Another Day (Patreon)

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CW: child sexual abuse.

Another Day Another Day (Bush/Gabriel)

Let’s establish a couple things off the bat. For starters, folk musician Roy Harper is songwriter of some note. He’s got solid and interesting work in his discography, bits of which frequently gets covers by artists like the Cocteau Twins or Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. It’s no wonder Bush and Gabriel duetted on a cover of “Another Day,” an sturdy and compelling break-up song. The album “Another Day” hails from, Flat Baroque and Berserk, has songs that are the equal of mid-tier tracks from Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home, or Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer’s Flowers of Avalon. Harper’s work is firmly second-tier folk music, not transcendent but respectable. Given that he’s associated with such figures as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Pete Townshend, he’s a figure of some significance in rock and folk music and a force to be reckoned with.

Given that Harper is a songwriter of note, his status as such is tainted by what we know about him now. The other thing we need to address in this blog post is the revelations about Roy Harper that have been made over the years. He is the subject of child sexual abuse allegations by two women, who were 11 and 16 at the time the abuse occurred. These women, one of whom has remained anonymous and the other of whom has not, have recounted the trauma they experienced subsequent to their abuse in accounts too harrowing to quote on this blog but which can be read here. As is typical of these case, Harper has been cleared of his abuse charges while his victims are left with even greater pain than before. Any discussion of Harper has to acknowledge the violence he’s done to these women and how he’s effectively ruined their lives.

It’s not often that while relating the story of Kate Bush I have to talk about things like this. Most figures in this narrative aren’t actively monstrous. But in the era of #MeToo, it’s especially vital to talk about the real human damage done by influential persons. When you write about Roy Harper, you can’t simply stop at saying Flat Baroque and Berserk is pretty good. While the objective quality of his work isn’t diminished by his actions, what he’s made is necessarily tainted by what else he’s done in his life. The fact that his songs were written by a rapist has affected his work in the same way that watching works of Kevin Spacey and Louis CK has been tarnished by the fact that these men are abusive creeps. 

Harper is also influential enough that in 1979 “Another Day” could get covered on TV by two popular artists. Bush and Gabriel covered it on Bush’s BBC Christmas special, “Kate,” the most gonzo thing the BBC has aired that’s not The Web Planet. It’s an eclectic piece of stage theater that serves as a 45-minute sampler of the Tour of Life as well as a warm-up for Never for Ever. It has Bush cozying up to star power, bringing Peter Gabriel in to do some songs, including a solo performance of his own “Here Comes the Flood.” Bush and Gabriel’s collaboration ends up with a duet of “Another Day.”

What’s curious about this song is that it’s well-suited to the duet form. “Another Day” unfolds in a post-breakup environment, where the relationship is permanently over but the wistfulness and desire remain (for a similar track written by probable non-abusers, try R.E.M.’s “Country Feedback”). Harper switches back and forth between the perspectives of the male and female partners in this relationship, moving from the man’s observations to the woman’s introspection — “I should have had one of your children.” It’s a thoughtfully sad piece of music, boasting such lines as “as the flames of eternity rise/to lick us with the firstborn lash of dawn.” 

In the Christmas special, Bush and Gabriel are seated on opposite sides of a kitchen table, looking away from each other and at the camera. This blatant literalism is typical of Bush, and yet it’s hard not to be compelled by this drama being performed by Bush and Gabriel. [add shit here]

[Talk about how this is a domestic song written by an abuser]