Will we still need Kate Bush when she’s 64? Yes!

July 30, 2022

Happy 64th birthday to Kate Bush!

Kate Bush in 1978 at the Dickens Inn in London. Photo by Anwar Hussein/Hulton Archive/GI.

Kate Bush, the daring, eclectic British singer/songwriter, has been in the news for having a resurgence of popularity since her 1985 song “Running Up That Hill” has been featured on the Netflix show Stranger Things. She wanted to call that song “Deal with God,” but was told she couldn’t because the song could be censored in some countries. 

She wrote the song to say that she wished she could make a deal with God for women and men to switch places so they could understand each other better. 

Here she is playing “Running Up That Hill” live, with David Gilmour of Pink Floyd on guitar and backing vocals:

It’s hard to say what’s better about Kate Bush: her own body of work, or the massive influence she’s had on so many other musical artists, including Tori Amos, Björk, Regina Spektor, Goldfrapp, Florence + the Machine, St. Vincent, Bat for Lashes, Ellie Goulding, Antony and the Johnsons, Tegan and Sara, Lorde, Outkast, the Cure, Stevie Nicks, and Rufus Wainwright.

If you love some of those artists but don’t know much Kate Bush, I recommend her albums The Dreaming (1982) and Hounds of Love (1985), both of which she also produced. This is “Cloudbusting” from Hounds of Love:

Quotes on Kate Bush:

Alison Goldfrapp of Goldfrapp: “Lots of hippies liked Kate Bush where I grew up, so I associated her with bongs and incense and everything disgusting. Then I heard this album [Hounds of Love]. I realised that she was beautiful and interesting, which is not a common combination. It seems very deep somehow.”

Björk: “I think what is really underrated is the production. I think it’s really original and really feminine. … She created her own look and she produced her own sound.”

Tori Amos: “When I first heard her, I went, ‘Wow, she does things that I’ve never heard anybody do, much less me.’ But I could hear a resonance in the voice where you’d think we were distantly related or something.”

Kele Okereke of Bloc Party: “The first time I heard [the song ‘Hounds of Love’] I was sitting in a reclining sofa. As the beat started I was transported somewhere else. Her voice, the imagery, the huge drum sound: it seemed to capture everything for me. As a songwriter you’re constantly chasing that feeling.”

Big Boi of Outkast: “[Kate Bush] became my favorite artist of all time. Her and Bob Marley would tie for first. I used to listen to ‘The Kick Inside’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘This Woman’s Work’ … just admiring the style of music she was making, from the production side of it to the lyrics. It was kind of mind-blowing. I was like OK, I wanted to be like her.”

Nerina Pallot on why she started playing and writing music: “It was Kate Bush. I was around 14 when The Sensual World came out and she played ‘This Woman’s Work’ on Wogan [a British talk show]. I remember watching her and being transfixed and understanding that was what I wanted to do. … I had to write songs and get under the skin of the music.”

Regina Spektor on her influences: “I grew up on classical music, the Beatles, and Queen. But then all this other stuff came into my life. … Nirvana, the Ramones, Madonna, Eminem, Rufus Wainwright, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Kate Bush, David Bowie. … I love music that takes chances.”

Kate Bush: “Every female you see at a piano is either Lynsey de Paul or Carole King. And most male music — not all of it but the good stuff — really lays it on you. It really puts you against the wall. And that’s what I like to do. I’d like my music to intrude.”

This is my favorite Kate Bush song: “Hounds of Love,” from her album of the same name.

Thanks to my brother Chris for video suggestions … and for introducing me to Kate Bush’s great music.