Music of the Week: Feb. 18, 2022: Kate Bush – Cloudbusting

Ulrike Granogger
February 18, 2022

This song from Kate Bush’s 1985 album Hounds of Love is based on the life and work of Austrian psychoanalyst and originator of “orgone” research, Dr. Wilhelm Reich, and is told from the point of view of his son Peter and Peter’s memories. Father and son are making rain with Reich’s cloudbusting machine, an “orgone accumulator” that drew the attention of the U.S. government, FBI, and Secret Service.

In the song, the son is heartbroken as he sees his father being taken away by government agents.

Reich was imprisoned, his work seized, and all cloudbusting machines (and more) destroyed. He died in prison of “sudden heart failure” one week before his promised release, having served one-third of his sentence.

I still dream of Orgonon
I wake up crying
You′re making rain
And you're just in reach
When you and sleep escape me
...

Full lyrics on Musixmatch.

Further reading:

Cloudbusting [Song] on Wikipedia

See also:

Modern-day cloudbusting experiments (“sky acupuncture”) in Iran and Mongolia.

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