FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and Michael (Misha) Hervieu
Hounds of Love’s Remarkable Catalyst
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I did say…
that I wasn’t going to feature Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) before but, as I just got the latest copy of MOJO, I have been inspired by their Kate Bush spread. Of course, as I have said a few times, we are talking about Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) again because it was used in Stranger Things. I will drop in the moment in featured, but I wanted to look at other aspects of the song. I didn’t think of this before, but this track was a catalyst in many ways. Hounds of Love’s best-known song, it was released as the first single on 5th August, 1985. With its B-side, Under the Ivy, this was a remarkably strong start to the album! Bush clearly had a lot of confidence in the song, not only to put it out as the introduction single for Hounds of Love. The song also opens the album. Although it wasn’t the very first thing that she wrote for Hounds of Love, I do think it opened the door and made the rest of the writing process flow more naturally. MOJO made an observation about the song that I want to mention. Before that, and in case you don’t know the story behind Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), then here is some information and detail:
“'Running Up That Hill' was one of the first songs that I wrote for the album. It was very nice for me that it was the first single released, I'd always hoped that would be the way. It's very much about a relationship between a man and a woman who are deeply in love and they're so concerned that things could go wrong - they have great insecurity, great fear of the relationship itself. It's really saying if there's a possibility of being able to swap places with each other that they'd understand how the other one felt, that when they were saying things that weren't meant to hurt, that they weren't meant sincerely, that they were just misunderstood. In some ways, I suppose the basic difference between men and women, where if we could swap places in a relationship, we'd understand each other better, but this, of course, is all theoretical anyway. (Open Interview, 1985)
It seems that the more you get to know a person, the greater the scope there is for misunderstanding. Sometimes you can hurt somebody purely accidentally or be afraid to tell them something because you think they might be hurt when really they'll understand. So what that song is about is making a deal with God to let two people swap place so they'll be able to see things from one another's perspective. (Mike Nicholls, 'The Girl Who Reached Wuthering Heights'. The London Times, 27 August 1985)”.
Moving out of London and setting up operations outside of Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1983, Bush constructed a songwriting room centred around her piano, her Fairlight CMI and an 8-track recorder. She began building a studio at East Wickham Farm (her family home) in 1983, and she moved operations there at the start of 1984. This was her family home where her parents lived, so it provided that security, peace, and inspiration. Demoing a song first called A Deal with God – it was later changed to Running Up That Hill as to not offend conservative countries and territories because of potential blasphemy -, the band arrived to add their parts. Bush’s brother, Paddy, provided some wonderful and essential balalaika part; Del Palmer (one of her engineerd and boyfriend) delivered a pulsating bassline, whilst Alan Murphy’s guitar and drummer Stuart Elliott percussion completed the cocktail. By all accounts, the recording of the song sounded like a lot of fun. I think the mood, the combination of the band and the layers of the song really did provide push and fuel for Kate Bush. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is a song that has so many twists and different sounds. In terms of the vocals, there is this intoxicating choir call (“Yeah, yeah yo…”) alongside a myriad of emotions. As MOJO noted, there is an urgency to the delivery of “Come on darling, let’s exchange the experience!”. It is a conversational song whose composition is just as multifarious, nuanced and changing.
It is small wonder the song has endured and hits people all these decades later. Bush’s vocals and lyrics are superb and relate. You can understand what she is saying and why. With such a fascinating and textured vocal, complete with a composition that matches the scale, wonder, and changes the song throws up, it is all topped off with her exceptional production skill and instinct. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) did provide this catalyst. A clear winner of a song, Bush did say later that the album process steadily rolled after that. It is a shame there was trouble regarding the title. In the past, Bush may have fought her corner to keep the title A Deal with God. Maybe feeling this was a battle she could afford to lose, she compromised and changed it to Running Up That Hill – adding A Deal with God in parenthesis. The rest, I guess, is history! Before finishing off, is an accompanying interview and recollection from the person who danced with Kate Bush in the video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Misha (then Michael) Hervieu was the lucky sole who will go down in Kate Bush history. When it came to videos, Bush felt that they did a disservice to dance. Flashy and haphazard images were not what she wanted to do. From Wuthering Heights’ video (her debut single) onward, Bush wanted to bring dance and movement into her work. In 1985, Hervieu was working full-time at West End circus spectacle, Barnum. Arriving for an audition at the London dance studio, Pineapple, she didn’t know it was for a Kate Bush song at first. “She was hiding a bit”, she recalled to MOJO.
I love the fact that there was this sense of the low-key. Hervieu recalls how there were some issues. At 5”10 – with Bush being more petite -, the choreography meant they didn’t instantly slot in rhythm. Even so, Hervieu noted how Bush could wrap around her like a snake; she could lift Bush high up. Choreographer Diane Gray provided instructions regarding movement and expression. It was a long process more akin to a film than a traditional video. The rehearsals at Bush’s home with arduous and intense. The part where they rugby tackle one another caused Bush to bruise or crack a rib. Hervieu was told to go for it and, complying, it did result in a bit of trouble for Bush! Hervieu now modestly claims how she was “just the dancer” but, as part of a historic and hugely important song, she should be very proud! Now, the song has taken on new life and is seen as this history-making work. In a 2005 MOJO interview, Bush was asked by Tom Doyle – who wrote the new feature about Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – whether she consciously wrote more melodic and hooky songs following the more experimental and less commercial The Dreaming (1982). Bush did admit there was an element of that. It definitely paid off! The first of four hits singles from Hounds of Love – the others being Cloudbusting, Hounds of Love and The Big Sky -, this year found Bush break Guinness world records: the oldest female artist to reach number one (aged sixty-three); the longest time for a track to reach the top spot (thirty-seven years); the biggest gap between numbers ones (1978’s Wuthering Heights was her first). Think back to 1983 when Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – just called A Deal with God – was in its embryonic form. It kickstarted Kate Bush’s acclaimed and adored fifth studio album. I wonder whether, in 1983 in that rural home near Sevenoaks and back at her family home in 1984, she knew that this wonderful song would still be discussed and storming the charts…
ALL these years later.