KATE BUSH - SAT IN YOUR LAP

Released: June 29, 1981

Charts:  UK: #11 

Kate Bush released “Sat in Your Lap” in June 1981, more than a year ahead of the album “The Dreaming”. Peaking at No. 11 on the UK charts, the single announced Bush’s breakaway from convention and marked the beginning of her stint as full producer of her own work. If her earlier albums hinted at experimentation, “Sat in Your Lap” detonated it.

The song confronts the restless human hunger for knowledge, while simultaneously acknowledging the futility of ever attaining enough of it. Bush casts a wry eye on those who crave wisdom but avoid the work required to earn it; every revelation only exposes a larger ignorance. “When you get over one wall,” she once explained, “you will find an even bigger one.” It’s a philosophical theme—part spiritual, part existential—delivered with ferocious energy.

The track’s creation was directly inspired by a Stevie Wonder concert at Wembley in 1980. Energised by his band’s rhythmic power, Bush went home and began shaping the song the very next day. It started with a Roland rhythm box and a piano riff, with early placeholder lyrics—snippets like “I see the people working” and “I want to be a scholar”—filling in the gaps as she worked out the structure. Those lines eventually became the framework for the track.

Drummer Preston Heyman played a crucial role in forging its distinctive percussive sound. Recording at The Townhouse in 1981, he and Paddy Bush used bamboo garden canes to create the whip-like rhythm that slices through the track. During one take, Heyman became so carried away that he snapped a cane across his knee; the sound, still audible in the final mix, was left in by Bush.

The music video, directed by Brian Wiseman, matched the song’s manic intensity. Shot at Abbey Road Studios, it features Bush performing a puppet-like seated dance, roller skating in circles, and interacting with dancers dressed as clowns, jesters, and bulls. Heyman described the atmosphere as “animalistic” and “tribal,” echoing the ritualistic whip-dance he and Paddy performed during the recording.