The artist Kate Bush dreamed of playing like: “Those fantastic hands”
Kate Bush has always felt like a truly singular artist. With such sharpness in her own vision, it’s never felt like any other musicians truly came into view. There’s no one genre she prescribes to, so there’s no clear pool of people she’s used for reference. She never stuck with the same sound for long; hence, it was never possible to draw any solid connecting lines between her and another. But in her mind, there was one artist she wanted to be more like.
While Bush feels referenceless, that’s not really the case. Her artistic work is packed with context, and just not the obvious kind. It was rare for her to mention other artists in interviews about her work, unless it was someone like David Gilmour who helped her with her debut, or the close friends who played in her band.
Instead, Bush’s referential world was packed with historic figures, mythology, or even creativity from outside of music, like Lindsay Kemp, whom she admired so greatly that she spent her first label advance on dance classes from him. Rather than any distinct bands or singers, Bush’s artistic world was populated with more left-field influences that all fed into her truly unique approach.
But she wasn’t an island. Like all music makers are, or at least should be, she was a music fan too. Even if she didn’t speak much about acts that inspired her music, she did discuss artists that inspired her, usually coming down to more than just their playing.
David Bowie is a good example of that, as Bush spoke regularly about her admiration for the Starman, but no one would ever really suggest that their music was all that similar. She called him “a fantastic songwriter with a voice to match”, adding, “Bowie had everything. He was just the right amount of weird, obviously intelligent and, of course, very sexy”. However, it was never that she wanted to be him; she just wanted his picture on her bedroom wall.
That hung right next to the man she did want to be, remembering it being “next to the sacred space reserved solely for my greatest love—Elton John”.
If there was ever an artist that Bush wanted to be more like, it would be Elton John. There are connecting lines there; both are theatrical and inspired by more than just music. But mostly, it spawned from a girlish desire for him first. “At one point I had this, well, I don’t know if you’d call it a crush, a bit of one on Elton John,” she said.
It was a combination of a crush and a deep admiration, though. “I thought he was fantastic. I thought he was so clever. It was before he got really famous…around Madman Across the Water,” she gushed, adding again, “I thought he was so wonderful.”
The desire and inspiration merged into a mass of feeling that came out looking something like envy in a way, as Bush said, “I’d play the records and dream of being able to play like him, those fantastic hands”. Somewhere between wanting to be him and wanting to be with him, she mused, “A crush like that is quite sweet, isn’t it?”
