These days, I am going through a major Kate Bush kick, inspired by the amazing new Bat for Lashes album, Two Suns. I downloaded that shit on a whim and before I completed my first listen, Natasha Khan had me hypnotized. She really is a siren, and but she is not the first of her kind. Kate Bush's influence on Two Suns is unmistakable, though not to a disrespectful degree (frankly, Two Suns is the album I wish 2005's grown-and-unsexy Aerial turned out to be). Kahn embodies the same arms-length intimacy as Kate by using a singer-songwriter aesthetic to create characters rather than confess. Instead of just a girl with a piano, we're hearing a girl with a piano along with all the voices her head can conjure. And that's not even mentioning the production similarities (a few Two Suns tracks use the same sort of post-new wave primitive drum programming that inhabits the first half of Hounds of Love).
Khan's more tempered than the fearlessly shrill Kate, though, and, to my untrained ear, her songwriting isn't as sophisticated. But that's for the best as I'm not sure if we could handle two Kate Bushes -- the world's head might explode. While Khan comes off cool even when wailing about her wickedness inside, it's never taken more than a literary reference or the image of a stringed instrument to have Kate wailing, balls-out. And if she didn't have balls that day, she'd probably hire men to dress as them so that she could incorporate them in an interpretive dance of the testes.
And dance!
I've spent the past few weeks of listening to Kate's music and howling at her videos via YouTube (you haven't lived till you've watched her talk about her vegetarianism or explain her positively batty "Sat in Your Lap" video to a roomful of bored pre-pubescent children). During this time, I finally realized something about Kate, whom I've loved since high school: she was made for me. No other entertainer I've invested myself in has ever struck the balance between awe-inspiring technical proficiency and utter nonsense so well. She has the paradoxical effect of a retarded genius. I've repeatedly written about my obsession with ambiguous intent in pop culture. There's nothing more satisfying to me than something that doesn't announce itself as intentionally or accidentally hilarious, something that slips through that crack of decidedness and tickles my brain as it dissipates into multiple receptors. Take Kate's dancing, alone, which while clearly thought-out and rooted in technique, nonetheless feels absurdly unhinged...
(Warning! Warning! So many more gifs follow. We're talking hours worth of madness. Be prepared to be seduced or, at least, derisively amused!)
Obviously, the other major epiphany resulting from my renewed fascination with Kate is how gif-able she was. Move over Tyra, there's a new head bitch in charge on this blog. She's worse than the other one was...in the best possible way.
As much as I wish I'd been somehow cognizant of Kate as she traveled on her upward trajectory during the late '70s and early '80s, like a witch who took a good half decade to learn how to use her broom, I'm kind of glad that she happened when she did. A lot of the gifs above and below come from videos and weird one-off performances and specials that were made before the music video really became the vehicle of pop music, and certainly decades before doing anything to get passing attention on YouTube became a legitimate means of self-expression. There's something assuring in how little-seen these clips were. If Kate were to do what she did then now, she'd be so easily written off as an attention whore. What's Kate up to now?
Oh, blinking weirdly to prove she still has it.
What's Kate doing now?
Sending the Internet community Christmas wishes via confetti. It's really a gift that we don't have to clean it up.
What's Kate doing now?
Oh you know, wandering around like a mom-mom on meds.
Look, it's arguable that she was doing weird-for-weird's sake even back then. It's just that considering the slower pace of media 25 or so years ago, the chances of her intentions being pure, that she really was invested in finding new ways to communicate and just be, are much greater. Regardless, though, she was a one-woman non-stop show of extreme human behavior:
Make that one-woman freak-show. And as such, she certainly predicted my interest (as well as the world's?) in the one-of-a-kind behavior that keeps even the glaringly untalented around on reality TV. There's something about her unpredictability and willingness to do whever the fuck that seems so relevant to my taste right now. Hence the gifs and my wish that Kate would head a reality show to find another her (in the end, I really do want to see the world's head explode). It could be called America's Next Top Eeeyaaawwww. Instead of instructing people to smile with their eyes, Kate would tell them to shoot arrows with their arms.
The eyes, you see, are too busy doing more important things:
She'd be like, "You look mean, and I need you to look demented. This is mean:
And this is demented:
See the difference?"
You know Tyra always does that wave motion for long, flowing extensions? This would be Kate's go-to gesture when she gave each and every girl a frizzed-out wig:
And, of course...
...is the new "fierce."
I hope it is clear that despite having slowed down considerably in the past 15 years, Kate Bush is still in the running towards becoming the greatest person who ever lived.
And now, the real point of this post (I didn't mean to go on like this...really!), a gif wall for my girl. I can't think of anyone who deserves this, my favorite way to salute someone, more. My parting advice to you is to go out and buy The Dreaming and keep listening to it until you love it. It will improve your life in ways you can't even imagine.
The woman has employed a trail effect on herself in more than one instance. I rest my case.
Say goodbye, Kate.
She can't even do that without being weird about it!
Awesome post about one of my very favourite people.
I admit that I don't really care about Aerial not being sexy... it's like at this point, she's become freakin' elemental.
Posted by: Andrew | March 20, 2009 at 12:26 PM
This is amazing. Thank you so much. i've loved her ever since i raided my dads records when in was a kid.
Posted by: LouLou | March 20, 2009 at 12:52 PM
OH MY GOD I LOVE KATE BUSH THANK YOU SO MUCH RICH YOU ARE MY GOD
IT HAS BEEN MY DREAM TO HAVE KATE BUSH GIFs
Posted by: ellie | March 20, 2009 at 01:04 PM
I am so happy you posted this! I have been such a big Kate Bush fan for years now. It saddens me that so many people don't know who she is. The fact that Wuthering Heights came out when she was 19 is incredible to me. She's a genius pure and simple.
Posted by: Kat | March 20, 2009 at 01:08 PM
I love Kate Bush so much. I found 'Hounds of Love' at my friends party (on vinyl) and you better believe I sang 'Running up that hill' in front a bunch of drunkards.
Posted by: Chris | March 20, 2009 at 01:10 PM
LOVE this woman. "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" wrecks me in the best possible ways.
Also, if you haven't heard the Puppini Sisters (sort of a neo-Andrews Sisters) version of "Wuthering Heights", it is an absolute must-listen.
Posted by: sairentohiru | March 20, 2009 at 01:25 PM
Best post of the year so far Rich! Kate Bush is a musical genius, on par with David Bowie, Zappa etc. Her songs are always about "something" as opposed to the modern banal drecky standard love/hate/party songs that are all too common today. All her albums are good, Hounds especially, tho my favorite is The Sensual World. This Woman's Work is an achingly beautiful song.
Posted by: jelodi97 | March 20, 2009 at 01:31 PM
Wonderful GIFs. It's like Christmas in Springtime.
Back in the early 80s, we college DJs were dutifully expected to revere Ms. Bush and her artistic output, WITHOUT QUESTION. Many men simply grunted and turned away when she was brought up in conversation, but we females were supposed to embrace the seriousness that Bush imposed on her oeuvre and to embrace the artful poetry and movement of her Royal Bushness.
Waaaaaay in the back of my head, my little thoughts cried out, "But...but...she's completely RIDICULOUS!...isn't she?" Thank you for giving that tiny voice a big shout out today.
Posted by: Miss Lisa | March 20, 2009 at 02:04 PM
wow I had the shittiest day today (company-wide 10% paycuts!), but this blog post made me feel a lot better. kate bush is exactly what the hard times call for. thank you.
Posted by: Ginny | March 20, 2009 at 02:26 PM
Two Suns is going to be a force to be reckoned with, very much on par with her preceding weird girls like Kate Bush. Women like these make me SO PROUD to be weird.
Posted by: Lolita Hazed | March 20, 2009 at 02:32 PM
This is completely awesome, Rich! I found KB in a music theory class, when the "cool" professor was willing to use pop music (well, musically brilliant pop music) during instruction. She is vocally amazing, incredibly creative, and always makes me feel something I don't expect. I love listening to Lionheart, especially Symphony in Blue.
Posted by: Becky | March 20, 2009 at 02:45 PM
I am always fascinated by the love she gets from rappers. Tupac loved her. Big Boi went through a major Kate Bush phase growing up. What is it exactly about Kate Bush that speaks to young brothers? Her looniness is inspiring.
Posted by: Zan | March 20, 2009 at 02:50 PM
awesome!!! not in my wildest dreams would i imagine i'd wake up to kate bush gifs today! she's the one who really made me love music when i started listening to her in high school. know and love all her records by heart.
cool rich
Posted by: BC | March 20, 2009 at 02:51 PM
Thanks for this terrific post! Kate Bush came along at a time when rock stars were only supposed to be outrageous off the stage. Also, no one quite knew what to make of the new rock video medium, so we tended to take the pretentiousness of it very seriously. Kate Bush was anomaly. Was she serious, or was she having us on? Either way, it was highly entertaining. It's too bad she never toured or she would've been huge!
Posted by: Neal | March 20, 2009 at 03:10 PM
Rich, I, too, downloaded Two Suns on a whim last week and after the first track thought to myself, "If Kate Bush were a young woman today, this is what she'd sound like.". Then I saw the video for Daniel, which completely reminded me of both the video for Running Up That Hill and Leigh Bowery in all his exalted high-freakery. I felt like a kid again and felt, for a moment, what it was that compelled me to work in a record store for all those years.
Thank you!
Posted by: Craig D'Arville | March 20, 2009 at 03:34 PM
Ok, I'm back. I've just spent a few minutes looking at the gif wall. It's balls-out intensity made me cry! And I'm not ashamed to admit that.
I'm so glad that, as a teenager during the 80s, I had Kate Bush and her reassuring craziness to help me get through being a closeted gay kid in Canadian suburbia. Kate's music has always been on heavy rotation in my house but I'd forgotten how awesome all those videos were. You've truly made my week, Rich!
Posted by: Craig D'Arville | March 20, 2009 at 03:46 PM
I am SO HAPPY YOU MADE THIS POST! I have been dreaming of the moment you would tackle the majesty of Kate Bush and bow down at the altar of her mad genius. I can't think of a more wonderful moment in the history of music videos than in "Babooshka" when OUT OF NOWHERE Kate stops dancing with a cello and explodes like a supernova in a burst of glory. That or the moment in "Running Up that Hill" when she becomes both EVE and THE SERPENT and slithers down her dancing partner's body. Or when she plays Donald Sutherland's son in "Cloudbusting" (that video would make a great pairing with Dusan Makavajev's W.R. Mystery of the Organism btw).
I think what makes her so great is that she has never compromised her vision and her wackadoodleness has always been grounded in an honest sense of purpose. That she can embrace the craziness of "Babooshka" and create the joyous celebration of giving yourself over to love 1000% with the tango from "Hounds of Love" is what makes her THE BEST EVER OF ALL TIME.
Posted by: chasgoose | March 20, 2009 at 03:58 PM
If I only could, I'd make a deal with God and I'm get him to swap our places.
Only I could never create this fantabulous wall of Bushery (the hearing impaired btw must love her because even I can clearly make out "Fantastic!") I hate to say I barely know any of these videos. Which is what I"ll now be focusing on instead of work this Friday afternoon.
Posted by: Vanessa | March 20, 2009 at 04:01 PM
this entry was simply heavenly.
Posted by: Kenyon | March 20, 2009 at 04:06 PM
Rich + Kate Bush?! Mon dieu! I had no idea. I am absolutely in love with this post. You seriously conjure up ideas that I never knew were possible to put into words. I adore you.
Posted by: Lia | March 20, 2009 at 04:28 PM
I love Kate. Great write-up. Two more things:
1) GIF 18 in the GIF wall: Clay Aiken, right? His earliest muse? I care care little for Clay Aiken and his antics, but still.
2) Kate has spawned one of the most impressive hordes of bizarre youtube-featured followers. A friend and I have a theory that she inspires genius in the minds of the needy and ambitious. Muse indeed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f869ZcWfjmM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCcVXZv2mj4
Those are limited examples, but all the same... genius.
Posted by: Zoe | March 20, 2009 at 04:42 PM
I remember your love for KB from way back. "Suspended in Gaffa", I think was the example you used as one of your favorite songs. Mine, too. I'd loop it at work and even the haters would be having a ball and doing impromptu irish jigs before too long.
She's an enigma, though. While she doesn't mind looking borderline batshit in her videos, her lifelong stagefright is legendary (hence the lack of touring). And while she'll happly burble on about high concepts and creative minutiae in interviews, any remotely personal questions will cause her to "politely, but firmly shut down like the gates of a steel drawbridge" as one music journo put it.
She's a great lady, and meant a lot to me growing up. I even have my own Kate-related coming out story that's too long and stupid to put here, but if anyone deserves a GIF wall, it's her.
Posted by: spazmo | March 20, 2009 at 04:58 PM
Killer GIF wall of a killer person!
Posted by: jesse | March 20, 2009 at 06:30 PM
Yes!!!! I love Kate Bush; "Running Up That Hill" is one of my favorite songs. She's like Stevie Nicks on PCP!
Posted by: degamarie | March 20, 2009 at 07:11 PM
Whenever in need of an instant Kate Bush fix, I have turned to my turntables or to youtube- but this post is like a perfect pill that goes on my tongue, to my brain- now I see fireworks!
Does anyone know the name of the dutch TV documentary about Kate's reclusive tendencies? And what would be the best way to find it on the internet?
Posted by: Cinemasochist | March 20, 2009 at 09:39 PM