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WEBMISTRESS speculates:
OK, this song is a little vague, but here's my take on it. Of course, I think she's talking to Lindsey, as I always do! I think this is another introspection on their breakup similar to Street Angel on the same album. She says in that song that she left "for the both of us" and here, I think she is reiterating that. She knows she's having a destructive effect on him, but rather than make him "stop" (whether musically or romantically) she'll sacrifice and "kick" the habit of the love that's bringing them down - the love that's like "a declaration of war" because it's so tempestuous. The fact that she's willing to give up the love that she cherishes, a man who she "loved...more than life itself", for the greater good of Lindsey is, in her opinion, the REAL "meaning of love." I think Lindsey might debate that.
JOHN speculates:
The strangest line in KICK IT (a classic drug reference - the lyric even says "Kick the habit"!) is "I'm waited for in Egypt". I always thought this was an excessive "I'm such an important rock star" type lryic - in fact, it made me cringe with embarassment for Stevie when I first heard it. But that's not her meaning at all. In Wilde's THE HAPPY PRINCE, a beautiful swallow who is supposed to migrate with the rest of the flock to Egypt stops by a sad Eurpoean town full of social injustice. The Happy Prince is a golden statue with jewels in his eyes and his sword holster. He asks the swallow to postpone his trip south and distribute the jewels to the poor people of the town. It takes many days to complete the tasks and it grow progressively colder. Every time the Prince asks him to stay, the swallow replies, "I'm waited for in Egypt". But he stays and winter comes and he eventually freezes in a snowstorm at the foot of the statue which, now strippied of its treasures, is regarded by the townspeople to be a heap of junk. There's a happy ending, but I won't give it away : ) The Prince and the swallow have died of their love for each other.
I won't hazard to guess what Stevie meant about all of this in its entirety, but I think it's essentially a positive song - once drugs and lunatic romance are out of the way, she can live again. "I think that is the meaning of love/And I'd prefer to kick it".
MBC speculates:
The reference to Egypt I feel is related to her 2nd round in rehab. Stevie checked herself into a program called "Exodus". "Well I'm waited for in Egypt, it's just something I must do..." The Exodus, or the start of becoming free (here, freedom from Rx drugs) take place in Egypt.