FEATURE:
A.K.A. Berlin
Kate Bush’s The Saxophone Song
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I am coming back to…
The Kick Inside and a very important track from Kate Bush. This was one of three tracks recorded in 1975 alongside The Man with the Child in His Eyes (which also appeared on The Kick Inside) and Humming. Produced by David Gilmour (who is credited as Executive Producer on The Man with the Child also), The Saxophone Song is one of the gems from Bush’s debut album. For those who feel that Bush’s debut album contains too many high-pitched vocals and theatrics, this song was proof that her voice was mature and grounded. Graceful, swooning and beautiful, her performance through The Saxophone Song is magnificent. Before continuing with my exploration of the track, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia sources quotes from Kate Bush:
“I wrote 'The Saxophone Song' because, for me, the saxophone is a truly amazing instrument. Its sound is very exciting - rich and mellow. It sounds like a female. (Dreaming: The Kick Inside, 1978)
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. No, I don't know him personally, though I went to his "Farewell to Ziggy Stardust" concert and cried, and so did he. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, November 1979)”.
Not much has been written through the years about The Saxophone Song. The second track on The Kick Inside, it perfectly flows from Moving. As it was originally called Berlin, I imagine Bush as this observer in the German capital. Watching this hypnotic saxophone play, it is an unusual setting for a song. I think only someone like Kate Bush could combine these elements and create such a rich and sumptuous track. The lyrics in the song take us in that bar and what Bush/the narrator is seeing: “There's something very special indeed/In all the places where I've seen you shine, boy/There's something very real in how I feel, honey”. As a seventeen-year-old recording the track, there is this maturity from a teenager. That said, I like the turn of phrase and the language used. Apart from some casual admiration, Bush turns in poetry of the highest order. There were not many songwriters producing lyrics of her standard: “The candle burning over your shoulder is throwing/Shadows on your saxophone, a surly lady in tremor/The stars that climb from her bowels/Those stars make towers on vowels”. Bush references the poetry of the saxophone in the song. The fact this instrument stirs something in her and is so powerful has caused her to write so beautifully. The players on the song (drums: Barry de Souza, bass: Bruce Lynch, guitars: Paul Keogh, Alan Parker, keyboards: Andrew Powell, saxophone: Alan Skidmore and electric guitar: Paul Keogh) are excellent.
I love the trippy and prog keyboards at the end and Skidmore’s wonderful saxophone performance. Bush’s vocal is so engaging. I am surprised that The Saxophone Song was not released as a B-side. Although four singles were released from The Kick Inside (two in the U.K.) prior to the release of her second album, Lionheart, The Saxophone Song did not feature. I would have liked to have seen this song get more exposure around the world. It was performed during the set of Bush’s 1979 The Tour of Life. Many people might not have heard The Saxophone Song. It is a beautifully written song that takes us inside the saxophone; inside a Berlin bar as we smell smoke, hear silent chatter and feel this electricity coursing through the room. Although Bush was taught the violin as a child and, obviously, is synonymous with piano, I wonder why the saxophone was signalled out. Not an instrument that she came to play on any of her albums, there is no doubting that, in the moment, she was in love with its sound: “It's in me/It's in me/And you know it's for real/Tuning in on your saxophone/Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo...”. A magnificent song from my favourite album ever, The Saxophone Song is one that we need to hear more on the radio. The more that I hear it, the more I transport myself to that Berlin bar! Years after I first heard the song, it has lost…
NONE of its magic.