The Painter's Link

Album: Aerial (2005)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a track from English singer-songwriter Kate Bush's 2005 album, Aerial. The song features the vocals of Australian musician, artist and TV personality Rolf Harris.
  • Harris also plays the didgeridoo on this track, as the Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport singer previously did on Bush's 1982 single "The Dreaming." The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by the Aboriginal people of northern Australia at least 1,500 years ago and is still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. The instrument is traditionally made from Eucalyptus trees, which have had their interiors hollowed out by termites or died of other causes.
  • Harris recalled recording this song with Bush to The NME: "On Aerial I did a song about painting called 'The Painter's Link.' She was the hardest taskmistress ever. I did about eight different takes. She kept saying, 'You're a bit flat, can you do it again?'"
    This did not stop Harris collaborating with Bush again as in 2010 they recorded together a version of the traditional Irish song "She Moves Through The Fair."
  • Bush and Harris were backed on this track by the LMO Orchestra and the orchestral arrangement was by American film composer Michael Kamen.

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