Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)

1985

Kate Bush

RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) plays an important role in empowering women in popular music as it addresses gender-related issues in a subtle but unambiguous manner, reconfiguring the discursive relationships between music, gender and sexuality.

I. Origin

Growing up in a musical family under the musical influence of her brother Paddy Bush and the guidance from Pink Floyd’s guitarist David Gilmour Kate Bush became a pop pioneer by the age of sixteen (Kruse 1988: 13). After her hit debut single “Wuthering Heights” in 1978, her fifth studio album Hounds of Love was to become a game changer for Bush’s career as a female artist in 1985. Hounds of Love was produced and recorded in her own studio and it was mostly on the strength of the first single RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD), that Bush’s fifth record was met with sustained enthusiasm (ibid.: 14 ff.). Initially, there were some issues regarding the title of the single as according to Bush the song was originally to be named “A Deal with God.” However, the producers of EMI “feared that the religious connotations of the title could prompt some countries to refuse to play the song” (Berköz 2012: 162). Consequently, Bush agreed to changing the title to RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD), taking all necessary precautions to avoid any negative resonance for the first album after her two-year break (Sibley 2014: 00:35:10).

II. Context

To live and create beyond standardised norms and gender-related stereotypes was no matter of course until the late 1970s. Female artists had the slim choice of either becoming a “sensitive singer-songwriter model (Carole King, Joni Mitchell), or the torch-song balladeer (Barbra Streisand, Elaine Paige) or the sassy r ‘n’ b diva (Tina Turner, Millie Jackson)” (Moy 2007: 12). Luckily, the development in the music industry promised liberties many female artists have benefitted from. The punk era was at its peak and it “had allowed for the emergence of powerful female artists,” (ibid.) including Kate Bush. “Aesthetically, there was no relationship between punk and Kate Bush” (Berköz 2012: 146). Yet, “the subject matter of most of her songs were in some respects as attention-grabbing as any other punk era product” (ibid.: 147). Punk as a subculture “provided its artists with an environment characterized by anti-authoritarianism, anti-sexism, anti-homophobia and a DIY ethic” (ibid.). Bush picked up on those aspects and was convinced that she could create music that would set her apart from other female artists, creating an image of women in the music industry that was in no way inferior to male artists and their work, without forfeiting her femininity (ibid.).

Since Bush intended “to make serious music like [Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel], rather than the kind of ‘girly’/girl-targeted music that no rock critic would ever take seriously, she had to imagine herself as male in order to create” (ibid.: 148). Being aware of her feminine looks and her high register, Bush knew that it was a risk to create a “performance persona” (Auslander 2009: 314) that would in no way comply with what was expected of her (Berköz 2012: 147f.). Her courage for diversity, her sense for aesthetics, her thirst for emancipation were not completely owed to the free spirit of punk. Bush imagined a society that made a basic understanding between men and women possible which required a change in perspective as well as equal rights and the same prospects for a successful career (ibid.: 148).

Bush chose a new and experimental direction for her music. She “helped to revolutionize the world of rock and pop instrumentation through her pioneering use of the Fairlight synthesizer,” (Kruse 1988: 19) mixing analogue and electric sequences. A new era was introduced, which is overall known as the era of new wave. Bush captured the zeitgeist of the new wave mentality as “most of her compositions of that period […] harmonize the structural tightness typical of electronic composition with the aesthetic ambition of highbrow art” (Morini 2013: 285) for which RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) will have to be one of the best examples of Bush’s work.

III. Analysis

RUNNING UP THAT HILL expresses the struggles of a female persona and her male counterpart who are not able to identify with their partner’s point of view while their relationship gradually reaches a point of destruction and pain (Morini 2013: 294). The dysfunctionality of the relationship derives from differences regarding the characters’ gender and the respective experiences and stereotypical ideas they entail and act upon.

The music video of RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) is fairly essential for the comprehension of the lyrics. Bush embodies the female character in the music video herself. She appears as a protagonist, however, not as a performing singer as the music video does not include any synchronised lip movements. Hence, there is a clear distinction between the female character and the performance persona Kate Bush. Bush argues that she is never herself when she performs. She always aims at creating a certain character and a certain mood for each of her songs and her live performances (Berköz 2012: 149f.). She makes use of all possible means to create an authentic version of the character, “including movement, dance, costume, make-up, facial expression and gesture” (Auslander 2009: 314). Bush is “the implied narrator of the song” (ibid.), the lyrical I, while her male counterpart, who is portrayed by Michael Hervieu, is “a subject [character] described [and personified] in the song” (ibid.) and in the video.

“To Bush, the visual presentation of the music and the music itself cannot be divorced” (Kruse 1988: 19), which is why the video of RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) picks up the symbols and images of the lyrics predominantly through Bush’s and Hervieu’s bodily movements, creating a narrative structure the lyrics by themselves do not offer (Berköz 2012: 184). Nonetheless, the narrator’s internal monologue creates a participatory, expressive and emotionalised space, conveying a form of closeness, immediacy and empathy within a dramatic mode (Martínez/Scheffel 2007: 60ff.). Thus, the combination of the lyrics and the music video makes use of internal focalisation, offering an insight into the characters’ emotional worlds. The camera movement adds to this effect and makes it possible to identify with both protagonists (Kamp/Braun 2011: 27ff.), Bush as well as Hervieu even though it is only Bush who has taken over the role of the “implied narrator” (Auslander 2009: 314) of the song.

The combination of the Fairlight synthesizer and a mixture of played drums and programmed drums is due to its technological and digital character a strong artifice that enhances the whole artificiality of the characters in RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) and the masquerade they experience (Berköz 2012: 176). The mixture of electronic sounds and analogue sequences was up until that point a stylistic mean that had mainly been used by male musicians. Even so, Bush decided to claim that style, and especially the Fairlight synthesizer, for herself. “By constructing a sound world using a technique borrowed from male musicians, such as Burgess and Gabriel, and creating a sound mask produced by an instrument (historically) used widely by men, Bush reverses the classical functioning of masquerade sonically, in parallel with the song’s lyrics” (ibid.: 177).

The structure of the lyrics reveals itself as rather simple. Two verses, one beginning with the line “It doesn’t hurt me” and the other with “You don’t wanna hurt me”, alternate with a chorus starting with “And if I only could” which is in turn introduced by the pre-chorus “You / It’s you and me.” The second chorus is followed by the bridge “C’mon baby.” After that, the chorus is repeated three more times with slight alterations, substituting the final line “Be running up that building / See if I only could” with “With no problem.” The outro touches on the chorus, however, it is cut short as it only consists of “a compressed three-line version […] and a couple of two-line final reiterations (“If I only could / Be running up that hill”)” (Morini 2013: 286).

The video opens with a shot of Hervieu’s profile. Bush reaches out to him, clinging herself to his resisting body while she offers him to “feel how it feels” to be her, the woman in this relationship. Yet, she assures him that whatever he does, it “doesn’t hurt [her]”, claiming that she does not feel any pain and therefore masking her femininity and the stereotypical fragility of females behind a stereotypical characteristic of men (Berköz 2012: 164). Hervieu and Bush are dressed identically, which indicates that neither one of them is in a superior position. Both are and feel equally overwhelmed with their situation, joint in a feeling of inferiority and insecurity towards the other sex, as Bush points out that “it’s you and me” (ibid.: 185).

The characters are dealing with suppressed feelings of escaping, yet, they seem not willing to let each other go from the scene of entwined bodies. There is a consistent pattern of reaching out and pushing each other away, although never with enough force to be completely separated. The only escape route and solution appears to be “a deal with God” and “to get him to swap [their] places” (Morini 2013: 285). Bush makes use of this strong metaphor, more commonly known as “the deal with the devil.” Bush states that “in a way it’s so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you” (Berköz 2012: 165) instead of asking the devil. The requested swapping of places is emphasized by the action in the video. Movements which are initiated by Bush are completed by Hervieu and vice versa (ibid.: 186). This stylistic method introduces the allegory of “swap[ping] […] places” and a masquerade which could enable the couple to “run[…] up that road, run[…] up that hill, run[…] up that building” together which at this point seems impossible to them. Bush makes use of a climax here in order to stress the importance of the “deal with God” by increasing the verticality and hence the complexity of the obstacles she and her partner have to run up and overcome (Morini 2013: 285ff.).

The second verse reveals that the hurting that Bush was trying to deny in the first verse is actually mutual and that both characters are plagued by “thunder in [their] hearts.” Bush admits that she had been oblivious and unaware of the negative effect, her actions had on her partner, while she was in fact “tearing [him] asunder.” The masquerade seems to create a form of honesty, awareness and acknowledgement for their partner’s but also for their own emotional state and feelings (ibid.: 287f.).

Despite the asymmetric and unresponsive form of communication which is conveyed by the lyrics (Faulstich 2004: 15), the video creates a symmetry and a mutuality not only regarding the hurting but also regarding the desire for “a deal with God.” Bush’s escape from Hervieu’s arms is accompanied by the second chorus and followed by his attempt to stop and trap her under his body. Bush and Hervieu rise from their bodies, in reduced speed and ghost-like, and are shown running away together from this scene of dysfunctionality. Bush stresses her desperation and her affection in a parallelism, “Oh come on, baby / Oh come on, darling […] Oh come on, angel / Come on, come on, darling.” It is an appeal, or even a plea, for making the “exchange [of] experience” possible, allowing her to “steal this moment from [him] now.” As a response, a crowd of strangers closes in on her, forcing Hervieu to withdraw from her. Female figures whose faces are hidden underneath a mask of Hervieu’s face sweep Bush along a corridor, fulfilling her plea for an “exchange [of] experience”, “hiding femininity with a mask of masculinity” (Berköz 2012: 188). Male figures with masks of Bush’s distorted face intensify the effect of the masquerade.

The fictitious masquerade had the sole purpose of creating an understanding between male and female, simplifying the relationship and ridding oneself of insecurities and it resulted in exactly that. It reveals that women as well as men are troubled by differences in a relationship and that a change in perspective might actually offer a way to solve them. Bush sees this as a general problem in a relationship as “sometimes you can hurt somebody purely accidentally or be afraid to tell them something because you think they might be hurt when really they’ll understand” (Berköz 2012: 163). This revelation, however, is not picked up by the lyrics. Within the lyrics the masquerade is presented as the ultimate but simultaneously as a hypothetical solution for a functional relationship between men and women as it does not offer any actual insight on its final effect on the relationship. Again, it becomes clear that it is practically impossible to judge and analyse the lyrics and the music video separately, as it was intended by Bush (Kruse 1988: 19). Nonetheless, the music seems to adapt itself to the changes in the video as it becomes increasingly restless due to the more vigorously played drums and Bush’s masculinised and digitalised voice singing “If I only could, be running up that hill” repeatedly in contrast to the lead vocal. This could also indicate a changed mind-set or a new and different perspective.

While the vocals and the instruments are slowly being phased out, the video closes by panning the camera between Bush and Hervieu in a loop. Their arms are aimed towards the camera as if they were shooting arrows at a distant target. This image is also picked up by the cover of the single. It might indicate how a change of perspective, an “exchange [of] experience” and a general understanding for the other sex can rebuild focus and trust within a relationship that was considered dysfunctional and possibly broken. There only has to be a mutual target, a mutual goal and the determination to reach this goal together (Berköz 2012: 163).

IV. Reception

“If it was [“Wuthering Heights”] that made Kate Bush a star in Britain, it was, undoubtedly, [RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD)] […], that brought her universal stardom by entering the charts not only in Europe but also, for the first time in her career, on the other side of the Atlantic” (Berköz 2012: 144f.). The album Hounds of Love was praised as “The best album of the year” by NME. It received due to its hit single RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) a maximum five stars from Sounds and it reached 30th position on the Billboard album charts (Moy 2007: 36). “By June 1986 it had sold 600,000 [copies] in the UK alone – [Bush’s] biggest commercial success since the debut album in 1978. It was also the fourth biggest selling CD in Britain up to that point” (ibid.: 36).

The success she had in the U.K has not been duplicated in the U.S., Kate Bush is indeed a “very English singer” (Kruse 1988: 17). Unlike many other British artists, Bush maintained her accent, following artists she had been admiring herself such as David Bowie and Roxy Music (ibid.). Yet, it is undeniable that Bush has served as an inspiration to many female artists. Her experimental approach to music stuck and paved the way for “her role as a pop music pioneer” (ibid.: 20). Bush’s signature style of combining music and movement as “a more complex range of emotion has been translated, though in a simplified form, into the work of […] American music video superstars like Madonna and Janet Jackson” (ibid.). Even major artists like Elton John have described her as “an enigma” (Sibley 2014: 00:02:19), “the most beautiful mystery” (ibid.: 00:01:19) of the pop world, creating a new standard for other artists, male and female.

RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) was covered by several artists. The most popular cover is by the English rock band Placebo, released in 2003. It adds new and contemporary elements, setting itself significantly apart from Bush’s original version but still contributing to the sustained enthusiasm for the original version almost two decades after the release in 1985 (Klug 2011: 59).

CHARLOTTE DECAILLE

Credits

Drums: Stuart Elliot
Drum programming: Del Palmer
Guitar: Alan Murphy
Bass: Del Palmer
Balalaika: Paddy Bush
Synthesizer (fairlight): Kate Bush
Writer: Kate Bush
Producer: Kate Bush
Voice: Kate Bush
Mix: Brian Tench
Length: 4:58 (single edit), 4:56 (music video), 4:59 (album version)
Recorded: 1985

Recordings

Kate Bush. “Running Up That Hill”. On: Running Up That Hill, 1985, EMI, KB1, UK (7’’).
Kate Bush. “Running Up That Hill”. On: Running Up That Hill, 1985, EMI, 12KB 1, UK (12’’).
Kate Bush. “Running Up That Hill”. On: Hounds of Love, 1985, EMI, EJ2403841, UK (Vinyl).

Covers

Placebo. “Running Up That Hill”. On: Sleeping with Ghosts, 2003, Hut Recordings, 724359366524, UK & Europe (CD/Album).

References

Auslander, Philip: Musical Persona: The Physical Performance of Popular Music. In: The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology. Ed. by Derek B. Scott. Abingdon: Routledge 2016, 313–315.
Berköz, Levent Donat: A gendered musicological study of the work of four leading female singer-songwriters: Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, and Tori Amos. Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London 2012.
Faulstich, Werner: Medienwissenschaft. Paderborn: Fink 2004.
Kamp, Werner, & Braun, Michael (2011): Filmperspektiven: Filmanalyse für Schule und Studium. Haan-Gruiten: Verlag Europa-Lehrmittel 2011, 23–31.
Klug, Daniel: Aus Zwei Mach Eins? Das Original(e) in der Audio-Vision des Musikclips. In: Lied und Populäre Kultur / Song and Popular Culture, 56. Ed. by Nils Grosch and Fernand Hörner, Münster: Waxmann 2011, 43–61.
Kruse, Holly: Kate Bush: Enigmatic chanteuse as pop pioneer. In: Journal of Popular Music Studies 1/1 (1988), 13–22.
Martínez, Matías/Scheffel, Braun: Einführung in die Erzähltheorie, 7. Aufl. München: C.H. Beck 2007, 60–64.
Morini, Massimiliano: Towards a musical stylistics: Movement in Kate Bush’s ‘Running up that hill’. In: Language and Literature 22/4 (2013), 283–297.
Moy, Ron (2007): Kate Bush and Hounds of Love. Abingdon: Routledge 2007, 12–67.
Sibley, Adrian (2014): The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill, BBC, UK (TV broadcast), https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04dzswb [not available].

About the Author

Analysis written in a course of Prof. Dr. Fernand Hörner at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf.
All contributions by Charlotte Decaille

Citation

Charlotte Decaille: “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) (Kate Bush)”. In: Songlexikon. Encyclopedia of Songs. Ed. by Michael Fischer, Fernand Hörner and Christofer Jost, http://www.songlexikon.de/songs/running-up-that-hill, 05/2025.