023: Kate Bush - The Dreaming (1982)
“I look back at that record and it seems mad. I heard it about three years ago and couldn't believe it. There's a lot of anger in it. There's a lot of 'I'm an artist, right!'”
-Kate Bush, reflecting on The Dreaming in 1993
Discord & Rhyme’s panel is just a power trio this week of John, Rich, and host Producer Mike, but that didn’t stop them from covering an album with some of the headiest concepts in popular music. On 1982’s The Dreaming, Kate Bush opines on the futility of squeezing the totality of human knowledge into your puny brain; tells a tale of a heist caper that’s more about the anxiety of pulling off a heist; and puts you in the head of a Viet Cong soldier who’s about to throw a grenade — and that’s just the first three songs! Mike loves The Dreaming because the music sounds like it’s “happening in some non-Euclidean space inside Kate Bush’s head,” and if you’re only familiar with her already out-there hits like “Running Up That Hill” and “Wuthering Heights,” the pure sonic experience of this album may be overwhelming. But if you sit back and let the weirdness in, this is music unlike anything else on this plane of reality.
Miscellany
Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys wrote a capsule review of “There Goes a Tenner” for Smash Hits magazine: "Very weird... Obviously she's trying to become less accessible. Even so this has a haunting atmosphere.” Not his wittiest moment, but we all come from somewhere.
John's surprised sound on learning Kate did all of the voices in “Leave it Open” was legit; not 30 seconds beforehand he had asked Mike if that was Gilmour providing some of the deeper voices, and John was genuinely surprised to learn the answer.
Will was scheduled to co-host this episode, but became ill right before the recording session. With permission, the production notes for this episode, available via our Patreon, feature comments from both Will and his friend Anne, who brought him up to speed on the album by emailing him tons of great insight about all the songs.
This goes without saying, but we would never actually edit Amanda out of our episodes.
Well, maybe H2O.
Other links
‘Sat in Your Lap’ music video (YouTube)
‘There Goes a Tenner’ music video (YouTube)
‘Suspended in Gaffa’ music video (YouTube)
Live performance of 'There Goes a Tenner' on the BBC (YouTube)
Gaffaweb - A Tribute to Kate Bush and her fans (gaffa.org)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
Mike DeFabio (host)
Rich Bunnell (moderator)
John McFerrin
Amanda Rodgers (angry)
The Dreaming tracklist
Sat in Your Lap
There Goes a Tenner
Pull Out the Pin
Suspended in Gaffa
Leave It Open
The Dreaming
Night of the Swallow
All the Love
Houdini
Get Out of My House
Other clips used
Kate Bush:
Waking the Witch
Babooshka
Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)
Wuthering Heights
The Wedding List
Big Sky
Pi
Dreamtime
Others:
Leroy Anderson - Syncopated Clock
Genesis - Down and Out
Genesis - Robbery, Assault and Battery
Peter Gabriel - Family Snapshot
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
Daryl Hall - Dreamtime
Whodini - Be Yourself
Komar & Melamid - The Most Unwanted Song
Songs we mentioned but didn’t clip
Kate Bush:
Rocket Man
The Sensual World
Flower of the Mountain
Others:
Pat Benatar - Love Is a Battlefield
Peter Gabriel - Don’t Give Up
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
Peter Gabriel - Big Time
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
The Moody Blues - Never Comes the Day
The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
Genesis - The Battle of Epping Forest
Genesis - Harold the Barrel
Genesis - Hold On My Heart
Blue Öyster Cult - ME262
Queen - We Will Rock You
Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning
Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe - Birthright
Yes - Dreamtime
They Might Be Giants - Untitled
Black Flag - Damaged I
Sly & the Family Stone - There’s a Riot Goin’ On
The B-52s - Party Out of Bounds
The Dreaming personnel
Kate Bush – vocals, piano (exc. 4), programming, electronic drums, Fairlight CMI synthesizer (1, 2, 5–10), Yamaha CS-80 (2), strings (4)
Paddy Bush – sticks (1), mandolins and strings (4), bullroarer (6)
Geoff Downes – Fairlight CMI trumpet section (1)
Jimmy Bain – bass guitar (1, 5, 10)
Del Palmer – bass guitar (2, 4, 8), fretless and 8 string bass (7)
Preston Heyman – drums (1, 3, 5, 10), sticks (1)
Stuart Elliott – drums (2, 4, 6–9), sticks (4), percussion (8)
Dave Lawson – Synclavier (2, 4)
Brian Bath – electric guitar (3)
Danny Thompson – string bass (3)
Ian Bairnson – acoustic guitar (5)
Alan Murphy – electric guitar (5, 10)
Rolf Harris – didgeridoo (6)
Liam O'Flynn – penny whistle and uilleann pipes (7)
Seán Keane – fiddle (7)
Dónal Lunny – bouzouki (7)
Eberhard Weber – double bass (9)
Other voices:
Paddy Bush, Ian Bairnson, Stewart Arnold and Gary Hurst – backing vocals (1)
Paddy Bush – backing vocals (6, 10)
David Gilmour – backing vocals (3)
Percy Edwards – animals (6)
Gosfield Goers – crowd (6)
Richard Thornton – choirboy (8)
Gordon Farrell – "Houdini" (9)
Del Palmer – "Rosabel Believe" (9)
Paul Hardiman – "Eeyore" (10)
Esmail Sheikh – drum talk (10)
Technical:
Kate Bush – producer
Paul Hardiman – recording engineer at Advision and Odyssey Studios, all mixes at Advision Studios
Teri Reed, David Taylor – assistant engineers
David Taylor – mixing assistant
Haydn Bendall – engineer at Abbey Road Studios
Danny Dawson and John Barrett – assistant engineers
Hugh Padgham and Nick Launay – engineer at Townhouse Studios
George Chambers, Howard Gray and Nick Cook – assistant engineers
Peter Wooliscroft – digital editing
Ian Cooper – mastering engineer
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Kate Bush - Get Out of My House (this episode only)
You can buy or stream The Dreaming and other albums by Kate Bush at the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon [affiliate link]. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Follow Rich @zonetrope and John @tarkus1980. Editing is by Rich, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production duties. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.