Babooshka

There are two versions of ‘Babooshka’: the single version which fades out and the album version which segues into the next track, Delius (Song Of Summer) . Two demo versions from 1977 have also surfaced and were released on various bootleg CD’s. The music video depicts Bush beside a double bass (contrabass) which 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 sparse “Russian” costume as her alter-ego, Babooshka. An illustration by Chris Achilleos was the basis for the costume. Kate performed ‘Babooshka’ in various European programmes, including Collaro (France), Countdown (Netherlands) and Rock Pop (Germany). Her performance of the song in a Dr. Hook television special remains the first, and is memorable for the costume she is wearing: on her the right side she resembles a staid Victorian lady in mourning dress; on the left side a glittering, liberated young woman in a silvery jumpsuit, with bright lightning-streaks painted down the left side of her face. Her figure is lit so that only the “repressed” side of her costume is visible during the verses of the song, and mainly the “free” side during the choruses. Apparently it is grandmother, it’s also a headdress that people wear. But when I wrote the song it was just a name that literally came into my mind, I’ve presumed I’ve got it from a fairy story I’d read when I was a child. And after having written the song a series of incredible coincidences happened where I’d turned on the television and there was Donald Swan singing about Babooshka. So I thought, “Well, there’s got to be someone who’s actually called Babooshka.” So I was looking through Radio Times and there, another coincidence, there was an opera called Babooshka. Apparently she was the lady that the three kings went to see because the star stopped over her house and they thought “Jesus is in there”.’ So they went in and he wasn’t. And they wouldn’t let her come with them to find the baby and she spent the rest of her life looking for him and she never found him. And also a friend of mine had a cat called Babooshka. So these really extraordinary things that kept coming up when in fact it was just a name that came into my head at the time purely because it fitted. (Peter Powell interview, Radio 1 (UK), 11 October 1980 ) She wanted to test her husband. She knew exactly what to do: A pseudonym to fool him. She couldn’t have made a worse move. She sent him scented letters, And he received them with a strange delight. Just like his wife But how she was before the tears, And how she was before the years flew by, And how she was when she was beautiful. She signed the letter She wanted to take it further, So she arranged a place to go, To see if he Would fall for her incognito. And when he laid eyes on her, He got the feeling they had met before. Uncanny how she Reminds him of his little lady, Capacity to give him all he needs, Just like his wife before she freezed on him, Just like his wife when she was beautiful. He shouted out, “I’m All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya! All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya! All yours, Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya!”