How a Bulgarian vocal trio changed a classic Kate bush song
Sometimes known as the “Three Golden Coins”, Trio Bulgarka was a Bulgarian vocal ensemble that had a spell of popularity in the 1980s. All three members, Stoyanka Boneva, Yanka Rupkina, and Eva Georgieva, each came from different Bulgarian regions, and their varied backgrounds allowed each to bring a unique texture to their sound. After being signed to Bulgaria Balkanton and Hannibal in 1987, Kate Bush came across their work, which resulted in a series of collaborations.
1988 marked the release of the trio’s debut, The Forest Is Crying. English radio presenter John Peel first heard them through the Hannibal label recordings and played some of their music, which had a boost of exposure after their session on Andy Kershaw’s radio show.
Their string of successes continued to have a wide reach after being sampled on Belgian New Beat band Morton Sherman Bellucci’s ‘Musica’. At some point, Kate Bush came across their debut, as well as Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, a collection of modern arrangements of traditional Bulgarian folk melodies they had performed.
Bush was desperate to use the trio on her upcoming album, 1989’s The Sensual World – and they soon appeared on three of its tracks: ‘Never Be Mine’, ‘Deeper Understanding’, and ‘Rocket’s Tail’. The latter was loosely inspired by her cat, Rocket, but as she once told the NME, actually “written for the Bulgarian girls.”
The song featured typically idiosyncratic Bush lyrics like: “I put on my pointed hat / And my black and silver suit / And I check my gunpowder pack / And I strap the stick on my back / And dressed as a rocket on Waterloo Bridge.”
As Bush explained, the song was a “ridiculous collection” of images and motifs, all of which had “nothing to do with Rocket really, he just started it all off”. she continues that the time, the only song she could think of that mentioned rockets was ‘Rocket Man,’ but by the time she was in studio there were about three more. “I feel a bit like the [Monty] Python sketch with that guy making eight-millimetre films saying ‘Hitchcock had his Rear Window out while mine was still at the chemists,'” she said.
Luckily, Trio Bulgarka provided Bush with some crucial inspiration. “Suddenly, there I was working with these three ladies from a completely different culture,” she recalled in an LA Times interview. “I’ve never worked with women on such an intense creative level, and it was something strange to feel this very strong female energy in the studio. It was interesting to see the way the men in the studio reacted to this. Instead of just one female, there was a very strong female presence.”
