Chords for Kate Bush - Interview March 1978
Tempo:
131.45 bpm
Chords used:
G
D
Gm
B
Bb
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[G] A strange and lovely and fascinating song Kate.
[E] What was it [Eb] about Kathy and about [G] Wuthering Heights that caught you, that made you write it?
Well I saw a series [B] on the television [G] about ten years ago and it was on very [Dm] late at night
and I caught [B] literally the last five [D]
minutes of the series where she was at the window trying to get in
and it [G] just really struck me, it was so strong
[B] and for years it's just been going around in my [D] head like the basic [G] story and that visual image of her at the window
and I thought it was [C] just perfect [D] material for the song, it's just [G] so passionate and full of [C] impact, it's [G] great.
[B] And I read [Dm] the book.
You [Bb] read the book later?
Yeah I read the [Gm] book before I wrote the song because I needed to get the mood properly.
Is [F] the pitch of your voice there, [G] your [E] natural comfortable singing pitch or do you [Em] deliberately heighten it to get [D] the effect of Kathy, this ghost like effect?
Yes I do, I do deliberately heighten it just because it's what the song calls for, [G] but it's comfortable as well.
Do you have to, does it strain your voice to do it, I mean do you take [F] lessons to get it technically right so that you're not hurting your vocal cords?
No I don't actually [Gm] take lessons [G] to do that but I do have a teacher [Gm] who I haven't seen for months in fact but he [D] keeps an eye on my voice to make sure I'm not pulling it around too much.
When did you start writing songs?
[G] I must have been 11 or 12, I mean but that was a very unprofessional sort of situation.
Was it in secret or for family and friends to hear?
Oh always in secret, I could never [Gm] do it in front of people, I've never been able to [G] and if I do I automatically feel that the fact that it's a performance because as soon as you have someone in the room with you [Bb] I feel you should [G] give them the best, you should [Db] perform.
Well when did the music men come to hear about you and [G] how?
That was quite a gradual [D] process, when I was about 14 there was a friend of my brothers called Ricky Hopper who was in the business and [G] he knew a lot of people and he acted as [B] a [Bb] friend to try and get the tapes [G] across [D] to people [Bb] and [G] after some trying there was no response [B] and he knew Dave [D] Gilmour from the Pink [G] Floyd [D] and Dave came [Gb] along to hear [D] me because at that time he [G] was scouting for [B] struggling [Bb] artists
and [Gm] he'd already helped a [D] band [Gm] [D] called Unicorn [G] and he came along and [Dm] heard me and he put up [G] the money for me to make [D] a proper demo with [G] arrangements and [D] selected songs and we took it to the [Bb] company.
And you were [G] what age then, about 16?
Yes.
But the company then asked you as I understand it to sort of go away and write more and develop your [Gb] voice and they didn't at that stage want to release [G] a song [Dm] by you?
No that's not quite true, they didn't tell me to go away, I signed the [D] contract and there was just [C] feelings that we weren't sure how to handle it, I mean I myself felt that I was very young at [G] that time and not capable of handling the business, I didn't know anything about it and I think they were also worried that I was too young and that they were looking on it as a long term project and that they wanted to give me time and I just used the time, I [D] wasn't told to go and do anything.
[Db] Tell me about [B]
the process [Bb] of writing songs, you mentioned Wuthering Heights and it came from that [Gm] image of Cathy at the window, is it an [G] idea like that or is it perhaps sometimes a phrase of music or a few words that come into your head, how does it happen?
It's very often from other [D] people, I mean people are just so full of poetry, [Gm] they say it all the time, you know, and they're the most amazing phrases that people [G] come up with, they just aren't covered [D] and you can really [G] draw from people's minds and [Ab] the situations [Gm] people are in, they're always in different situations with different mental things [G] going on inside them, for me they're probably the most fascinating source of stimulation.
Some of your songs, there are love songs on the album of course, some of [D] them straightforward explicit love songs [Db] but there are [F] dreams there too and there are fantasies there too and I wondered [Gm] if you feel that there [C] is a general [G] direction in which you're moving in the songs that you write.
[D] I like to think there is a direction but [Gm] it's only the fact that I'm connected with it and the [D] piano is, I like to feel that otherwise I'm free to move and I feel that you [G] shouldn't plan yourself a direction, you should just move in a line and hopefully a straight line.
When I was trying to think of possible influences on you, the [F] name that kept coming to my mind was Joni Mitchell, [G] I wondered if you were a fan of Joni Mitchell's.
I admire her very much, [D] I hadn't in fact listened [G] to her [D] that much and I think [G] the main reason is I try not to listen to female artists too [D] much just because [B] for me it would be [D] too easy to relate with them, I mean I love Joni Mitchell and whenever I hear her it sends shivers at me you know but I really try to listen [G] to expansive music as well, just [D] cover areas.
Were you surprised that a song as unusual [G] as Wuthering Heights [Fm] made it in the way that [Gm] it has up to the top?
[D] Yeah, [Gm] I'm amazed, I mean [G] I always hoped that it would do something and that people would like it but [D] the extent [G] and the speed is just incredible, it really is awesome [Dm] and it makes me feel like that [D] high you know, really small.
In a piece about you the other day, the man [F] from the Sunday Times addressed [D] a warning to you at the end and he said the music business is a [Db] corrupting industry, what are those strange and ugly birds gathering [G] in the trees around you?
I'm not [D] quite sure what he meant.
Traffic wardens.
Traffic [G] wardens.
Is it going to be [Gm] a tough business to [G] live in and work in and survive in?
It's hard to say, I think you can [Bm] make it tougher [G] for yourself but I think you can make it [Gm] easier for yourself as well, it's like any business, it's how you take [D] it and I think really in a lot of ways I'm very [G] privileged to be put in situations that I'd never [C] ever have the [G] chance of being in, I mean like seeing a studio you know or [Gm] meeting people I'd never meet, [D] it's very privileged.
It's very nice for us to meet you, thank you Kate for talking to
[E] What was it [Eb] about Kathy and about [G] Wuthering Heights that caught you, that made you write it?
Well I saw a series [B] on the television [G] about ten years ago and it was on very [Dm] late at night
and I caught [B] literally the last five [D]
minutes of the series where she was at the window trying to get in
and it [G] just really struck me, it was so strong
[B] and for years it's just been going around in my [D] head like the basic [G] story and that visual image of her at the window
and I thought it was [C] just perfect [D] material for the song, it's just [G] so passionate and full of [C] impact, it's [G] great.
[B] And I read [Dm] the book.
You [Bb] read the book later?
Yeah I read the [Gm] book before I wrote the song because I needed to get the mood properly.
Is [F] the pitch of your voice there, [G] your [E] natural comfortable singing pitch or do you [Em] deliberately heighten it to get [D] the effect of Kathy, this ghost like effect?
Yes I do, I do deliberately heighten it just because it's what the song calls for, [G] but it's comfortable as well.
Do you have to, does it strain your voice to do it, I mean do you take [F] lessons to get it technically right so that you're not hurting your vocal cords?
No I don't actually [Gm] take lessons [G] to do that but I do have a teacher [Gm] who I haven't seen for months in fact but he [D] keeps an eye on my voice to make sure I'm not pulling it around too much.
When did you start writing songs?
[G] I must have been 11 or 12, I mean but that was a very unprofessional sort of situation.
Was it in secret or for family and friends to hear?
Oh always in secret, I could never [Gm] do it in front of people, I've never been able to [G] and if I do I automatically feel that the fact that it's a performance because as soon as you have someone in the room with you [Bb] I feel you should [G] give them the best, you should [Db] perform.
Well when did the music men come to hear about you and [G] how?
That was quite a gradual [D] process, when I was about 14 there was a friend of my brothers called Ricky Hopper who was in the business and [G] he knew a lot of people and he acted as [B] a [Bb] friend to try and get the tapes [G] across [D] to people [Bb] and [G] after some trying there was no response [B] and he knew Dave [D] Gilmour from the Pink [G] Floyd [D] and Dave came [Gb] along to hear [D] me because at that time he [G] was scouting for [B] struggling [Bb] artists
and [Gm] he'd already helped a [D] band [Gm] [D] called Unicorn [G] and he came along and [Dm] heard me and he put up [G] the money for me to make [D] a proper demo with [G] arrangements and [D] selected songs and we took it to the [Bb] company.
And you were [G] what age then, about 16?
Yes.
But the company then asked you as I understand it to sort of go away and write more and develop your [Gb] voice and they didn't at that stage want to release [G] a song [Dm] by you?
No that's not quite true, they didn't tell me to go away, I signed the [D] contract and there was just [C] feelings that we weren't sure how to handle it, I mean I myself felt that I was very young at [G] that time and not capable of handling the business, I didn't know anything about it and I think they were also worried that I was too young and that they were looking on it as a long term project and that they wanted to give me time and I just used the time, I [D] wasn't told to go and do anything.
[Db] Tell me about [B]
the process [Bb] of writing songs, you mentioned Wuthering Heights and it came from that [Gm] image of Cathy at the window, is it an [G] idea like that or is it perhaps sometimes a phrase of music or a few words that come into your head, how does it happen?
It's very often from other [D] people, I mean people are just so full of poetry, [Gm] they say it all the time, you know, and they're the most amazing phrases that people [G] come up with, they just aren't covered [D] and you can really [G] draw from people's minds and [Ab] the situations [Gm] people are in, they're always in different situations with different mental things [G] going on inside them, for me they're probably the most fascinating source of stimulation.
Some of your songs, there are love songs on the album of course, some of [D] them straightforward explicit love songs [Db] but there are [F] dreams there too and there are fantasies there too and I wondered [Gm] if you feel that there [C] is a general [G] direction in which you're moving in the songs that you write.
[D] I like to think there is a direction but [Gm] it's only the fact that I'm connected with it and the [D] piano is, I like to feel that otherwise I'm free to move and I feel that you [G] shouldn't plan yourself a direction, you should just move in a line and hopefully a straight line.
When I was trying to think of possible influences on you, the [F] name that kept coming to my mind was Joni Mitchell, [G] I wondered if you were a fan of Joni Mitchell's.
I admire her very much, [D] I hadn't in fact listened [G] to her [D] that much and I think [G] the main reason is I try not to listen to female artists too [D] much just because [B] for me it would be [D] too easy to relate with them, I mean I love Joni Mitchell and whenever I hear her it sends shivers at me you know but I really try to listen [G] to expansive music as well, just [D] cover areas.
Were you surprised that a song as unusual [G] as Wuthering Heights [Fm] made it in the way that [Gm] it has up to the top?
[D] Yeah, [Gm] I'm amazed, I mean [G] I always hoped that it would do something and that people would like it but [D] the extent [G] and the speed is just incredible, it really is awesome [Dm] and it makes me feel like that [D] high you know, really small.
In a piece about you the other day, the man [F] from the Sunday Times addressed [D] a warning to you at the end and he said the music business is a [Db] corrupting industry, what are those strange and ugly birds gathering [G] in the trees around you?
I'm not [D] quite sure what he meant.
Traffic wardens.
Traffic [G] wardens.
Is it going to be [Gm] a tough business to [G] live in and work in and survive in?
It's hard to say, I think you can [Bm] make it tougher [G] for yourself but I think you can make it [Gm] easier for yourself as well, it's like any business, it's how you take [D] it and I think really in a lot of ways I'm very [G] privileged to be put in situations that I'd never [C] ever have the [G] chance of being in, I mean like seeing a studio you know or [Gm] meeting people I'd never meet, [D] it's very privileged.
It's very nice for us to meet you, thank you Kate for talking to
Key:
G
D
Gm
B
Bb
G
D
Gm
[G] A strange and lovely and fascinating song Kate.
[E] What was it [Eb] about Kathy and about [G] Wuthering Heights that caught you, that made you write it?
Well I saw a series [B] on the television [G] about ten years ago and it was on very [Dm] late at night
and I caught [B] literally the last five [D]
minutes of the series where she was at the window trying to get in
and it [G] just really struck me, it was so strong
_ [B] and for years it's just been going around in my [D] head like the basic [G] story and that visual image of her at the window
and I thought it was [C] just perfect [D] material for the song, it's just [G] so passionate and full of [C] impact, it's [G] great.
[B] And I read [Dm] the book.
You [Bb] read the book later?
Yeah I read the [Gm] book before I wrote the song because I needed to get the mood properly.
Is [F] the pitch of your voice there, [G] your [E] natural comfortable singing pitch or do you [Em] deliberately heighten it to get [D] the effect of Kathy, this ghost like effect?
Yes I do, I do deliberately heighten it just because it's what the song calls for, [G] but it's comfortable _ as well.
Do you have to, does it strain your voice to do it, I mean do you take [F] lessons to get it technically right so that you're not hurting your vocal cords?
No I don't actually [Gm] take lessons [G] to do that but I do have a teacher _ [Gm] who I haven't seen for months in fact but he [D] keeps an eye on my voice to make sure I'm not pulling it around too much.
When did you start writing songs?
[G] I must have been 11 or 12, I mean but that was a very unprofessional sort of situation.
Was it in secret or for family and friends to hear?
Oh always in secret, I could never [Gm] do it in front of people, I've never been able to [G] and if I do I automatically feel that the fact that it's a performance because as soon as you have someone in the room with you [Bb] I feel you should [G] give them the best, you should [Db] perform.
Well when did the music men come to hear about you and [G] how?
That was quite a gradual [D] process, when I was about 14 there was a friend of my brothers called Ricky Hopper who was in the business and [G] he knew a lot of people and he acted as [B] a [Bb] friend to try and get the tapes [G] across [D] to people _ [Bb] and [G] after some trying there was no response [B] and he knew Dave [D] Gilmour from the Pink [G] Floyd _ [D] and Dave came [Gb] along to hear [D] me because at that time he [G] was scouting for [B] struggling [Bb] artists
and [Gm] he'd already helped a [D] band [Gm] [D] called Unicorn _ [G] and he came along and [Dm] heard me and he put up [G] the money for me to make [D] a proper demo with [G] arrangements and [D] selected songs and we took it to the [Bb] company.
And you were [G] what age then, about 16?
Yes.
_ But the company then asked you as I understand it to sort of go away and _ _ write more and develop your [Gb] voice and they didn't at that stage want to release [G] a song [Dm] by you?
No that's not quite true, they didn't tell me to go away, I signed the [D] contract and there was just [C] _ feelings that we weren't sure how to handle it, I mean I myself felt that I was very young at [G] that time and not capable of handling the business, I didn't know anything about it and I think they were also worried that I was too young and that they were looking on it as a long term project and that they wanted to give me time and I just used the time, I [D] wasn't told to go and do anything.
_ [Db] Tell me about [B]
the process [Bb] of writing songs, you mentioned Wuthering Heights and it came from that [Gm] image of Cathy at the window, is it an [G] idea like that or is it perhaps sometimes a phrase of music or a few words that come into your head, how does it happen?
It's very often from other [D] people, I mean people are just so full of poetry, [Gm] they say it all the time, you know, and they're the most amazing phrases that people [G] come up with, they just aren't covered [D] and _ you can really [G] draw from people's minds and [Ab] the situations [Gm] people are in, they're always in different situations with different mental things [G] going on inside them, for me they're probably the most fascinating source of stimulation.
_ _ Some of your songs, there are love songs on the album of course, some of [D] them straightforward explicit love songs [Db] but there are [F] dreams there too and there are fantasies there too and I wondered [Gm] if you _ feel that there [C] is a general [G] direction in which you're moving in the songs that you write.
_ [D] I like to think there is a direction but [Gm] it's only the fact that _ I'm connected with it and the [D] piano is, I like to feel that otherwise I'm free to move and I feel that you [G] shouldn't plan yourself a direction, you should just move in a line and hopefully a straight line.
When I was trying to think of possible influences on you, the [F] name that kept coming to my mind was Joni Mitchell, [G] I wondered if you were a fan of Joni Mitchell's.
I admire her very much, [D] _ _ I hadn't in fact listened [G] to her [D] that much and I think [G] the main reason is I try not to listen to female artists too [D] much just because [B] for me it would be [D] too easy to relate with them, I mean I love Joni Mitchell and whenever I hear her it sends shivers at me you know but I really try to listen [G] to _ expansive music as well, just [D] cover areas.
Were you surprised that a song as unusual [G] as Wuthering Heights [Fm] made it in the way that [Gm] it has up to the top?
[D] Yeah, [Gm] I'm amazed, I mean [G] I always hoped that it would do something and that people would like it but [D] the extent [G] and the _ speed is just incredible, it really is awesome [Dm] and it makes me feel like that [D] high you know, really small.
In a piece about you the other day, the man [F] from the Sunday Times addressed [D] a warning to you at the end and he said the music business is a [Db] corrupting industry, what are those strange and ugly birds gathering [G] in the trees around you?
I'm not [D] quite sure what he meant.
Traffic wardens.
Traffic [G] wardens. _ _ _
Is it going to be [Gm] a tough business to _ [G] live in and work in and survive in?
_ It's hard to say, I think you can [Bm] make it tougher [G] for yourself but I think you can make it [Gm] easier for yourself as well, it's like any business, it's how you take [D] it and I think really in a lot of ways I'm very [G] privileged to be put in _ situations that I'd never [C] ever have the [G] chance of being in, I mean like seeing a studio you know or [Gm] meeting people I'd never meet, _ [D] it's very privileged.
It's very nice for us to meet you, thank you Kate for talking to
[E] What was it [Eb] about Kathy and about [G] Wuthering Heights that caught you, that made you write it?
Well I saw a series [B] on the television [G] about ten years ago and it was on very [Dm] late at night
and I caught [B] literally the last five [D]
minutes of the series where she was at the window trying to get in
and it [G] just really struck me, it was so strong
_ [B] and for years it's just been going around in my [D] head like the basic [G] story and that visual image of her at the window
and I thought it was [C] just perfect [D] material for the song, it's just [G] so passionate and full of [C] impact, it's [G] great.
[B] And I read [Dm] the book.
You [Bb] read the book later?
Yeah I read the [Gm] book before I wrote the song because I needed to get the mood properly.
Is [F] the pitch of your voice there, [G] your [E] natural comfortable singing pitch or do you [Em] deliberately heighten it to get [D] the effect of Kathy, this ghost like effect?
Yes I do, I do deliberately heighten it just because it's what the song calls for, [G] but it's comfortable _ as well.
Do you have to, does it strain your voice to do it, I mean do you take [F] lessons to get it technically right so that you're not hurting your vocal cords?
No I don't actually [Gm] take lessons [G] to do that but I do have a teacher _ [Gm] who I haven't seen for months in fact but he [D] keeps an eye on my voice to make sure I'm not pulling it around too much.
When did you start writing songs?
[G] I must have been 11 or 12, I mean but that was a very unprofessional sort of situation.
Was it in secret or for family and friends to hear?
Oh always in secret, I could never [Gm] do it in front of people, I've never been able to [G] and if I do I automatically feel that the fact that it's a performance because as soon as you have someone in the room with you [Bb] I feel you should [G] give them the best, you should [Db] perform.
Well when did the music men come to hear about you and [G] how?
That was quite a gradual [D] process, when I was about 14 there was a friend of my brothers called Ricky Hopper who was in the business and [G] he knew a lot of people and he acted as [B] a [Bb] friend to try and get the tapes [G] across [D] to people _ [Bb] and [G] after some trying there was no response [B] and he knew Dave [D] Gilmour from the Pink [G] Floyd _ [D] and Dave came [Gb] along to hear [D] me because at that time he [G] was scouting for [B] struggling [Bb] artists
and [Gm] he'd already helped a [D] band [Gm] [D] called Unicorn _ [G] and he came along and [Dm] heard me and he put up [G] the money for me to make [D] a proper demo with [G] arrangements and [D] selected songs and we took it to the [Bb] company.
And you were [G] what age then, about 16?
Yes.
_ But the company then asked you as I understand it to sort of go away and _ _ write more and develop your [Gb] voice and they didn't at that stage want to release [G] a song [Dm] by you?
No that's not quite true, they didn't tell me to go away, I signed the [D] contract and there was just [C] _ feelings that we weren't sure how to handle it, I mean I myself felt that I was very young at [G] that time and not capable of handling the business, I didn't know anything about it and I think they were also worried that I was too young and that they were looking on it as a long term project and that they wanted to give me time and I just used the time, I [D] wasn't told to go and do anything.
_ [Db] Tell me about [B]
the process [Bb] of writing songs, you mentioned Wuthering Heights and it came from that [Gm] image of Cathy at the window, is it an [G] idea like that or is it perhaps sometimes a phrase of music or a few words that come into your head, how does it happen?
It's very often from other [D] people, I mean people are just so full of poetry, [Gm] they say it all the time, you know, and they're the most amazing phrases that people [G] come up with, they just aren't covered [D] and _ you can really [G] draw from people's minds and [Ab] the situations [Gm] people are in, they're always in different situations with different mental things [G] going on inside them, for me they're probably the most fascinating source of stimulation.
_ _ Some of your songs, there are love songs on the album of course, some of [D] them straightforward explicit love songs [Db] but there are [F] dreams there too and there are fantasies there too and I wondered [Gm] if you _ feel that there [C] is a general [G] direction in which you're moving in the songs that you write.
_ [D] I like to think there is a direction but [Gm] it's only the fact that _ I'm connected with it and the [D] piano is, I like to feel that otherwise I'm free to move and I feel that you [G] shouldn't plan yourself a direction, you should just move in a line and hopefully a straight line.
When I was trying to think of possible influences on you, the [F] name that kept coming to my mind was Joni Mitchell, [G] I wondered if you were a fan of Joni Mitchell's.
I admire her very much, [D] _ _ I hadn't in fact listened [G] to her [D] that much and I think [G] the main reason is I try not to listen to female artists too [D] much just because [B] for me it would be [D] too easy to relate with them, I mean I love Joni Mitchell and whenever I hear her it sends shivers at me you know but I really try to listen [G] to _ expansive music as well, just [D] cover areas.
Were you surprised that a song as unusual [G] as Wuthering Heights [Fm] made it in the way that [Gm] it has up to the top?
[D] Yeah, [Gm] I'm amazed, I mean [G] I always hoped that it would do something and that people would like it but [D] the extent [G] and the _ speed is just incredible, it really is awesome [Dm] and it makes me feel like that [D] high you know, really small.
In a piece about you the other day, the man [F] from the Sunday Times addressed [D] a warning to you at the end and he said the music business is a [Db] corrupting industry, what are those strange and ugly birds gathering [G] in the trees around you?
I'm not [D] quite sure what he meant.
Traffic wardens.
Traffic [G] wardens. _ _ _
Is it going to be [Gm] a tough business to _ [G] live in and work in and survive in?
_ It's hard to say, I think you can [Bm] make it tougher [G] for yourself but I think you can make it [Gm] easier for yourself as well, it's like any business, it's how you take [D] it and I think really in a lot of ways I'm very [G] privileged to be put in _ situations that I'd never [C] ever have the [G] chance of being in, I mean like seeing a studio you know or [Gm] meeting people I'd never meet, _ [D] it's very privileged.
It's very nice for us to meet you, thank you Kate for talking to