“Running Up That Hill” (A Deal with God) by Kate Bush, Saturday, July 9, 2022

At this point, you probably know a little about the story of how a song from 1985 became a number 1 hit in 2022 thanks to being featured in a key scene in the Netflix series Stranger Things. When one of the biggest shows on Netflix returned in May after nearly a three-year hiatus, a key scene featured the opening track to Kate Bush's fifth record Hounds of Love, "Running Up That Hill" (A Deal with God). The song never topped the charts during its original promotion, peaking at number 3 in the UK in 1985, and was even banned in some European countries for mentioning God in the song. Today, you'll hear countless covers of the song and hear it in TikTok and Instagram videos constantly.

UNAWARE I'M TEARING YOU ASUNDER. Kate Bush is a name I should have been more aware of given how influential the singer-songwriter is on modern electronic dance music and modern pop. I think I first came across her name as influence when reading the music section of Attitude several years ago. Many British and LGBTQ+ musicians cite Bush as an influence. Debuting in 1978 with her first record The Kick Inside and her number 1 British singles hit "Wuthering Heights," Bush was the first female musician to top the chart with a song of which the singer held sole writing credits. The singer's path to fame, though, started when the young singer-songwriter met Pink Floyd's guitarist David Gilmour through a mutual friend. Gilmour produced Bush's demo tape that helped her sign her first record deal. The two musicians became friends and even performed together 11 years after her debut at The Secret Policeman's Third Ball in 1987 (see video below). In 2002, Bush sang with Gilmour, Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" at London's Royal Festival Hall. But Kate Bush throughout her career didn't care much for performing and preferred recording and producing her own music, only playing her hits a few times. There was recently a video published speculating how much money Bush is making from the renewed popularity of today's song "Running Up That Hill," and with Bush being the only songwriter on the track, the money looks good. Not bad for a musician who dropped out of sixth-form.

LET'S EXCHANGE THE EXPERIENCE. Like my aversion to New Order when I first heard them, I had a little bit of a hard time with Kate Bush when I first heard "Running Up That Hill" (A Deal with God). But my issue with this song (and Kate Bush for that matter) is different. When I first listened to New Order, it was the old synthesizers that made me feel awkward. The synthesizer on "Running Up That Hill" reminds me of that Yamaha keyboard in the garage that I talked about when I first talked about New Order. The synths on "Running Up That Hill" sound like something I would have played on the keyboard when I was 10, but that's not my issue as I've learned to embrace that old sound. Kate Bush's voice still needs to grow on my. I'll admit it's beautifully wispy, and on today's song it so interestingly glides between the verse and the chorus. The transition between the verse and the chorus are so abrupt unlike anything I've ever heard before and if you close your eyes, you can almost picture Bush's voice flying above the synth and bass, feet touching down for just a moment when her voice goes "Running up that" back up into the air for "hill." I really want to fall in love with her other songs, but I think it's going to take some ear adjustment. But that's the fun thing about music: you don't get it at once. It has to grow on you.

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