30 Day Song Challenge: Day 9 (A Song You Can Dance To)

I really don’t know what to say about this song, except that it’s completely mad, she’s got the eyes of a person who’s startled to discover she’s been sectioned, and yes, I do know the dance.

I know the dance, and I will say that’s it’s some of the most fun you can have dancing, especially when you have a partner mirroring your moves, becoming a perfectly symmetrical Kate Bush facsimile.

I have no idea how she came up with this. Maybe she is genuinely mental, and this is how she dances on a day-to-day basis. Maybe she has a choreographer who’s on drugs. Or maybe it’s all an act designed to reflect Catherine’s slide into insanity as she obsesses over Heathcliff. But somehow, I don’t think so. I think Kate Bush is just plain mad. Brilliant, but quite mad.

I really am struggling to write anything sensible about this song, because it just doesn’t make any goddamn sense. As a pop tune, it’s top-class: it’s got a great singalong chorus (even if you sound like a Monty Python woman trying to hit those notes), a catchy piano riff, a lilting melody and an unforgettable music video.

As for the subject matter, only someone as outrageous as Kate Bush could write a quirky pop song about one of the darkest existential romance novels ever written. Why did she pick Wuthering Heights? Or, why did Wuthering Heights pick her to write a song about it? Maybe she was the only one who dared, or was the only one with her head far enough in the clouds of crazy to reckon that yes, a person utterly destroyed by the horror of unrequited love would make for a pretty upbeat tune.

I think that’s about all I can say about Wuthering Heights for now. This song always astounds me, and always makes me want to dance, even though I (and anyone who accompanies me) will end up looking like a total prat prancing around thinking I’m fog on the moors or something. But I’d recommend it to anyone. Learn the dance, and love it. I’ll make my last word a comment on an urban legend surrounding this song: I’d heard many times that the guitar solo was played by David Gilmour (off-of-out-of Pink Floyd), but a quick check on Wikipedia confirms that no, it’s not him.