I am a cliff dweller...

[catinthedark]

... from the old school.

I've been singing this line for the past day or two. It started with talking about Illume for the benefit... then I listened to it... and the rest is history. :)

So the reason for the thread? I love this line. But what the heck does it mean??? :confused:

[MacMan]

Cliff dweller to me, means someone sitting there looking on.. Old school to me means from another generation... Old School, like when you refer to say 80's music, you might say that's Old School. That's how I look at the line...

[catinthedark]

Cliff dweller to me, means someone sitting there looking on.. Old school to me means from another generation... Old School, like when you refer to say 80's music, you might say that's Old School. That's how I look at the line...

Interesting. Cliff dweller to me says someone who likes to live on the edge. Take risks. But I still don't get the "old school" part.

[Livia]

Maybe it's a reference to that yodeler game on the Price is Right? He's climbing a cliff, or a mountain, whatever...and then he falls off the cliff when you make him go too high... :rolleyes:

Seriously, that line always made me think of living near the ocean, on a high cliff, overlooking the sea... :shrug:

[golden braid]

Seriously, that line always made me think of living near the ocean, on a high cliff, overlooking the sea... :shrug:
Me too. I think Stevie could look out her window and see up the coast to Point Dume which is right next to the ocean.

[Ghost_Tracker]

... from the old school.

I've been singing this line for the past day or two. It started with talking about Illume for the benefit... then I listened to it... and the rest is history. :)

So the reason for the thread? I love this line. But what the heck does it mean??? :confused:


Stevie literally lives on a cliff in LA - there's AWESOME pictures

on the Nicksfix from the In Style article. She's remarked in interviews

sometimes that yes, she's aware that at any time, "The Landslide

could bring it down" - The Big One could hit, and there 'ya go -

but she said once that it doesn't bother her, " 'cause I know that

YOU'LL be there in your HELICOPTER, and I'll just get my Steel-tipped

boots and my ROPE, and you'll RESCUE me!"

So she's kind of old-school that way - it's risky living on a cliff -

"risky" like Tom Cruise said in the Mission Impossible movie.

But life is a "Risky Business" and Stevie, of all people, knows that.

She's kind old-school that way, too.

So in my opinion, she's saying, "Yeah, they knocked our buildings down -

I'm looking out from my mountain top, and feeling like the landslide's

gonna knock me down here - but just the same, they just messed with

my people, and they have NO idea what they've just unleashed! . . . ."

So she expressed her fear, but also her anger, and her Faith that the

good guys - us - would prevail in the end. Like she said - "Old School"

:)

And yes - she IS that deep.

( But she remarked in an interview, also, that the song sort of

"wrote itself..." )

[The Tower]

Yeah- Stevie's being a cliffdweller is all about the Malibu/Pacific Palisades culture. If you've never been there, you have no clue.

Sunset Boulevard runs all the way down to Malibu and those cliffs are steep mother****ers. Try driving it sometime and see all the crazies that floor it at 60+ miles per hour down the twisty road.

It can be a nightmare- but the locale is awesomely beautiful. "Cliffdweller" is a very apropos title...

[Ghost_Tracker]

Yeah- Stevie's being a cliffdweller is all about the Malibu/Pacific Palisades culture. If you've never been there, you have no clue.

It can be a nightmare- but the locale is awesomely beautiful. "Cliffdweller" is a very apropos title...


OH! :cool: :)

[trackaghost]

Interesting. Cliff dweller to me says someone who likes to live on the edge. Take risks. But I still don't get the "old school" part.


What don't you get? Old school is a commonly used expression.

From the dictionary:

Main Entry: old school
Function: noun
: adherents of traditional policies and practices

She's like a rock star from a different generation. She's a risk taker like most 70s (or old school) rock stars. :)

[Raeven Skye]

ok..this is my archaeologists brain on overload, but since she lives in AZ, I think the line refers to the Anasazi Cliff Dwellers who built their cities up in high cliffs, and then inexplicably abandonded them...we refer to those civilizations as "cliff dwellers"...and also that she lives on a cliff overlooking the ocean...so I've always thought she was drawing parallels.
*Raeven Skye sits down* :p

[catinthedark]

What don't you get? Old school is a commonly used expression.

From the dictionary:

Main Entry: old school
Function: noun
: adherents of traditional policies and practices

She's like a rock star from a different generation. She's a risk taker like most 70s (or old school) rock stars. :)

What I didn't get was the connection of the two expressions. "I'm someone who takes risks, lives on the edge... from the old, traditional times?" It just didn't make sense to me. But maybe it's as simple as others have speculated - like Ghost_Tracker suggested. That makes sense to me. Anyway, I still love the line... Thanks for the thoughts..

[David]

ok..this is my archaeologists brain on overload, but since she lives in AZ, I think the line refers to the Anasazi Cliff Dwellers who built their cities up in high cliffs, and then inexplicably abandonded them...we refer to those civilizations as "cliff dwellers"...and also that she lives on a cliff overlooking the ocean...so I've always thought she was drawing parallels.
*Raeven Skye sits down* :pthat's definitely the inspiration for her use of the phrase ... Arizona Indian culture

Stevie sometimes has talked about "going into my Indian phase," & she wrote Gold Dust Woman in one such phase, lying in bed in AZ, sick, playing her guitar & looking up at the Camelback Mountains

But, as Tower said, she probably also uses "cliff dweller" in connection with her West Coast digs: sort of a double meaning.

[strandinthewind]

Yeah- Stevie's being a cliffdweller is all about the Malibu/Pacific Palisades culture. If you've never been there, you have no clue.

Sunset Boulevard runs all the way down to Malibu and those cliffs are steep mother****ers. Try driving it sometime and see all the crazies that floor it at 60+ miles per hour down the twisty road.

It can be a nightmare- but the locale is awesomely beautiful. "Cliffdweller" is a very apropos title...

LOL - yep. It is beautiful though :nod:

Personally, I would have liked to have lived at 10086 Sunset Blvd. -- somehow that fits me :cool:

[DavidMn]

Maybe it's a reference to that yodeler game on the Price is Right? He's climbing a cliff, or a mountain, whatever...and then he falls off the cliff when you make him go too high... :rolleyes:

Seriously, that line always made me think of living near the ocean, on a high cliff, overlooking the sea... :shrug:
I was watching TPIR the other day and for the first time, I saw them give away a car playing Cliffhanger. :]

[Phoenix]

What don't you get? Old school is a commonly used expression.

From the dictionary:

Main Entry: old school
Function: noun
: adherents of traditional policies and practices

She's like a rock star from a different generation. She's a risk taker like most 70s (or old school) rock stars. :)

Well said. As far as the clif dweller statement goes, not only does she live in the clifs of malibu in cali, but here in phoenix, she lives on a mountain too, and some of the houses on camelback mountain are built high around it and into the mountain, she is litterally a "cliff Dweller" just like people from ancient times. :nod:

[Ghost_Tracker]

Well said. As far as the clif dweller statement goes, not only does she live in the clifs of malibu in cali, but here in phoenix, she lives on a mountain too, and some of the houses on camelback mountain are built high around it and into the mountain, she is litterally a "cliff Dweller" just like people from ancient times. :nod:


I don't think she literally lives on Camelback Mountain - there's an

awesome In Style article on the Phoenix house and she mentions how

she can see it from there. But I always wonder what kind of an

"influence" that area - which she considers her home - is on her music.

For example, there's an Indian reservation right near her home, and

Stevie brought a "spirit catcher" as an ice breaker to the first day of

recording "Say You Will" ( you can see it on "Destiny Rules" ).


"Well I live below...a great red mountain
In the shape of a great huge beast
In a place the indians call...Paradise Valley
Well this has always been my sanctuary
I send that to you...too
There on the other side of the world
In the desert...
Operation Desert Shield?...
Operation Desert Storm??...
Operation Desert Angel!"

GOD she could have STOPPED right there! :angel: :nod:

[Ghost_Tracker]

This is the view out of Stevie's window from the "Cliff" in

California ( it was taken by a professional photographer at a party

she had for a small group of friends when TISL was released - it's

available in an article which appeared in In Style magazine

in May of 2001 and is also available on the Nicksfix. )