kate bush, “cloudbusting,”
from: Hounds of love, 1985
“I still dream of Orgonon
I wake up crying
You’re making rain
And you’re just in reach
When you and sleep escape me
You’re like my yo-yo
That glowed in the dark
What made it special
Made it dangerous
So I bury it
And forget
But every time it rains
You’re here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen
I don’t know when
But just saying it could even make it happen
On top of the world
Looking over the edge
You could see them coming
You looked too small
In their big black car
To be a threat to the men in power
I hid my yo-yo
In the garden
I can’t hide you
From the government
Oh, God, Daddy
I won’t forget
’Cause every time it rains
You’re here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is gonna happen
I don’t know when
But just saying it could even make it happen
And every time it rains
You’re here in my head
Like the sun coming out
Like your son’s coming out
Ooh, I just know that something good is going to happen
And I don’t know when
But just saying it could even make it happen
Ooh, just saying it could even make it happen
We’re cloudbusting daddy
Your son’s coming out
Your son’s coming out
”
Overproduction is one of the incessant problems of many people doing recording and performance in the music industry. Often, too much of an inappropriate technique drowns a piece diminishing its potentials. It’s obviously an enormous skill to get the ingredients right. But here we have an exotic and lush example of studio techniques that push a song to great artistic heights. The dynamic string section seems to be the great enabler and momentum maker. There is an exciting tension that something large and positive is being put in place to happen. It doesn’t hurt having Ms. Bush’s solo clarity and choral vocalese pushing the stone up the hills of reality. And finished with upbeat military drumming and a train huffing and puffing into your town. To the doorstep of the hounds of love.
