When Kate Bush recruited her mother to work on a song
Amidst the mammoth success of ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)’, the art and ethereality of Hounds of Love as a whole has been somewhat overshadowed. The record may have spawned a forever hit with its lead single, but Kate Bush exemplified her talent for sonic storytelling and art pop instrumentation throughout that record, far beyond her inclusion on the Stranger Things soundtrack.
Though it never came close to the success of ‘Running Up That Hill’, or even follow-up singles ‘Cloudbusting’ and ‘Hounds of Love’, ‘And Dream of Sheep’ was no less captivating. Placed at the mid-point of the album, the song is about “someone going to sleep in the water, where they’re alone and frightened,” as Bush once recalled to The Garden.
It features minimal instrumentation – Bush’s vocals are mainly accompanied by keys and the occasional guitar strum. Yet, between the potent piano and Bush’s lyrical laments, she sprinkles in a number of samples. Many of them can barely be heard, but they are integral to the atmosphere the song creates. After Bush declares, “Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep,” a walkie-talkie clip about shipping information blends into the voice of a woman who sweetly states, “Come here with me now.”
The short line cuts through the song, almost adding an element of comfort, which is only enhanced by the fact that it is Bush’s mother who delivers those words. Bush once explained why she included the feature, beginning, “When I was little, and I’d had a bad dream, I’d go into my parents’ bedroom round to my mother’s side of the bed.”
“She’d be asleep,” Bush continued, “and I wouldn’t want to wake her, so I’d stand there and wait for her to sense my presence and wake up. She always did, within minutes, and sometimes I’d frighten her – standing there still, in the darkness in my nightdress.”
When Bush would inform her mother that she had had a nightmare, she would often respond with something along the lines of ‘Come here with me now.’ “It’s my mother saying this line in the track, and I briefed her on the ideas behind it before she said it,” Bush concluded.
With the backstory to the line – a motherly comfort from a bad dream – the beckoning line becomes all the more intimate and soothing. Facing the dangers and isolation of sleeping in the water, Bush finds comfort and reassurance in the familiar words of her mother.
Revisit ‘And Dream of Sheep’ from the timeless Hounds of Love below.
