Speaker 1: Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on
Speaker 1: Rolling Stones hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversialist. I'm Britney
Speaker 1: Spanis and.
Speaker 2: I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to shed light on the
Speaker 2: greatest songs ever made and discover what makes them so great.
Speaker 2: And this week's song a classic we both love Running
Speaker 2: Up That Hill by Kate Bush.
Speaker 1: So this song made its debut on the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one list, became in at number sixty, which is like
Speaker 1: a massive debut for the song, and I mean, I
Speaker 1: think there's so so many reasons we can get into
Speaker 1: and again, this song making on the list came a
Speaker 1: full year before end up charting again and went to
Speaker 1: number one in the UK and a bunch of other
Speaker 1: countries around the world, and number three in the US.
Speaker 1: We could start with the fact that even a year
Speaker 1: before we kind of saw this resurgence, the song was
Speaker 1: already kind of for voters of this list in their
Speaker 1: consciousness as one of the greatest songs of all time. So, Rob,
Speaker 1: what do you think was sort of leading up to
Speaker 1: that voting that was kind of inspiring people to reconsider
Speaker 1: Running Up That Hill as like one of the greatest songs.
Speaker 2: Kate Bush like an artist, certainly an artist never chased
Speaker 2: after conventional pop fame at the time, Yet her mystique
Speaker 2: just grows and grows. Artists just take more and more
Speaker 2: inspiration from her. Running Up That Hill was already a
Speaker 2: huge thing on social media, like long before it blew
Speaker 2: up on Stranger Things. It was just one of those
Speaker 2: songs where the mystique just builds and just keeps making
Speaker 2: new believers wherever it goes.
Speaker 1: What do you remember, Like your reaction to hearing Kate
Speaker 1: Bush for the first time was like what made her
Speaker 1: stand out to you? And or maybe you made you
Speaker 1: fall in love with her music right away.
Speaker 2: She was so wild, imaginative. She had that bowie thing
Speaker 2: that I really loved. She was huge in the early
Speaker 2: eighties when she was first making synthesizer stuff after being
Speaker 2: very piano based in the seventies, so she seemed like
Speaker 2: a new wave artist, but she also had this progue past,
Speaker 2: and she had all these weird like folk music elements,
Speaker 2: and she just made the weirdest damn records. And the
Speaker 2: way you could tell that she was really schooled in
Speaker 2: that sort of seventies British glam rock. Obviously very Bowie,
Speaker 2: obviously very Roxy music, very very very Elton. She did
Speaker 2: the best Elton cover of all time with her version
Speaker 2: of rocket Man, where she's just seeing I'm not the
Speaker 2: man they think I am an I mean, it's like, Wow, no, Kate,
Speaker 2: you are not. You're not like you are not what
Speaker 2: anybody thinks. She was just so deeply versed in the
Speaker 2: music she loves, but so original in every move she makes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just like there's so much theatricality to not
Speaker 1: only her performances of course, and like the way that
Speaker 1: she presents it, because she is someone who is very
Speaker 1: conceptual with how she envisions her performances, her videos and
Speaker 1: how they kind of are translating in the songs, Like
Speaker 1: she has like this really great kind of artistic mind
Speaker 1: in so many ways. But like the songs too, are
Speaker 1: such great narratives of course, Like Wearing Up that Hill
Speaker 1: is this amazing sort of song about like a man
Speaker 1: and woman and kind of wanting to be able to
Speaker 1: like understand each other better and like make that deal
Speaker 1: with God and like understand kind of the other person's
Speaker 1: perspective inside, and like there's just like so much of
Speaker 1: this drama to the song that comes through both in
Speaker 1: the production. Of course, she is from Hounds of Love
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty five. She produced the album herself, Like
Speaker 1: she wrote this song by It's just just Kate, you know,
Speaker 1: and like she's kind of has this incredibly just like
Speaker 1: theatrical kind of vision of every narrative in her songs.
Speaker 2: It's amazing. How did this song hit you as a
Speaker 2: teenage fan who was just like discovering her music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was so obsessed with this song, but I
Speaker 1: remember I owned it pretty early, and like I just
Speaker 1: I was like absolutely transfixed by It's like such a
Speaker 1: hypnotic song. I won't totally realize I've had it on
Speaker 1: for as long as I've had it on, you know,
Speaker 1: if I just kind of like let it play.
Speaker 3: Same thing with the.
Speaker 1: Full album, Like I feel like that album is constantly
Speaker 1: on repeat. But with Running at That Hill especially, like
Speaker 1: and I'm not paying attention and I put just that
Speaker 1: song on two hours go by, and I'm like still here,
Speaker 1: maybe to it one more time. There is such like
Speaker 1: just the way the production is so driving and kind
Speaker 1: of really gives you that sense of urgency that she's
Speaker 1: singing about. And it's kind of like desperation, and like
Speaker 1: just the way that she's singing it, Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's like so much like weird like vocal inflections that
Speaker 1: she does, especially when she sings like made a deal
Speaker 1: with God and like you know, like just like the
Speaker 1: way it kind of goes a little bit lower and
Speaker 1: like a little like I don't know, She's just like
Speaker 1: does all these weird things with her voice that you
Speaker 1: always kind of unlock each time.
Speaker 2: What's a song you can listen to your whole life
Speaker 2: without figuring it out? Yeah, there's so much, Like you said,
Speaker 2: there's so much mystery and enigma in it. And it's
Speaker 2: weld that this is her most famous song. It's it's
Speaker 2: her pop song. It's the one that actually was a
Speaker 2: top forty hit in the US. Just kind of mind blowing,
Speaker 2: let alone that it was a top forty hit. Then
Speaker 2: almost forty years later, this is Kate Bush at her
Speaker 2: most accessible, straight down the middle pop and it's still
Speaker 2: so insanely weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's one of my favorite songs to see
Speaker 1: people karaoke because every time I've seen friends before Stranger's
Speaker 1: perform and I feel like they always do something like
Speaker 1: really fun vocally with it, like they all kind of
Speaker 1: everyone sort of has like some weird intonation of the song.
Speaker 1: They really love the way that she sings a certain
Speaker 1: word and always try to mimic it, like it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of like that like kind of way like Shallow
Speaker 1: by Late Gaga, Like everyone kind of has like a
Speaker 1: one note that they love that they really need to
Speaker 1: hit every time they do it. So I've always really
Speaker 1: loved that about this song. And I mean with the
Speaker 1: resurgences that we've seen with this particular song, I mean
Speaker 1: there's so many I mean, Kate Bush's discography is so
Speaker 1: incredible and we've seen it have such an influence on
Speaker 1: so many artists, And there are so many songs that
Speaker 1: have had great covers. Of course the Maxwell cover of
Speaker 1: this woman's work, and you know, there's just like so
Speaker 1: many incredible versions of her music over the years. But
Speaker 1: for some reason, people keep coming back to this song
Speaker 1: in particular. What do you think it is about raining
Speaker 1: up that hill that keeps drawing new generations in or
Speaker 1: finding new ways of being used in media.
Speaker 2: Well, it's such a expand song. It is such a
Speaker 2: rhythmic song. It's the one that you could pick it
Speaker 2: out that if there was a song on Hounds of
Speaker 2: Love that was going to be a top forty hit,
Speaker 2: it would be this one. And yet everybody, like you said,
Speaker 2: everybody hears something different in it, Like everybody karaoke is
Speaker 2: a different intonation in it. It means something different to everyone.
Speaker 2: It's a constant enigma. I heard it Halloween at like
Speaker 2: four in the morning in a sleazy goth club in
Speaker 2: San Francisco, the Cat Club, and it was like on
Speaker 2: the floor, and it was like really funny to hear
Speaker 2: it in that context. Yet everybody is like communing to
Speaker 2: this like deeply weird song from forty years ago, and
Speaker 2: it fits anywhere you hear it. Yeah, something I was
Speaker 2: wondering what your thoughts about. But it seems like the
Speaker 2: Kate Bush resurgence that you were talking about of recent
Speaker 2: years kind of simultaneous with the Stevie Nicks. You can't
Speaker 2: call it resurgence because she never went away, but the
Speaker 2: really like huge boom in the Stevie Nicks steep, especially
Speaker 2: among younger people hearing her for the first time. I
Speaker 2: wonder how connected they are, because they certainly have a
Speaker 2: lot in common as artists and in terms of their sensibilities.
Speaker 1: They both have such and it's the same thing that
Speaker 1: we talked about like the Stevie and Dreams episode, is
Speaker 1: that they just have really distinct senses of self and
Speaker 1: style in terms of how they present themselves that is
Speaker 1: like so emblematic of a certain style of music a
Speaker 1: certain era, but also doesn't feel tied to that era.
Speaker 1: There's that same timelessness with Kate's presentation of self but
Speaker 1: also her own music, Like they've never like neither of
Speaker 1: them have been on trend, you know, like neither of
Speaker 1: them have been sort of like had that desire to
Speaker 1: go with what was happening culturally at that moment, and
Speaker 1: that's why they were successful with their music for so
Speaker 1: long and why their music continues to be successful. I
Speaker 1: mean even yeah, there was a two year difference between
Speaker 1: that Dreams moment and I guess really a year and
Speaker 1: a half difference between the dream Women in late twenty
Speaker 1: twenty and like the summer of twenty twenty two Running
Speaker 1: Up that Hill resurgence, and like those songs could come
Speaker 1: out at any time, Like there's nothing about Running Up That
Speaker 1: Hill that sounds like ninet eighty five, Like I guess,
Speaker 1: like the sense, Yes, but like there are so many
Speaker 1: artists that are kind of the daughters of Kate Bush,
Speaker 1: daughters and sons of Kate Bush, that I feel like
Speaker 1: if they released this song today, if they were the
Speaker 1: ones that had written this, it would be just as successful.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The affinities between that moment, like you said, the huge
Speaker 2: like dreams going viral and not just running up that hill,
Speaker 2: but the whole sort of explosion in Kate bush obsession
Speaker 2: as artists, as performers. There's something kind of drag about
Speaker 2: them both, like they're over the top presentation of femininity
Speaker 2: and that they're both definitely of their own sensibility. I
Speaker 2: mean you said, like neither seems like from any particular
Speaker 2: time or trend, and they seem almost like the more
Speaker 2: determined to be in a late nineteenth century gothic novel
Speaker 2: than anything happening in rock and roll in the twentieth century. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and yet that's a way that they mark their independence,
Speaker 2: as you know, female artists calling their own shots.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even just like to think about the way
Speaker 1: those two songs broke through everything, and especially ranat that
Speaker 1: Hill because Ryant that hill was on This is season
Speaker 1: four of Stranger Things that show has been big since
Speaker 1: the first season. It's a massive show, and they have
Speaker 1: a really great music supervisor who uses incredible music from
Speaker 1: the era. But for some reason, more than any other
Speaker 1: song that's been used, this one not only like charted
Speaker 1: and had a moment and became big. It topped the charts.
Speaker 1: It was on the radio like it was back on
Speaker 1: the radio being played alongside you know, artists in their
Speaker 1: twenties who were having massive hits. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: artists that weren't even born when the song came out.
Speaker 1: Do you watch Are You a Stranger Things Fan?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought that scene was so such a great
Speaker 1: use of it because I think people were also loving
Speaker 1: the that you know, there's a scene of Sadie Singh's
Speaker 1: character is being like possessed by something demic gorgan I
Speaker 1: don't know. She put the headphones in her ear because
Speaker 1: this is a song that's been like really centering for her.
Speaker 1: While she's greeting her brother, her body's like rising and
Speaker 1: ranging up that hill is playing, and it's like I
Speaker 1: think also everyone was just like kind of how it
Speaker 1: feels to listen to the song. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: a great sort of representation of like I'm like sort
Speaker 1: of just like ascending in the air listening to Kate
Speaker 1: Bush and her deal with God. Like it's you know,
Speaker 1: perfect image to go with the song and also really
Speaker 1: touching and beautiful and emotional scene that was done very
Speaker 1: effectively in this you know, horror show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really kind of captured the emotional power of
Speaker 2: the song in really like a beautiful and admid sort
Speaker 2: of way. And yet there are songs in TV shows
Speaker 2: every single week. Yeah, Stranger Things has done this with
Speaker 2: many songs. Lots of songs get used in a clever
Speaker 2: way and people think, ah, that's great, they don't go
Speaker 2: to the top ten. And it was just such a
Speaker 2: strange thing to happen because that basically never happens.
Speaker 3: That strange thing, strange stranger Yes, I walked into that one,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I have this really specific, vivid memory being
Speaker 3: in a cab and they've got Z one hundred on
Speaker 3: the top forty station and it was literally it was
Speaker 3: like good as hell into like running up that hill
Speaker 3: into as it was, and.
Speaker 2: It was like, yeah, this is what pop music is
Speaker 2: right now? Yeah, is this k Bush song that's nearly
Speaker 2: forty years old and yet doesn't fit in now, doesn't
Speaker 2: sound conventional or conformist to anything now, still not in
Speaker 2: touch with any trend. Yeah, as you said, just as
Speaker 2: it wasn't in the eighties. And it's weird that the
Speaker 2: song that is so unique and never fades into the background,
Speaker 2: but it always, it always finds a life wherever it
Speaker 2: is and whenever it is. What are some of the
Speaker 2: other k Bush songs that are huge for you?
Speaker 1: Prownz of Love is like one of my favorite albums
Speaker 1: of all time. I think, like back to front to
Speaker 1: back perfect And I remember kind of having this moment
Speaker 1: where I was just like, I was like, huh, what
Speaker 1: is this song? I was like, this is the most
Speaker 1: beautiful song I've ever heard in my entire life.
Speaker 2: Well, it's wild because she has that whole really strange
Speaker 2: origin story where she's, you know, this rustic, reclusive English
Speaker 2: teenager and a tape of her songs gets to, of
Speaker 2: all people, David Gilmour and Pink Floyd, and he makes
Speaker 2: this career happen for her in the seventies and she's
Speaker 2: totally unlike anything else that is happening in British pop
Speaker 2: or British rock or anywhere on the planet in the seventies,
Speaker 2: and then in the early ladies she gets into that
Speaker 2: fairlight synthesizer and you know, Babushka is one of the
Speaker 2: first songs to come out of that. But certainly Breathing
Speaker 2: such a pivotal single for her, and suddenly she could
Speaker 2: make all these incredibly weird sounds happen herself. Also, some
Speaker 2: things so touching about, like her making all this music
Speaker 2: with her brother, Yeah, Patty and you know, very reclusive brother,
Speaker 2: like didn't want any share of the spotlight anymore than
Speaker 2: she did. Very much like the sort of Billy and
Speaker 2: Phineas of their day. You know this like really like
Speaker 2: brilliant like brother sister duo creating these like totally bizarre
Speaker 2: pop songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I don't know that much about
Speaker 1: her and her brother. How much should they work on?
Speaker 1: Sort of in the early early days of her career,
Speaker 1: he was.
Speaker 2: Like older and had more studio savvy, kind of like
Speaker 2: Phineas that way, But it was always her vision, her songs,
Speaker 2: her voice. Such a fantastic sort of partnership. She has
Speaker 2: always her entire career been very particular about who she
Speaker 2: works with and very loyal with people who she thrives
Speaker 2: working with Yeah, but it's it's so fascinating to see
Speaker 2: that she's had so many different sort of careers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm curiously what you think about the people
Speaker 1: who are very clearly inspired by or influenced by Kate
Speaker 1: Bush and you both Kate Bush Like, I feel like
Speaker 1: the first one that always comes to mind to me.
Speaker 1: First two people are like Tory Amos and Yorke even
Speaker 1: thinking about like, I don't know if Billy Billy Eilish
Speaker 1: has ever spoken explicitly about her, but you can so
Speaker 1: see a through line from Kate Bush to her and
Speaker 1: where they have this like such a perfect image of
Speaker 1: how to match the visual with their music and also
Speaker 1: just being really kind of creative with their own storytelling
Speaker 1: in that way.
Speaker 2: Well, Prince Like certainly like comes to the top of
Speaker 2: the list for me in terms of an artists who's
Speaker 2: very much contemporary with her. They both put out their albums,
Speaker 2: their first albums around the same time when they were
Speaker 2: very very very young, still in their teens. They sort
Speaker 2: of had simultaneous careers, both doing absolutely the opposite of
Speaker 2: what anybody wanted to like. Certainly, whatever the record company
Speaker 2: hoped their next album was this one was going to
Speaker 2: be the opposite. I think that that was a way
Speaker 2: that they certainly like On Prince's part, he certainly like
Speaker 2: felt that affinity with Kate Bush and like wrote a
Speaker 2: beautiful song about her. Was always she was like Joni
Speaker 2: Mitchell for him in terms of an artist who is
Speaker 2: a true original, who was always going their own way
Speaker 2: and making a different album every time. Taylor Swift is
Speaker 2: also another one who she's a big about Cape Bush fan,
Speaker 2: and you could definitely see that influence in her work
Speaker 2: of just doing something different every time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially the kind of the more sort of like
Speaker 1: Victorian type of like like a style of like songwriting,
Speaker 1: sort of aesthetic influence that Taylor kind of has, and
Speaker 1: you know, especially like folk or and evermore albums and
Speaker 1: here and there across her discography. But though specifically you
Speaker 1: can kind of see that like connection be the loudest on.
Speaker 2: There totally totally. Reputation is very much like that. It's
Speaker 2: sort of like the that was the dark Kate Bush album.
Speaker 2: That was the one where her English record company was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: she had a good run, she's done. Now she's gone
Speaker 2: off the deep end and she's made this album full
Speaker 2: of you know, rage and like homicidal angst and playing
Speaker 2: all these different characters like and very much the same
Speaker 2: kind of heavy synth, industrial ish kind of thing that
Speaker 2: Taylor was doing on Reputation. Yeah, and of course like
Speaker 2: Outcast and you know, yeah, Big Boys tribute to her
Speaker 2: so incredibly moving and evocative.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean you can so sense that kind
Speaker 1: of I don't know, that that freedom that they're inspired
Speaker 1: by in Kate Bush again, that production, that sort of
Speaker 1: like weird melody changes and kind of the storytelling like
Speaker 1: all that is so much in Outcast music. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm obsessed with every time Big Boy talks about Kate Bush,
Speaker 1: just because he's such like a like such a huge
Speaker 1: fan of it, of her, And I've dreamed of a
Speaker 1: a Kate Bush Big Boy moment.
Speaker 2: I feel I feel like it'll happen. It'll be the
Speaker 2: equemini of like you're the one who would know which
Speaker 2: which which those two artists were signed.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think we need the We need them to.
Speaker 1: I need her to invite Big Boy to the castle.
Speaker 1: You know, he brings out I think also like to
Speaker 1: a point that you're bringing up much earlier about you know,
Speaker 1: just the way that she writes about grief. There is
Speaker 1: so much influence on goth music and on kind of
Speaker 1: like the way that kind of like post punk and
Speaker 1: new wave developed and dark wave developed in after she debuted,
Speaker 1: Like I think, I feel like I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: I just haven't seen as much of this discussion of
Speaker 1: her kind of influence on sort of that hol astatic
Speaker 1: on that on the music scene and all that with
Speaker 1: goth music. But I feel like there's so much Kate
Speaker 1: Bush in the way that that sort of continued to
Speaker 1: develop over the years.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think you're on ndred percent right about that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And definitely her interest in that sort of goth obsession
Speaker 2: with the eighteen eighties eighteen nineties, you know, English people
Speaker 2: with consumption, you know, like in rooms with tendrils of
Speaker 2: ivy like surrounding them.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: She she had a great song about hammer horror movies,
Speaker 2: you know, like that is her sensibility and that's that's
Speaker 2: where goth comes from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like there's so much of that, like depeche Mode
Speaker 1: Kate Bush kind of through line there too.
Speaker 2: Do you think she'll she'll make music again.
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I think she's retired. I think
Speaker 1: she is, she's chilling now. She seems like she's always
Speaker 1: been very shy and very like just reclusive. So I
Speaker 1: feel like she's done the thing. She's seen immense success.
Speaker 1: I think she's done.
Speaker 2: What about you, I think you're right, But you know,
Speaker 2: you never know when she's going to come back. She
Speaker 2: seemed done for so many years, and then she came
Speaker 2: back more or less out of nowhere with Ariel and
Speaker 2: it's like, oh, Kate Bush feels like making another album, Yes,
Speaker 2: please keep doing this a lot, and it's like no,
Speaker 2: she just like she just does it when she feels
Speaker 2: like it. So I feel like it'll be like you know,
Speaker 2: David Bowie in his last years, or like Leonard Cohen
Speaker 2: in his last years, where you know, occasionally they'll come
Speaker 2: out of the garden. Oh, by the way, I've got
Speaker 2: a few new songs for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, she just wanted to create music and release
Speaker 1: things and not have to like leave her home. She
Speaker 1: could do that if she wanted to do, and kind
Speaker 1: of have that privacy still that she really wants, and
Speaker 1: also itch that whatever like creative thing that she may
Speaker 1: have in the future, which I mean I welcome.
Speaker 2: Whenever I think your prediction about her big boy like
Speaker 2: making the great the goth progue album of.
Speaker 1: The Yeah, let's get some Mandre three thousand flute on there.
Speaker 1: Let's you know, let's do all we're there, Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's just get them all there. And after the break,
Speaker 1: we'll be joined by Rolling Stone Deputy music editor Julisa Lopez.
Speaker 1: We are joined now by Rolling Stone Deputy music editor
Speaker 1: ju Lisa Lopez.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, thanks for having me guys greatly here.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna we're gonna make a deal with God.
Speaker 1: And do you remember the first time you heard Kate
Speaker 1: Bush or this song.
Speaker 4: I remember like carrying it on the radio a lot,
Speaker 4: like when I was I was a kid, But I
Speaker 4: don't think that I started kind of tapping into Kate
Speaker 4: Bush or taking an interest probably until I was like
Speaker 4: a little older.
Speaker 1: And I know you have another top pick from the
Speaker 1: Kate Bush.
Speaker 4: Oh, this woman's work is one of my favorite songs
Speaker 4: of all time. I think that's the one that I
Speaker 4: put on my ballot. I want to say I put
Speaker 4: Running Up that Hill on my ballot too, And I
Speaker 4: like to think that I put two Kate Bush songs in.
Speaker 4: I also am a big believer that the maxwell cover
Speaker 4: of this woman's work is like the best cover ever
Speaker 4: made in history.
Speaker 1: I feel like for everyone I know that's a Kate
Speaker 1: bush Dan in my life, I feel like there's like
Speaker 1: such a different element that kind of pulls them in.
Speaker 1: What was it that made you kind of fall in
Speaker 1: love with her as an artist?
Speaker 4: I think with this specific song, I mean I think
Speaker 4: that the production itself, like those like opening Sense are
Speaker 4: so haunting and like they pull you in, like you
Speaker 4: know immediately, and her voice too, like it does have
Speaker 4: like that theatrical almost like Shakespearean quality, like lyrically, like
Speaker 4: who was writing like that? Like it's tearing me asunder,
Speaker 4: Like I don't even know that I knew what asunder
Speaker 4: meant when I was a teenager, but these lines that
Speaker 4: were just so beautiful, and I feel like it are
Speaker 4: not kind of what you would imagine getting and sort
Speaker 4: of and pop music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that like production of like the drums actually
Speaker 1: sounding like this kind of like running sort of motion
Speaker 1: is just so good. Like I feel like the first
Speaker 1: time I was like, oh my god, you could just
Speaker 1: like do that in a song, Like you could like
Speaker 1: evoke this thing that that is actually happening on the
Speaker 1: song with kind of the song and how it's developed
Speaker 1: over the years and kind of seeing all of its resurgences,
Speaker 1: and also like a lot of fans of it, like
Speaker 1: what do you think has drawn people in over the
Speaker 1: decades and like kept it such a popular song but
Speaker 1: also a song that keeps finding new audiences.
Speaker 4: I feel like everybody always talks about the sort of
Speaker 4: resurgence that came after Stranger Things put it in the show,
Speaker 4: but I forgot that there had been like another bump
Speaker 4: and the songs say after the Olympics.
Speaker 1: I can't remember it was twenty.
Speaker 3: Twelve, exactly a decade before.
Speaker 1: It was just crazy.
Speaker 4: But I do think there's a quality to it where,
Speaker 4: even though it's a song from the eighties, there is
Speaker 4: something about it that just sounds like there's a timelessness
Speaker 4: to it. But there's also like this almost futuristic quality
Speaker 4: that has always drawn me in, of like you can't
Speaker 4: totally place like when it was made and when where
Speaker 4: it comes from. In a lot of ways that I
Speaker 4: feel like it's used, especially like in the Stranger Things cameo.
Speaker 4: I think it's so much of like the actual production
Speaker 4: of it. And I was reading too that like at
Speaker 4: the time, like Kate Bush was using like all these
Speaker 4: like incredibly cutting edge like new types of like sins
Speaker 4: and samplers, and I think you really hear that on
Speaker 4: there and kind of her just like being really forward
Speaker 4: thinking with everything that she was doing from a production standpoint.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and then I think.
Speaker 4: Too like part of it too is like lyrically like
Speaker 4: it is such a powerful song and just thinking about
Speaker 4: the idea of this like between two people and this
Speaker 4: like love that's like kind of like hurting these two people,
Speaker 4: and it kind of being this like Macero look at
Speaker 4: like how that is she's basically having like a gender
Speaker 4: dynamics discussion like in this song in a way that
Speaker 4: I think is still really powerful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, big Boy being a huge fan, I
Speaker 1: feel like you talk about back twelve. There's so many ways,
Speaker 1: Like there's like this like random cover by this like
Speaker 1: pop artist Liz that does cloud Bussy. I really love,
Speaker 1: Like there's like so many like weird versions of her song,
Speaker 1: like really great covers of it, but also like such
Speaker 1: like a wide range of fans across music that really
Speaker 1: look up to her or inspired by her just like
Speaker 1: really respect and love her. I mean tell me about
Speaker 1: kind of her being sort of you know, like I
Speaker 1: feel like she's like every artist's favorite artist.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean yeah, And honestly, like I like the
Speaker 4: Big Boy thing stands out to me because I was
Speaker 4: when he inducted her into the Rock and Roll Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame. I thought that was just such a sweet,
Speaker 4: perfect moment. But like even like I've talked to Rosalie
Speaker 4: a lot about her, and I feel like you can
Speaker 4: hear there's a way in which there's like a theatric
Speaker 4: in Rosalio's voice and the way that she like her
Speaker 4: phrasing that reminds me a lot of Kate Bush, and
Speaker 4: I think that you can really hear the inspiration there. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I kind of feel like part of it too, I
Speaker 4: think is like because she is so kind of elusive
Speaker 4: and like it does always feel like so personal when
Speaker 4: you discover her. I think there's an element of that
Speaker 4: that people just like are still drawn to her and
Speaker 4: like it's like almost like this like little mystery you
Speaker 4: want to crack open. Yeah, there is like this like
Speaker 4: other world. I think part of it is that, like
Speaker 4: because she does so little media impressed that like she
Speaker 4: feels like I don't know, like special mystery quality where
Speaker 4: and the only way that you can really get close
Speaker 4: to hers for her music.
Speaker 2: It's wild, Like you said that her music inspires such
Speaker 2: a wide range of artists across so many fields. I
Speaker 2: mean I always think about Weathering Heights, one of her
Speaker 2: most famous songs, and how most eighties kids first started
Speaker 2: from Pat Benattar singing it, and also Sonny Shirak did
Speaker 2: a free jazz version, And I'm always like, who what
Speaker 2: an other songwriter besides Kate Bush would have a song
Speaker 2: that both Sunny shi Rock and Pat Benatar would do,
Speaker 2: And like you know, Prince had that great song about her.
Speaker 2: She just has always inspired such a wide range of
Speaker 2: artists to sort of listen to that Cape Bush kind
Speaker 2: of voice inside them and be more extreme.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys heard like the one
Speaker 1: interview she did she had like a little like radio
Speaker 1: interview and yeah, things explosion. I remember because I was
Speaker 1: in London at the time that like it was like
Speaker 1: kind of in that chart battle with as it was,
Speaker 1: so it was like the two of them were just
Speaker 1: like dueling on radio every time I was in a car,
Speaker 1: Like it was just like Harry Kate I was like okay,
Speaker 1: but like they would play that interview all the time
Speaker 1: because it was so rare for her to speak anymore,
Speaker 1: and she was not doing anything. It was just like
Speaker 1: so like she was just like She's like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just like hanging in my garden and she was like
Speaker 1: so it was like so short. She was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like I can't believe this is happening. This is cool.
Speaker 1: She was like, I'm just you know, just hanging out
Speaker 1: at my house. And it's a huge song I love.
Speaker 2: That could not make less difference, you know, it's really wild,
Speaker 2: and she never cared about this stuff, and it was
Speaker 2: always wild because people always get so fanatical about her,
Speaker 2: Like we said, like all these different artists from all
Speaker 2: these different eras, whereas she's always got that well, you know,
Speaker 2: if you want to make me famous, that's fine, but
Speaker 2: like she very sincerely does not care about any of
Speaker 2: that stuff. It's always so wild. I remember in the
Speaker 2: early eighties post punk era when Johnny Rotten when he
Speaker 2: was becoming Johnny Laden, and he would always say, like
Speaker 2: rock and rolls garbage. The only rock and roll that
Speaker 2: still matters, means anything is Kate Bush and the Raincoats,
Speaker 2: and it was wild that she was someone who at
Speaker 2: that point already seemed timeless and beyond any kind of genre,
Speaker 2: and really she was just getting started creatively. Like I
Speaker 2: mean those albums, all those albums in the eighties and nineties,
Speaker 2: like The Essentral World, the one that has this woman's work,
Speaker 2: Like it's just a perfect album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like Kate do.
Speaker 4: Your thing like Butter be in her Palace and Big
Speaker 4: Boys Imagination and she'll she'll be good.
Speaker 1: And I think the thing too with like an album
Speaker 1: like Hounds of Love, which I think is like an
Speaker 1: absolutely perfect album. I love that album so much. It's
Speaker 1: like she is so she's such a weirdo, and like
Speaker 1: it's amazing because she's like you know, she has all
Speaker 1: these like really great like literary references and like there's
Speaker 1: like psychology references on there. There's all these things that
Speaker 1: are happening. They're also like one of my favorite fun
Speaker 1: facts about the song cloud Busting is that there's also
Speaker 1: this Patty Smith's song called Birdland that is inspired by
Speaker 1: this like psychology book called cloud Busting by Wilhelm Reich
Speaker 1: that inspired both of these songs, which I just think
Speaker 1: is like such a weird random connection between these.
Speaker 4: Two yeah, Kate Bush Patty Smith's book Club.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, connections, but like it's like such a weird
Speaker 1: references that just like kind of our across this album.
Speaker 1: That's also incredibly poppy, you know, Like the title track
Speaker 1: is such a great pop song. It's so yeah amazing,
Speaker 1: like how much she's able to really bounce on and
Speaker 1: obviously it worked both in and now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'm the big fan. And there's this I
Speaker 4: think she's Irish. Her name is Orla Gartland and she
Speaker 4: does a running up that Hill cover into Time after Time.
Speaker 1: That is so good. Wow, it's great.
Speaker 4: You guys should listen to it after this. It's wonderful. Well,
Speaker 4: thank you so much for joining us, Thank you for
Speaker 4: having me, guys, Thank you.
Speaker 1: So much, Thank you, Thanks so much for listening to
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone's five hundred Greatest Songs. This podcast is brought
Speaker 1: to you by Rolling Stone and iHeartMedia Brennan. Hosted by Me,
Speaker 1: Britney Spanos and Rob Sheffield. Executive produced by Jason Fine,
Speaker 1: Alex Dale and Christian Horde, and produced by Jesse Cannon
Speaker 1: with music supervision by Eric Zeiler. Thanks so much for listening.