The Whole Story Kate Bush Views

General Goods

Neil’s posts on underused music in the WRL collection inspired me to write about one of my favorite underused CDs, British singer-songwriter Kate Bush’s 1986 compilation The Whole Story. She may not be a household name, but her music has influenced artists such as Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, and Muse, and her songs have been covered by Maxwell and Pat Benatar*, among others. In addition, novelist David Mitchell recently expressed his admiration for Bush and her songwriting in a column in The Guardian.

The Whole Story opens with Bush’s debut single, 1978’s d“Wuthering Heights,l” an homage to Emily Bronte’s classic novel. The lushly romantic song is told from the perspective of Catherine Earnshaw as she is begging Heathcliff to let her in through his window. A track from Hounds of Love follows, the poignant d“Cloudbusting,8220;Cloudbusting,<” a sublime showcase for her soaring vocals and intricate instrumental arrangements. Standout tracks include the hypnotic e“Breathing,d” the passionate n“Running Up That Hill, ” and the whimsical “Babooshka.a” The subject matter she covers in her songs ranges from the endless quest for knowledge to the plight of the Aborigines. Her music is challenging, but very rewarding.

I’ve listened to The Whole Story countless times over the years, and I’ve always thought a great deal of consideration went into the sequence of songs on the album. As a collection, the songs flow seamlessly as they chart her musical growth over the course of five albums. Even u“Experiment IV, ” the obligatory ‘new’ single typically added to greatest hits collections to generate sales, would have been right at home on The Dreaming or Hounds of Love. While The Whole Story is hardly the whole story of Kate Bush’s long career (her 2005 release Aerial is worth seeking out), this greatest hits compilation is a good starting point for music fans who are interested in checking out her work.

Bush has appeared in many innovative music videos designed to accompany her singles releases. Among the best known are those for Running Up That Hill , Babooshka , Breathing , Wuthering Heights , and The Man with the Child in His Eyes , and Cloudbusting , featuring actor Donald Sutherland, who made time during the filming of another project to take part in the video.[76] EMI has released a few collections of her videos, including The Single File, Hair of the Hound, The Whole Story, and The Sensual World, as well as an abridged concert video of her 1979 tour Live at Hammersmith Odeon.