*** Saxophone Song Annotated lyrics ***

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

SAXOPHONE SONG

HISTORY

    _Saxophone Song_ appeared for the first time on _The Kick 
    Inside_, Kate's first release.  This is the only official 
    release of this song.  The song was recorded well before
    rest of the album and is believed to have also been known 
    as _Berlin_ in it's early stages.

    The Kick Inside.....................EMC 3223......02/17/78
    The Kick Inside (picture disc).....EMPC 3223......02/17/78

BACKGROUND
        
        "_Saxophone Song_ is one of Kate's earliest compositions.
        She made the final recording, exactly as it was 
        released, in 1975, when she was 16 or 17, and there were
        no later changes.  Its subject is pretty self-
        explanatory, though perhaps it should be said for the 
        record that Kate had never been to Berlin, so far as
        anyone is aware!  She probably wrote the song about the
        same time as _The Man With the Child in His Eyes_, which
        is to say when she was about 14."  

                            - Andrew Marvick 

    While the song does seem to be self explanatory, Kate's fans 
    know that her songs can often be far more then they seem.  
    In the third issue of the Kate Bush Club newsletter (November
    1979) a fan asked Kate if _Saxophone Song_ was written about 
    David Bowie.  Kate replied:

        "The song isn't about David Bowie. I wrote it about the
        instrument, not the player, at a time when I really 
        loved the sound of the saxophone -- I still do."

    One might find reason to be skeptical that the song is about 
    the instrument and not the player since the lyrics repeatedly
    address the sax player in the second person.  Kate's remarks 
    in an EMI Records press kit make the intent of the song 
    somewhat more clear.

        "I wrote _The Saxophone Song_ [sic] because, for me, the 
        saxophone is a truly amazing instrument.  Its sound is
        very exciting -- rich and mellow.  It sounds like a 
        female."  

                            - Kate
                              _EMI Music Talk_

                "Sometimes chord structures make you think of a 
place... and I love
        saxophones so I wanted to write a song about them.  I think of 
a beautiful
        sax like a human being, a sensuous shining man being taken over 
by the
        instrument.  The perfect setting was this smokey bar in Berlin 
with nobody
        listening except me in a corner, the streams of light flashing 
off it to       me, pa pa (explosion noises).
                In the song she is a 'surly lady in tremor... You'll 
never know you
        had all of me.'  Mike suggested that Freud would have made a 
meal of this
        one too, and this time, as she's fond of phrasing it, she broke 
through the
         barrier.
                "I'm very basic," she said.  "I wasn't thinking of it 
as phallic when
        I wrote the song, but I do now when I see a sax player.  I feel 
as if
        everyone understood the real things I'm saying, it wouldn't be 
much good, it
        wouldn't help me.  If it seems harmless on the surface that's 
all right.  I   don't want to upset people who don't want to know.  
There are enough
         people, thank God, who have seen it.  They're listening with 
their hearts.
                "The sax is a very sexual sound, all vibrating, 
resonating - like
        bowels.  Look at photos of musicians playing any instruments 
and it could
        be interpreted... it's not always sexual, but mainly.  You are 
cuddling the
        instrument, you are seducing each other.  Guitarists are up 
there so
        obviously waking with their guitars, but it's open, beautiful, 
it's at a
        love level."

        - Kate 
        Sounds, 1980

    So there can be little doubt that the saxophone player in 
    _Saxophone Song_ is just a character in a story that Kate is
    telling to express her feelings about the sound of a 
    saxophone.  While some think that the player's role is 
    simply that of a musician who can stir the soul with the 
    sound of his saxophone, others believe that the protagonist
    does have feelings for the player.  It may be that these 
    feelings have been aroused by the sound of his saxophone.  

    In portraying the rich, mellow, feminine nature of the 
    saxophone Kate virtually creates a third character in her 
    story.  Some suggest that Kate might even be creating a 
    symbolic love triangle between her three characters.  

    All of this may relate to Kate's view of art .  "Don't you
    think Art is a tremendous sensual-sexual expression? I feel
    that energy often...the driving force is probably not the 
    right way to put it," said Kate in a November 1989 interview
    with _Q_ magazine.  

    _Saxophone Song_ is also interesting because it shows Kate's
    remarkable ability to create atmosphere with her words, 
    music and vocals even at a very early stage in her career.

    In 1980 Kate wrote a some brief remarks to accompany the
    sheet-music published in the book _The Best of Kate Bush_.
    On _Saxophone Song_ she comments, "All the people in the club
    are babbling, but the instrument is talking, and I can but 
    listen."


ANNOTATIONS

        SAXOPHONE SONG

        Words and Music By Kate Bush

    The sounds heard during the beginning of the song are "whale
    song", the sounds made by whales underwater.  These sounds
    are also heard at the beginning and end of the previous 
    track, _Moving_, and continue into the introduction of 
    _Saxophone Song_.   

        You'll find me in a Berlin bar
        In a corner, brooding

    We note here that Kate's character is brooding.  A variety
    of explanations have been suggested for this.  It could be
    that she knows that she can never really have the object of
    her desires because she loves him not for who he is but for
    the music that he creates.  Perhaps it is because of the 
    virtual love triangle that some feel is being suggested 
    between herself, the player and the instrument.  

    It may be that the reason is completely unrelated to the 
    song itself but that it serves to show that the sound of 
    the saxophone can touch her no matter what her mood. 

        You know that I go very quiet
        When I am listening to you
        There's something special indeed
        In all the places where I've seen you shine, boy
        There's something very real in how I feel, honey

    Here she seems to tell how the musician and his saxophone 
    make her feel.  She seems to be saying that these feelings
    are not just the those of simply enjoying the music but
    that there is something "special" and "very real" in these 
    feelings.  Those who love Kate's music can certainly 
    empathize with this with this.  

        (Chorus)
        It's in me, it's in me - and you know it's for real
        Tuning in your saxophone
        Daba-daba-doo 
        
        The candle burning over your shoulder 
        Is throwing shadows on your saxophone
        A surly lady in tremor

    Here Kate develops the metaphor of the lady and the 
    saxophone.  The saxophone is referred to as "A surly lady in
    tremor".  Some have suggested that this is specifically 
    comparing the sound of the saxophone to the sensual singing
    voice of woman.  In this case, "in tremor" may be referring
    to the tremolo of such a voice.  

    A few have noted that "A surly lady in tremor" suggests a 
    woman in orgasm and the sounds that she might make.  These
    might be compared both to a sensual singing voice and to the
    feminine sound of the saxophone.  

        The stars that climb from her bowels
        Those stars that make towers on vowels.

    Evidently these "strs" are the sounds that the saxophone and
    the "lady in tremor" make.

        You'll never know that you had all of me
        You'll never see the poetry you stirred in me
        Of all the stars I've seen that shine so brightly
        I've never known or felt, inside myself, so rightly

        (Chorus)

    One might consider these final four verses to be a capsule summary
    of the entire song.  They seem to express not only the deep
    feelings that the player and his saxophone have stirred in the
    listener, but also that the musician and the instrument will never 
    know of these feelings, either because they will never meet or
    because the feelings themselves are to deep to describe.
     

PERFORMERS

    Drums: Barry de Souza
    Bass: Bruce Lynch
    Guitars: Paul Keogh, Alan Parker
    Keyboards: Andrew Powell
    Saxophone: Alan Skidmore
    Electric Guitar: Paul Keogh

CONTRIBUTORS
    
    Doug Alan
    Richard Caldwell
    Andrew Marvick
    John M. Relph 
    Jenn Turney
        Ron Hill

COMPILATION

    First draft compiled and edited by N. Richard Caldwell, 
    May 2, 1990. 
        Second draft compiled and edited by Ron Hill, January, 1993.
s

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rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA