The Puppini Sisters' twist on Wuthering Heights
Kate Bush cum Andrews Sisters



You know, Wuthering Heights (the book AND Kate's song) is really a marvel to me.

Cathy and Heathcliff are supposed to be this fabulous, meant-to-be-together couple whose unity was thwarted by life's cruel circumstances. In truth, Cathy is a right nutter, and Heathcliff dodged a bullet.

During the making of the 1939 film version, Merle Oberon absolutely despised Laurence Olivier, who played her Heathcliff. Ironically, this is cited as a superb example of hot on-screen chemistry, but I sorta don't see it. I wonder about people who are magnetically drawn, moth-to-flame-like, to unstable folk. My theory is that people who loved the book wanted to see romantic magic (that's sorta redundant, isn't it?) and so they did see it.

In the end, Cathy's still looney-toons, and the irresolution of the story simply doesn't jibe with the modern American happy-ending-imperative. Still, this remains a favorite film for many. Even being a film buff, this is one movie that makes me want to slap the characters around. Really. Honestly. Slap them until they pee theysefs.

Anyway, late 1970s-ish, along comes the comely, teenaged Kate Bush and her wide-eyed veracity in delivering Cathy's plea from beyond the grave in her compelling Wuthering Heights. For a minute you think, oh, this is rather sweet, clutching desperation and interpretive dance notwithstanding- they're in lurve. It's almost believable.

Then she breaks the spell with the gripping conclusion in which she demands he let her grab his soul away.

Told ya that bitch was crazy.

"Rocket's Tail" by Kate Bush - That November Night...

 “Rocket’s Tail” by Kate Bush with Trio Bulgarka and David Gilmour, 1989

Although I adored “Wuthering Heights” and “Running Up That Hill” in years prior, I never purchased an album by Kate Bush until “The Sensual World” was released in 1989. Rock music was really in some state of transition at the time, even though Kate seems always to have functioned on some outer edge wherein the rules did not apply. So many tracks on this album stand out for me, and it feels the very personification of Autumn to me. “Never Be Mine” is filled with the bittersweet yearning of “they’re setting fire to the corn fields as you’re taking me home” which resolves with “the smell of burning fields will now mean you and here/and this is where I want to be, this is what I need/but I know that this will never be mine.” Beautiful and sad. Fall is the time when we put the past to bed and settle in for winter’s nap, or at least a nice cup of tea by the fire. This album is glorious, and is heard to best effect this time of year.

My favorite track from the album is “Rocket’s Tail” for many reasons, but it sets itself indubitably in a particular time by announcing it happened one November night from the very first line. The track opens with the sinuous harmonies of Trio Bulgarka. The ethereal beauty of Kate’s voice threads nicely through the confounding tones of the Bulgarian voices, to magnificent effect.

That November night, looking up into the sky
            You said hey wish that was me up there
            It's the biggest rocket I could find
            And it's holding the night in its arms
            If for only a moment
            I can't see the look in its eyes
            But I'm sure it must be laughing

I once heard that Rocket was Kate’s cat, but it doesn’t really matter, because it’s such a pretty story. I mean, it MUST be true, right? Anyone who’s seen cat zoomies can attest that they’d shoot across the sky like a meteor if they could, and who better than a cat can demonstrate a tail on fire?

            But it seemed to me the saddest thing I'd ever seen
            And I thought you were crazy wishing such a thing

I saw only a stick on fire
Alone on its journey
Home to the quickening ground
With no one there to catch it

The poignance of this set of lines blew me away, that where the intrepid cat saw excitement and adventure and the sheer thrill of adrenaline-inducing hijinks, the speaker would see isolation in the vast chill of space.

Oh, but then she joins in the fun:

I put on my pointed hat
            And my black and silver suit
            And I check my gunpowder pack
            And I strap the stick on my back
            And dressed as a rocket on Waterloo Bridge
            Nobody seemed to see me

Nutty lady on London’s Waterloo Bridge making like a bottle rocket? I’m down with this. Can I play, too?
            Then with the fuse in my hand
            And now shooting into the night

A fretless bass has wound through the proceedings at this point. He is not credited on this track, but I feel this can only be Mick Karn, who played on another track on the the album whence this track originates. Superb. Mick Karn was pure magic. Gone far too soon. Just like him to blend into the shadows and let his music coil through the dance.

And still as a rocket
I land in the river
Was it me said you were crazy?

And then we get the full glory that can only be the guitar of David Gilmour. How did this thing go from glorious to impossibly wonderful? Yes. Just like this.

I put on my cloudiest suit
            Size five lightning boots too
            'Cause I am a rocket
            On fire
            Look at me go with my tail on fire
            Tail on fire
            On fire

Between the otherworldly vocals and the stratospheric squealings of David Gilmour's guitar, this track is one for the sci-fi ages. We’re imagining ourselves elsewhere. We’re dreaming and we’re reaching. If we aspire to take the night in our arms, who is there to stop us?

Grab your pointed hats and lightning boots, kids. We're going on an adventure!