Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
I mentioned earlier today that I felt that the universe could be moving towards a kind of “Kate Bush Critical Mass”, because I was feeling enough buzz in the air about her (more than preceded ‘Aerial’) that maybe she was about to explode again into the public consciousness. But then I have regular “Kate Bush explosions” in my personal listening habits/habits of my friends, so maybe it was just one of those. We’ll see.
So, I’m sure EVERYBODY knows this song by now. That guy from The Mighty Boosh doing this dance on Celebrity So You Think You Can Dance was one thing that tipped me over towards a universal Katesplosion - everyone just knows and “gets”, on a number of levels, this track.
It was the first song I ever remember hearing by Kate Bush. I remember that I was 9. I sat in the car absolutely mesmerised. Then whenever it showed up again, on the infrequent times it received airplay in the late 1980s, I would be sure to shush everyone and turn the radio up. This was before I realised that records were things you could buy and that music appeared in other places outside of the radio.
Some stage about 10 years later I was collecting her vinyl singles and everything, and was picking some up from Redeye Records in Sydney. The guy behind the counter was an odd mix of condescending and pleased as he said “finally, looking up the inspiration for all those chick singers these days” (he knew I was a Tori Amos fan). I gave him my best ‘bitch, please’ look, paid for my goods, and left. I was recording “Rubberband Girl” off the radio before “Cornflake Girl” was even in existence.
