Tuesday Flashback: Revisiting Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”

Listening to Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” for the first time is a spiritual experience—appropriate for a song that is also about a spiritual experience. The verb “wuther” fits the bill for this dual mystical experience. As in, “I lay on the ground in someone’s off-campus college housing, I burned Nag Champa, and Kate Bush completely wuthered me.” Okay, so that is an example from my real life. Yes, the first time I heard “Wuthering Heights” was in that very environment, on repeat for hours. Even in the heyday of cassette tapes, it was worth every manual rewind to have Bush’s otherworldly voice sing me into oblivion.