Heathcliff, it's me-- Cathy...
November 27, 2015 5:25 PM Subscribe
300 Kate Bush Impersonators Pay Tribute to the Wuthering Heights Video. There is an instructional dance video, if you'd like to recreate this at home. And the original, for your reference. (Open Culture has the backstory.)
omg.
thanks?
( I used to be a serious figure skater way back in the 80s/90s and this was my show/exhibition music/solo program. I believe my choreography may have unfortunately incorporated a few similar moves.)
posted by stagewhisper at 5:38 PM on November 27, 2015 [12 favorites]
thanks?
( I used to be a serious figure skater way back in the 80s/90s and this was my show/exhibition music/solo program. I believe my choreography may have unfortunately incorporated a few similar moves.)
posted by stagewhisper at 5:38 PM on November 27, 2015 [12 favorites]
That's more Kate Bush impersonators than I ever expected to see.
posted by Mezentian at 6:42 PM on November 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Mezentian at 6:42 PM on November 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
Mezentian: best note of the article at Open Culture is the note that they sought out to break the record for Kate Bush imitators in one place, and 3 participants would have sufficed for setting the official record.
posted by idiopath at 6:58 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by idiopath at 6:58 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
Kate Bush with the beard at 2:57 YOU HAVE WON MY HEART.
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:13 PM on November 27, 2015 [21 favorites]
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:13 PM on November 27, 2015 [21 favorites]
I have to say I only recently found/figured out that this song is about the book. When I was a teenager in the 80s this would be played on the Modern Rock station and the lyrics were basically unintelligible to my unliterate ears.
posted by rhizome at 7:22 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 7:22 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
I had never seen the "red dress in the woods" music video of Wuthering Heights before. I thought the only video was the blacked out studio with the white dress version. Anyway, now I've seen it. And now I've also seen 300 other people doing it. And uh, yeah.
It would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that Kate Bush is an inter-dimensional, wood-nymph, faerie queene creature with only a vague understanding of how actual humans move, speak, sing, or gyrate. It would entirely match up with my worldview.
posted by wabbittwax at 7:24 PM on November 27, 2015 [15 favorites]
It would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that Kate Bush is an inter-dimensional, wood-nymph, faerie queene creature with only a vague understanding of how actual humans move, speak, sing, or gyrate. It would entirely match up with my worldview.
posted by wabbittwax at 7:24 PM on November 27, 2015 [15 favorites]
Would the modern rock radio stations not have been playing Pat Benatar's version?
posted by wabbittwax at 7:25 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by wabbittwax at 7:25 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
My favorite are the young ladies in the background at 2:10 or so. Can you imagine what a crazy, inspiring, unforgettable experience this would be for them? I know, when I was the younger one's age, this was what I thought people meant when they were "going out dancing." Oh, well, I blame some combination of Solid Gold and the Lawrence Welk show.
posted by Gable Oak at 7:46 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Gable Oak at 7:46 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
My favorite are the young ladies in the background
Definitely, the appearance of the children and the game-but-awkward men really made this video so much more entertaining. I can't help but imagine how chaotic this dance could have become if the organizers had handed out rations of mead to everyone!
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:18 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Definitely, the appearance of the children and the game-but-awkward men really made this video so much more entertaining. I can't help but imagine how chaotic this dance could have become if the organizers had handed out rations of mead to everyone!
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:18 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Pat Benatar version is interesting, but the definitive cover was by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain
posted by Ranucci at 8:31 PM on November 27, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by Ranucci at 8:31 PM on November 27, 2015 [12 favorites]
Did anyone happen to see if Noel Fielding was in the crowd?
posted by Gable Oak at 8:49 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Gable Oak at 8:49 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
Ok, so can someone finally confirm or deny my suspicion that everyone's appreciation for Kate Bush is basically ironic? because no one who likes her has ever played a good song by her for me and I'm pretty much just waiting for the moment when everyone goes "haha, it's so bad it's good" and this video feels like that moment.
posted by shmegegge at 8:50 PM on November 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by shmegegge at 8:50 PM on November 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
Not ironic. You don't like her. That's fine. But that doesn't mean other people don't genuinely-not-ironically like her music, or that your definition of "good song" is somehow definitive.
posted by rtha at 8:53 PM on November 27, 2015 [39 favorites]
posted by rtha at 8:53 PM on November 27, 2015 [39 favorites]
It's not ironic, it's more like -- she's very idiosyncratic, and if her weird "thing" trips your brain, you like her. See also: Syd Barrett, Joanna Newsom, Tyrannosaurus Rex. I don't think there's any KaTe songs which are really good by mainstream standards -- the more conventional she gets, the less interesting. So, no problem, you really can stop trying to dig it and not feel bad!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:55 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 8:55 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
I just got that refain out of my head after the original was linked from AV Club a few weeks ago. Damn you for bringing that back, but thank you for the laughter. My wife wanted to know why I was hong in the ing room.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:55 PM on November 27, 2015
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:55 PM on November 27, 2015
Ok, so can someone finally confirm or deny my suspicion that everyone's appreciation for Kate Bush is basically ironic?
Ironic is, maybe, a love for Babooshka, but I don't want to live in a reality where Cloudbursting, Don't Give Up or Running Up That Hill aren't considered something good, and I'm not even a Kate Bush fan.
I saw some crappy video of her return a few years back and it was captivating.
posted by Mezentian at 9:15 PM on November 27, 2015 [14 favorites]
A lot of these people are being silly, being ironic. Which is fine. It's a very exalted song.
But the most touching and cute for me are the moments where women and girls truly act out their enjoyment of the song.
I guess that's me being a straight guy. Male gaze and all that.
posted by jouke at 9:19 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
But the most touching and cute for me are the moments where women and girls truly act out their enjoyment of the song.
I guess that's me being a straight guy. Male gaze and all that.
posted by jouke at 9:19 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Would the modern rock radio stations not have been playing Pat Benatar's version yt ?
Nah, never heard that one. At any rate, despite her costuming in the "Love Is A Battlefield" video, the early good Pat Benatar was played almost exclusively on hard rock stations alongside your Foreigners and your Aerosmiths.
posted by rhizome at 9:20 PM on November 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
Nah, never heard that one. At any rate, despite her costuming in the "Love Is A Battlefield" video, the early good Pat Benatar was played almost exclusively on hard rock stations alongside your Foreigners and your Aerosmiths.
posted by rhizome at 9:20 PM on November 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
I don't think there's any KaTe songs which are really good by mainstream standards -- the more conventional she gets, the less interesting.
I dunno. "Running Up That Hill" was a reasonably big single even in the U.S., and it hit #3 in the U.K., so I think you're underselling her. ("Wuthering Heights" was of course #1 in the U.K. and other territories, but it's pretty far from mainstream in the U.S., I think.)
Shmegegge, if you're genuinely interested in giving her a shot and you're not just biased against art rock in general — that's an understandable and defensible bias, in my estimation, but art rock is what she is — try taking in the whole of Hounds of Love, which is at least a phenomenal achievement by technical standards if you're not willing to give it more than that.
posted by Mothlight at 9:24 PM on November 27, 2015 [9 favorites]
I dunno. "Running Up That Hill" was a reasonably big single even in the U.S., and it hit #3 in the U.K., so I think you're underselling her. ("Wuthering Heights" was of course #1 in the U.K. and other territories, but it's pretty far from mainstream in the U.S., I think.)
Shmegegge, if you're genuinely interested in giving her a shot and you're not just biased against art rock in general — that's an understandable and defensible bias, in my estimation, but art rock is what she is — try taking in the whole of Hounds of Love, which is at least a phenomenal achievement by technical standards if you're not willing to give it more than that.
posted by Mothlight at 9:24 PM on November 27, 2015 [9 favorites]
Oh, that poor kid at 3:11 getting swung and finally escaping at 3:19.
posted by mefireader at 9:26 PM on November 27, 2015
posted by mefireader at 9:26 PM on November 27, 2015
Shmegegge, I definitely appreciate Kate Bush in a purely non-ironic way. As Mothlight says, Hounds of Love is one of my favorite albums. The fact that she's definitely quirky doesn't take any of my appreciation away.
posted by frumiousb at 9:47 PM on November 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by frumiousb at 9:47 PM on November 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
Ok, so can someone finally confirm or deny my suspicion that everyone's appreciation for Kate Bush is basically ironic?
*staggers*
Not ironic. You don't like her. That's fine. But that doesn't mean other people don't genuinely-not-ironically like her music, or that your definition of "good song" is somehow definitive.
QFT. I'm having a hard time responding to that. Wow. (oo-wow, oo-wow, oo-wow)…
she's very idiosyncratic, and if her weird "thing" trips your brain, you like her.
Yeah, her changes and arrangements and melodies and phrasing and beeyootiful voice and commitment to storytelling and character (including science, as a character, there's a long run of poetic riffs on science) are definitely uniquely Kate Bushy and brilliant. And, I think, a particularly feminine expression of creativity (within the confines of the kind femininity she took on), if you look at her voice, subject matter, use of self, body, everything.
(Not every choice of synth is one you'd much hear today, but you've got to take that as of its time, for sure.)
With Joni Mitchell, she showed pretty much every woman singer-songwriter (for several generations) what it might be like to make and listen to yourself.
So no, not fucking ironic.
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:50 PM on November 27, 2015 [25 favorites]
*staggers*
Not ironic. You don't like her. That's fine. But that doesn't mean other people don't genuinely-not-ironically like her music, or that your definition of "good song" is somehow definitive.
QFT. I'm having a hard time responding to that. Wow. (oo-wow, oo-wow, oo-wow)…
she's very idiosyncratic, and if her weird "thing" trips your brain, you like her.
Yeah, her changes and arrangements and melodies and phrasing and beeyootiful voice and commitment to storytelling and character (including science, as a character, there's a long run of poetic riffs on science) are definitely uniquely Kate Bushy and brilliant. And, I think, a particularly feminine expression of creativity (within the confines of the kind femininity she took on), if you look at her voice, subject matter, use of self, body, everything.
(Not every choice of synth is one you'd much hear today, but you've got to take that as of its time, for sure.)
With Joni Mitchell, she showed pretty much every woman singer-songwriter (for several generations) what it might be like to make and listen to yourself.
So no, not fucking ironic.
posted by cotton dress sock at 9:50 PM on November 27, 2015 [25 favorites]
To be fair, Kate Bush stood firmly in the proud tradition of Ausdruckstanz, (Expressionist Dance), fwiw. And yes, music videos were often very, very tacky, in ye olden days.
I remember she was supposedly the first singer who used one of these newfangled headmounted microphones on tour, as she was actually able to sing whilst doing her gyrations. It was newsworthy, then...
posted by ojemine at 9:55 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
I remember she was supposedly the first singer who used one of these newfangled headmounted microphones on tour, as she was actually able to sing whilst doing her gyrations. It was newsworthy, then...
posted by ojemine at 9:55 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
music videos were often very, very tacky, in ye olden days.
They still are.
posted by Mezentian at 9:57 PM on November 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
They still are.
posted by Mezentian at 9:57 PM on November 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
When I joined an eating club in college (it was a thing ok), the club I joined had one specific requirement, which was that each new member was assigned a specific artistic "offering" to give to the club at random, often totally out of that person's artistic purview (I was a music and theatre person with no drawing skills and I had to make a topographic map). They would happen out random throughout a couple of weeks.
The only one I really remember is the guy who had been tasked with memorizing and enacting the choreography to the Wuthering Heights video. One night, we were all eating dinner, then the familiar music came in over the sound system, and it was pretty much perfect. The man committed completely and earnestly, and it was hilarious, but also kind of amazing and a little moving.
I like the song and I like that memory because it reminds me there's a kind of magic in fully and genuinely giving yourself over to a bit of weirdness. Kudos to that.
posted by ilana at 10:06 PM on November 27, 2015 [23 favorites]
The only one I really remember is the guy who had been tasked with memorizing and enacting the choreography to the Wuthering Heights video. One night, we were all eating dinner, then the familiar music came in over the sound system, and it was pretty much perfect. The man committed completely and earnestly, and it was hilarious, but also kind of amazing and a little moving.
I like the song and I like that memory because it reminds me there's a kind of magic in fully and genuinely giving yourself over to a bit of weirdness. Kudos to that.
posted by ilana at 10:06 PM on November 27, 2015 [23 favorites]
> See also: Syd Barrett, Joanna Newsom, Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Yeah, as a data point: I adore Kate Bush, and do not like Joanna Newsom. Why? Because... reasons? All of them subjective and few of them articulate-able. But my friends who like Newsom like her unironically, and I understand that she can produce music that lots of people like for totally understandable reasons, and I am not required to also like her. People can make good music, and I can not like it, even when I acknowledge that it is (agreed by many people to be) good and enjoyable.
posted by rtha at 10:12 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, as a data point: I adore Kate Bush, and do not like Joanna Newsom. Why? Because... reasons? All of them subjective and few of them articulate-able. But my friends who like Newsom like her unironically, and I understand that she can produce music that lots of people like for totally understandable reasons, and I am not required to also like her. People can make good music, and I can not like it, even when I acknowledge that it is (agreed by many people to be) good and enjoyable.
posted by rtha at 10:12 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ok, so can someone finally confirm or deny my suspicion that everyone's appreciation for Kate Bush is basically ironic? because no one who likes her has ever played a good song by her for me and I'm pretty much just waiting for the moment when everyone goes "haha, it's so bad it's good" and this video feels like that moment.
This is how I feel about Taylor Swift. But no, Kate Bush is genuinely good and there's nothing ironic about it. I'm not her biggest fan, I think 3/4 of her music is too quirky for me, but "Cloudbusting" and "Running up that Hill" are among my favorite songs ever.
Even Noel Fielding isn't being ironic.
posted by mmoncur at 10:13 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
This is how I feel about Taylor Swift. But no, Kate Bush is genuinely good and there's nothing ironic about it. I'm not her biggest fan, I think 3/4 of her music is too quirky for me, but "Cloudbusting" and "Running up that Hill" are among my favorite songs ever.
Even Noel Fielding isn't being ironic.
posted by mmoncur at 10:13 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
Kate Bush is a genius songwriter and a startlingly idiosyncratic performer, so, no, not a shred of irony in my deep, decades-long appreciation. Kind of floored that anyone would even suggest it, actually.
I mean, even if you don't like her witchy shrieky vocal on Wuthering Heights (her voice mellows and grows very much warmer and richer in her later albums), it's pretty great purely as a musical composition - rhythmically, melodically, in terms its odd chord progressions, etc. Written by a teenager! The first UK #1 to be sung by the woman who composed it!
posted by erlking at 10:24 PM on November 27, 2015 [13 favorites]
I mean, even if you don't like her witchy shrieky vocal on Wuthering Heights (her voice mellows and grows very much warmer and richer in her later albums), it's pretty great purely as a musical composition - rhythmically, melodically, in terms its odd chord progressions, etc. Written by a teenager! The first UK #1 to be sung by the woman who composed it!
posted by erlking at 10:24 PM on November 27, 2015 [13 favorites]
I kept expecting Jorn Barger to pop up in the background somewhere.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 10:38 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 10:38 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
With Joni Mitchell, she showed pretty much every woman singer-songwriter (for several generations) what it might be like to make and listen to yourself.
That hits on a lot of the specialness of Kate and Joni for me, both huge favourites. They are so talented, so good at what they are doing, and from my male perspective incredibly attractive and sexy because of that... but it was also so clear that they were doing it for themselves and for people in general, but were not trying to be hot for the men watching. They were (are) too good for that, or good enough that they didn't need to rely on that, or their art was more important, whatever.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:56 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
That hits on a lot of the specialness of Kate and Joni for me, both huge favourites. They are so talented, so good at what they are doing, and from my male perspective incredibly attractive and sexy because of that... but it was also so clear that they were doing it for themselves and for people in general, but were not trying to be hot for the men watching. They were (are) too good for that, or good enough that they didn't need to rely on that, or their art was more important, whatever.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:56 PM on November 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is how I feel about Taylor Swift.
Oh man. Oh man, no. Hold me back. People hating on Taylor Swift (and other musicians like her) is a huge pet peeve of mine. I mean, I don't even like Taylor Swift, but man does she get shit on all the time undeservedly. She's been writing and performing songs professionally since she was 15, an age at which I was just getting up the courage to talk to girls for the first time (which, at the time, was a milestone). And even if that hadn't been the case, even if she were just a touring musician, she deserves credit. That woman is a genuinely hardworking musician, and she deserves what she has. That "Shake It Off" song makes my sister (as well as a lot of other people) really happy, and for real I'll fight (not really, but in spirit) anyone who thinks she's somehow in the wrong for liking it.
Anyway, I love Kate Bush, and I love that it is possible, in this day and age, for a bunch of people to get together and have fun for an afternoon imitating the crazy, weird, lovable dance from that video. Beard guy is, by default, my surrogate in that video, and I am enjoying the hell out of it.
posted by teponaztli at 11:31 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
Oh man. Oh man, no. Hold me back. People hating on Taylor Swift (and other musicians like her) is a huge pet peeve of mine. I mean, I don't even like Taylor Swift, but man does she get shit on all the time undeservedly. She's been writing and performing songs professionally since she was 15, an age at which I was just getting up the courage to talk to girls for the first time (which, at the time, was a milestone). And even if that hadn't been the case, even if she were just a touring musician, she deserves credit. That woman is a genuinely hardworking musician, and she deserves what she has. That "Shake It Off" song makes my sister (as well as a lot of other people) really happy, and for real I'll fight (not really, but in spirit) anyone who thinks she's somehow in the wrong for liking it.
Anyway, I love Kate Bush, and I love that it is possible, in this day and age, for a bunch of people to get together and have fun for an afternoon imitating the crazy, weird, lovable dance from that video. Beard guy is, by default, my surrogate in that video, and I am enjoying the hell out of it.
posted by teponaztli at 11:31 PM on November 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
Also, Kate Bush made the music for the Fruitopia ads, if you want to feel like it's 1994 all over again.
posted by teponaztli at 11:37 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by teponaztli at 11:37 PM on November 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
teponaztli: No need to be overwhelmed, I don't even dislike Taylor Swift. I was just using the first pop artist I could think of to illustrate that shmegegge's "ironic" comment could be pretty much applied to any artist, and would anger their fans if it was.
Perhaps I should have explained that instead of doing it. Apologies.
posted by mmoncur at 12:32 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Perhaps I should have explained that instead of doing it. Apologies.
posted by mmoncur at 12:32 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Omg this is wonderful!
And I thought the most wonderful thing was that Noel Fielding's performance but this comes close.
And yes mmoncur's absolutely right there, even Noel Fielding wasn't being "ironic" as in dismissive - that was an amazing song and a fantastic video and it still stands the test of time, and I'm not a fan of her, just remember that song and video from back when it came out as something whoa, so different, mesmerising - the spoofing was an affectionate tribute (as demonstrated also by the fact he did show up in a cameo one of her own more recent videos). It's really not that unusual to appreciate something good and still be playful with it...
posted by bitteschoen at 12:57 AM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
And I thought the most wonderful thing was that Noel Fielding's performance but this comes close.
And yes mmoncur's absolutely right there, even Noel Fielding wasn't being "ironic" as in dismissive - that was an amazing song and a fantastic video and it still stands the test of time, and I'm not a fan of her, just remember that song and video from back when it came out as something whoa, so different, mesmerising - the spoofing was an affectionate tribute (as demonstrated also by the fact he did show up in a cameo one of her own more recent videos). It's really not that unusual to appreciate something good and still be playful with it...
posted by bitteschoen at 12:57 AM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
I now feel like I should be frolicking in a field. Which is actually quite nice. I enjoyed this video just based on the fact that people were happily frolicking in a field. More people should routinely frolic.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 1:48 AM on November 28, 2015 [13 favorites]
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 1:48 AM on November 28, 2015 [13 favorites]
The song is one of those works of art that appears to simultaneously invent a new genre (the Modern Female Power Ballad) and exhaust all its possibilities at the same time.
posted by colie at 2:12 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by colie at 2:12 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
It's her confidence. It's not even "this is what I do and I don't care if you think it's absurd." It's beyond that. Somehow even the possibility of caring is erased, made nonexistent.
I think this is what the imitators are saluting. It's like when somebody says something sincere you thought no-one was brave enough to say; we know we'll never have the courage to speak with the same unselfconsciousness, but we're left mouthing the words in stunned admiration.
posted by Segundus at 3:07 AM on November 28, 2015 [14 favorites]
I think this is what the imitators are saluting. It's like when somebody says something sincere you thought no-one was brave enough to say; we know we'll never have the courage to speak with the same unselfconsciousness, but we're left mouthing the words in stunned admiration.
posted by Segundus at 3:07 AM on November 28, 2015 [14 favorites]
The rehearsal video is pretty good too "spin and serve the plates"
posted by PenDevil at 3:41 AM on November 28, 2015
posted by PenDevil at 3:41 AM on November 28, 2015
Ah heck, mmoncur, I'm just giving you a hard time anyway.
posted by teponaztli at 4:00 AM on November 28, 2015
posted by teponaztli at 4:00 AM on November 28, 2015
Kate Bush performing "Man With The Child In His Eyes" on SNL in 1979. Apparently she wrote this song when she was 13 and recorded it at 16.
SNL was a fantastic showcase for new talent back then. If you were lucky enough to be a kid then, you learned that young women could have a singular, eccentric sound and make their mark on the world without being "tough girls" or overtly sexualized. Ms. Bush made a huge impression on me.
Bring on the fan videos.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:01 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
SNL was a fantastic showcase for new talent back then. If you were lucky enough to be a kid then, you learned that young women could have a singular, eccentric sound and make their mark on the world without being "tough girls" or overtly sexualized. Ms. Bush made a huge impression on me.
Bring on the fan videos.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 4:01 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
This is great. So much joy in that video. So many people happily doing a thing they enjoy, and enjoying it more because they are doing it together.
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:14 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Too-Ticky at 4:14 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
Oh Lord I had tears in my eyes by the end of this. The world is a dark, shitty place sometimes and this was a field of people full of fucking joy. I LOVE this song, in a purely unironic way. It is beautiful and her voice is incredible, and I sing it loudly at any given opportunity, even though it only proves how shite my vocal range is compared to hers and how little control I have over my voice compared to her (singing it in the car is the best option as it lessens the chance of someone stabbing me to shut me up). It just makes me happy in a way that's hard to describe, and watching people be happy makes me happy, so this post is just so full of happy that I'd have a little lie down right now except...
There is an instructional dance video yt , if you'd like to recreate this at home.
YES I WOULD VERY MUCH THANK YOU BRB
posted by billiebee at 4:18 AM on November 28, 2015 [21 favorites]
There is an instructional dance video yt , if you'd like to recreate this at home.
YES I WOULD VERY MUCH THANK YOU BRB
posted by billiebee at 4:18 AM on November 28, 2015 [21 favorites]
Bearded Kates! Tiny Kate in red boots! People skipping through the spontaneous arch of hands! That was utterly glorious, and I am sitting here with a mile-wide delighted grin.
ilana: ...there's a kind of magic in fully and genuinely giving yourself over to a bit of weirdness. Kudos to that.
This, absolutely! I have fond memories of unselfconsciously flinging my teenaged self around my bedroom to this while warbling the lyrics, in the knowledge that I looked exactly as daft as Kate and this did not matter one bit.
I am That Person who will invariably put Wuthering Heights on the jukebox in the punk & metal pub, and take the inevitable storm of good-natured flak from my mates (and the rest of the clientele) for the sake of four-and-a-half minutes of sincere, entirely unironic, joy. (Said clientele, despite their protests, then proceed to have a whale of a time dancing about doing Kate Bush impressions...)
FTR: Favourite affectionate parody - the Horrible Histories 'Mary Tudor' song.
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 5:31 AM on November 28, 2015 [8 favorites]
ilana: ...there's a kind of magic in fully and genuinely giving yourself over to a bit of weirdness. Kudos to that.
This, absolutely! I have fond memories of unselfconsciously flinging my teenaged self around my bedroom to this while warbling the lyrics, in the knowledge that I looked exactly as daft as Kate and this did not matter one bit.
I am That Person who will invariably put Wuthering Heights on the jukebox in the punk & metal pub, and take the inevitable storm of good-natured flak from my mates (and the rest of the clientele) for the sake of four-and-a-half minutes of sincere, entirely unironic, joy. (Said clientele, despite their protests, then proceed to have a whale of a time dancing about doing Kate Bush impressions...)
FTR: Favourite affectionate parody - the Horrible Histories 'Mary Tudor' song.
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 5:31 AM on November 28, 2015 [8 favorites]
I hope that someday the 300 Kates Bush can get together with the Night of 1000 Stevies. Will they harmonize, or will they fight? Someone thaw out Leonard Bernstein!
posted by moonmilk at 6:08 AM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by moonmilk at 6:08 AM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
Just here to note the happy MeFi synchronicity with the next-older post.
posted by palliser at 6:44 AM on November 28, 2015
posted by palliser at 6:44 AM on November 28, 2015
Great. Now my wife is making me read "Wuthering Heights". >:| Thanks a lot, Internet.
posted by wormwood23 at 6:46 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by wormwood23 at 6:46 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Anyone wanna get a crowd together and give The Sensual World's twirl-walking-through-a-forest a joyful flash-mob treatment?
posted by erlking at 7:13 AM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by erlking at 7:13 AM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
FTR: Favourite affectionate parody - the Horrible Histories 'Mary Tudor' song yt .
It's the Toyah/Bush mash up I had no idea I needed.
posted by Mezentian at 7:28 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's the Toyah/Bush mash up I had no idea I needed.
posted by Mezentian at 7:28 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
I love Kaye Bush and I was just wondering whether I could somehow convince someone at the Toast to do an ongoing retrospective of her music videos in all their delightful insanity (they're so ripe for mockery but Kate Bush is also important in terms of rock history so it's be a nice blend of WTF and education.)
Anyway this totally scratches that itch bc it is AMAZING.
posted by WidgetAlley at 7:43 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
Anyway this totally scratches that itch bc it is AMAZING.
posted by WidgetAlley at 7:43 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
One of the things I noticed the last time I was at the ballet and the last time I was at a performance of Rossini's opera Cenerentola is that people forget that art played straight can be funny. I don't mean the lyrics of a song can be a joke or that someone can mimic buffoonery whilst successfully dancing or singing, but that the intent of the song is or dance is to make you laugh. That a particular artistic expression intend, in and of itself, when played straight to be mildly ridiculous such that you can laugh at it without mocking it.
Human beings, the human experience, our lives our emotions and are expression of them are often absolutely ridiculous. I think sometimes Kate Bush really manages to capture that without mocking us or intending us to be cooler than (and thus ironically enjoying) her expression of that piece of humanity.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:15 AM on November 28, 2015
Human beings, the human experience, our lives our emotions and are expression of them are often absolutely ridiculous. I think sometimes Kate Bush really manages to capture that without mocking us or intending us to be cooler than (and thus ironically enjoying) her expression of that piece of humanity.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:15 AM on November 28, 2015
After all, she was a teenage girl when she started--smart, observant teenage girls are pretty fucking dead on when shining a light on the more ridiculous aspects of human life and how it makes us have all the feels.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:17 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by crush-onastick at 8:17 AM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
Bush did indeed have sublime confidence at this point - apparently she hadn't even read the book when she wrote the song.
posted by colie at 8:33 AM on November 28, 2015
posted by colie at 8:33 AM on November 28, 2015
"Wuthering Heights" is one of those songs I like but sometimes I just go, "I have no idea why I like this. This is totally weird and super dramatic in a way only art school can be."
And yet I will sing my heart out to it when I hear it. Plus try to imitate the dancing.
posted by Kitteh at 8:50 AM on November 28, 2015
And yet I will sing my heart out to it when I hear it. Plus try to imitate the dancing.
posted by Kitteh at 8:50 AM on November 28, 2015
This FPP is wonderfully timed!
I've been going through the backlog of Anthony King and Will Hines' podcast Don't Get Me Started (in which they interview people about the things they're obsessed with), and just yesterday listened to the episode on Kate Bush. Their guest, Caroline Anderson (who has seven Bush tattoos)'s joy at talking about her was infectious.
posted by aedison at 9:31 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've been going through the backlog of Anthony King and Will Hines' podcast Don't Get Me Started (in which they interview people about the things they're obsessed with), and just yesterday listened to the episode on Kate Bush. Their guest, Caroline Anderson (who has seven Bush tattoos)'s joy at talking about her was infectious.
posted by aedison at 9:31 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
One of my best friends and I used to watch the video over and over again (red dress version like 95% of the time, white dress version only on rare occasions) and dance along in her living room. From the ages of about 19-23. And we did not really mean it ironically. I love this SO MUCH.
posted by naoko at 10:41 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by naoko at 10:41 AM on November 28, 2015 [1 favorite]
> Someone thaw out Leonard Bernstein!
...or just get a few hundred of him in an orchestra hall with the score of Carmina Burana, ok?
posted by ardgedee at 10:55 AM on November 28, 2015
...or just get a few hundred of him in an orchestra hall with the score of Carmina Burana, ok?
posted by ardgedee at 10:55 AM on November 28, 2015
Favourite cover: Heathcliff, it's me-- Floppy...
posted by Bangaioh at 11:36 AM on November 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Bangaioh at 11:36 AM on November 28, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'm a big Kate Bush fan. I had a difficult time at first because the squeaky high-frequency overtones in her voice were a bit rich, but I eventually fell in love with her unique and distinctive songwriting skills on 'Lionheart'. There is an obvious element of the ridiculousness in her work, but it's really tightly woven together with an element of depth and seriousness. What makes her really interesting is her fearlessness. She seems to follow her muse with no sense of risk or doubt. As an artist she seems to be truly free. Also, listening to her songs make me feel like twirling around.
posted by ovvl at 11:38 AM on November 28, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 11:38 AM on November 28, 2015 [5 favorites]
What's amazing to me is that I'm sick of most of the music I loved before I was 25 (could do with never hearing most of it again), but Kate's stuff is just as moving and fresh to me on the 200th listen as it was on the first. (Speculating on why will only lead me to a mess of hack words like "sublime" and "transcendent", so I won't.)
In case anyone missed it - previously; BBC doc (on YouTube, most should be able to get it).
Forgot to say - thanks for this post, frumiousb - so lovely to see this celebration of one of the best songs ever.
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:05 PM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
In case anyone missed it - previously; BBC doc (on YouTube, most should be able to get it).
Forgot to say - thanks for this post, frumiousb - so lovely to see this celebration of one of the best songs ever.
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:05 PM on November 28, 2015 [4 favorites]
I just want mass re-enactments of iconic dance choreographies to be a thing.... maybe "Running up that Hill" for next spring? "Love is a Battlefield"?
I'd say, lyrically, that Bush, like Tori Amos, is doing a musical version of Magical Realism. It's feminine and full of inside, private references....the experience is like the best possible iteration of listening to the drama girls/ band girls gossiping among themselves. But it's also jumping enthusiastically into fantasy and romance and not feeling embarrassed to do so. It somehow vibes/synergizes with Gilbert & Sullivan, The Last Unicorn, Labyrinth... sort of an alternate glimpse into a different interpretation of fantasy genres, the polar opposite of George R. R. Martin.
And yes, it's art rock, a more personal, less commercial reframing of Stevie Nicks. But The Hounds of Love and The Red Shoes, taken as a whole, are profound stories of emotional journeying and maturation.
I've never had a girlfriend in my life that wasn't profoundly grateful for me introducing them to Kate's music, and who didn't become a huge Kate Bush fanatic.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 3:00 PM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'd say, lyrically, that Bush, like Tori Amos, is doing a musical version of Magical Realism. It's feminine and full of inside, private references....the experience is like the best possible iteration of listening to the drama girls/ band girls gossiping among themselves. But it's also jumping enthusiastically into fantasy and romance and not feeling embarrassed to do so. It somehow vibes/synergizes with Gilbert & Sullivan, The Last Unicorn, Labyrinth... sort of an alternate glimpse into a different interpretation of fantasy genres, the polar opposite of George R. R. Martin.
And yes, it's art rock, a more personal, less commercial reframing of Stevie Nicks. But The Hounds of Love and The Red Shoes, taken as a whole, are profound stories of emotional journeying and maturation.
I've never had a girlfriend in my life that wasn't profoundly grateful for me introducing them to Kate's music, and who didn't become a huge Kate Bush fanatic.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 3:00 PM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'm watching the above linked documentary now. So far the most splendid thing is that Tricky is a huge fan of Kate Bush. I had no idea. It's really wonderful.
(I love her, I once ran a satirical Twitter account spoofing her and I couldn't sustain it because I LOVE HER)
posted by angeline at 10:54 PM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
(I love her, I once ran a satirical Twitter account spoofing her and I couldn't sustain it because I LOVE HER)
posted by angeline at 10:54 PM on November 28, 2015 [3 favorites]
Favourite cover: Heathcliff, it's me-- Floppy... yt
Woah. How did I forget about Mr Floppy?
BRB. Posting a video to the bad sex thread.
posted by Mezentian at 11:36 PM on November 28, 2015
Woah. How did I forget about Mr Floppy?
BRB. Posting a video to the bad sex thread.
posted by Mezentian at 11:36 PM on November 28, 2015
I never quite understand the people who have an aversion to Kate Bush, but then I never understood why the world around me was full of such numbing and overwhelmingly popular dullness until I slotted a tape my sister made for me into my little blue Toshiba cassette player at the beginning of 1983 and clicked the silver tab for [play].
Growing up surrounded by fans of Foreigner and REO Speedwagon and Air Supply and Journey and other music crimes didn't quite prepare me for being slapped in the face with thorny branches under a rain of explosive shrapnel of shredded ten pound notes, handcuff keys, gasoline-drenched commandments to leave it open, aborigines marching through the territorio, letting the machine pick up, wanting that man to go away now, while flying to Malta.
Kate was the concierge, chez moi, but she let me in.
She has some overreach, now and then, and yet—that first cassette is why I never understood the point of drugs, because if a pair of headphones could lift me up and deliver me into a suspended state of ecstatic concentration at the beginning of what were to be some rough years, what could paltry chemistry offer me when I'd already stood alone in my room burning out the high frequencies in my hearing with the fine hairs from my neck to my forearms to my calves standing on end, tingling in rolling waves like wheat fields in a wild storm?
Kate, like Indonesian food, Bradbury's lurid, pornographic celebration of stacked adjectives, and driving a beat-up old Citroën 2CV too fast on a mountain road with autumn leaves fluttering in through the open roof, gives voice to the apocalypse of temps mort; the sound of whole shelves of store brand mild salsa shattering in the aisles and collapsing into puddles of tomato nothing and swirling into floor drains. So she's an acquired taste, or—for me, at least, one for which the receptors were built into my genes—but I'm happy to share, and with a kiss, I'd pass the key, and feel your tongue teasing and receiving.
With your spit still on my lip, you hit the water—
posted by sonascope at 12:16 PM on November 29, 2015 [9 favorites]
Growing up surrounded by fans of Foreigner and REO Speedwagon and Air Supply and Journey and other music crimes didn't quite prepare me for being slapped in the face with thorny branches under a rain of explosive shrapnel of shredded ten pound notes, handcuff keys, gasoline-drenched commandments to leave it open, aborigines marching through the territorio, letting the machine pick up, wanting that man to go away now, while flying to Malta.
Kate was the concierge, chez moi, but she let me in.
She has some overreach, now and then, and yet—that first cassette is why I never understood the point of drugs, because if a pair of headphones could lift me up and deliver me into a suspended state of ecstatic concentration at the beginning of what were to be some rough years, what could paltry chemistry offer me when I'd already stood alone in my room burning out the high frequencies in my hearing with the fine hairs from my neck to my forearms to my calves standing on end, tingling in rolling waves like wheat fields in a wild storm?
Kate, like Indonesian food, Bradbury's lurid, pornographic celebration of stacked adjectives, and driving a beat-up old Citroën 2CV too fast on a mountain road with autumn leaves fluttering in through the open roof, gives voice to the apocalypse of temps mort; the sound of whole shelves of store brand mild salsa shattering in the aisles and collapsing into puddles of tomato nothing and swirling into floor drains. So she's an acquired taste, or—for me, at least, one for which the receptors were built into my genes—but I'm happy to share, and with a kiss, I'd pass the key, and feel your tongue teasing and receiving.
With your spit still on my lip, you hit the water—
posted by sonascope at 12:16 PM on November 29, 2015 [9 favorites]
I do a lot of used CD browsing. It's a hobby of mine, and it's a great way to get great music on the cheap, much of which has never been reissued online in any legitimate way. And as my peers in their forties and fifties cast off the goods of their youth to make room for their children's, the flea markets and yard sales are full of stuff from the early-80s through the mid-90s.
If there is one music CD from the 80s that I have never seen in decades of scrounging (and would snap up in a heartbeat if I did see), it's "Hounds of Love" by Kate Bush. Even though it was a top-40 album in its day, selling hundreds of thousands of copies, by golly each person who has a copy is hanging on to it.
posted by ardgedee at 1:19 PM on November 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
If there is one music CD from the 80s that I have never seen in decades of scrounging (and would snap up in a heartbeat if I did see), it's "Hounds of Love" by Kate Bush. Even though it was a top-40 album in its day, selling hundreds of thousands of copies, by golly each person who has a copy is hanging on to it.
posted by ardgedee at 1:19 PM on November 29, 2015 [3 favorites]
I have never really known her work. I -- wow.
I just realized something. Terry Pratchett referenced being a Kate Bush fan. And Paul Kidby's illustration of the Queen of the Elves looks just like a young Kate Bush in this video.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:37 PM on November 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
I just realized something. Terry Pratchett referenced being a Kate Bush fan. And Paul Kidby's illustration of the Queen of the Elves looks just like a young Kate Bush in this video.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:37 PM on November 29, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't even think Steve Coogan is an 'ironic Kate Bush fan'.
posted by asok at 3:53 PM on November 29, 2015
posted by asok at 3:53 PM on November 29, 2015
I have the version from "The Whole Story" on my iTunes, so I've gotten used to that vocal track, which is just a smidge lower.
I didn't appreciate her genius in the '80s, but her work has grown on me in the interceding years.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:31 PM on November 30, 2015
I didn't appreciate her genius in the '80s, but her work has grown on me in the interceding years.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:31 PM on November 30, 2015
See the thing is, I'm not even sure if it's possible to be an Ironic Kate Bush Fan.
There's something about the art she creates that, if you expose yourself to it regularly (like an Ironic Fan would do), is going to worm its way inside of you, under any armor of irony, and that one little thing is going to latch onto you and become entwined with how you Actually Feel about that particular thing, and once that little chink in the armor has happened, then you're only more and more willing to find other ways which Kate expresses Exactly That Thing....
I suspect the half-life of Ironice Kate Bush Fans is about 3 months.
posted by hippybear at 2:08 AM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
There's something about the art she creates that, if you expose yourself to it regularly (like an Ironic Fan would do), is going to worm its way inside of you, under any armor of irony, and that one little thing is going to latch onto you and become entwined with how you Actually Feel about that particular thing, and once that little chink in the armor has happened, then you're only more and more willing to find other ways which Kate expresses Exactly That Thing....
I suspect the half-life of Ironice Kate Bush Fans is about 3 months.
posted by hippybear at 2:08 AM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Goddammit that is a beautiful thing.
A BEAUTIFUL THING.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:07 AM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
A BEAUTIFUL THING.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:07 AM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]
Oh my, the link to Wuthering Heights covers from Youtube's side bar awesome. This guy's range surprised the heck out of me.
My millenial coworkers are a bit freaked out about by the sounds coming from my side of the office. This isn't that unusual.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:48 PM on December 4, 2015
My millenial coworkers are a bit freaked out about by the sounds coming from my side of the office. This isn't that unusual.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:48 PM on December 4, 2015
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posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:36 PM on November 27, 2015 [3 favorites]