Seán says: Stunning! Talk about Kate’s triumphant return…it’s the perfect companion to the song. Was anyone else surprised to see so much warmth and humour injected into the subject matter? It gives the opening track of Aerial so many new aspects to explore. I remember a quote I read from Irish author Roddy Doyle when he reviewed Peter Guralnick’s unsurpassed biographies of Elvis Presley (‘Last Train To Memphis’ and ‘Careless Love’). Doyle said: “The book’s biggest achievment is that it gives back Elvis Presley his humanity”. I love that quote, it sums up Guralnick’s labour of love and it’s equally now true of Kate’s King Of The Mountain. My nose started to sting with emotion when I saw the Elvis suit flying back across a tranquil sky to be reuinted with his elderly but now childlike self.
Kate’s wonderfully expressive face seems to will this reunion to happen, far away from the lonely, ghostly confines of the windy house that the video opens with. Her mischievous, knowing performance makes us smile along with her. I finally, fully ‘get’ this song. The clip is also obviously littered with many clues and teasing hints about the Aerial album itself – no accident that Kate has feathers in her hair or that the washing on the line takes on a life of its own set against a painterly sky. I couldn’t be happier with this video. It’s a joy to see Kate looking so in command of her art, the video is uniquely her. Every frame is as appropriate to this meditative, hypnotic song as once a tutu, some rollerskates and a dunces cap somehow clinched everything she needed to say over two decades ago. I have to agree with BBC Radio 2’s Richard Allinson when yesterday he called this “a stunning, stunning video”. p.s. if the theory that a disguised Kate Bush plays the part of the pink-rinsed retired Elvis is true her genius will be confirmed utterly!
A description of the video (thanks Krys!), which received its world premiere on Channel 4 on Saturday 15th October at 10.40pm: Kate’s new video opens with an atmospheric black and white impression of Charles Kane’s empty mansion full of priceless junk, whilst newspaper headlines about Elvis swirl by. Kate is glimpsed until she is seen singing and swaying to the music. A ghostly Elvis suit dances with Kate before taking wing with the Canada Geese to Shangri-La where an elderly Elvis hides in the snowy mountains with Kane’s famous sledge Rosebud. The video can be seen at Kate’s official site www.katebush.com
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