Song written by Ricky and Marty Wilde. Tenth and last track of the album Kim Wilde.
Live performances
‘Tuning in Tuning On’ was performed live during the Debut Tour in 1982, the Catch Tour in 1983 and the Perfect Girl Tour in 2007.
Marty about ‘Tuning in Tuning On’
Originally, we weren’t going to put this on the album, but there’s been such a lot of interest in this B-side of Kids in America, and Rick gave it such a fantastic riff that it sounded sort of freaky. I said, “Oh you must finish it off, it sounds a very eerie kind of track”. I wasn’t sure of what kind of lyric I’d write but in about an hour I had the title and then thought of a theory I had about sound being alive and not dead. So I wrote the lyrics around this pet theory of mine and later discovered that there is an actual sect of yogi’s in the East who genuinely belive that sounds are alive and live on, so basically I’d like to think that’s true. (1)
Interview source
(1) Kim Wilde Fanclub Introductory Magazine
Lyrics
Cruising ’round there’s a sound with a place to go
Tuning in tuning on like a radio
Fell the sound in your head and you set the seal
I believe it’s a force of the life you feel – Tuning on
Do you know what the sounds that you hear will find
Reach to space to the stars and another time
I believe that they search like a seed to grow
In the end it’s the same anyway you go
I really can’t explain
I really can’t explain
Crashing out for the last and the final time
Could a sound and a soul travel on combined
From the womb to the end is it everywhere
Feel the beat of my heart and you know it’s there
I really can’t explain
SPOKEN:
I really believe that sound reaches infinity, do you know what I mean. I think it goes on and on forever, and if that’s true and it was linked to the spiritual side of your lives, well, then sounds could be alive. And it’s part of us and not just something that was dead, but actually alive. Can you imagine the possibilities for the future ? Linking the soul and the sound and then being able to make a giant spiritual musical machine, actually a part of us and not just something you hear – it’s fantastic – it’s just fantastic
I really can’t explain