Destiny Rules- who's it about?

[louielouie2000]

So I was listening to Say You Will this evening for the first time in ages, and Destiny Rules came on. I'd completely forgotten how much I deeply love this song. Hearing it also revived my wonder about this one, too- who is it about?

Like most Stevie songs, it's about love lost. It also alludes to it being a very short lived affair- so we can cross Lindsey off the list. The verse about driving by the person's balcony makes me think this guy was someone of simpler means who lives in an apartment, so we can cross off Joe Walsh. This brings me to my two final guesses.

My first guess would be the younger waiter she dated in the late '90s. The borrowed verse from Illume about liking the coastal cities, et al makes me think they spent much of their time squirreled away in Stevie's Pacific Palisades house. The one where she's reminiscing about 9/11 in Illume. We definitely know from Stevie herself that she spent all of her time hiding from the world with this guy, because she was so uncomfortable with the age difference.

Another guess would be the rehab coach she went on the road with during the Street Angel tour. That most certainly was a short lived, passionate affair. And the 6 weeks in a foreign country could be about the roughly 6 weeks they spent in tour bus- something which was certainly foreign territory for Stevie: she had always toured via private jet. Stevie also has said she knew from the beginning that this affair was always going to be limited to the tour, hence the not wanting to go home.

How about everyone else- who do you think the song may be about?

[michelej1]

I just don't think it's about one person, especially not when "destiny" is such a running theme with Stevie and she sees its hand in all things.

When she says, "I hear about you now and then" it makes me think that part is about someone in the music circle that other people she works with knows. So, I would guess that refers to maybe a studio musician or someone in the business and not the waiter. Your balcony conclusion is a good one. He has an apartment in one of the ritzy neighborhoods -- but maybe can't afford a house.

But I wouldn't think the whole song is about this mystery guy.

Michele

[nicole21290]

"When I see you again
As I always do"

So that part at least isn't about a guy who she had a thing with and never saw again afterwards. This is the other section which really interests me:

"Six weeks in a foreign country
How the time flew
I didn't speak the language
But somehow I knew
That this would be the only time
That we could be alone and foolish
We said we'd never come home"

[StreetAngel86]

^^
I always loved the explanation that those "6 weeks" was Stevie using her creative licence about SnL/FM being in Germany for the Dance :D:D:D:D

I don't care about the rest of the song and who it's about.
I will go Lindsey :lol:

[Frankenstein]

"Six weeks in a foreign country
How the time flew
I didn't speak the language
But somehow I knew
That this would be the only time
That we could be alone and foolish
We said we'd never come home"

A lot of people have speculated that this is about when Stevie went to Chile for six weeks after Tusk. I was reading an interview with Hernan Rojas a while back and he said she actually went with him.. So I always wonder if maybe that part was inspired by him.

[vivfox]

I remember some long ago interview where she said it was about Christine McVie, that part about looking up to your balcony and remembering when you were there.

[michelej1]

Ha, but remember that ghost Stevie said she encountered at the chateau? The doors that flew open were off of a balcony. OK, OK. I know it was France and Stevie can't just drive by there any time, but maybe when she's in the area she still drives by to see if she can still feel the ghost, to make sure he was real.

How long were they at Le Chateau anyway?

Michele

[bombaysaffires]

I myself believe the 6 weeks line is about Hernan. She talked about it in an interview, how she was so worn down by the end of the recording of Tusk that she went off to Chile for 6 weeks to think about where her life was at and how she could get out of the depression she was in at that time. There are a few interviews floating around on the inter webs with Hernan (in Spanish) where he talks about her going to Chile with him and how fragile she was at the point after the Tusk sessions and being her boyfriend and all. Like most of her songs it may be a melange of moments and memories with different people but I've always felt that verse was about him. It's so specific in the details-- foreign country, 6 weeks, not speaking the language, saying oh let's never go home...back to the stress and taking Tusk on the road for over a year. And realistically she could see him again "as I always do" if he is still active in recording studios in LA. I don't know if he still is or not. I can see her in her romanticizing way thinking back and wondering "what would have happened if we stayed together" because that so fits her obsession with tragic lost love that never got to be more than a short romance......

[DauphineMarie]

I myself believe the 6 weeks line is about Hernan. She talked about it in an interview, how she was so worn down by the end of the recording of Tusk that she went off to Chile for 6 weeks to think about where her life was at and how she could get out of the depression she was in at that time. There are a few interviews floating around on the inter webs with Hernan (in Spanish) where he talks about her going to Chile with him and how fragile she was at the point after the Tusk sessions and being her boyfriend and all. Like most of her songs it may be a melange of moments and memories with different people but I've always felt that verse was about him. It's so specific in the details-- foreign country, 6 weeks, not speaking the language, saying oh let's never go home...back to the stress and taking Tusk on the road for over a year. And realistically she could see him again "as I always do" if he is still active in recording studios in LA. I don't know if he still is or not. I can see her in her romanticizing way thinking back and wondering "what would have happened if we stayed together" because that so fits her obsession with tragic lost love that never got to be more than a short romance......

I looked this up a little bit because I was unaware of this connection, and in that interview, Hernan says that when Stevie went to Chile, his mom gave her Belladonna, which is for fevers and for things of that sort, and so she dedicated part of Bella Donna the album to him and his mom. Belladonna is also psychoactive, and so I can totally see Stevie becoming absorbed into the symbolism behind that trip... I just looked at the album and it does say "Maria Theresa Rojas, Santiago, Chile" I had no idea!!

He also mentioned that Fleetwood Mac's connection to Birch Bayh allowed her to get the necessary clearances to go to Chile because at the time it was a dictatorship. :shocked:

[bombaysaffires]

for those who may be interested, here is a great interview with Hernan (I think this is the one you are referring to as well, DauphineMarie)

http://www.absentamusical.com/oct-2010/entrevista-hernan-rojas.html

Warning, it's in spanish.

He talks about going into the recording of Tusk, and how Stevie was feeling low, very low, because she'd had a couple of failed relationships, first with Lindsey, and then with Mick. And she was feeling so low, and it seemed she had really been doing a lot of drugs, and he uses the expression that the band didn't 'fish her out' which seems to mean more like bail her out, because, he thinks, that she had succumbed a bit to all the success from Rumors. And the band wasn't wanting to record her stuff, like it wasn't up to snuff. So she went in to work on new demos, and he worked with her.

He also talks about how he helped Stevie with the demo for Sara, along with Tom Moncrieff and Annie McLoone. He says the original demo was 22 minutes. He edited it down to a 12 minute version to take to the band. He says it was his idea to have the drummer play brushes on it. He also says that when Sara was picked as the next single he worked on the mix for the single and that was a 'great gift' for him 'because Stevie had the generosity to give me half the rights of authorship (songwriting credit / royalties) because of how valuable she felt my contribution was'

edited to add: he says he's got two books he's working on. one is his memoir, about his coming to California and everything that happened to him there, including Stevie and FM, and another that's about the making of Tusk, together with the producer of FM (Ken??) which will be super beautiful, and will include interactive things, "we have a lot of material". There's no clear date on this article, other than it's vol 1, number 9 of the magazine.

[bombaysaffires]

well, digging around a bit more, Hernan himself claims that the song Destiny Rules is about Stevie's time with him in Chile.

He says no one knew her there, except some of his cousins who had been in the States. He says when she was there she was playing the piano after some party he took her to, and there was some sort of noise curfew and she was playing a cop showed up with a gun pointed at the window and he says she innocently closed the window but the guy kept the gun pointed so she was freaked out by it and called a US Democratic senator for whom they had done some campaigning and said I gotta leave here and she changed all her plans and left. He stayed behind to spend some more time visiting his mom and then flew back but she was getting ready to go off on the Tusk tour and would be gone for 'years' and so they decided to end their relationship then.


http://www.capital.cl/cultura/2012/03/29/110312-el-amigo-de-roger-waters

Here's the specific part:
Hay una canción del álbum más reciente de Fleetwood Mac que cuenta en clave esa experiencia (Destiny rules). De vuelta en Estados Unidos, me acuerdo que dos o tres semanas después ella se va de gira mundial: duró años, y decidimos dejar nuestra relación hasta ahí. Hasta hoy hay mucho cariño, mucho respeto, Y contacto: siempre se acuerda de mi mamá. Y hasta le da un agradecimiento en su canción Belladona. Cuando estuvo acá se enfermó del estómago, le dio “chilenitis” y mi mamá le pasó pastillas para el dolor de guata. Se llamaban Belladenal. De ahí el nombre de la canción.

[sorcerer999]

Hmmmm...

Makes me wonder (if it IS in fact a song about Hernan) whether this song, or at least the lyrics, was written way back when it was all going on...

...or maybe she just thought it was the right time to write a song about it and wrote it SPECIFICALLY for the SYW album?

[michelej1]

He says when she was there she was playing the piano after some party he took her to, and there was some sort of noise curfew and she was playing a cop showed up with a gun pointed at the window and he says she innocently closed the window but the guy kept the gun pointed so she was freaked out by it and called a US Democratic senator for whom they had done some campaigning and said I gotta leave here and she changed all her plans and left.

Oh, thanks for the translation. So, that makes the senator Birch Bayh.

We know how Stevie is and I would love to hear the story of the policeman pointing the gun at her from her mouth. If horses have tried to kill her, I can only imagine what she will say about that policeman. Michele

[michelej1]

Hmmmm...

Makes me wonder (if it IS in fact a song about Hernan) whether this song, or at least the lyrics, was written way back when it was all going on...

...or maybe she just thought it was the right time to write a song about it and wrote it SPECIFICALLY for the SYW album?

Well, it was one of the four songs she wrote for SYW during the winter holiday. Whipped 'em right out. Maybe she just looked through her poems and found one that she thought would make a great song. Or maybe she specifically went looking for one that would remind Lindsey of what an amazing love life she has had, him not included.:laugh:

Michele

[johnnystorms]

Oh, thanks for the translation. So, that makes the senator Birch Bayh.

We know how Stevie is and I would love to hear the story of the policeman pointing the gun at her from her mouth. If horses have tried to kill her, I can only imagine what she will say about that policeman. Michele

don't forget swans, stairs, and treadmills also had homicidal impulses toward her.

[PenguinHead]

Hmmmm...

Makes me wonder (if it IS in fact a song about Hernan) whether this song, or at least the lyrics, was written way back when it was all going on...

...or maybe she just thought it was the right time to write a song about it and wrote it SPECIFICALLY for the SYW album?


I had no knowledge of Hernan until now, But I speculate, in her patchwork style of writing, she might have pulled out some lines or verses about her involvement with him and that particular time to write Destiny Rules. That doesn't mean the song is solely about one person or thing. Most of her songs don't have a singular focus or subject matter.