Satellite

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search

She looked like she learned to dance from a series of still pictures
She's madly excited now, she throws her hands up like a tulip
She looks like an illustration of a cocktail party
Where cartoon bubbles burst in the air
Champagne rolls off her tongue like a second language
And it should have been her biggest night
The satellite looks down on her as she begins to cry

All over the world at the very same time, people sharing the same sorrow
As the satellite looks down, her darkest hour is somebody's bright tomorrow

He pulled on a cigarette, in the crook of his first finger
Felt the static electric charge of her perfect hour-glass figure
As he undressed her with his eyes, her weakness was his talent
How could she know as she stepped through the lights
That her dress would become transparent
And with his face pressed to the screen,
He muttered words he'd never dare to say if she could see him

All over the world at the very same time, people sharing the same cheap sensation
The thrill of watching somebody watching those forbidden things we never mention

The satellite looks down right now and forever
What it is pulled apart, let no man tether his own body to his dream,
His dream to someone else
Oh no, oh no.

She went back to a pitiful compromise
He'd go back to his family
But for the matter of a thousand miles that separated them entirely
In the hot unloving spotlight, with the secrets it arouses
Now they both know what it's like inside a pornographer's trousers
And in a funny way it's anonymous
The satellite, it blesses us and makes these dreams come true

All over the world at the very same time
All over the world

The satellite looks down right now and forever
What it is pulled apart, let no man tether his own body to his dream,
His dream to someone else
Oh no, oh no
Oh no, oh no

Satellite
Written byDeclan MacManus
Performed byElvis Costello
Produced byElvis Costello, Kevin Killen & T Bone Burnett
MusiciansElvis Costello - vocal, electric guitar, bass-piano
Benmont Tench - piano, Baldwin spinet
Mitchell Froom - Chamberlain, organ
T-Bone Wolk - bass
Ralph Forbes - electric drums
Jim Keltner - snare, tom-tom drums
Michael Blair - vibraphone, marimba, tympani, glockenspiel, bells
Chrissie Hynde - harmony vocal
Recorded1988, Ocean Way, Los Angeles & AIR Studios, London
ReleasedFebruary 6, 1989
AlbumsSpike, 1989
PromosMalice And Magic, 1994 (Japan)
Selections From My Aim Is True, Spike And All This Useless Beauty, 2001
Length5:43

Only known performance:
May 14, 1989, London, England
     (1 known performance)


Eye.jpg
“"I was speaking to Burt Bacharach the other day! Someone had asked us to write a song together. He was in the studio next door when we did "Satellite" (from Spike), which was a kind of homage to the Bacharach & David sound. he came in with his cigarette and listened and kept smiling when he heard a little figure or trick that was one of his. I love Bacharach's knack of being very light in a Latin way, like Nascimento or Gilberto, and yet tough."” — Elvis writing in Q Magazine, June 1995.

Alternate versions

Satellite (Demo)
Performed byElvis Costello
MusiciansElvis Costello - vocals, guitars, piano, percussion
RecordedFebruary 16, 1988, Eden Studios, London
ReleasedAugust 21, 2001
AlbumsSpike (Rhino reissue), 2001
Length4:47
Spike1989 Spike Album.jpg

Covers

Erich Sellheim home studio production, sung in German 2020 YouTube

Internal links

External links