Favorite opening line...

[wondergirl9847]

Here's an idea....Let's all steal each other's ideas!! YEAH!! LOL I'm public enemy #1 at stealing ideas...

What is your fave opening line from a FM song? And, btw, chilid, I know this is the Rumours board, but feel free to include ALL incarnations of FM.

"Listen to the wind on the water" - WOAH! LOVE IT!!

"Don't think your dreams are sane" - That is kinda cool and wierd.

"Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night" - Speaks for itself

"Do you always trust your first initial feeling" - Nope. LOL

"Rock on, gold dust woman" - ROCK ON!! LOL

"Intense silence, as she walked in the room" - INTENSE! LOL

"I've seen so many things that made me wonder" - I KNOW! LOL

"So I'm back, to the velvet underground" - COOLNESS!

"Don't know why I have to work" - That just says it ALL, dudn't it? LOL

"You could be my silver springs" - How pretty.

"Shall I tell you about my life" - SURE! G'head. LOL

"My little demon, coming on down" - Boy, THAT could be taken out of context. LOL

"There's no use in crying, it's all over" - Ironically, makes me cry. LOL

Well, there are more than I thought I would love. LOL

[Sorcerer386]

Speaking of Gypsy, I've been wondering something for a very long time and never asked. It may be a dumb question...so bear with me. Gypsy is apparently about Stevie going back to how life was for her before joining FM...how she slept on the floor and how her room was. I do note a little bit of the Robin ordeal in there, but I think mainly the song is about being "the gypsy that she was." SO, my question turns to the opening line -- "So I'm back to the velvet underground..." Is the "velvet underground" the BAND Velvet Underground? We know Stevie did a lot of listening to music...so I was wondering if maybe this was a band she listened to a lot back then. I of course know absolutely nothing about the band. So, I was just wondering, if anyone could fill me in I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

[wondergirl9847]

My understanding is that there was some sort of club that she (and I'm assuming Lindsey) went to called Velvet Underground. She wanted to go back to it, I guess. I KNOW I read or heard this somewhere...somebody smart confirm, please!! LOL

[becca]

They started the group Fritz around 1967 when the Velvet Underground was bursting upon the scene mostly to apathy and travelled to California, and a godzillion little 'we can do that' type bands sprung up in their wake so it could be something about that, that inspiring thing the Velv Ugs did. They call Lou Reed the godfather of punk because the Velv Ugs were this really dark heroin junkie raw kind of a thing with Nico chanting with her European accent and a couple doing a whip dance (Gerard Menanga and Mary Waronov I think).

I can't say if this is what Nicks is referring to though, but the Velv Ugs did a song titled Run Run Run and had a line about 'gypsys after you'.

(I call them Velv Ugs for short, not sure anyone else does, Lou is still freaking God to me, Twilight Reeling was brilliant except for the one decadent evil nasty song, eww)

[sulamith]

On inherownwords.com there is a bit of an interview with Stevie from the LA Times 1997, whre she says it was "a silly little store in San Francisco" where Janis Joplin and Grace Slick also bought their clothes. She says it had wonderful tunic tops that came down to your thigh, bell bottoms that fell right over your boot, and lots of great fabric. She said she stood in the middle of that store and thought ot herself, "I love this. Wow, this is how I'm gonna dress forever."

And she has.

SOME of my fav opening lines are

"Monday morning you sure look fine..."

"Now there you go again, you say you want your freedom..."

"Loving you, isn't the right thing to do, (but) how can I change things that I feel?"

and of course...

"So I'm back from the velvet uuuuuuunnnderground..."
I love the way she drags it there!

[laurarox]

"Step into the velvet of the morning..."

" I love to waltz with a man in a dark linen suit..."

"Sunflowers and your face fascinate me..."

[David]

Originally posted by becca
They started the group Fritz around 1967 when the Velvet Underground was bursting upon the scene mostly to apathy and travelled to California, and a godzillion little 'we can do that' type bands sprung up in their wake so it could be something about that, that inspiring thing the Velv Ugs did. They call Lou Reed the godfather of punk because the Velv Ugs were this really dark heroin junkie raw kind of a thing with Nico chanting with her European accent and a couple doing a whip dance (Gerard Menanga and Mary Waronov I think).

Apparently, the Lou Reed/John Cale group got its name from some Warhol lines ("the underground tunnels are lined with velvet"). I don't think Stevie is really referring specifically to either the Velvet Underground band (they wouldn't exactly have been quite her thing) or to the hippie threads store, but to the general spirit or vibe of music & peace & love & flower-power that hung over San Francisco & its environs in the late 1960s.

" 'Gypsy' is a lot about returning to San Francisco. And I put all this French wallpaper up & it was beautiful. It's just a little tiny room & I put my bed back on the floor ..."

I know a lot of Stevie fans swear up & down that the line in "Gypsy" specifically refers to the clothes store (which incidentally closed a long time ago -- it was on Haight Street). I know Stevie shopped at this place, but when she says "So I'm back to the velvet underground/Back to the floor that I love," she is referring to the San Francisco scene & to a little apartment she had. The entire timespace holds the emotional resonance for her because of what it stood for; Stevie's generation was the "Summer of Love" generation, & San Francisco was the Mecca (remember the Scott MacKenzie song?).

It's what Stevie meant when she dedicated "Landslide" at the Oakland Coliseum to Bill Graham -- a San Francisco icon & the most famous of all rock concert promoters. "He started this all. He _is_ the velvet underground."

Somebody once told me that the phrase "velvet underground" was a term attached to the bohemian revival of the 1920s, but I have no idea how old the term is. Warhol is generally given inspirational credit for the name of the band, but I don't know how the term came to be used to describe San Francisco in 1967.

A guy I know on the Internet with a lot of bitchin ideas once said that he thought that the Velvet Underground's song "Sunday Morning" inspired Fleetwood Mac's song "Monday Morning." He also pointed out the similarities in dress & style between Nico & Stevie Nicks. Finally, he noticed that on the VU's first album in 1967, there's a sleeve photo of Warhol holding a tambourine up & looking through it -- a bit like the Stevie photo on the back of "Bella Donna."

There may be quite a lot floating around in the meaning of those opening lines of "Gypsy."

[celestenadia]

Do you always trust your first, initial feeling
Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night and wouldn't you love to love her
Now here you go again you say you want your freedom
Wait a minute baby stay with me a while
All it took was a special look and I felt I knew you before
Lookin' out for love in the night so still

[sulamith]

David, the line I posted came right from Stevie's mouth, so oh, silly me, I guess that really isn't what she meant.

She has said her songs can be about more than one thing, and while I see you similarites, she said it refered to that store, also.

[David]

Originally posted by sulamith
David, the line I posted came right from Stevie's mouth, so oh, silly me, I guess that really isn't what she meant.

She has said her songs can be about more than one thing, and while I see you similarites, she said it refered to that store, also.

Where does she mention "Gypsy" in connection with the store in that L.A. Times article? I'll quote the passage:

"I was very influenced by Janis Joplin," she said during a recent interview, "the one time I saw Janis in person, and all the times I saw her on television with her feathers and her bell-bottomed pants and her beautiful silky blouse tops."

She liked the look so much that she traveled to San Francisco to try to duplicate it at the Velvet Underground, a store where Joplin and Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick bought their clothes.

"It was a tiny little store, but it had the most beautiful things," Nicks recalls. "Tunic tops that came down to your mid-thigh, and evening gown, old-lady nightgown material bell-bottoms that weren't really wide, but instead fell straight over a really high boot. It was in that room where I thought 'Wow! These are the kind of clothes I'm going to wear forever.' "

I have to stand by my belief that the reference to being "back to the velvet underground" in the song is so much more than a just a direct reference to this cool little shop of hippie threads that she shopped at. I think her comments in a 1982 issue of Record kind of sum up my view:

"There's a song on the new Fleetwood Mac album that says, 'Going back to the velvet underground/Back to the floor that I love,' because I always put my bed on the floor. 'To a room with some lace & paper flowers/Back to the gypsy that I was.' And that's San Francisco. That's the velvet underground. Those are the things that I can't give up."

But, as I say, whole subsets of fans are convinced that the phrase refers specifically to the store, so you're in large company, Sulamith! In fact, I may be in the minority.

[rhiannon1119]

Well David.. add me to your minority! When I first heard this song.. which is my favorite song.. I thought and this is just my opinion, that the velvet underground was a term of reference to the whole San Francisco thing.. from the hippy-chick style of dressing to the way of living right down to the music scene and the vibe of the times. I know this song has different meanings for different people. I myself thing that there are a couple of different meanings that I get out of this song.

Anyway, favorite opening lines..

"You could be my silver springs"
"So I'm back to the velvet underground"
"Loving you isn't the right thing to do"
"Rock on gold dust woman"
"Step into the velvet of the morning"
"Do you always trust your first initial feeling"

There are so many others, but my mind just went blank.

Michelle

[becca]

I just want it known that if I ever say that I'm going back to the Vanilla Fudge it doesn't refer to a psychedlic band most people have heard of but actual fudge I've got in the fridge. There now, this message should keep future historians from this kind of bafflement. The same goes for Moby's Grapes, or if I should say It's a Beautiful Day that will apply to more than just San Francisco.

I know... maybe she went to the Monterey festival in that fabled summer of big love and met Nico who was there with Brian Jones and they gave her paper flowers.

[golddustwoman77]

Well, here are a few of my favorite opening lines to Fleetwood Mac's songs that haven't already been mentioned by the people before me (Some of the ones that have been selected already are my favorites too):

"I took my love and I took it down."---Landslide

"Have mercy baby on a poor girl like me."--Say You Love Me

"Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise."--The Chain

"I know there's nothing to say, someone has taken my place."--Second Hand News

"For you there'll be no more crying, for you the sun will be shining."--Songbird

"Every night that goes between; I feel a little less."---Storms

[EnchantedStorms]

Every night that goes between, I feel a little less... ~~Storms
~~This has to be my favorite.

Everytime that you make me smile, it's the same old way it used to be... ~~That's Enough For Me

Intense silence, as she walked in the room... ~~SOTM

Do you always trust your first initial feeling? ~~Crystal

Lovin' you, isn't the right thing to do... ~~GYOW

For you, there'll be no more crying... ~~Songbird

Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise... ~~The Chain

Rock on, gold dust woman... ~~GDW

You could be my silver springs... ~~SS

lol...I'm sure there are more...

~~Angela~~

[seteca]

"Loving you, isn't the right thing to do."