The Dreaming

Album: The Dreaming (1982)
Charted: 48
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Songfacts®:

  • Bush wrote this about the situation between the white Australians and the aborigines who were being wiped out by man's greed for uranium. White men were digging up aboriginal sacred grounds to get to the plutonium needed to build weapons that could one day destroy everything.
  • The title comes from a religious period of time in the aboriginal culture known as Dreamtime, a time when animals and humans take the same form. Dreamtime is also known as The Dreaming.
  • Traditional aboriginal instruments were used on this song. The didgeridoo was played by Australian popular entertainer Rolf Harris. He linked up with Bush once again for her 2005 album, Aerial, when he played the didgeridoo again as well as contributing vocals to the tracks "An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link."
  • The Dreaming was the first album Bush produced on her own, a rare feat in 1982 when most artists were using outside producers. Bush, though, knew exactly how she wanted the album to sound and knew how to accomplish it, so it made sense to be her own producer. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Lee - Ottawa, Canada, for all above
  • The Dreaming album found Kate Bush showcasing a huge range of vocal approaches such as the exaggerated Australian accent on its title track. "I'm able to oversee the whole thing in a way that I can treat myself almost like an actor on a stage," she told Mojo magazine. "It's not just being a singer. The voice is just part of trying to create an atmosphere or a little story or a picture, and it's very much (about) the emotional content."
  • English bird impersonator Percy Edwards provided sheep noises for the track.
  • Bang! goes another kanga
    On the bonnet of the van


    The thud of kanga hitting car at the beginning of the song was done in the car park. "Kate was round the back slamming the door until we got the right bang," assistant engineer Teri Reid told Uncut magazine. "We used a red Alfa Romeo."

Comments: 2

  • Andrew from London, United KingdomBrilliant Song from in my honest opinion probably Kate's best album. All of Kate's albums are great but Hound of Love and The Dreaming are in another league.
    The Dreaming just edges it for me. A totally bonkers album throughout as in " Oh my god..Kate has discovered how to use the Fairlight properly" but every track, yes every track just oozes passion, emotion and her raw and unique talent shines through continuously.
  • Random Terrain from , -I heard a tiny piece of this song on an alternative rock radio station some time between 1983 and 1985. I didn't know who sang it or what the name of the song was. Sounded like she said "and the tree begin to bleed." No wonder I couldn't find it for so long on the internet using those words since it's 'breathe,' not 'bleed.'
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