| Bush, Kate - Cathy's Home Demos (Blue Moon BMCD-008) |
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| Kate Bush - 1974-1975 'Cathy's Home Demos' CD bootleg (Blue Moon Records - BMCD-008) Lineage: CD-R > EAC (secure) > wav > FLAC7 Tracklist: --- Home demos, 1974 01. Babooshka (2:02) 02. Kashka from Baghdad (2:31) 03. Coming Up (1:30) 04. Oh, To Be in Love (3:08) 05. Playing Canasta (4:07) 06. Snow (2:27) 07. Ferry Me Over (3:04) 08. Lionhearts (2:24) 09. Violin (2:07) 10. The Craft of Love (2:57) 11. Queen Eddie (2:28) 12. In My Garden (2:11) 13. Frightened Eyes (3:15) 14. Never the Less (1:58) 15. Goodnight Baby (3:47) 16. So Soft (2:46) 17. I Don't See Why I Shouldn't (2:59) 18. Babooshka (version 2) (2:00) 19. The Kick Inside (3:40) 20. Hammer Horror (2:42) 21. A Rose Growing Old (2:55) 22. Keep Me Waiting (2:53) 23. Davy (3:09) 24. Disbelieving Angel (2:11) --- Studio outtakes with the KT Bush Band, 1975 25. Don't Put Your Foot on the Heart Brake (2:52) 26. Kite (2:45) 27. L'Amour Looks Something Like You (2:11) 28. Strange Phenomena (2:41) 29. Really Gets Me Going (3:13) Total time: 78:54 min. Notes: Hello KB fans. Back again with the second and last of my Kate postings. You were all great about sharing and your kind comments were much appreciated. Sorry if the artwork gave anyone trouble. I'll try to post it on the CD covers threads. Should be no problems this time, though. A little history is in order regarding this release for those who may not know the story (a much more comprehensive account is available in the torrent). In 1972/73 Kate recorded several tapes of songs. Twenty to thirty of these songs were presented to record companies by John Carder Bush's friend Ricky Hopper, at first without success. Then Ricky Hopper presented the songs to David Gilmour. Gilmour noticed her talent, but also the bad tape recorder quality. A recording session took place at Kate's house with Gilmour in 1973. Only Kate was recorded, accompanied by her piano, but with a better recorder. Gilmour has spoken at least twice about this session in interviews. “I did some recording at her house, her parent's house... I know that one of the first songs that I noted was ‘The Man With the Child in His Eyes’, out of many songs that she had written. She was only 14, I think, when I met her, maybe just about 15.” This may be the session Kate had in mind, when she later said, “Absolutely terrified and trembling like a leaf, I sat down and played for him. He came along to see me and he was great, such a human, kind person - and genuine.” Gilmour has also said he “paid to have Kate go into a studio and re-record some fifty songs over again” possibly solo with her own piano accompaniment. Whether this refers to a separate studio session or the one with Gilmour and his musician friends as back-up is unclear. In any event, in August, 1973, Kate was recorded at Gilmour's farm studio with two “Unicorn” band members, drummer Peter Perrier and bassist Pat Martin. Gilmour played electric guitar. According to Gilmour between ten and twenty songs were recorded. This tape was sent to EMI. Full history: Kate Bush: Cathy’s Home Demos The Kate Bush Demos In 1972/73 Kate recorded several tapes of songs (more than 30 songs per tape, some sources say 60 altogether, Kate once said, “...I had, say, like 50 songs...”. Some said up to 200 songs). Twenty to thirty of these songs were presented to record companies by John Carder Bush's friend Ricky Hopper, at first without success. Kate later recalled, “I was about fifteen. My family thought it would be interesting to see if we could get some of my songs published, I'd written loads of songs. I just used to write one every day or something. He [Ricky Hopper] came around to listen to me. I put twenty to thirty of my songs on a tape and he'd take it to record companies. Of course there was no response; you wouldn't be able to hear a thing, just this little girl with a piano going ‘yaaaa yaaaa’ for hours on end... [the songs] weren't that good. They were OK, but...”. Then Ricky Hopper presented the songs to David Gilmour. Gilmour noticed her talent, but also the bad tape recorder quality. “A friend of mine has a friend who told my friend that his sister was very talented,” Gilmour said. “This friend of mine came to me and said, ‘My friend has a very talented sister’ and would I listen to her. And I said ‘sure’, so I listened to her. I thought she was very good.” A recording session took place at Kate's house with Gilmour in 1973. Only Kate was recorded, accompanied by her piano, but with a better recorder. Gilmour has spoken at least twice about this session in interviews. “I did some recording at her house, her parent's house...I know that one of the first songs that I noted was ‘The Man With the Child in His Eyes’, out of many songs that she had written. She was only 14, I think, when I met her, maybe just about 15.” This may be the session Kate had in mind, when she later said, “Absolutely terrified and trembling like a leaf, I sat down and played for him. He came along to see me and he was great, such a human, kind person - and genuine.” Gilmour has also said he “paid to have Kate go into a studio and re-record some fifty songs over again” possibly solo with her own piano accompaniment. Whether this refers to a separate studio session or the one with Gilmour and his musician friends as back-up is unclear. In any event, in August, 1973, Kate was recorded at Gilmour's farm studio with two “Unicorn” band members, drummer Peter Perrier and bassist Pat Martin. Gilmour played electric guitar. According to Gilmour between ten and twenty songs were recorded. This tape was sent to EMI. Besides “Passing Through Air” a second version of “Maybe” was recorded. Kate later recalled, “And we went to Dave's for a day, basically. And the bass player and drummer from Unicorn sat down and we just kind of put a few songs together. I remember it was the first time I'd ever done an overdub with the keyboard - I put this little electric piano thing down, and I remember thinking: ‘Ooh! [laughing] I like this!’ And, well, I mean really it was because of those tracks that I then went on to do the tracks which were then used - two of which were used to go on the first album. As far as I remember the tracks we did with this session in '73... There was a track called 'Passing Through Air', which I think went on a b-side…” [“Passing Through Air appeared as the b-side to “Army Dreamers”.] A portion of the version of “Maybe” recorded at this session was played by Kate on the radio program “Personal Call”, BBC Radio 1, in 1979. After the bit was played the announcer remarked: “Kate had a very wistful look on her face. Why was that?” Kate: “I was waiting for the flat note in the middle[laughs].” Announcer: “Ah, you mean we faded it just in time!” Kate: “No, you caught it actually, I'm sure.…” She later said the song was “pretty awful.” In June, 1975, Gilmour booked a professional studio (AIR London), brought Andrew Powell to arrange and produce the songs, and hired top musicians to back Kate. They recorded “The Man With the Child In His Eyes”, “The Saxophone Song”, and “Maybe”. This tape led to Kate's breakthrough at EMI. The first two songs from this session appeared on her first album, “The Kick Inside”. Kate recalled, “Gilmour said: ‘It looks as if the only way you can do it is to put at most three songs on a tape and we'll get them properly arranged.’ He put up the money for me to do that, which is amazing. No way could I have afforded to do anything like that. I think he liked the songs sufficiently to feel that it was worth him actually putting up money for me to go in and professionally record the tracks, because all my demos were just piano vocals and I had, say like 50 songs that were all piano vocals. And he felt, quite rightly, that the record company would relate to the music much in a more real way if it was produced rather than being demoed. So he put up the money, we went into the studio, recorded three tracks...” The recording deal was discussed among Kate, her family, Gilmour and EMI and by July, 1976, it was finalized. During the first year of the EMI contract Kate made two further demo tapes. These are quite possibly the songs played during the infamous Phoenix radio broadcast (see below) and later from the various bootlegs. [The date 'Nov. 1976' was written on the reel tape that was played in the broadcast.] The actual recording sessions for the album took place in July and August, 1977. The “Kick Inside” studio outtakes on this CD are from these sessions. These recordings are far more refined and polished, and are fully orchestrated and produced. They are among the many tracks which were worked on prior to the final selection of the thirteen songs on “The Kick Inside”. Five of the titles are familiar: “Moving”, “Don't Push Your Foot on the Heart Brake”, “L'Amour Looks Something Like You”, “Kite”, and “Strange Phenomena”. The sixth track, “Really Gets Me Going” is a previously unreleased song. Finally, to round out this collection, are two demo versions of the song “Babooshka”. Recorded some time between January and June 1980 during the sessions for “Never for Ever”. Excerpts from the demos were apparently played by Kate herself on a Capital radio program called “Small Beginnings” on July 17th, 1982. Both are almost exactly 2 min. long. The first demo of “Babooshka” features Kate on piano with one backing vocal added during the choruses. The second version has a percussion pattern from an early rhythm-box, and features a synthesizer and, in addition to the lead vocal, at least two over-dubbed backing vocals. How the Demos Reached the Public The first presentation of any of Kate’s demos to the public was in 1982 when Phoenix disc jockey John Dixon broadcast twenty-two of Kate’s 1976 demos on the KSTM FM radio station. Dixon had worked for EMI at the time of Kate's initial signing, and had acquired the tapes at that time. It is not clear if all the available bootleg versions of the demos come from this source. Differences in the recording quality among bootlegs might indicate different sources. Also, the song “Organic Acid”, another piano demo, which appeared on the fifth bootleg EP release but was not played by Dixon, points to a second source. The Phoenix broadcast titles seem to be the original because Dixon read them directly from the tape. All twenty-two songs appear on this CD. By 1986, the [now bootleg] LP, “Early Years”, apparently containing recordings taken from one of the first two recording sessions, was nearly ready to be released officially. Reports are contradictory and state either that Kate was backed by a band or that the album consists only of voice and-piano performances, although “earlier-sounding” than the Dixon broadcast. It is reported that the version of “Maybe” on the “Early Years” is not the version played on Personal Call but a piano-only version. If that is true, the record contains songs from the first or the second demo sessions and are therefore from 1973 or earlier. The following explanation was provided by the Kate fanzine, Homeground: HG 23 (Summer 1986), p. 2; “’Early Years’ Bootleg stopped in its tracks. Someone, somehow has got hold of one of Kate's early (circa 1973) demo tapes, which appears to have contained not only a number of Kate's early songs, but embryonic versions of more well-known tracks. A West German company appeared to believe that it had bought the 'rights' to this tape and was set to issue an album entitled: “Kate Bush: The Early Years”. EMI-Electrola in Germany were aware of this, but some reason took no action to prevent the release. The album was in fact pressed and white labels send out in an attempt to secure overseas distribution deals. At this point Kate became aware of the proposed release, and feeling that her early mistakes are not fit for public consumption, took the appropriate legal action. The stockpiled albums will now be destroyed.” According to the Homeground Christmas 1987 edition (No. 29), the album contained ten songs recorded “by Kate in her early Gilmour days in 1973.” The names of ten songs as being on the album were given as “Something Like a Song”, “Need Your Loving [=Passing Through Air]”, “Davy (or Davey) [= Maybe, Humming?, not While Davy Dozed]”, “You Were the Star”, “Gay Farewell”, “Cussi Cussi”, “Atlantis”, “Sunsi”, “Disbelieving Angel”, “Go Now While You Can”. |