This Woman's Work QUotes

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

        Thanks to De Fish! for his This Woman's Work interpetations.  
Following are Kate's quotes on the song, which really aren't any 
different from your ideas. 



        John Hughes, the American film director, had just made this film 
called She's Having a Baby, and he had a scene in the film that he wanted 
a song to go with.  And the film's very light: it's a lovely comedy.  His 
films are very human, and it's just about this young guy - falls in love 
with a girl, marries her.  He's still very much a kid.  She gets 
pregnant, and it's all still very light and child-like until she's just 
about to have the baby and the nurse comes up to him and says it's a in a 
breech position and they don't know what the situation will be.  So, 
while she's in the operating room, he has so sit and wait in the waiting 
room and it's a very powerful piece of film where he's just sitting, 
thinking; and this is actually the moment in the film where he has to 
grow up.  He has no choice.  There he is, he's not a kid any more; you 
can see he's in a very grown-up situation.  And he starts, in his head, 
going back to the times they were together.  There are clips of film of 
them laughing together and doing up their flat and all this kind of 
thing.  And it was such a powerful visual: it's one of the quickest songs 
I've ever written.  It was so easy to write.  We had the piece of footage 
on video, so we plugged it up so that I could actually watch the monitor 
while I was sitting at the piano and I just wrote the song to these 
visuals.  It was almost a matter of telling the story, and it was a 
lovely thing to do: I really enjoyed doing it.  
        Has the film been out yet?
        Yes.  I don't think it was released here.  It was released in 
America and did OK, but not really as well as his other films, which have 
been very successful.  But it was a lovely thing to be asked to write 
for, because it was such a moving piece of film and I really like writing 
to visuals as well - I find that very exciting.   (1989, Roger Scott)

        That's the sequence I had to write the song about, and it's 
really very moving, him in the waiting room, having flashbacks of his 
wife and him going for walks, decorating... It's exploring his sadness 
and guilt: suddenly it's the point where he has to grow up.  He'd been 
such a wally up to this point.   (1989, NME)

        I was thrilled to be asked to do it.  It was very quick and very 
easy because you're just telling the story.   (1989, Tracks)

        What inspired you to write "This Woman's Work." 
        There's a film called She's Having a Baby.  And John Hughes, the 
director, rung up and said that he had a sequence in the film that he 
really wanted a song written to be with.  And I'd only worked the once 
before on the Castaway film - where I'd really enjoyed that - so I was 
extremely tempted by the offer.  And when he sent the piece of film that 
the song was going to be [??? part of], I just thought it was wonderful, 
it was so moving, a very moving piece of film.  And in a way, there was a 
sense that the whole film built up to this moment.  And it was a very 
easy song to write.  It was very quick.  And just kind of came, like a 
lot of songs do.  Even if you struggle for months, in the end, they just 
kind of go - BLAH! - You know.  [laughs].  So that was the first song 
that I wrote for The Sensual World album.  In fact at the time we weren't 
even sure whether to put it on the album or not.  And I must say that Del 
was very  instrumental in saying that I should put it on the album, and 
I'm very glad I did. Because I had the most fantastic response - in some 
ways, maybe the greatest response - to this song.  And I was really - I 
was absolutely thrilled, that you felt that way about it.   (1990 Kate 
Bush Con)

        John Hughes, the American director, was doing a film called She's 
Having a Baby - a great film, very nice and comic.  And he had this scene 
which he wanted me to write a song for where it gets very heavy.  The 
film's about this guy who gets married and he likes being a kid, really - 
very much up in the clouds - and she gets pregnant and they go into 
hospital, and she's rushed off becuase the baby's in the breach position.
        And suddenly there he is, just left in the waiting room by 
himself.  It's probably the first time in his life he's had to grow up.  
(1989, Melody Maker)

        That was a really easy song to put together; all that was added 
to the piano was a bit of Fairlight, a bit of backing vocals, and a tiny 
amount of orchestra - about four or five bars.  But the difference it 
makes is extraordinary.   (1989, International Musician)
        
        I think this is the big problem with song-writing - it's this 
blank page.  You can start anywhere.  There's too much to choose from, 
and I think technology in studios is doing the same to people.  There's 
so much to choose from, so much information, that you're not working 
within restrictions that actually help you to form a direction.  I'm sure 
that for me, doing this, it was quick and easy because the song had to be 
about that.  It couldn't be about anything else.  I think that helps 
tremendously.   (1989, International Musician)
        
        Really, the subject matter in the film laid down the grounds for 
what the song was about.  It's the man waiting in a waiting room while 
his wife is in there having a baby, and there are complications.  So it's 
the exploration of someone being left on their own in a big way, very 
suddenly.  In this part of the film, the guy has to grow up, he's 
suddenly confronted with all these terrible things, that he could be a 
much better human being.  It's moments like that that make you feel]  
these things.
        And life's not all fun and games.
        No, and that you should really try and make the most of it when 
you  can, and not when it's too late.   (1989, KFNX)

        It's a light film, very a young guy whose wife gets pregnant, and 
everything remains light until they get to the hospital, and suddenly 
she's rushed away and he's left sitting there.  You get the impression 
that this is the moment when he has to start growing up.  Up until then 
he's been a kid, and very happily so.  It's a lovely piece and in some 
ways it's an exploration of guilt, I guess.   (1989, Music Express) 

        What about the obvious complications in making a video from a 
song thats already been paired with part of a movie, as was "This Woman's 
Work"?
        It was interesting because the song had originally been written 
to vsuals, but the song has its own storyline as well, so then it was 
like making a film of the song.  Obviously (in the movie) it's about a 
man waiting for wife having a baby.  Now I didn't want to put myself in a 
situation where I have to be pregnant.  Kate laughs.  It's all too 
complicated.  So left it very ambiguous.  And I think it looks like a 
little film in that it tells a story.  So I guess rather than talking 
about it, it might be nice to let you see it.   (1990, Option)

        Tim is kind of sitting throughout the song, waiting for his 
girlfriend or whoever who's in [the] hospital.  So most of the video is 
very distressed.  You know, he's in a real distressed state and he sort 
of looks up, and then the light goes away from the window, this spot 
comes down.  So he's just sitting in this spot and he's like he's 
suddenly conjuring up these memories.  And then I sort of step in with a 
raincoat and put it 'round his shoulders.   (1989, VH-1)


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rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA