Cloudbusting -- Kate Bush In Her Own Words

Under The Ivy

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?

No, they weren't, but in a way they are just demos... ``Under The Ivy'' we did in our studio in just an afternoon. (1985, Musician)

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'' 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'' 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. (1985, Love-Hounds)

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