A guest post from our Twitter follower @AndrewOrlowski:
“One of my ten year old girls has become completely besotted by Kate Bush after watching a BBC TV documentary on her, and finds her completely inspiring. As a result, I was listening to ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1978) thinking ‘this has to be my favourite key change/chord change moment in music.'” (2:14)
Bush’s unique bio is nicely summarized by AllMusic: “One of the most successful and popular solo female performers to come out of England during the second half of the 20th century, Kate Bush was also one of the most unusual, with her keening vocals and unusually literate and complex body of songs. Bush‘s music is an ambitious and idiosyncratic melange of folk rock, art rock, prog, and pop, often performed with the bold brio of a West End stage production; her lyrics are artful meditations full of drama, fantasy, danger, and a sense of wonder at the human and natural worlds.”
Quick key-of-the-moment (KotM) shifts are a hallmark of this tune, a flagship within Bush’s catalog and the first single of her career. Starting in A major (more or less!), plenty of KotMs flash by as the fast harmonic rhythm hits us relentlessly (a good example being the repeating 4-chord passage from 0:08 to 0:15, which presents a contradictory jumble harmonically). As the chorus begins at 0:47, we transition to C# major. At 1:12, we’re back to A major (ish), etc. At 2:14 – 2:39, the brief bridge could be heard as a shift to A# major — or merely a huge passing emphasis on the iii chord of F# major. Unusual harmonic progressions and ambiguity of tonality are often part of the fun when it comes to Bush’s catalog.
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