Dave's Song of the Day
Cloudbusting – Kate Bush
Saturday song of the day: Today’s song was inspired by the relationship between controversial psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich and his son.
English singer/songwriter Kate Bush released her fifth album,
Hounds of Love, in 1985. It was her biggest commercial success, with the album selling well over a million copies and yielding four hit singles in the UK.
The second single off the album was
Cloudbusting. Bush based the concept of the song on
A Book of Dreams, a memoir written by Peter Reich, the son of Austrian psychiatrist/philosopher Wilhelm Reich. Besides his legitimate work in psychoanalysis that presaged the sexual revolution of the 50s and 60s, Reich had some very unconventional ideas. One was that sexual energy, which he named “orgone” could be accumulated and stored, to be used for improving one’s health. He also believed that he could stimulate rainfall by manipulating the orgone energy in the sky with a machine he called a “cloudbuster.”
Reich immigrated to the United States in the late 1930s, and his more bizarre practices and products ran afoul of the Food and Drug Administration, which considered them quackery and fraud. The FDA issued an injunction against interstate sale of Orgone boxes. Reich ignored the prohibition and in 1956 was arrested for contempt and sentenced to two years in prison. He died of heart failure in 1957 while still imprisoned.
Bush read his son Peter’s book and based the song on it. The “Orgonon” in the first section of the lyrics refers to the name Reich gave to his home, and the song describes the attempts at rainmaking, and later Reich’s arrest, from his son’s point of view.
The story was further amplified by the video made for
Cloudbusting. Donald Sutherland portrayed Wilhelm Reich, while Kate Bush played his son Peter. The main action was dragging the cloudbuster up a hill and using it to make rain, but this was interrupted by the government arresting Reich and taking him away. Peter then continues the cloudbusting process and succeeds in producing rain as they are driving his father away.
Tomorrow: When you were 21 you had your fun
Edit: Coincidentally, after I selected the song yesterday, 91 year old actor Orson Bean was killed in an accident, in which he was hit by several cars.
Orson Bean, Beloved Comic Actor And Performer, Is Dead After A Car Accident
I first heard of Wilhelm Reich in the 1970s, through a book Reich devotee Orson Bean wrote about him and his work called
Me and the Orgone.
Me and the Orgone - Wikipedia
