FEATURE: The Whole Story: That Difficult Second Novel: Reimagining a Kate Bush Greatest Hits Collection

FEATURE:

The Whole Story: That Difficult Second Novel

Reimagining a Kate Bush Greatest Hits Collection

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THIS is a feature that sort of comes…

hot on the heels of other ones I have written regarding Kate Bush and greatest hits collections. Later this year, The Whole Story celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary. That was the first collection of her best songs and it followed the success of 1985’s Hounds of Love. I have argued before that radio stations tend only to play Bush’s singles and the bigger hits. We occasionally hear some lesser-played songs but that tends to be very rare. I am looking forward to The Whole Story’s anniversary, as it will be good to highlight an album that I would urge people to buy. So many terrific songs are on that album, and I wonder whether there will be a revision or reissue closer to the anniversary in November. Rather than a simple reissue of that album with no additions, it would be great to see a collection of Kate Bush’s songs that do not get a lot of airing. Rather than it being a selection of deeper cuts, combining some of those rare tracks with some better-known ones would be perfect. I am not sure whether it would see like a follow-up to The Whole Story or an entirely new album, but I think there should be a reimagining where we get a twelve-track album or songs that are brilliant but get less exposure. Kate Bush did put out an album of rarer tracks in 2018, but these were mostly B-sides and covers. There are so many album tracks that I would like to see on an album. It would not technically be a ‘greatest hits’ collection; maybe a reversion of the remastered albums in 2018, where we got to hear these songs that are beautiful but very people know about. I am going to present my idea of a new The Whole Story; perhaps a ‘difficult second novel’ or a cult classic..