"Watching You Without Me"

The Ninth Wave (Hounds of Love)
Written by Kate Bush

("What's that?")
("It's four, five, six, seven...")

You can't hear me.

You can't hear what I'm saying.

You can't hear what I'm saying to you.

You watch the clock
Move the slow hand.
I should have been home
Hours ago,
But I'm not here.
But I'm not here.

You can't hear me.

You can't feel me

Here in the room with you now.

You can't hear what I'm saying.

You don't hear what I'm saying, do you?

Can't let you know
What's been happening.
There's a ghost in our home,
Just watching you without me.
I'm not here.: ("You don't hear me.") [backwards]
But I'm not here.
(You can't hear me.)
But I'm not here.
(You don't hear what I'm saying.)

. . . _ _ _ . . . _ _ _ . . . _ _ _ . . . _ _ _ . . .

"Don't ignore, don't ignore me,
Let me...[indecipherable]"*
"Don't ignore, don't ignore me,
Let me...[indecipherable]"
"Don't ignore, don't ignore me,
Let me...[indecipherable]"

"We see you here." [backwards]

"We see you here."

You don't hear me come in.
"Help me, baby! Help me, baby! Talk to me! Listen to me,
listen to me! Talk to me! Help--"**: ("You can't hear me.") [backwards]
"Listen, baby! Listen to me, baby! Help me, help me, baby!
Talk to me! Talk to me! Please, baby, talk to me!": ("You can't hear me.") [backwards]; You won't hear me leaving.

[*--"Don't ignore, don't ignore me...": This "mystery message" immediately follows the Morse code "S.O.S." signal. Still undeciphered as of October, 1988, the message is the subject of a continuing Kate Bush Club competition. The message is a sentence, twelve words long, beginning with the word "Don't". Backwards, it sounds something like: "Zwoh-nikh-noh, zwoh-nikh-noh nee, et-nee nong-widz-aw nee noy." The translation in the lyrics above is only the editor's guess. It is not even known for certain whether the message is forward- or backward-directional.]

[**--"Listen to me, baby...", etc.: The words in this passage, and in one which follows later in the song are broken up--fractured--by some sound-treatment process known only to Kate. Similar to passages from Waking the Witch, these lines seem to contain different words when played backwards. Respectively, these are: "I was here before, you talked to me, you said that you didn't think it was too late to help me..."; and "Talk to me, listen to me, talk to me, talk to me, baby..." These words apparently were recorded within the momentary gaps which break up the forward-directional recording.]

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