Mac's III

And the marvellous Kate Bush

The Whole Story

I came to Kate Bush through an English class: we were reading (and loving) Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and a fellow music geek with a more British bent brought her “Wuthering Heights” song in to play for us. I went to visit him at A&A, the record store he worked at, and he turned me on to The Whole Story, the hits record that capitalized on her “sudden” American fame with “Running Up That Hill.”

That was the tape I remember listening to most during the long Mac’s night shifts. I can picture leaning over the little tape deck wondering what on earth the story behind “Breathing” was. “Experiment IV” haunts me still, the image of “a sound that could kill someone from a distance.”

Kate Bush’s songs were always little movies, which is a thing I still love. Her voice is astonishing and weird (I am grateful for the “new vocal” “Wuthering Heights.” I don’t know if the Mad-Little-British-Girl vocal on the original recording wouldn’t have pushed me away at the time.)

The following year I would spend rare money on The Sensual World, her fantastic follow-up, and it would be the best part of my first-year soundtrack. Kate Bush would feature in my life forever going forward: a shared favourite with my wife, an ongoing joy.

I was as happy as I get to learn that my amazing niece was into her and to pass on a couple of “doubles” I had in my collection, The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. Kate Bush deserves to be known across generations, and it’s starting to look kind of likely.

I hope you’re doing well.

peace out,

jep