The “soppy” 1978 song Kate Bush was worried about releasing
“Everything I do is very English,” Kate Bush once opined, “And I think that’s one reason I’ve broken through to a lot of countries”.
When you look at all the reasons why Bush became one of the most globally significant artists in history, you wouldn’t necessarily immediately think that it’s because of her ability to inject her own Britishness into the music. You’d probably think it had more to do with the ways she transformed some of humanity’s darkest or most mystical thoughts and experiences into timeless art.
However, when you peer beneath the surface, you’ll probably also find that the two are inextricably intertwined. After all, British music has been dominating the world for decades, not necessarily because there’s one singular sound or style but because there’s a diversity there that both blends different musical facets together and appeals emotionally on a broader, universal level. And when you apply this thinking to the popularity of Kate Bush, it makes sense.
It’s also interesting because, in many ways, she defied all odds, becoming a commercially successful artist by essentially doing the opposite of what people considered commercial pandering. She was also pretty unique in her expression of her own Britishness, taking personal experiences and turning them into cinematic soundscapes that anybody could relate to. But Britishness in Bush’s music has always been a fairly distinctive aspect of its appeal, not just in terms of her vocal style but in the ways she drew inspiration from some of Britain’s biggest cultural texts and references.
Aside from being inspired by the famous novel, ‘Wuthering Heights’ is a pretty good example of how these two worked in tandem while blending quintessential Britishness with a sort of quirkiness that everybody could get on board with. And although she was, for all intents and purposes, one of the weirder artists on offer when she first broke onto the scene, people also loved her music because she poured a lot of heart into it, creating worlds that might have seemed strange or uncanny to the outsider, but which actually often came from a place of emotional honesty, exploring themes of love or loss that pulled you in on a deeper level.
Some of Bush’s best songs, for instance, are the heartfelt ones that feel like she was at the crux of intense heartbreak when she wrote them. The obvious one, ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’, has withstood the test of time because it’s a heartwrenching display of someone struggling to understand someone’s perspective, wishing they could swap places to see things through their eyes.
But it’s also a double entendre which plays on the idea of life, love, and death, seeing Bush wishing to make a deal with god to swap places with someone she’s lost and attempting to bargain to lessen her own pain or suffering. These layers are present across many of her songs, where there’s a surface-level reading but an emotional appeal that runs deeper, letting you apply your own meaning.
However, it also means some people interpret songs in ways she never intended, or criticise them for being too sentimental or not sentimental enough to be good. As with ‘Oh England My Lionheart’, people felt the song was too mushy or weren’t happy with the way it romanticised England during a time when the pioneers of punk were striving to do the complete opposite. However, when looking back, she maintained that she was merely doing what she’d always done and what had become her secret superpower: injecting her own Britishness into her music.
“A lot of people could easily say that the song [the song] is soppy,” she later reflected, “It’s very classically done. It’s only got acoustic instruments on it, and it’s done almost madrigally. I dare say a lot of people will think that it’s just a load of old slush, but it’s just an area that I think it’s good to cover. The English vibe is very appealing.”
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Punk Newsletter
All the latest Punk content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.