Make your own Belladonna
 

So, from all the master reels out there, it appears that Stevie was working on the following 28 songs for possible inclusion in her first solo album:

Kind of Woman
Gypsy
Outside the Rain
Sleeping Angel
The Highwayman
Edge of Seventeen
Blue Lamp
The Dealer
Bella Donna
Gold and Braid
Leather and Lace
Castaway
Lady From the Mountain
I Sing for the Things
How Still My Love
All the King's Horses
My Love Never Gets Lost
Starshine
Sanctuary
Beauty and the Beast
Baby Doll
If You Were My Love
Julia
Belle Fleur
After the Glitter Fades
Stop Dragging My Heart Around
Think About It
Rich Old Lady


What ten songs would be your Belladonna?

Here's mine in order (with the understanding that this is a vinyl order):

Bella Donna
Blue Lamp
Gold and Braid
Kind of Woman
Outside the Rain
Edge of Seventeen
Sleeping Angel
Gypsy
The Dealer
The Highwayman

Bella Donna (vocally magnificent)
Sleeping Angel (id.)
The Highwayman (such drama and I love that)
Edge of Seventeen (one of the greater rock somgs ever)
Gold and Braid (bas a$$ jammin')
Leather and Lace (so pretty)
Julia (vocally stunning - "I am freed from my slavery" gives me chills)
After the Glitter Fades (love everything about it)
Stop Dragging My Heart Around (torn on this one, but it does jam)
Think About It (LOVE THIS SONG!!!)

I like the notion of Gypsy and I like the rockin demo - but LB's work on the Miorage cut is sheer perfection IMO.

Bella Donna
Gold and Braid
Think About It
After the Glitter Fades
Sleeping Angel
Edge of Seventeen
How Still My Love
Blue Lamp
Outside the Rain
The Highwayman

-put SDMHA on hard promises.
-just say no to L&L.

In no particular order:

Outside the Rain
Sleeping Angel
Edge of Seventeen
Blue Lamp
Bella Donna
Gold and Braid
How Still My Love
Julia
Belle Fleur
After the Glitter Fades

how much do i love you for including belle fleur??? :laugh: are you ~livin in the canyon~?

With mountain women, bb! :laugh:

I knew that would draw some comment from someone. I can't help myself, I just like it. :shrug:

don't worry. we'll form a circle, canyon dancing, etc. :D :D :D

thank you, belle bleu..

OMG, I am lmao. I put this on here before I even read the downsizing thread. Too funny. But kind of sad that I actually like that song!

lolol as long as you don't like secret love it's all good.

you don't like secret love, do you? :laugh:

nope, don't even know that one, so I'm safe. :lol:

Bella Donna
Kind of Woman
Stop Dragging My Heart Around
Think About It
After the Glitter Fades
Edge of Seventeen
How Still My Love
Outside the Rain
Gold and Braid
The Highwayman

Keeping it close to the original...cant get any better than that

:angel:

I want this 45 :xoxo:

rbs

I am very close to you. Let Stevie guest on two songs on the Heartbreakers CD. But I don't say no to L&L entirely. I wish Waylon Jennings and Jessi Coulter had done it.

Aside from changes I would make in the running order, the only change I would make to your list is replacing The Highwayman with something else, most likely Julia.

ideally, I'd like Bella Donna to be 12 tracks

Bella Donna
Gold And Braid
Kind Of Woman
Stop Draggin'
Think About It
After The Glitter Fades
Edge of Seventeen
How Still My Love
Leather And Lace
Blue Lamp
Outside The Rain
The Highwayman

but if I have to axe 2 tracks, I'd loose L&L and After The Glitter Fades. I think Bella Donna is one of few albums that is perfect the way it is. But it would be nice to have the 2 extra tracks making it 12 in total and also this would improve the pace of side 2. I love it, but it's a little slow. It needs an upbeat song in there like Blue Lamp.

Kind of Woman
Outside the Rain
Sleeping Angel
Edge of Seventeen
Blue Lamp
Bella Donna
Gold and Braid
How Still My Love
Sanctuary
Julia
After the Glitter Fades

I cheated.

these are what i pick outside the rain,blue lamp,gold and braid,kind of woman,sanctuary,after the glitterfades,think about it,belladonna,gypsy and sleeping angel

Could you imagine all of the long hours (and coke) they spent trying to pare this down to a 10-song collection?? Not only do they have to have "hit single" potential, the tracks have to flow together properly in sequence. In the end I think BD is about as perfect as an album can be. I feel like I'm 12 years old again gushing about this!

Anyway, my version of BD:

Bella Donna
Gold and Braid
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
Think About It
If You Were My Love

Sleeping Angel
Edge of Seventeen
How Still My Love
Outside the Rain
Julia

Bella Donna
Outside the Rain
Edge of 17
Stop Draggin my Heart Around
I Sing for the Things [the Uptempo demo one. not so fond of the RAL version]

Leather and Lace
Sleeping Angel
If You were My Love [I <3 this song. no seriously.]
How Still My Love
The Highwayman

I really think if she would have put Gypsy on BD that it would have just sucked. Without LBs production, it wouldnt have been the same, Lindsey Knows it, Stevie Knows it, I know it and you all know it too.

And Ive never even heard half those songs before :shrug:
so I cant include something ive never heard. :nod:

Agreed. I can't bring myself to change a single thing about it. But I can reiterate that whomever owns those masters and that record now should remaster it and include bonus tracks. It's too bad it wasn't done for the 25th anniversary.

Gypsy
Sleeping Angel
Edge of Seventeen
Bella Donna
Gold and Braid
Leather and Lace
How Still My Love
After the Glitter Fades
Stop Dragging My Heart Around
Think About It

I'd add Sleeping Angel and if I had to delete a song to make room for it, I guess it would be Leather and Lace. But BD is a perfect album so it's hard to even think about messing with it.

Gold and Braid is a fantastic song live, but not sure it would come across as strong as a recorded album track.

In listening to the studio versions it didn't come across as well as it did live. It's a great live song. And Stevie obviously loved performing it.

The studio version called, I think, echo version - is splendid. I think you should post some of the studio ones. I do not have mine anymore :mad:

It's mind blowing looking at that list, isn't it? Hmmm.... let's see I wanna choose this one and this one and this one.

The absolute ridiculous thing is- take away the songs that actually made it on to Belladonna and you've got more than enough leftover for another album...

Gypsy
Sleeping Angel
Blue Lamp
The Dealer
Gold and Braid
Castaway
Lady From the Mountain
I Sing for the Things
All the King's Horses
My Love Never Gets Lost
Starshine
Sanctuary
Beauty and the Beast
Baby Doll
If You Were My Love
Julia
Belle Fleur
Rich Old Lady

With the idea that Gypsy made it onto Mirage and Beauty and the Beast made it onto the Wild Heart, here's my Stevie Nicks "lost" solo album from 1982 (in order):

The Dealer
Sleeping Angel
Blue Lamp
Lady From the Mountain
Sanctuary
Gold and Braid
Julia
Baby Doll
Belle Fleur
If You Were My Love

Why she doesn't release an album considering all the material she has (and all the stuff even the fan-based community doesn't know about) is really beyond me........

agreed.

the only change I'd make is add Julia instead of

No shiitte!!!! Remember when Reconsider Me debuted and no one even knew about it :eek:

AND -

Taking off the movie songs and the live, but unreleased studio stuff (Sleeping Angel, Blue Lamp, & Gold and Braid) - - you'd still have a way cool if not slightly edgey record :shrug:

The Dealer
Castaway
Lady From the Mountain
All the King's Horses
My Love Never Gets Lost
Starshine
Sanctuary
Baby Doll
If You Were My Love
Julia
Belle Fleur
Rich Old Lady

I have a question for everyone that put Gypsy on it. Based on the demos, do you guys really think that a Bella Donna Gypsy would have been better than a Mirage Gypsy?

nope. I don't.

I don't think so. But, then again, I didn't include it on my list, so I guess you're not really wanting to hear from me! :lol:

Nope. Even though I picked it.

If I were Jimmy Iovine sitting there with that list, "Gypsy" -as the song- would certainly rank within the top ten.

I think snobby musicians (like Lindsey) tend to dismiss Stevie as a space cadet, but, I betcha Stevie was sitting back and listening to what the Heartbreakers and Iovine had done with "Gypsy", and the first thing that came to her mind was the production values from "Sara".

"No, no, instead of putting 'Gypsy' on this one, I really like blah-blah. Yeah, that's the ticket!" La-la-la-laaaaaaaaa.... "Hey Mick- here's what I have for the next FM album- I think we should do 'That's Alright' and I've got this new one that's really great called 'Straight Back'.... oh- oh, yeah- I almost forgot about this one leftover from Belladonna. It's called 'Gypsy'......" :rolleyes: :laugh:

It would have been way different - but not necess. worse. I think the music of the BD demo - the rocking one - is great and with a little tweaking, the song would have been a hard rocker instead of the light rock it became and which I love.

I think if they ever doubted her smarts and ambition - I submit a lethal combination when combined with her flirtatious eyes - then they were idiots.

Well, we have to keep in mind that the studio versions of "Gold and Braid" in circulation were not quite finished and probably not mixed properly. I think they definitely sound a bit "dry" and lacking oomph, especially the piano part. I suspect that if they let Roy Bittan have at it in the studio, it would have rocked hard. :nod:

Okay bb. I'll post a bunch of them later. :wavey:

I hate the BD versions of "Gypsy." Maybe it's the terse, tentative phrasing she uses or that annoying "Do it right, do it right" refrain. But it just sounds so rushed and devoid of the sad/comforting feelings that the lyrics were trying to convey. And it's just way too much organ!

By contrast the Mirage version is perfection. While not my favorite FM song, I think it is perhaps the most beautifully produced song on any FM album.

True. I sometimes forget that these masters we are lucky enough to have heard are not the final mixes. Bittan could have played the hell out of it, just like he did with Julia. His playing is part of what makes the song so good.

The amount of missed opportunities in regards to Stevie's solo career sometimes baffle me.

totally - and this omission is something I think I'll never understand.

Me neither. It has to pop up on an official release some time, any time. It's such a waste.