Kate Bush is not black?

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From the notes in the '97 Hounds of Love CD reissue:

"Within eighteen months the very same NME would acclaim Running Up That Hill as the best single recorded by any British non-black artist ever."
(Peter Fitzgerald Morris)

Can anyone provide some context for this statement? In 1985 I was exclusively a Smash Hits reader (Hounds of Love: 9/10). Was the NME super-sensitive on matters of race to the point where they would say silly things like this (ie white writer unqualified to rule on singles recorded by black artists)? Was it supposed to be funny?

For bonus points, prove or disprove the NME's statement with empirical evidence.

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Sunday, 22 May 2005 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, maybe the NME published a list of the top 20 singles of all time, and all the songs that scored higher than RUTH were either by non-British people or black British people.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 22 May 2005 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

haha, i never realized the acronym for "running up that hill" was RUTH. is that something everyone knows but me?

― cindy williams permafrost (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 22 May 2005 05:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't know it until I typed it just then; I even pondered spelling out the full title so the acronym wouldn't distract people from my brilliant speculations re: the NME.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 22 May 2005 05:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it at all possible that there's a "'s" missing from the end of the first word in the title?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 22 May 2005 06:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Do Blacks like Kate Bush?

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, 22 May 2005 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

prince does.

― cindy williams permafrost (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 22 May 2005 06:49 (twenty-one years ago)

outkast too!

― cindy williams permafrost (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 22 May 2005 06:49 (twenty-one years ago)

1/2 of Outkast, anyway.
I think there are better singles by "British non-black" artists anyway (although RUTH is great) but that's a judgement call. I just want to know what motivated the awkward get-out clause - a specific instance of a better record, or some kind of nascent right-on pc impulse, or something else entirely.

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i think andre likes kate bush too jcartledge

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:16 (twenty-one years ago)

On reflection, why wouldn't he?

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"don't let the black skin put you off!"

― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:23 (twenty-one years ago)

My, how racist of me!
I actually read that he (Dre) didn't care for her (KB) on a previous thread here and repeated it without checking. It may have been a joke. I really don't care.

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:41 (twenty-one years ago)

That's where we differ my friend

― I must know what Andre 3000 thinks of Kate Bush, Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"Was the NME super-sensitive on matters of race to the point where they would say silly things like this?"

The answer is yes.

― Soukesian, Sunday, 22 May 2005 07:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Very well then.

OutKast's Andre 3000: "Kate Bush's music opened my mind up," he said recently. "She was so bugged-out, man, but I felt her. She's so f*ucking dope, so underrated and off the radar"

Furthermore: NME Top Singles 1985
1 Never Understand - The Jesus & Mary Chain
2 Just Like Honey - The Jesus & Mary Chain
3 Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush
4 How Soon Is Now - The Smiths
5 Tupelo - Nick Cave
6 You Trip Me Up - The Jesus & Mary Chain
7 Yesterday's Men - Madness
8 Single Life - Cameo
9 A Pair Of Brown Eyes - The Pogues
10 Death Valley '69 - Sonic Youth & Lydia Lunch

(Fine Young Cannibals appear twice between 11 and 20)

― jcartledge (jcartledge), Sunday, 22 May 2005 08:41 (twenty-one years ago)

BUT SHE MUST BE BLACK! PRINCE LIKES HER!

― blahbariantheoriginal, Sunday, 22 May 2005 08:47 (twenty-one years ago)

In 1985 NME read like Socialist Music Weekly.

....20 years on

In 2005 NME have embraced capitalism like New Labour. Corporate sponsorships, partnerships and a mainstream agenda.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Sunday, 22 May 2005 09:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Who was the last black artist to appear on the cover of NME?

― $V£N! (blueski), Sunday, 22 May 2005 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

bloc party

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Sunday, 22 May 2005 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the lead singer of Bloc Party, last week! haha...but what about black artists outside British rock?

― $V£N! (blueski), Sunday, 22 May 2005 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

dizzee rascal?

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Sunday, 22 May 2005 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

when?

― $V£N! (blueski), Sunday, 22 May 2005 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

2003 ?

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Sunday, 22 May 2005 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

those were the days.

― $V£N! (blueski), Sunday, 22 May 2005 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Tricky and Kendall from Fishbone have also given Kate Bush shoutouts. Kendall's a big Never For Ever fan.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 22 May 2005 12:17 (twenty-one years ago)

pretty sure dizzee has never had an NME cover. outkast did last year but it was under another cover, if you see what I mean.

― elwisty (elwisty), Sunday, 22 May 2005 12:32 (twenty-one years ago)

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