The Kate Bush song that was inspired by Disney
Disney’s Peter Pan story has been an inspiring tale for many musicians. Everybody from Metallica to Celene Dion has used the fairytale as a muse, and Kate Bush went a step further by naming a track ‘In Search Of Peter Pan’, an effort that later appeared on her album, Lionheart.
The song was released in 1978 when Bush was only 20 years old but still yearned for youth. In a songwriting sense, Bush has always been wise ahead of her years and unafraid to explore societal issues that most writers would run away from. While on the surface, ‘In Search Of Peter Pan’ might seem like there’s not a dearth of weight to the song, the truth is a different story.
Although the track features Peter Pan in the title, the content is not directly about his story. Instead, Bush wrote from the perspective of a young boy going through difficult times, but a newspaper clipping of Peter Pan is her prized belonging and inspires her to keep up the fight.
Bush begins by singing: “It’s been such a long week, So much crying, I no longer see a future, I’ve been told when I get older, That I’ll understand it all, But I’m not sure if I want to, Running into her arms, At the school gates, She whispers that I’m a poor kid, And Granny takes me on her knee, She tells me I’m too sensitive, She makes me sad.”
Later in the song, Bush mentions Peter Pan and powerfully delivers the verse, “He’s got a photo, Of his hero, He keeps it under his pillow, But I’ve got a pin-up, From a newspaper, Of Peter Pan.”
In the promotional material for Lionheart, Bush explained why she felt compelled to explore the tale of Peter Pan. She said: “It’s sorta about childhood. And the book itself is an absolutely amazing observation on paternal attitudes and the relationships between the parents – how it’s reflected on the children.”
Bush continued: “And I think it’s a really heavy subject, you know, how a young innocence mind can be just controlled, manipulated, and they don’t necessarily want it to happen that way. And it’s really just a song about that.”
The closing verse of the fantastical ‘In Search Of Peter Pan’ features another reference to Disney, with Bush paying tribute to ‘When You Wish Upon A Star’ from Pinocchio. She sings: “When you wish upon a star, Makes no difference who you are, When you wish upon a star, Your dreams come true”.
Decades later, Bush almost wrote herself into Disney history when they asked her to contribute to the soundtrack for the animation, Dinosaur. However, they ultimately decided against using her original track because it didn’t fit their plans for the film. Eventually, Bush reworked the song, and it became ‘Lyra’, soundtracking The Golden Compass.
