Kate Bush

It's 1978 and in England it's already time to reckon with the merits of punk. Magazines are full of both praise and doubts for the musical phenomenon that is certainly the most discussed and simultaneously hailed by international critics. The Clash are holed up at Wessex Studios, busy putting together the second wonder of their to say the least chameleonic career. Johnny Rotten has left the Sex Pistols and Elton John has just returned to the spotlight after declaring an unlikely retirement from the scene. Roger Waters, meanwhile, is starting to lay the first bricks of the Wall, while the Iron Lady is about to secure her first term.

In the midst of all this ferment, Catherine Bush is a tender twenty-year-old with multifaceted instrumental skills. She plays piano, synthesizer, violin, bass, guitar and drum machine flawlessly, loves to dance and is already a skilled choreographer. Not bad for a young woman who had arrived six years earlier from the farms of Kent into the heart of London (specifically to the Elephant and Castle dance and mime school) with more than one dream in her drawer.

In those same years, the very young Kate wrote several songs. Through some family friends she managed to send them to David Gilmour, who was utterly struck and decided, together with his friend Andrew Powell, to produce a demo to send straight to Emi, the label of Pink Floyd. It's the future hit "The Man With The Child In Her Eyes", which manages to shake veteran executive Terry Slater from the very first listen. Just a few notes and the spark ignites. The boss decides to get in touch with that sweet nightingale and gradually fund her so she can produce further gems. Catherine is only sixteen. She's still a girl, but already possesses the artistic grace of universal talent, of an extraordinary performer. All that's left for her, then, is to empty a sack full of wonders and stockpile material for two long years, cradled and protected by a remarkable group of musicians (the aforementioned Andrew Powell of Henry Cow, David Paton, Ian Bairnson and Stuart Elliott of the Alan Parsons Project, the excellent saxophonist Alan Skidmore, and her brother Paddy, with whom she had played traditional English and Irish music on balalaika, harmonica and mandolin since childhood). All of it watched over almost constantly by Gilmour, producer and mentor of the whole operation.

After a careful and meticulous gestation, "The Kick Inside" finally arrives in stores. The famous image of Kate Bush in the pink leotard floods the English capital. The photo taken by Gered Mankowitz reaches Londoners while her elfin voice captures hearts over the radio. The bright, radiant debut of what will become, over time, a true pop music icon, quickly shoots up the charts. In England alone it will earn three platinum discs, reaching as high as number three, while in other countries it will practically devour the top spots for almost the entire year, going on to spawn seven globally successful singles over the following two years. Five different covers depending on the market (USA, Japan, Canada, South America, Yugoslavia) highlight Kate's own untamable visual flair.

Several factors combine, almost miraculously, to justify such fame for the sweet, petite British singer-songwriter. First and foremost, the voice. Four octaves of range and a timbre as recognisable as few others in the modern era. To this boundless vocal grace must be added a pronounced melodic gift, combined with an innate artistic versatility, which allows her to sidestep the boundaries of folk tradition and classical music (both fundamental to her formation) and connect effortlessly with the most varied strands of rock (Roxy Music, Beatles, Rolling Stones, King Crimson, Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac are among her favourite bands).

The call of a whale, borrowed from Dr. Roger S. Payne's album "Songs Of The Humpback Whale", opens "Moving", the album's opening track. What follows is a delicate piano line over which Bush intones a caressing, hypnotic dance, dedicated entirely to the dear and inimitable mime master Lindsay Kemp. In June of that year, besides topping the charts across Europe, it became the best-selling single in Japan. The following "The Saxophone Song" showcases the excellent Skidmore in a gradually building melodic embrace, immortalising a lost love that no one will ever be able to recapture. Epic, sprightly and poignant, "Strange Phenomena" is the album's other great success, complete with a Tibetan mantra ("Om mani padme hum", translated as "Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus") recommended in times of suffering and pain. Released as a single only in the Brazilian market, the song boasts an irresistible chorus that highlights Bush's ability to transform herself into a kind of otherworldly sprite, soothing soul and mind through a subtle, remarkably versatile and penetrating vocal, while the piano traces out timeless trajectories.

Far more sparkling and energetic is the playful "Kite", another memorable track for the ages, with Kate mischievously splashing about amid the usual highs and lows. "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" is instead the song to which the English singer-songwriter perhaps owes almost everything. It was thanks to its enchanting melodic candour that the little matchstick girl managed to make her way into the upper echelons of EMI. Released alongside the opening "Moving" on the classic 45, it is a tender declaration of love, addressed with reverence to her man.

But the true miracle of the record lies at its heart. The tribute to poet and novelist Emily Brontë is almost total. "Wuthering Heights" was actually written two years earlier, with Bush captivated by the 1970 film adaptation of Brontë's famous novel "Wuthering Heights", directed by Robert Fuest. The lyrics thus take up the feelings of the literary work's protagonist, Catherine "Cathy" Earnshaw. It is the album's first single, strongly championed as such by Bush herself, who dug her heels in at EMI's studios when it came to choosing among the various equally viable singles. The opening piano notes are unforgettable. The soaring vocal performance that heightens the song's spirit is unforgettable, and so is Ian Bairnson's closing guitar solo. Singers of the calibre of Tori Amos have built entire careers on this song. It is, in effect, one of the unsurpassed and unsurpassable classics in the history of popular music.

After such enchantment, the record moves briskly on while still retaining its own stylistic versatility. The bass line of "James And The Cold Gun", while winking at Pink Floyd's "One Of These Days", keeps its due distance in terms of structure and harmonic variation, confirming an eclecticism all of its own. Time, by contrast, seems to stand still on the poignant "Feel It", masterfully performed on piano. The same goes for the more upbeat, hopeful "Oh To Be In Love" and "Them Heavy People". The intense title track closes the album, with Kate Bush once again seated at the piano, immersed like a goddess out of time in her own inner embroidery.

Further masterpieces would follow in the years to come, such as "Never For Ever" and "Hounds Of Love", reaffirming the unmatched talent of the English singer-songwriter.

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27/10/2013