Whole Story [CD]

The 10 years or so of silence since her last recorded works haven't helped, but it has to be said that Kate Bush's contribution to songwriting history and musical innovation since she burst onto the pop scene as a teenager in 1978 has been rather overlooked of late. I would urge anybody who likes their songwriting catchy and emotional but also intelligent and quirky, and their music intriguing and eclectic, to try this compilation, featuring most of the famous singles and a few minor ones from all but the last 2 albums of Kate Bush's career. Although not *quite* the whole story, this is an impressive journey over a huge range of musical ground showing a level of developing maturity and sophistication rarely heard since.

The ordering of tracks - neither chronological nor thematic - appears rather random at first, especially to those who might know the repertoire well, but holds together remarkably well. The early classics "Wuthering Heights" (here given a subtle re-working) and "The Man with the Child in his Eyes" show Kate as the wistful, impassioned teenager; "Wow" and "Babooshka" demonstrate growing vocal strength and a developing knack for telling stories in song; "Army Dreamers" and "Breathing" give a chilling reminder of the tense global situation in the depths of the Cold War and remain, years on, as outstanding protest songs in the grand tradition. With "Sat in your Lap" and "The Dreaming" a more experimental phase is reached, with at-the-time ground-breaking electronica, drum machines, sampling, and even the musical talents of Rolf Harris called in to complement the unerringly catchy, stirring melodies and bizarre lyrics. The high point of sophistication is reached with the three singles from the "Hounds of Love" album: the compelling title track; the eerie, relentless "Running Up That Hill"; and the spellbinding "Cloudbusting", a story-song mixing childhood memories with conspiracy theory, but with the sun coming out at the end. "Experiment IV", the latest work chronologically, is another conspiracy-theory-cum-story-song in which Kate's own music comes alive to wreak havoc on the military researchers trying to turn it to destructive purposes; and here, for this collection at least, the story ends. Another two albums of new material were to follow this one; but as an introduction to the repertoire of one of Britain's finest songwriters, this collection is complete in itself.

Without Kate Bush, I doubt that other innovators like Bjork or Tori Amos would have made much headway on the British music scene. More importantly, nor would a host of other talented women with their own songs and arrangements. Buy this record, and begin to glimpse the phenomenon.

This is an enjoyable run through some of Kate's best moments, and if you are new to Kate Bush then it's a good place to start. The only drawback is that in almost every case the songs sound better as a part of the albums they came from, so if you know you like Kate Bush, skip this and go straight to the original albums as you'll end up buying them all in the end.

Kate Bush wasn't just one of the most original songwriters of the 1970sand 80s. She was also a pioneer in the use of video as a medium fortelling the stories behind the songs. This video collection, to accompanythe compilation album of the same name, suffers (as the compilation does)from not actually being the whole story, but apart from that it's afaultless portrayal of one songwriter's growing confidence in herself, inher music, in her ability as a storyteller, and in her power to commandand captivate an audience visually as well as emotionally.
I have to take issue with some of the reviewers here who deride the earlyvideo material. Yes, most of it consists of Kate in swirly whitenightdresses doing what at times looks reminiscent of "liturgical dance".So what? Remember when these films were first made: the promotional videowas a rarity in the late 70s (half of the material on this video predatesMTV), musicians were only just beginning to grasp the possibilitiesafforded by the medium, and let's face it, most of the videos produced by*anyone* in that early era look even more dated now, and are executed witha lot less grace. By the "Never for Ever" era, Kate had moved away fromdance interpretations and was beginning to use video as a storytellingmedium, as can be seen in the classic films for "Babooshka" and thechilling "Breathing". "Sat in your Lap", released in 1981, was one of thefirst videos ever to use computer graphics; true, it looks dated now, butremember this was the era when the ZX81 was the cutting edge of computertechnology, so to achieve something so spectacular and - well, downrightbizarre - at that time was absolutely ground-breaking.
By the time the "Hounds of Love" era arrived, Kate was a video artistwithout compare. "Running Up That Hill" was a return to the "liturgicaldance" style of "Wuthering Heights", but this time with a chilly,hypnotic, bleak quality to it. "Hounds of Love" is half chase and halfcourtship dance, full of sinister men in trenchcoats and trilbys. "The BigSky" is different again, a breath of bright, fresh air, and you can seefrom the artists' faces how much fun they were having; the final image ofKate perched on the roof captures her perfectly as both child and wisewoman, pixie and siren.
"Cloudbusting", starring Donald Sutherland and more sinister men intrenchcoats, is spectacular. A small feature film in song form, this isparanoid conspiracy-theory thriller ten years before "The X Files", butwith a glimmer of optimism at the end. As ground-breaking at the time asMichael Jackson's "Thriller", it's a mystery why it hasn't been rememberednearly so widely. Conspiracy, perhaps? Last in the sequencechronologically, "Experiment IV" takes 1980s paranoia to an absurd height,as Kate's own music, enslaved in a military operation led by thebrilliantly creepy Peter Vaughan, turns against its masters and takesbloody revenge on a supporting cast now counted among the finest inBritish comedy. Cold War satire at its finest, and all in the space offive minutes.
It's probably the sheer bizarreness of Kate Bush's vision which hasresulted in the mainstream music world forgetting her video heritage. Butas one of the great innovators of the medium, and as a leftfieldstoryteller par excellence, she deserves to be remembered.