“Hand-in-hand with youth”: Kate Bush explained why her earlier songs were “melodramatic”
Of all the definitions of innovation and visionary that could ever be mustered in the realm of music, all of them can be captured in one single name: Kate Bush. Beyond her obvious talents as a songwriter, she’s also one of the very few creators who were able to blend seamless storytelling with art from day one, making her a standout who understood the power of creative expression from the off.
What’s even more intriguing about Bush’s artistry is that she isn’t the most avid fact-checker. If a story, concept, or theme resonates with her, no matter how central to the thing itself it may be, she has this innate ability to transform the entire thing into something that belongs entirely to her, complete with all the signature embellishments that made her stand out in the first place.
It’s this ability that enables her to reach new creative heights, with the knowledge that she will, in most cases, never truly experience such stories from the perspectives they were initially intended, but that it’s her specific flavour of reinterpretation that makes them even better. For instance, Bush has written songs from male perspectives and rewritten tales originally depicted in completely different lights, confident in her ability to bring almost anything to life, no matter how abstract or detached they may seem.
However, while we continue to commend this as the sign of a true artist, Bush looks back at some of her earlier material and recognises the childlike nature that appears in some of it, mainly relating to her affinity for dramatising certain concepts or stories to make them appear more effervescent. While this doesn’t diminish their beauty, nor does it remove their initial excellence, it means she knows better than most why she chose to make such decisions so early on when the stakes were so high.
Discussing some of these songs with a subtle push towards ‘The Kick Inside’ with Interview Magazine, Bush explained her approach during this time and how it related to her desire to be as authentic and original as possible. “I guess some of those early songs are quite dramatic really—melodramatic almost,” she shared, candidly. “I think that’s quite often something that goes hand-in-hand with youth. I was always trying to look for something a little bit different I suppose.”
While this is undeniably what made her the most creative among her peers, she also claimed most of her concepts were manifestations of her “imagination”, which, when she was younger, felt completely boundless. “I just try to put myself in the sense of being a character, sometimes male,” she said. “I suppose I just like the idea of trying to be different people coming from all kinds of different angles. Most of it was just from my imagination.”
Though her answer has an undertone of resignation, Bush’s impact far exceeds the basics of make-believe, with creations that thoroughly challenged the boundaries of artistic identity and expression. Many of her stories might be almost completely fictitious, but the emotions and responses they evoke are entirely real, making her one of the most authentic figures, even when her viscera is surrounded by artifice.
