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WEBMISTRESS speculates:
This song is rather vague, but I'll relate it to Lindsey anyway! He was everything to her for a while, when they were first in love and she relied so completely on him, so much so that when she decided to leave him she wasn't sure if she could live without him. But she gathered her strength and told herself to "move on." She's going to go past that to the peace and tranquility of the sea (Crystal, Trouble in Shangri-La), which never changes (Edge of Seventeen). The Bombay sapphires, purple haze, etc? Well, in the context of this album, I'd guess it means that exotic, "passion"- filled whirlwind of their relationship amongst all the fame, high emotions, and craziness.
BRANDON speculates:
This song has so much meaning to me, especially the line, " I can see past you to the white sands." Stevie is pretty much saying," Hey. You were in my way and there are bigger and better things beyond you." When she is referring to all of the different colors, I believe she is talking about the way love has many different forms.After my girlfriend broke up with me a few weeks ago, Bombay Sapphires was all I listened to, and I did learn to move on.
SHARON speculates:
I think it is no coincidence that Stevie chose these particular stones to sing about. Bombay sapphires are a blue-gray opaque type of sapphire. I feel it has got to have something to do with Lindsey's blue-gray eyes she loves to sing and write about, such as in "Blue Denim" and "Long Distance Winner". The meaning of the stones themselves is not real clear, but they tie in so nicely with all of her past Lindsey color references.
Stevie wrote this song in either late 98 or early 99 while on vacation in Hawaii right after her Enchanted Tour had wrapped. She had gone right into that Tour from the Dance Reunion Tour, and I am sure she was ready for some rest and relaxation after doing back-to-back tours. While she was there, she finally had some time to reflect on everything that had happened during those tours, which by many accounts was an awful lot of heavy stuff. None of us knows for sure, but Stevie and Lindsey seemed so "couplely" for lack of a better word, during the Dance, and several fans have reported that they saw Lindsey hanging around backstage at various shows during the Enchanted tour. Whether or not that is true, we will never know, so the best thing to do is look to the lyrics she wrote in this period and try to decipher what she was feeling.
Many of the songs on TISL have Lindsey written all over them. She has only said "many" of them are about him, including the title track, as well as "Planets", and "Everyday". She never really clarified about "Bombay Sapphires" or "Fall From Grace", but when you take everything into account, these two songs can really only be about him and events surrounding the Dance shows.
In her TISL interviews she said this song was about "getting over something painful", and about how important the line "I can see past you to the white sand" was. She said the song almost got cut from the CD, and she was very adamant that it stay on. It must have very significant meaning to her......something she really wanted to express and get out there to the public.
I am unsure how far back in the past she is talking about when she says "You beloved, were to me everything love stood for....To love one another for awhile was enough, it was all that I lived for". Is she talking about 25 years ago? I tend to think not. I think in this case she is referring to something in the very recent past. Did she and Lindsey have yet another one of their on-tour flings? Did they once again get caught up in the excitement and the energy of it all, only to crash at the end? Apart from all of the touchy-feely stuff that was happening on stage between them, here are many clues that some kind of initmate contact DID occur, see the lyrics to Fall From Grace, Thrown Down, Not Make Believe, and other TISL outtakes. Whatever it was, she left the experience feeling hurt and in need of emotional repair. She is telling herself that she has to go on without him, and that THIS time is different.....this time she HAS to move on. Could it be because Lindsey became a father, thus changing the dymanic between them forever? For whatever reason, this time it is different, and she has to pull herself together and move past all of that stuff that is going on with him and his life. She is not a part of that, and that must have truly been a hurtful thing.
It would seem a natural choice to go off to some beautiful exotic locale and try to lick your wounds, and that is exaclty what she said she did, letting the scenery and atmosphere inspire her while she was getting over this mysterious painful event. I love all of the color imagery in this song I think it is the most she has ever used in one set of lyrics. "Silver Springs" is probably a close second, with blue, green and silver.
BUT the color blue has always been used the most, and it would be safe to say it is her favorite. Read Stevie's latest journal entries on the Nicksfix for reinforcement of this, she says "You all know how I feel about blue light...", and even though she was describing the blue tribute lights for 9/11 victims, she acknowledges this personal feeling. Lindsey is full of that blue light, and she has always been drawn to him, but now, she has to begin to look at all the other colors, too. "It is green, it is aquamarine...it is colors I have never seen" would suggest that she is trying to move away from him and his blue light. She even seems to want to look at the color blue itself differently than before, by saying, "it is blue, but it not about you, I can see past you (and your blue light) to the white sand". She is looking inward for that strength that she knows she has, and trying to convince herself she doesn't need him and his beautiful blue-gray eyes anymore.....she can find all kinds of colors within that can heal her and "mend" her heart.
In the second verse she is talking about how much better it is to be away from him, anyway. How many of us women haven't done that after a break up? lol! She starts it by talking about how comforting the constant of the sea is for her, but there is a little twinge.."the flash of those colors" is very similar to the line "blue-green colors flashing" from "Silver Springs" which was also in reference to the ocean. Water imagery is so often used for Lindsey, again with a strong blue connection.
The part that is a little "sour grapey" is where she says, "Here I am dramatic, here I am not waiting, here I am not listening to the call of the wild". Even though she loves the whole experience of FM, she has also said that she usually has to quiet her personality down a little and be less dramatic and diva-like when she is with them, which are things she loves about herself. The references to waiting and listening to the call of the wild are likely referring to Lindsey. They were trying to keep a very low profile about their personal affairs, so she probably spent alot of time waiting around for the coast to be clear to meet him. It was exciting, just like in the old days, but maybe now it is wearing thin. Maybe it reached a point where it "wasn't fun anymore" as she said in the FM BTM referring to their earlier break up. In the demo "Thrown Down" she says "you can sit outside your door and wait, you can dedicate your pain to him" which could be talking about the same type of thing. "It is all true, you know who I am" is very perplexing. Is this a direct message to Lindsey? Only she and he know what went on behind their closed doors. It smacks of "you know what this is about, Lindsey". I wish I knew!
So, even though this song is about Stevie pulling inward and learning to rely on herself again, she still admits the passion will never die. It will always be there, but she has to listen to her own inner voice and let it heal her. She can't deal with him now...it is just too painful. In another apparent message to him she says, "You know what I mean". I think he does, and the fact that they are now working closely together once more makes us all wonder if the whole "cycle" is going to start up yet again!
It ends with classic Stevie optimism, because she feels she has the power to mend her own broken heart. She's not looking for another "big love" to do that, and she's not looking to blame anyone for her pain, she just wants to be peaceful and quiet in her own skin. That is a good lesson for everyone.
JAMES speculates:
i was having a plough through the analysis of various songs and i noticed that nobody seems to have picked up on that Bombay sapphires is a particular brand of gin - we all know that gin is "mother's ruin" maybe this is the reason that Stevie was referring to " I can mend your heart" we all know the effects of alchol and the disillusions - as i have experienced a broken heart when its broken how can it ever truly be mended?