Music Monday: Wuthering Heights
Kate Bush was about nine years old when she caught the last ten minutes of a BBC adaptation of Emily Bronté’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS on television. The image of Katherine’s ghost outside the window pleading to be let in haunted her for years, until one day, after reading the book, she wrote this song.
Seventeen-year-old Kate had been touring pubs with her brother’s band, playing both covers and original songs, when a family friend and industry insider passed a rough demo to Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour. He then paid for studio time so Kate could record something a bit more polished. He played this new demo to EMI executives who immediately signed her. “Wuthering Heights” was Kate’s debut single, released in January, 1978. It was so unlike anything else in the British chart at the time, it caught the public imagination and quickly raced up the Top 40 spending four weeks at number one that spring.
I hated the song. It was played so much, and to my 8-year-old sensibilities, it was just plain weird. Kate sang weirdly, danced weirdly, and the words were weird. Not that I had a problem with weird. But I couldn’t wrap my head around this one, so whenever it would come on, I’d roll my eyes and ignore it.
Then I grew up.
This song is a masterpiece. Certainly one of my all-time favorite songs. How do you know a song is an all-time favorite? If you could put it on repeat, listen to it 24/7 and never get tired of it. Kate’s high-pitch, ethereal vocal is perfect for a song sung by a ghost. From the first line you get a sense of almost manic desperation, that moments later turns to yearning and pleading.
Musically, the song shifts keys and uses odd progressions to add to the sense of mystery and spookiness. When it falls into more regular chord progressions, the song builds from the simple piano/vocal and organ, layering on guitar, then bass and drums, and finally strings. I don’t know how involved Kate was in the arrangement, but it works extremely well for the piece. To sum up, this song is aural candy. Like chocolate for your ears.
If you’d like to have a go playing it, I’ve transcribed the piano/vocal part for the first verse and the chorus (again, remember, I’m not trained in music transcription–this is my best effort at writing down what I hear):
The image above is just a picture of the first page. If you click on it you’ll download the complete 2-page pdf.
Here are the words and guitar chords:
Again, click on the above image and you’ll get a 2-page pdf, this time with the chords in the recorded key, and then the chords if you capo the 6th fret. Since the majority of the song is in C#-major, it sounds better on the guitar if you play with the capo. In fact, that may well be what the guitarist is doing on the recording.
This is the music video:
And here’s 19-year-old Kate Bush making her television debut singing the song LIVE, with the Top of the Pops house band:
Finally, here’s a subsequent Top of the Pops live performance, this time with Kate at the piano:
I’ve always loved this song, although I can hardly understand a word of it, and still don’t know what she is saying. Listening to it again now made me think it would have been perfect for Eurovision – dance routine and all.
Ha–I think it’s a bit too sophisticated for Eurovision. That’s not meant to be a put-down–there are some Eurovision songs I’ve liked. But it does have an incredibly catchy chorus, so perhaps you’re right…?
I’ve provided a lyric sheet if you want to sing along, AJ… 😉
Heh, the one thing guaranteed to clear a room is getting me to sing *grin*. I play clarinet in a band – at least than no-one expects me to sing!
I remember my cousin Stephen (lived in Stoke on Trent at the time) sending me a tape of Kate. Didn’t get it then, don’t get it know, but then I was into Led Zepplin and Alice Cooper at the time and even now, more of a rocker.
But I REALLY like this idea of posting the song, lyrics, and music to old classics. Don’t believe I know any rockers who wrote songs based on a book, though. Who has time to read when there’s eyeliner to apply?
I realize it’s not everyone’s cup of tea–but there are plenty of songs I don’t get that I can at least appreciate, even if just from a technical viewpoint (“that’s a clever solo” or “that’s a neat turn of phrase”). That’s what I’m aiming for here, to help you at least appreciate why I think this song is a work of genius.
And I hope posting the music is beneficial to someone. I know I would have loved this when I was learning to play and struggling over discerning chords and piano parts. Having the internet to begin with, and then having someone post their attempts to figure out the song would have been very helpful to me. It takes a while to actually listen to the recording and notate what I hear, so if someone is benefiting from it, please let me know! 🙂