‘Eat The Music’ is a song written by Kate Bush. It was originally released as the lead single for The Red Shoes in the USA on 7 September 1993, while everywhere else in the world Rubberband Girl was released. In the UK, a small handful of extremely rare 7″ and promotional CD-singles were produced, but were recalled by EMI Records at the last minute. A commercial release followed in the Summer of 1994 in the Netherlands and Australia, along with a handful of other countries. The song’s lyrics are about opening up in relationships to reveal who we really are inside.
Versions
There are four versions of ‘Eat The Music’: the 5’10 minute album version, the 4’55 edit that appears on the American CD-single, a 3’25 minute ‘edit radio’, released on a French promotional CD-single, and the 9’21 12″ version.
Formats
The USA CD-single featured the album version and 12″ version of ‘Eat The Music’, along with Big Stripey Lie and Candle In The Wind. A 2 track CD-single, released in the Netherlands in the summer of 1994 featured ‘Eat The Music’ and You Want Alchemy. The Dutch and Australian 4 track CD-singles featured these two tracks plus the 12″ version of ‘Eat The Music’ [which is actually the 4’55 US edit, see below] and ‘Shoedance (The Red Shoes Dance Mix)’. It is worth noting that the Australian CD-single came in a ‘Scratch And Sniff’ card sleeve.
Music video
The music video for ‘Eat The Music’ was also used in the movie The Line, The Cross and The Curve and features Kate dancing in a field of fruits together with other dancers. It is a slightly hypnotic sequence.
Del Palmer about ‘Eat The Music’
It uses a small guitar called a ‘caboss‘ which is one of the instruments Paddy (Bush, Kate’s brother) discovered and brought back with him. He’s very into ethnic music of all kinds and has always contributed a lot of ideas to the albums – he helped bring in some authentic players and the track started off with bass guitar which was then replaced by an acoustic bass – but that sounded a bit too Latin. The horn section’s real, of course.
Future Music, November 1993
Lyrics
Split me open
With devotion
You put your hands in
And rip my heart out
Eat the music
Does he conceal
What he really feels?
He’s a woman at heart
And I love him for that
Let’s split him open
Like a pomegranate
Insides out
All is revealed
Not only women bleed
Take the stone out
Of the mango
You put it in your mouth
And pull a plum out
Take a papaya
You like a guava?
Grab a banana
And a sultana
Rip them to pieces
With sticky fingers
Split the banana
Crush the sultana
Split ’em open
With devotion
You put your hands in
And rip their hearts out
Like a pomegranate
Insides out
He’s a woman at heart
And love him for that
Take a papaya
You like a guava?
Grab a banana
And a sultana
Rip ’em to pieces
With sticky fingers
Split the banana
Crush the sultana
All emotion
And with devotion
You put your hands in
What ya thinking?
What am I singing?
A song of seeds
The food of love
Eat the music
Credits
Drums, percussion: Stuart Elliott
Bass: John Giblin
Valiha, Kabossy, vocals: Justin Vali
Valiha, vocals: Paddy Bush
Tenor saxophone: Nigel Hitchcock
Trombone: Nigel Sidwell
Trumpet: Paul Spong
Trumpet: Steve Sidwell
Keyboards: Kate
References
- Eat The Music. Wikipedia, retrieved 22 January 2015.
