The Kick Inside

In 1978 a new sound could be heard. Arriving on a gale force shriek of banshee's wails, Kate Bush forever changed the place of the female artist within pop music when Wuthering Heights stormed up the charts. It was the first time that a female singer-songwriter had topped the UK chart with a self penned song. The UK public hadn't really encountered a young lady like Kate before: a 19 year old who could write and sing about  erotic joy ("Feel It" & "L'Amour looks Something Like You"), name drop Kafka and Joyce in interviews, bring a new age philosopher in to a reggae based pop confection (G I Gurdjieff in "Them Heavy People") and generally show more literacy and artistry than anything else that was anywhere near the charts. Another taboo was broken by a song about menstruation, "Strange Phenomena".

Her unique talents had been spotted by Dave Gilmour, when she was just 16, who recommended her to EMI. Luckily they listened and made a substantial investment in Kate to enable her to have three years to produce her first album. To this day there is nothing that really sounds quite like it. 

Side One 

1. Moving  3:01

2. The Saxophone Song  3:51

3. Strange Phenomena  2:57

4. Kite  2:56

5. The Man with the Child in His Eyes  2:39

6. Wuthering Heights   4:28

Side Two

7. James and the Cold Gun  3:34

8. Feel It  3:02

9. Oh to Be in Love  3:18

10. L'Amour Looks Something like You  2:27

11. Them Heavy People  3:04

12. Room for the Life  4:03

13. The Kick Inside  3:30

Apart from "Wuthering Heights", the only other single that came from the album was "The Man With The Child In His Eyes", a song written when she was 13 and recorded at age 16 in her first sessions at EMI. For many years it was thought to refer to Dave Gilmour but it seems it was more likely to have been about an early teen love, Steve Blacknell, Although there is still speculation that it was about someone else. He later went on to achieve a level of fame himself as a DJ and was the man who interviewed Phil Collins on Concorde when he flew between the two Live Aid concerts. The secret was revealed in 2010 when he placed the hand-written lyrics of the song for sale on the internet at a price of £10000 GBP. 

Wuthering Heights

The Man With The Child In His Eyes