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Morrissey once unironically called Kate Bush “unbearable”
Kate Bush and Morrissey were two of the biggest stars in the 1980s, but decades later, their legacies couldn’t appear more different. On the one hand, Bush is enjoying a renaissance thanks to the hit Netflix series Stranger Things featuring ‘Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)’. On the other side of the coin, Morrissey makes major strides to distance himself from a loyal fanbase with a consecutive string of ludicrous statements.
Even before he joined The Smiths and received notoriety, Morrissey was already known for his vicious tongue. He had an opinion on everyone and everybody, but the singer very rarely handed out praise. When his band became famous, his old reviews, published in music magazines, resurfaced, making for a fascinating insight into his puzzling psyche.
Nobody was free from the wrath of Morrissey, with the singer commenting about pop-group Bucks Fizz: “One would hear more vocal passion from an ape under aesthetic. Inexcusably dim.” Meanwhile, in a review of Lionel Richie’s ‘Penny Lover’, he said: “The seventeeth single lifted from his Can’t Slow Down LP. That people actually care for such things suggests an unholy amount of human misery.”
Morrissey was a prolific writer before finding fame, and on top of penning for publications, he’d write to anybody who would listen. At 21, he built up a companionship with a pen pal from Scotland, and they exchanged stories about their woes with Kate Bush catching a stray from The Smiths frontman.
In one note, which came to light years after it was written, Morrissey got onto the topic of music with his new friend. Moz didn’t take it didn’t well when he discovered the Scot was a fan of the ‘Hounds of Love’ singer, and he didn’t hold back.
“Do you really like Kate Bush? I’m not surprised,” he wrote. “The nicest thing I could say about her is that she’s unbearable. That voice! Such trash! You’ll learn, Sonny.”
Morrissey’s comments about Bush aren’t surprising, he’s always been a contrarian who hates everything that most people love. In 1980, when he wrote the letter, Bush was riding high following the release of her new album, Never For Ever, which became her first record to top the chart.
The Smiths frontman once said: “I’ve never intended to be controversial, but it’s very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.” While Morrissey’s comments about controversial popstars are tedious tripe, I believe it does come naturally to him to be this way, which isn’t necessarily a cause for celebration.
Watch the footage below of Morrissey and George Michael reviewing singles on Eight Days A Week.
