Wuthering Heights is a title that should sound familiar to most English-speakers--it's a highschool lit class favorite. Written by Emily Bronte, the tragic novel chronicles the lives of Catherine and Heathcliff and their passionate affair.
Set in the strict British society of the 1800s, the first things the story brings to mind are hardly interpretive modern dance and pop songs, but in 1978 singer-songwriter Kate Bush proved she saw the story differently. She wrote a song as the ghost Catherine, who, she told Profiles in Rock in 1980, reminded her of herself. Her Cathy shrieks in a shrill soprano at her lover Heathcliffe over a bouncing melody which she accompanies with high kicks, arm waving, and avante-garde posturing.
While Kate's ghost might not mesh entirely with the spirit of the novel, Bush told Self Portrait in 1978 that the story "just struck me very strongly because it shows a lot about human beings and how if they can't get what they want, they will go to such extremes in order to do it." Evidently, her interpretation of this theme struck many people strongly: the single held the number one spot on the UK Singles Chart for four weeks.
Here's a look at the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pMMIe4hb4
I love songs with literary references. They give me hope that not all songwriters are insipid. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThat's cool!I wonder if she actually read the novel?
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I would like to read more about how Bush's Kate differs from Bronte's Kate.
ReplyDeleteActually, she did read the novel, but she was also heavily influenced by a film version of the story she saw as a child.
ReplyDeleteI've actually never read Wuthering Heights; I probably should do better in life though but that's a difference story all together.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll check it out. Thanks.