Deciphering Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting: The Meaning Behind the Song
“I still dream of Orgonon.” Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting opens with this evocative line, drawing on the memories of Peter Reich and his father Wilhelm. More than a song about curious machines on a hillside, it’s a story of love, loss, and the strange intersection of science and emotion.
What does Cloudbusting mean?
The science of cloudbusting is to encourage a cloud to rain. If you control the rain [or the weather] you can influence many things for good or bad. But Kate Bush's song is so much more than a song about machines.
Released in October 1985, the song Cloudbusting is about the relationship between a father and son, told through the eyes of Peter Reich as he reflects on his childhood with his father, Wilhelm Reich. The “cloudbusting” itself refers to Wilhelm’s controversial machines, which he believed could harness an energy he called orgone to make it rain.
Wilhelm Reich and the Cloudbuster
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian psychoanalyst and one-time pupil of Sigmund Freud, who later struck out on his own with theories that challenged the scientific mainstream. In the 1930s and 40s he became fascinated by the idea of a universal life force he called orgone energy, which he believed could influence health, sexuality, and even the weather. His experiments ranged from controversial therapeutic practices to the invention of the “cloudbuster” — a machine designed to draw energy from the atmosphere and make rain. Reich’s unorthodox ideas and outspoken nature eventually brought him into conflict with authorities in both Europe and the United States, culminating in his imprisonment in 1956. He died the following year in a federal penitentiary, leaving behind a legacy that still divides opinion between visionary and pseudoscientist.
“I can’t hide you from the Government”
What Book is the song Cloudbusting based upon?
Willhelm’s son, Peter wrote a memoir describing the wonder and confusion of growing up around his father’s theories and inventions. Bush transformed that deeply personal perspective into song, balancing childlike fascination with the pain of loss.
The Waterstone’s Synospsis encapsulates it,
“This famous book, the inspiration behind Kate Bush’s 1985 hit song ‘Cloudbusting’, is the extraordinary account of life as friend, confidant and child of the brilliant but persecuted psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. Peter, his son, shared with his father the revolutionary concept of a world where dream and reality are virtually indistinguishable, and the sense of mission which set him and his followers apart from the rest of the human race.”
Cloudbusting on Hounds of Love
Released in October 1985, Cloudbusting closes Side One of Hounds of Love. Its placement is deliberate — a bridge between the accessible singles (“Running Up That Hill,” “The Big Sky”) and the conceptual second side, The Ninth Wave.
By ending the first half of the record with a story about wonder, longing, and resilience, Bush sets the stage for the darker, more experimental journey that follows.
The music video portrays much of this story. Filmed on and around the White Horse at Uffingham, a prehistoric hill figure carved into an Oxfordshire hill, the video depicts the story of Peter (Kate) and his father (Donald Sutherland). In his pocket, you catch a glimpse of the book so the clue was there all along!
Where was the music video for Cloudbusting Filmed?
The music video was filmed around the White Horse at Uffington, Dragon Hill and the nearby Wayland Smithy. The landscape hasn’t changed much for centuries so you can easily spot where some of the scenes took place.
“On top of the world, looking over the edge
You could see them coming
You looked too small in their big black car
To be a threat to the men in the power”
The White Horse & Dragon Hill in 2025
Can you visit the Cloubusting location today?
Yes you can! Head for the National Trust car park for White Horse Hill and walk from there, it’s about five minutes and not too difficult. Not nearly as steep as Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill which is just over an hour’s drive away.
Getting it together in the country
Kate Bush recorded the song at her home studio which I believe is in Kent (the other side of London from here) but this area remains a hot bed of music and musicians. Pete Townshend is the new owner of another National Trust property Ashdown House, just minutes from the White Horse. Steve Winwood famously ‘got it together in the country’ at Aston Tirrold, about half an hour East from here. Nick Mason’s Middlewick House, which he opens for charity is an hour away not far from Solsbury Hill and Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in Box.
“Oh, God, Daddy, I won’t forget”