album, mainly because Bush didn’t like the harsh digital mastering of the original album so created a new, warmer-sounding, master. And, of course, as an artist from the Peter Gabriel school of overthinking everything - usually to great effect in the end - vocals were re-recorded, drum sounds changed, and entire songs restructured. As long as the original remains on sale, I have no problem with artists revisiting their catalogue, although preferably not at the expense of new music.
Will there ever be any new music from KB? I have no idea. In an interview on the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Woman’s Hour’, she suggested she was happy gardening in the wake of the Stranger Things revival of ‘Running Up That Hill’. But you can’t garden all the time …
… can you?
All the best,
Ian
I’m aware that this metaphor doesn’t really work. Who can resist raw cake mixture?
Hat tip to the astounding Kate Bush Encyclopedia https://www.katebushencyclopedia.com as a background source for this post.
Another artist I've overlooked in the past. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I got the email but didn’t have the funds to book. Was convinced there would be a DVD. Gutted too 😐