On this day in 1985, Kate Bush released 'Cloudbusting', the second release from her finest and most successful album: Hounds of Love. The song concerns the relationship between psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Reich and his son Peter (whose perspective the song is told from).
The single, which peaked at number 20 in the UK singles charts was backed by the track 'Burning Bridge' - a startling piece of music that wonderfully encapsulates a women’s plea to her lover to intensify his level of commitment to their relationship. Rhythmically akin to most of side A of Hounds of Love, 'Burning Bridge' is the perfect companion to the magnificent 'Cloudbusting', with which it also shares a similar layered vocal effect.
Listening to the song it seems odd that 'Burning Bridge' was left off Hounds of Love - it would've made a great ending to the first side of the album (Hounds of Love is split into two suites - side A: 'Hounds of Love' and side B: 'The Ninth Wave', a seven song conceptual piece). That it was omitted simply demonstrates the rich vein of creativity Bush had struck.
Hard to imagine then that earlier in that year the music press was awash with rumours about Bush - who seemed to be languishing almost in pop obscurity. Speculations touted about her situation were that she had possibly gone mad, ballooned in weight while others suggested she'd even retired from music altogether.
Her previous album, 1982’s The Dreaming left many fans baffled, “It’s my she’s gone mad album,” Bush remarked years later. In hindsight however, this has just gone to prove how much ahead of the game she really was.
In fact in the August 1985 issue of the NME Bush was mentioned in the ‘Where Are They Now’ section of the magazine. This may have been in part due to her previously prolific output, in the fact that between 1979-1982, she had released four albums.
A mere two days later after the NME article was published Bush made an appearance on Terry Wogan’s talk show to perform 'Running Up That Hill' - the first single from the album which peaking at #3, turned out to be her second best selling single (after #1 debut release 'Wurthering Heights').
Actually Bush had been working from her home studio in Kent and as such was able to work at her own pace experimenting with new sounds and instruments. She was also afforded complete creative control over the project. Indeed synths, drum machines and driving bass lines were incorporated with traditional Celtic music that coloured much of her first three albums. It turned out to be the perfect marriage of Bush’s unique lyrical delivery and epic sonic soundscapes.
Though she has continued to release music of outstanding originality and quality, Bush has so far been unable to scale the dizzying heights of 1985.
Furthermore, the song also represents a quainter time in mainstream music history when a B-side was quite often worth flipping the single for while remixes were saved for the 12-inch.
