I was randomly roaming around Youtube when I discovered this 1980s singer. Based on her videos, not only was she ahead of her time against the likes of Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa, she was also ahead of her time relative to Madonna (who first came out in 1985) and Cindy Lauper (also from the 80s).
Here is a slow song of hers from the soundtrack of a movie called She's Having a Baby, which was a movie by the same director as Home Alone, the Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
For those of you who have some familiarity with the works of Kate Bush who I find obscure, can you share links of videos which you would like to recommend?
Okay, Like a Virgin came out in 1984, and there were two minor ones from 1983...but Kate Bush was doing her stuff in the late 70s, and the second video on the OP was released in 1980. Would still be avantgarde today.
Even today, the sight of Kate Bush dancing around while she sings those crazy Wuthering Heights lyrics is almost too weird to be believed. And this was the late 70s!
I honestly can't say I love it or even like it much, but I give her full credit for some kinda wacky arty courage I guess.
OP, I consider myself a Kate Bush expert. I've even seen her life! Here are some of my favorites of her less widely known work in chronological order. We start with an absurdly over-romantic and insanely over-produced cute little gem of a love song. Notice how she sings her own background, which is a staple of her sound imo.
She can be very patriotic:
Next is a waltz:
I don't know if heist songs are a thing, but if so, she invented that genre:
Her best-selling album, Hounds of Love, which contains some of her best known stuff, has a B-Side full of airy-fairy, meditative stuff about witches and drowning:
After Hounds of Love, she basically did what she wanted, when she wanted. I read somewhere that she never scheduled albums with her label or had deadlines or something; she just showed up out of the blue whenever she had an album ready lol. Her later work never went mainstream that much, but she has a dedicated fan base. Some picks:
Sometimes her songs take unexpected turns, like here:
This song impressed me most when I saw her live:
Last edited by Morphismus; 06-22-2022 at 03:20 PM.
Reason: forgot England My Lionheart
As Kate Bush seems to get re-discovered by younger generations atm, I looked a bit into Kate Bush covers. Outside her top-5 or so singles (WH, RutH etc) she's not covered that much, but I found some nice covers of some of her more obscure work. So enjoy a list of covers of Kate Bush songs you probably never heard:
This is another example of said Hounds of Love B-Side, by Tori Amos no less:
Not from that B-side, although it would fit lol
Probably Kate Bush's most political song:
A lot of especially the earlier Kate Bush songs are just her and the piano (maybe with a little fretless bass and woo-woo in the background), ideal for talented amateurs:
Thanks for the links. One of the G.O.A.T. in terms of artistry, imo. I'm sure she's had an influence on future generations. Future music historians could place her high among the women of her era.
Her song from the 80s is currently number 4 on Billboard in the U.S. Number 1 in UK and Australia. Number 1 on Spotify in the US.
Resurgence and rediscovery from a new audience who may now consider her of their time and current, some 40 years later.
I remember listening to Kate Bush in the 80’s but she never made it off college radio where I was. Nothing wrong with college radio, of course, still listen to it.
My fave Kate Bush song. It gave me entirely the wrong impression of what a babushka was.
Used to play this on college radio back in the day, turn off the mic and sing along loudly in the studio. (The other song that often got this treatment was REM's "Don't go back to Rockville.)
I've seen her live a couple decades ago... all part of my Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, David Sylvian and Peter Gabriel period... which I still partake in to this very day mind you.
her Song about working for the 'A' government to experiment and try to develop a 'sound that could kill... from a distance' is VERY enlightening!
true story... right up there with MK Ultra, except this one works.
I've seen Lauri Anderson more than a handful of times (at least six or seven performances) LIVE... and every time it has been eventful a wonderful experience.
Certainly we ALL do not have the same taste in entertainment, but it can not be said that she does not enrich the art space with excellence and entertainment.
While her work may take the form of 'songs' at times, her talent is not singing or song writing.
Much like Spalding Gray, someone else I had the pleasure of seeing before his untimely suicide, Laurie Anderson's talent is in oblique thought and the communication thereof... they are Story Tellers.
One of my favorite lines she delivers is in the song 'Same Time Tomorrow (1994)' where she is asks... 'is time long, or is it wide?'
She is asking the listener, what are you going to do with your life? and more directly what have you done with your life?
Lyrics:
You know that little clock...
The one on your VCR...
The one that's always blinking twelve noon 'Cause you never figured out how to get in there and change it?
So it's always the same time...
Just the way it came from the factory.
Good morning, Good night.... Same time tomorrow.
We're in record.
So here are the questions...
Is time long or is it wide?
And the answers?
Sometimes the answers just come in the mail.
And one day you get that letter You've been waiting for forever, And everything it says is true
And then in the last line It says: burn this.
Love Kate Bush. Pretty awesome she wrote Running Up That Hill, produced Running Up That Hill and owns 100% of its songwriting, publishing and licensing rights, so is earning/earned a ton from it.
My brother's getting married next month, and the bride's walking out to this (I think played live):