Some Street Angel love

[TheWILDheart]

For those who haven't seen it, here is the original press release for "Street Angel"

[WatchChain]

If it's any consolation, "Rose Garden" makes my list of the Top 20 Stevie Nicks Songs. It is one of my favorite all-time Stevie Nicks songs. I guess that makes "Street Angel" valuable for something.

[James89]

So 'Unconditional Love' was going to be the first single but was changed to 'Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind'? Well that was a good call!!!

I like MLWCYM and I think UL would've been a very poor single choice as for me it's just one of those songs that you want to skip if it came up on shuffle!!! My favourite song on 'Street Angel' is 'Blue Denim' because I just love the rhythm and lyrics. This DEFINITELY should've been a hit but I do think MLWCYM was a much better first single choice.

My main view on 'Street Angel' though is that overall it isn't up to the same standard and feel of her previous albums, but still was good in places. So why was it such a failure? 'The Other Side of the Mirror' was released when, let's face it, Stevie was not at her most popular and yet with just one hit, it managed to hit Top 10 and went Platinum.

This is the point I'm trying to make. Even when Stevie was not extremely popular she could still sell a lot of records. And yet, with all these famous and talented collaborators and a Top 60 single (MLWCYM), the album only reached a dismal #45? I can't understand that at all. She also did a few TV appearances on chat shows promoting it which she didn't do with TOSOTM and Letterman also said "I think this will be huge", yet within 3 weeks it was out of the Top 100?

Somebody please explain to me why 'Street Angel' was such a failure compared to her previous albums.

[wheart]

Originally Posted by WatchChain

If it's any consolation, "Rose Garden" makes my list of the Top 20 Stevie Nicks Songs. It is one of my favorite all-time Stevie Nicks songs. I guess that makes "Street Angel" valuable for something.

I love Rose Garden...such a beautiful melody and I love the country flavor of the production.

[AnthonyMI]

Originally Posted by James89

So 'Unconditional Love' was going to be the first single but was changed to 'Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind'? Well that was a good call!!!

I like MLWCYM and I think UL would've been a very poor single choice as for me it's just one of those songs that you want to skip if it came up on shuffle!!! My favourite song on 'Street Angel' is 'Blue Denim' because I just love the rhythm and lyrics. This DEFINITELY should've been a hit but I do think MLWCYM was a much better first single choice.

My main view on 'Street Angel' though is that overall it isn't up to the same standard and feel of her previous albums, but still was good in places. So why was it such a failure? 'The Other Side of the Mirror' was released when, let's face it, Stevie was not at her most popular and yet with just one hit, it managed to hit Top 10 and went Platinum.

This is the point I'm trying to make. Even when Stevie was not extremely popular she could still sell a lot of records. And yet, with all these famous and talented collaborators and a Top 60 single (MLWCYM), the album only reached a dismal #45? I can't understand that at all. She also did a few TV appearances on chat shows promoting it which she didn't do with TOSOTM and Letterman also said "I think this will be huge", yet within 3 weeks it was out of the Top 100?

Somebody please explain to me why 'Street Angel' was such a failure compared to her previous albums.

Why? Reality Check here... This is not mean, but this is what I think people saw other than us hard core fans.....Because she was a fat COW on Letterman! Hardly talked, just shook her head. She showed up, and people were expecting youthful she was mid 40s!), energetic sexy Stevie Nicks and they got bloated whale in taffeta poofy dress with crazy Crimp-it hair!! She might have been off Klonopin, but she looked terrible. She knew it too. Plus, the vocals on Street Angel were awful, the songs were not up to her normal standard. Nobody wanted to hear a bloated whale-goat bleet out monotone croaking noises. Nobody. There was no single that was playable on radio at that time as well. No Voice, fat, boring, terrible clothes. Nothing to see here, nothing to listen to. It was a total misfire. All those things.

3 years later OLD Stevie was back, looking good, thinner, sultry, sexy and not wearing her drapes as clothes. She got her voice almost back to early 80's form, she LOOKED like Stevie Nicks again. Trouble In ShangraLa showed what she was REALLY capable of when she was in better voice and sexier again.

[James89]

I actually agree with you. I just didn't want to say I disliked 'Street Angel' because Stevie looked fat and terrible but I still feel as though 'Street Angel' should've charted higher than #45.

[PenguinHead]

WOW! Was this the original track list?

Blue Denim
Rose Garden
Street Angel
Just Like A Woman
Unconditional Love
Destiny
I Call You Missing
Inspiration
Maybe Love
Kick It
Listen to the Rain
Playing in God's Garden

How strange that five of the songs weren't written by Stevie. Notice how Greta, Docklands and Love is Like a River were not on the originally planned album.

The biggest enigma in Stevie's catalog is the awkwardly titled song I Call You Missing -- ironic because it has been missing for a long time.

When was the crappy example we do have actually recorded? I assume it was done around the time of The Other Side of the Mirror(some of the lyrics appear in Whole Lotta Trouble). Is there a possibility a finished Street Angel version is lingering somewhere?

Having been able to obtain so much unreleased material over the years, where are the reasons this one particular song has gone missing for so long? I call this Stevie's Amelia Earhart song --people have searched for it over the years, but it's never been found.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

The biggest enigma in Stevie's catalog is the awkwardly titled song I Call You Missing -- ironic because it has been missing for a long time.

When was the crappy example we do have actually recorded? I assume it was done around the time of The Other Side of the Mirror(some of the lyrics appear in Whole Lotta Trouble). Is there a possibility a finished Street Angel version is lingering somewhere?

The version that fans have, is from the 'Rock A Little' era.

Like you said, a lot of the lyrics were then used in "Whole Lotta Trouble." Stevie often revisits certain lines, so that isn't unusual -- but nearly half of "I Call You Missing" was made redundant by "Whole Lotta Trouble," and it's hard to imagine she would have kept all of that in when she recorded it for 'Street Angel.'

Maybe that's why she ultimately decided to fashion an entirely new song ("Love Is Like A River") out of most of what remained of "Missing."

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by AnthonyMI

Why? Reality Check here... This is not mean, but this is what I think people saw other than us hard core fans.....Because she was a fat COW on Letterman! Hardly talked, just shook her head. She showed up, and people were expecting youthful she was mid 40s!), energetic sexy Stevie Nicks and they got bloated whale in taffeta poofy dress with crazy Crimp-it hair!! She might have been off Klonopin, but she looked terrible. She knew it too.

It was The Tonight Show, with Jay Leno, where she was quiet for the first minute or so of the interview -- presumably catching her breath after performing. She was chatty after that, however. And was also chatty when she did appear on Letterman's show.

She may not have been at her absolute best during that era, but I think 'Street Angel' did about as well as it possibly could have, considering how drastically the landscape of radio had changed by that point. Very few of Stevie's peers were scoring any hits, unless they chose to go full-on Adult Contemporary. Most of everything else on the radio was grunge, hip-hop, or bubblegum pop.

[TheWILDheart]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

The biggest enigma in Stevie's catalog is the awkwardly titled song I Call You Missing -- ironic because it has been missing for a long time.

When was the crappy example we do have actually recorded? I assume it was done around the time of The Other Side of the Mirror(some of the lyrics appear in Whole Lotta Trouble). Is there a possibility a finished Street Angel version is lingering somewhere?

Having been able to obtain so much unreleased material over the years, where are the reasons this one particular song has gone missing for so long? I call this Stevie's Amelia Earhart song --people have searched for it over the years, but it's never been found.

From what I understand, there is a full, finished version of "I Call You Missing" from the SA sessions. Some hoarder in Germany has a copy on cassette from an eBay auction that she refuses to share. Don't ask me who or why, but I remember there was quite a discussion about it on here a few years back.

However, the song eventually morphed into "Love Is Like A River". Here is the copyright info:

Type of Work: Music
Registration Number / Date: PA0000757323 / 1995-08-09
Application Title: I call you missing.
Title: Love is like a river.
Appears in: Street angel. Modern Records 92246-2, c1994. Compact disc
Publisher Number: Modern Records 92246-2
Performer: Performed by Stevie Nicks.
Copyright Claimant: Welsh Witch Music
Date of Creation: 1993
Date of Publication: 1994-06-07
Authorship on Application: words & music: Stevie Nicks.
Previous Registration: Prev. reg. 1993, PAu 1-730-343.
Names: Nicks, Stevie
Welsh Witch Music

[KarmaContestant]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

The version that fans have, is from the 'Rock A Little' era.

Like you said, a lot of the lyrics were then used in "Whole Lotta Trouble." Stevie often revisits certain lines, so that isn't unusual -- but nearly half of "I Call You Missing" was made redundant by "Whole Lotta Trouble," and it's hard to imagine she would have kept all of that in when she recorded it for 'Street Angel.'

Maybe that's why she ultimately decided to fashion an entirely new song ("Love Is Like A River") out of most of what remained of "Missing."

Except that Love Is Like A River is an RAL-era song as well...and it's way cooler than what she recorded for Street Angel, but largely because of that 80's synth beat and witchy vocals.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

Except that Love Is Like A River is an RAL-era song as well...and it's way cooler than what she recorded for Street Angel, but largely because of that 80's synth beat and witchy vocals.

Oh man, I completely forgot about that version! I think I only listened to it once, quite a few years ago, because the copy I heard was of such crummy sound quality. All these years later, it slipped from my memory. Damn senility! My fan-card is going to be revoked, lol.

Anyway, I just found it at IvoryKeys and listened again. Yeah, some pretty terrific, unbridled vocals, and I'm always a sucker for a great synth-line.

The lyrics this version of "LILAR" has in common with the 'Rock A Little'-era version of "I Call You Missing," are:

"She burns a candle for him."
"Some call it love -- some say they're above that. Well, she believed in love -- she called it worth it."
"No, in the middle of the night -- you can't stay home and give up the fight."
"I care about you Saturday night."

So the two must have already been connected in Stevie's mind from the very beginning, and then she melded them together (minus, of course, the lyrics she re-purposed for "Whole Lotta Trouble"), for what became the version of "Love Is Like A River" on 'Street Angel.'

Which makes me all the more intrigued now to hear the 'SA'-era version of "I Call You Missing." I have to wonder if it had basically the same lyrical structure as the "LILAR" that was ultimately released, but with the chorus from "ICYM" instead.

[The Highwayman]

I'm not so sure Street Angel is my least favorite Stevie album; There are a few songs on here that outdo just about everything she did on The Other Side of The Mirror (except the completely awesome 'Ooh My Love') and SA's production is better (now we're gonna have a Some OTSOTM Love thread..).
'Rose Garden', 'Destiny' and the title track are all excellent, and hey they're reason enough to own the album (although I must note the mixes of 'Rose Garden' and 'Destiny' are far, far better on Enchanted).

[PenguinHead]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

http://stevie-nicks.info/wp-content/...omo-poster.jpg
A vinyl reissue of this album is a Stevie holy-grail item for me, and I have pestered Rhino and Warner about it numerous times. I envision white vinyl, 180 gram double LP, with pink custom labels that have the STREET ANGEL lettering, and a gatefold sleeve, of course.

Was there a original vinyl version of the album in 1994? By then, vinyl had fallen out of favor for compact discs. If it ever got re-released on vinyl, I hope they would clean up the train wreck that is the booklet with the lyrics. It's really a hack job.

Having been a type-setter, then a graphic designer, and then a copywriter/creative director, I'm a stickler for how lyrics should be properly presented. Sometimes the designers get it right, but mostly the standard is so sub-par, it kills me to see.

Often the lyrics are presented as dictations of the vocals, with "oohs and ahhs" representing the vocal inflections. But those aren't lyrics, and completely unnecessary; they just muddle the visual integrity of the lyric. And ellipses are useless. Take a look at the lyrics in Street Angel; there are ellipses in the oddest places, as if to refer to pauses her delivery! That is not needed at all. A lyric sheet doesn't have to infer pauses! And commas are very essential to clear communication, so why aren't they being used properly? If you cut out all the superfluous crap, you get the core essence of the song. Here are some examples, which reveal the actual poetry in the lyrics. They aren't perfect, but presented in a more improved form.

STREET ANGEL
I've been walking under rainbows too long to tell
You keep walking down means streets, my street angel
I tried to bring you in, out of the cold
But street angels live on the street, and they always will

Street angels aren't like anyone you know
They do what they want, and they go where they go
They may tell you that you hold the world in your hands
But they always give it back, they always give it back

No amount of crying changes your mind
No amount of praying brings you inside
I know that you love me, and that you always will
You just stand outside and call to me, my sweet street angel

A Charles Dickens character, with your top hat and your scarf
When you pulled me through the rainbow, I thought you’d stop
But you didn't, you turned around, you went back
To the children, and your music, and the people that you love

I can’t help but wonder, if every once in a while
You remember the girl, when you were a homeless angel
That drove you wild, strange and elusive

So I ended it all, for the both of us,
I fell down the stairs, a broken rag doll
But you never knew, you just thought I went away
With nothing more to hope for
But you don’t hear voices anymore, my sweet street angel

GRETA
Rhinestone collections all the time
I wonder what Greta would say
Another lady, another time
Another heart- broken state of mind
Alone in her chambers, she dreams of her home

Outside, she’s got a movie star view
Outcries, well where will the kings go
Where will the kings go now?

She’s got her eyes wide open
And she’s ready to stare you down
She says, in words unspoken
She’s from out of town

Well some cry, “Well I really don’t
dance down stormy weather”
It cuts like a knife

She’s got her bags packed
And she’s off to the valley
Where the sun meets the sea
You understand that,
She wants to live by the ocean
And no one is pleased
She gets a house by the mountains
The next day, the next day
She leaves the station

Do you really want to change her?
Do you really want to change her?
Or is it your right?

Alone in her chambers, she dreams of her home
In a very real way, she’s the purest art form
I bet she said “just how many art lovers
can one get to know?”

She doesn't have an hour
She doesn't have five minutes
She’s got to go

I wonder what Greta would say
I wonder what Greta would say
I wonder what Greta would say
Oh, where will the kings go?
Where will the kings go now?
Say Greta, say Greta

[gssmith]

I love the album! I like them all but as a whole, better then rock a little and osotm. Just like all her albums, the cover picture is cool. And just like the tour she gave strong vocals. I say that about most studio work of hers though.
blue denim: great catchy song, love the guitar.
Street angel: like the Radom guitar flares, great bongo like percussion very atmospheric.
Greta, her vocals are good love the story. especially the movie star view line makes me laugh.
Docklands is ok.
Listen to the rain great rocker. After the bridge, love the slow raspy vocal.
Unconditional love and love is like a river are terrible!!!
Rose Garden: kind of dumb, but ok. Destiny is a lot better I don't mind the recycled lyrics.
The music for Maybe Live sounds like Say You Will. It's pro bobbly her worst single. But as a song in an album I'd give it a 5/10 stars.
Kick It is ok.
I really like Just line a woman and jane. I hate bob Dylan's voice so Stevie's is much better. Love his lyrics. The song has some atmosphere too. Jane is sweet. Why hate on the chimp line? It's about Jane Goodall! I love the vocal acapella at the end between the ladies.