In 2022, "Running Up That Hill" received renewed attention after it appeared in the Netflix series Stranger Things, becoming Bush's second UK number one and reaching the top of several other charts.
[27] EMI gave Bush a large advance, which she used to enroll in interpretive dance classes taught by Lindsay Kemp, a former teacher of David Bowie,[28] and mime training with Adam Darius.
She appeared on Top of the Pops with it five times in 1978, cementing her public image as an ethereal spirit, embodying the essence of Cathy through a combination of wide eyes, floaty fabrics and wild choreography, still fondly mimicked and parodied today.
EMI originally wanted the more rock-oriented track "James and the Cold Gun" to be her debut single, but Bush, who already had a reputation for asserting herself in decisions about her work, insisted that it should be "Wuthering Heights".
The studio version sees her perform in a dark room with mist while wearing a white dress, suggesting her character is a ghost (as is the case with Cathy in the novel that inspired the song).
[2] "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" made it onto the US Billboard Hot 100 where it reached number 85 in early 1979, and went on to win her an Ivor Novello Award in 1979 for Outstanding British Lyric.
[48] With her new-found freedom, she experimented with production techniques, creating an album that features a diverse blend of musical styles and is known for its near-exhaustive use of the Fairlight CMI.
Bush provided a new lead vocal and refreshed backing track on "Wuthering Heights", and recorded a new single, "Experiment IV", for inclusion on the compilation.
In 1990, the boxed set This Woman's Work was released; it included all of her albums with their original cover art, as well as two discs featuring the majority of her singles' B-sides recorded from 1978 to 1990.
[77] During this period of time, Bush suffered a series of bereavements, including the loss of guitarist Alan Murphy, who had started working with her on The Tour of Life in 1979, and her mother Hannah, to whom she was exceptionally close.
The first disc, subtitled A Sea of Honey, features a set of unrelated themed songs, including "King of the Mountain"; "Bertie", a Renaissance-style ode to her son; and "Joanni", based on the story of Joan of Arc.
[91] In May 2011, Bush released Director's Cut, comprising 11 reworked tracks from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, recorded using analogue rather than digital equipment.
[95][96] The album's songs are built around Bush's quietly jazzy piano and Steve Gadd's drums, and use both sung and spoken word vocals in what Classic Rock critic Stephen Dalton calls "a ... supple and experimental affair, with a contemporary chamber pop sound grounded in crisp piano, minimal percussion and light-touch electronics ... billowing jazz-rock soundscapes, interwoven with fragmentary narratives delivered in a range of voices from shrill to Laurie Anderson-style cooing".
[8] Following Bush's award, another Fellow, Annie Lennox, commented, "She is visionary and iconic and has made her own magical stamp upon the zeitgeist of the British cultural landscape.
"[123] According to The Guardian, "Running Up That Hill" has become particularly popular with members of Generation Z, who were not born when the song was first released, and it has appeared in numerous videos on the social media platform TikTok.
[141] in September 2022, published in this format for the first time, The 2022 film A Man Called Otto featured the song "This Woman's Work" from Bush's album, The Sensual World.
[163] Even in her earliest works, with piano the primary instrument, she wove together diverse influences, drawing on classical music, glam rock,[154] and a wide range of ethnic and folk sources.
By the time of Never for Ever, Bush had begun to make prominent use of the Fairlight CMI synthesiser, which allowed her to sample and manipulate sounds, expanding her sonic palette.
[174] "The Infant Kiss" is a song about a haunted, unstable woman's infatuation with a young boy in her care (inspired by Jack Clayton's film The Innocents (1961), which had been based on Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw).
[185] Musicians who have acknowledged Bush's influence include Björk,[186] Alanis Morissette,[187] Nigel Godrich,[188] Florence Welch, Fever Ray,[189] Big Boi,[190] Regina Spektor,[191] Fiona Apple,[192] Imogen Heap,[193] Sharon Van Etten,[194] Ellie Goulding,[195] Kyros,[196] Aisles,[197] FKA Twigs,[198] Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy,[199] Grimes,[200] Solange Knowles,[201] Julia Holter,[202] Angel Olsen,[203] Halsey,[204] Tupac Shakur,[205][206] Robyn,[207] Caroline Polachek,[208][209] and Chappell Roan.
[210] Since she made the bold decision after only six weeks on the road in 1979 that she wouldn't play live again, yet continued to be a powerhouse of inventive avant pop for the next 15 years – and a sporadic, off-the-grid presence ever since – Bush has set the blueprint for the autonomous artist creating masterworks entirely at their own pace and on their own terms.
An EP composed of four tracks including two originals by Pone, still based on samples of Kate Bush's work, and two remixes produced by SCH and Para One.
[1] The BBC suggested that she may have quit touring due to a fear of flying, or because of the death of a lighting engineer, Bill Duffield, who was killed in an accident after a warmup concert.
[254] In July 1982, Bush participated in the first benefit concert in aid of The Prince's Trust, singing "The Wedding List" with a backing band composed of Pete Townshend, Phil Collins, Midge Ure, Mick Karn, Gary Brooker, Dave Formula, and Peter Hope Evans.
[266] Artists who have contributed to Bush's own albums include Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Roy Harper, Nigel Kennedy, Gary Brooker, Danny Thompson, and Prince.
In the same interview, she denied that she was a perfectionist, saying: "I think it's important that things are flawed ... That's what makes a piece of art interesting sometimes – the bit that's wrong or the mistake you've made that's led onto an idea you wouldn't have had otherwise."
[283] Some of Bush's songs contain references to political and social themes, including "Breathing", which addresses the fear of nuclear warfare and "Army Dreamers", which examines the grief felt by mothers who lose children serving in the military during war.
"[285] During the 1979 United Kingdom general election campaign, Bush, who at the time was on a live concert tour of the UK, posed for a photograph alongside the Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan.
"[289] In 2019, Bush published a statement on her website saying that she was not a Conservative Party supporter, that she felt May was an improvement over the previous Prime Minister, and that she had intended only to defend women in power.
[290] In April 2021, Bush was one of 156 signatories of an open letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for a change in the wording of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to make royalty payments for streaming closer to the amounts paid for radio broadcast.