SUSPENDED IN GAFFA

Wow! What a spread for the current individual ratings for this release! "Suspended in Gaffa" was the fourth and final single for Kate Bush's magnum opus, The Dreaming (1982). It was actually the first ever viewing of this song's music video, if I'm not mistaken, that put me on this back catalog journey into her work. This song is signature Baroque-Pop quirk, with light harpsicording, all played over an upbeat lilt. I love the chorus. I love her vocals. One I often think of, but perhaps not as thrilling to someone less familiar with her. Her vocals are wild, feral even, at the end of the song, with the final chorus. This music video shows a stableboy Kate dancing about in a somewhat sun-lit barn. Looks... smelly haha. Before the second chorus she is briefly shown floating through an outer space of stars.

Our B-side is one of the first non-album tracks that I had heard from Kate, "Ne t'enfuis pas". I just listened to the song she did with Peter Gabriel, "Don't Give Up", and honestly that puts this into a different perspective in my mind. As individuals like Gabriel, Japan's David Sylvian and Talking Heads' David Byrne were throwing out Post-Progressive ideations in its apparent infancy around this time (perhaps my perspective of timing is off), this feels like a fully realized post-Prog song. Beautiful track, sung of course in French (not the first time for Ms. Bush), with reverberating percussion and a beautiful, booming fretless bass. Lovely lovely stuff.

[Could have sworn I already rated this, but perhaps I'm just thinking of when I most recently listened through this and its B-side; again, I believe that being the reason I'm now going through her deeper back catalog.]