The Siren, Kate Bush

Every morning that I wake up I thank God for David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. If it were not for his influence, I would never have learned about “The ever delicious Miss Kate Bush,” as described by a member of Dr Hook introducing her on the BBC in England, April 7, 1980. It was David Gilmour who had the insight to put up the money for her to record a demo in 1975 (Bolton, 6). In my opinion, she is by far the most ingenious song writer and performer I have ever heard, seen, or felt.
Her visions through art expressed in her songs and performances are the most creative I have seen to date. When you get sucked into Kate’s world, you get lost forever tumbling down the rabbit hole with her provocative gestures and words. On a USA radio station’s interview on youtube they say she has an octave range from a rumbling base to a piercing alto. Her style range is just as far in each direction of the spectrum of pop music, her songs can be similar to a lullaby and then other songs could be thought of as something you might hear at a Satan ritual. She writes from a perspective of a variety of characters imagined only as an opened mind could. One could be an unborn child whose mother smokes and the time takes place during a nuclear war. The song focuses on breathing with these obsticles and in the video she appears to be the embryo inside the womb. Another character might be a Japanese pilot during WWII as he contemplates the differences between himself and the enemy. Each album has had a different sound or style and each song has its own deep story. She has even worked with rock legends such as Eric Clapton, Prince, Peter Gabriel, and of course David Gilmour. It’s no wonder she has over ten Best Female Vocalist/Performer awards along with numerous other awards for her hard work (youtube).
She only did one tour because it was so exhausting for her. She changed outfits for every song and danced or mimed the song as well. She not only performed, she choreographed it all and produced it. She had entire control over her vision because she felt no one could present her art with the same passion and insight. Our only refuge is that we have this concert on video, other T.V. perfomances, plus videos and a short film of her album, “The Red Shoes,” in which she features her mime teacher, Lindsey Kemp, as her guide (wikipedia.org).
Her first hit in England was “Wuthering Heights”; named after and inspired by the novel of the same title published in 1847, written by Emily Brontë. In this song she is Cathy, the main female character, who falls in love with an orphan boy she grew up with. Her father brought him home, from a trip to Liverpool, to raise with his children. She later dies in the film as an adult, and her ghost haunts the man the orphan grew to be. When she performs this she usually does a dance similar to a ghost. In the official video her makeup is perfect and she’s barefoot. She is wearing an off-white, flowing dress that looks pretty when she dances. Her hair is dark auburn, layered and curly. Her facial expressions tell the story just as much as the lyrics, “Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, Come home, I’m so cold! Let me in-a-your window” (54).
“The Kick Inside” is about a young girl who shares a quilt with her brother growing up and falls in love with him. They grow up and he gets married but she ends up getting pregnant by him and commits suicide to avoid ruining his marriage, “This kicking here inside makes me leave you behind, No more under the quilt to keep you warm, Your sister I was born, You must lose me like an arrow, Shot into the killer storm” (38). The piano riffs sound playful and the lyrics give the song a sense of innocence.
In “Army Dreamers” she is singing from a mother’s perspective who has to bury her young soldier son, “What could he do? Should have been a rock star, 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” (27). In this video she is dressed in full camo gear and her eyes blink to the sound of a shot gun being cocked but they look like a camera taking pictures while soldiers get blown up all around her.
In the song Houdini, she tells the story from Houdini’s wife’s perspective of what it might have been like to watch him drown. She tells how they chose a secret message that only the two of them would know so that if he were to die and still be able to communicate to her, she would know if it was really him. She also exposes Houdini’s secret in that his wife would pass him the key with the last kiss before his trick would be performed. I love the cover of the album, The Dreaming, which this song is on. It shows her as Bess, Houdini’s wife, about to kiss him and her mouth is wide open with a key on her tongue.
The youtube videos are flooded with comments like, “I am enraptured! She is purely magical!” by nosferatudasvampir (youtube.com). And comments on her fan page on facebook like, Mick Schultz says “Creating imagery within the boundries of music was, and is her forte. Running up that Hill? Are you kidding? And to think that she is responsible for production as well? What an amazing talent!!!” (facebook.com). The majority of her fans are obsessed with her. Some are so obssessed that they throw parties to celebrate her birthday every July 30th and named it Katemas.
I find it sad that her art was not so widely accepted here in the Untied States. I suppose some people cannot handle her weirdness or her high voice, but I feel they just haven’t given her a long enough chance. As the Co-Editor of The International Fanzine, ‘Homeground’, so fondly put it, “Kate’s music will creep quietly into your being or as is most often the case, it will assault you with the subtlety of an SAS house clearing squad” (3). I can’t imagine what my life would be like without Kate Bush.