Destiny Rules
 

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

I've been listening to this song a lot and I've realized that I have absolutely no idea what she's talking about here, and I was wondering if it's some huge event that everyone knows about but me. Do y'all know what this part of the song is referring to?

I really like the song, but you quoted my least favorite part, dear. :laugh: That line about the language drives me mad, as does "That that." I always sing "That it." :laugh:

I think I know what it's about... if ya know what I mean. "Alone and foolish?" Yeah, fling'D.

No, I don't know what you mean LOL ;)

Her and Lindsey being alone together and able to be together... I don't know if it is biographical or just a fantasy... But that is what I would picture.

My favorite line is "sometimes I walk by and I look up to your balcony just to make sure that you were real, just to make sure that I can still feel you".

On this one I see Stevie walking the grounds of some old Italian Inn and looking up at Lindsey's room to try and catch a peak of him... I get a European feel in that line for some reason....

Speaking of Europe, I always get a European castle feel when I hear the line "she's back on that staircase on the way up to her place" from I Miss You, it's weird!

Yeah, I figured it was that, but I was wondering if it's based on some specific trip or something. Or a tour? Or if perhaps the whole thing was symbolic and had nothing to do with a foreign country.
Yeah. :nod: That's one of my fave parts, too.

I'm pretty sure it was a real trip. The lyrics are too specific not to be, IMO. :)

Yeah, I always thought it was referring to a time they were on tour together, but now that I really think about it, there wasn't really a six-week leg of a tour that this would refer to. Hmm. Maybe it was a premonition of the SYW tour... :D I still think it's about her and Lindsey being able to be together - away from the States and Kristen - maybe it's part fantasy. The "that that" has never bothered me. "I always knew that [the time in the foreign country] would be the only time that we could be alone and foolish."

Didn't they go to Europe for a few weeks in 98 to get awards or recognition after the Dance tour?

Weren't they on British TV and German TV in 98? :shrug:

yes - and that is what many believe the six weeks refers to. Some instead believe the six weeks in a foreign country is a metaphor for a short time in a strange relationship that neither of them understood hence did not speak the lang. but somehow I knew.

In any event, I think DR is very much about LB and SN's relationship, whatever it was, during The Dance and Enchanted eras.

Interesting ;)

I think that the song is somehow about Joe Walsh. I think that she did go on some part of one of his tours but I do not know the when or the where of it all. I know that he did open up for her on the WH tour but I don't know the exact dates and if they tour outside the US.

Linds
 

I think this song is about Linds. It seems to fit with the theme of alot of her TISL and SYW songs and could be about the Dance/Enchanted era. The "six week" line seems pretty specific to me, as if they actually went away to a foreign country. It also could be a metaphor for a brief period of time in the relationship but I do not think so.

As for Joe..I would think it was very unusual if Stevie sat down and wrote a song about him like that in 2001. That is not her normal MO with anyone other than Linds as she romanticizes that specific relationship in her mind.

BTW..live Stevie really try to sell this song and I wish they would have kept it.

She certainly did - esp. in Madison, WI - all those hey hey hay yea's at the end and her obviously heightened animation while performing it. I am not a huge fan on the song, but I realy enjoyed it live because of that - I am glad others noticed too :cool:

I love the studio version, but not a big fan of the live one. It didn't have the ump it needed to be a live song.

That tour was June 21 to Nov. 24, all in the United States. Stevie & Joe dated pretty solidly all the way through it, I assume. She says she was in love with him, & I don't know what he felt for her.

I don't know, but I tend to think that we would think it unusual for Stevie to write a new song about an older relationship with anyone other than Lindsey, but I have a feeling it happens more often than not.

I believe there are also many instances where Stevie's singing about several different relationships, and the "running themes" throughout them. Relating to us a pattern with her men and her relationships with them.

I loved it live. Now whenever I listen to the studio version I feel dissapointed when I don't hear the hey hey yeas. It was one of the high points for me in Champaign. I wish they would have kept it :(

Ah! I was about to ask if anyone else feels this song could be about Joe, because that's what I've always thought. The way Stevie has talked about him, I have to wonder if she feels they are estranged soulmates to this day.

I KNEW I had heard about some time that they had spent in Europe together! I think, like Thrown Down, this song is a fairly literal narrative (not my words - Lindsey's (or a reasonable paraphrasing of)). The theory of the metaphor is interesting, too. I always read the sentence as "I didn't speak the language, but somehow I knew that this would be the only time that we could be alone and foolish." No stop after "somehow I knew." Hmmm. Interesting.

writings..
 

You could be right, Le Stew but I still am not convinced. I just cannot think of one example of a "new" song where Stevie has said is about a relationship from long ago. With the exception of her demos that she busts out twenty years after she writes them and perhaps reworks. Take the four SYW songs for example. She wrote them in January 2002 according to the documentary. SYW the song..she said was partially about Lindsey, also inspired by the trumpeteer and written as homage in its STYLE to Christine. DR...I think is about Linds but who knows. Illume..written about something that happened recently in her life taken from more recent journal entries. Silver Girl..written about Sheryl, someone whom she just worked very closely with for two years on Tisl, they toured together and she admits is now a close friend. I would be very interested to hear what songs you might think she has written about an OLD relationship because this does interest me. I think some people have the impression she breaks out journals from fifteen years ago and takes certain lyrics from them for newer songs. I just don't buy that as she has admitted she doesn't even know where alot of her old journals are..plus it makes no sense. Most people are inspired by what is going on around them at the time. he seems to be like that too. She wrote alot of fab songs on the Dance tour, because she was particularly inspired on that tour for some reason. She wrote a beautiful song, IMO after 9/11 because the event inspired her. It's sort of a fascinating topic for me...I like to "try" and understand her writing. (although I might be failing miserably at it)

I do agree that many of her songs are about multiple people as I think Storms and Sara are. I also do not think most of her songs are about Lindsey but I think she writes about him alot as he is sort of her muse. While I do not think DR is about Joe Walsh..Stevie has written some beautiful songs that I think ARE about him. I just think she wrote them back in the eighties. (Stevie has said a few interesting things with regards to her feelings for Joe but those things have changed dramatically over the years. I think Joe is one of those relationships where Stevie was dumped..I know the "f you walk out its over" story...but overall I think Joe distanced himself and walked away from that relationshiip. So, for basically the first time Stevie is the one who has been left....I am not sure he loved her like she loved him. Joe is a man I think Stevie loved madly but I am not sure the feeling was mutual. That is why I think she looks back on the relationship with conflicted and unresolved feelings. She said he was the one who "broke her heart the most"...that is new for Stevie as she is the one who usually breaks the man's heart. Gosh.. this was a long rant..sorry for blabbing on and on.

Interestingly, while she "wrote" the four new songs for SYW then, she could have used prose written much earlier. She could have written it then and never used it. OR - she could have analogized a past event to the newer one and used her journal entries about the prior event. I think think is what she refers to when she says that when she writes, she goes back through her jounrals and pulls lines. So, in the end, though the song may be written in say 2002, some or all of all of the actual lines could have been written over the last 30 or so years and be about someone else than the current project in which she made them fit.

She has said that he was her soulmate and that she would have given up her career for him. He seemed not to take their relationship too seriously from what Stevie has said. It does seem like Joe ended the whole thing in an odd way. However, has anyone ever heard the song "Dear John" from Joe's Confessor album? It sounds like Stevie might have ended the relationship on her end. I really am not familiar with Joe's writing style so I don't know how to interpret his lyrics but the song is intriguing. The person who wrote him the letter writes songs. It just sounds like it has to be about Stevie. He even thanked Stevie in the liner notes of the album.
Here are the lyrics:

“Dear John” by Joe Walsh


I started out to write you this letter,

But it ended up another song.

I am sorry that the news can’t be better, dear John.

When we started out I thought we were different,

We ended up exactly the same.

So in order to protect the innocent,

The names have been changed.

I just got to get back to my music, to my music.

And I know that we both promised forever,

Forever didn’t last that long.

Maybe someday I will write you a letter,

Until then at least I wrote you this song, dear John.

I just got to get back my music, and all the things that go along with the job.


And lying in bed with the room spinning round,

It’s the price that you pay when you’re on the way down,

It’s the price that you pay.

Sincerely yours...




I think that alot went on in this relationship and maybe somethings that we don't know about. I think while this might not have been one of Stevie's longest affairs that it might have been one of her most deepest, intense ones. I do not think that every song has something to do with Lindsey. As for the 6 six weeks in a foreign country line, I seem to remember Stevie saying that she had gone to Chile back in the 80s but I don't know for what reason, when, and for how long. She might have gone anywhere with anyone that we don't know about. Just a thought.

Kelly, it's like you're living in my head. :shocked: