''The Red Shoes'' is the seventh studio album by English musician
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...
. Released on 2 November 1993, it was accompanied by Bush's short film, ''
The Line, the Cross and the Curve
''The Line, the Cross and the Curve'' is a 1993 British musical short film directed by and starring singer Kate Bush, co-starring Miranda Richardson and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, who had served as dance mentor to Bush early in her career.
Th ...
'', and was her last album before a 12-year hiatus. The album peaked at number two on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
and has been certified platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...
(BPI), denoting shipments in excess of 300,000 copies.
In the United States, the album reached number 28 on the
''Billboard'' 200, her highest-peaking album on the chart at the time.
Overview
''The Red Shoes'' was inspired by the 1948
film of the same name by
Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...
and
Emeric Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger (born Imre József Pressburger; 5 December 19025 February 1988) was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaborat ...
, which itself was inspired by the
fairy tale of the same name by
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...
. It concerns a dancer, possessed by her art, who cannot take off the eponymous shoes and find peace.
Bush had suggested she would tour in support of ''The Red Shoes'' and deliberately aimed for a "live band" feel, with less of the studio trickery that had typified her last three albums (which would be difficult to recreate on stage). However, the tour never materialised.
This was a troubled time for Bush, who had suffered a series of bereavements including the loss of her favoured guitarist,
Alan Murphy
Alan Murphy (18 November 1953 – 19 October 1989) was a British rock session guitarist, best remembered for his collaborations with Kate Bush and Go West. In 1988, he joined the jazz-funk band Level 42 as a full-time band member, and played wi ...
, as well as her mother, Hannah, who died the year before the album's release. Bush's long-term relationship with bassist Del Palmer had also ended, although the pair continued to work together. "I've been very affected by these last two years", she remarked in late 1991. "They've been incredibly intense years for me. Maybe not on a work level, but a lot has happened to me. I feel I've learnt a lot – and, yes, I think
y next albumis going to be quite different... I hope the people that are waiting for it feel it's worth the wait."
Many of the people she lost are honoured on the ballad "Moments of Pleasure", as well as director
Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a serie ...
, with whom she had discussed working shortly before his death in 1990. Composer and conductor
Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician.
Biography Early life
Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...
contributed a score for the song.
Most notably, ''The Red Shoes'' featured many more high-profile cameo appearances than her previous efforts. The track "Why Should I Love You?" featured instrumental and vocal contributions from
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
as well as guest vocals from comedian
Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.
Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...
. "And So Is Love" features guitar work by
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...
, and
Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker (29 May 1945 – 19 February 2022) was an English singer and pianist, and the founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum.
Early life
Born in Hackney Hospital, East London, on 29 May 1945, Brooker grew up in Hackney ...
(from the band
Procol Harum
Procol Harum () were an English rock music, rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have List of best-selling singles, sold over ...
), and
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...
also collaborated.
Trio Bulgarka
Trio Bulgarka ( bg, Трио „Българка“; also known as "Three Golden Coins", previously known as "Bulgarka Folk Trio") were a Bulgarian vocal ensemble.
They gained international prominence through their contributions to the groundbr ...
(who had contributed to ''
The Sensual World
''The Sensual World'' is the sixth studio album by the English art rock singer Kate Bush, released on 16 October 1989 by EMI Records. It reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. It has been certified Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (B ...
'') appeared on three songs: "You're the One", "The Song of Solomon", and "Why Should I Love You?".
A short film, ''
The Line, the Cross and the Curve
''The Line, the Cross and the Curve'' is a 1993 British musical short film directed by and starring singer Kate Bush, co-starring Miranda Richardson and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, who had served as dance mentor to Bush early in her career.
Th ...
'', written and directed by Bush, and starring herself and English actress
Miranda Richardson
Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress. She made her film debut playing Ruth Ellis in '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985) and went on to receive Academy Award nominations for ''Damage'' (1992) and ''Tom & Viv'' (1994). ...
, was released the same year. It featured six songs from the album: "Rubberband Girl", "And So Is Love", "The Red Shoes", "Moments of Pleasure", "Eat the Music" and "Lily". The first five were used as promo videos for the singles, though Bush recorded a separate video for the American release of "Rubberband Girl" (though this video is intercut with clips from ''The Line, the Cross and the Curve''). The film was nominated for the
Long Form Music Video at the
1996 Grammy Awards
The 38th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1996, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Alanis Morissette was the main recipient, being awarded four trophies, in ...
.
In 1995, Bush received a
Brit Award
The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...
nomination for Best British Female Artist.
The album was recorded digitally, and Bush has since expressed regrets about the results of this, which is why she revisited seven of the songs using analogue tape for her 2011 album ''
Director's Cut
A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the ...
'', as well as releasing a remastered version of ''The Red Shoes'' in 2011, based on the master from an analogue backup tape.
Bush performed "Lily" and "Top of the City" live for the first time in 2014 as part of the
Before the Dawn concert residency.
Track listing
Personnel
* Kate Bush – vocals, keyboards (exc. 4), piano (4, 5, 8, 9),
Fender Rhodes
The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, th ...
(5, 8, 12), bass guitar and guitar (10),
co-arranger (11)
*
Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician.
Biography Early life
Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...
– orchestral arrangements
*
Del Palmer
Derek Peter "Del" Palmer is an English singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and sound engineer, best known for his work with Kate Bush, with whom he also had a long-term relationship between the late 1970s and early 1990s. He released his first so ...
–
Fairlight programming,
electronic drums
Electronic drums is a modern electronic musical instrument, primarily designed to serve as an alternative to an acoustic drum kit. Electronic drums consist of an electronic sound module which produces the synthesized or sampled percussion sound ...
*
Stuart Elliott – drums (1–3, 6–9, 11, 12), percussion (1, 3, 5, 7)
*
John Giblin
John Giblin, is an active session musician, contributing mainly as an acoustic and electric bass player, and spanning genres of jazz, classical, rock, folk and avant-garde music. Best known as a studio musician, recording film scores and contem ...
– bass guitar (1–3, 6, 8, 9, 12)
* Danny McIntosh – guitar (1, 5–9)
*Horn section (1, 3, 9, 11)
**
Nigel Hitchcock
Nigel Hitchcock (born 4 January 1971) is an English jazz saxophonist.
Biography
Hitchcock began to play alto sax at the age of eight. In 1982 he and his elder brother Clive joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. After one year Nigel took the ...
–
tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...
,
baritone saxophone
The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...
(1)
**
Steve Sidwell
Steven James Sidwell (born 14 December 1982) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Sidwell was a product of the Arsenal academy, and after winning two FA Youth Cups, he had constructive loan spells at Bren ...
– trumpet,
flugelhorn
The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...
(11)
** Paul Spong – trumpet
** Neil Sidwell –
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
*
Gary Brooker
Gary Brooker (29 May 1945 – 19 February 2022) was an English singer and pianist, and the founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum.
Early life
Born in Hackney Hospital, East London, on 29 May 1945, Brooker grew up in Hackney ...
–
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
(2, 9, 12)
*
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...
– guitar (2)
*
Paddy Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...
– vocals (3, 7, 9),
valiha
The valiha is a tube zither from Madagascar made from a species of local bamboo; it is considered the " national instrument" of Madagascar. The term is also used to describe a number of related zithers of differing shapes and materials.
Th ...
,
singing bowls
A standing bell or resting bell is an inverted bell, supported from below with the rim uppermost. Such bells are normally bowl-shaped, and exist in a wide range of sizes, from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter. They are often played by st ...
and
fujara
The fujara () is a large wind instrument of the tabor pipe class. It originated in central Slovakia as a sophisticated folk shepherd's overtone fipple flute of unique design in the contrabass range.
Ranging from 160 to 200 cm long (5'3" &n ...
(6),
musical bow
The musical bow (bowstring or string bow, a subset of bar zithers) is a simple string instrument used by a number of South African peoples, which is also found in the Americas via slave trade. It consists of a flexible, usually wooden, stick 1. ...
, whistle and
mandola
The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...
(7)
*
Justin Vali
Justin Vali ranks among the greatest living players of traditional Malagasy music on the ''valiha'', a bamboo tube zither considered the national instrument of Madagascar. He also performs on the ''marovany'' box zither of central and southern Ma ...
– valiha (3, 7),
kabosy
The kabosy is a box-shaped wooden guitar commonly played in music of Madagascar. It has four to six strings and is commonly thought to be a direct descendant of the Arabic oud. The kabosy has staggered frets, many of which do not even cross ...
and vocals (3)
*
Trio Bulgarka
Trio Bulgarka ( bg, Трио „Българка“; also known as "Three Golden Coins", previously known as "Bulgarka Folk Trio") were a Bulgarian vocal ensemble.
They gained international prominence through their contributions to the groundbr ...
– vocals (5, 11, 12)
** Dimitar Penev – vocal arrangements for Trio Bulgarka
*
Charlie Morgan – percussion (5)
* Lily Cornford – narrator (6)
* Colin Lloyd Tucker – vocals (7, 9)
* Gaumont d'Olivera – bass guitar (7), drums, percussion and sound effects (10)
*
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and violist.
His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.
Early life and background
Kenn ...
– violin (8, 10),
viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
(8)
*
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
– keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, vocals and co-arranger (11)
*
Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.
Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...
– vocals (11)
*
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...
– guitar (12)
; Production
* Kate Bush -
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
* Del Palmer –
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
,
mixing
*
Haydn Bendall
Haydn Bendall (born 13 April 1951, Essex, England) is an English people, English record producer, Audio engineering, audio engineer and Mixing engineer, mixer. He was Chief Engineer at Abbey Road Studios for ten years and was awarded the Audio P ...
– engineer
* Ian Cooper – mastering
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Shoes, The
1993 albums
EMI Records albums
Kate Bush albums
Music based on works by Hans Christian Andersen
Works based on The Red Shoes (fairy tale)