FEATURE:
Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed for NME on 13th October, 1982 in London/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn/Contour by Getty Images
‘The Concierge’ (Get Out of My House)/Lily, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, Uriel (Lily)
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THIS new feature…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for The Red Shoes in 1993
finds me pairing characters from Kate Bush’s songs. Her music is packed with these interesting people and characters. I will move to different albums for future editions. In this one, I am pairing The Dreaming with The Red Shoes. For The Dreaming, I am choosing ‘The Concierge’. I shall move to an eponymous character from one of The Red Shoes’ standout tracks. Before that, I am investigating one of Kate Bush’s most influential songs. In terms of this year. I have said before how some of the more experimental, bold and simply out-there music has been influenced by this song. Or The Dreaming. I am going to expand on that theory for a future feature. However, I listen to Get Out of My House and I can detect links to artists like ROSALÍA. Charli xcx for sure. I will end this half by speaking about her. ‘The Concierge’ is essentially Kate Bush casting herself in the song. I am going to come to an interview where she discussed the influence. However, 1982’s The Dreaming has a lot of dark psychology and dread. Kate Bush sunk everything into this album in terms of her time and patience. Working extremely long albums and moving between various studios, it was an exhausting process. War, cigarette smoke, tension and those at the point of danger and death. However, there are songs where Bush is open and personal. My abiding feeling about The Dreaming is this is Kate Bush truly going beyond the realms of the mainstream. An album she looked back on as a crazy time where she sort of went mad, Get Out of My House is the maddest song on a mad album! If some see if is as psychological terror, it is also horror, as it was inspired by Stephen King’s The Shining (1977). The novel was a Stanley Kubrick-directed film that was released in 1980. Whereas Bush drew heavily from film and T.V. for her songs, this was a rare occasion where literature was a driving force. Not the last time (Cloudbusting from Hounds of Love and The Sensual World from the album of the same name are other examples).
I guess ‘The Concierge’ is this spirit. Not a physical presence in this possessed house. It is Kate Bush as this ghost-like spirit warding off intruders and unwelcome guests. If some feel it is a direct nod to The Shining, I sort of get it is about her reaction to the press and her label. Maybe too demanding or critical, this is an artist still in twenties pushing back. Confined and claustrophobic, Bush delivers one of her most charged and exhilarating vocals. It is the vocal layering and the structure of the lyrics. Bush singing a line and then a backing vocal delivers an explosive single word. The urgency and terror through the song is Bush as this horror auteur. When writing for the Kate Bush Club Newsletter in October 1982, she said this about Get Out of My House: “As in ‘Alien’, the central characters are isolated, miles (or light years) away from anyone or anything, but there is something in the place with them. They’re not sure what, but it isn’t very nice. The setting for this song continues the theme – the house which is really a human being, has been shut up – locked and bolted, to stop any outside forces from entering. The person has been hurt and has decided to keep everybody out”. The Shining was one of the first books that truly terrified her. Bush revealed how the track changed quite a bit. Originally a lot longer than the album version (5:25). The second-longest song on The Dreaming (one second shorter than Pull Out the Pin), Bush said this to Company when they interviewed her in 1982: “The idea is that as more experiences actually get to you, you start learning how to defend yourself from them. The human can be seen as a house where you start putting up shutters at the windows and locking the doors – not letting in certain things. I think a lot of people are like this – they don’t hear what they don’t want to hear, don’t see what they don’t want to see”. Perhaps this was Bush taking on so much and trying to put out intrusive and bad people. It is a fascinating song to unpick! I think about her debut single, Wuthering Heights, and the ghost of Catherine Eaernshwaw trying to break through a window to get to Heathcliff. Gothic and frightening, if Wuthering Heights is more like someone trying to grab someone away, Get Out of My House is this chainsaw-wielding spirit. That pre-chorus where Bush sings “I am the concierge chez-moi, honey/Won’t letcha in for love, nor money” in this affected vocal. Kind of sexy and intense at the same time, it is like she is providing this measured and patient warning before the true explosion begins: “My home, my joy/I’m barred and bolted and I/(Won’t let you in)/(Get out of my house!)”.
The song intensifies and builds. Those not heading her warning are feeling the full affect. This person throwing up the shutters and bolting the door. Yelling out to those trying to get in: “This house is full of m-m-my mess/(Slamming)”. There are some extraordinary vocals on the song. Bush’s voice at once smoky and alluring; then it switches to this demonic and ecstatic scream. Paddy Bush providing backing vocals. Some ‘drum talk’ from the prodigious Esmail Sheikh. Perhaps the song’s defining moment comes when Bush and Paul Hardiman ‘eeyore’ together (as Bush changes “into the mule”). Referencing a moment in Disney’s Pinocchio where boys are turned into donkeys on Pleasure Island, a trap run by the sinister Coachman where misbehaving kids are cursed to become donkeys for slave labour; Pinocchio's friend, Lampwick, fully transforms, while Pinocchio escapes with donkey ears and a tail. This idea of Bush’s concierge kicking out these unwanted guests by transfmorgidtiny into a donkey. Like an animal letting out a cry or roar, it is the moment this person – either dead or alive – is at their most intense. In 202, Dreams of Orgonon discussed the track and its deeper meanings. Trigger warning to anyone reading the full post as it does discuss sexual and domestic abuse:
“Uncertainty pervades “Get Out of My House,” The Dreaming’s brutal culmination. Catalyzed by its beleaguering yet urgent drumbeat and a lacerating lead guitar part from Alan Murphy, it is confrontational and purgative in its spectacular vocal menagerie, all in dialogue (often call-and-response) with one another yet seemingly not of an accord, as the bombastic and tremulous delivery of “when you left, the door was…” is answered by the siren-like, low-mixed B.V.’s crying “SLAMMING!” Adhering mostly to 4/4, “Get Out of My House” revolves through dizzying sequences of repetitive chord changes, with its first verse in G# melodic minor, confined to a progression of i-IV (G# minor – C#), moving to the natural minor in Verse Two with a progression of i-iv (G# minor – C # minor), signaling a domination of brutal repetition and minor keys without catharsis. With one of Bush’s most agonized vocals carrying the refrain (a genuinely harrowing and throaty “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!”), the song emits agony, trauma, and expulsion.
All this is clear-cut and blunt. The house is protecting itself from violation. Bush’s defense is cathartic madness, flamboyantly hee-hawing her way out of the song (evocative of Jack Nichsolon’s brays of “Daaaaaaannyyyyyyy!” near the end of The Shining). Trauma is unleashed as a weapon against its instigator. The house has a chance to fight back at last, or realizes it has the gumption to. The sexual abuse metaphors don’t need to be expanded on greatly — having a woman scream for her freedom from a hostile man or, chillingly, say “no stranger’s feet will enter me” speaks for itself. It is frightening and immediate, even moreso than “Breathing,” and a culmination of Bush’s sometimes half-baked and flawed but usually noble revolutionary instincts
Backing tracks laid down at Townhouse Studios, Shepherd’s Bush, London in May ’81. Overdubs recorded at Odyssey Studios, London in August ’81, and at Advision Studios, Fitzrovia, London from January through March ’81. Mixed at Advision from March through May ’81”.
Before we close this first side, it is worth noting how this song has taken on a new light in 2025. I mentioned Charli xcx earlier. Her incredible track, House, which features John Cale delivering this dark and gravitas-filled spoken part. Then we witness this explosion and change of tone. Cale’s delivery is wonderful. Line I can see influenced by Get Out of My House: “Let it be perfect/Am I living in another world?/Another world I created/For what?”. Charli xcx then mirrors the same sort of dark and demonic tone Kate Bush does in Get Out of My House during the chorus: “I think I'm gonna die in this house”. Many fans noted the similarities not only in terms of the title of both songs. Charli xcx’s House will feature on the soundtrack to Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack. The fact it is Wuthering Heights obviously has this Kate Bush connection. I can see House picking up from Get Out of My House and applying it to Wuthering Heights. Maybe Charli xcx embodying Catherine Earnshaw. The endless relevance of Kate Bush and how she is inspiring and shaping modern-day queens. Get Out of My House is perhaps not Bush’s most emotionally raw track, yet it is her most violent and frightening. Never performed live and not released as a single, it is one of those what-ifs when you imagine how she would stage this song. Taking inspiration from Stephen King’s The Shining, it is this under pressure artist taking advice and criticism in equal measures. People pushing and pulling her. This is almost a musical retaliation. Bush wanting her privacy and space and letting out a more animalistic side. Bush, as the person whose house is under threat, The Concierge, is at her most exhilarating here. Phenomenal production and a spellbinding vocal, this is one of the standouts from, I think, her most influential modern album. In terms of how influential it is to contemporary artists.
In terms of emotion and the sonic palette, Lily is a lot warmer. If Get Out of My House is all wind, rain, fire and shades of black, red and brown, Lily is warmer and more spiritual. Yellows, oranges and blues perhaps. This is an occasion of Kate Bush naming a song after a real-life person. A friend of hers. Faith, spirituality and realms beyond the physical and earthly are a big part of Bush’s musical tapestry. Woven from paganism, Celtic myth, Eastern mysticism, and a deep connection to nature, exploring themes of transformation, the divine feminine, consciousness, the unknown and mythologised, Bush has also covered and explored broader spiritual concepts like reincarnation and witchcraft. Although Lily is this mantra and prayer that Bush used as the opening song for her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, its title nods to the late great Lily Conford. Bush immortalised Cornford because she was touched and impressed by her huge knowledge and intuition and kindness. Cornford was a proponent of mental colour healing. If considered pseudoscience by many, mental colour healing, or chromotherapy, is a holistic practice using colours and light to influence mood, energy, and mental well-being, based on the idea that different hues carry specific vibrational energies affecting the mind and body, often linked to chakras and ancient traditions. The idea of religion, spirituality and different beliefs in Kate Bush’s work could have its own chapter. Raised a Roman Catholic, Bush was never especially religious. However, she has said in interviews how, early in her career, she was on a mission from God. This mission to record music and be a success. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is Bush talking to this divine spirit. Imploring that men and women can swap places to better understand one another. From Jesus and Gurdjieff in The Kick Inside’s Them Heavy People (who I will reference in a future part of this series), to Buddhist mantras in Strange Phenomena (from The Kick Inside again), to divine experiences and catching a glimpse of God in Suspended in Gaffa (from The Dreaming) to spiritual struggles you can hear on songs like Hounds of Love’s Cloudbusting, Bush has never espoused one philosophy or belief.
Her mention of astrology, the paranormal, the mystical and mythical and New Age philosophies has definitely influenced other artists. In terms of not being dogmatic and single-faith. Exploring different cultures and religions, I think Lily is much more personal. Bush putting her faith in the hands of this extraordinary woman who Bush befriended in the 1990s. The Red Shoes was released in 1993. Lily is the sixth song from her seventh studio album. Interestingly, it follows The Song of Solomon. This song uses lines and themes directly from the biblical book, known for its intense, sensual poetry between lovers, often interpreted allegorically as Christ and the Church. But celebrated by many as pure human love. I am adapting that from an A.I.-generated search, though there are fan theories about this song. This interpretation argues that the track is “about The Song of Solomon, itself about a man's passionate love for a woman expressed through words, and her love which she gives him physically. "Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love" "give me your poetry in motion...and sing it with a kiss". There is spirituality and divinity running through the opening verse of Lily: “Oh thou, who givest sustenance to the universe/From whom all things proceed/To whom all things return/Unveil to us the face of the true spiritual sun/Hidden by a disc of golden light/That we may know the truth/And do our whole duty/As we journey to thy sacred feet”. Bush sings about life blowing a hole right through her. Rather than seek comfort in escapism or succumbing to addiction and darkness, Kate Bush turns to this spiritual healer. The lines, “Gabriel before me/Raphael behind me/Michael to my right/Uriel on my left side/In the circle of fire” seem to have biblical connotations.
Michael and Raphael are prominent archangels mentioned in The Bible, though Raphael appears only in the Deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, considered scripture by Catholics and Orthodox but not Protestants. Michael is the warrior angel, leader of God's armies, mentioned in Daniel and Revelation, fighting Satan and defending God's people. Raphael is the healer and guide, helping Tobias in Tobit, using a fish's organs to cure blindness and bind a demon, embodying God's healing power. Gabriel is the name of an archangel in The Bible, known for delivering crucial messages from God, such as announcing the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. Rather than Lily being this healer who can cure Bush and lead her to the light, she is instead providing guidance. The song is this dialogue between Lily Cornford and Kate Bush. Lily very sagely saying to take what she says, “with a pinch of salt”. This plea to “protect yourself with fire”. Protect yourself with fire could refer to using the principles found in the Bible, often associated with the Holy Spirit and divine power, for spiritual protection. Although I am leaning a lot on the feedback and suggestions from search engines, I wanted to go deeper. I never connected Lily too heavily with The Bible and religion. I always assumed it was more about faith healing and a more general spirituality. However, the biblical imagery seems to be about Bush connecting with faith. Those written about in The Bible who were tested or those who endured these struggles. Lily Cornford sadly died in 2003. However, and thanks to Kate Bush Encyclopedia, we can discover more about this wonderful person: “Together with Joseph Leech she established the Maitreya School of Healing in 1974. Lily has investigated many different aspects of healing but her primary area of interest was in direct, color healing-using her mind and her heart and her own hands directly with people.”.
If Get Out of My House is about dark spirits and is more demonic, Lily is more about angels and trying to find light and strength. For the Kate Bush Club Magazine in 1993, Bush said this about the wonderful Lily Cornford: “She believes in the powers of Angels and taught me to see them in a different light, that they exist to help human beings and are very powerful as well as benevolent forces. She taught me some prayers that I found very useful (particularly in my line of work), she helped me a lot and I guess I wanted to pass on her message about our Angels – we all have them, we only have to ask for help”. Before wrapping up, I have sourced before an interesting article from 2014, that discusses Kate Bush’s Shivaism, Dionysian and druid philosophy, and it opens by referencing Lily: “This song lyrically is an explicit magical ceremony, a literal invocation/initiation, in the style of the Rosicurician Orders, à la the Golden Dawn school of the western magical tradition. “Gabriel is before me, Raphael behind me ….. In the circle of fire”. This is key to understanding Kate. She has her own cult, her own mystery school tradition. Her unique strand of Shivaism, Dionysian and Druid philosophy, loosely wrapped up in a song and dance tradition. It’s part magical realism, overt nature spirituality and art house”. In future editions, I will reference real-life characters in songs from Kate Bush. Whether directly name-checking real figures or fictional people, the songs of Kate Bush are replete with these wonderful and curious people. Characters that are not necessarily human. The otherworldly and divine.
I love Lily, as it is this combination of a real-life friend of Kate Bush’s, though, there are biblical references and figures from The Bible. I have not mentioned Uriel. Though not referenced in The Bible, he is mentioned in apocryphal texts such as the Book of Enoch and 2 Esdras. He is identified as a prominent archangel, the ‘angel of wisdom’ or ‘fire of God’, who warns Noah of the Flood and enlightens the prophet Ezra. Lily has the rare honour of featuring on three Kate Bush albums. The original version from 1993’s The Red Shoes. A reworked (and arguably stronger) version on 2011’s Director’s Cut. It also appears on the live album for Before the Dawn, released in 2016. The Before the Dawn version has this rocking and harder edge compared to the version on The Red Shoes. Kicking off this feature with two incredible central characters and a few biblical support acts, it allows me to explore Kate Bush songs more deeply. Shining a light on corners that people might not have considered before. I am not sure what characters will feature in the second edition, though I think I will definitely go to The Kick Inside. I may even pair that with a character from Aerial or even Never for Ever. There is such a vast array to choose from! I must say a huge thanks to Joan LeMay. Initially, I was going to write a Kate Bush book that looked at characters in her songs and connected them with musical and culture references and inspirations. Chronological, album by album, I was going to approach each album like a film. The cast of characters in each. I may instead write a book about The Kick Inside ahead of its fiftieth anniversary in 2028. Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan came from LeMay. Noticing the diverse characters in the Steely Dan world and that notion of exploring them. The text was written by Alex Pappademas, whilst Joan LeMay produced the beautiful artwork. Bringing these Steely Dan characters to life. Rather than replicate Joan LeMay’s idea, I am going to diversify and build in other elements for future parts. Connect cultural touchstones, historical moments and influences (musical and otherwise) and incorporate them into these character profiles. My exploration of the wonderful people ion the songs of…
A peerless artist and true original.