B-side "Ne t'enfuis pas" Format 7" single Length 3:50 | Released 2 November 1982 Recorded 1982 Label EMI | |
"Suspended in Gaffa" is a song recorded by Kate Bush. It was the third single release from her album The Dreaming. "Suspended in Gaffa" was released as a single in continental Europe and Australia, but not in the UK, where "There Goes a Tenner" was released instead.
Contents
The song lyrics are about seeing something one really wants (God in this case), then not being able to see or experience it ever again. The "gaffa" of the title and chorus refers to gaffer tape, the strong matte black tape used by technicians in the film and concert industries.
The B-side is the original mix of "Ne t'enfuis pas", only released on a handful of singles in late 1982. "Ne t'enfuis pas", which is misspelled on the original sleeve as "Ne T'en Fui Pas", means "Don't run away" in French. In some countries, the B-side was "Dreamtime" (which originally appeared as the B-side to "The Dreaming").
Music video
A music video was produced for the song, which features Bush performing an interpretive dance in what appears to be a barn. Video on YouTube
Covers
A cover of "Suspended in Gaffa" appears on Syracuse-based indie rock band Ra Ra Riot's debut album The Rhumb Line.
In popular culture
Rec.music.gaffa has been the name for the Kate Bush Usenet newsgroup since 16 August 1985, and is now resident at Google Groups and other Kate-Bush-related websites.
"Kate Boosh" by Brooklyn-based rapper Himanshu "Heems" Suri samples the two-line post-chorus vocal of this song and co-opts it as a chorus. The song appears on Suri's 2012 mixtape Nehru Jackets.