Like or Dislike: Ooh My Love

[skcin]

Once upon a time, when I first started getting into solo Stevie (probably right around '97 - I had always been a casual fan, but I didn't have any of her solo work until this point) I fell in love with this song. I thought it was beautiful and romantic and dreamy.

Now? Well, not so much. :laugh: It bores me a bit, to be honest. I don't think it's awful, I don't skip it, I usually sing along, but there's no passion in it for me. Good lyrics, they fit with the album's theme of fairy tales & castles & such. But the music isn't very magical, IMO.

The vocal is too monotone for my taste, especially the chorus harmonies. And this is one of the "muddy" songs on the album - like you're listening to it underwater (who talked about this before - Quim? David? I can't recall.)

Favorite lines:

"And all this talk...about love and hate
And our separation way on down the line...
Well they just can't wait, can they?
No they just can't wait..."

"Oh...but there was a time when...he called her "angel..."


"There was a light that lighted the way to the chamber...
Where they spent all their time, well..."

So, it's just OK for me. Not great, not terrible. Average. Nothing all that special. I'm surprised that this made it onto Enchanted, but "Doing the Best That I Can" did not. :shocked: And I don't think I'd care for it live, I think it would drag.

[JazmenFlowers]

from the moment I heard that first beat I was in love...I think the everything about it is magical. the music is perfect for the lyrics and I think the vocal is great too. I do think the vocal is lacking just a teeny tiny bit, but that's my only criticism. one of my favs from OSOTM.

[Rickypt]

I listened to OSOTM the other day for the first time in ages. I used to dislike this song, along with several others on the album. But I'm finding a new appreciation, especially for Ooh My Love. A little too overproduced like the entire album, and certainly nowhere Stevie at her best, but a nice midtempo song that has held up pretty well.

[Johnny Stew]

One of my all-time favorites, and easily one of the best songs on The Other Side Of The Mirror. :nod:

From Billboard magazine's review of Enchanted....
"Enchanted" combines live rarities and B sides with radio hits like "Stand Back." But the emotional highlight is "Ooh My Love" (originally buried in the long-forgotten "The Other Side of the Mirror"), about a princess who feels like a prisoner in her own castle even though she's still terrified of the world outside. It's Nicks' love letter to her fans, and, like the rest of "Enchanted," it makes you admire her fierce compassion for the lost girls in her flock. She's lasted so long as an icon because she's never forgotten how it feels to teeter in high heels on the edge of seventeen.

[ELIUD]

I love that song so much. I think lyrically it shows that she was really aware about her popularity ebbing and that things might be going downhill for her after that album. She was losing confidence. There's more songs like that on TOSOTM but this one is sweet and a favorite of mine.

[strandinthewind]

I love the "ooo hey hey baby" vocal.

Coll song, but not earth shattering and it was the first time I thought "where is the voice"

[foxyluva]

I LOVE this song - one of my very favourites :D

[chiliD]

Bleccccccch! :distress:

[foxyluva]

Bleccccccch! :distress:

:laugh: lol - did you mean BELCH???

[DavidMn]

:laugh: lol - did you mean BELCH???No that's only if you have too many beans for dinner.:laugh:

[chiliD]

:laugh: lol - did you mean BELCH???

No, I meant "Bleccccccch!". :wavey:

[MacMan]

All this talk... about love and hate (of the song) I think I have to give this cd another spin.. it's been awhile.

This song is one of the stand-outs on the cd for me - love the funky opening and pulsing bass throughout. Visually, it would have made a great video!

[David]

I like this one. Dumb words, but makes you want to take care of Stevie--she's the heroine once again.

I agree with macMan, the pulsating bass gives a little movement to the whole thing. Too many songs on OSOTM don't move, unfortunately.

[gldstwmn]

I like the song but the demo version is so much bouncier. I wish a cleaner version would surface.
I love the "Oooh hey hey baby" part.

[SillyDreamer]

i like this song a lot... often i find myself waiting for the subtle change in lyric: "Well, it was a strain on her---it was a strain on me." I like to hope it was not just Stevie randomly riffing on a whim, but a conscious attempt on her part to break out of the third-person bubble she had come to rely on. Although occasionally it very effectively aided the imagery in a song, it seemed that around this time it became less an aide and more a crutch-- a silly attempt protecting herself at her most vulnerable. Silly because Stevie's songs are so obviously personal that changing lines to the third-person--"What can I do when I'm crazy for you?/SHE wonders how many more hours HER heart will feel broken"--it does more to damage the flow of the story than to actually distance her from the experience. We know it's her own heart she's talking about... so why pretend? The song ain't called "She Can't Wait," is it? It's like when you're talking to someone who says, "I've got this friend who has this problem..." Pretty transparent.

Anyway, that was quite a rant. I'm sorry for that. Just expressing that part of the reason I like this song is because it is a sign to me, however feeble, that Stevie can actually address her pain when she wants to. In "Ooh My Love," she's not simply telling us about this lonely girl in this grand castle, and isn't it a romantic story. It's her saying "it's ME! I am going through a hard time!" She hasn't always been that honest with us, although she succeeds elsewhere on this album with songs like Doing the Best I Can. Now, if she had chosen to instead write those lines "Doing the best She Can," a great song about self-awareness would have been lost.

Ok, I'm really done now.

[The Tower]

It's gorgeous. It's Royal Red. It's sumptuous. It's heartbreaking. It's honest. It's Stevie.

Sitting at the piano, playing this song and singing it is a revelation.

Stevie was so heartbroken during this time. And she was so bare and honest in her songwriting.

I love this song and always will. I hear the beginning of it and my spine tingles from the topback of my skull down to my tailbone.

[TheBlueLamp]

I used to hate this song, or more specifically the opening to it. It took me a long time before I could get past it. Now that I can it's one of my favourites. I think it has a beautiful fragility to it.

[Phoenix]

I love this song.It is one of her magic songs.It does seem to be lacking something though. I had never really paid alot of attention to it, but a while ago when we were doing those "what song are you" ploles. I came up as this song, so I went and listend and thought yeah, this is a nice song.

[foxyluva]

It's gorgeous. It's Royal Red. It's sumptuous. It's heartbreaking. It's honest. It's Stevie.

Sitting at the piano, playing this song and singing it is a revelation.

Stevie was so heartbroken during this time. And she was so bare and honest in her songwriting.


Well Put :thumbsup: I agree - the whole of OSOTM has a heartbroken/depressed sort of feeling to it, which I love

[strandinthewind]

. . . Sitting at the piano, playing this song and singing it is a revelation . . . .

I agree!!!!!!!

I also love the "you used to love to behind those walls with her" - I sort of had been there at that time and then years later was there again, only with a better piano :laugh:

Anyway - here are the words for anyone in a heart broken state of mind:

In the shadow of the castle walls
Wherever those walls were
Well you used to love...to be behind...those walls with her
Within these walls...
Well he watched from the corridor...
Watched from the corner of his eyes...
Seemingly waiting for the time...
When the castle walls...would all fall down

Yes it was a strain on her...
Watching her castles fall down
Oh...but there was a time when...he called her "angel"
Where in the world did you come from?

In the shadow of the castle walls
Wherever those walls were
In this land or in that land
Well the castles all seem to belong to her
And all this talk...about love and hate
And our separation way on down the line...
Well they just can't wait, can they?
No they just can't wait...

Yes it was a strain on her...
Watching her castles fall down
Oh...but there was a time when...he called her "angel"
Where in the world did you come from?
Yes it was a strain on her
Watching her castles fall down
Oh...but there was a time when...he called her "angel"
Where in the world did you come from?

There was a light that lighted the way to the chamber...
Where they spent all their time, well...
There was a light that lighted the way to the chamber door where...
They seemed to spend all their time...

Ooh my love...Ooh my love...Ooh my love...

Yes it was a strain on her...
Watching her castles fall down
Oh...but there was a time when...he called her "angel"
Where in the world did you come from?
Yes it was a strain on her...
Watching her castles fall down
Oh...but there was a time when...he called her "angel"
Where in the world did you come from?
Yeah it was a strain on her...
Watching her castles fall down
Hey, hey, baby...No one can take you away from me...no...no one...
In the shadow of the castle walls...__________________________________________________________

Also, I always thought this song was about FM and LB and all the drama. For example, the lines:

Well he watched from the corridor...
Watched from the corner of his eyes...
Seemingly waiting for the time...
When the castle walls...would all fall down

could be about LB wanting La Nicks to fail in the other land (her solo career) and come a runnin back to him for his tutelage. But, some speculate it is about Rupert Hines. In any event, it certainly is about some man who used to call her angel and they are estranged in some way, likely because of her career.

[AliceLover]

I like the song but the demo version is so much bouncier. I wish a cleaner version would surface.
I love the "Oooh hey hey baby" part.

Ooh could you post this? I always thought the song could be bouncier! But anyhoo this song is so amazing. i remember listening to it on enchanted and having no idea where it was from. Fantastic song!

[chiliD]

To reiterate my point from another thread:

Is it on TOSOTM?? Is it a song other than "Rooms On Fire"??

Therefore, Projectile Vomiting...


...hence the aforementioned "bleccccccch".

[priestofnothing]

I love the song, but I hate the title "Ooh My Love". The word "Ooh" does not belong in a title. A better title IMO would be "The Castle Walls". Other than the title, love it.

[goldie]

I love it.

No one can take it away from me.

[Jyqm]

I've always really liked this song, but I think that's only because of the melody, which is really very pretty, especially in comparison to some of other songs on this album... Other than that, though, I think the only redeeming thing about this track is that great bass line, which, as someone already mentioned, really keeps the song moving, something too many other songs on this album don't do.

That said, nothing about this song is particularly bad. There's just a lot of mediocrity going on here. The synths make the whole track a bit too gauzy, contributing to the head cold/underwater syndrome that plagues a lot of the rest of the album. The vocals are just kind of there, nothing really special going on. The lyrics... well, they're pretty stereotypical, and they're slightly bland, but again, they're not particularly bad. Although she sures says the word "wall" a lot...

Actually, there is one thing that's horrendous about this track: the drums. Have you ever heard anything more listless?

This song, like most of the songs of TOSOTM, is just begging to be rescued from Rupert Hine's production via a really kickass live performance. But, knowing Stevie these days, she'd probably play the vocals really safe and chunk up the synths even more. Assuming of course she'd ever deign to play any of these songs anyway... In the end, I think most of the songs on this album are just doomed to remain forever lost opportunities.

[Jason T.]

lol - I didn't realize that people liked this song that much. There are times I'll listen to it, but half of the time I skip it.

[skcin]

lol - I didn't realize that people liked this song that much. There are times I'll listen to it, but half of the time I skip it.

I'm a bit surprised too. :nod:

[senseformiles]

This is such a great song!! Those walls with her........ how can you not love this song??

No they just can't wait! WELLL....

I do love the Demo more than the real song, though.

[Oona]

Well....I don't skip it when it comes up, but I also don't eagerly look forward to it. It's not her best, nor worst

[foxyluva]

This is such a great song!! Those walls with her........ how can you not love this song??

No they just can't wait! WELLL....

I do love the Demo more than the real song, though.

But that demo is such poor quality :distress: I would like the demo more than the studio version if it was listenable...