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Babooshka (song)
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox song
| name = Babooshka
| cover = Kate Bush - Babooshka.png
| alt =
| type = single
| artist = Kate Bush
| album = Never for Ever
| B-side = Ran Tan Waltz
| released = 27 June 1980
| recorded = JanuaryJune 1980
| studio =
| genre =
| length = 3:26
| label = EMI
| writer = Kate Bush
| producer = * Kate Bush Jon Kelly
| prev_title = Breathing
| prev_year = 1980
| next_title = Army Dreamers
| next_year = 1980
| misc =
}}
"'Babooshka'" is a song by English singer Kate Bush, taken from her album 'Never for Ever'. Released as a single in June 1980, it spent 10 weeks in the UK chart, peaking at number five. It was an even bigger hit in Australia, where it peaked at number two (for three weeks) and was the 20th best-selling single of the year.
Background
According to an interview Kate Bush gave to the Australian TV series 'Countdown' in 1980, the song chronicles a wife's desire to test her husband's loyalty. To do so, she takes on the pen name of Babooshka and sends notes to her husband in the guise of a younger womansomething which she fears is the opposite of how her husband currently sees her (hence the barbed lines "Just like his wife before she 'freezed' on him/Just like his wife when she was beautiful".)
The trap is set when, in her bitterness and paranoia, Babooshka arranges to meet her husband, who is attracted to the character who reminds him of his wife in earlier times. She thereby ruins the relationship due to her paranoia.
Bush cited the English folk song "Sovay", in which a woman dresses as a highwayman and accosts her lover in order to test his devotion, as an inspiration for the story of Babooshka.Melody Maker, "Paranoia and Passion of the Kate Inside", Colin Irwin, 4 Oct 1980. "I'm sure I heard about it on some TV series years ago, when I was a kid," Bush remarked of the song's story. "You know, these period things that the BBC do. I think it's an extraordinary thing for someone to do... That's why I found it fascinating."BBC Radio 1: 'Saturday Live', 25 February 1984
The music video depicts Bush beside a double bass (contrabass) that symbolises the husband, wearing a black bodysuit and a veil in her role as the embittered wife. This changes into an extravagant, mythlike and rather revealing "Russian" costume as her alter-ego, Babooshka. An illustration by Chris Achilleos for the cover of the 1978 book 'Raven Swordsmistress of Chaos' was the basis for the costume.
The track features John Giblin on bass and marks the significance of fretless bass sounds as instrumental "male" partners through Bush's music in the early eighties.
The song ends with a sample of glass breaking, one of the earliest examples of a sample created with the newly available Fairlight CMI digital synthesizer.
Bush said that's "something I didn't realise at the time", when she learnt that 'a' (babushka) is the Russian word for "grandmother" (although the stress in Russian falls on the first syllable, not the second).
"Babooshka" became Bush's second top five hit in the UK and was certified silver for sales of over 250,000 by the BPI.
The B-side contains her song "Ran Tan Waltz", her second non-album B-side. This song is performed as a tragicomedy, where Bush portrays a man bemoaning his bad luck in life being married to a wayward mother. This song uses the word "dick" in the first verse as dysphemism for a penis. Bush has stated that she does not typically use such harsh language or write such sexually explicit material, but that she considered the song "good naughty fun".
In 2021, the song experienced a resurgence in popularity due to the app TikTok, giving American audiences exposure to Bush.
Track listing
# "Babooshka" (Kate Bush) 3:28
# "Ran Tan Waltz" (Bush) 2:40
Personnel
*Kate Bush vocals; piano; Fairlight CMI; Yamaha CS-80
*Paddy Bush balalaika; backing vocals
*Garry Hurst backing vocals
*Alan Murphy electric guitar
*Brian Bath electric guitar
*John Giblin electric bass
*Max Middleton Fender Rhodes piano
*Stuart Elliott drums; tambourine
Charts
Certifications
References
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