Song of the Day 11/3: Kate Bush, “Hounds of Love”
El Somnambulo posted yesterday about WXPN’s year-end countdown being devoted to female artists this year. So is this year’s class at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, being inducted tonight in Brooklyn. There are three, count ’em, three women among the seven honorees: Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow and Kate Bush. Elliott and Crow are scheduled to perform, but there’s been no word about whether Bush will even show up.
Her selection is long overdue. Her debut album was released in 1978, so she’s been eligible for 20 years (Crow became eligible five years ago, Elliott just last year), and the list of artists who consider her an influence is enormous. But the institution is America-centric, and Bush has never appeared in concert in the U.S., so it would be a major surprise if she’s there tonight. She released her last album in 2011, and she hasn’t performed in public since 2014.
That didn’t stop one of her defining songs, “Running Up That Hill,” from topping the UK singles chart last year after its appearance in the TV show “Stranger Things,” 37 years after it was released on her 1985 LP, “Hounds of Love.” Though all nine of Bush’s solo albums made the Top 10 in the UK, all but two of them in the top 3, “Hounds of Love” was the only one to make the Top 20 in the American album chart. This is the title track. As my favorite Kate Bush song, I would probably include it on my list of songs for WXPN’s countdown.
