39 :: The Secrets It Arouses :: A Slow Drag with "Satellite"

Today’s slow drag is with “Satellite,” from “Spike,” released in 1989. The songwriting is credited to Elvis Costello’s birth name.

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Written, produced, and narrated by Remedy Robinson
Twitter: @slowdragremedy
Email: [email protected]
Podcast music by https://www.fesliyanstudios.com
Rate this Podcast: https://ratethispodcast.com/slowdrag

References:

Elvis Costello Wiki Resource, “Satellite”: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Satellite

“Satellite”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCj1Fgj28i8

When the WWW opened to the public:  https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/06/20-years-ago-today-the-world-wide-web-opened-to-the-public/

Unmask Us: an explanation of Spike songs: https://www.unmask.us/songwriters-c-e/elvis-costello-p3/

1989 interview with Spin Magazine: https://www.spin.com/featured/elvis-costello-spike-may-1989-cover-story-the-man-who-would-be-king/

So, until next time, Adieu, my little ballyhoo

"Satellite" Lyrics

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 is 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 has pulled apart, let no man tether his own body to his dream,
His dream is someone else
Oh no, oh no
Oh no, oh no