Rhiannon Demo
 

I just "came across" what is titled as a demo of Rhiannon which has quite a bit of talking in the beginning.....with just piano....I didn't quite get the whole line but she is talking about finishing the song then she goes on to "ask" Lindsey if he likes the name Rhiannon...then she sings....does anyone know anything about this talking demo????

Thanks!!!

Yes - this is a great song! She is speaking to Richard Dashut and Lindsey while recording the song. I don't know the date on it, however.

Ahhh... Thank you mad4Stevie... I wondered who the Richard was - you'd think I would've figured it out. I'd thought it pre-dated 1975, but then of course they knew (indeed lived with) Richard well before then.

And I always thought she was talking to herself at home ... :shrug: I guess not.

I think she is talking to herself (while recording the demo alone for Richard and Lindsey to listen to later) however, I always found it odd when she says:

"Lindsey, don't you think Rhiannon is a beautiful name?"

and then she says softly, as if mimicking his reply:

"Yes, Stevie, I do, I think Rhiannon is a beautiful name."

All the stuff she says about birds rising is just notes for Richard to think about when listening to the song, I think.

I seem to remember and article perhaps in Rolling Stone where Stevie talks about FM going to or thinking about going to a park and recording the sound of birds rising (the quick flapping noise) for the song, but it never made the recording, etc. I think the sound she was going for is represented by Mick's brief cymbal 1/16 note thing at the very beginning of the song, which can really be heard on the single version of Rhiannon on the VBOFM CD.

Re: Rhiannon Demo
 

Yeah, she sounds nutters on this demo. She asks Lindsey if he liked the name Rhiannon and then she answers for him like, "Yes Stevie, I think Rhiannon is a beautiful name." Kooky, but also pretty funny IMO. She must have been high or exhausted or both!

Wow, that's really insightful Strand. Thanks for pointing that out.

I thought the Richard was Richard Dashut.....she does sound quite stoned, and the whole thing is really odd. I was like "what the hell?" when I started listening to it. Sometimes I will hear things like this and think "man...she is so crazy". I wonder if she heard it now what she would think of it herself......

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback!!!!

Was Lindsey there? Or was Stevie talking to herself? I know she's said that she asked Lindsey about the name Rhiannon and he did say it was beautiful, so was she just chatting away with herself on tape, "reliving" the convo btwn her and Lindsey? Or is she just crazy? LOL

I think she was just chatting with herself......all stoned carrying on a 3 person conversation with herself complete with responses from Lindsay....poor crazy girl

Hmmm - I didn't really get that vibe at all when I heard it. It sounded like she was just playing and Richard Dashut and LB might have been in the sound room or something. The reason I think this is because after she talks about "going to the park and recording the sound of birds rising, you know, the rustling" . . . "its really important" . . . "ok?" That made it sound to me like she was waiting for Richard to acknowledge what she was saying with a nod or something. It just made me think that the beginning she was playing for them to get the sound stuff right and then she started. But that is just my opinion.

That's my favorite Rhiannon demo.
 

This is the demo where she says to Richard (sort of, as I'll explain) that they need to "go to the park to record the sound of birds writhing...you know, writhing in the trees" or something close to that - the first time I heard it I thought she might be saying "rising" but "writhing" makes more Stevie sense and is what it sounds like. Then she has the Lindsey lines somebody here quoted about the name Rhiannon.

I believe she is NOT really talking to herself or to the guys.
Rather, it sounds like she is adding a talking verse to the start of the song, a verse that refers to/quotes older conversations with each guy. It is not a real conversation where she's stoned, but rather quotes from older conversations that she is repeating slowly to set to the rhythm of the song. Because of this intentionally odd speech pattern, it does sound like stoned talking if you believe it to be one real conversation in real time, but like I said, I don't. I hope this makes sense.

- Jake

Re: That's my favorite Rhiannon demo.
 

What exactly is "Stevie Sense?" I think we on The Ledge, in order to understand her better, MUST take "Stevie Sense 101"-- LOL!!! Thanks for the insight!

Re: Re: That's my favorite Rhiannon demo.
 

This took some work, but I tracked down the catalog for USL, the University of Shangri-la. Here are the requirements for mastering different levels of Stevie Sensibility:

B.A. (Bachelor of aaaaAAAAAh) - Be able to understand the vocals of the SYW Smile at You chorus on the first listen.

M.S. (Master of the Sorcerer) - Recognize patterns in lyrics such as the words moon, crystal, fire, etc. Recognize subtle lyric changes between demos, studio versions, and live performances. Demonstrate foreign language proficiency in deciphering poorly recorded demos from the cocaine years.

Ph.D. (Philosopher of the Docklands) - Prove to a committee of Stevie's critical ex-producers that you are so in tune with her lyrics that you can theorize on deeper meanings of lyrics such as telephone, chimpanzee, and laundromat.

You are a Stevie Sense Zen Master Kabbalist if you can make sense of Stevie's lyrics in Mirage concert SOTM and the Rock a Little album's The Nightmare.

Please send me cash or front row concert tix to enroll in university courses. (I am an Honorary Trustee.)
Credits earned from Jonathon Todd (Lack of) Community College will NOT transfer. However, you may qualify for a grant to study abroad in Emmiline.:cool:

- ZenJake, PhD

:laugh: THAT is awesome :)

Re: Re: Re: That's my favorite Rhiannon demo.
 

LMAO!! So true, so true....

Yeah, considering what a weird song The Nightmare is, I haven't seen it mentioned on The Ledge very much. It's what Stevie would call her "serious statement" on the album, meaning people will really scratch their heads.

- Jake

:wavey:

The first time i heard this demo...i laughed so hard:lol: I couldn't handle it!!! I was going to make a post about this the other day, and ask when the demo was made:nod:

Jen~*:D

:wavey: "Hi Jen!"


I still want to hear that demo sooo..bad!:laugh: It's so awesome how I can like finally relate to a music artist! I mean, I can relate to like Cyndi Lauper, Cher, and some other people but since Stevie and I are both Geminis--We are like totally connected! I love her soooo..much! I can't wait to one day possibly make a song and sing it with her!:blob2:


~*~*KIM*~*~

Hi, Kim. I have this song and can email it to you if you want!

:D Hey! Ya, that would be great if you could email that to me! I'm not sure if my friend, Jen, was recording it for me but the more copies if it that i have, the better!:nod: Thankys! ;)

~*~*KIM*~*~

Cool! What email address would you like this to be sent to?

:thumbsup: :blob1: :blob2: Send it to: [email protected]


```*Thanks a bunch a hunch*```

~*~*KIM*~*~:wavey:

I believe its known as the "talking piano demo" if Im not mistaken.

I just got in a crisp and great 1978 3 track CD with Stevie doing 3 versions of Rhiannon / different mixes. Great, crystal clear and awesome seeing she was putting this earlier song onto reel to reel in 78.

Before you call her crazy, stop and think......

This has always been my take on this particular version: I don't believe it to be a writing demo, but a recording (done during the recording of the white album) of one of the many, many times I'm sure Stevie has sat alone and played Rhiannon. To me, it seems that she was frustrated and hurt that her song perhaps had not taken the direction she had hoped it would, and that she is saying things she actually said to Lindsey and Richard along with the replies she would have *liked* to hear as opposed to what she probably got. I mean, he seems a different man now, but can you imagine Lindsey at that time agreeing that Rhiannon was the most beautiful name he'd ever heard even though it touched Stevie so deeply? Though it did turn out to be a masterpiece, Stevie has illuded to it being taken in a more "commercial", perhaps, direction than was her vision. It upsets me to see people be so critical of something that was clearly painful for her.

I like all the explanations I've seen in this thread, but I think the fact is, Stevie was really stoned and/or drunk. We all know she's spent a lot of her life like that, I mean eventually she had to go to Betty Ford, correct?

But she's a rock star...:cool:

Correct. Then she went back in later on to get off of Klonopin. First it was coke and booze if Im not mistaken. Im happy she got cleaned up. Tho my personal opinion is a little joint doesnt hurt now and again, coke will steal your soul away and Im glad Ive stayed far away from that. I feel she looks great nowadays!

To my recollection, Stevie has never been in rehab for booze. In fact , i have read a couple of interviews where she says the first rehab was explicitly for Coke and the second for Klonopin. She then said she never had a problem with booze.

She did call them her "coke and brandy" days, though. :laugh:

:laugh: I esp. love the stories about how she would drink Brandy (perhaps out of the bottle) while recording in the studio at night. :laugh:

I know! LOL!

And she would complain about her throat being sore and rough. :rolleyes:

She might as well have gargled with Clorox and shards of glass.

:laugh:

And . . . they have the Wild Heart stuff taped (some of it was shown of her BTM. I would love to see the stuff they cut!!!!!!!

Ick! I have quite a few outtakes from the Wild Heart sessions and they aren't pretty. In particular, I have an outtake of "If Anyone Falls" and, whoa, she sounds awful. If someone were to hear it, they would think it was a bad karaoke performance from the Night of 1000 Stevie's. Woof.

On one outtake for Sable On Blonde, she actually does sound like she drank a case of brandy. Or it could be Reagan from the Exorcist...

"Damie, why you do this to me?"

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

HHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAAAAA!

Well, I just about peed myself reading that one (and Jake's Stevie school, LOL!)

Anyway, I think it's her alone, she sounds pretty spacey. I also think it's a later recording - her vocals (talking and singing) are too deep for it to be 1975, IMO. There's not a single high note on that demo, like there is on early SOTM and Silver Springs demos. I'm thinking Rumours era at the earliest, Mirage at the very latest.

Paula

Paula