Under The Ivy explained

["Forward, Jonathan" <JForward@sitgbsd1.telecom.com.au>]

Who wanted the story behind this song?

Taken from Andrew Marvick's 'The Garden':

                  Peter Swales's Musician interview (fall, 1985)

     [The following group interview was conducted by Peter Swales for
Musician magazine. This version includes what was printed in Musician
as well as that which was edited out. [snip - TSB] This version of the
Swales interview with Kate Bush is edited by Andrew Marvick.]

     Those songs which you've used as flip-sides on singles, like Warm
and Soothing, The Empty Bullring and Under the Ivy, on which you simply
accompany yourself on the piano with no other arrangement, were those
tracks recorded originally just as demos?
     Kate: "No, they weren't, but in a way they are just demos. Warm
and Soothing was a demo-tape which we did basically just to see what
Abbey Road sounded like. We wanted to work there, and we went into
Studio Two, and really the only way we could tell if it was going to
sound good was if I went and did a piano vocal. So I did, and it
sounded great. Under the Ivy we did in our studio in just an
afternoon."

              Doug Alan's Love-Hounds interview (fall, 1985)

     [The following is an interview undertaken by Doug Alan, the
founder and moderator of Love-Hounds, the only worldwide computer group
devoted to the subject of Kate's music. The views expressed by Doug
are not necessarily those of Love-Hounds as a group. Doug has asked
that a disclaimer be added, explaining that at the time of the
interview he was "suffering from a severe hormonal imbalance, but that
he's better now." Re-edited by Andrew Marvick.]

                Half an Hour With Kate Bush
                 An interview by Doug Alan

[snip - TSB]
    I read an interview where the interviewer asked you if Running Up
That Hill is about the contemplation of suicide. And I thought that was
pretty amusing, because it seemed to me clearly not to about any such
thing at all. On the other hand, strangely enough, that's just what
Under the Ivy (the b-side of Kate's Running Up That Hill single) seems
to be about to me. The tone of the song is very, very sad.  And it
seems to be about longing for the lost innocence of youth--perhaps a
follow-up to In Search of Peter Pan (from Kate's second album
Lionheart.) A white rose is a strong image in the song. And it could be
a symbol for friendship or innocence, but it could also be a
symbol for death. You sing "Away from the party", and it seems like you
might almost mean "away from the problems and triviality of modern day
life". You sing "It wouldn't take me long to tell you how to find it",
and it seems like you might almost be addressing Death itself. You
mention a secret, but never mention what it is. Could it be the taboo
we have of suicide? What are your feelings about this interpretation,
and what were your intentions with the song?
    "Well, I think...uh, it...perhaps you are reading much more into it
than was originally intended when I wrote it. It's very much a song
about someone who is sneaking away from a party to meet someone
elusively, secretly, and to possibly make love with them, or just to
communicate, but it's secret, and it's something they used to do and
that they won't be able to do again. It's about a nostalgic, revisited
moment."
     Is there any reason why it's so sad?
     "I think it's sad because it's about someone who is recalling a
moment when perhaps they used to do it when they were innocent and when
they were children, and it's something that they're having to sneak
away to do privately now as adults."


TSB