Under Ice

KATE: The second song is called Under Ice, and is the dream that the person has. They're skating on ice; it's a frozen river and it's very white everywhere and they're all alone, there doesn't appear to be anyone else there. As they skate along they look down at the ice and they can see something moving underneath. As they skate along with the object that's moving under the ice they come to a crack in the ice; and as it moves under the crack, they see that it's themselves in the water drowning, and at that moment they wake up into the next song, which is about friends and memories who come to wake them up to stop them drowning.

It's about a woman lost at sea. The whole second half of the album, The Ninth Wave, tells the story of a woman alone at sea. To Dream Of Sheep is her trying not to succumb to hypothermia and fall asleep in the cold water. In Under Ice she falls asleep and in her dream she sees herself drowning. Jig of Life: "Where on your palm is my little line?" Her older self is trying to communicate with her younger, present self. And so on. Kate herself has said as much.

i love this song its creepy yet undertandable , i think she is showing that people take advantage then get caught up and noone can save them XXXnadzXXX

Mimicking the skater, the music works up terrific pace and speed…

‘The river has frozen over…’/‘I'm speeding past trees…’ - the skater cinematically glides across the dangerous landscape… Time/sensory distortion… ‘It’s wonderful…’ - Intense… Irresistible… Exhilarating… (‘Everywhere, so white...’ - coke…?) ‘Not a soul on the ice…’ - Soulless? Her soul destroyed? Frozen? ‘Only me…’ - She is the only one venturing out… Like she can’t judge the conditions? reckless? chaotic? out of control? … Vulnerable… Alone against the elements… Leaving cares behind… Leaving… THE DIRECTOR'S CUT… ‘…Little lines in the ice,/Cutting out little lines,/in the ice,/splitting, splitting sound,/Silver heels spitting, spitting snow…’ - slo-mo trouble… the internal, the external, the natural narrative… ‘There's something… Under… Moving… Trying… "It's me"…’ - struggling emotional mess…

Human passion, human recklessness, human difficulty, human need… Touching the Void…

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..." Listening to The Ninth Wave Suite is like watching JAWS! … the ‘Under Ice’ music and the 'shark theme' to JAWS are equally ominous! … stranded at sea… Kate’s fearsome witchfinder under the surface… The warning “Get Out Of The Water!” By the end of the Suite, you’re clinging to your partner, much too scared to stand in the Atlantic! :o)

They say the entire second half of the album is about death. Why so morbid Kate? Ah, I think her mother died before this album. The second half of the album was also meant to be a concept album like Pink Floyd often did around this time period. Story telling and a common theme.

Otherwise... Totally agree with Theresa_Gionoffrio's conclusion.

From my youth I always remember thinking this song was about a part in the book 2010 Odyssey Two by Arthur C Clarke. On rereading it & revisiting the lyrics I'd like to think there's some mileage in my assumption. See part 2 chapters 6-11. About a lading on Jupiter's ice moon Europa wriggled with ice faults ("lines in the ice") & a creature coming up from under the ice needing help, as well as the crew needing help. Then the higher being E.T.'s helping the under ice creatures by turning Jupiter into a sun & ultimately "waking them" up to consciousness with the black obelisk ( in further chapters of the trilogy) after countless generations of evolution on the now warm humid ("get them out of the cold water") moon. Read the trilogy & tell me what you think.

If you'd like to read a sensitive, thoughtful and in-depth analysis of this song and the others in Kate's masterful "The 9th Wave" suite, check this out: http://ohbythewayblog.blogspot.jp/2014/08/the-ninth-wave-by-kate-bush.html

'Under Ice' taps into vulnerability, rashness and terror. Spaced out speeding across still life... Maybe a mind-expanding trip taking the protagonist to the edge of self, to the messy beyond self... Speeding above/over ice becomes trapped below/under ice, and the self becomes dangerously split... Coke Crash... ('Ice' is street slang for cocaine; 'Splitting' is street slang for rolling marijuana and cocaine into a single joint; 'Kate Bush' is street slang for 'kind bud', an expensive and potent strain of marijuana!)