Rocket's Tail by Kate Bush

Album: The Sensual World (1989)

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This song features backing vocals by Trio Bulgarka, a traditional Bulgarian vocal ensemble that appears throughout The Sensual World. "Rocket's actually my cat, but it was written for the Bulgarian girls," Bush explained to NME. "Ridiculous collection of images, nothing to do with Rocket really, he just started it all off. At the time the only song I could think of that mentioned rockets was 'Rocket Man' but since then there has been about three of them. I feel a bit like the Python sketch with that guy making eight-millimetre films saying 'Hitchcock had his Rear Window out while mine was still at the chemists.'"

Bush actually recorded "Rocket Man" a couple of years later for the tribute album Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. Her reggae-inflected cover was a commercial success, peaking at #12 on the UK singles chart. In 2007 it won The Observer readers' award for Greatest Cover of all time.
The song features guitar by Bush's early music mentor, Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour.

Comments: 1

Paul from Rothesay, Nb, NbThis song is absolutely magical. I can still remember listening to it for the first time and getting totally swept up when the song takes off after the acapella intro. David Gilmour's performance is spot on. One of my all-time faves from Kate!

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