Cloudbusting -- Kate Bush In Her Own Words

Walk Straight Down The Middle (Cd + Tape Only)

It's a bit less worked on than the other tracks. It's about try not to get caught up in extremes. My mother was down the garden when the funny bits at the end were being played. She rushed in and said she'd heard some peacocks in the garden! How sweet! I can't take the song seriously now. (1989, Tracks)

I fancied being Captain Beefheart at that point, and it just came to me: standing out, calling for help in the middle. It just went, ``BBRRRROOOOAAAAAAAAA''

It's the idea of how our fear are sometimes holding us back, and yet there's really no need to be frightened. Like `` The Fog:'' being scared because the water's deep, you could be drowned; but actually if you put your feet down the bottom's there and it's only waist high, so what's the problem? Just get on with it: that's what I'm trying to tell myself.

"Walk Straight Down the Middle'' came together very quickly. It's about following either of two extremes, when you really want to plough this path straight down the middle. Rather than ``WAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH": being thrown from one end of the spectrum to the other. I'd like to think of myself as holding the centre, whereas in fact I'm - ``WAAARRRRGGGGHHHH'' - taking off all the time. (1989, NME)

On ``walk straight down the middle'' you've got some incredible things going on there.

You like that?

Yeah.

Well good.

Its a fitting end for the album, you know it kinda bookends the album very nicely. Where do you come up with these things, where do you dig them from inside you ?

I think its a very difficult question, that one, because making music is such an elusive thing. I guess with a song like that, that was very much just a matter of me playing around with some chords on the fairlight and I came up with the tune and then of course Eberhard Weber put in his bass on, gave the song such a strong personality. It kind of took on a life of its own as most of these songs do. (1990, KDGE)

That song was definitely the quickest I've ever recorded anything. We'd given ourselves a specific day to cut it, so I had to do it fast. The backing track I'd originally recorded ages ago. At the time I wasn't happy with the lyrics, and I felt the song needed more developing. When we came back to hear it again, both Del and myself were really impressed with the sounds and how together the song sounded; previously we thought it had been rubbish.

I wrote the lyrics, recorded the vocals, backing vocals and synth overdubs in one day, which is totally unheard of for me. The next day we did some more overdubs, and then mixed. I'm glad it was tagged on. We made the gap longer, so that you could get a sense that the album was finished, it sounds okay, but I don't think it holds the same depths that the other tracks do.

How did it feel without the hours of agonising?

Terrible. I couldn't cope. I couldn't sit and anguish over my lyrics. It was very difficult. But I think it's all right, some nice sounds, nothing special. The whole thing is just an album, that's what I keep telling myself.

Just an album. (1989, International Musician)

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