In the Blog
file under innovative wingnuts I will love forever
A little short on time these days, so I’ll leave you with a no-brainer this time around.
The thing about Kate Bush is that she never really stopped being weird. She made it big as a teenager in the late 70s with her melodramatic, gothic, Bronte-inspired hit Wuthering Heights, but did she then fall into the banal pit of superstardom, letting managers and music execs craft her into a predictable and semi-clothed pop star? Oh hells no (though they did try). Dress up like a lion or a bat on your album cover? Sure. Make dog-barking noises in a song? No doubt. Reference Stanley Kubrick, James Joyce, or Wilhelm Reich in your lyrics? Bush has done it.
Here is the video for her 1980 track Army Dreamers, a song which, sadly, will probably never stop being relevant.
Fun fact: It was Bush, not Madonna, who pioneered the headset microphone for live performances, which she did in order to be able to execute full-on interpretive dances during her sets. An innovator after my own heart.
And oh heck, here’s the video for Wuthering Heights, after the cut. This video alone has inspired probably as many fan-imitations as The Numa Numa Dance, and you can see why. When I’m bored I like to watch the dozens of women (and some men) who don red dresses, head out to a field somewhere, and, you know, let their souls fly free.
