This is the story of how I came to love Kate Bush through my hatred for my father.
In 1980, I was staying at my Grandparents in Newport Beach for some reason & my brother got a copy of Rolling Stone which had record reviews for Van Halen & Pat Benatar.
The reviews made these sound like the most important records ever recorded--and I immediately rode my bicycle to the Treasury and purchased them.
Now, up until this point, I had some Miles records I stole from my dad, the complete works of Kiss which would later be stolen by Tim Commerford [Rage Against the Machine's bass player--who also still owes me an amp, but that is a different story], some random Aerosmith records, a Bowie Record, some classic weird kids records--Disney stuff, Peter Paul & Mary, etc.--just a very tepid mid 70's record collection. There was likely some Partridge family in here as well...
In any event, these two albums were a major addition to my library and I was super proud of them. The Van Halen record came with a Poster of David Lee Roth chained to a fence which I pinned up on my wall.
So my dad comes into my room late after driving home from his work in the Valley--he sees this poster on my wall & hears me listening to Van Halen's sex crazed rock and roll frenzy--he says something like "why are you listening to that Punk Rock" to which I respond "Dad...this is metal not punk rock" and he says "It is totally Gay".
At which point I vowed never to let him hear me listening to Benatar's Hell is For Children late at night. Or anything else for that mater. Ever. From that moment on it became very important to me that my musical taste had the ironic distancing combined with hipster knowing which would protect me from ever being criticized.
Of course, in retrospect, my dad may have had a point--that poster is "questionable" at best on a boys bedroom wall.
But, more importantly, it made me very aware that the music I listened to mattered & would be used as a method of criticism, so I would need to get much more serious and refined in my taste.
Enter Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights
Benatar included a strange cover on her recorded that hinted to much more going on then she could convey--I could sense something was missing, but I did not know what it was. I did not really understand the cover song thing at the time, but I went to the Treasury and looked up Kate Bush as soon as I could & they had nothing. Sears did not even have her name on a tab. I could not find her earlier work during weeks of searching--it was not in the bins, it was not on the radio, it was quickly becoming even more important that I find this stuff...and the, within a few weeks I stumbled across EXACTLY what I needed
I probably fell asleep listening to Breathing more than any other song ever recorded.
And then, a few years later, she created the sound track of my late teens...even today, when I see her huge success and the massive respect I hear people express for her work, I am surprised...to me Kate is such an amazingly personal and private pleasure...I still don't trust that other people love her as much as I do.
In 1980, I was staying at my Grandparents in Newport Beach for some reason & my brother got a copy of Rolling Stone which had record reviews for Van Halen & Pat Benatar.
The reviews made these sound like the most important records ever recorded--and I immediately rode my bicycle to the Treasury and purchased them.
Now, up until this point, I had some Miles records I stole from my dad, the complete works of Kiss which would later be stolen by Tim Commerford [Rage Against the Machine's bass player--who also still owes me an amp, but that is a different story], some random Aerosmith records, a Bowie Record, some classic weird kids records--Disney stuff, Peter Paul & Mary, etc.--just a very tepid mid 70's record collection. There was likely some Partridge family in here as well...
In any event, these two albums were a major addition to my library and I was super proud of them. The Van Halen record came with a Poster of David Lee Roth chained to a fence which I pinned up on my wall.
So my dad comes into my room late after driving home from his work in the Valley--he sees this poster on my wall & hears me listening to Van Halen's sex crazed rock and roll frenzy--he says something like "why are you listening to that Punk Rock" to which I respond "Dad...this is metal not punk rock" and he says "It is totally Gay".
At which point I vowed never to let him hear me listening to Benatar's Hell is For Children late at night. Or anything else for that mater. Ever. From that moment on it became very important to me that my musical taste had the ironic distancing combined with hipster knowing which would protect me from ever being criticized.
Of course, in retrospect, my dad may have had a point--that poster is "questionable" at best on a boys bedroom wall.
But, more importantly, it made me very aware that the music I listened to mattered & would be used as a method of criticism, so I would need to get much more serious and refined in my taste.
Enter Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights
Benatar included a strange cover on her recorded that hinted to much more going on then she could convey--I could sense something was missing, but I did not know what it was. I did not really understand the cover song thing at the time, but I went to the Treasury and looked up Kate Bush as soon as I could & they had nothing. Sears did not even have her name on a tab. I could not find her earlier work during weeks of searching--it was not in the bins, it was not on the radio, it was quickly becoming even more important that I find this stuff...and the, within a few weeks I stumbled across EXACTLY what I needed
From the weird cover art this album had every single thing I needed--a great opening pop song that everyone loved, strange & weird songs that sounded nothing like anything else I had ever heard, that amazing production which actually made me aware that my bedroom tape deck turntable stereo from Sears was crap, the album's mature content, the overall unapologetic Britishness, everything spoke to the inner rebel of suburban music snob I was turning into. Add to this that I was called Gay by everyone who ever heard me listening to it & I had basically found my perfect album
I probably fell asleep listening to Breathing more than any other song ever recorded.
And then, a few years later, she created the sound track of my late teens...even today, when I see her huge success and the massive respect I hear people express for her work, I am surprised...to me Kate is such an amazingly personal and private pleasure...I still don't trust that other people love her as much as I do.
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