Background
Following the success of her debut album,Kate Bush's record company EMI were eager to get another out. Bush had composed many songs throughout her teens [7] (she was at this time 19 years old);the majority of the tracks used for Lionheart were compositions from before her debut. Bush,however,was unhappy with the short length of time she had in which to produce the album. Recorded entirely at Super Bear Studios in Berre-les-Alpes on the French Riviera,this was to be her only album recorded outside the UK.
Of the ten tracks,only "Symphony in Blue","Fullhouse" and "Coffee Homeground" were newly composed songs,although the other songs had been reworked by Bush in preparation for the recording. The album was produced,like her first,by Andrew Powell,with Bush feeling that she was at this stage too inexperienced to produce it herself (she would go on to produce all her following albums). Since the album's release,Bush has many times said that she was unhappy with this album because of the restrictions imposed on it. In a 1989 interview she remarked:"Considering how quickly we made it it's a bloody good album,but I'm not really happy with it".
Bush said in a 1978 interview that some of the lyrics pertained to childhood. [8] Literary references include J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in "In Search of Peter Pan" (a song which also quotes "When You Wish Upon a Star" from the Disney film Pinocchio ),as well as a nod towards Arsenic and Old Lace in the song "Coffee Homeground",which despite being similar in plot to the play,was inspired by a taxi driver who drove Bush once. Film references include "Hammer Horror",while although taking its name from the Hammer Film studios,is actually about a production of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame . The British television show The Sweeney ,a popular police drama from the 1970s,was mentioned in the lyrics of the song "Wow",which is a song about the music business and show business in general. [9] "Kashka from Baghdad",inspired by American detective series,is about the inhabitants of a town wondering about a couple living in an old house. [10]
Lionheart was the first Kate Bush album to feature Del Palmer,who played bass and had previously been in the KT Bush Band. Palmer went on to play bass,or to engineer and record on every subsequent Kate Bush album up to and including 50 Words for Snow (2011). He and Bush also had a long-term relationship between the late 1970s and early 1990s. [11] [12]
