"Them Heavy People" is a song written and recorded by Kate Bush

Kate Bush

Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...

, from her debut album The Kick Inside

The Kick Inside

-Personnel:*Kate Bush: Piano, Composer, Keyboards, Vocals, Background Vocals*Ian Bairnson: Guitar, Vocals, Background Vocals, Bottle*Paddy Bush: Harmonica, Mandolin, Vocals*Barry DeSouza: drums*Stuart Elliott: Drums...

. It was issued as a single in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 with the title "Rolling the Ball" reaching number 3, its only release worldwide as an A-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

.

The song is about religion, and the teachings of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

, Gurdjieff, or whomever one believes in, and vehicles that enable people to unleash powers within themselves.

A Seiko

Seiko

, more commonly known simply as Seiko , is a Japanese watch company.-History and ongoing developments:The company was founded in 1881, when Kintarō Hattori opened a watch and jewelry shop called in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Japan. Eleven years later, in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the...

 logo appears on the insert's back side, which makes it Bush's only commercial release featuring any kind of product endorsement.

A live recording of this song was the lead track on the On Stage

On Stage (EP)

* 7": EMI / EMI MIEP 2991...

EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 which reached number 10 in the UK singles chart in 1979. In The Netherlands, the EP was listed as Them Heavy People in the Top 40 chart, making it basically an A-side. It reached the lower regions of the chart in 1979.

Bush performed "Them Heavy People" on several TV programmes including her only appearance on Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

in the USA.

Further reading

• Them Heavy People, Kate's words about the song