Comments

1
I bet Britons are terrified anyway.

I bet even Kate Bush is terrified.
2
I love Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights," but this still cracks me up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF0VaBxb…
3
Obamamania has been soooooo much better.
4
Yay!
5
Alas, for all of those who are living off of fantasies from when she was 19, like many of us, she has not aged well...
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columni…

Though a lovely person, I'm sure.
6
I thought it was about barbeque beans.
7
Only an idiot would think she should look the same, so your comment only serves to make you look tacky and rude. She's a great musician, not just a body.
8
That was meant for @5
9
Count me among the Bushmanic! (in that way, not the other way)
10
How liberating would that be? Bushmania.
11
I have a friend who spent a ridiculous amount of money to fly from Seattle to London to see one of the concerts next month. Okay, she's also going to Paris, but still - you have to be a pretty big fan to make that kind of commitment.
12
I think that she has moved music forward. She is a true progressive artist and wonderful in every way.

Of course I only put on Hounds Of Love when I'm ready for a shattering emotional experience, but there are safer Bush albums on my shelves.
13
Kate Bush, you are a national treasure. True, she hasn't aged well, but her music trumps so much shit American music coming out at the time (and presently). How she never really made it big in the States is beyond me.
14
Holy crap, this "she hasn't aged well," bullshit really is ridiculous. What does it even mean? You don't think she's sexy? She weighs more than she used to?

Considering she's still putting out challenging, beautiful music and nobody has a bad word to say about her, I think she's aged pretty fucking well.

Why don't you see how well you're thought of and what you've accomplished when you're 56, and then you can reflect on when you were a pathetically superficial 20-something.
15
True fact: George H.W. Bush used "Running Up That Hill" as his campaign theme song in 1988.
16
I tried to get tickets. Impossible unless for 1400 € on the black market.
And her looks? We saw k.d. lang a while ago, she was round and older and incredible, what a concert.
Long live Kate, and please no Botox and surgery. A real woman in her late fifties.

17
I think Bushmania would be a welcome relief from all these freaky landing strips and brazilians. Go natural!
18
Ah yes, @17, some of us still proudly keep our map of Tasmania/ with and without flower adornments.
19
I hadn't known about the tribute group Cloudbusting; that was nice to learn.

It's also nice that (somewhat cautious?) optimism about her genius seems justified.
20
It's funny, though: no one says that Keith Richards or Mick Jagger "haven't aged well" when the Stones announce a tour. And yet... Not only do they look like mummies, they haven't made a great song in 40 years IMNSHO (Time Waits for No One, being the last one - in 1974 - and one whose lyrics they should have heeded).
21
@ 20, not a fan of Waiting On a Friend?
22
As it is @ 20. It's hard work being a woman, being an older woman and not buying into all that sexist stuff. And I thought in the picture of Kate Bush, she looked great. She just didn't look like a barbie doll, she didn't look like Madonna or any no of American women who have rearranged their bodies to keep up some pretence of eternal youth.
23
She appears to have aged wonderfully, on the contrary.
I think the problem is less one of sexism and rather a factor of two things:
1) She was so known for her beauty and ethereal looks, so artistically and frequently photographed, that she has a difficult task to be judged against her 22-year-old self. The stakes are higher for someone whose reputation was as much for her looks as for her talent as a singer/songwriter.

2) She's been out of the public view for a long time. We've all had a chance to watch Mick Jagger age incrementally, but when you haven't seen someone in 30 years, the effects of age hit with much greater force than when you witness the gradual change/decline.

But so what? No true Kate Bush fan is going to turn on her because she's had the nerve to get older. And the younger people just discovering her don't have the younger version in their minds' eyes to compare.
24
Hey, it doesn't bother me if she's aged noticeably - as most of us do faster than we want, and all of us do eventually. It's just that at one time she was So. Freaking. Hot. Unbielievably so. It makes commenting on her (changec) appearance unavoidable. But most importantly, she's a really good songwriter and singer. I'd go if I could afford it,
25
It seems like another example of sexism to me, nocute.
Where are the women in their 70s, who have continued to be in the public eye. Performers of any sort, that look like old prunes
( as Mick and Keith do )? And any no of men , who, gee, are
" allowed" wrinkles , hair loss etc, and people still attend to their artistic skill.
26
@ 21 - What's there to like about it?

Compared to Gimme Shelter, Sympathy for the Devil or Paint it Black, three of the greatest rock songs ever, it's absolutely craptastic.
27
I've really tried to like Kate Bush, to no avail. A lot of people I know seem to think she has something profound to say, but I just don't see it. I think her lyrics are kind of silly and her dancing is a collection of weird aimless gesticulations.

To her credit, the music is all right - there's some interesting compositional stuff going on in it, and I'll admit it's not quite like anything else I've heard, but I don't feel like that's enough to make up for everything else.

Since there seem to be a lot of Kate Bush fans in this thread, if anyone can say something that might change my mind, have at 'er.
28
@ 27 - The world is divided into two groups - people who have nothing but admiration for her, and people who think "her lyrics are kind of silly and her dancing is a collection of weird aimless gesticulations". I'll admit that, even though I'm part of the first group, your description made me laugh out loud. But the fact is that in my 35 years of knowing about her, I have never met anyone who switched from one group to the other.
29
@20. My memory is that every single tour, the Stones take crap in the press for how old they are. There is a case to be made about a sexist double standard in this "hasn't aged well" brouhaha, but the Rolling Stones are the wrong poster children.
30
@29; Bobby Dylan . Elvis Costello. Paul McCartney. Dr John. Neil Young. Etc. etc.
Not that all these men are as crusty as the Stones duo; but they show no fear, getting up on stage being in their craft. Don't seem to worry about how they look. And their audience don't seem to worry either.
31
@30: Paul McCartney has obviously had plastic surgery. And importantly, for purposes of comparison, he was the "handsome" one.

Of course women's appearances are always commented on, and of course the general issue is one of sexism. But this has more to do with the image that Kate Bush was known for--being so very, very beautiful and sylph-like--than sexism.

If you weren't known for being beautiful, if your fame and persona was there despite your obvious non-beauty, then getting older wouldn't be such a big deal and you'd not be judged for getting less attractive. It's a particular burden those known for being beautiful have.
32
Bobby Dylan was a beautiful young man as was Mick Jaggar and Neil Young. Really, nocute; you do stretch it.
33
@ 29 - For how old they are, yes, since they are rockers and rock music is supposed to be youth-centered (and it's difficult to jump around like a rocker should at 72). Not for the fact that, at least in the case of Jagger, he was an extremely handsome young man and he now looks like a poster child (or more accurately, a poster great-grandfather) for the evil effects of gravity. That's the relevant comparison with Kate Bush.
34
If she had gone the route of Cher I would be so disappointed.

Kate Bush rocks top to bottom, and back.
I can't say that I have a favourite musician because a lot of them rate 100%.
35
@28 Ah, so Kate Bush is one of those things like cilantro or licorice that you either love or hate. I guess I'm a lost cause then.
36
@ 35 - Kate Bush is not a thing. She's a person.

Her music is one of those things you either love or hate.
37
@35 Yeah, that was bad wording.
38
It's been entertaining seeing my friends on facebook at home (I'm a Brit) get so swept up in this. We do love her, 'tis true.. :)

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