Random Obscurities: Kate Bush & ‘December Will Be Magic Again’

Tomorrow marks the beginning of December, and soon we shall all swell in glorious delight. For Christmas will stir happiness in one’s heart and even the unhappy people too, must play a part.

I can’t think of a better way to kick start Santa’s rocket ship of Hallelujahs and reindeers, than with this 1980’s gem of a song – a Christmas one-off – from the hands of the woman who weaves a fairy-tale like no one else, the one with the voice so sharp and clear that it could break the ice on a frozen lake.

Kate Bush performed ‘December Will Be Magic Again‘ on television only twice: the performance below is from the BBC Christmas Special, broadcast on December 22, 1979.

Take a husky to the ice, while Bing Crosby sings White Christmas – He makes you feel nice.

The white city, she is so beautiful. Upon the black-soot icicled roofs, Ooh, and see how I fall.

Always the literature-obsessed enigma, Kate also pays tribute to her hero, Oscar Wilde, who died in Paris the same month as the single was released, eighty years earlier.

Light the candlelights to conjure Mr. Wilde into the Silent Night. Ooh, it’s quiet inside, here in Oscar’s mind.

December will be magic again.

Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

Words: Anders Knudsen
Photo: Anton Corbijn