Song written by Kate Bush. Originally released on her fifth studio album Hounds Of Love. Second track of The Ninth Wave suite.
Versions
There is only one studio version of this song.
A live version appears on the album Before The Dawn.
Performances
In 2014, Kate performed ‘Under Ice’ live during all the shows of Before The Dawn.
Cover versions
‘Under Ice’ was covered by Theo Bleckmann, C.J. Boyd & Helena Espvall, Goodknight Productions, Göteborgs Symfoniker, Isadar, The Sandman’s Orchestra, TM Collective and Violet.
Kate about ‘Under Ice’
Well at this point, although they didn’t want to go to sleep, of course they do. [Laughs] And this is the dream, and it’s really meant to be quite nightmarish. And this was all kinda coming together by itself, I didn’t have much to do with this, I just sat down and wrote this little tune on the Fairlight with the cello sound. And it sounded very operatic and I thought “well, great” because it, you know, it conjured up the image of ice and was really simple to record. I mean we did the whole thing in a day, I guess. (…) Again it’s very lonely, it’s terribly lonely, they’re all alone on like this frozen lake. And at the end of it, it’s the idea of seeing themselves under the ice in the river, so I mean we’re talking real nightmare stuff here. And at this point, when they say, you know, “my god, it’s me,” you know, “it’s me under the ice. Ahhhh” [laughs] (Richard Skinner, ‘Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992)
Lyrics
It’s wonderful
Everywhere, so white
The river has frozen over
Not a soul on the ice
Only me skating fast
I’m speeding past trees
Leaving little lines in the ice
Splitting, splitting sound
Silver heels spitting, spitting snow
There’s something moving
Under, under the ice
Moving under ice
Through water
Trying to get out of the cold water
“It’s me.”
Something, someone–help them
“It’s me.”
Credits
Harmonic vocals: Paddy Bush
