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WEBMISTRESS speculates:
In this song, we have a lonely Stevie, who is mourning the fact that she is not with the man that she loves. Her love for him is like a cross she bears because, while she wants to be with him, she cannot. She also can't rid herself of the dream that says that someday they will reunite, and that keeps her from moving on. She is left wishing for any kind of reunion, "however momentar[y]," because she knows she could love him better than who he's with instead of her. I find one line very interesting - "They say everyone must remain faithful." Is this a chastisement for Lindsey, who was with many other women after Stevie, or a promise to herself to remain faithful to the dream, whatever the cost? I'm leaning towards the latter - after all, if she wasn't with Lindsey, why should she be upset that he's got other women? Then again, love is never logical.
KIAS speculates:
I hadn't even read your thoughts on this song & it's the same thing I got out of it. It's like she wants to be with someone but she knows it may never happen. And what little hope that it COULD happen is fading. I can't get this song out of my head. The depth of the song is captured best in the version that Fleetwood Mac did because the piano that starts it has this sound that makes you think of someone with their arms folded in front of them, staring at the floor saying those words to themselves feeling every syllable. It's an amazing song & I hope she decides one day to record it. I also hope she uses the Fleetwood Mac version as her main source in remaking it.
Stevie herself (in Bay Area Music, September 1981) said this song is about Tom Petty. She wrote it in April 1980 during the initial sessions for her first solo album, where she was recording several songs with Tom & the Heartbreakers ("Outside the Rain", "Gypsy", and others). The entire song makes sense when
you put it in those terms. While working with this man, her friend, Stevie wonders what it would be like if her were her love. She even tells him, though he can't hear her, that if she were the one watching over while he was sleeping, he would never be frightened.But Stevie bears her cross, uses it as her muse. Tom is married, and, as she says, "everyone must remain faithful". It's a very sad, wistful song about love that, not only could never be, but never even was anything but something Stevie dreamed about.
I much prefer the sad STREET ANGEL version over the overwrought MIRAGE version. I love Stevie's wildness on the 1981 version, but the STREET ANGEL version actually captures the dreamy, heartbroken feeling from Stevie's original piano demos of "If You Were My Love". It's NOT an angry song. Stevie's not mad; she's sad and watching from a distance.