This Woman&039s Work | Kate Bush Encyclopedia

song written by kate bush. Originally released on the soundtrack of the film She’s Having a Baby in 1988. A year later, the song was included on Kate’s sixth studio album, The Sensuous World. the lyrics are about being forced to face an unexpected and terrifying crisis during the normal event of childbirth. Written for the film She’s Having a Baby, director John Hughes used the song during the film’s dramatic climax, when Jake (Kevin Bacon) learns of the lives of his wife (Elizabeth McGovern) and their unborn child. they are in danger. As the song plays, we see a montage sequence of flashbacks showing the couple in happier times, interspersed with shots of him waiting to hear from Elizabeth and the condition of her baby. Bush wrote the song specifically for the sequence, writing from the point of view of a man (Jake) and matching the words to footage that had already been shot.

The song was used in the 21st episode of the third season of party of five. the song was also used in the first episode of the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale.

formats

‘This Woman’s Work’ was released as a 7″ single, a 7″ picture disc single, a 12″ single (with poster sleeve), a cassette single, and a CD single in Germany. , a 3″ cd. the single was also released. on all formats the bonus track was included be kind to my mistakes also on all formats except the 7″ singles and the cassette single i’m still waiting.

versions

There are four different versions of ‘this woman’s work’. The original version was released on the soundtrack album for the movie ‘She’s Going to Have a Baby’. the version of the song that appeared in ‘el mundo sensual’ was reissued from the original version. the version released as a single was a slightly different third mix. Ultimately, ‘This Woman’s Work’ was completely re-recorded on the Director’s Cut of Kate’s 2011 album. The new version features a sparse performance by Bush playing piano and singing.

music video

The music video was directed by Bush herself. It begins with Bush, standing out in an otherwise dark room, playing the introductory notes on a piano. In the next scene, a distraught man (played by Tim McInnerny) walks through a hospital waiting room. It is later revealed through flashbacks that his wife (played by Bush) collapsed while they were having dinner. the story fades into a continuous scene of him carrying her to the car, a desperate rush to the hospital, and her wife being carried away on a stretcher as he runs after her. while he waits, the husband is terrified and imagines his wife in happier times, kissing him in the rain, and even imagines the nurse coming to tell him that she has died. the nurse then pulls him out of her reverie, while she puts her hand on his shoulder to reassure him and tells him about her wife’s situation, the result of this is ambiguous; however, he sees the nurse smiling as she speaks, implying a happy outcome. The final scene of the video returns to Bush as he quietly closes the piano keyboard.

cover versions

“This Woman’s Work” was covered by Aco, Baby Bushka, Beloved, Bonnie Bailey, Dark Dark Dark, Kat Devlin, E-Clypse with Emma Price, Jess Gillam, Goodknight Productions, Göteborgs Symfoniker, Glennis Grace, Hope for island & jude, the kate bush experience, lady maisery, greg laswell, maxwell, hope murphy, octover, gwyneth paltrow, quaker notes, lindsay schief, titlucio, tk the prophet, tm collective, reginald van carreker and rachel z.

kate on ‘this woman’s job’

john hughes, the american film director, had just made this movie called ‘she’s having a baby’, and he had a scene in the movie that he wanted to accompany with a song. and the film is very light: it is a charming comedy. Her movies are very human, and it’s just about a young man who falls in love with a girl and marries her. he is still a child. she gets pregnant, and it’s all still very light and childish until she’s about to have the baby and the nurse comes up to her and tells her that she’s in a breech position and they don’t know what the situation will be. so while she’s in the operating room, he has to sit and wait in the waiting room and it’s a very powerful movie where he’s just sitting there thinking; and this is actually the moment in the movie where he has to grow up. he has no choice. there he is, he is no longer a child; he can see that he is in a very adult situation. and he begins, in his head, to go back to the times when they were together. there are movie clips of them laughing together and tidying up their flat and all that kind of stuff. and it was such a powerful image – it’s one of the fastest songs I’ve ever written. it was so easy to write. we had the video footage so we hooked it up so he could see the monitor while sitting at the piano and I just wrote the song with these images. it was almost a matter of telling the story, and it was a wonderful thing to do: I really enjoyed doing it. (interview with roger scott, bbc radio 1 (uk), 14th october 1989)

That’s the sequence I had to write the song about, and it’s really very moving, him in the waiting room, having flashbacks of his wife and him walking around, decorating… it’s exploring his sadness and guilt: of Suddenly it’s the point where it has to grow. he had been such a fool up to this point. (len brown, ‘in the realm of the senses’. nme (uk), 7th october 1989)

there’s a movie called ‘she’s going to have a baby’. and john hughes, the director, called and said he had a sequence in the movie that he really wanted to write a song for. and I had only worked once before on the movie ‘castaway’, where I really enjoyed that, so I was very tempted by the offer. and when he sent the movie that the song would be a part of, I thought it was wonderful, it was very moving, a very moving movie. and in a way, there was a sense that the whole movie was taking place up to this point. and it was a very easy song to write. it was very quick and it just came, like a lot of songs do. even if you fight for months, at the end, they just say: blah! – you know. [laughs]. so that was the first song i wrote for the ‘el mundo sensual’ album. in fact at the time we weren’t even sure whether to put it on the album or not. And I have to say that del was very instrumental in saying that I should put it on the album, and I’m so glad I did. because I had the most fantastic response, in a way, maybe the best response, to this song. And I was really – I was absolutely thrilled, that you felt that way about it. (with kate bush, 1990)

higher chart positions

australia: 89 ireland: 20 united kingdom (1989): 25 united kingdom (2008): 76 united kingdom (2012): 63

letter

pray to god you can get through it. I’m out of this woman’s job, this woman’s world ooh, it’s hard for the man, now his part is over now the father’s trade begins

I know you have a little life left but I know you have a lot of strength left I know you have a little life left but I know you have a lot of strength left

I should be crying but I can’t let it show I should be waiting but I can’t stop thinking

of all the things I should have said, that I never said all the things we should have done, that we never did all the things I should have said, but didn’t

oh baby, make it go away, make it go away

give me back these moments give me back give me that little kiss give me your hand

(I know you have a little life left, but I know you have a lot of strength left. I know you have a little life left. I know you have a lot of strength left.)

I should be crying but I can’t let it show I should be waiting but I can’t stop thinking

of all the things we should have said, that were never said all the things we should have done, that we never did all the things you needed from me all the things you wanted for me all the things I should have given but I didn’t

oh baby make it go away just make it go away now

credits

orchestra arranged by michael kamen voices: albert mcintosch, jacob thorn (2011 version)