In an interview with Phil Sutcliffe published in the August 30, 1980 issue of Sounds, composer and performer Kate Bush said this was one of her earliest compositions; she wrote it when she was about fifteen, adding, "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 smoky bar in Berlin with nobody listening except me in the corner."
Running to 3 minutes 47 seconds, "The Saxophone Song" is the second track on Kate's debut album. It was recorded at Air Studios in June 1975, produced by Andrew Powell and engineered by Jon Kelly.
Kate nixed the rumor that she wrote the song about David Bowie, who was known to play the sax from time to time. "I wrote it about the instrument, not the player," she explained in a 1979 fan club newsletter. She did, however, record a tribute to Bowie in 1973, shortly after he announced the retirement of his alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The previously unreleased track was included on her 2018 Remastered box set as "Humming."
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