FEATURE:
Coming Back Down From That Hill
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush received the Editors Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in the Palladium, London, on 30th November, 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock
Looking Ahead to 2023: How Best to Honour Kate Bush?
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I have just finished…
PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith
a slew of features around three Kate Bush albums. Never for Ever (8th), The Dreaming (13th) and Hounds of Love (16th) all have September anniversaries. The next anniversaries will come around November, as quite a few of her albums have anniversaries (including Lionheart and The Red Shoes). This year is not yet done, and you never know what could happen regarding Kate Bush. As I have said before, Bush is likely to put out a Christmas message on her official website. She did in 2020 and, after an unexpectedly busy and successful year, she will want to reflect and thank her fans. Part of the reason why she will be grateful is the chart-busting success of Hounds of Love’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). I have written these words countless times over the past couple of months, but it has defined her 2022. It has won her a new generation of fans. Rather than making her relevant again, it has reminded the world what a tremendous artist she is – and what an important song Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is too. Bush gave an interview to Woman’s Hour (her first real interview since 2016), and there have been a few great updates on her official website. Nobody could have predicted what would have unfolded this year at the end of 2021! Just knowing that Kate Bush was okay and not being too impacted by the coronavirus pandemic was okay by us! Instead, much like the sun coming out Hounds of Love’s Cloudbusting, something good has definitely happened!
Where it has accelerated hopes and questions as to whether we will get an eleventh studio album – her latest, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, is extraordinary -, I think it should diffuse them and put pause to that speculation and intensity. The reason I say that is because, if you look back over the past five or so years, there has been a lot of activity! We got the album of her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, in November 2016 (another anniversary I will be marking soon!). She remastered her studio albums in 2018, and we got her first lyrics book, How to Be Invisible, in 2018. If you take that all into account, it is not a bad total since 2016! Bush was heavily involved regarding the placement and use of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) on Stranger Things this year with the Duffer brothers (producers Matt and Ross Duffer). I don’t think we will get too many shocks in terms of album announcements or any new projects from Bush herself. It is getting late into the year, so she will want to wind it down and look to 2023. In terms of outside stuff and features, MOJO recently highlighted Hounds of Love. Tom Doyle has a Kate Bush book coming next month. As mentioned, there have been more than enough cover versions of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – enough already music world! -, and I suspect that there will be lots of social media buzz about Kate Bush’s music for different reasons…or for no reason at all!
I wanted to re-examine Kate Bush’s 2023, as I have sort of asked if we will get an album. That would be magnificent though, the more I think about, the less likely it becomes. I think that is okay. In fact, I suggest that 2023 should be a year where a number of things should happen. Given the new success of Running Up the Hill (A Deal with God) and the records she has broken in the process, we should give the rest of her catalogue fresh respect and time. I am pleased Hounds of Love has been receiving so much praise, and The Dreaming is going to get a lot of new insight on its fortieth anniversary now. 2023 is a chance to augment and dissect her other studio albums. Bush is sixty-five in July, so fans and new converts can build up to that by throwing themselves fully into the music. Whilst there have been too many recent covers of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – and none get close to the original -, it would be good to hear artists new and established look beyond the more obvious and currently popular. I do worry, in spite of a wave of new Kate Bush fans coming onboard, there is too much focus on Hounds of Love – not such a bad thing, though it is at the expense of other albums. The fact songs such as Oh to Be in Love (from 1978’s The Kick Inside) have been boosted on Spotify show there is curiosity around! Who knows what next year holds when it comes to Kate Bush and those who love her music. She could provide some more updates and news via her official website. I am sure we will get at least one new book; there are likely to be magazine spreads.
As I look ahead to October, when I will be starting features about all the albums marking anniversaries in November, it makes me realise how important this work is and how much it means to me. That is the case with so many other people too! I do feel there is still a need to get albums that are underrated and under-explored more fully into people’s consciousness. Maybe it is incumbent on people like me to do podcasts and spread the word that way. Going through albums and periods of her career in a sort of forensic detail that would provide this push and access point for others. I have asked before whether Kate Bush will be made a Dame. Will she get a music award. A legend or icon honour? Maybe something around Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Given her eventful and historic 2022, something needs to come off of the back of it. I am not sure whether Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) has been put in the Library of Congress or some hallowed place reserved for the most important and significant songs ever. Even though there is no new music, she has given us so much and enriched and bettered so many people’s years just by being her and letting a song like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) feature in such a powerful and memorable way. More than that, 2023 is a year when Bush turns sixty-five. It got me thinking about ways to properly recognise her influence. In other features, I have mooted the idea of a tribute album (artists covering her songs), documentaries, podcasts and books. That would all be brilliant ways to honour her.
I guess, as I have done in so many features this year, I am tiptoeing around the question of another studio album. I don’t think next year should be one where we look at Kate Bush with those puppy dog eyes and expect her to put music out! As we know, she can not be rushed or predicted. Maybe it is a question for 2024 but, in a year (2023, in February) when her debut album, The Kick Inside, turns forty-five, we should be celebrating her full body of music and work, and what she has given the world. There is so much to discover, and I wonder whether new fans and even some long-time ones are aware of just what is out there when you go exploring! It would be good if there was a programme or documentary next year that celebrates Kate Bush. The BBC did dedicate a night to her on her birthday this year, including Kate Bush at the BBC. Listening back to the Woman’s Hour interview from earlier this year, one thing that touches me is how happy Kate Bush sounds! She is enjoying gardening and she seems quite relaxed. Genuinely thrilled at the attention Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and her music has got this year, it shows that she does not take things like this lightly. Someone who loves her fans and is glad to have them on board. At the moment, with the climate crisis, the cost of living terror, and everything going on in the world, there is not a whole lot to look forward to! It is quite grim! Music is definitely helpful and soothing against the impossibility of the modern world. It is one reason why Kate Bush has been taken to heart and bosom by so many people. I think that somehow, in some way, this should be honoured next year. Her music is more assuredly going to make…
A potentially bad year quite a bit better.