Babooshka (song)
| "Babooshka" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "Ran Tan Waltz" |
"Babooshka" is a song by British singer Kate Bush, taken from her album Never for Ever. Released as a single in June 1980, it spent 10 weeks in the UK chart, peaking at number five.[2] It was an even bigger hit in Australia, where it was the 20th best-selling single of the year.[3]
Background
According to an interview Kate Bush gave to the Australian TV series Countdown in 1980 the song chronicles a wife's desire to test her husband's loyalty. To do so, she takes on the nom de plume of Babooshka and sends notes to her husband in the guise of a younger woman—something which she fears is the opposite of how her husband currently sees her.[4] (Hence the barbed lines Just like his wife before she "freezed" on him/Just like his wife when she was beautiful.)[5] The trap is set when, in her bitterness and paranoia, Babooshka arranges to meet her husband, who is attracted to the character who reminds him of his wife in earlier times. She thereby ruins the relationship due to her paranoia.[4]
The music video depicts Bush beside a double bass (contrabass) which symbolises the husband, wearing a black bodysuit and a veil in her role as the embittered wife.[4] This changes into an extravagant, mythlike and rather sparse "Russian" costume as her alter-ego, Babooshka. An illustration by Chris Achilleos was the basis for the costume.[6]
The track features John Giblin on bass and marks the significance of fretless bass sounds as instrumental "male" partners through Kate's music in the early eighties.
Kate Bush said that's "something I didn't realise at the time,"[4] when she learnt that Babushka is the Russian word for "grandmother" (although the stress in Russian falls on the first syllable, not the second).
"Babooshka" became Bush's second top five hit in the UK and was certified silver for sales of over 250,000 by the BPI.[7]
The B-Side contains her song "Ran Tan Waltz", her second non-album B-Side. This song is performed as a tragicomedy, where Bush portrays a man bemoaning his bad luck in life being married to a wayward mother. This song uses the word "dick" in the first verse as cacophemism for penis).[8]
Track listing
- "Babooshka" (Kate Bush) 3:28
- "The Ran Tan Waltz" (Bush) 2:40
Charts
| Chart (1980) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian chart | 2 |
| Dutch Single Top 100 | 15 |
| German Singles Chart | 20 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 5 |
| Irish Singles Chart[9] | 5 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 8 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 4 |
| UK Singles Chart[2] | 5 |
References
- ^ Gaffaweb -recording dates
- ^ a b Chartstats.com - "Babooshka" UK Chart details
- ^ "Babooshka" Australian charts
- ^ a b c d Kate Bush interviewed by Cheryl Wright in London in an October 1980 Count Down segment. Talking Babooshka
- ^ "Kate Bush Discography - Song Index - Babooshka". Gaffa.org. Archived from the original on 22 November 2007.
- ^ "Polska Strona Kate Bush". www.katebush.pl. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
Artistic concepts and choreography throughout by Kate Bush Babooshka costume based on an illustration by Chris Achilleos and released by Pamela Keats.
- ^ BPI - search Kate Bush
- ^ "The Lyrics - "Ran Tan Waltz (original title, The Ran Tan)"". Gaffa.org. Archived from the original on 20067-10-18.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|archivedate=(help) - ^ http://www.irishcharts.ie/search/placement