One of England's most original and widely-admires musical artists, Kate Bush is a true national treasure. But, in a 1993 interview with Britain's [now defunct] Q magazine, the then-35-year-old singer admitted that one of her most poetic songs about her homeland made her cringe with embarrassment.
Oh England My Lionheart is the closing song on side one of Bush's second album, Lionheart, released on November 10, 1978, less than nine months on from the release of her million-selling debut album, The Kick Inside. Featuring lyrics such as "Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park / You read me Shakespeare on the rolling Thames", the song was described by Bush as "a sort of poetical play, if you like, on the romantic visuals of England, and the second World War."
"It’s only got acoustic instruments on it and it’s done … almost madrigally, you know," she told Melody Maker's Harry Doherty in November '78. "I dare say a lot of people will think that it’s just a load of old slush but it’s just an area that I think it’s good to cover. Everything I do is very English and I think that’s one reason I’ve broken through to a lot of countries."
