Falling in love with the music of Kate Bush

There are just a few musical artists where I remember where I was when I first heard them.   I was in College Park, Maryland in late 1981 in a record store called Xon, when I first heard the voice of Kate Bush.   In the background, was playing a very high-pitched female voice, it turned out to be Kate Bush performing live in 1979.   I think the record store owner said that the live recording that    was playing not was not easily available, so instead   that day, I bought her first studio album, the Kick Inside (pictured on left). I listened to that first album constantly on a pathetic record player in my dorm room at the University of Maryland. I am amazed my roommates didn't kill me. 

The most famous song from the album is Kate's take on the novel, "Wuthering Heights". The most high-pitched female voice imaginable somehow managed to enthrall the UK and other territories. But, Kate Bush, was already in the process of being ignored in America. Until the mid 1980's, Kate remained totally commercially unsuccessful in the USA. Capitol/EMI did not even release her second and third albums.  But she continued to have considerable success in other markets and was a genuine superstar in her home country.   Eventually though, the quality of her music finally was too much for US critics and the US public to ignore and she finally began to chart in the USA.   Below is "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" from her Kick Inside album.

I spent most of 1982 enthralled with Kate.  I bought imported versions of her second
album, Lionheart and her third album, Never for Ever.  I collected imported versions of the UK singles. Most of the singles had intriguing non-album B-sides.  Pretty much everything she recorded at this point was fairly good, and breathtakingly original.  She was also maturing, her 1980's work-her lead vocals were a little more normal than what is found on the Kick Inside.  But the backing vocals often used the Kate's signature higher registers to great effect.  

A Kate Bush B-side-"Lord of the Reedy River" 

What amazed me about Kate Bush was her musical vocabulary.   The array of musical color found in the songs, was achieved by unusual instrumentation, choirs of Kate's voice, and stunning piano work. The lyrics were all fascinating in their subject matter.  

What also impressed was Kate ran the entire show. The songs were written, sung, and produced by her. She played all the keyboards.   (Kate did have some regular sideman -notably Del Palmer, who was her husband for a while).  Even now, I can't think of too many musical artists who    have the amazing musical pallet she has, and can do it all. Only Paul McCartney comes to mind.  

My love for her work probably peaked with the daring 1982 album, The Dreaming which was the first album of hers released after I had discovered her.  The title cut attempts to capture the sounds of aboriginal music, the first single, from the album, "Sat in your Lap" was written by Kate using percussion not a piano.  There is the first of her Irish music epics, "Night of the Swallow", probably my favorite Kate song.  One of the songs reminded me aurally of the muted other worldly sound of dreams, another song seemed to capture the sound of glass.    This is my favorite Kate Bush album.

Her next album did not come till three years later in 1985. This was the first of a series of a long waits between Kate Bush albums.   The next album turned out to be Hounds of Love an album that many regard as her masterpiece.  Like The Dreaming. Kate mastered creating sound textures for these songs. But this album was more accessible, less eccentric.   The first side of the album was a series of pop singles.  The second side,  a long suite about a woman who drowned.  This time Kate applied just enough commercial gloss to create a true break through single with "Running Up That Hill" which features perhaps her most memorable use of the Fairlight Synthesizer.   It became her first and only hit in the United States. My favorite song  from the Hounds of Love album was the uplifting "Cloudbusting" which was accompanied by a story video starring Donald Sutherland (see below)    Around this time Kate also duetted on Peter Gabriel's song, "Don't Give up", which also got worldwide airplay. Peter Gabriel was like Kate-a truly original English musical artist.

Kate did not return with a new album till 1989, when the  The Sensual World  album came out.  This album was Kate at her most mature-and perhaps most  personal.   The women described in some of the songs actually could be Kate.  (Normally in most of her work she assumed a persona). The best-known song from the album, is the brilliant "This Women's Work", a song that still can bring tears to the eyes. It was well known, because it appeared in the Kevin Bacon movie, "She's Having My Baby".  (See below)

Kate's later work of the 1990's and the 2000's  meant less to me. I grew impatient with the long waits between albums, the lack of  concerts (I have never seen her in concert), and the limited   number of  compilations of her work on CD and DVD.   But for a time she was very important to me.   I am very happy that she gotten new exposure from the Netflix show, Stranger Things. Few musical artists are more deserving.