Kate Bush - And Dream of Sheep
November 21, 2016 10:17 AM   Subscribe

The video, released today, for And Dream of Sheep. Originally on her 1985 album Hounds of Love (also on that album: Hounds of Love, The Big Sky, Running Up That Hill, Cloudbusting), this was filmed for showing during her 2014 concerts. Also, on the BBC iPlayer, Kate's recent interview (summarised) and her new live album; also, a teaser for the album. Bonus: Sat In Your Lap, Army Dreamers, Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, The Sensual World, Moments of Pleasure.
posted by Wordshore (28 comments total) 51 users marked this as a favorite
 
I really hope there is a DVD release of the show, because everything I've read about it is that it was brilliant.
posted by hippybear at 10:23 AM on November 21, 2016 [4 favorites]


I mean, the second act of the concert is a full performance of A Sky Of Honey, complete with actors and full media show. How could anyone NOT want to know what that looked like?
posted by hippybear at 10:33 AM on November 21, 2016 [7 favorites]


wow!! lots of good music posts for the workday. thanks!!!!!
posted by supermedusa at 10:39 AM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Not just A Sky of Honey, we got The Ninth Wave, ie, the second half of Hounds of Love, also fully staged.
posted by daveje at 10:43 AM on November 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yes, the show is basically "here's some of my hits, oh and by the way I have created entire song cycles/symphonies, here they are let them overwhelm you".

Wish I had been there. Where's the DVD?
posted by hippybear at 10:44 AM on November 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


just listened to And Dream of Sheep and I have CHILLZ. omg so beautiful. thank you thank you thank you Wordshore!
posted by supermedusa at 10:46 AM on November 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


The DVD is not happening, apparently. Two concerts were filmed but she was unhappy with the audio quality.

And yes, the show was overwhelming. I spent the first ten minutes pretty much in tears with my brain on repeat: that's really Kate Bush down there, and she's singing.
posted by daveje at 10:51 AM on November 21, 2016 [6 favorites]


The full performance of A Sky of Honey was impressive, but I was still running so much adrenaline after the immense theatrics of The Ninth Wave to appreciate Honey's more sedate summer theme. I mean, after the searchlights scanning across the crowd, the helicopter flying overhead, not to mention seeing Kate for the first time in my life, I felt like I had five espressos even after intermission.
posted by waytoomuchcoffee at 10:54 AM on November 21, 2016 [8 favorites]


The DVD is not happening, apparently. Two concerts were filmed but she was unhappy with the audio quality.

I take it that the meters were over in the red. It was a mistake in the making.

I'd honestly be happy with a blu-ray (or downloadable) product that syncs the obviously acceptable audio from Before the Dawn with clips from the video recording and other Kate-related-magick. There's lots of reasons why a straight video of a performance might not live up to an artist's vision, but if she were to provide it, I would pay for something that did.
posted by sparklemotion at 11:32 AM on November 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


Oh man. That album is such a head trip. Especially the deep cuts like And Dream Of Sheep.

The conceit of the second side of the album is that it's the thoughts of a woman floating in icy waters, soon to drown.

Seeing that actually in front of your eyes, as a music video? While the singer is actually contracting hypothermia from being in the cold water??

I can't find another word than "chilling" and I wish I could because I don't want to have to add "no pun intended."
posted by edheil at 11:53 AM on November 21, 2016


hmmm I have always interpreted And Dream of Sheep as: she is falling asleep and the subsequent songs are her dreams (or nightmare) until the final song when she wakes up.

also isnt Under Ice like the most blatant drug reference song ever?
posted by supermedusa at 12:09 PM on November 21, 2016


She's wearing a life vest in the photo on the back of Hounds of Love.
posted by larrybob at 12:16 PM on November 21, 2016


We've reached Peak Fairlight, folks.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 12:23 PM on November 21, 2016 [4 favorites]


Two concerts were filmed but she was unhappy with the audio quality.

It baffles me how the audio quality was too poor for a DVD but fine enough for a live album?
posted by dnash at 12:25 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


It baffles me how the audio quality was too poor for a DVD but fine enough for a live album?

There were 22 shows, only two were filmed, but they might have good audio from the other 20.

The second side of the Hounds of Love (Dream of Sheep, Under Ice, Waking the Witch...) was always about depression for me, which easily tied in with drug use.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:32 PM on November 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


Well, from the full BBC interview (now that I've listened to the whole thing) she sounds more like it's not the audio that's holding the DVD, it's the video. She says there weren't a lot of cameras, and none on stage the way you would want some to be if it was being conceived as a film. And she thinks a live album is "more representative" of the experience than any video would be. (which for a standard concert I could agree, but for me at least, when an artist puts as much effort into a visual spectacle as she apparently did, then that's very much part of the experience and a mere audio recording will be lacking as a result. )
posted by dnash at 12:44 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


What a night that was. I remember being convinced I would never be able to hold it together, and I'm another one who was in tears at the beginning. I think she was right to keep the start simple, to let everyone just get used to the idea that she was there. But to see The Ninth Wave (always my favourite) was so magic and fascinating that by the time she got to "Hello Earth" I was just totally transfixed...it was such an exhilarating and intricate performance.

I was really looking forward to the DVD :/
posted by tardigrade at 1:11 PM on November 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


I first saw Kate on Saturday Night Live doing Them Heavy People. Love at first sight/hearing.
posted by Splunge at 3:13 PM on November 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


Is Kate Bush in the Hall of Fame yet? Because that needs to happen.
posted by Beholder at 5:07 PM on November 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


I somehow didn't know the second half of Hounds Of Love existed until a few years ago.

That was a very nice day.
posted by schmod at 5:16 PM on November 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


I remember riding on a train from Muenster to Frankfurt, after a week away from my wife and kids. The sun was rising, I was somewhere around Essen when And Dream of Sheep came on my iPod. I completely lost it with tears running down my cheeks...I just wanted to be home.

This has been a tough year, I am struggling with the loss of so many artists that helped to make me who I am today, with some personal ordeals and with the 2016 election weighing heavily on my psyche. And then I get to see Kate Bush. And the grace, the warmth...it just sinks right back in.

I really needed this. Thanks Wordshore.
posted by Chuffy at 5:26 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thank you for sharing this post, it's a good reminder of how awesome Kate Bush is to me! Much needed in theses times!
posted by reedcourtneyj at 5:35 PM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Such a fantastic album - choice radio-friendly cuts on side one and then a total 180 into a cerebral story about, uh something. For all of the great cuts on side one, side two was always my favourite: creepy, compelling, horrible and scary, wistful but so full of life even while the lyrics are all about death. It's hard to pick but Watching You Without Me is definitely in my top ten Kate Bush songs. The whole album was just so smart and a real tour de force. I still listen to the album today, which is saying something considering I was a teenager when it came out.

FYI, according to wikipedia, Bush described it as being "About a person who is alone in the water for the night. It's about their past, present and future coming to keep them awake, to stop them drowning, to stop them going to sleep until the morning comes."
posted by ashbury at 8:49 PM on November 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


This is fantastic thanks. My husband will only allow me to have one cd in the car, and as I do not want my children to hear radio she's/the need, we listen to that one cd over and over on the daily drive to school. Of course it is Kate Bush Hounds of Love. We have had so many interesting discussions of what the songs mean to them. Until seeing the video, I hadn't known what the "little light" was though.
posted by saucysault at 5:20 AM on November 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


> My husband will only allow me to have one cd in the car

Umm, wait. Can you start over?
posted by SNACKeR at 5:47 AM on November 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


> My husband will only allow me to have one cd in the car

Umm, wait. Can you start over?


It's well known that when women put CDs in the car they get mangled.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 11:33 AM on November 22, 2016


My husband has "issues" around sharing, so of the six cds our car stereo holds I am allowed one. But he okays Kate, so that is a point in his favour. (Ya, ten+ years of therapy for him and the therapist recommends I pick my battles and this is one I have let go of). Thanks Narcissic MiL - the gift that keeps giving!
posted by saucysault at 12:13 PM on November 22, 2016


Goddamnit
posted by schmod at 8:17 AM on November 29, 2016


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