Challenge (Size: XL) - THE KATE BUSH BONANZA

The time has come for another big cover version event, and this time we honour the High Priestess of Weird Pop, her Excellency Ms Kate Bush

We haven't done a big covers challenge for a while, and choosing a favourite KB album is impossible, so I'm throwing it open to her whole catalogue.

This is the longer challenge and will run for the first half of this year, so take your time, pick the track you want to do, and when you're ready upload it and tag it #KateBushBonanza and #MeFiMusicChallenge

I'll be collecting up all the entries at the end, in order to present them back to our comrades with appropriate fanfare. Now, Blow Away and start Waking The Witch...

posted by greenish (25 comments total)

Best challenge ever!
posted by CarrotAdventure at 9:13 PM on January 29, 2019

Whoever does Wuthering Heights must also upload their own red dress dance interpretation.
posted by Corduroy at 9:45 PM on January 29, 2019 [5 favorites]

This is great. I'm working on Army Dreamers.
posted by umbú at 9:32 AM on January 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

I claim The Man with the Child in His Eyes.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:35 AM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’m aiming for cloudbusting.
posted by billiebee at 9:46 AM on February 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

Trying to talk my keyboard player pal several counties away to collaborate on Moving. Not sure I've ever heard it before, but wow what an excellent song. "Prog rock as done by Kate?"
posted by twoplussix at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2019

Done! As soon as I get to a computer to upload it, you guys get my a capella ballad take on Moving , as learned 2 hours ago. I was in a room with amazing acoustics and happened to have a voice recorder handy.
posted by twoplussix at 4:07 PM on February 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would like to cover The Big Sky, a song I have never heard performed by a Kate Bush or any other professional musician. I intend to keep it that way until I'm done.
posted by suetanvil at 7:30 PM on February 2, 2019

performed by a Kate Bush

Also: this was a legit typo but it sort of makes sense to think of Kate Bush as some otherworldly species. Sort of like a Björk.
posted by suetanvil at 10:04 AM on February 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

THANK YOU greenish for giving us six months for this challenge. I will not be surprised if it takes me about 5 months to figure out what song to cover. I'm guessing by then I'll be able to eliminate a bunch because of not wanting to repeat other folks' selections.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 5:48 PM on February 3, 2019

I am coming basically entirely cold to Kate Bush and Secretariat and I were just listening to Hounds of Love the other day and I am immeeeeeediately into it. I need to give the album more listening time before making up my mind about anything but I'm already pretty stoked about the possibility of doing something with "Running Up That Hill".
posted by cortex at 5:50 PM on February 3, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yessss Cortex welcome to the cabal*.

I'm going to claim "Why Should I Love You" I think. I tried something with it this morning and it was terrible, so, here goes!



*usual disclaimers apply re presence of cabal
posted by greenish at 11:31 AM on February 6, 2019

Cortex, you should listen to the astonishingly good Placebo cover too. Or maybe not yet, if you're trying to keep your ideas/headspace clean.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 8:15 PM on February 6, 2019

What are the challenge rules please? Can I take a song and remix or otherwise alter it without doing a full cover?

I'd like to take part but am not currently skilled enough to do a full 'original' cover/interprretation but I can do something which alters an existing track substantially...
posted by Faintdreams at 5:05 AM on February 7, 2019

Hello! Sorry for the slow response Faintdreams. The MeFiMusic FAQ says: "Please do not upload things that are not your own work in some way - this includes work by your friends and mashups of copyrighted stuff. "

If you think this might be too limiting for you currently, might I suggest collaborating with someone here? Perhaps they could perform/record and you could remix, for example? We love collabs here, I bet you would find a willing teammate :)
posted by greenish at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2019

There's a Challenges tab in this Music subsite (there's music, talk, chart, and challenges)- and it would probably be good to post the two new challenges there as what's there now is from 2017.
posted by twoplussix at 1:07 PM on February 9, 2019

I'm not ready for my real submission in the Songs tab, but someone shot a video of us learning/rehearsing Moving, and don't expect us to get a chance to play again for quite a while, so here ya go: https://youtu.be/zR-DGd1CHlU
posted by twoplussix at 11:39 AM on February 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I like where it's going! Totally different character to the original!
posted by greenish at 10:37 AM on February 12, 2019

I can't tell if I actually want to cover Hounds of Love or just cover the three seconds where Kate growls "thhrrRROOOOWWWW them in the laaaaaaake"
posted by cortex at 9:38 AM on February 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

So how horrible would it be to cover something someone else is already covering? Asking for a friend. Heh.
posted by Slothomatic at 11:51 PM on March 15, 2019

It's a big boat, there's room for doubles!
posted by cortex at 9:29 AM on March 16, 2019 [3 favorites]

Oh good! Somehow there's only one I'd really want to try--I mean that my friend would want to try...;)
posted by Slothomatic at 2:34 PM on March 16, 2019

Oh hell I missed this! I woulda picked anything from The Dreaming. I still might.
posted by not_on_display at 9:54 PM on September 27, 2019

I'm not greenish but based on previous greenish declarations, it's perfectly fine to contribute to a challenge even if it's technically past the original due date (which I have done). I propose we keep this challenge open for all of 2019, because 2019 has been one thing after another...
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 12:26 AM on September 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I am greenish and I endorse the above message
posted by greenish at 1:47 AM on October 3, 2019 [1 favorite]