Kate Bush - The Kick Inside ALBUM REACTION
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- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- Kicking off the Kate Bush discography, The Kick Inside is a beautiful piece of work that presents how literate Bush is while showcasing her unique pop sensibilities that will only improve with time.
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YESSSS I LOVE THIS WOMAN MORE THAN ANYTHING 😫
So happy to see you exploring Kate's discography. She's such a mindblowingly creative and singular artist. The Kick Inside is a lovely debut and already shows how unique she was right from the start. Looking forward to checking out your other reactions.
Thanks for diving in. But be warned you'll be hooked by her magic. One suggestion though -- React to her "The Tour of Life" concert after "Lionheart". It's on YT and was a remarkable feat at the time. Kate was and is on another level. Thanks again.
I'll keep that in mind for sure. I'll either cover it in a video or save it for a planned livestream after I've absorbed her discography on the channel in full
The dance teacher was Lindsay Kemp, who taught Kate mime as well - he also taught David Bowie, which goes a long way to understanding the way both used expression in their videos
Moving is dedicated to Lindsay. He NEVER knew she was a singer songwriter because she would never talk about herself, shes so humbel and brillant perfekt rolemodel
What a way to introduce yourself to the world!
Here's some added information about "Wuthering Heights" the single had an earlier release date, but when Kate saw the proposed cover for the single she vetoed it as being too sexual so the single was delayed.
This had a positive effect in two ways.
📍The original release date would have meant it would have clashed with "Mull of Kintyre" by Paul McCartney's wings which turned into a massive hit.
📍The single had already been sent to radio stations to play, when the release date was delayed, EMI asked radio stations to delay playing the single. However two radio stations ignored the instructions - Capital Radio in London and Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, because they thought that it was so good & unusual that it to be put on their playlists. So this had the effect of general interest in a record that no-one could buy yet. In the end the BBC national radio station BBC Radio 1 also put it on the playlist as well.
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The structure of the song is very usual, Kate described it as circular. In addition to that it has very unusual chord/key changes together with changes in timing. Which meant that it was unlike anything in the UK singles chart at the time.
Kate never had any formal music school training and was never exposed to any music theory, so she just composed a song on the basis of what sounded right to her.
The use of unusual key changes & timing is a characteristic of most of Kate's songs.
Indeed whole podcasts have been devoted to breaking down the structure of the song.
There two versions of music video the "White Dress" version of the official video is the one that was shown in the UK, so in that respect is more iconic here. My understanding is that the "Red Dress" version was intended more for international territories. However, the later video led to an annual worldwide event held on/or close to Kate's birthday which she shares with Emily Bronte called "The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever" where groups of people gather together (wearing red) to perform the dance which was featured in the video.
I love this one. I don't think comparing this to Hounds of Love would be the best idea.
It is a great album written by a teenager in the 70's.
Yea I agree it isn't fair to compare the two since their two very different concepts when you look into them. I'm just using Hounds of Love as a reference point to see how she evolves from the beginning, picking up characteristics where I can and how they lead into the rest of her career. At the end of the day, the choice in one album over the other to listen to would come down entirely to mood.
Hi and thanks for this. Really glad you enjoyed "The Kick Inside." In relation to the final track it is worth noting that as well as being about incest and pregnancy, it is also about suicide. The son is written in the form of a suicide note, the album concluding with the words 'By the time you read this.' I have always been very impressed by TKI as a debut album and still think it holds up tremendously well.
Regarding her next album, 'Lionheart' it often comes quite low on many people's tier lists of Kate Bush albums. It is also often considered to be the one KB album that sounds most like the album that preceded it. And I think that these are fair points. However there is a lot on it to enjoy. One thing that you might notice is that while TKI has several sons where there is a romantic male lead, that idea is pretty much absent from 'Lionheart' and, you will begin to hear some more unusual musical choices in relation to sounds, layering, etc pointing the way towards her more experimental albums.
Do watch out for 'Wow' and her naughty line about Vaseline (or perhaps someone from the US might say 'lube'). Also watch out for the growing sense of anxiety, or alienation, or sense of sense of something amiss about some of the songs as the album reaches its conclusion.
As I said earlier, I'm really glad you enjoyed TKI. 'Lionheart' might not be perhaps just as good (at least to me anyway), but it does have some very high points (I particularly love 'In The Warm Room').
Welcome aboard!
Some interesting facts she wrote Wuthering Heights based off of the 1930's film she saw one night and then read the book as research. She shares her birthday with Emily Bronte, sent Wuthering Heights back to number 1 in the book charts, I think the same time as the song, and more recently was asked to compose a poem for Emily as part of the Bronte walk in Yorkshire, where the landscape inspired the book.
The 1939 classic movie Wuthering Heights starring Lawrence Olivier, Merle Oberon, Geraldine Fitzgerald, David Niven and the fabulous Flora Robson is a must-watch.
I'll have to check it out after reading the novel. Thanks for the recommendation
Kick Inside and Lionheart are before she took production into her own hands with Never Forever,. That's the album that starts the musical and sonic development that culminated in Hounds of Love, via the profound experimentation and voice liberation of The Dreaming
The Kick Inside is likely my favorite album of hers.
Kate was forthright in wanting Wuthering Heights as the first single, although EMI was very pushy for James and the Cold Gun to be the first single.
Kate won, but the live version of James and the cold gun is insanel!
I would love to see you listen to The Dreaming. It is so out there as an album sonically. So experimental with it’s production and it was the first album she produced entirely on her own. It is up there with Hounds of Love, but it is very very very different and very inaccessible.
So I've heard. I can't wait. Challenging and experimental music is typically my most favourite.
You can group David Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush together - all each their own genre. Having now heard Wuthering Heights you should treat yourself to watching the music video for this song. Be sure to watch the original ‘White Dress’ version, not the artistically far inferior ‘Red Dress’ version that was shot for the American release of the single. Remember when watching that she is singing as a ghost come back to haunt her lover, showing the benefit of her dance and mime training.
I'm considering doing a livestream once I'm done with her full discography where myself and the audience can discuss Kate Bush even more in depth. Perhaps even a segment of watching some of her music videos?
@@Randyjoe213 Sounds great. Be sure to pick a time when us Brits can join.
Oh boy, I can’t wait until you get to The Dreaming. You better buckle up!
Very excited to see what he thinks of that album.
EMI wanted to release 'James' as the first single, but Kate insisted that it be Wuthering Heights. She won the battle - no mean feat for an unknown 19 year old female, at the time.
I hope you're listening to the full songs privately because "skipping" through songs doesn't work for me. You "skipped" past some of my favourite parts of some songs! For me this is her best album - I like each and every song on the album.
Don't worry, I never skip anything I react to. All albums are listened to in full, I only cut down the extra filler moments of my reaction when I have nothing of use to add. Otherwise I'd be posting entire albums in full with little commentary and due to RUclips rules and copyright laws, that'd be unwise as a creator. I'm considering posting full length reactions in the future through a Patreon for those interested (along with some bonus content)
Thank you very much, for starting a deep dive into Kate discography, I'm sure that you will find it to be an interesting experience.
A little bit of history before "The Kick Inside", Kate initially taught herself to play the piano and started writing songs from aged 11, adding more complex lyrics from age 13 onwards. She was exposed to music from an early age her mother was an amateur Irish dancer and her father played the piano at home. Both of her brothers were active on the local folk music scene which included Irish & English songs.
In an effort to get record companies interested her family had put together a rough quality recording of fifty of Kate's songs (by her late teens she would have written over two hundred) but it didn't generate any response.
A friend of the family Ricky Hooper knew David Gilmour and passed the tape of the songs to him. He was interested enough to visit the family home and see Kate in person.
After that he invited Kate to play (in his studio at his home) with some session musicians. It was after that he decided to create a professional recording of some of her songs.
He selected three songs from Kate's extensive catalogue of songs that she had written to be recorded professionally using session musicians. Two of these songs recorded when she was just 16 years old and ultimately ended up on the album they were:
📍The Saxophone Song
📍The Man With The Child In His Eyes
David thought that "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" was the song that convinced EMI to sign Kate. Now, EMI did pay Kate a retainer which she put to good use taking dance lessons from Lindsay Kemp (the same person who taught David Bowie), polishing up her piano playing, vocal lessons, etc.
She also fronted a band called the "KT Bush Band" which played in pubs in London, ultimately the set list did end up including early versions of some of her songs namely "James And The Cold Gun", "Saxophone Song' and "Them Heavy People".
Unfortunately for the album recordings, session musicians were used instead.
Regarding "Wuthering Heights" years before, Kate saw the tail end of a BBC adaptation when Cathy was trying to get in via a window of Heathcliff's house and the image stuck with her.
She wrote the song late at night under the light of a full moon. In order to get into the character of Cathy, Kate read part of the novel. Quite a bit later after she had finished the song, Kate got round to finish the book and noticed that some of the text in parts of the book had ended up in the lyrics anyway.
She recorded her vocals in one take, which is fantastic. The high vocal register was initially an experiment by Kate to see if she could reach that high, in order to properly represent Cathy at this point in the novel. Kate said later that when she sung "Wuthering Heights" she was channelling Cathy.
"Wuthering Heights" was actually a worldwide smash hit reaching number 1 in a number of countries and charting highly in others.
"James And The Cold Gun" was the track that EMI wanted to release as the debut single, but Kate wanted "Wuthering Heights" to be her debut. EMI gave into Kate's demands because most of the executives thought it would be a flop, how wrong they were. The massive success of "Wuthering Heights" meant that Kate was able to get "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" released as her 2nd single.
In relation to "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" it's worth looking at "The Kate Bush Encyclopedia" website in order to read Kate's thoughts about the song.
The same website does has a particular view on "Room For The Life" but no direct thoughts from Kate herself.
Regarding "The Kick Inside," the title track here's some more background about it. Now Kate's brothers were active on the local folk music scene, so Kate would get exposed to traditional English & Irish folk songs. One of which was "Lucy Wan" or "Lizzie Wan" [the spelling varies] (whiich falls into a category called "Murder Ballads" when something horrible happens to a woman or child). In the original, Lucy and her brother are in an incestuous relationship because she either confesses to her brother that a child in the cot is his or she's pregnant with his child.
The brother then cuts Lucy down with his sword, and I assume in the version where the child is in cot, murders it as well. When the brother sees his mother his sword is still dripping with Lucy's blood on it, he tries to explain it away, but in the end confesses to his mother and leaves the house to never be seen again and potentially kill himself.
However, in Kate's version, it's the woman who has been given the agency instead, rather than crying and then being murdered by her brother.
There's a video of Kate performing the song for a dutch pop programme, which is well worth watching.
A RUclips reactor called the "Popcorn Philosopher" undertook some detailed research into the song, and the resulting video is certainly recommended.
The fact that "The Kick Inside" a song about that subject matter was the title track was a clear demonstration that Kate was prepared to make songs about subjects that other artists would never go anywhere near (as you mentioned), showing how fearless she is as an artist.
Please react to Right Place Wrong Person by BTS' RM! It's super experimental and I think you'll like it
you should react to AAZTIYEN by ZETAK
Given It is possible for a teenage girl to have feelings for an older man without that man even knowing it makes your jumping to the conclusion it's about grooming somewhat premature and revealing.
? I think it's fair for me to react that way and infer what it's alluding to considering how much of a current topic grooming is in this day and age. Very weird to make an assumption of a stranger online who is simply reacting to music and attempting to dissect the music rather quickly.
@@Randyjoe213 This was written in the seventies, so it's not fair projecting a modern perspective on the song, as it will most likely lead to a misinterpretation, which it did.
Also, it took me less than a minute on the net to ascertain that the song was about an innocent first crush, so it would of been a good idea for you to do that as well after the song.
Misinterpretation sure but this is a first reaction. I'm not researching each and every song as the album plays, I'm taking them as they are and saying how I interpret them. Believe it or not, art can be interpreted several ways despite an artist's intentions. A modern take just adds to the conversation. No need to examine a simple offhanded comment in the midst of a 40 minute video
@@Randyjoe213 I'm not saying you shouldn't have an opinion, I'm just pointing out that given the provocative nature of the subject of grooming, any speculation should've gone unsaid.
@@bazeye sorry, but very revealing of what, exactly? What are you insinuating?
At the age of 19, Kate Bush released an album of songs that she had been writing for several years that addressed in one way or another, adolescent sexuality. It is genuinely surprising that she could write a song like TMWTCIHE at the age of 13, whether it is about a crush or something more tangible. We live in a world where children are , unfortunately, sexualized at a younger age than ever before, whether it be by the entertainment industry, commercial organisations or pornographers. However, we don't do them any favours by infantilising then either. There's a song here about teenage incest, pregnancy and suicide. If Kate can deal with the those subjects as an adolescent, and without judgement, then so can we as adults. It doesn't mean we condone any of those things, but they do happen.
So, no disrespect at all to Kate, nor indeed to anyone, but I have a theory that Kate is not straightforwardly female, but rather some sort of non-binary or even intersex individual and that this is important when it comes to understanding and interpreting Kate's music. Most of the songs on The Kick Inside (and later albums) are themed on sexual discovery and gender issues. Indeed, "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" can, I suggest, be interpreted as a metaphor, in which the "man" is Kate's own masculinity, such that Kate considers it to be a "man" who visits her at night when she closes her eyes. That's not what Kate has said that the song is about, but one would be naive to expect artists to always tell the truth, publicly, about their art, especially when they have active record contracts and might risk losing fans! You are presumably reacting to only audio of album tracks, but, if you want to see what might, I suggest, be a glimpse of the true Kate Bush, I recommend that you watch her 1979 Xmas Special performance of her song "Egypt". It is pretty hardcore and avant-garde, with very "camp" vibes! In a way, Kate Bush is very similar to David Bowie, just at a slightly different place on the "rainbow spectrum".
Pray tell, what do you mean by straightforwardly female? And actually, it is disrespectful to theorise about the gender identity of someone who is perfectly capable of defining themselves. Back in the 70s, Kate broke boundaries by writing about sex, sexuality and gender from a feminine perspective in a way that had not really been done before in mainstream music and culture. She also asserted control over her own music, in both artistic and commercial terms, in a way that was unprecedented for women at the time. So having claimed that space for women, I think the least we can do is respect her as a woman.
One thing that is very striking and distinctive about all of Kate's work, throughout her career, is that rather than writing directly about or from her own experience, she wrote from her imagination, and a place of curiosity and empathy. She populated her songs with an enormous and diverse cast of characters, inspired by books, films, stories in the news, and her own dreams and fantasies. How wonderful that she was able to do that, what a gift. There's something Shakespearean about having that kind of facility to think herself into the place of other people, regardless of their identity or background. But it doesn't mean she is not a woman. Women can have sexual fantasies, women can do 'hardcore', women can be camp, and women can also speak for themselves. The way that a person interprets or experiences a work of art is completely up to the individual; art is a tool through which we are able to. explore ourselves. However, we should be careful about what we project onto the artist.
She is a woman that gave birth to her son🤔
Oh to be in Love and Wuthering Heights are my favorite tracks on this album. When I got my wisdom teeth out, I woke up singing Oh to be in Love. 😂 I had it stuck in my head the entire time I was under. That, or it was just the first thing I thought of when I woke up.