Breathing

I was talking tunes with a co-worker the other day and the subject of Kate Bush came up. We reminisced about how great she was - I say was because it's been like 12 years since we've had a new album from her. Her unique voice, her tremendous songs with their odd titles and subject matter, and her fearlessness when it came to experimenting with pop music all made her stand out. Breathing is no exception. Taken from 1980's Never For Ever album, the track is a stunner. It's a post-nuclear story, told from the perspective of a baby in it's mother's womb. The baby is aware of what has happened and yet can't help but continue to breathe.

"We’ve lost our chance.
We’re the first and the last, ooh,
After the blast.
Chips of plutonium
Are twinkling in every lung.
I love my
Beloved, ooh,
All and everywhere,
Only the fools blew it.
You and me
Knew life itself is."

It's all conveyed over a dreamy, atmospeheric tune that puts you in the womb with her, slowly building to a big, angry climax with massed voices yelling "what are we going to do without breathing?". A reflection of it's time - the Cold War, fears of a nuclear holocaust, it still sends shivers down my spine twenty five years later.

Lyrics from Lyrics Freak.com, where you can read along while you listen.