Strange Phenomena: The Music of Kate Bush

It started as an excerpt on a radio show called Personal Call in 1980. Only a verse and part of a chorus were ever played. “I was waiting for the flat note in the middle,” she said as the tape faded out. And for years, fans have wondered about this mysterious song. Is it called … Continue reading Bonus: Humming Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a special episode of Strange Phenomena. This week is the first “mailbag” episode. Over the last year and a half of this show, I’ve gotten messages from listeners about different episodes and their thoughts on some of the songs I’ve discussed so far, including some corrections (oops!). So this week, we get to … Continue reading Bonus: Let the Weirdness In #1 Learn more about your ad choi...

And now the end is here! Wrapping up this third season of the show, Cecilee is by herself to discuss a song from Zaine Griff’s 1982 album Figvres, called Flowers, which our lovely Kate Bush lent her vocals to! In this episode, Cecilee talks about the references in the song to French literature (who is … Continue reading S03E22 – Flowers (Zaine Griff song) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...

Ready to travel to new dimensions? Maybe even be a daring time traveler? Then you can be with a discussion of this week’s song, an album track from The Unknown Soldier, by British folk artist Roy Harper, called You (The Game Part II)! Kate and an old family friend, a certain David Gilmour, pop up on this … Continue reading S03E21 – You (The Game Part II) (Roy Harper song) Learn more about your ad...

On to the last Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush song….. for now! Like the previous two Peter Gabriel songs we’ve talked about on the show, Games Without Frontiers is an album track. But unlike the previous ones, this was a successful single. In fact, it was Peter’s first top 10 hit in the UK and the biggest hit, to … Continue reading S03E20 – Games Without Frontiers (Peter Gabriel Song) Learn more about yo...

Now on to Peter Collaboration #2, the UK top 40 hit No Self Control, track number 2 on his 1980 album Melt. Peter Gabriel may have written this song, but in the production and song theme, No Self Control shares some parallels with Kate’s music as we would come to know it on her upcoming album The Dreaming. World instruments … Continue reading S03E19 – No Self Control (Peter Gabriel Song) Learn mor...

And so now begins the collaborations portion of this third season of the show! There will be a total of five collaboration episodes this season, three of them with the same artist: Peter Gabriel. I Don’t Remember was first sung by Peter and Kate together on stage for the Bill Duffield benefit concert in May … Continue reading S03E18 – I Don’t Remember (Peter Gabriel Song) Learn more about your ad...

Ready to dive into a discussion of a rather obscure and strange little number? We hope so! Kidnapped On a Building Site is one of Kate’s most obscure songs, a raw piano/vocal unreleased demo of a song that was never fleshed out. In fact, we’re not even sure where this song came from, but a few … Continue reading S03E17 – Kidnapped on a Building Site Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

For a song that was probably meant, like The Empty Bullring, as a quick runthrough as she acclimated herself to a new studio, Kate sure came up with something beautiful and criminally underrated. This week, we’re discussing a b-side featuring just Kate and her piano, the flip of December Will Be Magic Again, called Warm and Soothing, a song … Continue reading S03E16 – Warm and Soothing Learn more...

Almost 38 years ago, a mysterious holiday song was released to the record-buying public. Not just any holiday song. December Will Be Magic Again! The history of this song is a curious one indeed. First premiered to the public on the Kate Bush Christmas special in late 1979, December Will Be Magic Again didn’t get an official … Continue reading S03E15 – December Will Be Magic Again Learn more about...

Time to take a trip back in time to a track that was recorded well before Never For Ever: the lovely little song Passing Through Air. Released as the b-side to Never For Ever‘s final single Army Dreamers, Passing Through Air was recorded in 1973 at the age of fifteen, when Kate was still a teenager writing songs by herself in … Continue reading S03E14 – Passing Through Air Learn more about your ad...

Welcome to another episode of the show! This week we’re digging into Ran Tan Waltz, a sprightly little number that was released as the b-side to Never For Ever‘s second single Babooshka. Rather fitting that Ran Tan Waltz, a song about a dysfunctional marriage, was the flip side of a song also about a dysfunctional marriage. Cecilee is joined by … Continue reading S03E13 – Ran Tan Waltz Learn more...

After a short break, we’re back with a new song episode. So come disappear through a window and out of your mind into our discussion of The Empty Bullring, the first released non-album track of Kate’s career so far and the first b-side of this season. The Empty Bullring was the b-side to Never For Ever‘s lead single Breathing. … Continue reading S03E12 – The Empty Bullring Learn more about your ad...

Big news today in the Kate Bush world: all of Kate’s albums, plus new rarities, are being released in remastered editions on vinyl AND CD! The first seven are coming out on November 16, 2018 in individual and box set form, with the rest (Aerial, Directors Cut, etc) to follow on November 30, 2018! Woohoo! … Continue reading Bonus: Kate Bush Remastered! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

Can you believe we’re now at the end of a third album? Of course there are still the b-sides and collaborations to go, but all the album tracks from Kate’s third album Never For Ever have now been discussed and dug into! Our guests for this last song will be familiar to listeners: Zoey P and … Continue reading S03E11 – Breathing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a short break, we’re back with another song episode! And almost in time for the 38th anniversary of this single being released! On September 22, 1980, the final single from Never For Ever was released: Army Dreamers. Compared to the previous two singles, Army Dreamers was quite a change of pace from Breathing (prog-rock, Kate’s “little symphony”) and Babooshka … Continue reading S03E10 – Arm...

You would think that an episode about a fifty-two second long interlude track would be about that long. Instead, we got an episode that was almost nine times as long as the song itself! Not bad, wouldn’t you say? In the shortest episode so far of the show, Cecilee is on her own to talk … Continue reading S03E09 – Night-Scented Stock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All our barriers are going. Time to bring you another episode of Strange Phenomena! Can you believe we’re almost done with Never For Ever album songs? We can’t either. Our song for discussion this week is a rather controversial Kate Bush song inspired by a movie (of course!) that was inspired by a story (of … Continue reading S03E08 – The Infant Kiss Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...

Are you ready to climb with Paganini up to the chimney to jig along with the fiddle-dee-diddle-dee-dee? If you are, then get ready for a rocking discussion of the violin-infused, well, Violin, the seventh track from Never For Ever. We are joined by two guests for this episode: Wayne Henderson, who you’ll remember from last season’s … Continue reading S03E07 – Violin Learn more about your ad choice...

We hope you can give the hunt up for another episode of Strange Phenomena! Because it’s here! The Wedding List is the first song on Side B of Never For Ever, and what a way to start that side! We’ve gone from the ethereal Egypt to one of the most rocking songs that Kate has ever … Continue reading S03E06 – The Wedding List Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready for a traveling episode? We sure hope so! For this week’s song, the ethereal Egypt, we make a call to Serbia to chat with a young fan named Uroš about his love for this song, the fifth track from Never For Ever. Uroš is a young Kate fan from Serbia who has always loved … Continue reading S03E05 – Egypt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All we ever want for you is to listen to this new episode of Strange Phenomena! All We Ever Look For doesn’t seem to be a song that is discussed much in the Kate Bush canon, and it’s really quite a shame! Because we found not one but TWO fans of this song to discuss … Continue reading S03E04 – All We Ever Look For Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the band told us last night that we’d be coming out with a new episode of Strange Phenomena this week! In this episode, we get to fly away with the third track from Never For Ever, Blow Away (For Bill). This week, Cecilee is joined by Alex Dale, a writer from London who considers this song to be … Continue reading S03E03 – Blow Away (For Bill) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...

We promise we won’t be moody in this episode all about the beautiful song Delius (Song of Summer), the second track from Never For Ever. As a matter of fact, this episode will be cheery as the summer, since this is Cecilee’s favorite song on Never For Ever, so she has a lot to say! And so … Continue reading S03E02 – Delius (Song of Summer) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...

Welcome to the first song episode of the Never For Ever season. And we’re starting it with the album opener, Babooshka. What a way to start an album! Babooshka is not just the album opener, but it was also the second single released from Never For Ever. It was a huge hit everywhere it was released, … Continue reading S03E01 – Babooshka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices