Songs written about Stevie?

[iamnotafraid]

I'm sure you guys have heard Tony Joe White's interview
where he mentions Stevie as the inspiration of his hit song
Polk Salad Annie.

[PenguinHead]

This thread jarred my memory of lurid song in 1979 from punk rock band The Rotters. It's passionately entitled "Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks." You can find this sweet little ditty on YouTube.

[UndoingTheLaces]

https://youtu.be/Qg1qDLBFKwA

Don't forget this little gem.

[~*BellaDonna*~]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

This thread jarred my memory of lurid song in 1979 from punk rock band The Rotters. It's passionately entitled "Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks." You can find this sweet little ditty on YouTube.

Oh, such a charming little title! I can only imagine how the rest of it goes.......

[ahafan02]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

How funny, I was just thinking about starting a similar thread . I believe:

I would Die 4 U by Prince to be about Stevie.
Stevie Baby by Dave Stewart
Don't Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty is inspired by a Stevie incident.
It's Only Love by Sheryl Crow
Malibu by Hole/Courtney Love

There are more I'm forgetting. And I'm sure plenty we don't even know about.

I Would Die 4 U was about Sheila E. Confirmed by both I remember a while back. It's mentioned in Sheila E's biography as well.

Darling Nikki was inspired, allegedly, but a run in with a prostitute.

[DauphineMarie]

I might make the leap and say that "When Doves Cry" is about Stevie...

Firstly, it's talking about doves.

Second, the theme generally fits in with what we know about Stevie and Prince's short time together, and how she turned him down. He says he's too demanding, too bold, and how upset her rejection makes him feel.

Adding to that, Stevie used to sing "I know what it sounds like, when doves cry" meaning she knows what it sounds like when Prince is upset. Her tweet after his death, calling him her dove, only confirmed this (to me at least).

[ahafan02]

I think you're reaching a bit. Prince only came in to her studio for a short time and then left...that was all there is to that. When Doves Cry is about:

"According to the Purple Rain DVD, Prince was asked by the director to write a song to match the theme of a particular segment of the film – one which involved intermingled parental difficulties and a love affair. The next morning, Prince had reportedly composed two songs, one of which was "When Doves Cry". According to Per Nilsen, Prince's biographer, the song was inspired by his relationship with Vanity 6 member Susan Moonsie".

As far as I know (and I'm as huge Prince fan as Stevie) he never wrote anything about her. Not everyone that worked, slept or been around her wrote songs about her.

[StreetAngel86]

Originally Posted by ahafan02

I think you're reaching a bit. Prince only came in to her studio for a short time and then left...that was all there is to that. When Doves Cry is about:

she said she went to his place
that one night
and then it was back on the Mac plane

[ahafan02]

Originally Posted by StreetAngel86

she said she went to his place
that one night
and then it was back on the Mac plane

She has told different stories before. Read the liner notes on Timespace. She said after he recorded his bit in the studio she says, "he just got up and left as if the whole thing happened in a dream." It really doesn't make any difference. I don't believe he wrote anything about her. I am not saying this to be hurtful, just speaking the truth.

[SisterNightroad]

Walter Egan turned his crush on Stevie Nicks into a hit

Two things you may not know about Walter Egan's 1978 hit, "Magnet and Steel." Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks sing background vocals on the song and were co-producers. Also, the song's kind of about Nicks.

As Egan recalled to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International, he had just finished singing in the studio with Nicks and found himself "smitten." On the drive home, a license plate caught his eye, and the rest is rock history.

What was your thought when you started this song?

WE: My thought was to revive the great sounds of the fifties. I’m old enough to have remembered American Bandstand when it was in Philadelphia, and then as it progressed, but doo-wop music meant a lot to me in my early days…

As we had the deal in hand, we were looking for producers. I thought, “How about Todd Rundgren? How about Brian Wilson?” and they were going, “Well, how about Buckingham-Nicks?” I didn’t know who Buckingham-Nicks was at the time. I thought it was Don Nix who was doing southern rock, and I thought, “No, that doesn’t sound right,” and they gave me (their) album to listen to and I thought, “Oh my goodness, this is really close to what I think I’ve been doing.” In fact, as I got to know Lindsey and Stevie more, we were seemingly in the same crevice.

So, they were my producers on the first album, and it was a wonderful time to get to know them because Fleetwood Mac was just recording Rumours at that point, and just sort of on that launching pad that set them off in the late 70s as the biggest group in the world. So, I just happened to tag along on that as the recording progressed. One night as I was recording my first album, Fundamental Roll, one of my producers, Miss Stevie Nicks, was singing backgrounds on a song of mine called ‘Tunnel of Love’ which was the most salacious song I could do.

I just love the way you said this, so I want to quote “you” to “you”.

“On the night when Stevie did the background vocals for my song, ‘Tunnel of Love,’ my nascent, amorous feelings toward her came into sharper focus. I was smitten by the kitten, as they say.”

WE: Well, I couldn’t say it better than that. That was very true, that’s how it all happened...I love Stevie, obviously. So, it was 3 or 4 in the morning when that session broke up and that was in Van Nuys and I was living in Pomona at the time. I got on the freeway, the 101, and noticed the car in front of me, which was what they used to lovingly refer to as a “pimp mobile.” It was lowered, and it had the lights underneath it, and the had fringes around the window, and the diamond window in the back. The license plate said “NOT SHY,” and I’ve always been open to messages from the universe as a songwriter. So, I sort of mulled over that as I drove home, and this song that I had been working on which was my throwback to the fifties, to the stroll, it just seemed to work quite well for that.

I think it’s important to describe the car; metal flake blue paint. So, there’s this metal/steel image in there.

WE: Maybe that’s how it came in. You know, it’s been pointed out to me that there’s something wrong with this metaphor of magnet attracting steel because it’s iron that a magnet really attracts, I believe. They want to debunk my song.

So, I’ve got to ask: nascent, amorous feelings….unrequited?

WE: Semi-requited, actually.

We’ll leave it at that. I just had to get that in there because I think it’s part of the journey of that song.

WE: You know, I just saw Stevie… She had other things going on that year, but for the month of December 1976 I think I had her attention.


About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, we will release a video interview with a songwriter about his or her work each week.



http://www.tennessean.com/story/ente...hit/100651564/

[bombaysaffires]

"In fact, as I got to know Lindsey and Stevie more, we were seemingly in the same crevice."

This sentence suggests so many possibilities...........

[lilyfee]

Maggie Rogers, "Retrograde"

Standing, staring straight ahead
Listening when Stevie says
Mm, "Come out of the darkness"

Feeling all I've ever known
Fall away and letting go
Oh, come out of the darkness

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by StreetAngel86

she said she went to his place
that one night
and then it was back on the Mac plane

yes. she fell asleep on his kitchen floor. (wasn't she in front of the open fridge, trying to cool off?) I believe this is what is described in her song Thousand Days

The closest you've ever come to me
was to help me up the stairs
you stood in the middle of the stairway
you nearly dragged me up the stairs

"You've been asleep" well...
"I've been asleep for how long?" she says
"ooh, why do you question me?" he said
"You've never cared about time before, my friend"

and then:
you live by the light of the moon
I live by the light of desire

etc etc

I always felt his song 17 Days was about her, and that her song Thousand Days was inspired by that -- but who knows

She also told the story of him coming to visit her (on the road?) and giving her cough meds and being all concerned about her taking too much of it or some such

[HomerMcvie]

I wrote one about her...
There once was a girl from Phoenix
She had a great love of....

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

I wrote one about her...
There once was a girl from Phoenix
She had a great love of....

Kleenix ???