FEATURE:
Like a Fine Wine
PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport/Photoshot/Getty Images
The Agelessness of Kate Bush’s Voice
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THERE are a couple of reasons…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2011 for 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
why I wanted to spend some time speaking about Kate Bush’s voice. I have explored it many times before but, as a singer, I think few in history have had the same dexterity and versatility. One reason why I have been compelled is because Rolling Stone recently published a feature about the greatest singers ever. Listing the best two-hundred Bush came in at sixty. She came ahead of George Michael, but she was beating by the likes of Lady Gaga. These polls always provoke discussion and division. I would objectively state Bush should be placed much higher. I would put her in the top forty without question. You never look at the artists below (lower positions) her do you? It is always those who are deemed ‘better’. The fact that Ariana Grande and others are seen as better is a bit perplexing. I am not sure what they are baseing things on! This is what Rolling Stone wrote about Kate Bush:
“Kate Bush was only 15 when she recorded a demo tape that made its way to Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, who helped her get her first record deal. “I definitely thought she was a true original and a great talent,” he said. With no traditional label expectations tethering her, she performed acrobatic feats with her voice in the explosive ardor of “Wuthering Heights,” the determination of “Cloudbusting,” and the sense of feminine humanity of “This Woman’s Work” and “Running Up That Hill.” Even on “Wild Man,” a song she recorded in her 50s, after her voice deepened, she pushed herself into brilliant contortions in the chorus. “You have to break your back before you even start to speak the emotion,” she once said. —K.G.”.
I suppose there are a number of factors considered when deciding on the best singer ever. Contemporary popularity, emotional range, power etc. The Rolling Stone publication is subjective of course, but I think the fact Bush is still not properly understood in America results in a lower placing. They still know her for Hounds of Love and a certain vocal range. I do think, if you look at her albums, her voice is vastly different on each. From the ghostly and beguiling Wuthering Heights in 1978, through to the deeper register of 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, she has this ageless vocal brilliance. Listen to albums like 1980’s Never for Ever, and she captures so many moods. Her voice has grown and expanded by then, and there is the ethereal beauty of Blow Away (For Bill) paired to something more guttural and dramatic in Breathing. Her Irish accent on Army Dreamers, and the superb acting performance through The Wedding List. The Dreaming – which followed Never for Ever in 1982 – is her most extreme set of vocals to that point. Inhabiting so many characters and shades, there is almost a different artist on Sat in Your Lap compared to Get Out of My House. That latter song is one of Bush’s most fierce and dramatic readings ever. Listen to the nuance in her voice on Pull Out the Pin. She does accents in The Dreaming (Australian) and There Goes a Tenner (cockney). Hounds of Love (1985) is almost her tour de force in terms of the pure power and expanse of her voice. There is determination and passion on Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God); joy and jubilation on The Big Sky, and something chilling on Mother Stands for Comfort. We then have the suite, The Ninth Wave, which runs an emotional gamut from surrender, fear, hope and salvation. It is so full of wonderful moments, all held together, elevated and made spellbinding by Bush’s voice!
If her voice matured and was more controlled on subsequent albums, it did not lose its power and brilliance. Heartbreaking on The Sensual World’s This Woman’s Work, and huskier on Aerial’s King of the Mountain in 2005, each performance and album has their own skin. Look at the most recent album, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, and it is a deeper register. With longer songs, Bush is given more space to explore and let her voice work like an instrument or character. From the teen who made songs like Moving (The Kick Inside) so intoxicating, to the woman in her fifties epic and stunning through Snowed in at Wheeler Street (50 Words for Snow), this is an artist whose voice has aged sublimely. I think there are few who match her flexibility and range. Able to go from a whisper and gentle call to something almost deranged and frantic, her gift for accents and different vocal tones is a big reason why she is such a beloved and groundbreaking artist. I cannot be mad Rolling Stone placed her at sixty in their recent poll. That is a high position, but I feel thew American publication still has a lot of work to do when it comes to recognising Kate Bush. Whether you see or hear her live performance on The Tour of Life (1979) and Before the Dawn (2014) or listen to her studio albums, I think it is her voice that defines everything! Her lyrics and production are magnificent, but it is the way Bush inhabits songs and puts so much soul, passion and commitment into the material that marks her out as an all-time great singer. In my mind, she is up there with the absolute best! We may well get to hear her voice on an album again. I do think a lack of deep diving and proper explorotion means many do not understand what a brilliant singer Kate Bush is. Go and listen to her back catalogue…
AND see for yourself.