About The Song
“Army Dreamers” is a 1980 song, the third and final single to be released from the album Never for Ever, by Kate Bush. It was a UK top 20 hit in October 1980.
“Army Dreamers” was released on the 22 September 1980[citation needed] and peaked at number 16 in the UK Singles Chart. The song is about the effects of war and about a mother who grieves for her young adult son, who was killed on military manoeuvres. Saddened by his unnecessary death, she wrestles with her guilt over what she could have done to prevent it. The song is a waltz, which marks a change from Bush’s previous singles. The version on the original single release is longer than on the album release; the album version fades, whereas the single release has a dead ending (the version of the single from The Single File, however, fades like the album release).[citation needed]
The single includes two B-sides, “Delius” and “Passing Through Air.” “Delius” is Bush’s tribute to English composer Frederick Delius. The subtitle, “Song of Summer,” comes from one of Delius’s works, and from a BBC film Bush saw about the composer’s life. The album version is different in that the previous track “Babooshka” segues into it, whereas the single B-side version begins unobscured. “Passing Through Air” is one of Bush’s earliest works, originally recorded in 1973 at David Gilmour’s studio, a few weeks after her 15th birthday.
The reference in the lyrics to “BFPO” refers to “British Forces Post Office,” the postal system for the British armed forces.
“Army Dreamers” was one of 68 songs considered inappropriate for airplay by the BBC during the first Gulf War.
The music video opens on a closeup of Kate Bush, dressed in dark green camouflage, holding a child. She blinks in synchronisation with the song’s sampled gun cocks. The camera pulls out and shows that Bush has a white-haired child on her lap. The child walks off and returns in military combat uniform, and during the first pre-chorus, as Bush responds to her bandmates’ comments, the child grows up into a 20-year-old. Bush and several soldiers (two of whom, Bush included, have “KT8” or “KTB” stencilled on the butt of their rifles: “KTB” was a monogram used by Bush early in her career) make their way through woodland, amid explosions. As the song progresses, Bush reaches out for the child soldier, but he disappears. Finally, Bush is blown up.
Bush has stated that this video is one of the few examples of her work that completely satisfies her:
For me that’s the closest that I’ve got to a little bit of film. And it was very pleasing for me to watch the ideas I’d thought of actually working beautifully. Watching it on the screen. It really was a treat, that one. I think that’s the first time ever with anything I’ve done I can actually sit back and say “I liked that.” That’s the only thing. Everything else I can sit there going “Oh look at that, that’s out of place.” So I’m very pleased with that one, artistically.
Video
Lyrics
B.F.P.O.
Army dreamers
Mammy’s hero
B.F.P.O.
Mammy’s hero
Our little army boy
Is coming home from B.F.P.O.
I’ve a bunch of purple flowers
To decorate mammy’s hero
Mourning in the aerodrome
The weather warmer, he is colder
Four men in uniform
To carry home my little soldier
But he didn’t have the money for a guitar
(What could he do?)
(Should have been a politician)
But he never had a proper education
(What could he do?)
(Should have been a father)
But he never even made it to his twenties
What a waste
Army dreamers
Oh, what a waste of
Army (army) dreamers (dreamers)
Tears o’er a tin box
Oh, Jesus Christ, he wasn’t to know
Like a chicken with a fox
He couldn’t win the war with ego
Give the kid the pick of pips
And give him all your stripes and ribbons
Now he’s sitting in his hole
He might as well have buttons and bows
But he didn’t have the money for a guitar
(What could he do?)
(Should have been a politician)
But he never had a proper education
(What could he do?)
(Should have been a father)
But he never even made it to his twenties
What a waste
Army dreamers
Ooh, what a waste of
Army (army) dreamers (dreamers)
Ooh, what a waste of all them
Army (army) dreamers (dreamers)
Army (army) dreamers (dreamers)
Army (army) dreamers (dreamers), oh
B.F.P.O.
Army dreamers
Mammy’s hero
B.F.P.O.
Army dreamers
Mammy’s hero
B.F.P.O.
No hard heroes
Mammy’s hero
B.F.P.O.
Army dreamers
Mammy’s hero
B.F.P.O.