it's odd how corny these lyrics can look on paper, but the song pulls them off handily. does anyone know what the chanty-sounding voices are saying -- most evident toward the end?

"Tiefer, tiefer, irgendwo in der Tiefe gibt es ein Licht" is what is said before "Go to sleep little Earth". It's German for "Deeper, deeper, somewhere in the depth there is a light." (that's what it says on gaffa)
I don't know what the rest of the chanting is though.
This song sounds like it's about the end of the world..

i love playing this song at night staring up at the sky its my way of telling god that the world isnt what it seems.

the eerie almost-gregorian chanting throughout the song is from Werner Herzog's film, Nosferatu. there aren't words in it, it's unscripted chanting, and it's used in the film during the plague scenes.

I'm wrong. the gregorian chant is actually a piece called Tsintskaro. there's various spellings of it.

Once upon a time I was playing various parts in a silly and serious play that angels were treating me to and in one role I was linked to the earth goddess Ge. I have no idea how it was originally pronounced but they were saying Gee as in gee whiz and I was Baby Ge or Little Earth—dreaming to spare Ge the indignity of being blown up with nuclear weapons. Talk about being out of my league … and the angels would sing this song with me. With just one hand held up high, I can blot you out—I was insignificant and small. They were driving—I was sleeping. We became something bright, traveling fast, moving at breakneck speed, communicating in torrents but not really accomplishing anything that I was aware of. Our storm formed in America and anyone who witnessed the event couldn’t really intervene—angels are exceedingly clever. The admonition for sailors, life-savers and cruisers to get out of the water was a message I wasn’t overly fond of because it suggested that much of what we felt we could do to impede war wasn’t going to work—and face it, who wants to hear that? I liked it even less because it wasn’t clear at all what might work and they were saying, go to sleep little earth—don’t worry about it. Being there at the birth refers to when this began and while we haven’t descended into World War III, things haven’t exactly been calm. So it would have been me asking why did I go? Why even listen to such nonsense? And they said go to sleep little earth. Sounds like a fairy tale so I made it one. From what I understand about life, we could easily blow this planet up and simply say, well gee, we felt like starting over although I personally think it’s a bit strange to think of blowing up home no matter how short the visit. Could be—majority rules and I’m in the minority.

KATE: “The song after that is Hello Earth, and this is the point where she's so weak that she relives the experience of the storm that took her in the water, almost from a view looking down on the earth up in the heavens, watching the storm start to form - the storm that eventually took her and that has put her in this situation…”

A moving song, full of sad and beautiful imagery… the moon, the heavens, Oneness, ecological interdependence, the cruel sea, the human mind, a baby, safety, compassion, etc…

The protagonist is alone on the vast ocean surface, gazing at the night sky, and ‘so aware of her situation.’ It’s just her and Nature… “Hello, Earth!… Hello, Earth!”
(Each of the opening calls is echoed by a voice seemingly lost in space.)

The song is about how small we are as individuals, how vast and unpredictable nature is, about trust and how everything is connected and interdependent…

A baby can (playfully) block care-giving Earth out of sight with just one hand (Earth being its mother)… and then make care-taking Earth reappear… Learning to trust and control his/her environment…
To the mother, her baby is her little Earth…
The moon is like a little Earth reflecting our insignificance…
We are all at the mercy of nature and must care more…
We all stare at the night, tracking vastness and insignificance… and maybe a satellite watching storms start to form.

Our heroine is now emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted…
Tired and as helpless as a baby, she cries “Why did I go?” before telling herself to “Go to sleep, little earth.”

‘Tiefer, tiefer. Irgendwo in der Tiefe Gibt es ein licht.’ = Deep. Deep. Somewhere in the darkness, there is a light.

Wikipedia: A different recording of "Zinzkaro", the Georgian folk song performed on the soundtrack to Herzog’s “Nosferatu the Vampyre” (1979), by the Vocal Ensemble Gordela, was used by Kate Bush in the song "Hello Earth" on her 1985 album Hounds of Love.

Just read http://gaffa.org/garden/kate20.html
Kate on the Chorus: “They really are meant to symbolize the great sense of loss, of weakness, at reaching a point where you can accept, at last, that everything can change.”

So does she drown?
- “Look at it go!” (satellite? Earth?) … “Look at it go!” (life?) … What is ‘it’?
- The fragile echoes of the opening calls are not repeated.
- The sonar signals? … Lost in ‘space’? Lost in the ocean depths? Suffocating/drowning?
- Hello… and good-bye?
- Is this song her tale before she disappears without a trace?

Such a fragile and deep song… and a great album!

-- ‘Driving home’/‘I get out of my car’/‘Step into the night…’ - driving/fear/theatre/horror are constant themes in Kate’s work.
-- ‘Why did I go…’ (go sailing?) (go down/drown?) - a rhetorical/existential question?
‘Tiefer, tiefer. Irgendwo in der Tiefe Gibt es ein licht’ (sung by another).
‘Deep. Deep. Somewhere in the darkness, there is a light.’
-- Her tiny, futile torchlight still glows as her body sinks ‘deeper and deeper’ into The Deep.
-- ‘Think inside out’, and this image (and the German voice-over) forms the spiritual teaching that becomes “The Morning Fog”: regenerate and enjoy the big Light that really matters!

This song could really have been about UFOs. first thing that struck my mind..maybe some evil minded ET's or something.. like in the movie ''War of the worlds'', where storms start to form in the water.. and she sinds about a murderer of calm

The song begins: "Where were you (?) now at nine times the speed of sound...
Roger that, Dan, I've got a solid tacan
Locked on, uh, tacan twenty-three.
The, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned
Trajectory are all one line on the block
Roger (? ) your (? ) block (? ) decoded (? recorded? )..."

Apparently, this is taken from communication between Nasa and the Columbia space shuttle during the flight on August 30, 1983. Dan Brandenstein was the pilot.

So another angle on the song: Vulnerable pilot looking at earth. Pilot reflects on the security of driving with loved one, on terra firma looking up and seeing a satellite spacecraft lit up and moving across the night-sky. Pilot traumatically watching storms form but unable from space to do anything.

Wow! I didnt think of the songs being connected at all!!! I noticed that a lot Hound of Love songs had pieces in it like ''get out of the water!'' but i thought she just added them for the fun of it. I find that Kate Bush is such a unique creative person and i am so glad we get to hear her songs and see life through her perspective!

Watching storms
Start to form
Over America...
I was there at the birth,
Out of the cloud burst the head of the Tempest...

THE BIRTH OF THE TEMPEST: KB's fifth album, Hounds of Love, was released in September 1985. AIDS was detected in a group of American gay men and entered global consciousness in June 1981. By 1985–1986 it was declared a pandemic as it spread across sub-Saharan Africa (wiki).
Parenthetically, in Mesopotamian mythology, 'Lilith' is a female wind and storm demon thought to be a bearer of disease, illness, and death (wiki).

The Tragic Chorus on Hello Earth is accredited to Herzog’s "Nosferatu"... As a complex extended metaphor, 'The Ninth Wave Suite' chronicles a vast array of human emotions, highs and lows. Beneath the surface there are references to: heroin, cocaine, "specials"/Blade Runner, etc; vulnerability and rashness; sexuality as sin; mass hysteria and moral panic; drowning and the inability to communicate; etc, etc. Moreover, the "Nosferatu" Chorus introduces vampires, plague, madness and death. Does KB use the Tragic Chorus on Hello Earth to reference the social anxiety surrounding HIV/AIDS, just as she referenced The Cold War anxiety in the Breathing Chorus? Gary Hurst, a dancer who worked with Kate in both videos and live appearances, died from AIDS in 1990. He is mentioned by his nickname Bubba in the song 'Moments Of Pleasure'. And Alan Murphy, Kate's regular guitarist for a decade, died from AIDS in 1989. Kate recalls Murph "playing his guitar refrain" in the song 'Moments of Pleasure'. http://gaffa.org/diction/list.html

The 'Get out of the waves! Get out of the water!' could also reference the emerging pandemic. And the 'All you sailors/Life Savers/cruisers ("Get out of the waves/water!")' could warn against whoring, heroin, and promiscuity.
('Life Saver' is street slang for heroin; 'Taking a cruise' is street slang for Rocket Fuel/Angel dust/PCP; 'Bad go' is street slang for a bad reaction to a drug; http://www.uta.fi/FAST/GC/drugslan.html#L;
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sailor )

Hello Earth is a bit of a "Space Oddity"...

Hello, Earth ("Hello Earth")
Hello, Earth ("Hello Earth")

The song's introduction ("Where were you (?) now at nine times the speed of sound...") is communication between Nasa and the Columbia space shuttle. Previously, on The Ninth Wave, we have heard deep sea submarine sonar; and now we are hearing human communication from deep space. The stage of The Ninth Wave is becoming wider and wider; an ever-increasing circle, taking on cosmic dimensions and the vast perimeters of human endeavour.

Each of the opening "Hello Earth" calls are echoed by a voice seemingly from space. A strange synchronicity? The shuttle talking to Nasa oblivious of our protagonist? Or perhaps they are used to indicate that our protagonist is still of the human race.

I imagine that our protagonist, whether floating in the sea or hallucinating from a view looking down on the earth, makes the two opening "Hello Earth" calls. It is just her and Nature in personal communication...

With just one hand held up high
I can blot you out
Out of sight...

"Out of sight" is also out of mind. Our protagonist is wanting to 'make it go, make it go away'. The stress of the situation gets too much and she regresses. Regression is a defense mechanism leading to the temporary reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way. The defense mechanism of regression, in psychoanalytic theory, occurs when thoughts are temporarily pushed back out of our consciousness and into our unconscious. Regressive behavior can be simple and harmless. A person may revert to an old, usually immature behavior to ventilate feelings of frustration. For example, an adult saying "I want to throw water balloons" is temporarily regressing to childlike behavior.

So, in Hello Earth, playing peek-a-boo with little earth suggests a stress-induced regression. [The Big Sky (video and song) also suggests elements of regression; and so does Hounds of Love.]

Peek-a-boo
Peek-a-boo, little Earth...

Peek-a-boo is a game played with babies. In the game, one (child, teenager, or adult) hides their face, pops back into the baby's view, and says — to the baby's amusement — Peekaboo! I see you! Peekaboo is thought by developmental psychologists to demonstrate an infant's inability to understand object permanence. Object permanence is the term used to describe the awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible. Without object permanence, it is "Out of sight, out of mind!"

The protagonist next uses her imagination to free herself from her situation. With just her heart and her mind she can transport herself to a visualized better place. A meditation... A flash-back...

With just my heart and my mind
I can be driving
Driving home
And you asleep
On the seat

I get out of my car
Step into the night
And look up at the sky
And there's something bright
Travelling fast
Just look at it go!
Just look at it go!

Maybe, in her dream visualization she sees a satellite tracking the night sky. Tracking storms and bringing her back into the immediate situation.

KATE: “The song after that is Hello Earth, and this is the point where she's so weak that she relives the experience of the storm that took her in the water, almost from a view looking down on the earth up in the heavens, watching the storm start to form - the storm that eventually took her and that has put her in this situation…”

Hello, Earth.
Hello, Earth.

Watching storms
Start to form
Over America.
Can't do anything.
Just watch them swing
With the wind
Out to sea.

Maybe at this point she is reliving the panic of radio emergency and the storm that eventually took her and that has put her in this situation. Or maybe she has left the human race to become something higher, greater, cosmic. After all, the second set of "Hello Earth" calls are not echoed back. Hence, it could be that some of the lyric is from the perspective of the weather or even a Ghostly Other...

Go to sleep, little Earth.
I was there at the birth,
Out of the cloudburst,
The head of the tempest.
Murderer!
Murderer of calm.
Why did I go?
Why did I go?

And is this her tale before she drowns/disappears without a trace?

Go to sleep little Earth...

The song's introduction ("Where were you (?) now at nine times the speed of sound...") is communication between Nasa and the Columbia space shuttle. Hounds Of Love was released on 20 September 1985. At that time, Space Shuttle Columbia had flown 6 flights. Dan Brandenstein flew four space shuttle missions, but only flew with Columbia once, and that was STS-32 (January 9-20, 1990). However, Dan Brandenstein was CAPCOM for STS-1, the first mission of Space Shuttle Columbia, and STS-2, its second mission. So the Hello Earth message could be segments of Mission Control/air-to-ground commentary and conversation from Columbia STS-1 or STS-2.

If the Hello Earth message comes from Mission Control conversation during Columbia STS-1 or STS-2, can we then date The Ninth Wave tragedy to between April 12-14, 1981 or between November 12-14, 1981?
Probably not! But what spacey, icy, or watery events did take place on those days in history?

THE NINTH WAVE: A Night to Remember...
April 14
1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and sinks the following morning with the loss of 1,503 lives.

So could the protagonist of The Ninth Wave Suite have gone down with RMS Titanic? And could she have come up with Kate Winslet? ... :)

The message which can be heard immediately before the start of the song is as follows:

1. voice: "Columbia now at nine times the speed of sound."
2. voice: "Roger that, Dan, I've got a solid TACAN locked on, uh, TACAN two and three.[?]"
3. voice: "The, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned trajectory are all one line on the block."
4. voice: "Show your block decode..."

Heaven gazing on the earth...

Hello, Earth.
Hello, Earth...

"The two great Antipodes had met face to face ; — heaven, in its unutterable splendour and serenity—the bright, ever-cherished picture of the mind's eye, the solace to which we cease not to turn in moments of pain and depression — nay, even in our hours of deepest bliss we look upward with a trembling glance, for there happiness is permanent — the far-off land of peace and sunshine glimmering in the distance, beheld through blinding storms and dreary mists,—heaven, the calm, the consolatory, the loadstone of prayer, the support to which fervently clings the shattered mind and sinking frame : there was heaven gazing on the earth — earth, our prison-house, our tread-mill — the insatiable devourer of our energies, the mighty murderer of calm and reflection — the great grinding-mill into which humanity is thrown and crumbled into dust, from which springs up, like the perfume from crushed flowers—the ethereal spark that soars upwards, and on through azure spheres, till it reaches its native mansion, and finds that peace denied by its much-loved although corroding earthy tenement."
~ The New monthly magazine and universal register, 1849, p.196