St. Vincent first discovered Kate Bush while watching the 1988 romantic comedy She’s Having a Baby, when she heard the song “This Woman’s Work,” featured in the film, for the first time. “Though I was 7 or 8 and too young to understand much of anything, I wept,” said Annie Clark (St. Vincent) of the experience, a day after honoring Bush, a 2023 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Clark performed Bush’s 1985 Hounds of Love song “Running Up That Hill” during the induction ceremony.
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In her post-induction speech and tribute to Bush, who was inducted by rapper Big Boi during the ceremony, St. Vincent went on to describe all the different phases of discovering Bush’s music throughout her younger years.
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“Then around age 16, I went to CD World in Dallas and saw a copy of ‘The Sensual World’ on the racks, and I was so taken with her,” Clark said in her post. “Her expression. The flower to her lips. I hadn’t put the pieces together yet that this was the woman who sang that song. But I took it home and it was her. That woman who could soar so high into the ether and reach so deep into your soul. The entire album is a masterpiece, but I still cannot listen to ‘This Woman’s Work’ without weeping.”
She also linked back to her Rock Hall performance of “Running Up That Hill,” which saw a resurgence in 2023 for Bush after it was featured in the Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things, Clark shared how she discovered Bush’s Hounds of Love.
“Then I was working on my first record and an engineer friend played me ‘Hounds of Love,'” said Calrk. “It was everything. So urgent. So emotional. An entire sonic world. Deeply catchy and deeply bizarre. Art. Kate. Singular. Inimitable.”
Clark continued “Then the early records. For me: ‘The Kick Inside.’ ‘The Dreaming.’ And later, still pushing soaring on ‘Aerial.’ How could someone be this genius and pure and completely free? Vocally, musically, physically? I stand in awe of Kate Bush. There is no one who could ever compare.”
Bush, who was previously nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, 2021, and 2022, did not attend the 2023 ceremony. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to attend the ceremony tonight, but for me, the real honor is knowing that you felt I deserved it,” wrote Bush hour before her induction. “I am completely blown away by this huge honor, an award that sits in the big beating heart of the American music industry. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. I never imagined I would be given this wonderful accolade.”
Prior to St. Vincent’s performance at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Big Boi talked about Bush’s lifelong influence on him.
“Obviously, our music is very different, but in important ways, we’re exactly the same,” said the Outkast rapper during his induction speech. “What I love about Kate’s music is that I never know what sound I’m gonna hear next. She ignores anything that seems like a formula and instead just does whatever she wants to do, like me. She challenges me as a listener and expands my ears and my mind.”
[RELATED: Kate Bush Reissuing Hit Album ‘Hounds of Love’ in Unique Vinyl Packages]
Big Boi added, “No matter how many times I look to albums like ‘The Dreaming’ or ’50 Words for Snow,’ they sound fresh and surprise me every time. They fill my head with ideas and expand my ambitions for what music can achieve. As a singer, Kate’s voice is incredibly, incredibly inventive. Who sounds like Kate Bush? Nobody.”
A video tribute also played for Bush, following her induction, featuring Clark along with former collaborators, friends, and fans, including David Gilmour, who first discovered her and helped her land her first record deal. Peter Gabriel, who collaborated with Bush on their 1986 duet “Don’t Give Up” was also featured, along with Elton John, who is featured on her 2011 song “Snowed in at Wheeler Street.”
Bush recently revealed the forthcoming reissue of her album Hounds of Love in a number of formats on December 1. The Hounds of Love reissues include an “illustrated vinyl” version called the Baskerville Edition along with two box sets, The Boxes of Lost at Sea.
Photo: Michael J. Le Brecht II / Courtesy of Disney
