Tune Tag #123 with Max Freedman of Lavender Sound: Kate Bush, Charli XCX, Scritti Politti, Jay Som, Charlie, Roosevelt, Nara Leão, Hot Chip
⚡Plug us in! One look at that artist list, and Max and I are calling ourselves The Eclectic Light Orchestra for this one!💡The Eclectic Company? We sing the body eclectic!🌟🎵
Tune Tag welcomes Max Freedman of Lavender Sound!
Max Freedman (all pronouns) launched the LGBTQ+ music publication, Lavender Sound, to create an online writing community by and for LGBTQ+ people about LGBTQ+ music. They also interview artists for The Creative Independent, and they’ve previously contributed music criticism to Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily, and Paste.
I was proud to be commissioned, recently, by Lavender Sound to compose a two-part series on how two ‘70s artists’ music and their socio-political responsibilities merged (or did they? And, should they have?). Part 1 featured Jobriath, and Part 2, Tom Robinson:
Last week, we enjoyed getting to know Heard Follower for his debut Tune Tag:
Next week, we’ll welcome classical music expert, Owen McTigue of ODEA, where he writes about classical music worth experiencing in New York City! A Tune Tag first…and during Christmas week!🎄
Max’s song #1 sent to Brad: Kate Bush: “Running Up That Hill,” 1985
Max’s rationale: I’m starting this Tune Tag with “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, for a few reasons: Recently, a friend called it my favorite song, which isn’t quite true, but isn’t far off — it’s probably in my top 20 of all time.
I don’t think I really need to explain that it’s universally accepted as a banger or why that’s the case, but just because I love nerd shit: It’s #60 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list and honestly, should be even higher, and it’s spawned what feels like countless covers, the best of which is obviously Chromatics’ cover from their 2007 album, Night Drive (below). That’s maybe Chromatics’ best song, and I say that as someone who once nearly cried when “Kill for Love” came on at a bar.
I also think the Stranger Things revival is fascinating. I take it that many Gen Z folks and TikTok users who watched Stranger Things weren’t aware of “Running Up That Hill” before it was used in the show, which is shocking to me because this feels like a song that has always existed and will always exist and that everyone knows, and yet, I loved that Bush showed her appreciation for it, too.
And just on a pure musical level, like...come on: That alluring synth at the start. Those booming drums. Those just slightly off-kilter synths. Bush’s one-of-a-kind voice, which sounds like The Good Witch refracted through latex and plastic and trees. And then there are the gender-bending lyrics, which, as the founder and editor-in-chief of Lavender Sound, a publication written by LGBTQ+ people about LGBTQ+ music, really feed my soul.
There’s also the music-critic trope of comparing any woman who sings in an idiosyncratic manner and/or over electronics to Kate Bush (and also to Björk, my favorite musician). There are only rare cases where the comparison works.
SPELLLING’s fantastic 2021 album, The Turning Wheel, is a clear descendant of Bush’s whimsy, theatricality, and world-building. Gelli Haha (shout-out to Kevin Alexander of On Repeat Records for recommending her; she’s incredible) has directly stated that she emulates Bush and Björk when singing.
I understand the temptation to make this comparison; I deeply love the genres of music in which women artists are regularly compared to Bush, and I push myself hard to think of other comparisons. For example, I just reviewed Austra’s incredible fifth LP, Chin Up Buttercup for Lavender Sound; she’s been compared to Bush and Björk, and I’ll be actively avoiding these comparisons to do true justice to the music.
Brad’s song #1 sent to Max: Scritti Politti, “Small Talk,” 1985
Max’s response: Well, my first reaction is that this song slaps. My first-and-a-half reaction is that the booming drums sound very similar to those on “Running Up That Hill.” I eventually figured out the connection here, beyond just that these songs are both from 1985. Alan Murphy plays electric guitar on “Running Up That Hill” and is credited with guitars (not specified whether acoustic or electric) on “Small Talk.”
I hadn’t heard of Murphy (above) before this. His Wikipedia page says he died of pneumonia resulting from AIDS in 1989, which definitely makes him fitting for a Lavender Sound tribute.
To preface this tribute [Lavender Sound EDITORIAL]: I have a lot to say about the visionary queer minds we lost to the worst of the AIDS crisis. Although that’s for another time, I’d like to specify that I use the language “the worst of the AIDS crisis” instead of just “to the AIDS crisis” because the latter framing implies that the crisis is over. In reality, HIV still very much exists and the AIDS epidemic has never formally been declared over; I dislike how much we talk about AIDS as a past entity when it continues to kill people.
Anyway, From Murphy’s work on “Small Talk” to his work on “Running Up That Hill” and other Bush songs such as “The Sensual World” (incredible song, reader please listen if you never have), his death just short of 36 years old, from a disease that could have easily had substantial treatments earlier if not for outright government neglect and genocide of queer people, means that one of the all-time great, yet all-time most reclusive pop stars had one fewer trusted collaborator with whom to work on her music; I wonder if this was part of why her output gradually slowed.
Moreover, each person whom we’ve lost to AIDS, whether an artist or someone else, took with them invaluable knowledge about surviving the malice of government-supported bigotry. Some of these people took with them organizing knowledge that, though Sarah Schulman and others have dutifully chronicled and archived it, would be invaluable to tap into at will in this day and age. We could really use these deceased ancestors, their knowledge, and their history at this juncture in time. It’s by government design that they’re not here.
Brad’s rationale: Alan Murphy, who played guitar on the Kate Bush track and album, played guitar on “Small Talk,” the only track on which he played for Scritti’s Cupid & Psyche ‘85 album!
Max’s song #2: Charli XCX, “Femmebot” (feat. Dorian Electra and Mykki Blanco), 2017
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