‘Stranger Things’: 10 more awesome Kate Bush songs

Although they had no idea when they experienced it, legions of “Stranger Things” viewers have recently been indoctrinated into a secular belief system that has already changed millions of lives. The text that led them there? Kate Bush’s 1985 song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)”.

Its use throughout Season 4, primarily in a climactic Episode 4 scene involving a Sony Walkman, Bush’s “Hounds of Love” tape, and a demon, propelled “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God )” at the top of the music. continuous graphics. It’s currently the #1 song on Spotify’s Top 50 and #3 on Apple Music, where it sits alongside contemporary hits from Bad Bunny, Harry Styles, Post Malone and Future.

National treasure in England, Bush, 63, is less known in the United States. Only one of his studio albums, 1989’s “The Sensual World”, was certified gold in the United States.

However, his followers don’t care much about the sales. Among those who have cited Bush’s work as inspiration are Grimes, Solange, St. Vincent and Stevie Nicks. Perhaps most famously, Outkast’s Big Boi has long preached the gospel of Kate.

“His songs tell stories,” Big Boi told Pitchfork in a video about his love for “Running Up That Hill.” Comparing his presence to the protagonist of “The Phantom of the Opera,” the rapper-producer said he imagined Bush “living in a big castle with a piano that was 10 times the size of a regular piano.” [and] playing the piano all day with sheer curtains blowing in the windows. Almost like Rapunzel but on top of a hill somewhere. (In fact, she lives with her husband, Danny McIntosh, and their son, Albert, in Devon, southwest England.)

Big Boi, who recently confirmed that he and Bush recorded a song together (but audiences will hear it “when I think they deserve it”), called his discography “a cohesive body of work that took you into an adventure”.

Ready to continue your adventure? Below are 10 more Bush songs to try.

1. “Wuthering Heights” (1978)

As a precocious songwriter in the mid-1970s, Bush caught the attention of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd at an early age and, at age 19, released his first album, 1978’s “The Kick Inside.” charted her first UK No. 1 the same year with “Wuthering Heights”, which was the first self-penned song by a woman to do so. Named after a novel by Emily Brontë, ‘Wuthering Heights’ knocked ABBA’s ‘Take a Chance on Me’ off the top spot due in large part to Bush’s performance on the TV show ‘Top of the Pops”.

2. “Babushka” (1980)

“Running Up That Hill” isn’t the only Bush song to go viral lately. Over the past few years, #KateBushTok has become a thing, with “Babooshka” in particular generating popular memes. Recorded for her 1980 album, “Never for Ever,” “Babooshka” opens with her singing the premise of the song, about a suspicious woman who begins sending love letters as “Babooshka. to her husband in order to gauge his loyalty: “She wanted to test her husband / She knew exactly what to do / A pseudonym to trick him / She couldn’t have done worse. The TikTok meme exploits the song’s big reveal: “Babooshka, Babooshka, Babooshka-ya-ya – all yours!”

3. “The Dream” (1982)

Bush had co-produced “Never for Ever”, but then ended up, with the help of his father, building a home studio. His fourth album, “The Dreaming”, was his first self-produced album, and this change allowed him to experiment with technology and technique. The title track features the late Percy Edwards, a British animal impersonator. Bush wrote about the experience to members of his fan club shortly after the album’s release. “It’s so beautiful to see him burst into birdsong in a studio in the middle of London. I had images of him waking up with the chorus of dawn, playing with the blackbirds, the sparrows, the thrushes .

4. “Cloudbusting” (1985)

Wilhelm Reich was a psychoanalyst and inventor who claimed to have built a rain-making machine called Cloudbuster. Bush wrote the song, from his album “Hounds of Love”, from the perspective of Reich’s son – “Whenever it rains / You’re there in my head.” For the video, Bush collaborated with director and Monty Python member Terry Gilliam to build a Cloudbuster as they imagined it.

5. “Love Dogs” (1985)

Opening with a line sampled from the 1957 British horror film “Night of the Demon” – “It’s in the trees! It’s happening!” – the title track of “Hounds of Love” is sequenced to follow “Running Up That Hill”. A song about the desire to fall in love, it exploits creepy nocturnal packs of dogs as a metaphor for one’s fear. In addition to writing and producing the song, Bush directed the video, which riffs on Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps.”

6. “Don’t Give Up” (1986)

Asked about his favorite Kate Bush moment, none other than former teen idol Donny Osmond admitted to being a member of the Bush tribe – through Peter Gabriel’s 1986 song ‘So’. “The title of ‘Don’t Give Up’, Kate Bush’s duet with Peter Gabriel, not to mention the lyrics, could be the mantra for anyone wanting to succeed in show business,” Osmond told British newspaper The Independent. . Osmond added that as he tried to revive his career after being a child sensation, “Don’t Give Up” “helped get through those tough years.”

7. “The Sensual World” (1989)

The title track from Bush’s exquisite 1989 album is as seductive as you’d hope, with references to peaches, flesh, flowers and “arrows of desire.” The entire album “The Sensual World” delves into desire, lust and challenges and the pursuit of them.

8. “Why should I love you?” (1993)

Bush invited avowed admirer Prince to sing in the background on “Why Should I Love You?” for his 1993 album, “The Red Shoes”, and sent him the track. What he returned, a bit presumptuous, was a totally remixed, reworked version. Bush then sprinkled his equally skilled production magic into Prince’s take and the result is a brilliant union.

9. “A Deeper Understanding” (2011)

For her 2011 album, “Director’s Cut,” Bush returned to earlier work to reinvent and re-record 11 songs. “Deeper Understanding” was first recorded for “The Sensual World” and is about a love affair between a man and his computer. “More and more people have less contact with human beings. We spend the whole day with machines; all night with machines,” she said, quite solemnly, in a 1989 radio interview.

10. “And Sheep’s Dream (Live)” (2016)

In 2014, the notably reclusive Bush returned to the stage with “Before the Dawn,” a 22-date live production at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. While filming the video for “And Dream of Sheep,” about someone lost at sea, Bush lay in a tank of water at a production studio, according to notes accompanying the clip. “However, it became more realistic than Kate had imagined. She spent so much time in the water during the first day of filming that she contracted mild hypothermia. She recovered after a day off and continued filming.