The Anti-War Kate Bush Song “Army Dreamers” Was Banned During the Gulf War

Kate Bush rarely refrained from illustrating social and political grievances, traumatic events, and a range of human emotions bundled in her lyrics. “Breathing” from Never for Ever alludes to the impact of nuclear activity and nicotine on the health of an unborn child, while “Running Up That Hill” comments on the disconnect between men and women.

Originally written for John Hughes’ 1988 film She’s Having A Baby, “This Woman’s Work” initially outlined the panic around a medical emergency during childbirth but opened into a more empowering anthem. Sung from the male perspective—This woman’s world / Oh, it’s hard on the man—it highlights how women struggle significantly more than men.

On Never for Ever, Bush also reflected on the harrowing nature of war, and how it too often results in the deaths of the young in “Army Dreamers.”

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‘To Carry Home My Little Soldier’

Bush’s lyrics to “Army Dreamers” are sung from the perspective of a mother who loses her son to war. In the song, she questions if her son would still be alive if he could afford the guitar he wanted and never had the opportunity to be a father since he never made it to his 20s.

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

Irish Accent

In the song, Bush uses an Irish accent and insists that it had nothing to do with the ongoing conflicts in Northern Ireland. The lyrics specifically mention the BFPO (British Forces Post Office) in the song to make this distinction and “to broaden it away from Ireland,” she said.

“The Irish accent was important because the treatment of the song is very traditional, and the Irish would always use their songs to tell stories, it’s the traditional way,” Bush told Zigzag magazine in 1980. “There’s something about an Irish accent that’s very vulnerable, very poetic, and so by singing it in an Irish accent it comes across in a different way. But the song was meant to cover areas like Germany, especially with the kids that get killed in maneuvres—not even in action. It doesn’t get brought out much, but it happens a lot.”

Bush continued, “I’m not slagging off the Army, it’s just so sad that there are kids who have no O-levels and nothing to do but become soldiers, and it’s not really what they want. That’s what frightens me.”

The Video

In the music video for “Army Dreamers,”, directed by Keith MacMillan, Bush is dressed in army fatigues in the middle of a forest with a young boy by her side. Her eyes click to the sound of the gun cocking throughout the song. The video depicts the loss of innocence, youth, and death of the young during a war.

“For me, that’s the closest that I’ve got to a little bit of film,” said Bush of the music video. “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. I think that’s the first time ever with anything I’ve done I can actually sit back and say ‘I liked that.’”

The Gulf War

When the Gulf War broke out in 1991, the BBC pulled any songs from airplay that could potentially upset or trigger the public. The list of 67 songs banned by the BBC included the Beatles‘ “Back in the U.S.S.R,” Blondie’s “Atomic,” Duran Duran‘s “A View to a Kill,” “Act of War” by Elton John and Millie Jackson, Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” and many more including “Army Dreamers.”

Despite its pause on the airwaves more than a decade after its release, “Army Dreamers” was still a hit for Bush when released, peaking at No. 16 in the UK, and Never for Ever topped the UK Albums chart.

Photo: Kate Bush at The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball at the London Palladium by Dave Wainwright/Shutterstock/1383289k