Baby how much closer can we be
I swear you've become a part of me
You are with me everywhere I go
If you feel it I already know
Stevie doesn't usually write *frilly* love songs. Her songs are mostly personal experiences masked into fairytales or into intricate poems. I am lead to believe that Stevie may have just wanted to write a love song that wasn't directed at one person, but maybe about love all together as a feeling. She is setting the song up. We see she is expressing a very deep love between her and someone else.
"If you feel it I already know", Stevie seems to be asking a question that she already has an answer to. If this person feels the same as she does, she feels already knows that he does so, it's just not admitted yet.
Everything I say to you is true
I don't want to tell you what to do
Stevie is describing the most fragile time of a relationship. The point where love is admitted out loud. This time is fragile because one person has to take a step and admit this love to the other person. The person declaring love usually will know that it is felt both ways, but it is still a chance that is taken.
But if I were you
I would take the the love I'm giving to you
Oh if I were you
Oh, oh, oh, oh , oh
If I were you
She declares her love outloud and is pleading for love in return. Stevie says in many interviews that she will never "beg" for a man. So she isn't begging here for love, but for the admittance of love, to say to her in return: "I love you", that is all she asks.
I would trust in me like I trusted in you
Oh, if I were you
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
"I would trust in me like I trusted in you", Stevie is saying here that she stepped up and told him her feelings. She took the chance and told this person that she loves him, that takes trust. All she wants is to hear those words back and feel the trust she gave to him.
I know what you're dreaming when you sleep
You have secrets I will always keep
And in every morning when we arise
I see my reflection in your eyes
These lines are the most beautiful of the song. Stevie is not taking these experiences from someone else, she has felt this for herself. In her life she has loved many times...some were poets, legends and priests of nothing. She is remembering the feelings she felt and putting it into words so clearly. "I know what you're dreaming when you sleep" is a very intimate way of expressing the love between two people, the time in bed, looking at the one you love as they sleep and you watch, or that connection of feeling all the pains and joys of your lover. "I see my reflection in your eyes", another beautiful line that draws this picture of love, if you had to put love into words. This is what it would be. Seeing your reflection in someones eyes, you see you in them, and you feel that person inside you. You become one physically and spiritually. You never want to lose yourself, but you give yourself enough so that it does seem you are one person.
Every boy must learn to be a man
Maybe I can help you, yes I can
She has declared her love and she needs to hear it said back to her. A boy to a man, meaning the declaration of love will symbol the growing of the soul and spirit. "Maybe I can help you, yes I can", she is saying to him...I want to help you and I know I can help if you let me. Just tell me you love me.
But if I were you
I would take the love Im giving to you
Oh, if I were you
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
If I were you
I would trust in me like I trusted in you
Oh, if I were you
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Stevie has a way of saying things without sounding too humble or giving, but never goes over the edge of unsympathetic. She says what she wants and how she wants it. She can live without that love but she doesn't want to and doesn't think she needs to. She wants this love to work and she asks him to return her love to him so the bond is strong and connecting.
Well I believe that love is a living thing
Born into our destinies
From a single moment of inspiration
And as it grows it changes your life forever!
Love is a living thing, its more than a feeling, it's an actual entity that grows inside. We are all born with the capability to love and to get love. That moment where love is realized is an inspired moment, inspired meaning in Biblical days "God breathed". When love is declared and then shared between two people, its an amazing feeling.
But if I were you
I would take all the love I'm giving to you
Oh, if I were you
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
If I were you
I would trust in me like I trusted in you
Oh, if I were you
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
This song comes from a album that took a long time to complete. Stevie had a very busy decade in the eighties; 1981 she did Bella Donna, in 1982 she did Mirage, then in 1983 she did Wild Heart. Her life was moving very quickly and was stabbed with tragedy. At the point she got to this record, her cocaine habit was heavy, her personal life seemed to be falling apart. Her long time producer/lover had left and didn't help her complete this album. She had to get a lot of help to get songs written and arranged, and to get the album produced.
When the album came out, it went platinum very quickly but was really jeered by critics. She had followed the highly synthesized sounds of the 80's and her title "Rock a Little" seemed to say it true, she rocks very little on this album.
I feel it's an album full if truths and deep yet confused feelings. This song is the highlight of the Rock A Little album. In a time where she may have been very lost in her life and career, she looked to the hope of love and clung to the feeling love can bring. She inspires one to feel this feeling.
No one could say who this song could have been about, and Stevie never seemed to have discussed this song in all her interviews. It's almost a lost song on a very moody and well written album that seems to be very much about love.
If I were you, as she so bluntly states, one would love her and trust her as much as she loves and trusts in that person. A hard invitation to pass up, this song makes it hard to believe anyone could ever turn her down, for love has never sounded as wonderful as Stevie has described it here.
(The interpretations to these lyrics were compiled through discussions on the message boards of the Penguin, The Ledge. It is entirely possible that the artists had something completely different in mind.)
