The song Kate Bush wrote about romancing Hitler
Inside the peculiar and morbidly fascinating world of Kate Bush, she explores abstract concepts that constantly challenge the vapidity of life. Beyond the obvious, she frequently engages with otherworldly themes to symbolise the inner conflicts and intricacies of the human psyche. In the instance of ‘Heads We’re Dancing’, Bush drew inspiration from a common experience: encountering someone who seems pleasant on the surface but conceals potential malevolence within.
Discussions regarding J. Robert Oppenheimer are abundant today, but in 1989, talks about the renowned theoretical physicists were mostly limited to specialised intellectual circles. In one such circle, Bush encountered a friend who was well-versed in its most significant dilemma: the allure of ignorance when oblivious to the truth.
In fact, Bush was so captivated by the entire narrative that it motivated her to compose a song addressing the theme of seduction in the presence of concealed evil. “It was all started by a family friend, years ago, who’d been to dinner and sat next to this guy who was really fascinating, so charming,” she explained, “They sat all night chatting and joking.”
Her friend soon found out that the man he was intrigued by was none other than Oppenheimer, who, upon learning his identity, became “horrified because he really despised what the guy stood for”. Bush, on the other hand, was a little less certain. She almost felt sorry for Oppenheimer because, of course, he had been involved in mass murder, but he had to live with it for the rest of his life.
However, the idea that someone could become drawn to a person until they knew who they were only intrigued her further, and soon she asked herself, “What if you met the Devil? The Ultimate One: charming, elegant, well spoken. Then it turned into this whole idea of a girl being at a dance and this guy coming up, cocky and charming, and she dances with him.”
Who would be the ultimate figure when it comes to envisioning the most evil person to ever exist? One that says, “If the coin lands with heads facing up, then we dance!” in a softly-spoken voice, with no indication whatsoever that he might be harbouring some big, dark secret? For Bush, Adolf Hitler was the only person to fit the role. “The idea is that she enjoys his company and dances with him and, days later, she sees in the paper who it is, and she is hit with this absolute horror – absolute horror,” she sad. “What could be worse? To have been so close to the man… she could have tried to kill him… she could have tried to change history, had she known at that point what was actually happening.”
However, perhaps most importantly, Bush is in no way condoning attraction to criminality; instead, it’s an exploration of how our judgement can be clouded when someone appears nothing but friendly on the surface. She explained this, adding: “I think Hitler is a person who fooled so many people. He fooled nations of people. And I don’t think you can blame those people for being fooled, and maybe it’s these very charming people… maybe evil is not always in the guise you expect it to be.”
Although Bush understands that ‘Heads We’re Dancing’ could be seen as “glorifying the situation” and recognises the fact that she wouldn’t ever make a song like this now, it still begs the all-important question about human nature: would we know it if evil was staring us in the face?
