The Kick Inside - Album

[Admin]

Discuss the album 'The Kick Inside' as a whole.

[stev0]

Ah, yes - my first Kate album (because at the time it was the ONLY Kate album!)

At the time I was into punk and the angstier stuff of David Bowie (hey, I was a teenager). This was so unlike everything I listened to, but I loved it. When I got my first girlfriend (who was into folk music), I put this on and she had a feeling of dread (coming from the other music I tried playing for her). She loved it - it quickly became her favorite album. My first Kate Konversion!

[matanchik]

stev0 said:

At the time I was into punk and the angstier stuff of David Bowie (hey, I was a teenager).

what's wrong with david bowie? i really like his music

[stev0]

Oh, I still love Bowie. But my tastes have expanded that I know really like classical, reggae, Latino music, Celtic music, and more - and have been know to enjoy blues, country, some jazz, etc. etc.

[CopyOfCpt (just say Cor)]

This was my second album of Kate.. and it took some getting used to (a bit too sweet according to my taste way back then).. now I appreciate it better each time I hear it.

[tabatha]

May I ask a question, Does any one know the exact date, or a simple round about time. would do. Thanks.

[stev0]

tabatha said:

May I ask a question, Does any one know the exact date, or a simple round about time. would do. Thanks.

I assume you mean release date. According to the FAQ, February 17, 1978.

[Kevin2]

With Aerial awaiting its final garnishings I find myself wanting an appetizer.

Are there any albums you know of that sound similar to TKI and Lionheart? I've always been impressed with the sound of these albums... are they unique?

Or put a bit differently, what musical influences did Kate draw upon for these first two albums?

[Adey]

Kevan's question: "Are there any albums you know of that sound similar to TKI and Lionheart? I've always been impressed with the sound of these albums... are they unique?" ~


Kate's style started to change dramatically after TKI & then LH.

These were the product of her unique writing and a very slick, well organised team of of session musicians (a combination of the groups Pilot & Cockney Rebel mk2) and talented producer. It's all Kate of course, but heavily coloured & diluted by the vibe of traditional late 70s pop music. My belief is that the arrangements were largely defined by the studio team and that they did a damn fine job on what was obviously innovative material. TKI & LH are therefore pretty much unique - I don't believe that you'll find another Kate Bush album that sounds anything like these. (Actually - and I'm sticking my neck out here - I believe that Kate didn't match the production values of those 2 albums until she recorded HOL).

During the recording of NFE, Kate was becoming much more pro-active in the studio. She'd been exposed to Peter Gabriel and his method of writing with drum machine & early sampling tools, and had acquired her own hellishly expensive Fairlight CMI sampling/sequencing digital work station which she'd experimented with in her writing. Kate had been a careful & thorough student/observer in earlier recording sessions for TKI & LH, and was putting this new expertise into sessions for NFE. She was finding her own way in the studio (with the help of a sympathetic engineer) and the material/arrangements were much more in tune with her developing ideas and skills..

It could be argued that Kate lost something when she started to take over the recording process, and there is no doubt that TKI & LH were/are marvellous and still innovative albums, beautifully recorded. The studio team really did her proud. But in rejecting much of that expertise, she gained so much more. I believe that there would have been no Dreaming or Hounds of Love, had she allowed herself to continue to be led by the traditional pop studio routine & methodology of doing the 'expected' thing. Once she was free and clear and (more importantly) experimenting, the truly innovative Kate Bush material started to appear. And if you doubt it, look at her comment on the sleeve notes for NFE..

That's my answer Kevan - just my thoughts obviously, based on interviews I've read and my observations of her material. But I don't think I'm far wrong.

[Kevin2]

wow... thanks, Adey.

And regarding:

Actually - and I'm sticking my neck out here - I believe that Kate didn't match the production values of those 2 albums until she recorded HOL).

I had originally written something just a bit more drastic but then pulled my neck back in.

And yeah, kudos to the studio team.

The overall sound of the other albums though are good too (not that you said they weren't) - just yesterday I noticed the percussion sound on Babooshka that hits like a hammer (literally) and yet it is so integrated with the song's chorus that I never before noticed it. It sounds like some type type of hanging sheet metal being hammered.

[Gelid]

The Kick Inside to me was a hard listen, being a young man all of 18 or 19 years old when I first bought it because lyrically, this is def a woman's album. For example, "Room For The Life" is such a cool song, but I always felt akward listening to the lyrics. I liked it because of the creative arangement and the careful balance between rhythm and melody. The piano sound is just great, too. Actually, I can say the same for the rest of the album. Great arangements and rhythm / melody balance. I like melody over rhythm but too much of it (not enough rhythm) can be tiresome. This album strikes a perfect balance throughout.

[tannis]

The Kick Inside: EVE, SATAN & THE PLANK IN THE EYE

"Beelzebub is aching in my belly-o..."

Beelzebub (Be'elzebub "Lord of Flies") is originally the name of a Philistine god, but is also used in the New Testament as a synonym for Satan.

The cover to The Kick Inside is extremely oriental. But does it really contain a Biblical meaning?

Dragon - Dramatically different interpretation between Eastern and Western cultures. In the Orient, the dragon protects humans from evil spirits and represents joy, health and fertility. But in Western cultures, the dragon possesses the negative traits of the snake, destruction, danger, depravity, and loss of innocence.

In an ancient variation on Biblical tradition, the so-called “mark of Cain” - believed to have been inflicted upon Adam’s first son - is said to have been caused by a stone that fell from Lucifer’s crown during the war in Heaven and bounced off Cain‘s forehead. According to this lore, the mark was in the shape of a red serpent...

On the album cover, KB is shown lying with a red dragon. In the Bible, Satan is referred to as a red dragon, the old serpent, and the devil. Some say the Fall was brought on by an unholy sexual union between Satan and Eve. In Gen. 3:3, Eve tells Satan that neither she nor Adam can 'touch' the 'fruit' of the 'Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil'. The word touch means 'to lay hands upon, to lie with', obviously sexual in nature.
So does TKI cover tell a biblical tale?

Revelation 12:3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

TKI album cover has a very large eye with KB holding onto the plank of a kite.
So could the album, The Kick Inside, represent the plank in the eye?
- This metaphor is certainly present in 'Suspended in Gaffa':
see: katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=dreaming&action=display&n=1&thread=1710&page=2

Matthew 7:3 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

"They open doorways that I thought were shut for good
They read me Gurdjieff and Jesu..." *

BAR JESU: A Jewish magician described in Acts xiii. 6-11 as a "sorcerer, a false prophet". He also bore the title of "Elymas" (= sorcerer; explained also from the Arabic alim = wise).

Acts 13:6 And when they had gone through the whole island, as far as Paphos, they found a certain man, a magician, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesu: 7 Who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a prudent man. He sending for Barnabas and Saul, desired to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for so his name is interpreted) withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, otherwise Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, looking upon him, 10 Said: O full of all guile, and of all deceit, child of the devil, enemy of all justice, thou ceasest not to pervert the right ways of the Lord. 11 And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.

The Last Temptation of...

...and does the image of KT represent a regendered portraiture of the crucified Christ?

...The Passion of The Bush!
see more:
www.passionofagoddess.com/

The Crucifixion

He is pushed forward from the steps.
Glistening eyes glare from around at the dropping figure.
Silence ceases and murmers gather quickly like the grabbing of a hand.
Guilty onlookers hide their eyes from the shame that they know and forbid to reveal.
Slowly the dimness falls.
The man weeps and his forsaken tears fall,
Slipping down the trembling and battered body onto the dust.
He collapses down onto the ground.
His head bruises past the stones, scarring his tear-stained face.
He staggers to his feet, groping toward his fate.
Sharply iron pierces flesh, and the shape is raised on the hill.
Stillness overcomes the cheering spectators,
And the mocked and pride-broken lead turns in outcry.
The people form and run down the hill.
With a last glance at his betrayers
He dissolves into a limp, dumb body,
As the blood-red sun sinks into the skull of a dead man.

Catherine Bush, (aged eleven-twelve, Form I, 1969-70)
- gaffa.org/garden/poems.html

-----

* JESU, JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING

Of course, "Jesu" can and may refer to Jesus Christ and his teachings.

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the title of a transcription by the English pianist Myra Hess (1890-1965) of the chorale that ends each part of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. Hess's transcription was published in 1926 for piano solo and in 1934 for piano duet, but the transcription itself has since been arranged for various instruments and combinations. Today, it is often performed at wedding ceremonies slowly and reverently, in defiance of the affect suggested by Bach in his original scoring, for voices with trumpet, oboes, strings, and continuo. Written during his first year in Leipzig, Germany, this chorale movement is one of Bach's most enduring works...

Jesu, joy of man's desiring,
Holy Wisdom, Love most bright;
Drawn by Thee, our souls, aspiring,
Soar to uncreated light.
Word of God, our flesh that fashion'd,
With the fire of life impassion'd,
Striving still to truth unknown,
Soaring, dying, round Thy throne.

Through the way where hope is guiding,
Hark, what peaceful music rings!
Where the flock, in Thee confiding,
Drink of joy from deathless springs.
Theirs is beauty's fairest pleasure;
Theirs is wisdom's holiest treasure.
Thou dost ever lead Thine own
In the love of joys unknown.

[tannis]

KITE (bird): Kites were among the birds sacred to Apollo and their flight was particularly prolific of omens. Apollo changed himself into a kite when Typhon attacked Olympus. The high-flying kite with its keen eyesight was watched for significant movements by the augurs. It was generally associated with Apollo and symbolized second sight.

The Goddess Isis was commonly known to appear as a kite. After reassembling the dismembered corpse of Osiris which had been scattered throughout Egypt by Set, Isis took the form of a kite and gave the breath of life to Her husband/brother with the great sweep of Her wings. It was also in this form that Isis conceived Horus once She revived Osiris. She is frequently shown in both fully kite form as well as in human form with the wings of a kite. The winged Isis along with a winged Nephthys, Selket (Serket), and Neith are poised at each of the four corners of many a sarcophagi and canopic chest in order to guard the bodily remains of the deceased, which in Egyptian funerary belief holds the key to a pleasant afterlife. Thus represented on such containers, Isis' protective qualities are invoked for eternity.

[tannis]

THE ALBUM COVERS: THE KICK INSIDE, LIONHEART, NEVER FOR EVER

On the attic cover to Lionheart, Kate's slender, 'heroin chic' frame is photographed on top of a signed crate. What is hiding in the attic crate? What does KaTe conceal in her 'Pandora's box'? What story does the cover tell?

On the cover to Never for Ever, KaTe opens her 'Pandora's Box', and the attic crate reveals a flow of Boschian monsters and chimeras!

The Never for Ever cover reads like a visual pun or catch phrase play on KaTe's name: Kate, Bosch, Kate Bush...

In 1960, the art historian Ludwig von Baldass wrote that Bosch shows "how sin came into the world through the Creation of Eve, how fleshly lusts spread over the entire earth, promoting all the Deadly Sins, and how this necessarily leads straight to Hell". Charles de Tolnay wrote that the center panel represents "the nightmare of humanity", where "the artist's purpose above all is to show the evil consequences of sensual pleasure and to stress its ephemeral character".

The phrase Never for Ever is rather like the Latin Memento mori; and death is a state of being never for ever. On Never for Ever, Kate is as deathly pale as 'Cathy'. She stands on her funeral mound, "barefoot and pregnant", reincarnating light and dark creatures, giving it all from her billowing aerial-decorated dress...

Indeed, the photoshoot for the NFE album sleeve shows KaTe wearing what seems to be a red chintz maternity dress...
www.kundavega.com/kate/stickyB.jpg
gaffa.org/wow/k_b.jpg
and see also:
gaffa.org/wow/k187.jpg

On the back cover to NFE is a Sunset photograph - the 'sun and the moon meet' and KaTe takes to the sky as vampire bats. Note that the NFE Back Cover ("concept and photography, John Carder Bush") has a very similar 'sun set meeting moon' theme to the Back cover ("original ideas: John Carder Bush and Del Palmer") of The Kick Inside. Both the NFE and TKI back covers feature a sunset sky with moon and flying creatures. Even the sloping hill horizon is similar...

see more
KATE'S BUSH and KATE'S BOSCH...
katebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=neverforever&action=display&thread=1702&page=2

[tannis]

THE KICK INSIDE and AERIAL...

Now go check the album color schemes... YELLOW and MAROON...

Coincidence? No Coincidence? ...

"I will come home again, but not until
The sun and the moon meet on yon hill..."

...Strange Phenomena?