Call Me
 

Did you guys know that the famous Blondie song "Call Me" was originally offered to Stevie Nicks? I heard on some tv or radio show once that Stevie turned it down and Debbie Harry took it on but only if she could rewrite the lyrics. I really can't imagine Stevie doing Call Me, but it would be pretty neat to hear the demo that was offered to her, or if she ever tried her hand at a demo before turning it down.

Anyone know any other secrets about this Stevie Nicks/Geogio Morodor match up that was never meant to be?

Oy. It was not. :cool:

The track never had any lyrics to it or anything but a crude synth track to it, and it was originally titled "Monster Man" by Moroder.

I predict Diss will chime in here, and say it was not offered to la nicks, that debbie harry wrote it, etc.

Amber "psychic" G.
Edit - ha, he even beat me! :laugh:

A few seconds late, my dear. :laugh:

I first read that the instrumental track for what became "Call Me" was originally offered to Stevie, in one of Fred Bronson's "Billboard's Top Hits" books, published about 17 years ago.

Dissy says it's not true though, so.... :shrug:

No offense to Stevie, but I'm glad Debbie got it. I don't want to picture anybody else doing that song.

Because there really was no instrumental track to begin with. The only thing that was composed when Moroder teamed with Blondie was the synth line that's in the song (called "Monster Man"). Debbie wrote the lyrics and the melody, and the band basically composed everything but the synth. I think the whole "being offered to Stevie Nicks" story is kind of exaggerated. If she was ever offered anything, it surely wasn't "Call Me".

Wait, not that I don't believe you, but where did you get this info?

You just don't want to think that Debbie might have gotten Stevie's sloppy seconds. ;) :laugh:

Seriously though, you're right in that saying Stevie was originally offered "Call Me" is a misrepresentation, because people are then going to assume she was offered the completed song, just as they know it. Which isn't true, obviously.

I have wondered though, if Stevie was offered a more finished demo (sans lyrics)... the "guts" of which were then removed, when it was presented to Blondie, who obviously had a different musical style.

Giorgio Moroder typically offered fully formed demos to the vocalists he wished to work with. The nature of his collaboration with Blondie seems to be a rare occurrence. The only other person I can think of that worked with Moroder so closely, to write a song from the ground up, was Freddie Mercury.

Because I'm superfan. :laugh:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

There's plenty of info in that book, it's massive.

But, I mean, is that book the last word in the truth?

Fech, I have nothing to worry about. I can just imagine Stevie failing miserably when trying to pull off Call Me in the key it's sung in. :p

Honestly, I'd kinda like to hear Stevie sing it once.

I doubt it, because Debbie has said that the only thing she was ever sent or heard before agreeing to it was the "Monster Man" tape. I'd imagine that if Moroder had more to it, they would have at least heard it.

Well, yeah, they're full interviews with Debbie and the band. I posted quotes a long while back when we discussed it before.

Ah, the idea of Stevie failing miserably... these are the things that keep you waking up in the morning. ;)

I think Stevie would have rocked that song back in '80/'81, though she definitely would have approached it differently.

Maybe there's a Blondie conspiracy like the FM one and they're all lying?

Well, Whenever I Call You Friend is, I believe, higher than Call Me :shrug: and even if it is not , she soars in that as she did in all of BD, Mirage, and WH. So, I think she could have done it justice.

So, it's Debbie's memory of what happened and how it went. That should be pretty accurate.... :shrug: you never know, though.

As opposed to no acknowledgement of the "Call Me" claims by Moroder or Stevie...

right. I meant what I said, that it's probably reliable, a-monkey. ;)

to be fair - most artists who are offered something and reject it rarely ever say that out of respect for the person who is second. But, I agree and think La Nicks, while possinbly considered for the theme song in the initial process, was not in the end running for it.

Can anyone honestly say that Stevie would have been a good match, or would even have accepted, for an offer to write a song dealing with prostitution? :laugh: That's what I've always found hilarious, personally. It would sort of be like Rosemary Clooney singing about heroin.

Well, the lyrics had not been written. So, it would have neem more likely that Iovine would have proffered a complted Nicks song like in the other movies. I mean Violet and Blue could have worked with a little tweaking.

It would have been all sappy, about the loneliness ( :rolleyes: ) of a male prostitute, and it would have been clothed in such imagery as to render the meaning, and the relevance to the movie, nonexistent. :)

Honey, do you really think Stevie would give a song she wrote to be used for the theme in a movie all about a gigolo? I think not.

:laugh:

I can just imagine. Richard Gere is standing there with his dingle out, Lauren Hutton is on her back with her breasts in full view of the camera, and Stevie is in the background singing "She was a silver girl..."

:laugh:
"he was a silver boy...caught in a gigolo world...." :rolleyes:

Well, Fast Times at Ridgement High was about teenage sex and abortion :shrug:

Meh, sorry, we'll have to agree to disagree. The day Stevie writes a theme song to a movie about male prostitution is the day that Jagger's lips shrink.

OMG. :lol::lol::lol:

Well, that is just it. She would not write it about that. They would just use it for it, just like they did for those other movies.

Speaking of "Blue Lamp," 'Heavy Metal' was filled with violence, sex, nudity and drug use, and she had a tune on that soundtrack. :shrug:

They wouldn't use it at all, then (and she wasn't even a solo artist yet). The only two songs used that aren't instrumental are "Call Me" and Cheryl Barnes' "Love and Passion"; two sexy songs. I think she would have been quite out of place when you take into consideration that doesn't like to write about sexual things.

I never even watched that crap film in it's entirety. That thing is atrocious. The animation is beyond bad.

Whenever I Call You Friend #5 1978 :shrug:

Moreover, AG was released in 1980 and they used La Nicks in Heavy Metal in 1981 and FTARH in 1982. So, its not that far of a stretch, esp. considering much of BD had already been written and demo's years before then :shrug:

What's your point? I've already said that I don't believe that she would have ever written a song specifically to be used as the theme to such a movie and I'm not about to change my mind. If you disagree, so be it.

That was in response to your also incorrect statement ". . . and she wasn't even a solo artist yet" :wavey:\

and another thing :laugh: -- you also commented that they would not have used a song she had already written but not for that movie, which is different than you saying "I've already said that I don't believe that she would have ever written a song specifically to be used as the theme to such a movie," which I tend to agree with if for nothing other than she did not really write a song for a movie until like 1994 - they just used the stuff she left off of her records.

She wasn't. WICYF was a Kenny Loggins tune and Bella Donna wasn't recorded until 1980. The Gigolo soundtrack was put together and recorded before that time. She may have been planning a solo career, but she hadn't yet begun to embark on it. :shrug:

WICYA charted in 1978 :wavey: and correct me if I am wring Iovine produced it and no other member of FM played on it - thus indicating she was solo on it. Interestingly, during that time period she and LB often worked together on various solo stuff like Magnet and Steel, which was all sep. from FM. So, to say she was not emerging as a solo act until BD is incorrect.

They wouldn't have used a song she had already written, imo. What would have fit the movie? I can think of nothing. She doesn't write sexual songs, never has.