“Let’s exchange the experience”: Jessie Ware’s favourite Kate Bush lyric
It’s easy to get pulled into the wondrous sonic world of Kate Bush, into the theatrical highs and lows of her vocals and the swirling, pulsing synths she surrounds them with. But if you resist the urge to fall entirely into her art-pop ambience and attempt to focus on the stories she adorns them with, her talent as a lyricist shines just as brightly as her instrumentation.
Somewhere amidst her strange brand of pop, Bush penned tales inspired by classic literature and B-movie horrors, grounding her characters and concepts in natural imagery while exploring the depth and breadth of human emotion. Her masterful vocal control only served to intensify her words, as she proved herself to be a gifted storyteller as well as a singer.
‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)’ is the perfect example of Bush’s ability to write emotional yet enigmatic lyrics. The track was unveiled ahead of the release of the singer’s iconic fifth album, Hounds of Love, in the summer of 1985, but it has retained cultural relevance ever since, and it contains Jessie Ware’s favourite lyric of all time.
The track finds Bush longing for a deal with God that will allow her to swap places with another, to understand life in their shoes. The singer herself has suggested that the track is about the different experiences between genders, and the difficulties that can cause in understanding each other, but her lyrics are vague enough for listeners to impose their own meaning.
The song has no shortage of beautiful lyrics worthy of praise, from the knowing, “Do you wanna hear about the deal that I’m making?” to the hopeful, “It’s you and me, won’t be unhappy,” but neither of these take the title for Ware’s favourite. As she divulged during a conversation with Shortlist, the climax of the song had the most potent impact on her, where Bush sings, “Come on angel, come on darling, let’s exchange the experience.”
This one line seems to encapsulate the feeling of the song, made all the more striking by Bush’s delivery. “I think that’s the one that when she sings it, you just believe every line totally,” Ware explains, “and I think it’s quite an ambiguous line but it’s the ‘come on angel, come on darling’ – I love singing it out.” With gorgeous word choices and a natural flow to the line, it’s easy to see why.
Bush’s vocal style certainly does afford the line a weight that makes listeners feel her words, even if they’re not entirely sure what she means by them. As she urges her subject to “exchange the experience” with her, the statement certainly works within the idea of the song as being about gender, but it could also be applied to sexuality or race or anything that alters the human experience.
Back in 2021, Russell T Davies used the song as part of the soundtrack for his drama series It’s a Sin, placing it in the context of a character looking after her HIV-positive friend. Not long after, the song took on new meaning and popularity when it was used in Netflix’s Stranger Things. It’s certainly a cinematic-sounding song, primed for use in soundtracks, but this also stems from the emotional ambiguity of its lyrics.
Any lyric from ‘Running Up That Hill’ shows off Bush’s talent for songwriting, but “Let’s exchange the experience” is a particularly good pick.
