STORYTELLING

MYSTERIOUS, ALLUSIVE, POETIC – JUST A FEW WORDS THAT MIGHT APPLY TO KATE BUSH’S LYRICS. IN THIS FEATURE THE FOUNDER OF THE KATEBUSHNEWS.COM SITE REFLECTS ON THE MEANINGS THAT LIE BELOW THE SURFACE OF JUST A FEW OF THE ARTIST’S SONGS…

SEÁN TWOMEY

Ask a follower of Kate Bush’s music what her songs are actually about and even the most fervent fan might be momentarily stumped. This is because the answer, in a way, is ”Everything!” Many stories are chronicled in her work, and the challenge in explaining them is considerable. Her creations include compositions she has spent years agonising over, but there are also songs that almost wrote themselves overnight, inspired by a film, piece of literature, a myth, a folktale, or simply a conversation she may have had with an unknown individual.

It’s certainly possible to identify some broad themes that Kate seems to return to often in her lyrics. There’s no denying that her music is permeated with vivid descriptions of nature and the elements; the heady ambient chorus of Night Scented Stock, the “waist high” seawater setting for The Fog’s wistful memories, the windy moors of Wuthering Heights, the changing light and abundant birdsong in A Sky Of Honey, the tempestuous ocean of The Ninth Wave, the hillside sunsets in The Sensual World, the haunting whale song of Moving, and in recent years, an entire album set against a backdrop of falling snow. Conversely, songs about romantic love abound, but are never presented in any kind of conventional way. Kate has a fascination with how human beings try and often fail to communicate in all kinds of relationships. In Running Up That Hill she describes a situation where only a pact with a higher power to exchange places with a lover could ever truly create mutual understanding. Love And Anger, a song Kate herself found difficult to explain, explores the process of opening up to someone and letting go of our feelings “like a bell to a southerly wind” so that we can be “speaking in sympathy” with each other. When communication is severed altogether we’re left with All The Love’s lonely series of answerphone messages, and Deeper Understanding’s sadly hypnotic electronic voice program to fill the void.