A song first performed on the 1979 television special Kate and released as the b-side of Babooshka the following year.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
A song on the album The Sensual World. The song was apparently inspired by a friend's mention of the light from a distant supernova finally reaching Earth.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
Also known as Scares Me Silly. This is a provisional title given to a demo version of a song which was never released. Recorded ca. 1975 with a complete band, rather than Kate alone at the piano, this song appears to be an attempt to record a more "normal" MOR-oriented track, and as a result it now seems more dated than any other Kate Bush composition, though the lyrics are interesting and far more ambivalent than the up-tempo music suggests. It is available only on bootleg recordings; see the Phoenix section for more information.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
The seventh album by Kate Bush.
This album is also listed in the Discography section.
A 1948 film written, produced, and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (as The Archers), starring Moira Shearer, Marius Goring, and Anton Walbrook. Shearer plays a rising young dancer who is torn between her love for a composer and the demands of a perfectionist ballet impressario -- or perhaps more aptly, she is caught between the demands of two equally selfish men and her own devotion to her art. The conflict is underscored in the film by the production of a ballet based on Hans Christian Andersen's fable The Red Shoes, which becomes an elaborate fantasy sequence that embodies the dramatic center of the film.
A favorite film of dancers and dance enthusiasts for nearly half a century -- as much for its detailed and realistic behind-the-scenes view of the dance world as for the outstanding dance sequences -- this film inspired the song The Red Shoes and the film The Line The Cross And The Curve. A side by side viewing of the latter with the original film reveals many ways in which Kate's creative decisions were shaped by careful study of this masterpiece.
"For ten years we had all been told to go out and die for freedom and democracy; but now the war was over, The Red Shoes told us to go out and die for art." -- Michael Powell
A song on the album The Red Shoes. This song, a tribute to the 1948 film The Red Shoes, provides the starting point of the film The Line The Cross And The Curve.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
Senior Engineer at Odyssey Studios on sessions for the album The Dreaming (incorrectly credited as assistant engineer in the liner notes for the album). Reed notes that Kate was one of the few people to spell his name correctly -- phoning him to make sure -- while his name is spelled in a variety of ways in the credits of albums by other artists.
Author of A Book Of Dreams, a memoir of his childhood recollections of his father Wilhelm Reich, which inspired Kate to write the song Cloudbusting. When the song was finished, Kate wrote to Peter Reich: "It was important to me in some way to have a sense of his blessing because his book really moved me. He sent back such a lovely letter. It was an incredible feeling of returning something he'd given to me."
(1897 - 3 November 1957) A controversial psychoanalyst who took Freudian orthodoxy to an extreme and theorized that all personality disorders arose from sexual repression. Beginning his career at Freud's Psychoanalytic Polyclinic in his native Austria, Reich moved to Germany, but upon Hitler's rise to power in 1933 he was forced to leave the country. In 1942 he founded The Orgone Institute and acquired an estate in Maine which was dubbed Orgonon. Reich came to believe that his theoretical "orgone energy" was not merely the result of sexual repression, but was the fundamental energy of the universe -- and that harnessing this energy through his "orgone accumulators" could alter the fundamental properties of matter, or even change the world's climate, creating rain on command.
In 1954, the American Food and Drug Administration issued an injunction against Reich for transporting his orgone accumulators across state lines. Refusing to appear at an FDA hearing -- he deemed orgone energy to be a matter of the utmost national security, and refused to divuge its alleged secrets -- Reich was charged with criminal contempt and was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Reich died in a Federal Penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on 3 November 1957. Although Reich was demonstrably insane, it remains tragic that the FDA was able to order his books withdrawn from public circulation and summarily destroyed.
Reich's son Peter, nine years old at the time of his father's imprisonment, wrote as an adult the autobiographical memoir A Book Of Dreams, which recounts his memories of his father. This book inspired the song Cloudbusting; in the video for the song, Wilhelm Reich -- or a fictionalized avatar of Reich -- is portayed by actor Donald Sutherland.
Appearing on this BBC music program on 20 May 1978, Kate was introduced by comedian Peter Cook and performed the song Them Heavy People.
Kate appeared with The Trio Bulgarka during a segment on Bulgarian music on this BBC series, which aired during the Spring of 1989.
Choir on the song Hello Earth.
(b. 3 March 1958) A British actress best known to American audiences from her roles in films such as The Crying Game, Dance With A Stranger, and Enchanted April, as well as the Blackadder television series. Richardson plays Kate's mother in the Comic Strip film Les Dogs, and has a leading role in The Line The Cross And The Curve.
Director of the Comic Strip film Les Dogs, and the video for the song The Sensual World. Richardson also appears in the film The Line The Cross And The Curve. Getting his start in the comedy duo The Outer Limits (with Nigel Planer) at Alexei Sayle's Comedy Store nights at the Nell Gwynne Club in Soho, Richardson went on to become a central figure in the Comic Strip team.
Also known as Playing Canasta In Cold Rooms. This is a provisional title given to a demo version of a song which was never released. It is available only on bootleg recordings; see the Phoenix section for more information.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
(8 November 1948 - 1979) An American singer who had to her credit several albums and the 1975 hit single Loving You before her death due to cancer at the age of 31. Ripperton is named in Blow Away.
A cat (felis catus, member of family Felidae) who provided the inspiration for the song Rocket's Tail. Rocket entered the Bush household along with two other kittens, named Sparky and Torchy. As yet, these two have had no songs named after them.
A song by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, covered by Kate for the tribute album Two Rooms. The song was inspired by a short story written by science fiction author Ray Bradbury.
A song on the album The Sensual World which features guest appearances by The Trio Bulgarka and Dave Gilmour. The song was inspired by a cat named Rocket.
Kate on the presence of Dave Gilmour in the song: "Well, I'm sure that secretly Dave has always wanted to be Bulgarian."
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
Credited as the drum machine on the song Delius, possibly the popular TR-808 model. Although Roland is better known for its electronic keyboards, its drum machines have played a crucial role in the development of hip-hop and dance music over the past decade. Kate has more recently switched to writing and recording with a Linn drum machine.
There is in fact no song by this title, although many people unfamiliar with the Kate Bush catalogue seem to think there is. Think good thoughts and refer them to the song Them Heavy People.
A song on the album The Kick Inside.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
A now-defunct public house in Lewisham, Southeast London, which was the debut venue for the KT Bush Band in April 1977. The number of fans who now claim to have been there at the time is frankly shocking. Del Palmer's recollection of the event is available in the Phoenix section.
Kate appeared on this travel-oriented program on 22 August 1988, discussing the sights of London.
A song on the album The Red Shoes.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
Opening song on the album Hounds Of Love. Originally titled A Deal With God, this song began when Kate asked Del to program a drum machine rhythm for her. She used the Fairlight to produce a droning sound over the rhythm, and from there the song practically wrote itself. Kate has said this song is about the inability of men and women to understand one another. If they could literally trade places, everyone concerned would be very surprised!
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
A member of The Trio Bulgarka.
On 25 November 1980, Kate appeared on this British chat show with Eric Fenby and Julian Lloyd Webber.