Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush 'Don't Give Up'

Chart Peak: 9
YouTube

The follow-up to 'Sledgehammer' went straight into the chart at No. 31 after just one week on release.

Hard to imagine that even in 1986 a new release from one (or even two) established stars entering the Top 40 in release week was really that noteworthy, but I guess they had to make it sound exciting somehow. Presumably they went to press too soon to mention that by its second week, 'Don't Give Up' had progressed to the Top 20 and been joined in the 40 by Kate Bush's solo single 'Experiment IV'. It's fairly well-known now that Peter Gabriel was originally inspired to write this song by images of Depression-era America and so intended the song as a duet with Dolly Parton but she turned it down (Gabriel speculates that she didn't actually know who he was) and forced him to go in another direction.

Tantalising as it is to imagine a Gabriel/Parton duet, his old friend Kate does a more than sterling job. Not only is she obviously a very good singer but the contrast between their two voices accompanies the contrast between their two parts, the despairing man in the verses and the determinedly hopeful woman in the chorus. What saves this from glib sentimentality is the pain in her voice; you know she's not just handing out platitudes, she's struggling herself but they both need each other to keep going. This is accompanied by a relatively minimal soundscape, which fits with the desolate beauty of their situation without suggesting any specific place or time. The most famous element in that production is of course Tony Levin's bass part, which was recorded partly by using one of his daughter's nappies to damp down the strings. One certainly hopes it was a clean nappy.

The resultant track is quite possibly the best on this album, certainly the best in this sort of style (it's harder to compare this with something like 'What Have You Done For Me Lately') but also a song that's not an easy or comfortable listen. Sometimes I don't feel up to it.

Peter Gabriel also appears on: Now 7, 23, 24
Kate Bush also appears on: Now 6, 16
Available on: Hit

Kate Bush 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

'Running Up That Hill' shot straight into the Top 10 on release and reached Number 3 in late August - It was Kate's first single for three years.

I've got a couple of days behind on this album, but ironically it might have been more interesting had I got even further back as I might then have had the unusual experience of writing on this blog about a current Top 40 hit: as of today it looks like this song will be in the Top 10 again this week.

At the time, too, this was a major comeback for her, following what then seemed a long three-year wait after the relatively unsuccessful The Dreaming album. Despite the controversial sub-title (omitted on the original single but listed here and on every other release to include the song), this was and still is her biggest hit since 1978 in both the UK and the US. It's an example of one of my favourite pop phenomena - the deserved crossover hit. Many non-mainstream acts have had big hits by exploiting a fanbase or harking back to early glories, but Bush is among the select group of major acts who can produce work that's deep and yet also instantly accessible. Unusually for music of this era, whilst the heavy use of synthesisers and the booming drums suggest this record couldn't be much older than it is, it sounds like Bush is the master of them, not vice versa - you could imagine it being made with almost the same sound any time in the subsequent 27 years without sounding inappropriate. You can easily tell the song's heavy with meaning too, even if it's hard to put your finger on exactly what it means; it is perhaps slightly clearer when heard as the opening track on Hounds Of Love, as an introduction to the ominous themes of that record. It still seems to come from a position of hope though, and it feels artistically honest that the music it's set to has a prettiness that offers the optimism the lyric tries for: "tell me we both matter, don't we?". A track that absolutely fits on this album as a piece of pop but outclasses most of the rest.


Also appearing on: Now 8 [with Peter Gabriel], 16
Available on: The Whole Story

Kate Bush 'The Sensual World'

Chart Peak: 12

YouTube

'The Sensual World', which made Number 12 in September 1989, was Kate's biggest British hit single since 'Running Up That Hill' in 1985.

So... shall I pretend that taking a week to get round to this post is a tribute to Kate Bush's notoriously slow work rate? If so, it'd be an ill-timed one, since she's just released her second album of 2011, albeit that only one of them had new material. That said, there was an eleven-year gap between The Red Shoes and Aerial, which is roughly the same length of time that divides this from 'Wuthering Heights'. Of course, this sporadic release schedule is one reason she features relatively rarely in the Now! series - just the two solo singles - but even when she does she feels as out of place as an act of her commercial stature might reasonably seem. For all its chart success, 'The Sensual World' isn't really a pop song, and was utterly baffling to my 11-year-old ears; not difficult to listen to as an aggressive rock or hip-hop track might be, just hard to understand; especially since I didn't really know what the word "sensual" meant, although I was pretty sure it was something rude. I didn't know (and wouldn't have understood anyway) that the song was originally based on a  speech from James Joyce's Ulysses, although Bush was unable to get permission at the time - she did manage to clear it for the re-recording earlier this year. I didn't know it was derived from a Macedonian folk tune either, but then I didn't know there was such a place as Macedonia, let alone two of them.

Actually reading Ulysses was somewhat more research than I thought necessary for this blog post, though, so I'm just going to look on this as a record. Interestingly, whilst the word "sensual" obviously implies sexuality, and that's certainly implied by the lyric and the breathy vocals, I think Bush is also using the word in a more general sense, as she talks about her character "stepping out from the page" and embracing reality in all its physical and emotional impact. It's obviously possible to read this as somehow autobiographical from somebody whose first hit was adapted from a book, but whether there's any truth in that we're never to know. Either way, it's a heady mix with the twisty melody and those haunting pipes. And yet, it's not the sort of thing that would realistically ever have been a hit single were it not from a legendary act, and it doesn't wholly seem to make sense without some broader context. It's admirable but doesn't stand alone in the same way as her next single, 'This Woman's Work'.

Also appearing on: Now 6, 8 (with Peter Gabriel)
Available on: The Sensual World