Welcome to Music Friday when we bring your great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. In honor of September’s official birthstone, we present Stevie Nicks singing her 2001 release, “Bombay Sapphires,” an emotional ballad that shines the spotlight on precious gemstones, not the famous gin.
In this song about moving on after a turbulent relationship, Nicks sings, “It's like Bombay Sapphires / Hey, I can take you higher / Whatever you desire / I can mend your heart.”
“Bombay Sapphires” generated a bit of confusion when it was released as the 11th track on Nicks’ critically acclaimed Trouble in Shangri-La album. Was she referencing exotic blue gemstones or Bacardi’s popular premium gin?
Nicks answered the question directly in a 2001 interview with In News Weekly. “Has the liquor company called to say ‘thank you’ and did they send over some product? No they haven’t. It’s not Bombay Sapphire. It’s Bombay Sapphires,” she said.
Nicks further explained that she got the idea for the song many years prior to its release when she was chatting with friends about jewelry and gemstones, particularly rubies and Bombay sapphires.
“It’s like a like a blue-gray kind of star sapphire thing,” she said. “It's the color of the ocean, and that's what I wrote it about. And I purposely put the 'S' on it so that they wouldn't think I was writing about gin.”
According to a Stevie Nicks fan site, the artist wrote “Bombay Sapphires” in 1999 while on vacation in Hawaii. She was apparently coming off an emotional breakup with on-again, off-again love interest Lindsey Buckingham and was ready to move on with her life.
In a vh1.com interview from 2001, Nicks said Hawaii’s beautiful beaches inspired her to write the line “I can see past you to the white sand.”
“That sentence right there is the whole reason for Bombay Sapphires,” she told vh1. “It means that I'm really trying to get over something, and though I'm freaked out about it... I can see past all of these problems to the incredibly beautiful white sand and the ocean beyond it. It's really important for me to tell people that if they're in an unhappy situation they should not stay forever and be miserable.”
Nicks’ Trouble in Shangri-La album scored a Top 5 position on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart. During her storied career as a soloist and with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks amassed more than 40 Top 50 hits and sold more than 140 million albums. She still tours regularly at the age of 66.
We invite you to check out the video of Stevie Nicks singing "Bombay Sapphires." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along.
(Stevie Nicks photo by Matt Becker, melodicrockconcerts@gmail.com / Wikimedia Commons. Star of Bombay photo by Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution.)
“Bombay Sapphires”
Written and performed by Stevie Nicks.
You beloved
Were to me everything
That love stood for
To love one another
For a while, was enough
It was all that I lived for
How can I go on without you?
Can I go on without you?
Will I tell myself, this time
I'm gonna to have to move on
It's like Bombay Sapphires
Hey, I can take you higher
Whatever you desire
I can mend your heart
It is green
Ooh, it is aquamarine
It is colors I have never seen
I can see past you
To the white sand
It is blue
Ooh, it is not about you
It is all true
You know who I am
The sea never changes, not really
It is the constant in my life
I always return here
To the flash of those colors
Through every window
The wind through the night
Here I am dramatic
Here I am not waitin'
Here I am not listenin'
To the call of the world
Well it's like Bombay Sapphires
Hey, I can take you higher
Whatever you desire
I can mend your heart
And it's like purple haze
It's there every day
It's passion never fades
You know what I mean
It's like Bombay Sapphires
Hey, I can take you higher
Whatever you desire
I can mend your heart
I can mend your heart
I can mend your heart
I can mend your heart
I can mend your heart
Whatever you desire
Whatever you desire
Whatever you desire
