Who’s Punk? — Kate Bush
So this has been a running series covering different artists who aren’t technically punk but are more punk than most actual punk bands. It’s been a minute, but I decided on Kate Bush partly to shamelessly buy-in on the hype surrounding “Running Up That Hill” and the ubiquitous culture thing that shall not be named. But also, she’s been on my radar for a while as a potential punk of interest. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing this a month late when everyone is sick of this sh*t, goddamnit, Eddie is a metal head not a punk. And not to casually play down real problems, there is also violent action being taken against women and LGBT+ people’s rights, so now would be a good time as any to sum up Kate Bush’s punk cred, I guess.
(Sorry if the word punk gets super repetitive and abstract.)
Bush grew up alongside punk. She was picked up by a major label at 17 years old and started writing her first album right as punk started in the UK circa 1976. However, the prog-rock sound and pop style she would become known for was quickly replaced by punk's DIY style, especially when her debut “The Kick Inside” was released in 1978. And as is often pointed out, Bush’s hand-selected single “Wuthering Heights” was supposed to be a flop according to the label but would quickly rise to the number one spot on UK’s Billboard chart despite not fitting in with the overall punk craze of the time.
It’s hard to say exactly how punks received the album but it is easy to argue how Bush, on paper, was very unpunk. Bush came from a suburban middle-class upbringing, was a classically trained musician, never really participated in the genre at all, had access to state-of-the-art synthesizers and deep industry connections. Oof that’s a lot, but something worth considering is that the music industry, especially punk, was heavily male-dominated with notable exceptions like Siouxsie and the Banshees. She was privileged, yes but she wasn’t just another industry cog. Punk and Bush had a critical common ground, they were both weirdos.
Bush never quite fit in anywhere but unlike punk, she could pass anywhere becoming a celebrated icon in Britain quickly from people of all walks of life. She was like the popular artsy girl that never fit in with school cliques but somehow could charm others while still being herself. Punk was the opposite, the school freak hiding under the school bleachers smoking or trying to be hard like they didn’t care what people thought, or whatever.
I have no way of really proving this but I imagine she conformed well to the ‘70s standards of a woman pop star. She was young, hot, and had a beautiful voice which all made her comfortably familiar to a country growing more conservative entering the Thatcher years. She originated from within the system and was now using it to her advantage. But her engagement with those systems in the larger music industry earned her deep-rooted respect from those who paid attention.
Fun side note: Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols adored Bush and even wrote a song for her to perform about the evils of the exotic bird trade. She did not do anything with the song. Rotten still adored her.
Anyway, Bush was fiercely independent and serious about having a hand in all of her work. She would co-produce her early albums before making a personal studio to self-produce for many years, which at the time was almost unheard of in popular music. Bush cared deeply about image but hated virtually every part of the music industry beyond the actual, ya know, music. She rarely performed or toured in her entire career and when she did, it was huge theatrical works full of costume changes, choreography and set design, all created by her.
She rarely allowed anyone to pressure her to do anything she didn’t want to, including interviews. There is one tape I know of where she talks about punk music and her summation is that she viewed it all as just an act. Cynical for the young dreamer but she saw it as a costume people wore to sell music, much like her red Kimono. According to other interviews, Bush seemed to like punk, but she saw it as less a movement and more a big game. For Bush, music was real but the aesthetics were just part of the act.
Bush wanted her music to “intrude.” It wasn’t enough that she was one of the biggest pop stars of her time. She wanted to create music that made people pay attention, whether they were comfortable or not. And that’s where her eccentricity allowed her to explore political topics through the lens of personal emotion and fictional stories.
Very few artists make pop from whale sounds or ballads about the world ending in a nuclear holocaust from the perspective of a fetus. Politically, these are pretty progressive ideas valuing nature with an antiwar sentiment. And it’s not just a few one-off tracks. “James and the Cold Gun,” “Pull Out The Pin” and “Army Dreamers” are also highly antiwar. It was also common for her songs to hint at or address homosexuality and gender issues which have helped make her a queer/feminist icon.
Gay rights were only starting to become a reality in the UK in the late ‘60s so the stigma of queerness was still high by Bush's time. Many artists then addressed these issues but few shared the platform she had. “Kashka From Baghdad” is all about a homosexual couple’s fear of persecution and the lengths they go to love one another.
Another side-note: in the famous song “Cloudbusting,” she has a one-liner that’s kinda cool but it’s unclear if she intended it how it sounds. Lyrics: “And every time it rains / You're here in my head / Like the sun coming out / Look, your son's coming out / Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen / I don't know when.” And it’s repeated a couple of times in the closing refrain, so possible double meaning to the song?
Anyway, even her biggest song “Running Up That Hill,” is about gender-bending. It’s a sort of “take a mile in each other shoes” message that, from one perspective, is a feminist anthem but is also a body dysmorphia song from another. Yearning to be something you aren’t and maybe love differently than your body allows is a topic only someone like Bush can do justice, even if that wasn’t her intent.
Her campiness made her the perfect escape for people even decades later, where misfits could find a voice and identity.
I find kinship in that because, in my view, punk was always about creating a space for those who don’t belong. Kate Bush just did it in a way that transcended genre barriers and fused different kinds of arts with music like theatre and literature while also bringing attention to critical issues we still deal with today. This is all on top of her fierce devotion to her craft and carving her path despite constant pressure from industry men saying you can’t do this or you aren’t that. Classic punk defiance wrapped up in glimmering ivy still creeping its way into new generations.
There’s a ton of other interesting stuff I shouldn’t go to deep into like how she was mentored by her big brothers and Pink Floyd’s guitarist David Gilmour but you can learn more about her background from the sources I read below as well as a really great Bandsplain podcast episode on Spotify.
Sources:
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/what-kate-bush-thought-about-punk/
https://medium.com/geouwehoer/kate-bush-british-institution-or-undercover-punk-a27b3debec7d
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-enduring-incandescent-power-of-kate-bush
https://www.grunge.com/885334/the-untold-truth-of-kate-bush/
https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/music-reads/features/kate-bush-feature-running-up-that-hill/13930352
https://i.redd.it/ndmolx5efuj61.jpg
I’m rambling at this point because it’s my newsletter and I need this, please just let me have it. But I just wanted to make note that my limited pool of friends like to take jabs at me for liking Kate Bush but it’s hard to deny how hard her sh*t goes. Like listen to her scream “Get Out of My House” and turn into a donkey and tell me that’s not sick.
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Well I say. My kinda writing.
She was something far more potent and, in a way, more insidious: a high-art conduit for the very sentiments that would later solidify into the dominant, oppressive culture of today.
She was the beautiful, art-damaged future that punk accidentally helped make space for.