Kidnapped on a Building Site (Patreon)

Kidnapped on a Building Site 

One of Bush's more fully formed demos (making it to the 3-minute mark), "Kidnapped on a Building Site" is workmanlike and inoffensive. This is partially due to the song only existing as a low-quality tape, it's hard to decipher what Bush is actually saying, as this thread on Homeground's Kate Bush forum demonstrates.  The song's title straightforwardly reflects its narrative about the terror of an abduction victim. There's little to the song beyond that, with all its lyrics being variations on "Mom, come pick me up, I'm scared" ("my body is a-bleeding/get down and pray"). The song's simplicity suggests that its composition dates from the Phoenix demo era, which made me initially hesitant to write about it during the Never for Ever portion of this blog. Yet there are context clues which make it being a 1979 recording make sense. The mixing of different vocals from Bush singing in different registers is typical of NFE demos like "Blow Away" and "The Wedding List," unlike The Kick Inside's simple one-track demos. But we've exhausted the song's interesting points, as they end where any ambiguity on its dating does. Lacking in striking vice or notable merit, "Kidnapped on a Building Site" is another unobtrusive relic, more worth studying for Bushological completism than for its own sake.