‘Moving’: The song Kate Bush wrote for her mentor of movement
The music industry is a difficult one to navigate, and the power of a mentor to guide you through should not be underestimated. It’s much easier to develop as an artist, to figure out the strange workings of the entertainment realm and grapple with the difficulties of fame with a more seasoned individual by your side. A good mentor can create an even greater artist, and Kate Bush had several.
Bush hadn’t even entered her 20s when she penned her first chart-topping and record-breaking single, ‘Wuthering Heights’, in the early 1970s. She clearly didn’t need a mentor to create art pop hits, but she would benefit from one when it came to navigating her early success in the industry. Perhaps the most famous name to come to her aid was David Gilmour.
After finding his own fame with Pink Floyd a decade earlier, Gilmour opted to help Bush to navigate the music industry after being stunned by an early demo. He even produced her debut album, The Kick Inside. But while Gilmour might have taken on the role of polishing her sound, becoming her musical mentor, he wasn’t the only figure who had an impact on her artistry.
Bush never limited her creative expression to her sonic output. She bolstered it with intriguing album artwork, with swaying, silky fashion, and even with dance. Her penchant for the latter came courtesy of another mentor, Lindsay Kemp. “He opened up my eyes to the meanings of movement,” Bush enthused during a conversation with Sounds magazine, “He makes you feel so good”.
Kemp bolstered Bush’s confidence with mime and dance tutoring but also with his praise. “If you’ve got two left feet it’s ‘you dance like an angel darling,’” she remembered, “He fills people up, you’re an empty glass and glug, glug, glug, he’s filled you with champagne.” You can see his influence throughout her work – as movement of all forms became an integral part of her artistry from the ‘Wuthering Heights’ music video to her short-lived live show.
Bush was so grateful for Kemp’s impact on her that she even penned a track for him, fittingly titled ‘Moving’. “He needed a song written to him,” she enthused. Serving as the opening to her debut album, ‘Moving’ was the perfect introduction to Bush’s creative interests, combining her gentle yet experimental art-pop soundscapes with her distinctive soaring vocals. “How I’m moved,” she sings with impressive control, “How you move me with your beauty’s potency, you give me life.” It also introduced her penchant for movement.
The idea of “moving” in the song takes on several forms. It’s certainly a statement for movement, for mime, for dance, for going with the flow rather than overthinking, but it’s also a thank you to her dance tutor for the way he “moved” her. It’s a gorgeous ode both to movement and to Kemp, to the tangible influence he had on her artistry.
Between the sonic influence of Gilmour, who turned her early demos into polished art pop all-timers, and Kemp’s choreography, which pushed her artistry into new, interesting realms, Bush became one of the most singular talents in pop history. Her vocal and songwriting talents certainly existed before either of her mentors got involved, but their help bolstered her confidence and allowed her to completely flourish as an artist.
