Stand Back & Little Red Corvette
 

Ok... so me and my friend Matt went to this bar in NYC the other night... we were hanging out and we happened to bump into this guy who was a huge Stevie fan... so, we get to talking and he starts telling us this story about Prince's "Little Red Corvette" and the reason why Stevie wrote "Stand Back"...

He said that he heard from an inside source that Prince wrote "Little Red Corvette" about Stevie Nicks.. He said when Stevie heard about it, she listened to it and was inspired to write "Stand Back" as a response to Prince..

Basically Prince wanted to be with Stevie but she wasn't really interested in him...

I was fascinated while he was telling me all of this, because I had never heard anything like that before.. it may be true or it may not be... but i found it pretty interesting nonetheless..

The story about how Stevie was supposedly inspired to write "Stand Back" was that she was getting married that day, and was in a car and heard "Little Red Corvette" on the radio.. she liked it so much and developed this story line in her head about a ficticious relationship and arguement.. and then she called Prince and he just came over right away and played keyboards on it, then disappeared.. but like many things that comes out of Ms. Nicks' mouth, take that with a grain of salt...

Anyhoo... here are lyrics to both "Little Red Corvette" and "Stand Back"... you can all draw your own conclusions... ;)


Little Red Corvette

I guess I should’ve known by the way you parked your car
sideways that it wouldn't last
See, You're the kinda person that believes in makin' out once
Love 'em and leave 'em fast
I guess I must be dumb cuz you had a pocket full of horses
Trojan and some of them used
But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right
And you say - "What have I got to lose?"

And honey, I say Little Red Corvette
Baby, you're much too fast (Oh)
Little Red Corvette
You need a love that's gonna last

I guess I should've closed my eyes when you drove
me to the place where your horses run free
Cuz I felt a little ill when I saw all the pictures
Of the jockeys that were there before me
Believe it or not, I started to worry
I wondered if I had enough class
But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right
And you say - "Baby, have you got enough gas?"
Oh yeah!

Little Red Corvette
Baby, you're much too fast (Yes you are)
Little Red Corvette
You need to find a love that's gonna last (Oh, oh)

A body like yours oughta be in jail
Cuz it's on the verge of bein' obscene
Move over, baby, gimme the keys
I'm gonna try to tame your little red love machine

Little Red Corvette
Baby, you're much too fast
Little Red Corvette
Need to find a love that's gonna last, hey hey

Little Red Corvette
Honey, you got to slow down (Got to slow down)
Little Red Corvette
Cuz if you don't, you’re gonna run your little red corvette
right in the ground
(Little Red Corvette)
Right down to the ground (Honey, you got to slow down)
you, you, you got to slow down
(Little Red Corvette)
You're movin' much too fast, too fast
Need to find a love that's gonna last!

Girl, you got an ass like I never seen, ow!
And the ride...
I say the ride is so smooth, you must be a limousine

Ow!
Baby, you're much too fast
Little Red Corvette
You need a love, you need a love that's, uh, that's gonna last
(Little Red Corvette)
Babe, you got to slow down (You got to slow down)
Little Red Corvette
Cuz if you don't, cuz if you don't
You’re gonna run your body right into the ground
(Right into the ground)
Right into the ground (Right into the ground)
Right into the ground (Right into the ground)

Little Red Corvette, oh


Stand Back

No one looked...as I walked by
Just an invitation would have been just fine
Said no to him...again and again
First he took my heart...then he ran

No one knows how I feel
What I say unless you read between my lines
One man walked away from me
First he took my hand...take me home

Stand back...stand back
In the middle of my room
I did not hear from you
It's alright...it's alright
To be standing in a line
(Standing in a line)
I would cry...

Do not turn away my friend
Like a willow I can bend
No man calls my name
No man came

So I walked on down away from you
Maybe your attention was more
Than you could do
One man did not call
He asked me for my love
And that was all

Stand back...stand back
In the middle of my room
I did not hear from you
It's alright...it's alright
To be standing in a line
(Standing in a line)
(Standing in a line)

So I walked on down the line
Away from you
Maybe your attention was more
Than I could do
One man...did not call
Well he asked me for my love
That was all

Every time some1 types like this on the internet, Prince's influence is apparent. He wrote like this be4 any1 else ever did.

shush... that wasn't me who typed it.. I just copied and pasted it from a website.. i will fix it for you dear, mmk? :)

:laugh:

I know you didn't, I have the lyrics somewhere and they're typed like that, too. :laugh: It has always driven me BONKERS. That and "Sk8er Boi." Crikey.

I don't think Little Red Corvette is about Stevie. However, since I don't know anyone on the inside I could never say for sure. It just sounds too randy for Stevie!

I think they're both kick ass songs and no one (besides Prince and Stevie) will ever really know what they are about and what was going through their respective heads at the time. :wavey:

that is fascinating. or course, whenever anyone has a new interpretation of a song it fits perfectly...but we'll never know...and about being too randy for stevie...i dunno, she was pretty...um...out there in those days so who knows...think of the legend behind 'sister honey'

Prince- Another great musician from Minnesota :) Hey we may be flyover land here, but occasionally we put out something good. :laugh:

I find it highly unlikely that Prince wrote Little Red Corvette about Stevie...no way.
I didn't even think they had met prior to her calling him to play on SB. The story about her writing Stand Back after hearing LTC however is true, or at least that's how she's told it. I've heard her tell that story many times of driving up PCH with Kim and hearing it and writing SB . What's funny is that when she tells the story (i.e. Storytellers) she says how he walked out of her life and never came back in yet we've all heard the story of how she was sick and he brought cough medicine to her room (I think that's the story but correct me if I'm wrong) and there's also the story of her being on drugs and falling down stairs and him being there and being really mad or something?
Also, when did they get together and record All Over You?

Enough of my rant. Interesting thing though I've always considered SB and LRC to be 2 of my favorite songs of all time so when I found out one was inspired by the other it blew my mind!! How cool is that?

Exactly... the timeframe on all of this is foggy, much like Stevie's memory :angel:

Like I said, it may not be true at all... but doesn't it seem odd that Stevie would just call prince on the phone and be like "hey i wrote this song, come over and play keyboards for me"... It's not as if they knew each other already.. or did they? ;)

and where did "All Over You" come from and when? :shrug:

"It's how he feels. . . ."
 

For some reason this has never occurred to me before but -
is it possible that Stevie wrote "Stand Back" out of anger?
She tells a story of being on her honeymoon and
hearing a song on the radio and saying, "I have GOT to have a
COPY of this! :) :nod:" but it's suddenly very easy to
picture Stevie yelling, "PULL OFF THE HIGHWAY! NOW!
Take me to a RECORD STORE!" - Going into the store, buying the
cassette, getting in the car - SLAMMING it in to the cassette
player - hearing it again - and just FUMING about it in the back
of her mind. . . . After comparing the two songs it really does
seem to me to be a "return shot" fired back at him.

B T W you don't need an "inside source" to learn this -
it's ALL over the place!
( inherownwords.com , I believe, just for example - not sure though )
Anyway it was nice of him to write the keyboard part for her.
I've actually wondered if he did that as a return favor for all the
dove imagery he used.

the thought of prince thinking of stevie
in a sexual way is nauseating
stand back indeed!

o
m
g


:shocked: :laugh:

Prince was considered to be "The Bomb" back then. . . .
Like Stephen King said, "Places CHANGE. LIKE PEOPLE."
He also was one of the very best dancers in the world -
check out the actual video for L.R.C.
So it wouldn't surprise me if she was at least vaguely interested
in him. I have the impression they ended up becoming friends.

and check out what i wrote: "the thought of him thinking about her.."

anyways...this is listed in songfacts:

Prince got the idea for this when he dozed off in backup singer Lisa Coleman's pink Edsel after an exhausting all night recording session. The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces during this and other catnaps. Eventually he was able to finish it without sleeping.

Stevie Nicks got the idea for "Stand Back" from this. She heard it in her car, drove to recording studio, and put down some tracks. Prince came in and added the keyboard bit.

Never trust a man who writes about killer clowns and adolescent orgies in the same novel.

I do, too. Prince was surrounded by beautiful women -- his band, his entourage, his groupies. They were all photographed together in Creem & Hit Parader all the time. Prince was always over-the-top sexual. It doesn't seem Stevie's thing. The words to "Corvette" are pretty sizzly & the metaphors are blatant & sexual.
Yeah. She must have heard the song hundreds of times back then because it was such a huge hit. So it probably came on the radio while she was in the car with husband & that's when the idea occurs to her to write a song that uses that same chord progression -- which is essentially what "Stand Back" does through all the verses.

As far as asking Prince to lay down tracks, I think Stevie wanted "Stand Back" to be a great dance song -- her first, really -- so Prince was a logical choice to help her out. And the two keyboard parts that he put on "Stand Back" are really very typical of dance/techno music at the time: the 16th-note synth bass & the alternating octave. You could actually put those patterns on several Stevie songs that came later on Rock A Little & Other Side Of The Mirror. Like a slap bass, they give a song a little funk, a little groove, & it seems to me that this is exactly what she wanted "Stand Back" to be.
The Prince fans actually think that they didn't. It's an ongoing debate among Prince & Stevie Nicks fans.

Actually I believe the part about her calling him and him just showing up at her house out of nowhere - sounds like a mysterious man under the purple moon kind of thing to do. It's the part where she says he walked out of my life forever that I'm not buying...yeah right Stevie. There's way more to this story that we will probably ever know. Damn her lol! I'd love to get the inside scoop on that one. I do think there is something to the story about him disapproving of her drug use so I'm sure she wants to keep that part of it on the DL.

P.S. I'm a huge Prince fan. I've seen him live 4 or 5 times. He has an amzing presence and is extrememly talented. A real innovator in my boook. I love his sexy vibe and his music is intoxicating. Ahhh and the movie Purple Rain is a favorite. Stevie freaked out when she watched it. Said she walked out when he slapped Apolonia lol! So Stevie.

So who was singing on the vocal then?

I'm with the Prince fans. That is not Stevie on "All Over You."
No way. No how.

Personally, I have no idea. I played it like once or twice, & then put it away! Why listen to "All Over You" when you can listen to masterpieces like "Purple Rain" or "Alphabet City" or "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man"?

Another mystery is whether Stevie sings on "Don't Come Around Here No More."

Are you kidding me? You mean it's never been confirmed that that's Stevie on All Over You and all this time I've been listening to it thinking it was two of my favorite performers on the track? I always questioned the heavy breathing vocal though "ahhh ahhh ahhh" because it's not very Stevie like to be that sexual so now it all makes sense! I'm listening to it the second I get home and I'll be back with my opinion.

Agreed. It's not her.

I thought Stevie had confirmed on VH1 that she can actually be heard on some of the backing vocals for that one?

True. I was so pissed after reading that freakin thing. All 1,000+ pages. Oy.

Ha ha I love you for that!! :laugh:

It makes a good doorstop, though.

:D

Stephen King is pretty awful. He's written a few books that I really enjoyed (The Tommyknockers, The Stand, Dolores Claiborne, etc.), but he writes so clumsily and plots his novels so poorly that I get frustrated. He wouldn't know good pacing if it bit him in the ass and the man simply does not have a way with words.

Petty did an interview saying Stevie cancelled on the day this was recorded, her and all of her back up singers at that time were invited, they are all on that recording, Stevie is not. Would have been so cool if she was! Love the song anyways!

I was listening to it the other day and swear it's her. If not, Sharon's doing a damn good imitation of her.

About Don't Come Around Here No More...
I found this from Songfacts.com

First one:
"Stevie Nicks sang back up on this. Tom had originally planned to give this song to Stevie for her album at the time. He ended up singing it for fun one day and changed his mind." (my comment - wouldn't that have been SO cool if this was on OSOTM??)

Response to the first one:
"I think you're getting this song confused with either "Insider" or "You Can Still Change Your Mind". Stevie Nicks didn't sing backup on "Don't Come Around Here No More". And Dave Stewert of the Eurythmics did not direct the video -- it was directed by Jeff Stein. Dave Stewert co-produced Southern Accents, the album this is from."
_________________________________________________________________

Now about the whole Prince ordeal here...
Who in gods name knows if it was written about each other (eventually one of them will have to publish their damn book and we'll find out!), but I noticed some patterns here (if given the facts are true)...

- Perhaps sometime Stevie and Prince met...la de da...moving on...
- Prince writes LRC about Stevie
- Stevie hears LRC and writes Stand Back as somewhat of a response (and of course her marriage)
- Did Prince also write When Doves Cry during this time? "This is what it sounds like, when doves cry..." Perhaps another response song?
- And then do you notice how in RAL shows Stevie starts singing "I know what it sounds like when doves cry"

I could be totally wrong here but to me it just seems like the puzzle fits somehow...but an interesting concept if you ask me

Yeah yeah yeah, and Paul is dead. :lol:

Okay, I missed this one. I love Sister Honey. Could someone please fill me in on this?

Ooooh, what a clever observation... :nod:

I always found that odd that Stevie would sing "I know what it sounds like when doves cry"...

anyway.. here are the lyrics to "When Doves Cry" as well.. ;)


Dig if u will the picture
Of u and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can u my darling
Can u picture this?

Dream if u can a courtyard
An ocean of violets in bloom
Animals strike curious poses
They feel the heat
The heat between me and u

How can u just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that's so cold? (So cold)
Maybe I'm just 2 demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father 2 bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (She's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry

Touch if u will my stomach
Feel how it trembles inside
You've got the butterflies all tied up
Don't make me chase u
Even doves have pride

How can u just leave me standing?
Alone in a world so cold? (World so cold)
Maybe I'm just 2 demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father 2 bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (She's never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry

How can u just leave me standing?
Alone in a world that's so cold? (A world that's so cold)
Maybe I'm just 2 demanding (Maybe, maybe I'm like my father)
Maybe I'm just like my father 2 bold (Ya know he's 2 bold)
Maybe you're just like my mother (Maybe you're just like my mother)
She's never satisfied (She's never, never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other (Why do we scream, why)
This is what it sounds like

When doves cry
When doves cry (Doves cry, doves cry)
When doves cry (Doves cry, doves cry)

Don't Cry (Don't Cry)

When doves cry
When doves cry
When doves cry

When Doves cry (Doves cry, doves cry, doves cry
Don't cry
Darling don't cry
Don't cry
Don't cry
Don't don't cry

supposedly it's about female masturbation :shrug:

Sure it is... if you're on CRACK! LOL! Okay, She Bop I can see. Sister Honey? Okay, I'd like to hear how someone came up with this.

I thought it was about Stevie's vagina.

:lol: maybe that's it then... I know it was one or the other.. or both :]

While it would be quite cool for Prince to have written LRC about Stevie, I do not think the timeline fits. He wrote the song before he ever met her. She says she heard the song on the radio and immediately bought the cassette, then wrote Stand Back. The lyrics to Stand Back, IMHO, are about her true feelings on her wedding. That is why we never get the real story..we hear crazy talk about welfare lines and all that. Think about the first lyrics...
"no one looked as I walked by"...down the aisle
"just an invitation would have been just fine"...a wedding invitation..getting the invite was bad enough but witnessing it was even worse.
"said no to him again and again, first he took my heart, then he ran"....she didn't marry someone who actually captured her heart. He took her heart and ran with it and she still loves him but said no to marrying him.
"No one knows how I feel, what I mean, unless you read between my lines"....I might say I don't care about him (her true love) and that I want this marriage with Kim but the truth is very different. All the "no man called"s and "no man cames" makes me think that she wanted her true love to stop this wedding....she stood in her room, waiting for him to tell her she was making this big mistake. She was getting ready for the wedding but her mind was on this other person. Would he try and stop her? Did he care enough to call? No, he did not call so then we hear Stevie's anger...ie..hurt. "so I walked on down the line away from you.....you'll be standing in a line"....she did it, married Kim. Now this other man is just like all the others who want her but don't have her. He can get in line like all the rest.
The lyrics about the willow and bending indicate Stevie's willingness to try and change..she was willing to really try with this relationship IF he came and told her he loved her. She really seemed to want this man to tell her she was making a huge mistake with this wedding.
So, I honestly do not think Stand Back's lyrics have anything to do with Prince. I also think it is one of her most revealing songs, showing her angst, confusion, loneliness and desperation at the choices she was making. The underlying emotion stays hidden because it is a rocking dance tune but the lyrics do speak for themselves.

wow, Kelly...that was really a great interpretation of a song that a lot of people just don't get....

part of me would like for it to be like this, tho: Prince wrote LRC....Stevie thinks it's about her, so she writes SB out of anger...calls Prince as a f**k you, but he's oblivious...so he comes into the studio and lays down keyboard tracks for it. Let the tennis match begin!
But...I do think it's interesting how she adds the "doves cry" line in EO17. And I think it is Stevie on the All Over You.