FEATURE:
Is There So Much Hate for the Ones We Love?
Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at Thirty-Nine
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EVERY important Kate Bush album…
PHOTO CREDIT: ZIK Images/United Archives via Getty Images
should be celebrated and discussed. I know that there is enough attention for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). However, as it turns thirty-nine tomorrow (5th August), I wanted to write about it. I have spent a bit of time lately concentrating on 1985 and discussing that period. I will move along in future features. Here, it is worth revisiting and diving into Bush’s best-loved song. To this day it remains her most popular track. The most-streamed on Spotify. It reached number one a couple of years ago. After featuring on Stranger Things in 2022, there was this new explosion and interest in a song that was popular from the off. In 1985, it did reach number three in the U.K. It is a pity that more has not been written about one of the absolute greatest songs of all time. I hope there will be more assessment and celebration next year on its fortieth anniversary. The first single from Hounds of Love, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was written and produced by Kate Bush. Stopping to think about that. In terms of the production, there is this atmospheric and epic sound. From that introduction on, you are immersed in the song. It is testament to Kate Bush’s talent as a producer that the track still stands up today and has not dated. I often imagine the track coming together in the studio. Bush imagining it. Piecing it together and experimenting with different lyrics and sonic ideas. I am not sure whether the lyrics came together quickly or there was some back and forth. Talking about the desire for men and women to swap places so they can better understand one another, that was a rare subject in 1985 – or now for that matter. With most artists discussing themselves or love for example, this is a track that was very different to anything around it. Doing some digging, it does seem like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) came together naturally and quickly.
There must have been so much inspiration around Bush when she was creating Hounds of Love. From 1983 onwards, she changed her life. From the stress and exhausting working hours of The Dreaming (1982), Bush stepped away from working at London studios and spending endless hours without thinking of herself. She changed her diet to a healthier one and recommitted to dance. As I have said before, she then spent time with her family and boyfriend and built a bespoke studio right next to the family home at East Wickham Farm. With a nicer and less hectic environment, she was imagining these absolutely wonderful songs. I will talk about Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) more in a minute. First, it is to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia for more detail and background. Also, what Kate Bush had to say about the track and its background:
“Song written by Kate Bush. The song was reportedly written in one evening in the summer of 1983. It was the first song recorded for the subsequent fifth studio album Hounds Of Love. The electronic drums, programmed by Del Palmer, and the Fairlight part were present from the first recording of the song. The lyrics speak of Bush’s impossible wish to become her lover, and he her, so that they could know what the other felt. Kate played the first versions of the songs to Paul Hardiman on 6 October 1983. He commented later: “The first time I heard ‘Running Up That Hill’ it wasn’t a demo, it was a working start. We carried on working on Kate and Del’s original. Del had programmed the Linn drum part, the basis of which we kept. I know we spent time working on the Fairlight melody/hook but the idea was there plus guide vocals.”
The track was worked on between 4 November and 6 December, with Stuart Elliott adding drums, but closely following the programmed pattern. Alan Murphy added guitar parts whereas Paddy Bush, always providing the most ingenious instruments, played the rather better known balalaika on this track.
The working title of ‘Running Up That Hill’ was ‘A Deal With God’. Representatives at EMI were hesitant to release the single as ‘A Deal With God’ due its use of the word ‘God’, which might lead to a negative reception. Bush relented and changed the title for the single. On the album and subsequent releases the title was ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”.
Song written by Kate Bush. The song was reportedly written in one evening in the summer of 1983. It was the first song recorded for the subsequent fifth studio album Hounds Of Love. The electronic drums, programmed by Del Palmer, and the Fairlight part were present from the first recording of the song. The lyrics speak of Bush’s impossible wish to become her lover, and he her, so that they could know what the other felt. Kate played the first versions of the songs to Paul Hardiman on 6 October 1983. He commented later: “The first time I heard ‘Running Up That Hill’ it wasn’t a demo, it was a working start. We carried on working on Kate and Del’s original. Del had programmed the Linn drum part, the basis of which we kept. I know we spent time working on the Fairlight melody/hook but the idea was there plus guide vocals.”
The track was worked on between 4 November and 6 December, with Stuart Elliott adding drums, but closely following the programmed pattern. Alan Murphy added guitar parts whereas Paddy Bush, always providing the most ingenious instruments, played the rather better known balalaika on this track.
The working title of ‘Running Up That Hill’ was ‘A Deal With God’. Representatives at EMI were hesitant to release the single as ‘A Deal With God’ due its use of the word ‘God’, which might lead to a negative reception. Bush relented and changed the title for the single. On the album and subsequent releases the title was ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”.
Kate about ‘Running Up That Hill’
This song is very much about two people who are in love, and how the power of love is almost too big for them. It leaves them very insecure and in fear of losing each other. It’s also perhaps talking about some fundamental differences between men and women. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, 1985)
It is very much about the power of love, and the strength that is created between two people when they’re very much in love, but the strength can also be threatening, violent, dangerous as well as gentle, soothing, loving. And it’s saying that if these two people could swap places – if the man could become the woman and the woman the man, that perhaps they could understand the feelings of that other person in a truer way, understanding them from that gender’s point of view, and that perhaps there are very subtle differences between the sexes that can cause problems in a relationship, especially when people really do care about each other. (The Tony Myatt Interview, November 1985)
‘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)”.
Since Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) was featured on Stranger Things and gained huge chart success, features have been written about the song. How it has endured and connected with a young audience. I will bring some of those in. Starting out with The New Yorker, they explored this work of genius for a feature in 2022. How, for an artist often seen as experimental and perhaps niche to some, this classic track has gained a wide audience and does not alienate. How Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is a TikTok sensation and has gained this whole new influence and importance:
“In her heyday, Bush was the sort of experimental artist whose unorthodoxy actually helped her popularity, and, from the early days of her career, she was commercially successful in the U.K. Bush came from a middle-class English family and dabbled in music alongside her brothers until she was discovered by the Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. She had a striking, acrobatic voice, a love of interpretative dance, and a fantastical visual sensibility that made her especially exciting within Britain’s prog-rock scene. Her début single, “Wuthering Heights,” was the first U.K. No. 1 that was both written and performed by a woman. Still, she never fully managed to cross over to the U.S. charts. “Running Up That Hill” is her first American Top Ten, a feat that comes thirty-seven years after the song’s release. Bush, a typically private person who hasn’t released a new album since 2011, was so struck by the song’s renaissance that she put out an enthusiastic statement on her Web site: “It’s all really exciting!” she wrote. “Thanks very much to everyone who has supported the song. I wait with bated breath for the rest of the series in July.”
Pop music has always recycled its old ideas, but, more and more, it has been revisiting them whole cloth. Information overload and constant digital stimulation have prompted us to compulsively seek refuge in our cultural past, where characters, story lines, and hit singles are reliable and predictable. We see this same tendency on television and in the movies, where reboots and sequels dominate. In music, too, there is eternal solace to be found in trusted old favorites. Each year, the stats of what people listen to on music-streaming services skew more and more heavily toward “catalogue,” or music that is classified as five years or older. Meanwhile, TikTok trends and TV shows resurface old music—whether it’s rarities or bygone classics—exposing dated songs to young audiences who didn’t hear the songs in their prime. In 2020, a skateboarder on TikTok helped Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”
It’s tempting to see this phenomenon as a refreshing exception to social media’s dogged recency bias—a serendipitous detour through memory lane that creates a mini-avalanche of attention for an old song. It is genuinely delightful when old songs bubble up in unexpected ways. And yet there’s something a little disconcerting about a once-in-a-generation artist like Bush being removed from the larger backdrop of her strange and singular vision, and accidentally refashioned as a viral event. There is magic in discovering and exploring her work, magic that is difficult to access when all you’ve done is simply turn on the most popular television show in the world.
This constant repurposing of the past also means that the music supervisors who select songs for popular shows are vastly influential as tastemakers and gatekeepers. Along with social-media influencers, they’re bestowed with the mystical power to breathe new life into an old song, particularly if a show is as big as “Stranger Things.” (We saw the phenomenon earlier this year, when the music supervisors of “Euphoria” featured Gerry Rafferty’s croony 1978 song “Right Down the Line” prominently throughout the season.) And yet this type of fresh exposure often does little to shore up an artist’s legacy in our shrinking memories. It was only four years ago, in fact, that Bush had another big TV moment, her voice coursing through the pilot of Ryan Murphy’s drag-ball drama “Pose.” The song was “Running Up That Hill”.
One reason why Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is so impactful and speaks to people as it feels personal. Whether you see it about a song asking for universal understanding between men and women or one about a love story and this particular couple, its messages and core resonate and can be understood by everyone. We are living in such a scary time. So much disharmony. So much hatred and misogyny out there. Not that women need to understand men better – as that would excuse their actions -, though it is clear that men need to put themselves in a woman’s place and better understand them. There are a couple of other features I will get to. First, back in 2023, Two Story Melody wrote about a song that can have this very personal potency:
“It feels like something in that song is speaking to you, and no one else.
Then you find out that millions of people are listening to that song and it feels jaded, it feels like it’s no longer special because everyone is in on the secret!
One of the reasons “Running Up That Hill” endures is that it has exploded into popular culture twice in that way and it never feels jaded, never feels overplayed.
And I just wondered… why?
In Stranger Things 4 (you may have heard of that too) the character of Max listens to “Running Up That Hill” a lot, eventually using the song as a kind of talisman. The song is imbued with magical powers which doesn’t seem that far from the actual song itself.
And due to the popularity of the programme, “Running Up That Hill” managed to briefly become one of the most played song in the world, many years after its initial release.
But, for me at least, it never gets old.
Kate Bush wrote the song in 1985, the first song to be composed for her legendary Hounds Of Love album and it makes use of a Fairlight CMI to create the singular signature sound at the start of the song, a warped love-child somewhere between a dog’s yelp and a synth version of some string instrument or other.
The relentless drums, whilst also affected and synthetic, have a tribal quality to them since they hardly change throughout the track, almost as though the song is being used to march to a war somewhere.
Except for a synth pad running throughout the track, the odd guitar growl, and an occasional mandolin-like shimmer, there’s not much else going on.
Apart from that voice.
And what a voice. It’s totally unique, and like many of Kate’s songs, it somehow manages to be vulnerable, strong, commanding, and unbearably emotional, sometimes at the turn of a single lyric.
It carries the song to a place that is urgent and otherworldly. Kate’s harmonies are introduced just when you need them and they are, of course, quite unusual, as are the little explosions of voices in the latter half of the song.
I always thought the song was commenting on a struggle in someone’s life, this person is making a deal with God to swap places with someone, anyone that has an easier time of it, and that meaning, incorrect though it is, is what makes this song powerful. It makes the song a talisman for me, one of the few songs that can often empower me to be stronger than I think I’m able to be.
Whatever meaning people interpret from the song, that magical quality, that embedded weirdness from a place slightly removed from this reality, is what makes “Running Up That Hill” timeless, and endlessly listenable”.
Whilst many explore the lyrics and the way Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) speaks to them, there is not a lot of analysis about the music and the brilliance of the composition and production. I would advise people read the entirety of this 2022 feature from Music Radar, as it takes us inside the production and engineering. Giving us greater idea as to why Kate Bush’s production particularly should be talked about more. How she brought this song together and had this clear image:
“Kate has stated in interviews that the track began life with her asking Del to program the part on the drum machine, after which she laid down the pad and synth hook from the Fairlight over the top. This might go some way towards explaining the unusual section lengths - it’s possible that the unwaveringly linear nature of the drum loop and pad as a backing track to write over, unpunctuated by fills or cymbals, could be what gave rise to the somewhat freeform nature of the song’s structure.
The wide melodic intervals
Kate has always been renowned for her unusual, twisting melodies that leap up, down around and sometimes even completely off the scale. The melody for Running Up That Hill is in the C Aeolian mode, which means that it’s made up of notes from the C Natural Minor scale. It contains some seriously wide intervals, most notably the minor seventh between the Bb of 'our' and the C of the first syllable of 'places' in the chorus. The D note on the word ‘God’ is very special, grating against the C and Eb of the drone and reinforcing the 9th in that Bb9sus4 chord.
The lyrical content
The song explores the relationship between a man and a woman, wondering what it would be like if they were each able to change places and understand the relationship from the other's point of view. How much easier would life be if we could fully understand one another's perspective through our own experience of it?
Kate is on top lyrical form here, with lines like 'there is thunder in our hearts' and 'not knowing that I'm tearing you asunder' highlighting the drama and unconscious trauma that can be present in a turbulent relationship. Making a deal with God to change places, as an alternative to making a deal with the Devil, is powerful imagery, suggesting that divine intervention is the only way left for the couple to truly understand each other. The presumed end result of the deal is compared to the blissful carefree naivety of running up that hill, with no problems.
The vocal effects
As the track gets more and more urgent and chaotic, with overdriven guitars and thunderous drum fills, the outro chorus repeats are peppered with multiple tracks of manic sounding, random vocal wails mixed in the background, adding a sense of unease and confusion as the track nears its end.
As the track gets more and more urgent and chaotic, with overdriven guitars and thunderous drum fills, the outro chorus repeats are peppered with multiple tracks of manic sounding, random vocal wails mixed in the background, adding a sense of unease and confusion as the track nears its end. Meanwhile, in the last section of the outro, over a satisfyingly-resolved, sustained Cm chord, there's a detuned vocal doubling of the lead that has the demonic effect that only a slowed-down sample can offer. Since the Fairlight did not offer timestretching, this may well have been sung at a normal pitch but at double speed and then sampled and played an octave down on the Fairlight's keyboard to match the track's tempo, which would have achieved that sinister detuned sound at a speed matching the original lead vocal.
After just four bars of this intriguing effect, the pounding drums finally cease abruptly halfway through a bar, leaving just that ethereal pad to slowly fade away, the track ending in an exact mirror image of its beginning”.
It is that chemistry and combination of the relatable and stirring lyrics and the phenomenal production that means Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) endures more than most songs from 1985. Think about the albums and songs from that time. Few have the same legacy and modern-day relevance as Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). In 2022, Rolling Stone UK talked about this track having a chart renaissance. It was already a Pop standard originally. I remember hearing it a lot in the 1990s and last couple of decades. However, one cannot deny that it has become more heard and discussed since 2022. Ahead of its thirty-ninth anniversary tomorrow, we need to appreciate how Kate Bush wrote and produced this work of sublime brilliance:
“Beyond its lyrics, the song’s production has given it a lot more longevity than many other songs of the era. Bush used cutting edge technology to create it – its chugging rhythm was composed on a LinnDrum drum machine, while she used a Fairlight CMI, a synthesiser with sampling capabilities, to craft its waifish strings – but the result sounds a lot grittier than other mid-80s pop music. This sound, combined with the song’s unquantifiable pop euphoria, has made it endure in a way that many other 80s time warps haven’t.
Despite the singular idiosyncrasies of ‘Running Up That Hill’, it has been a cover favourite for other artists, who all take a unique angle on it. Placebo’s 2003 reinterpretation turned the track into a ghoulish downtempo alt-rocker with even more youthful angst than the original. Their take on the track quickly became US TV’s version of choice, largely thanks to Bush’s refusal to sanction her original song’s use in shows like The O.C. and C.S.I. Chromatics also put a suspenseful, cinematic twist on the track in 2007, with Ruth Radelet’s lo-fi vocals emitting a diamond sharpness that turns the song into a nocturnal loner anthem.
More recently, country star Jade Bird performed a piano cover of the song for Radio 1’s Live Lounge, which stripped it back to voice and keys, conjuring loss and longing in her brusker baritone. UK artist Georgia delivered a dance-inflected though otherwise faithful rendition in 2020, while just last week pop singer Kim Petras released a cover for Pride Month, and offered her own thoughts on the classic track: “It means so much and it’s so elusive. You can definitely decide what you want it to mean. For me, it’s about equality. And my timing for this was strangely perfect!”
@sheiskatebush Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (1985) #musictok #trending #katebushtok #katebush #fyp #viral ♬ original sound - sheiskatebush
Kate Bush herself revisited her classic anthem in 2012, recording new vocals for a version that premiered at that year’s London Olympics. While the instrumental backing track remained the same, it was pitched down to accommodate Bush’s new vocal range – her voice was deeper than it was three decades prior. And so, not for the last time, ‘Running Up That Hill’ re-entered the UK top 10 – and it would return to the charts again two years later, when Bush announced her first live performances since 1979. That time, the world didn’t just go crazy for ‘Running Up That Hill’ but the entire Kate Bush catalogue, with eight of her albums shooting up the charts simultaneously, and her website crashing from the demand for tickets. At the residency at the Hammersmith Apollo, ‘Running Up That Hill’ was the only song that had previously been performed live, such is the special place it holds for Bush and her fans.
In an interview with Open in 1985, Kate Bush said that the song was “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”. A cry for empathy and for understanding – these are timeless themes. Looking at how Bush views the song herself, no wonder it’s endured for so long”.
I don’t think that we can claim Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) alone is responsible for a new generation discovering her music. However, it clear there is something ageless and accessible about the song. It means something different to everyone yet, in a strange way, it means the same thing! It bonds us all. We can all understand what Kate Bush weas saying in 1983 – when she wrote the song -, and yet we take something unique from the lyrics. The production that brings all the elements to life. That iconic video of Kate Bush and Michael Hervieu entwined in this beautiful and jaw-dropping dance. I hope that the video gets a 4K remaster (an official one) sometime, as it is Kate Bush’s go-to song for many. Thirty-nine years since its release and it seems more popular and important than ever. Written back in 1983, it would have been inconceivable that Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) would be celebrated more than forty years later! First putting pen to paper all those years back…
SHE could never have imagined that!