Icehouse (4:21)

Icehouse is an Australian term for an insane asylum, which is where this song takes place. The song was written by their main man Iva Davies, who went through a period of depression as a teenager and whose songs often have an aimless, insecure and affected quality. Regarding his experiences with insane asylums like he sings about here, Davies said, “A couple of people I knew were experienced acid takers, and then suddenly they kind of lost it and ended up in hospital and haven’t been able to function ever since. I was there; I saw it happen. I saw somebody flip out and start hitting people and run off into the night. We were called by North Ryde Psychiatric Hospital. The person spent days and days and days there being pumped full of Valium and then came out of it virtually a vegetable.”
The group was known as Flowers when this song was first released. They changed their name to Icehouse due to a naming conflict with another band internationally.