Notes about the early demo recordings of Kate Bush

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: Notes about the early demo recordings of Kate Bush

         NOTES ABOUT THE EARLY DEMO RECORDINGS OF KATE BUSH

     Very little concrete information about Kate's early
demo recordings has ever been made available to fans. The number of
songs recorded, their titles, even their rough dates, remain
obscure. Kate has only released one demo recording officially,
the song _Passing_Through_Air_; and has played only a part of one other
demo (a song known as _Maybe_) on the radio.
More will be said of these recordings below.
     Kate first began writing simple songs from about 1969, when she
was eleven years old. By 1971 she had written early versions of such
songs as _The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_ and _The_Saxophone_Song_.
In 1972 she recorded a large number of songs herself, at home,
with only her own piano accompaniment. With the help of a family
friend named Ricky Hopper Kate submitted copies of these recordings
to several publishing and recording companies, without result. There
were at least thirty songs on each of these tapes. It is not yet clear
whether there were several _different_ collections
of thirty songs each, or whether copies were made of
a single collection; but Kate has said that by the time she went
in to record the first album, _The_Kick_Inside_,
in 1977, she had accumulated finished versions of "about
two hundred songs", so it is quite possible that those first
demos of 1973 numbered more than thirty.
     It is very difficult to know how fully developed Kate's
art was by 1972. The earliest Kate Bush recording which fans can
give a solid date to is _Passing_Through_Air_.
This recording belongs to a second group of demos. Recorded in the summer
of 1973, at which time Kate was fifteen years old or a bit younger,
_Passing_Through_Air_ was a result of her first recording session with
a band.
     This track was
recorded at David Gilmour's home studio, under his direction, along
with an unspecified number of other original Kate Bush compositions, including
a song which Kate has never publicly given a title, but which fans have
come to refer to as _Maybe_. <N.B.: Contrary to earlier assumptions by
some fans, the song known as _Maybe_ is _not_ the same as the song
called _Davy_ (or _Davey_).> A brief chronology of Kate's demos follows.
     Following the rejection of Kate's earliest solo demo recordings,
friend Ricky Hopper made contact with David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd),
whom he had known during his student years at Cambridge University.
Gilmour listened first to some of the solo recordings, then had
Kate perform for him in person. To his great credit, he was impressed.
He arranged a rehearsal with Kate at his own home. With drummer Peter
Perrier, bassist Pat Martin (both members of the group Unicorn) and
Gilmour himself on electric guitar, Kate, singing and playing piano,
recorded simple demo recordings of several of her own songs (probably
at least a dozen), among which were the versions of _Passing_Through_Air_
and the so-called _Maybe_ which fans know today. Kate has never released
this song officially, but she did play an excerpt of it during
an appearance on a British radio programme.
     Twelve recordings from these early Gilmour sessions briefly
appeared in the form of an album (possibly East or West German)
known as _Kate_Bush:_The_Early_Years_.
No-one has ever acknowledged actually seeing this album except
Peter FitzGerald-Morris, who insists that he does not own a copy,
but who did print the track-listing in his fanzine _Homeground_.
It is important to remember that none of the titles in that
track-listing has been authenticated by Kate herself. They are probably
only make-shift titles suggested by what the producers of the
album thought they heard in Kate's demo-vocals. In fact one
title in the list is almost certainly incorrect. With
that in mind, here are the titles from the _Early_Years_ collection:
     1. _Something_Like_a_Song_.
     2. _Need_Your_Loving_. <Clearly this is simply _Passing_Through_Air_.>
     3. _Davy_ (or _Davey_).
     4. _You_Were_the_Star_.
     5. _Gay_Farewell_.
     6. _Cussi_Cussi_.
     7. _Atlantis_.
     8. _Sunsi_.
     9. _Disbelieving_Angel_.
    10. _Go_Now_While_You_Can_.
     These first Gilmour-produced demo recordings also failed to
interest the labels. In 1975, therefore, Gilmour arranged for and
financed (again to his credit) another recording session, this time
under fully professional conditions. Three songs were recorded:
_The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_, _The_Saxophone_Song_ and a
new version of the song known as _Maybe_. The first
and second of these three recordings were later incorporated, almost
without changes, into Kate's debut album for EMI, _The_Kick_Inside_.
The third, a more polished recording of the song which Kate played
part of on the radio programme called _Personal_Call_,
has never been heard by fans.
     This new set of demos, together with Gilmour's personal
backing, finally succeeded in obtaining a contract for Kate with EMI.
In 1976 Kate bought a modest piano for 200 Pounds and, according to
Peter, began only then to "screech into existence her
unmistakable voice." Also according to Peter, Kate recorded
two more "tapes" of demos during the year 1977. Peter has
not explained or substantiated these statements, but if we assume
that they are true, then it would seem that another set of twenty-two
demo recordings, which has now begun to circulate among fans in at
least two forms, dates from about 1976-1977.
     These twenty-two tracks have only started to surface within the
fan community since the spring of 1989. The first sign of their
existence came in the form of a bootleg seven-inch EP (anonymously
pressed and distributed) called _Kate_Bush:_The_Cathy_Demos_Volume_One_.
This EP contains four tracks, the first four of a twenty-two-track
collection of demos, all of which feature Kate singing alone and
accompanying herself at the piano without backup. There is every
indication that further EPs will appear throughout the next year
or so, each of which may contain four or five excerpts from that
twenty-two-song collection.
     Meanwhile, a cassette, also entirely anonymous in origin, but
sometimes called _Fiddle_ (after the song _Violin_),
has begun to appear at U.S. record swapmeets as of the time of
this writing (May 1989). This cassette contains a total of twenty-two
tracks, the first four of which constitute the contents of the
first _Cathy_Demos_ EP. (The sound of the cassette reproduction is
noticeably inferior to that on the vinyl EP.)
     If Peter's claims about Kate's development of her
high range only after the beginning of 1976 are accurate, then
we must conclude that this collection of twenty-two songs dates
from the period 1976-1977. Certainly the sophistication of Kate's
compositional style, lyrics and keyboard work support such a dating.
On the other hand, if the collection dates from 1976 or 1977, then
we must accept the notion that Kate was re-recording songs
(such as _Something_Like_a_Song_, Disbelieving_Angel_ and _Davy_)
which she had already composed four or even five years earlier, and
which she had recorded with Gilmour during her first sessions with
a band in the summer of 1973. This is possible, of course, but it
also suggests the possibility that the collection of twenty-two
songs dates from considerably earlier than 1976. Whatever the
correct date of the recordings, they are an absolutely invaluable
document of Kate's early talent and astonishingly precocious
mastery of the crafts of songwriting and performance.
     With the exception of the five titles which have since been
authenticated through their inclusion in Kate's albums, the
titles on the following list of twenty-two songs are completely
hypothetical, and in some cases may not even accurately reflect
the songs's lyrical content. They are merely temporary and
tentative titles which I use solely to facilitate identification
of individual songs. In some cases I have not even been sure of
the words I have chosen to represent the songs, because the
sound quality of the recordings is not clear enough to enable
me to decipher the lyrics properly. These disclaimers made, then,
here are the twenty-two songs which make up, for want of a better
group title, the _Cathy_Demos_ collection:
     1. _The_Kick_Inside_.
     2. _Hammer_Horror_.
     3. _Feeling_Like_a_Waltz_. <Incorrectly identified as _A_Rose_
_Growing_Old_ on the _Cathy_Demos_Volume_One_ EP.>
     4. _Keeping_Me_Waiting_.
     5. _Kashka_From_Baghdad_.
     6. _Camilla_.
     7. _Oh_To_Be_In_Love_.
     8. _Playing_Canasta_in_Cold_Rooms_.
     9. _Set_in_the_Snow_.
    10. _Ferry_Me_Over_ (_the_Music_).
    11. _Lionhearts_. <N.B.: This is not the same song as _Oh_England_My_
_Lionheart_.>
    12. _Violin_.
    13. _The_Craft_of_Life_.
    14. _Eddie_the_Queen_. <Possibly a later version of the song
identified as _Gay_Farewell_ in the track-listing for the now-lost
_Early_Years_ album.>
    15. _Something_Like_a_Song_. <Apparently a solo-piano version
of the song identified by the same title in the track-listing for the
now-lost album _The_Early_Years_.>
    16. _Frightened_Eyes_.
    17. _Disbelieving_Angel_. <Apparently a solo-piano version of
the song identified by the same title in the track-listing of the
now-lost album _The_Early_Years_.>
    18. _Nevertheless,_You'll_Do_.
    19. _Goodnight,_Baby_.
    20. _You're_Soft_.
    21. (_I_Don't_Know_Why_I_Shouldn't_Pick_) _The_Rare_Flower_.
    22. _Davy_. <Apparently a solo-piano version of the song
identified by the same title in the track-listing for the now-lost
album _The_Early_Years_. N.B.: This is _not_ the same as the song
known as _Maybe_.>

-- Andrew Marvick