Kate Bush’s fifth studio album was Hounds of Love which is considered by many music critics to be her best album, and it’s regularly voted one of the greatest albums of all time. The lead single, “Running Up That Hill,” widely regarded as one of her greatest hits, helped sell more than 1.1 million copies of the album which achieved double platinum status.
The shot of Kate Bush reclining on the Hounds of Love album cover was taken by her brother, John Carder Bush, who included plenty of funny outtakes from the photo session. The ‘hounds of love’ on the album cover were her own two dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, and it took all day to get them to settle down. When the final picture was taken, one of the pooches actually fell asleep on her. On the album sleeve notes Kate gives “A big woof to Bonnie & Clyde.”
Here’s the amazing story behind the Hounds of Love album cover shoot, as told by John Carder Bush:
“There had been quite a few ideas for this cover that we tried out in rough, and then abandoned. The feel of the photo was in the air around the music that was being finalized: color and emotional pace became clear first.
“Elaborate environments, such as forests, mountains, palaces, etc.––places for the Hounds to run that would suit their style––were rejected as too busy. The cover had to have a strong, full image of Kate, as it was the first for three years, and landscapes, however beautiful, tend to dwarf people. It’s fine to use the big outdoors for bands because you can spread them all over it, but for a beautiful solo lady it doesn’t work. So we decided on a close-up of Kate and the dogs, and a made-up background.
“There was a feeling for daylight rather than studio, so we went round and discussed it with the dogs. While Kate was chatting to them in their back garden, I snapped away. But when we looked at the processed results, daylight was too cold, there wasn’t enough diffusion of the shades of color and the environment. It just didn’t feel right. I had been working on a series of “body poems” in which I was writing my poems on people and then photographing them, and it seemed like a good idea, but when we tried it, apart from Kate looking like the tattooed lady from a circus, there was much too much activity in the small frame, and the eye just wandered around too much. But the dogs were wonderful, and did everything they were asked too.
“It was becoming clearer. We had to do it in the studio, without the writing, and with the lights set in a delicate, pastel way. So I constructed a rough, made sure all the cables were well pinned down and anything likely to be knocked over out of the way, and then phoned up the dogs and asked them over for another tryout.
“We let them explore for an hour or so, and then Kate settled down on the floor for an overhead shot.
“An hour later we had managed to persuade them to lie down next to Kate. Not surprising that they took so long, as they are not trained dogs, and couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I had a minute to hoover up as much as I could before they were off again, tending to use Kate as a launching ramp for their leaps and cavorting.
“After they had left, we seriously considered trying feline friends, but Cats of Love wasn’t quite the same at all. But on looking at the shots we had, there was potential, and we decided we would persevere. And the best thing seemed to be to take the studio to the dogs, have another rehearsal and, if that was a shambles, think again. Also another rehearsal would mean I could try out more variations in the lighting and the set. So a week later I took my studio to the dogs and constructed a scaffolding for the overhead shot; a bed of lilac net and silks for Kate; and around her, a tent of lilac material to reflect and diffuse. And when I looked through the lens at the little room, it looked like an illustration from Dulac’s Arabian Nights.
“The Hounds had been taken out for a long run and then fed, because we thought that if they felt dozy long enough they would want somewhere to lie down and sleep it off. Kate did her hair in an approximation of how it would look in the final shot, and then settled down in the tent. Up came the lights, and in came the dogs––noses first––and after a few minutes of looking around, yawned and went to sleep next to her. I had all the time I wanted to explore the possibilities.
“When the film was processed, it was very exciting to see how the various elements were coming together, and how close we were getting to the album cover that existed inside our heads. There were a lot of small points to iron out, but they presented no problem, and I looked forward to the big day.
“When it came round, Kate asked Clayton Howard, the make-up artist, and Anthony Yacomine, the hair artist, to do their magic, so for three hours of painstaking work they added the colors and shapes that were necessary for the right atmosphere. I reconstructed the scaffolding and rebuilt the set, and after lunch we were ready to go. Kate lay down in the tent, and Howard and Anthony arranged the final touches of nuance. The materials were placed in just the right places, and I climbed up into the scaffolding. When I looked through the lens, it was fairyland underneath me.
“The dogs, meanwhile, had been waiting in the wings, supposedly exhausted and dying for somewhere to put their heads down. Anthony and Clayton withdrew in a cloud of hairspray and eye-glitter, so that the dogs wouldn’t be distracted by strangers, and the word was given to let them in.
“Within seconds, Kate’s delicate arrangements were in tatters and a paw in the mouth didn’t help make-up. One dog would settle down and start snoring while the other one turned her back on us all by the door and wouldn't budge. As soon as she had been persuaded to stop being a prima donna and come alongside Kate, the other one smelled Anthony and Clayton, and was off to meet them. We tried for half an hour before we realized we were wasting our time, so while Kate was being repaired, I went outside with the Hounds and had a serious talk with them.
“I could see their point of view, but it didn’t help in getting this expensive, time-consuming session off the ground. While they hurtled off to chase non-existent cats that I suggested were lurking at the end of the garden in the hope of tiring them out even more, I received the signal that Kate was ready to go again. Apparently seeing reason, the dogs returned, and we signed the deal with some chocolate digestives: if they behaved themselves and gave me the photo I wanted, there was a McDonald’s with milk shake and apple pie in it for each of them.
“We went back in, but it was the same thing. Looning and sulking. Then suddenly they lay down next to Kate, and we were away. Half an hour later I had enough photos, and could have gone on to take more, but everyone was becoming too sleepy in the heat from the lights and the softness of the set, so it seemed pointless.
“Choosing the final photo, deciding how best to present it on the cover and what sort of typeface to use for titles is yet another story.”
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