Cloudbusting

The second single from Hounds of Love reached number 20 in the UK. It is based on Peter Reich's 1973 memoir A Book of Dreams, which tells of his father Wilhelm Reich, the cloudbuster and Reich's arrest from a child's viewpoint. Bush said she pulled the book off a shelf and found it very emotive and very innocent because it is seen through a child's eyes. The B-side was Burning Bridge, and the 12-inch added the Organon Re-Mix and My Lagan Love, with lyrics by her brother John Carder Bush. Stuart Elliott and Charlie Morgan played drums, the Medici String Sextet played strings arranged by Dave Lawson, and Paddy Bush, John Carder Bush, Del Palmer and Brian Bath sang backing vocals.

The video was directed by Julian Doyle and conceived by Terry Gilliam and Bush, with Donald Sutherland, who worked for free, as Reich and Bush as young Peter. It was filmed in the Vale of White Horse in Oxfordshire. Peter Reich told Dazed that the song captured a magical fulfilment of father-son devotion. Utah Saints sampled it for Something Good in 1992, Matthew Good covered it in 2015, and it closes an episode of The Handmaid's Tale.

Live

Bush first played it live in 2014, as the closing encore of Before the Dawn.