Song of the Day 2/15: Kate Bush, “Wuthering Heights”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

Many adaptations of “Wuthering Heights” have come along since Emily Bronte wrote it in 1847, but there’s been little agreement about which has best captured the spirit of the novel.

Was it the movie with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon that got the Hollywood treatment in 1939? Maybe. Was it the movie just released that one critic called “a candy-colored bodice-ripper?” Probably not.

More than a few fans and critics think one of the best encapsulations of the novel, or certainly the most succinct, is a song, Kate Bush’s etherial “Wuthering Heights.” Her keening soprano, the mysterious lyrics, the unusual musical style, her undulating movements and the iconic video of her swirling in a bright red dress on the “windy moors” — it all reflects the book’s uncanny mood and alludes to its central point.

She wrote the song and recorded it in 1978, when she was 19.  It was a huge hit almost from the start, especially in the UK. It’s often cited as one of the best songs of the era and is still the object of an active cult following.

The novel, briefly put, is about the obsessive, self-destructive relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and the Gothic outsider Heathcliff, so intense and exclusive that it goes well beyond “romantic.” At one point she declares, “I AM Heathcliff.”

Catherine dies young and the bereft Heathcliff is haunted by her ghost. That’s where Bush picks it up, with personalities and back story implied.

She sings as Catherine. “I hated you/I loved you too … Heathcliff, it’s me, I’m Cathy/I’ve come home, I’m so cold/Let me in your window.”

It might be on the verge of a little too much, or maybe not. Bush seems to have a sense of humor about it all. As she  happily noted in an interview, the character is “just so headstrong and passionate and … crazy, you know?”

There are two videos of “Wuthering Heights” made at approximately the same time, the first when the song came out. That’s the “red dress” video. The second, with a white dress, is a little more polished, fancier, in some ways spookier. I think it’s the eyes.

Here’s Kate in her red dress. There wasn’t much of this kind of thing going on in 1970s music videos. There’s some nifty – but moody! – guitar work at the end.

And now the white dress.