The Kate Bush song inspired by Stevie Wonder
The influence of Stevie Wonder is unquantifiable. Somewhere between ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ and ‘Superstition’, he won awards and admiration in equal measure. He has 25 Grammys to his name, alongside praise from fellow giants like Paul McCartney, Elton John and Bob Dylan. He even inspired art-pop icon Kate Bush.
In 1982, Bush put out her fourth studio record, The Dreaming. The lead single for the album came in the form of ‘Sat in Your Lap’, a bold and bright entry in her catalogue punctuated by bamboo sticks and backing vocals. Perhaps unsurprisingly, for those who remember the track, it was inspired by the sound of Wonder.
Bush had been to see the ‘Sir Duke’ singer live and was immediately inspired by his performance. She explained how this resulted in ‘Sat in Your Lap’ in a 1982 edition of her fan club newsletter, beginning, “I already had the piano patterns, but they didn’t turn into a song until the night after I’d been to see a Stevie Wonder gig.”
She recalled being “inspired by the feeling of his music”, an understandable response to a Wonder gig. There’s something about his sound that feels full and technicolour; his genre-blending and powerful vocals are almost guaranteed to put a smile on your face and get you up out of your seat. Setting out to create something with a similar feeling, Bush got to work on the future lead single.
“I set a rhythm on the Roland and worked in the piano riff to the hi-hat and snare,” she recalled, “I now had a verse and a tune to go over it but only a few lyrics like ‘I see the people working,’ ‘I want to be a lawyer,’ and ‘I want to be a scholar,’ so the rest of the lyrics became ‘na-na-na’ or words that happened to come into my head.”
“I had some chords for the chorus with the idea of a vocal being ad-libbed later,” she continued, “The rhythm box and piano were put down, and then we recorded the backing vocals ‘Some say that knowledge…’” Bush had a particular vision while recording her lead vocals and chorus voice, seeing the latter as being “sung from high on a hill on a windy day.”
The influence of Wonder’s sound can certainly be felt in the song her efforts culminated in, but it also retains that distinctive Bush quality. Cathartic and cinematic, dazzling and dramatic all at once.
Revisit ‘Sat in Your Lap’ below.
