Babooshka (3:29)

According to Kate Bush, in an interview with Austrailian TV series ‘Countdown’, this song chronicles a wife’s desire to test her husband’s loyalty. To do so, she takes on the nom de plume of Babooshka and sends notes to her husband in the guise of a younger woman — something which she fears is the opposite of how her husband currently sees her.

The trap is set when, in her bitterness and paranoia, Babooshka arranges to meet her husband, who is attracted to the character that reminds him of his wife in earlier times. She thereby ruins the relationship due to her paranoia

The word ‘Babushka’ itself means ‘grandmother’ in Russian, something Bush “didn’t realise at the time”. In context of the song however, Bush just “popped the name out, because it felt right”, and that she apparently picked the name out of a fairy story when she was younger, before discovering it’s Russian meaning, and how ‘Babushka’ was a good name for the woman in the song.