Deep Water

I'm pretty unsure about what's the point here, but it sounds like something really sad to me. Anyhow, I can suppose Seal used a couple who loved each other and died slowly on being exposed to nuclear chemicals (cancer?) for showing to us how fragile our existence is, so he's advicing us in a despairing way for not losing the opportunities that life gives to us for being intense ("I jade the water and I burn the fire") while we still can do it. At the same time, he seems to feel guilty for some reason for the death of that couple and I can guess it's because they are also representing his parents and he hasn't considered himself as a good son in terms of affection("Now that I understand the beauty of what they've left to hand me down" and "No-one understands./ The hand that strikes. / When just a touch of love is all the problem needed, / And when you hurt someone so much that still they die loving you"). Therefore, he seems to wish to punish himself because of this on trying to jade his life (a wish for suicide?) and the life of who used nuclear chemicals... Well, as I said before, all these interpretations are mere speculations... Forgive me if I sounded too confused here.

edit:- "And when you hurt someone so much yet still they die loving you " correction and "a shade of pain and then, and then we die", like most artists, Seal's best work lies elsewhere other than the "hits". Uplifting, refreshing, optimistic and soulfull - find an acoustic version and lose yourself

[he seems to wish to punish himself because of this on trying to jade his life (a wish for suicide?) and the life of who used nuclear chemicals...]

A try in a metaphorical way, of course ("We will find a way, Letting our life go by. I tell you we'll find a way, Holding the sun............. The sun...").

I have listened to this song many times since I purchased the album a decade ago, and what I have taken from it is that the author had someone he loved who died suddenly. The last time he saw this person, he was mad at him/her. "When just a touch of love is all the problem needed, And when you hurt someone so much and still they die loving you." Any thoughts?

Jade = "Life"

He feels he might knows what to do change the world, but doesn't know what to do to get people to understand.

This is one of the best songs ever.

I was at a small Seal concert in Seattle back around 2000 and he actually gave the background for a lot of his songs. He said he sat down and wrote this song after reading about two dolphins that swam from their home waters to England (I believe) where everybody fell in love with them for a couple of days before the polluted toxic waters there killed the dolphins. It's much more literal and tragic than I had ever thought........

i love this song

A journey of sound. Not too many thorough explanations for this song. Apparently Seal wrote it after reading a story about two dolphins that swam from their home waters to England. Everyone from the shore town they arrived in fell in love with the dolphins, only for them to be killed by its toxic waters a few days later.

…which is a very literal interpretation of the song's first part, but I think the second part and the chorus make its meaning a little less clear. To me, Seal is deriving the meaning of jade (as a color) from the word "jade" as a verb. Being jaded means to be worked hard or worn out. It can also mean to be depressed. But since he also refers to it as a shade ('I jade the water', or poison it [green]), he's using both of its meanings for this song.

So taken in total, I think the song begins with the story about the dolphins to represent the unintended consequences of industrial societies (like pollution over nature), punctuates with the chorus about jade to represent the miserable, over-worked lives of those who inhabit such societies, and uses the second part to illustrate the beauty of emotion, nurturing and spirituality over the coldness of materialism, judgment and rationality; which are the main components of such cultures.

He also talks about the pain of death in spite of such attributes ('all you want to do is to cry out loud, but you don't know how…'), which further reinforces my idea that he's singing about the absence of emotion in industrialist cultures. It seems as if he's telling us to stop ceaselessly driving others (and ourselves) by the clock and to take moments to pause, love, and feel instead.

So in the end, "Jade… a shade of pain and then we die" really means that the material world (including our bodies and all mundane consequences) are fleeting and that the soul is eternal.

In fewer words, the song is about the importance of love. The title ("Deep Water", which he never mentions) can mean either the ocean the dolphins came from, or represent the deep, amorphous "subjective", which is what he's advocating in favor of the level, distinct "objective", whose figurative counterpart would be "shallowness" or "flat ground".

And the final part of the song (we will find a way/the sun) shows some (but little) hope for humanity's future. Seal uses the metaphor of the sun to represent the end of an age and the coming of a new, but is less enthusiastic than he is doubtful ('maybe we'll find a way'). His mild hope and resignation for the lack of love in the world can really be felt as the song comes to an end. But then again, his jade is only a shade of pain before HE dies.

Like I said–it's a journey. Really an under-appreciated masterpiece.