Desert Angel
 

Ok....so what's wrong with this song that noone likes it? I think it blows away the other new songs she did for Timespace as well as BTM. I've been addicted to it the past week or so.

For me, its mostly the music - which I find bland and uninspired; I find that with alot of his tracks that Stevie used in the late 80's and 90's, despite him being a good musician.

I also think her voice could have been better.

All in all, I like the song and the "Where is my father . . . " lines are stunning and sung with great sentiment, but think her Klonopin side effects were apparent.

i just like the somberness of it. i'm weird that way. i love roy bittan's piano so that's a plus to me. but i think the klonopin was an advantage here because the song doesn't require that much effort vocally because of the tempo. The only exception being the "i send that to you too" and the ending when she belts out "operation desert shield!" et al...plus, for me, the music actually fits in with her style. she resorts to that 2 chord melody which
reminds me of "Dreams", main verses in "Sara" ("and he was just like...") and countless others.

i love that ending part. the back and forth of the "operation desert shield!" and the "ahhs" right along side it. i always loved her "ahs" and i think they're awesome in this song.

The music is very cheesy and I don't like her voice on it or the lyrics. Nice sentiment, but she loses me almost immediately. I reach for the earplugs when she starts screaming "Operation Desert Shield...Operation Desert Storm...Operation Desert Angel!" Blech. Give me LAHGTP anytime.

Yes, it does blow away the other songs she did for Timespace (which isn't saying much at all)...I've never heard any of the songs she did from Behind the Mask.

It's basically a really corny song. I just don't care for "rally the troops" songs in general, especially since the last 3 or 4 wars we've fought have been extremely misguided.

And yes, there's that hideous bellowing of "Operation Desert Shield! Operation Desert Storm!" towards the end.

At least she isn't Toby Keith. :)

i guess i'm just a BIG dork then.

i admit it, i'm not wild about Stevie's activism or her literal lyrics. It takes away from the mysterious quality. I think that when i listen to songs, it's more about the lead vocal over the background music. I'm bad with words today. But, in simpler terms, it's basically like you could hum the lead vocal and its those notes against the music that sucks me in.....or out.

So, she could be singing chinese during "operation desert shield" and i'd still like it.


hope that makes sense.

alright, c'mon, someone else has to like this song?!?!?

I don't agree that this song blows away the others she did for Timespace...but that's my opinion..

I personally find the song incredibly cheesy. I agree - nice sentiment..BUT it just does nothing for me...the lyrics aren't horrid - they just don't move me much...

I don't hate the song by any means - but I don't think it's one of her best...at all.

I love the entire song until this part - it almost sounds like a parody to me.

Here's my rank of the Timespace tunes:

1) Sometimes it's a Bitch (I really liked Bon Jovi in the 80's, so that must be it. Plus the vid is great - well, except for the hideous ghostly close-up at the beginning...)

2) Desert Angel

3) Love's a Hard...(never did anything for me)

Paula

I would be embarassed of a song like that.....especially since it is a tribute. I have never ever listened to it all the way through....it is that horrible.


-Curt

Gee...tell us how you really feel :laugh:


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I actually really like Sometimes it's a Bitch and can't understand why people hate that one....and I do really like Love's a Hard Game to Play....so....guess we all have our Timespace faves :D

Ok...I've listened to "Desert Angel" a couple times to refresh my memory. Stevie's heart was in the right place, but the lyrics and melody don't cut it for me.

What I really have an issue with is that Miss Nicks decided to put the song on her "Enchanted" box set. Aren't the songs supposed to be her best work? Putting "Desert Angel" on the tracklist is almost as bad as putting "Alice" on it.

(This sounds so mean-spirited once that I've posted it...I'm sure the song has a very special meaning to her.)

And just think, she excluded How Still My Love in favor of stuff like Desert Angel. :lol:

There must be something wrong with me as well, because I love the song! Always have and always will! OK, the fact that it is a tribute song does nothing for me, but I just love the flow of it, nice and mellow. And the backup vocals are really great, way out front in the mix, which I like a lot (Go Sharona and Lori!). My favorite part is at the end where she goes "ah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaah", such a cool Stevie-esque thing to do!

Rick

Watch it! Alice rocks! lol

I like "Desert Angel."
I don't love it, but I definitely like it.

I think the sparse instrumentation and Stevie's somber vocal fit the theme perfectly, and are very effective. I also like most of the lyrics (ok, maybe not "this is the first thing that I've written since I wrote about freedom," as much).

The bridge slays me... "Where is my father? Where has he gone? Where is my husband and where is my son?"
Great moment there.
But I've always cringed at the bellowing "Operation Desert Shield! Operation Desert Storm!" part.

I've actually made my own edit that omits those two lines, and that's the way I prefer to listen to "D.A." now.

IMHO, 'Enchanted' was already way too heavy on material from 'Bella Donna'... but I would have happily traded "The Highwayman" for "How Still My Love."

The biggest kick in the pants, for me, was that "Mirror, Mirror" and "Real Tears" weren't included.
I was also bummed that the "special remix" of "The Nightmare" was left off (and, while I'm at it, I would have preferred she used the unedited alternate version of "Rock A Little (Go Ahead Lily)," instead of the album version. I realize some people don't care for that song at all though... but, then, I don't really care. :p :laugh: ).

Agreed. :nod:

Disagreed. :laugh: I like Mirror Mirror, no matter how incomprehensible, but I can't stand Real Tears. That's one of her biggest dogs, thank god it wasn't on the Mirror album.

Agreed. :nod:

I'm glad "Desert Angel" was on Timespace. I remember being very upset when I first heard about the war at work (in a music store, coincidentally). It was a rush job, just as she wrote in the Timespace booklet, and I always looked behind the flaws at her intentions -- to let the soldiers know that she was praying for them and send them good wishes.

My favorite part of the song (musically and lyrically):

"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
You're on the other side of the world
In the desert..."

I agree the "Operation Desert Shield..." lines at the end are grating, but they're bursting with the emotion that everyone now complains that she's lost.

So, not one of my favorite songs, but I like it, I respect it, and overall I'm glad she released it. I've met a couple of Stevie fans who were in the Middle East at the time, and they all have said it was exactly what they needed to hear from their favorite artist and inspiration.

And I just have to wonder if she hadn't released it, and it had come to some of you fifteenth-generation on a demo compilation tape, what would you have said then? "Why didn't she release "Desert Angel" instead of XXX? Don't you think the soldiers in Iraq would have liked to hear it?!?!?!" :nod:

I love "Real Tears"... I think it's so beautiful. Great lyrics questioning her inability to face the present and stop living in the past (shades of "Ghosts")... with just the right doses of pragmatism and cryptic intrigue.

Plus, Stevie's vocal is very moving.

Oddly enough, my mother, the Lindsey fan, thinks "Real Tears" is one of Stevie's best songs (that, and "Illume," also oddly enough).

I second. I never listen to it. I think it's kinda terrible, terribly cheesy.

I love Desert Angel... and I like Sometimes It's a Bitch just a little less. The one I don't really care for and haven't since the beginning is Love's A Hard Game To Play... Vocally, I think she's using a way to low register in her voice.. and it sounds like it was hard to sing it.

Desert Angel to me is pretty dramatic and pretty sad - almost epic like and I love that constant beat running through out. Great ending too!!

The only one i can't stand on Timespace is Sometimes it's a Bitch (even if I like the video). Jon Bon Jovi shoud have put his dangerous pen down and opt for a new haircut THAT day, instead of thinking out tribute songs...

Romy

I've always liked the beginning of this song, but OMG it is sooooo cheesy at the Operation....whatever...
I actually bought Timespace for SIAB, I really do love the lyrics on that song (yes I know Stevie didn't write them) and quite frankly sometimes it IS a B*tch, actually today was a B*tch since I went job hunting and I HATE just dropping in on ppl...hmmm...must go play song...

Hmmn, I really like Sometimes It's A Bitch. And before I knew JBJ wrote it, I thought it fit stevie well. And sometimes it IS a bitch. And she has run through rainbows and castles of candy, and haven't we all cried a river of tears from the pain? :laugh: :wavey:

I LOVE Desert Angel but never ever listen to it because I never ever lsiten to Timespace. I also love SIAB, but mainly because I love hearing Stevie swear :laugh: and yes all 3 Timespace songs blow away her BTM songs.

.

i agree too.

What surprises me more it's the insane quantity of clichés he's been able to stuff in a single song. He could have gone for the world record... JMHO :D

Romy

I don't think it's tooo cliched, comparatively. At least she used different words in this song. She managed to avoid 'Angels', 'Destiny', 'Dreams' and several other words she usually repeats constantly. I dunno, a lot of people don't like that song, so... :shrug:

Desert Angel is OK. Like several people have said, I also like the "Where is my father..." part. I don't like the screaming "Operation Desert Sheild.....etc." part, but the part that I really disklike is the last "Just the faces of YOoouUUuu" part. Whoever was in the studio when she sang that "you" part should have said, "Oh no, we have to do that over".

reply
 

I love this song! I just think its catchy. I am more into the music than the lyrics.

As for enchanted- On the first disk alone its all Bella Donna and Wild Heart. I think theres like 6 from RAL. ONLY 4 FROM OSOTM! BLAH!!!!!!!!

BUT Anyway, i do like the song.


Jimmy

I like this song too. The ending does get annoying though.
I really really can't stand Sometimes It's A Bitch. What a bad song!

:laugh: i'm so glad someone caught this. i was going to say the same thing but didn't think anyone would know what i was talking about. that IS one part i don't like. her pitch is fluctuating a bit. that's the klonopin right there.

i am so baffled that everyone hates the ending. am completely clueless. see, i love when she gets emotional like that and belts **** out. i fail to see what you guys see. then again, i can't stand LAHGTP. never liked it, never will. talk about cheesy? yuck.

however, i am perplexed about "how still my love" not being on the box set. i mean that used to be a concert staple. i'd rather have that than "desert angel."

In general, I love it when she belts it out too, but it's this lyric I can't get past. Too literal. What's next...

"Mount Saint Helens Erupts!"

"Operation Iraqi freedom!"

"Martha Stewart's in jail!"

No thanks. :p

Paula[/QUOTE]

Ditto for the "bridge" (Where is my father? etc.) being the highlight of the tune. The best thing about Timespace were the liner notes. Sometimes I think that they are the closest thing we're EVER going to get to an autobiography. I remember how amazed I was that she formally, in print, owned up to her Joe/Mick things...

so, the best thing about timespace wasn't all the good songs in one place? ah, but i suppose you already had that... :D Hi, Celeste :wavey:

:laugh: :laugh:
Omigod, thank you, I couldn't express what i didn't like, except to say "too cheesy" but that's exactly it. And i think i never like when stevie does that! "Well, i talked to my famous friend last night" I like the song ok, but i hate that part... :wavey:

Yes!! I love this song! You listed my favorite part. Yeah, the end is a little overbearing, but so what- it's a Stevie Nicks song fer chrissake. "Love's A Hard Game to Play" is the REAL Klonopin stinker on this album.

You know that **** f*cked her up bad if she had poor enough judgement to work with Bret Michaels from Poison!! :eek: What's up with that?!?

The piano part is by her co-writer Benmont Tench.

i love you (the) tower. ;)

you saved me from being the only "loser" around here.

It's stunning. :nod: