After an education in the arts, music and drama, by the age of 15, Tzuke spent most of her time writing poems which she turned into songs and playing folk clubs, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. She went to Island Records to try and get a record deal and after she'd played two songs was asked if she had any more. She replied that she had twenty, which she didn't, and they asked her to come back and record them the following week. She didn't return, but their interest made her realise that she could have a career in music.
In 1977 Tzuke went to see managing director David Croker at Elton John's label 'Rocket Records' as their motto was "a label for artists". She played them a few songs, one of which was "Stay with Me Till Dawn" and was immediately signed to the new label. Judie and collaborator Mike Paxman spent the next six months or so recording her first album Welcome to the Cruise at Air Studios in London, with producer John Punter.
The first single was released in the summer of 1978, entitled "For You" and was greeted with great critical acclaim and substantial air-play but only reached the top 40.
This was to all change with the release of the Welcome to the Cruise album and the single "Stay with Me Till Dawn". The song stayed in the UK charts for 16 weeks, and she made three live appearances on Top of the Pops. The song became a firm favourite and is still played regularly on radio in the U.K. It has appeared on dozens of compilation albums and regularly appears in lists of all time most popular songs.
With the success of her debut album, Judie and Mike put together the first Judie Tzuke band. Paul Muggleton on guitar and backing vocals and Bob Noble on keyboards, along with bass player John Edwards and drummer Jeff Rich.
Tzuke and her band then toured for the next 18 months and made her second album Sportscar at Virgin's Manor studios, in Oxfordshire.
In 1980, Tzuke and her band toured America for three months as support to Elton John. The tour was well received, but during the tour Elton John decided to change the US distribution for his Rocket label from MCA to the new Geffin label. MCA consequently decided to stop all tour support and promotion for the acts on the Rocket label, which meant that Judie was playing to huge audiences, including 450,000 people in New York's Central Park, but no-one knew who she was and her records were not available in the shops.
She recorded her third album I Am the Phoenix, followed by another lengthy UK tour which culminated in appearances headlining the Glastonbury CND Festival and some summer festivals in Europe. She then made the decision to leave Rocket and to sign with Chrysalis Records.
Judie was by this time selling out halls all over the UK and in parts of Europe. Her next album Shoot the Moon was recorded mainly at Rockfield studios in Wales and was released in 1982.
During the spring tour two sell out shows at the Hammersmith Odeon (now The Carling Apollo) were recorded and later that year the acclaimed live album Roadnoise was released.
Judie, Mike and Paul wrote new songs and went to Mayfair studios in London to record her fifth album, augmenting her stage band with a number of other musicians.
Throughout the late 80s and 90s, Judie has continued to record and tour, and has set up her own record label. In addition, she is now successfully writing songs for other artists.
www.tzuke.com
Beacon Hill
Judie Tzuke Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We have forgotten the last word we thought
Without speaking, we do it like this now
With wasted words
We spoke of everything we know and more
Without thinking
There is no communication
There is no communication
And no comfort in knowing
We see you. we point our fingers
Watching from beacon hill,
We keep our distance
Lack of concentration
Found us misunderstanding
All we ever felt
And without feeling
We do it like this now
too scared to touch
We built a wall around the garden
Of our hearts
without thinking
There is no communication
And no comfort in knowing
There is no communication
And no comfort in knowing
We see you. we point our fingers
Watching from beacon hill,
We keep our distance - we see you
(we get in trouble when we look too far)
We point our fingers
We are receiving you - we keep our distance
(We get in trouble when we look too far)
No more complications
We are afraid to find that things are going wrong
without looking
There is no communication
And no comfort In knowing
There is no communication
And no comfort in knowing
We're watchlng from beacon hill
We get in trouble when we look too far
We get in trouble when we look too far
We're watchlng from beacon hill
We get in trouble when we look too far
"Beacon Hill" by Judie Tzuke is a song about a relationship that has lost its communication. The couple has forgotten the last word they spoke and now, any communication made has become empty words. They have spoken about everything they know and more, but without thinking. The chorus repeats the lines "there is no communication and no comfort in knowing" to reinforce the lack of connection between the two people.
The couple is also scared to touch and has built a wall around the garden of their hearts. They point their fingers at each other from Beacon Hill, watching from a distance. They have a lack of concentration that causes them to misunderstand each other. They are too scared to look too far, for fear that things are going wrong. They have become distant and disconnected.
Line by Line Meaning
No communication
There is a lack of communication
We have forgotten the last word we thought
We can't remember the last thing we said
Without speaking, we do it like this now
We've started to communicate without speaking
With wasted words
We use meaningless words
We spoke of everything we know and more
We talked about everything we know and more
Without thinking
We act impulsively
There is no communication
There is a lack of communication
And no comfort in knowing
We don't find any comfort in this
We see you. we point our fingers
We observe you from a distance and accuse you
Watching from beacon hill,
We're observing from a high point
We keep our distance
We don't get involved
Lack of concentration
We can't focus
Found us misunderstanding
We started to misinterpret things
All we ever felt
Our feelings
And without feeling
Without any emotions
too scared to touch
We're afraid to get closer
We built a wall around the garden
We've isolated our emotions
Of our hearts
Of our emotional selves
There is no communication
There is a lack of communication
And no comfort in knowing
We don't find any comfort in this
We see you. we point our fingers
We observe you from a distance and accuse you
Watching from beacon hill,
We're observing from a high point
We keep our distance - we see you
We don't get involved but we're observing you
(we get in trouble when we look too far)
We get into trouble when we try to delve deeper
We point our fingers
We accuse others
We are receiving you - we keep our distance
We're observing you but not interacting
(We get in trouble when we look too far)
We get into trouble when we try to delve deeper
No more complications
We want things to be simple
We are afraid to find that things are going wrong
We're scared of things going wrong
without looking
Without examining things closely
There is no communication
There is a lack of communication
And no comfort in knowing
We don't find any comfort in this
We're watching from beacon hill
We're observing from a high point
We get in trouble when we look too far
We get into trouble when we try to delve deeper
We get in trouble when we look too far
We get into trouble when we try to delve deeper
Contributed by John P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.