Kate Bush

“I just know something good is going to happen, just saying it might even make it happen”

It all started when I got an email from the web-version of the Cleveland Plain Dealer alerting me to local news updates. I hadn’t lived in Cleveland in fifty years, but through the hard work of the DARPA gang and subsequent innovators, I could keep up with the my hometown through a series of settings and keystrokes.

I was looking for new updates from either the Saint Edwards football team or the Cleveland Browns. But then I saw a plug for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, also located in Cleveland and their 2023 inductees. Somewhere in the scribbling, my eyes caught the name “Kate Bush.” Finally! I thought surprisingly; Kate Bush was going to get into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. I clicked on the link looking for more information, thinking maybe she had appeared live at the induction ceremony. Back in my 1980’s her music was of the palette of my musical life, but I had not heard anything about her in 20 years or more and was naturally wondering how she was getting on. I read on.

Evidently, Big Boi from Outcast inducted her into the hall – they didn’t give the connection. I scanned the scribbling about what he said, hoping to catch the words  ‘performed live’ or  ‘appeared.’ But it was not to be. According to the article, Kate Bush merely sent a letter thanking the Hall of Fame for the recognition. It was a nice letter. But no Kate live. I remained curious: what has Kate Bush been up to the last 35 years? Such a monster artistic talent had to be busy doing something.

Starting in 1978, the then nineteen year old artist was a unique presence in the pop music horizons till the early nineties. Her first album, The Kick Inside, contained her first hit record, “Wuthering Heights. The song about Heathcliffe and Kathy on the moors. Hardly pop music fodder. For me the 1984 album Lionheart, while not the most popular, it contained the infectious song “Wow”. No matter the song relates to the stage and screen, for me it will always conjure up the desert

I remember being at the Botanical Gardens in Tempe AZ with Colleen O’Shaughnessy and we had taken some mushrooms and were wandering the desert; but staying within listening distance of the stereo system. It was playing the ethereal , “Wow”. As the sun set, we were tripping out and fabulous. It was majestic, it was natural, it was… wow. Though the song lyrics told of stage and fame, all it told me was the melting colors of the saguaros and mesquite.

Most people know Kate as the guest vocalist on the Peter Gabriel song, “Don’t Give Up.” The song was top ten hit in the US in 1986. The song cast a man’s voice in desperation because his life faces hard times, inspired by the Depression Era photo’s of Dorthea Lange. Kate enters as the counterpoint, he voice on of encouragement.

Three albums later, Kate Bush released Hounds of Love and caught the zeitgeist. Three songs form this album charted, “Cloudbusting. ”, ”Hounds of Love” and the recently re-popularized “Running up that Hill.”

But, as the Rock Hall, it seemed Kate Bush was gonna sit this one out. Well played, Kate Bush.

So I did what I always do when information is scarce. I went to YouTube. There I found out that Kate last performed live in 2014 and had a residency of some sort. I clicked on this, but it was just a still image with some music behind it, then I clicked on Kate Bush Cloudbusting Before The Dawn live at Hammersmith Apollo. Bingo! live Kate. The video began with a clip from Kate probably circa 1984 then transitioned to Kate: 2014. Her voice sounded just the same ethereal coo and Cloudbusting revisited brought on a new sensation that I never had when the clot when next song was current Cloudbusting is a great song but so is most her catalog which is why the rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame was honoring her in the first place.

I see the post has gotten 267,000 views since it was posted on YouTube. Now that she’s in the rock that’ll get to over 1 million maybe 10 million as the world would be a more hopeful place if more people knew Kate’s music. That many more hearts to be grateful.

“I just know something good is going to happen, just saying it might even make it happen”

Oh, yeah and St Ed’s won the state championship. Go Eagles!