"HELLO EARTH" KATE BUSH (1985)

For October, the Mental Jukebox is dialing it way back to the eighties and going deep. Deep cuts have always been an important element of music listening to me because they’re often the songs that resonate with me most. Deep cuts are usually the ones that the true fans appreciate most. I like my singles and hits, but I love my deep cuts.

Sometimes I think about how much I owe to music artists who unknowingly have become such a huge part of me. My life’s soundtrack. I think about how this movie I’m living would not be the same without the music tracks to support it. Then I think about the music artists who not only exhibited greatness in their own right, they helped pave the way for other great artists that followed after them. These are my thoughts when I listen to Kate Bush’s “Hello Earth”.

Kate always had such a unique perspective. A unique way of looking at things that are right in front of us. “Hello Earth” is one of many examples of this. A beautiful, sweeping deep cut on an album full of Kate’s biggest “hits”, it’s possibly the one track that best exhibits and typifies her ability to let the beauty shine through the ugliness. “Hello Earth” has even greater implications when you hear it back today and realize that this was the sound and aesthetic that Tori Amos and others built off in their own amazing trajectory as music artists. I’m in awe as I listen to it today nearly 40 years later. 40 friggin years.

“With just one hand held up high, I can blot you out Out of sight.”

"RUNNING UP THAT HILL" KATE BUSH (1985)

This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs

TV Series: Stranger Things

The 80’s are the most meaningful era for me musically. It was the decade that I first fell in love with music. And many of the bands from that era are just as relevant to me today as they were back then. It’s my decade. And so there’s no better song to capture what the decade has meant to me through television than one of my favorite Kate Bush anthems: “Running Up That Hill”, a song that has experienced a resurgence through its appearance on Stranger Things during Season 4 in a showdown between Vecna and Max. Because, for me, the 80’s are always ripe for a resurgence in my life.

There’s a delicate beauty to much of Kate Bush’s catalog. But “Running Up That Hill” showed a brasher, more assertive side. On one level, we can simply enjoy the song’s most memorable elements like its echoey drum roll, its unusual synth hook off a Fairlight CMI and Bush’s powerful lyrics and vocals. On another level, the song’s impact on the future of music is something to behold. It’s because of Kate Bush songs like “Running Up That Hill” that we have artists like Tori Amos, St. Vincent, Bjork, Florence and countless others.

“LET ME STEAL THIS MOMENT FROM YOU NOW.”

"ROCKET'S TAIL" KATE BUSH (1989)

I started Mental Jukebox nearly three years ago at the beginning of the pandemic. During this time, I’ve discovered new music, rediscovered old favorites and I’ve met passionate music fans around the world. And when things opened up, I kept on blogging. This month, the jukebox goes deeper. The term “deep cut” has multiple meanings. It can refer to lesser known album tracks from well-known artists. It can also refer to tracks from lesser known artists. This month, I’ll be featuring both types. #DeepCutsFeb

If there’s an artist whose worth and influence are truly measured by their deep cuts – not their hits – it’s Kate Bush. I have nothing against “Running Up That Hill”, “Wuthering Heights”, “Cloudbusting” or “This Woman’s Work”. I will always love those songs. And those songs are all high influential. But it’s deeper into her albums when Kate often becomes even more daring, experimental and, best of all, unexpected. “Rocket’s Tail” is a case in point.

Hearing it back today, I’m struck by how ahead of its time this track was. This track alone is a blueprint for Florence + The Machine’s fourth and fifth studio albums. “Rocket’s Tail” is part beauty, part beast. It starts off with those achingly beautiful music harmonies. And then, seemingly out of nowhere at the 1:29 mark, the electric guitar solo launches explosively into the ether like it’s some Pink Floyd affair.

“You said, "Hey, wish that was me up there. It's the biggest rocket I could find
And it's holding the night in its arms.”

"THE MORNING FOG" KATE BUSH (1985)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

What a joy it was to see Kate Bush finally break through to the masses in the U.S. with the resurrection of “Running Up That Hill” nearly 40 years after it was released, thanks to Stranger Things. Bush’s earlier albums had more classical undertones, but Hounds Of Love is where she masterfully melded progressive with pop. “The Big Sky”, “Hounds Of Love”, “Cloudbusting” and the closer “The Morning Fog” are some of my favorite songs from her catalog.

“The Morning Fog” musically and thematically is perfect as the final track on the album. It sounds like a reprise, as if it’s a continuation of the tracks that precede it. Listening to it in isolation just isn’t the same experience. Everything about “The Morning Fog” – the lyrics, the smoldering bass line, the piano arpeggios – feel like a new dawn filled with a sense of clarity and hope even as this tremendous pop album winds down to its final moments.

“The light. Begin to bleed, Begin to breathe, Begin to speak.”

"THE MORNING FOG" KATE BUSH (1985)

It’s time to get back to my favorite decade. For the month of March, I’ll be looking back at some of my favorite jams from the 80s. These songs often came to me via MTV or the radio. NYC-area stations WDRE, WPLJ, WNEW, K-ROCK and Z100 introduced me to everything from irresistible pop confections to under-the-radar post-punk anthems. I would not be who I am today if it weren’t for the 80s. It was the decade when I discovered music can be a truly powerful thing. #31DaysOf80sSongs

In stark contrast to the U.K., the U.S. has always been slower to adopt alternative and progressive forms of music on any real mass scale. Alternative has been just that – the alternative. And progressive forms have been even more niche. It’s why Kate Bush is such an underrated talent here in the States, even though she was quite famous in the U.K. Critics have suggested that Bush would’ve been more successful had she made her appearance ten years later during the Lilith Fair years – among the very artists she inspired. And maybe that’s the greatest compliment we can give Kate Bush. That she was so far ahead of her time, paving the way, even if we didn’t understand the road she was creating until we looked back at it many years later. That’s the feeling I get when I hear the Hounds of Love album and its closing track, “The Morning Fog”.

“Cloudbusting” and “Running Up That Hill” are two of my other favorite tracks from the same album. But, even in the States, these songs got some due respect on college rock stations. But in this country, “The Morning Fog” flew completely under the radar. One of Bush’s more melodic tracks, the song contained pop expressions that manifested in un-pop instrumentation like classical guitar and a Slovakian flute known as the fujara. There’s a beauty and a sophistication to the way Bush strings together different sounds. But instruments aside, it’s the way that she sings that makes her so unique and distinct. She sings like an actress on a stage who’s capable of expressing a wide range of emotions.

“I am falling like a stone, like a storm. Being born again into the sweet morning fog.”

"HANG ON TO YOUR EGO" BEACH BOYS (1966)

For the month of January, I’m selecting some of the most memorable and influential songs of the 60’s. While they all hail from the same decade, these are some of my favorite songs of any era. They remind me that the 60’s were so much more than just Woodstock and psychedelic rock. It was a flourishing period for blues, folk, progressive and straight-ahead rock. #31DaysOf60sSongs

Few albums have the stature of Pet Sounds. That’s a true statement not just for the 60’s, but throughout time. It has set a very high bar for bands looking to do things differently and unexpectedly. That said, Pet Sounds truthfully just isn’t a favorite album of mine. But the greatest compliment I can give it is that I love many of the albums that it inspired. Much of the experimentalism that continues to happen in music simply wouldn’t be possible without the exceptionally talented Brian Wilson. One song that proves my point is “Hang On To Your Ego”, probably my favorite track from Pet Sounds.

The track sounds like it belongs under the big top. Timpanis, keyboards, banjos and even a bass harmonica give the song its circus-like feel. Throughout the track, I’m reminded of many great artists that came after The Beach Boys. The tempo change and interlude at the 1:40 mark reminds me of the instrumental cacophany of Wilco. The wide spectrum of instrumentation reminds me of Sufjan Stevens’ own versatility. And the unconventional song structure reminds me of Animal Collective and others. By pushing limits on “Hang On To Your Ego”, The Beach Boys have inspired so many other artists to do the same with their own songs.

“I know so many people who think they can do it alone. They isolate their heads and stay in their safety zones.”

"MERCY STREET" PETER GABRIEL (1986)

For the month of October, I’m selecting a song each day from the decade that has the most meaning to me: the 80s. It was the decade that I grew up in. The period of time where I discovered my love for music — and explored many different genres. For the next 31 days, I’ll highlight a handful of songs that I truly loved and that were representative of the decade. #31DaysOf80sSongs

It’s not lost on me that So still holds up as one of the greatest albums of the decade. It was a weird space. Here, Peter Gabriel, one of prog rock’s pioneers showed a more accessible side. He crossed over fully here. Yet, there isn’t anything watered down on the album. “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time” may have gotten all the airplay. “In Your Eyes” benefitted from one of the most iconic movie scenes of the 80’s. And “Don’t Give Up” is as powerful a duet as it gets. But back then, and even today, my favorite song on the album is still “Mercy Street”.

Every song on So makes you feel something. An emotion that you can easily identify in a lineup of other emotions. Every song was like that, except “Mercy Street”. It lived in ambiguity. There was this mysterious quality about it. I knew it was making me feel something, but I didn’t know what. All I knew is I couldn’t stop listening to it, even as I grew tired of the other tracks. Gabriel’s ominous vocals are joined along by several different instruments in “Mercy Street”. But the one element that carried the most weight was the unsuspecting and haunting triangle, with its steady, insistent clang.

“All of the buildings, all of the cars were once just a dream in somebody's head.”

"LOVE AND ANGER" KATE BUSH (1989)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

From my middle to high school years, I was fortunate to catch the end reaches of WDRE’s radio waves soaring across Long Island Sound. WDRE was my gateway to great music beyond the obvious artists. Where I grew up, it was easy to play Billy Joel, Zeppelin, the Dead, GnR and U2 to death. But no one was pointing me to Kate Bush. No one except my British cousin and WDRE. There was a four-year studio absence between Hounds of Love and The Sensual World, but when “Love and Anger” hit the airwaves, it was like Kate Bush made up for all that lost time overnight.

Bush has stuck with many of the same recording musicians over the years. Such was the case with “Love and Anger” where Bush enlisted David Gilmour to play guitar. Gilmour noticed her talent early on before she signed with a record company. He ended up paying for a few of her demos. And he has also let his producer mind and guitar playing abilities on various Kate Bush recordings over the years. In “Love and Anger”, we hear Gilmour’s distinct soaring riffs combined with the maturation of Kate Bush’s voice from less whimsical to more wise.

“Looking for a moment that'll never happen. Living in the gap between past and future.”

"THE BIG SKY" KATE BUSH (1985)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

Hounds of Love contains some of my favorite songs of all time. Collectively they represented a vibrant evolution of Kate Bush’s music. It had many parallels to So, the album from her longtime collaborator Peter Gabriel that came out the very same year. What Hounds of Love — and “The Big Sky” in particular — did was beat her peers at their own game. She made pop better and more progressive.

“The Big Sky” is vast, grand and full, riding on the back of that relentless bass slap. It rocked a lot more than much of Kate’s previous catalog, but the vocals and the epic instrumental arrangements were still a nod to her musical past. “The Big Sky” is simultaneously a great introduction to the world of Kate Bush and a great example of her musical versatility.

“They look down at the ground. Missing but I never go in now. I'm looking at the big sky.”

"SUSPENDED IN GAFFA" KATE BUSH (1982)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

Listening to a Kate Bush track feels less like pressing ‘play’ and more like pulling a book off a shelf and diving in. Her songs are stories put to music. Like an exquisitely crafted musical. In 1982, the music world was enamored with synthesizers. But with “Suspended in Gaffa”, Bush went in a completely different and unexpected direction than her peers.

She chose the mandolin and synclavier instead of synths. Opted for stick hits instead of snare hits. And crafted a story about someone catching a glimpse of God. The melody makes the vocals a musical feat as there are barely moments for Bush to breathe in between certain lines. “Suspended in Gaffa”, in many ways, is a divine encounter — from its gripping storytelling to its musical ingenuity.

“I won't open boxes that I am told not to. I'm not a Pandora.”

"ARMY DREAMERS" KATE BUSH (1980)

Pick four songs from any band and you can tell a lot about their sound. This summer, I’m featuring #RockBlocks, four picks from bands across various genres. They might be wildly different from each other, but what binds them together is the fact that they’re all a part of my life soundtrack.

To enter Kate Bush’s world is to have one foot stepping back into history and one foot firmly planted in the future. It’s the way she straddles the role of historian and pioneer that makes her so unique and respected in music circles. The fact that she was commercially successful in England with several hit singles tells you how much more sophisticated fans and critics are on the other side of the pond. Because these songs, including “Army Dreamers”, are not exactly the most accessible things for your ears.

Listening back to “Army Dreamers”, I’m struck by the fact that there is nothing contrived about this music. Nothing else sounds like it. Kate Bush didn’t merely write music lyrics, she wrote a post-war epic. She didn’t merely record a rock song, she composed a musical masterpiece. She showed us another way beyond synths and electric guitars, making magic out of mandolins and bodhrans.

“The weather warmer, he is colder. Four men in uniform to carry home my little soldier.”

"MERCY STREET" PETER GABRIEL (1986)

Inspired by Albumism, I’m doing my own version of Flying Solo with individual tracks. Band breakups and hiatuses are never fun, but these solo jams were defining moments in my life’s soundtrack.

So was a true landmark album in many ways. While commercially successful, Peter Gabriel didn’t give in to the pop sounds surrounding him. Instead, he rose above them, elevating pop with songs like “In Your Eyes”, “Sledgehammer”, “Big Time”, “Red Rain” and “Don’t Give Up”, one of a few collaborations he’s had with Kate Bush. But to this day, my favorite track on the album is still the understated and underrated “Mercy Street”.

Surrounded by mega hits “In Your Eyes” and “Big Time” on Side B, “Mercy Street” was complicated. It was haunting, yet inviting. It wasn’t merely sung. It painted a picture like all the best songs do. When you turn it on, you can see the empty streets and the fog-covered sea. This artistic depth proved Peter Gabriel never lost the progressive itch that made him so unique.

“Looking down on empty streets, all she can see are the dreams all made solid, are the dreams made real.”

"GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS" PETER GABRIEL (1980)

Inspired by Albumism, I’m doing my own version of Flying Solo with individual tracks. Band breakups and hiatuses are never fun, but these solo jams were defining moments in my life’s soundtrack.

Before his foray into alternative rock and world music, Peter Gabriel carried the prog rock themes of early Genesis into his solo work. With “Games Without Frontiers”, he made prog rock more accessible.

One of my favorite Peter Gabriel anthems, just about everything in it was progressive, from the vocals to the keys to the guitar to the whistling. But the melody was palatable, even catchy. Each track on Peter Gabriel 3 was like a unique book that you could pull off the shelf, dust off and devour. “Games Without Frontiers” felt like a post-apocalyptic narrative, like The Hunger Games, Battle Royale and Lord of the Flies rolled up into one 4 minute jam.

“If looks could kill they probably will. In games without frontiers - wars without tears.”

"CLOUDBUSTING" KATE BUSH (1985)

This week I’m featuring 80’s deep cuts on Mental Jukebox. They’re the non-charting singles. The forgotten b-sides. The unheralded album staples. While they may not be the first songs that come to mind when you think of the 80’s, they’re some of the most important musical statements of the decade.

Kate Bush stands in two worlds. One foot firmly in the future. Another foot firmly back in time. No other female artist in her era was more influential. But for some reason, her full body of work has gone largely unnoticed in the U.S. Even “Running Up That Hill” was only considered a minor hit in the states. That qualifies “Cloudbusting” as a true deep cut. With its austere, cello-led string arrangement, it’s the antithesis of radio-friendly and the blueprint for genre crossover maneuvering.

“I just know that something good is gonna happen.”

"RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD)" KATE BUSH (1985)

When I visited my cousin in England during the Live Aid years, she was raving about Kate Bush. But she was barely a known name in the States. I was happy enough with my Duran Duran and Simple Minds. In many ways, the music world just wasn’t ready for Kate Bush when she entered it. But her progressive approach and foresight have made her a powerful influence. We hear aspects of her in everyone from Tori Amos to Fiona Apple to Lorde to Florence. And “Running Up That Hill” is Kate Bush at her best. The never-ending struggle between man and woman. The original, melodic pop elements. And gripping, emotional storytelling.

“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.”