*** Under Ice Quotes ****

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

I was asked about Under Ice yesterday, so here's the quotes I have:A 


UNDER ICE

        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.   (1985, KBC 18)

        I'VE MENTIONED ONE SONG THAT I - YOU KNOW, THAT I THOUGHT WAS 
WEIRD, AND YOU SAY YOU'RE QUITE HAPPY ABOUT THAT.  THE ONLY OTHER ONE 
THAT FRIGHTENED ME LITTLE BIT WAS "UNDER ICE."  CAN YOU JUST, UH...WHAT 
WAS...WHAT WAS THE THINKING BEHIND THAT SONG?
        It was totally connected to the track that had come before, and 
they were written together - "And Dream of Sheep" goes straight into 
"Under Ice."  They were almost conceived as one.  It was very much the 
idea of going from very cold water - it's getting dark, you're alone, 
the only way out is to go to sleep, no responsibilities, and forget 
about everything, but if you go to sleep the chances are you could roll 
over in the water and drown.  So you're trying to fight sleep, but you 
can't help it, and you hit the dream: the idea of the dream being 
really cold, and really the visual expectancy of total loneliness, and 
for me that was a completely frozen river, no-one around, everything 
completely shattered [?] with snow and icicles.  And it's that person, 
all alone in this absolute cold wilderness of white, and seeing 
themselves under the ice, drowning, from which they wake up and find 
themselves under the water.   (1985, Homeground)

*       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.   (1991, Classic Albums)

*       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]  
These sort of visitors come to wake them up, to bring them out of this 
dream so that they don't drown.   (1991, Classic Albums)


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rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA