FEATURE:
The Dreaming
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
The Desire to Track Down the Handwritten Lyrics for Kate Bush’s The Man with the Child in His Eyes
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FOR my nine-hundredth….
Kate Bush feature, I am returning to a song that is in my thoughts. One that is part of a run of features around Kate Bush’s debut album, The Kick Inside. That was released in 1978. Composed of thirteen songs, two of them were recorded in 1975. Alongside The Saxophone Song, The Man with the Child in His Eyes was laid down at AIR studios. I am not going to get into the album again I promise. I will cover it in other features. Instead, I want to focus on this song from a particular (personal) angle. I have written about it before. How my most desirable Kate Bush memorabilia or piece of history is the handwritten lyrics for The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Bush wrote the song was she was only thirteen. One of her earliest songs, it is a remarkably mature and beautiful song. The lyrics were written in pink felt tip pen. Hot pink to be precise. Of course, in terms of purchases, there are some items that are accessible but maybe out of my range because of cost. Among them is the photobook, Cathy. These are very early photos of Kate Bush taken by her brother, John Carder Bush. I have seen copies selling for hundreds of pounds. In terms of those items not for sale that would be those dream to-own items, I would love stage plans and sketches from 1979’s The Tour of Life. Any plans too for 2014’s Before the Dawn. I have seen a few rare items on auction sites similar to this. Though I know there are intimate or personal notes and plans that have not made it onto the market. I would also really love to own video memorabilia. Items or clothing that were worn. To have that part of history. However, as my number one dream item would be those original lyrics to The Man with the Child in His Eyes, I will explain more why it is so important and desirable.
I am surprised Kate Bush let it go to auction. Well, I am not sure how its journey started. I will talk about the auction and the fact it was bought. Without repeating too much of another feature where I have discussed these lyrics. I know there will be handwritten lyrics and personal artefacts Bush has kept and will not let out of her sight. I am not sure why she was okay to let go the handwritten lyrics for The Man with the Child in His Eyes lyrics. The song celebrates fifty years next year. As it was recorded fifty years ago, it makes those lyrics even more precious. Bush stepping into AIR studios to record words for a song she wrote several years before. A then-sixteen-year-old backed by an orchestra recording a song she wrote when she was thirteen. It makes the hairs on your body stand on end thinking about it! There are some Kate Bush songs where you think about their creation and Bush writing them. How evocative the time and setting was. Songs from Hounds of Love. Bush surrounded by countryside or writing in Ireland during one of the happiest periods of her life. Her writing Wuthering Heights with a full moon in the sky with the window open one summer’s night. Bush hasn’t really discussed writing The Man with the Child in His Eyes. The fact it was written in pink felt tip pen. I often wonder if this was the final or first draft. Bush writing in pencil or pen but then making another copy in hot pink felt tip. Maybe she has the earliest version. However, Bush might not have had that much sentimentality about the song. She was a girl when it was written so might not feel it is important as some of the songs she wrote much later in life. I think about those lyrics a lot. How amazing it would be to own perhaps one of the most pieces of Kate Bush history! In the sense The Man with the Child in His Eyes was the second single. It reached number six in the U.K. and was performed during The Tour of Life.
On 9th December, 1978, Kate Bush performed live on U.S. T.V. for the first and only time, as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. The song itself is really interesting in the sense the single version differs from the album version. The single starts with the words “He’s here!” and laughter echoing. Many people prefer this version compared to the album version. There is no real truth that the songs lyrics are about David Gilmour. Bush’s mentor and good friend, people have speculated that the song might be about him. Whilst many assume that Bush’s former (and first) boyfriend Steve Blacknell is the man with the child in his eyes, Bush has said it is more general. About men and the fact they have this child-like wonder. When it came to songs of love, Bush never really applied a name or specific inspiration in terms of people. I genuinely believe Bush had nobody particular in mind when she was thirteen and was penning some of her finest words. The fact Bush has said in interview where she discussed The Man with the Child in His Eyes and mentioned how she was attracted to older men naturally led people to assume people like David Gilmour or Steve Blacknell were in her thoughts. I like to think that the man in the song was fictional and could apply to many people. Here we get some insight from Kate Bush about one of her greatest songs:
“The inspiration for ‘The Man With the Child in His Eyes’ was really just a particular thing that happened when I went to the piano. The piano just started speaking to me. It was a theory that I had had for a while that I just observed in most of the men that I know: the fact that they just are little boys inside and how wonderful it is that they manage to retain this magic. I, myself, am attracted to older men, I guess, but I think that’s the same with every female. I think it’s a very natural, basic instinct that you look continually for your father for the rest of your life, as do men continually look for their mother in the women that they meet. I don’t think we’re all aware of it, but I think it is basically true. You look for that security that the opposite sex in your parenthood gave you as a child.
I am not sure when the lyrics reached him, but they did used to be in the ownership of Steve Blacknell. Bush’s first boyfriend (or first serious one), he put them on the music memorabilia website 991.com. It was definitely authentic. The lyrics written in hot pink felt tip pen with pink circles in place of the dots over the letter i. I can picture Bush writing those lyrics and the emotions running through her. How the lyrics pages were kept in great condition. I am not sure how faded they were when they were sold in 2010. I hope that they are being looked after. I would give anything to know who has them. If they did ever go back up for auction, you could imagine they would sell for thousands. Possibly into five digits! That would be out of my price range. I would love to own them. As one of my favourite Kate Bush songs from my favourite Kate Bush album, having this treasure would be incredible! A lot of Kate Bush-related items and memorabilia has been put on auction sites. Nothing as personal in my view. Not to judge Steve Blacknell, but if you did have these stunning words vividly written in pink felt tip by someone you used to be in a relationship with, why would you not frame them or keep them somewhere safe?! Selling them risks putting them in the hands of someone who might not recognise their value. I do not know who has them now but I think long and hard where they could be in the world. As I turn over and turn the light off. I wonder why Steve Blacknell would let those words go. Too painful to keep hold of or meaningless. Bush wrote them when she was thirteen. In 2010, The Man with the Child in His Eyes was nearly forty. That much time had passed. In 2010, when the news about the sale of the handwritten lyrics was made public, The Independent wrote the following:
“Fame creates an aura of association. The name Steve Blacknell means nothing to me and Kate Bush will leave most people under 40 blank but, if we say the first boyfriend of the musical predecessor of Florence Welch, we are in business. Blacknell is selling a teenage love letter from Bush, claiming that he is the subject of her song "The Man with the Child in His Eyes".
The eBay generation points out impatiently that Blacknell has a lousy sense of timing. Why didn't he flog the letter when Bush was famous?
The sale and the timing suggest two things. Blacknell could use some cash but is neither greedy nor vengeful. If anything, his crime is sentimentality. Aged 58, he has the glow of recall and the bittersweet awareness of the passage of time. When he met Kate Bush they did not know how their lives would turn out, which ambitions would be realised, which hopes dashed. We know that age improves the longterm memory and Blacknell's relationship with Bush may have been the most acute phase of his life”.
For my 900th Kate Bush feature, I wanted to return to a dream. A fantasy. Owning the handwritten lyrics for The Man with the Child in His Eyes. That torment that they might not even exist anymore. Whoever bought them in 2010 might have sold them on. The pages might be yellow and the lyrics faded. A sad sign of ageing. I think back to when Bush wrote the words and how fresh the ink was. A hot pink felt tip pen and this excitement of penning such gorgeous lines. How she decided to keep hold of them. Next year, it will be fifty years since Kate Bush recorded The Man with the Child in His Eyes. I hope someone writes about the song and shines a light on it. Right now, the handwritten lyrics are out there somewhere. I am not sure about any of her other songs and whether she kept any of the lyrics or they were sold on. We do know The Man with the Child in His Eyes is unique in the sense it made the news when it was sold. Those lyrics written by a thirteen-year-old who would be a worldwide name six years later. I have checked Google and auction sites and there is no news or updates regarding the lyrics. It almost makes me teary thinking how a blank piece of paper soon had these amazing and timeless words written by a girl! A song that would cause so much speculation and have this aura of mystery. How those pages (or page, I guess) remained in Bush’s possession for a while. I am not certain if someone else had them before Steve Blacknell. The fact he made the decision to sell them. Now they are owned by a Kate Bush fan. I am not sure who or where they are. I do think about it a lot. The one thing above all I would like to own. Wherever those lyrics are and whoever owns them, I just hope they take good care of them and realise…
HOW important they are.