Bella Donna Interview [Archive]

vivfox

01-20-2020, 08:19 PM

vivfox

01-20-2020, 08:24 PM

vivfox

01-21-2020, 12:19 PM

bombaysaffires

01-25-2020, 09:07 PM

Thanks for posting this, Viv! I'd never heard the full unedited interview.

There have been lots of stories about how she gave away the royalties to many of her songs... interesting to hear Sara royalties were given to 3 guys on her crew.... the 4th person, who recorded the demo is possibly Hernan as he has told stories over the years about working on that demo with her to flesh it out and record it properly. I forget now where she wrote it, but somewhere in her thankyou's on one of her albums she thanks someone "for the spaces in Sara" so maybe that person got a cut.

She was reportedly generous, really too generous and trusting, in the beginning of her career and gave away too many royalties. Makes me wonder if once she got her own dedicated manager and business manager etc if they took tighter control on her behalf. :shrug:

BLY

01-25-2020, 10:12 PM

Yes...thanks for posting these clips. My favorite is the I Don’t Want to Know/Silver Springs clip. She didn't know Lindsey recorded IDWTK......haha haha.

vivfox

01-25-2020, 10:12 PM

Thanks for posting this, Viv! I'd never heard the full unedited interview.

There have been lots of stories about how she gave away the royalties to many of her songs... interesting to hear Sara royalties were given to 3 guys on her crew.... the 4th person, who recorded the demo is possibly Hernan as he has told stories over the years about working on that demo with her to flesh it out and record it properly. I forget now where she wrote it, but somewhere in her thank you's on one of her albums she thanks someone "for the spaces in Sara" so maybe that person got a cut.

She was reportedly generous, really too generous and trusting, in the beginning of her career and gave away too many royalties. Makes me wonder if once she got her own dedicated manager and business manager etc if they took tighter control on her behalf. :shrug:

I've been waiting for someone to comment on this interview. This was the first time I heard this particular interview. I never knew she gave away the royalties to this song. All these years later we've learned she stole the riff of Edge of 17 from a song by The Police. A recent Ledgie mentioned she stole the music to Enchanted from Bob Seger. Stevie admits she stole Little Red Corvette to write Stand Back. I have a master recording of her writing Prettiest Girl in the World right over the actual song, "My Name is Luca," which was a huge hit for another artist. Not hard for me to believe after all this time she could have easily stole parts of Sara from Carol Hinton. I cracked up when she said even if she lost the case she never would have given Carol a dime of the royalties. She claimed had that happened she would have paid out of her own pocket money. Yeah right! LOL

vivfox

01-25-2020, 10:15 PM

Yes...thanks for posting these clips. My favorite is the I Don’t Want to Know/Silver Springs clip. She didn't know Lindsey recorded IDWTK......haha haha.

I Don't Want To Know is such a great rocking song. It's such a shame Stevie holds grudges for so long. That would be such a great song to sing live. The only live versions we have of that are from the pre FM tours.

vivfox

01-25-2020, 10:16 PM

Yes...thanks for posting these clips. My favorite is the I Don’t Want to Know/Silver Springs clip.

And who knew until now Silver Springs was originally 7 minutes?

bombaysaffires

01-26-2020, 12:22 AM

I still have the broadcast version of this interview on a cassette somewhere. It included her talking about the 7 minute version of Silver Springs and the IDWK vs SS bit. And the L&L stuff and a lot of what is here but they cut to only little bits of each. So it's nice to hear to full answers that she gave.

Waddy commented on the Edge of 17 riff a number of years ago, and reportedly got a slap on the wrist from Madame (or her team) for it and kinda walked it back. Knowing the Police song Bring on the Night it was shockingly similar and odd to me at the time but they never talked about where it came from. I've always wondered why the demo of it was never leaked.

bombaysaffires

01-26-2020, 12:34 AM

I've been waiting for someone to comment on this interview. This was the first time I heard this particular interview. I never knew she gave away the royalties to this song. All these years later we've learned she stole the riff of Edge of 17 from a song by The Police. A recent Ledgie mentioned she stole the music to Enchanted from Bob Seger. Stevie admits she stole Little Red Corvette to write Stand Back. I have a master recording of her writing Prettiest Girl in the World right over the actual song, "My Name is Luca," which was a huge hit for another artist. Not hard for me to believe after all this time she could have easily stole parts of Sara from Carol Hinton. I cracked up when she said even if she lost the case she never would have given Carol a dime of the royalties. She claimed had that happened she would have paid out of her own pocket money. Yeah right! LOL

Don't forget writing She Still Loves Him over a Dire Straits song. (which she had to give proper credit for on 24k). And then there was the Tom musical track she wrote over and gave to FM until Tom called her out. I'd have to dig out my old LPs to check but I don't recall people like Mike Campbell being given public credit as cowriters on original releases of her albums (Whole Lotta Trouble, Imperial Hotel etc).

I believe the only thing Carol claimed was that she'd written the words to Sara, as a poem, and sent it to Stevie. There was no music to steal! :eek:

She has admitted over the years that her chord repertoire is incredibly limited... her music composing is not her strong suit.

BLY

01-26-2020, 07:26 AM

I Don't Want To Know is such a great rocking song. It's such a shame Stevie holds grudges for so long. That would be such a great song to sing live. The only live versions we have of that are from the pre FM tours.

IDWTK is the song that got me hooked to this band back in 1977. It’s always been in my top 5 of all time favorites.

On Ice

01-26-2020, 10:20 AM

I Don't Want to Know is easily one of the best songs she ever wrote and infinitely better than anything post Bella Donna. It would've worked well live in the early days for sure, but would've relied heavily on the background singers anytime post 78.

David

01-27-2020, 02:05 PM

There was some sort of news item in Rolling Stone in 1980 about the Sara lawsuit. I think Mo Ostin was quoted as saying, “The theory of this thing is bizarre. The idea that a record company could tell Stevie Nicks how to write a song is ridiculous.”

(A lot more ridiculous in 1980 than today, to be honest.)

elle

01-27-2020, 08:01 PM

I Don't Want to Know is easily one of the best songs she ever wrote and infinitely better than anything post Bella Donna. It would've worked well live in the early days for sure, but would've relied heavily on the background singers anytime post 78.

wasn't there speculation on here few months ago that maybe Stevie hates IDWK because she didn't really write it, that wording and phrasing sound very much like typical Lindsey. that maybe he wrote it and gave her the credit ssince it was replacing her song on the record.

jbrownsjr

01-27-2020, 08:06 PM

wasn't there speculation on here few months ago that maybe Stevie hates IDWK because she didn't really write it, that wording and phrasing sound very much like typical Lindsey. that maybe he wrote it and gave her the credit ssince it was replacing her song on the record.

It is the song that sounds least like hers.

ricohv

01-28-2020, 01:07 AM

Gawwwwwd I love this-thanks Viv! Takes me back to a different time in my fandom, a time I really miss!
Ricoh

vivfox

01-31-2020, 12:13 AM

There was some sort of news item in Rolling Stone in 1980 about the Sara lawsuit. I think Mo Ostin was quoted as saying, “The theory of this thing is bizarre. The idea that a record company could tell Stevie Nicks how to write a song is ridiculous.”

It wasn't Mo who made that quote. The actual quote was, "could you imagine Mo Ostin telling SN how to write songs?" And that was probably said by Rolling Stone's writer, I'd guess.

Netter75

02-01-2020, 09:34 PM

It is the song that sounds least like hers.

It's definitely not her style but I buy that it's her work. It sounds like she's trying to push her writing through the filter of "peppy little rock song you can dance to". Considering it was written VERY early in her career I'd imagine it was when she was still trying to find her niche and get her writing style down. "That's Alright" is super similar, I buy it's Stevie but it's Stevie pushed through the filter of country music.

Her song Angel is a better example of Stevie maintaining her style while accomplishing the peppy rock song vibe.

cbBen

02-01-2020, 10:59 PM

Odd the interviewer asked about "Julia." Was it in the original running order?

To my taste ""Garbo" and "Sleeping Angel" are better than much of what made the album, but I can understand why they wouldn't want to include tracks that are predominantly acoustic.

Macfan4life

02-02-2020, 07:30 AM

Thanks for posting these clips. I enjoyed the story about Kind of Woman the most. Its very similar in meaning as Silver Springs. She really wanted to haunt Lindsey her entire life and it looks like she has succeeded :eek:

How Still My Love is definitely sexy and also my favorite from Bella Donna. I wish she would have confirmed who it was about. The timeline suggests Mick but it really could be anyone.

She is really on top of her game here. Voice strong voice and very confident. Her writing was pure poetry for this album. Bella Donna could have been a double album it was so rich with material and players.

michelej1

02-11-2020, 05:13 PM

wasn't there speculation on here few months ago that maybe Stevie hates IDWK because she didn't really write it, that wording and phrasing sound very much like typical Lindsey. that maybe he wrote it and gave her the credit ssince it was replacing her song on the record.

He’s described it as a Stevie song before there ever was a Rumours.