Kate Bush

The Kick Inside - 1978

Kate Bush released her debut album at the tender age of 19 ; she had written some of the songs when she was only 15. The album opens with whale song, which leads into the first track, "Moving", inspired by her dance teacher, Lindsey Kemp. The album contains her biggest hit to date, Wuthering Heights, which went to number one in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere and a Top 10 hit in many other territories.

Bush's work would mature and develop, but The Kick Inside remains a startlingly precocious debut and many of her trademark qualities were already firmly in place. Her cinematic and literary influences were most obvious in "Wuthering Heights". The song was not initially inspired by Emily Brontë's novel, but by a television adaptation, although she did read the novel later to, in her own words, "get the research right". She namechecks Gurdjieff in both "Strange Phenomena" and "Them Heavy People," while the title song is based on the ballad of Lizzie Wan, the story of a girl who kills herself after being impregnated by her brother. The album is also very open about sexual matters, particularly on the erotic "Feel It" and "L'Amour Looks Something Like You."

As part of her preparation for entering the studio, Bush toured pubs with the KT Bush Band, supported by her brother Paddy and close friends, but for the album she was persuaded to use established session musicians, some of whom she would retain even after she had brought her bandmates back on board. Paddy Bush was the only member of the KT Bush Band to play on The Kick Inside. Unlike on later albums where he would play more exotic instruments such as Balalaika and Didgeridoo, here he played the more standard Harmonica and Mandolin. Stuart Elliot played some of the drums and would become her main percussionist on subsequent albums, along with session drummer Charlie Morgan, who later went on to be a regular with Elton John. Preston Heyman was credited with some subsequent studio work but mostly performed on the live tour of 1979.

The album was produced by Bush's mentor David Gilmour and Andrew Powell.

The Kick Inside is Bush's only album to have a different cover in the U.K., the U.S., Canada and Japan.