It is a song that I wanted to come back to, as it is such a remarkable, complex and affecting piece. I feel that those songs are great, though they are not quite as edgy and experimental as Pull Out the Pin. She did nod to political subjects with Army Dreamers and Breathing from 1980’s Never for Ever. Those who felt Bush was not a political songwriter or too concerned with deeper subjects should hear songs like Pull Out the Pin. (Robin Smith, 'Getting Down Under With Kate Bush', 1982)”. Negative images are often so interesting. Anyway, I learnt that before the Vietnamese went into action they popped a little silver Buddha in their mouths. Their culture of Coke cans and ice creams actually made them smell. They could literally smell the Americans coming through the jungle. The Vietnamese were portrayed as being very craftful people who treated their fighting as an art. I saw a programme with a camera man on the front line in Vietnam. I wanted to write a song that could somehow convey the whole thing, so we set it in the jungle and had helicopters, crickets and little Balinese frogs. They wore a little silver Buddha on a chain around their neck and when they went into action they'd pop it into their mouth, so if they died they'd have Buddha on their lips. It was devastating, because you got the impression that the Americans were so heavy and awkward, and the Vietnamese were so beautiful and all getting wiped out. The Americans were these big, fat, pink, smelly things who the Vietnamese could smell coming for miles because of the tobacco and cologne. The way he portrayed the Vietnamese was as this really crafted, beautiful race. He's never been the same since, because it's so devastating, people dying all the time. He said it really changed him, because until you live on their level like that, when it's complete survival, you don't know what it's about. “ I saw this incredible documentary by this Australian cameraman who went on the front line in Vietnam, filming from the Vietnamese point of view, so it was very biased against the Americans. Coming to the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, we get some quotes from Bush herself about writing Pull Out the Pin: Because The Dreaming is not the most commercial Kate Bush album, one does not really hear too many of the songs given a lot of play. To me, Pull Out the Pin contains some of Bush’s most vivid and striking lyrics: “ You learn to ride the Earth/When you're living on your belly and the enemy are city-births/Who need radar?/We use scent/They stink of the west, stink of sweat/Stink of cologne and baccy, and all their Yankee hash”. An album that is not covered much on the airwaves, it is a shame more people do not go deep with an incredible release. I think I have only heard it played on the radio once. From her fourth studio album, The Dreaming (1982), it is a track that does not get talked about. Written about Kate Bush’s Pull Out the Pin before, it is a song I keep coming back to.
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