(It's only a dream)
(It's only a dream)

Outside the rain
The heart skips a beat
Are you lonely?
Creature of the night
It's been almost a week
Would you love me only?

Look at me, for a very long time
But not enough to call
Love is a word -- I've been trying to find
Words don't matter
They don't matter at all

So you're still lonely
You say that it's been forever
Maybe you never knew me
Maybe you thought that I'd never change
But you know I'm changing
You're wrong
And it's been like dying
No love's that hard to find
And I'm tired of, and I'm tired of trying
And I'm tired of trying

(It's only a dream)
Maybe it's only a dream
(It's only a dream)
I don't want to feel that
(It's only a dream)
Well, it's one more link in the chain, I know
(It's only a dream)
I don't believe that
(It's only a dream)
(It's only a dream)

Outside the rain
And the heart skips a beat
So you're lonely
Creature of the night
It's been almost a week
Would you love me only?

Look in my eyes
Touch my face
Baby, there's no one
That can take my place

Look into my eyes, touch my face
Baby, there's no one that can ever replace
That heartache
Take away that heartache

Love is a word that some entertain
If you find it
You have won the game

Somebody said
"Outside the rain..."

---

WEBMISTRESS speculates:

This song's title recalls Dreams' imagery of rain, except here, the rain isn't washing her clean, she's outside of it. Maybe her point of view is a little different now that a few years have passed. She asks Lindsey, "are you lonely?", again recalling a theme from Dreams. She's also asking, "could you love me only?" I think she's placing herself back in the past, reliving the breakup. She felt Lindsey placed her second to his ambitions and music (see Street Angel)...he didn't love only her, despite his words.

Like in so many of her songs (Landslide, for instance) Stevie states that she's changing despite Lindsey's desire to keep things the same. She can't keep working so hard to maintain their relationship and it shouldn't be that difficult anyway - "no love's that hard to find, and I'm tired of trying." Still, she doesn't want to discount it as a dream, she just wants to count it as part of life... one more link in the chain (obviously, as in The Chain). In a final round of defiance that seems to discredit her claims that she wants to sever ties with Lindsey, she tells him she's irreplaceable (a theme found in many of her songs such as Silver Springs and, on this album, How Still My Love). She ends with the theme of winning that she shares with Lindsey (see Never Going Back Again and Long Distance Winner, for instance) to characterize love. Perhaps she hasn't changed as much as she thinks.