• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

  • DC Guides
    • DC Events
    • DC New 52
    • DC Rebirth
    • Batman Guide
    • The Sandman Universe
  • Marvel Guides
    • Marvel Events
    • Captain America Guide
    • Iron Man Guide
    • Spider-Man Guide (1963-2018)
    • Spider-Man Guide (2018-Present)
    • Thor Guide
    • X-Men Reading Order
  • Indie & Licensed Comics
    • Spawn
    • Star Wars Guide
      • Expanded Universe Comics (2015 – present)
      • Legends Comics (1977 – 2014)
    • Valiant Guides
  • Drag
    • Canada’s Drag Race
    • Drag Race Belgique
    • Drag Race Down Under
    • Drag Race Sverige (Sweden)
    • Drag Race France
    • Drag Race Philippines
    • Dragula
    • RuPaul’s Drag Race
    • RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars
  • Archive
  • Contact!
You are here: Home / consume / Crushing On / Music Monday: “Running Up That Hill” – Kate Bush

Music Monday: “Running Up That Hill” – Kate Bush

May 30, 2022 by krisis

The entire internet is talking about Kate Bush today.

I love it! (If you’re wondering why, it has to do with yesterday’s post. If you’re ready for spoilers, Variety has a great write-up and interview about it.)

I came to Kate Bush relatively late in my life of music consumption. As a teen, my main lady piano rocker who communes with the ethereal world was Tori Amos.

I’d encounter older music fans who felt Tori was derivative of Kate Bush, so of course as a major Ears With Feet (that’s what Tori fans were called, in her heyday) I completed eschewed Ms. Bush for nearly a decade, until I picked up her LP Aerials at Tower Records in 2005.

That record was certainly Amos-esque, so I felt I finally understood the comparison. Imagine my surprise when in 2018 I finally dug into the rest of Kate Bush’s catalog to discover how much more she is than “lady piano rocker” (just as Tori is, as well).

I’m sure I had heard “Running Up That Hill” many times prior to that (including from Tori’s own cover of it, medleyed with her own “God”). It hit me in a completely different way when I finally I listened to it in the context of opening of Hounds of Love

The insistent galloping of the drums. The strange synthesizer sighs swirling around my head, darting from headphone to headphone.

And, that iconic chorus:

And if I only could
I’d make a deal with God
And I’d get him to swap our places

Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building

Say, if I only could, oh

When I first heard “Running Up That Hill”, it made me think of Sisyphus. His is the eternal struggle of pushing the same boulder up the same hill every day, only for it to roll back down again. He is the undying patron of lost causes and impossible struggles.

Would you willingly exchange places with him, even for a day? Could you survive?

Or, do you wish you could put someone else in your place to understand your own unending struggle – whether that is with chronic pain, or mental health, or your past experiences, or your identity, or anything else? Bush asks in the first verse, “Do you want to feel how it feels?”

I’ve since learned that Kate Bush wrote “Running Up That Hill” in part as a comment on a woman trying to share her experience with a man. If only he could walk in her shoes for a day, would it fundamentally alter their ability to communicate? What if he could feel her feelings, feel the burden of what she carried every day, rather than just hearing her try to articulate it.

Maybe my conception of the song isn’t that far off from Kate Bush’s intention. The question is: What is the Sisyphean struggle, in her version? Is it this woman’s work? Or, the work of trying to communicate that to a man so that he understands?

Or is that the same struggle?

This is the real way that Kate Bush is not so unlike Tori Amos. It’s not the piano keys or the soprano vocals. Both of their song catalogs are deeply personal, deeply feminist – aware of and empowered by their bodies and their femininity, their anima. They’re also metaphorical, mythological – full of interwoven threads of canon that hint of an awareness of the ethereal aspects of the world that hover just beyond the edges of our vision.

(I actually think there is a supernaturally-aware woman keyboardist in every generation of rock. I’d trace backwards from Kate Bush to Stevie Nicks and Laura Nyro, and forward from Tori Amos to Evanescence and either Lady Gaga or Florence + The Machine. But, that’s another post entirely.)

That is why “Running Up That Hill” hits so hard, both on its own and in the context of Hounds of Love. It’s why it can evoke Sisyphus as easily as feminism. It’s why it works both for scenes of connecting with your own identity as well as in action-filled moments of visceral horror.

Related posts:

  1. 35-for-35: 1991 – “Vibeology” by Paula Abdul
  2. Children’s Book Review: Mr. Tiger Goes Wild & The Curious Garden by Peter King
  3. Crushing Comics S01E060 – X-Men by Claremont/Lee Omnibus, Vol. 2
  4. on unsolicited compliments, and how little girls should respond to them
  5. Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “A-YO” (Track 03)
  6. Track-by-Track: Lady Gaga’s Joanne – “Angel Down” (Track 11)
  7. 35-for-35: 1992 – “Tear In Your Hand” by Tori Amos

Filed Under: Crushing On Tagged With: Kate Bush, Music Monday, Tori Amos

Previous Post: « Review: Netflix’s Stranger Things – Season Four, Vol. 1
Next Post: Krisis on Near Mint Condition, Mapping Scarlet Witch! »

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15, Episode 12 – "Wigloose The Rusical" Review & Power Ranking – Crushing Krisis says:
    March 19, 2023 at 6:43 am

    […] had high hopes that Loosey would have the maturity to turn in a memorable lip sync to Kate Bush’s all-timer “Running Up That Hill.” She started off strong, but after the opening stanza it felt like all of her performance choices […]

Primary Sidebar


Support Crushing Krisis on Patreon
Support CK
on Patreon


Follow me on Twitter Contact me Watch me on Youtube Subscribe to the CK RSS Feed

About CK

About Crushing Krisis
About My Music
About Your Author
Blog Archive
Comics Blogs Only
Contact Krisis
Terms & Conditions

Crushing Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Events Guide

Spider-Man Guide

DC Comics

  • UPDATED: Wolverine, Logan
  • New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 20, 2023
    Catch up on newly-released comic books and collected editions from Marvel Comics September 20 2023, with guides to every title & character! […]
  • New for Patrons: Guide to Monica Rambeau – Photon, Spectrum, & Captain Marvel
    It's time to shine a light on a Guide to Monica Rambeau. She's been Photon, Spectrum, & even Captain Marvel. Read EVERY issue in order. […]
  • Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)Updated: Guide to Avengers (1963-1996)
    Happy Anniversary to Marvel's Avengers! To celebrate I rebuilt my definitive guide to Avengers (1963-1996), including EVERY issue & collection. […]
  • Silver Age X-Men GuideUpdated: Silver Age X-Men Guide
    I've updated my definitive Silver Age X-Men Guide to collected editions of the earliest X-Men comics, including a new Penguin Classics & Taschen editions. […]
  • Guide to Conan the BarbarianUpdated: Guide to Conan The Barbarian
    I've overhauled my Guide to Conan the Barbarian to celebrate the release of Titan Comics' new Conan the Barbarian series written by Jim Zub. […]
  • Avengers Inc. (2023) #1 by Al Ewing & Leonard Kirk, released by Marvel Comics September 13 2023New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 13, 2023
    Catch up on newly-released comic books and collected editions from Marvel Comics September 13 2023, with guides to every title & character! […]
  • Guide to Birds of PreyNew for Patrons: Guide to Birds of Prey
    Who are the Birds of Prey? Learn what cast members define one of DC's signature team with my Guide to Birds of Prey! […]
  • Fantastic Four (2022) #11 released by Marvel Comics September 6 2023New Comics & Collected Editions: Marvel Comics – September 6, 2023
    Catch up on newly-released comic books and collected editions from Marvel Comics September 6 2023, with guides to every title & character! […]
  • It’s gonna be May! Oh, wait, it’s ALREADY May…
    Hello, friends! Unfortunately, my non-CK life and […]
  • Drax GuideDrax Guide – now available to the public!
    Learn how the MCU merged several incarnations Drax into Dave Bautista's hyper-literal warrior with a vendetta agains Thanos in my Drax Guide! […]
  • Guide to GamoraGamora Guide – now available to the public!
    My Gamora Guide will help you find every Marvel comic starring Thanos's adopted daughter and the most dangerous woman in the galaxy! […]
  • Drag Race España Season 3, Episode 2 – “Drag Vision” Review & Power Rankings
    The queens of Drag Race España Season 3 make a collective stumble in this "Drag Vision" choreography challenge, earning the ire of the judges (though it's the kindest ire you'll ever see). […]
  • Star-Lord GuideStar-Lord Guide – now available to the public!
    Get ready for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with my Star-Lord Guide, including every comics appearance of Marvel's TWO distinct Star-Lords! […]

Content Copyright ©2000-2023 Krisis Productions

Crushing Krisis participates in affiliate programs including (but not limited to): Amazon Services LLC Associates Program (in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), eBay Partner Network, and iTunes Affiliate Program. If you make a qualifying purchase through an affiliate link I may receive a commission.