“Wide Sargasso Sea” is Track 4 on In Your Dreams (2011), Stevie Nicks’ seventh solo album. It follows “In Your Dreams” and precedes “New Orleans” in the running order.
About the Song
“Wide Sargasso Sea” is inspired by the 1993 film adaptation of Jean Rhys’s 1966 novel of the same name. Stevie wrote a poem about the story depicted in the movie. “The spark to that one was a poem that I wrote 10 years ago about a movie called Wide Sargasso Sea, which was a precurser to the story Jane Eyre. Her name was Antoinette in the story. [The character Edward] goes and marries her and goes to the Bahamas and he falls totally in love with her and they’re fine for a little while until he gets big time island fever, and it turns it into this very sensual and wild and crazy thing, and I just wrote this really long poem about it.”
“When you hear those drums, there’s another crazy, old movie from the ’40s, where there’s people stuck on the island, and on this island their plane crashes and they get the plane together, and everybody but two can go. They know when the drums stop, the cannibals are coming. We wanted to make people think that when these drums stop, you better start running.” (Stewart & Nicks, 2013).
Lyrics
In the beginning
She was stunning and pure
When he first saw her
He fainted to the floor
She was distant and arrogant from the start
She did not see the fragile state of his heart
She fell in love with him on that very day
She became softer in every way
Even though they were so in love
They drew a line in the sand just because
They did not know each other
They did not trust
The only thing that they did together
Was to make love
So paradise found was not paradise to him
Oh yes he loved her but he was still an Englishman
Tropical birds and the heat and the ocean
Only drove him crazy
Drove her away from him
Even though they were so in love
They drew a line in the sand just because
They did not know each other
They did not trust
The only thing that they did together
Was to make love
She burned his house down saying
You may have forgotten me
But you’ll remember this
You fell to the ground when you saw this
My face, my eyes, my lips
You may have forgotten me
But you’ll never forget that kiss
Even though they were so in love
They drew a line in the sand just because
They did not know each other
They did not trust
The only thing that they did together
Was to make love
When the big house burned down all around her
In the smoke and the fire
In the devastation they never found her
She went back into her red dress
Back to her white house to her ocean
And after that no words were spoken
About the two of them ever again
Even though they were so in love
They drew a line in the sand just because
They did not know each other
They did not trust
The only thing that they did together
Was to make love
In the beginning
She was stunning and pure
In the smoke and the fire
They never found her
She went back into her ocean
Back to her white house
For a while they were so in love
For a while they were so in love
She burned his house down
My face, my eyes, my lips
You may have forgotten that
You may have forgotten that
You may have forgotten that
But you’ll never forget that kiss
(Stevie Nicks/Dave Stewart) © 2011 Welsh Witch Music (BMI) Admin. by Sony/ATV Songs LLC (BMI) / Fab World Music (BMI). All administrated worldwide by songs of Kobalt Music Publishing.
Reference
Stewart, D. & Nicks, S. (2013). Stevie Nicks: In your dreams [documentary film]. Weapons of Mass Entertainment.
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