Iterations: Kate Bush – “Cloudbusting”

Iterations: Kate Bush – “Cloudbusting”

No I haven’t watched the latest season of Stranger Things yet, but the fact that Kate Bush is having an unexpected pop cultural moment because of a sync has been inescapable this week, though I’m more taken aback by the fact that the iTunes chart is still a thing? Like people are still buying MP3s? I don’t understand. Anyways. One side-effect of everyone looking for an angle is rounding up covers of “Running Up That Hill” so for my part, I’m going to tackle a different song from Hounds Of Love – I wouldn’t say my favourite because how do you pick and choose from that record? – but certainly one that I love a lot.

“Cloudbusting” was the second single from Hounds Of Love and to crib liberally from the Wikipedia, is based on Peter Reich’s A Book of Dreams and which just scanning the synopsis sounds completely fascinating; adding it to my list. It’s astonishing how that context makes the video – which seems like children’s make-believe if you didn’t know better – entirely believably real.

Here’s the audio from one of her legendary 2014 Hammersmith Apollo live shows, as collected on 2016’s Before The Dawn live set. “Cloudbusting” was, fittingly, the encore finale.

For covers, in a curious bit of synchronicity, the song popped up on my personal radar twice in April 2010 – first with Neil Halstead, at the time between engagements with Mojave 3 and Slowdive, contributing a lovely version to Sing Me To Sleep, a compilation of lullabies ostensibly for children

And that same month, Wild Nothing released a version as a standalone 7″ single. Clearly one of Kate Bush’s more dreampop-friendly compositions.

Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes included a version on her 2014 album Night & Day:

And Solange included it in her setlist when she performed with M.I.A. at Webster Hall in New York in May 2014:

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