Kate Bush: The Kick Inside

Having had for some years a cupboard full of LPs and nothing to play them on, I decided to act. I had either to take them down to the charity shops or buy something to play them on. I chose the latter course and am now the owner of a cute little portable record player.

Most of my collection consists of secondhand classical LPs (always wonderful value for money), many of them bought from Yarborough House in Bishop's Castle. But I also have the LPs I bought as a teenager and there is something wonderful about being able to play them today.

Songs of the Wood by Jethro Tull turns out to have been played to death - it jumps all over the place - but The Kick Inside by Kate Bush still sounds good.

In fact it sounds better than it did, because the needle on our old family portable used to pick up Kate Bush's voice in adjacent grooves and the title track sounds strange to me without that odd pre-echo.

In a 1978 interview (that was when Kate Bush still gave interviews) she explained the genesis of the song:

"That's inspired by an old traditional song called 'Lucy Wan.' It's about a young girl and her brother who fall desperately in love. It's an incredibly taboo thing. She becomes pregnant by her brother and it's completely against all morals. She doesn't want him to be hurt, she doesn't want her family to be ashamed or disgusted, so she kills herself. The song is a suicide note. She says to her brother, 'Don't worry. I'm doing it for you'."

"The Kick Inside" was also recorded by Julie Covington, but I cannot find that version on YouTube.