Moonlight/Lady From the Mountain
 

First, I'm surprised that so many people are liking this song because it was discussed in an earlier thread that people were disappointed that she wrote a song about the Twilight movie. Personally, I love the movies and books and I think it fits in with Stevie's style--gothic love, love that lasts forever...

Right now, I think it's my favorite but I've only heard the song twice, but...I'm disappointed that half of it is Lady From the Mountain. I love, love, love Lady From the Mountain. I've got about five demos and I love them all. (If anyone has a good quality version of the guitar demo, please post it.) I guess now we'll never get Lady From the Mountain released.

~Maria

someone is doing a poll on another site about it

Which version do you like the best
Lady From The Mountains 0 (0%)
Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream) 12 (38.7%)
Like both but lean more towards Lady From The Mountains 2 (6.5%)
Like both but lean more towards Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream) 10 (32.3%)
Both equally 7 (22.6%)
Not a fan of any version 0 (0%)
Total Voters: 31

I voted I like them both equally, but I think Lady From The Mountains sounds more like an art piece. Very atmospheric. Mountains I think captures emotions better and has more variety musically and vocally.

I love the song. And I didn't, on first listen.
But, this is the way I view Stevie's inspirations...and recyling of demos.
She has tons of demos. Some wonderful, some sucky. But, probably 95% of what we've heard will never be heard in a completed, officially released way. So, even if she does these little mash-ups, I'm grateful. Plus, you know, times change and so does her inspiration, thoughs, connections...and, Lady from the Mountain, I guess, has evolved. Or she just wanted to use what she had and it fits.
The Twilight thing is funny. I thought I was going to like it--had considered seeing it in the movies. My friend (hi, bc!) loaned me the movie and I stopped it when Bella was sitting in that freaking chair and the screen had the months going by. I thought...UGH! How corny. How badly acted. How schmaltzy! But, I've liked funky things in the past, and my love for Stevie's music has been considered a very funky thing by some folks. And Stevie is odd. That's why I love her. So, if she's inspired enough by anything to write new music and RECORD! --I'm thrilled.
Anyway, rejoice that Lady from the Mountain had her moment in the sun (or the MOON!)
My favorite part is the chorus of the girls singing "strange' in the background, and that last note of Stevie's. Awesome.
(And Iwill watch the rest of that movie!)

I feel like Stevie can't win when it comes to remaking her demos. People either bitterly wish that she'd stayed more towards the demo, or wish that she'd left the song well enough alone (Smile At You).

Personally, I'm beyond happy she morphed Lady From The Mountains into Moonlight. The original demo will always be very special to me, but this version is simply beautiful. Had she simply tried to recreate the demo exactly as it is, it would have been sub-standard and dreadful. This new version breathes fresh life into a new demo, and we now have two beautiful versions of this song to enjoy (Moonlight, and whichever demo of LFTM is your favourite).

I really don't get the complaints about demos. I mean, you still have the demo that you love so how is it "ruined" by being turned into another song?

I guess I'm the opposite on this. I listened to "Lady from the Mountains" and thought "eh it's okay....it kind of just goes on and on". But I LOVE "Moonlight". For me the additions of the chorus, the second verse and the coda at the end totally make it a new classic Nicks song.

That being said though, again, the "Lady from the Mountains" demos still exist, so I don't understand the whole "omg this is ruined now" point of view.

I actually think what she did with Moonlight was the best thing creatively she could have done. There were aspects of Lady From The Mountain which were fantastic. There were aspects which were a bit hokey. I love the fact she wasn't a slave to the demo, and made something new from it. I was freaked out about it being an obvious ode to Twilight, but it's definitely not that at all. No characters are named, and had you not known from Stevie herself that she was heavily inspired by the movie, you'd never know what the song was about.

Personally, I pretend the song is about True Blood instead, and that makes me much, much happier :laugh:.

At first I didn't know what to think of Moonlight, wasn't sure if I liked the song, but then it grew on me, and grew, and now a few days later I absolutely LOVE it!:] Got a feeling it's going to be right up there with my love for Rhiannon and Sister of the Moon! I like Lady From the Mountain, but what Stevie did was ingenious in creating Moonlight. And it fits her voice now, compliments it.

I agree completely. After all, it was only a demo. If the demo was how she wanted the song to turn out, she would have recorded it that way. Personally, I love the demo and Moonlight both.

Agreed! The demo was never a big favourite of mine. On my first listen I found the transition from LftM to the Moonlight chorus a bit jarring, but it makes more sense to me now.

The only thing I can't stand is that I picture their stupid faces every time I visualise what's happening in the lyrics. I really need to substitute something in there, it's driving me nuts!

Mine too. I love the "Strange. She knew too much to walk away. Strange. She wouldn't do it anyway." That's what I keep singing when the music stops.

Michele

I like how Stevie mophed LFTM into "Moonlight" I tolerate the Twilight movies--not a huge fan. I wonder if they will put this song into the last Twilight movie? That would get Stevie a lot of recognition especially from a younger generation.

Please no. :mad:

If there is such a thing as bad publicity, that would be it. :nod:

I don't know, it would be bad pulicity in the way that people would be like "Oh, Stevie... no" but, it boosted the profile of Paramore and Florence and the Machine.

How on earth would that be bad publicity? Regardless of whether or not you're a fan of Twilight, that would get a lot of people talking about the song (which is very good, obviously), the album, and Stevie.

I can't say I've ever seen someone condemned for letting their song be used in a huge succesful movie franchise..

Generally, I wouldn't either. But Twilight has both a crazy cult following, and a crazy cult that dislikes it.

Poor Stevie doesn't need to get into that fray. :shrug:

Twilight haters do seem to have a begrudging respect for the soundtracks. :shrug:

I've been thinking all day about the song appearing on a Twilight soundtrack. I think it would make heaps of sense! As I said, the soundtracks are extremely popular, even among haters. I've heard bits and pieces of them and I think the sound of this song could really fit in there. JMO!

I wonder how long it'll be before some fanvideos appear set to this song?

Just like the Mirage version and SYW version of "Smile At You", just like the Rumours and TISL versions of "Planets", and so forth, I think of them all as different songs, and enjoy them as such in their various incarnations.

I will always love the "Lady From The Mountain" demos, but I also love "Moonlight". It very well might be my favorite song off the new album.

It would be cool if Stevie got rights to scenes from "New Moon" & used them in the video for Moonlight, although I don't really think it'll happen. I remember when they cut BATB from the Soundstage DVD cuz she used clips from the 1947 French movie on the screens behind her & Criterion wouldn't approve it so they could release it on the DVD which really pissed me off, but oh well, at least we got it on the CD, which is better than nothing. :rolleyes:

i never read the books or saw the movies, but that doesn't matter so much to me. i love the song. LFTM was one of my favorite demos and i used to listen to it a lot in the 90's.

it was a weird jump into the new chorus for me, but i love the chorus, it's catchy and awesome.and i miss the lyrics as some others here mentioned - "so go with her" - that part. that was the most goosebumpy, intense part of the demo. but ya, we still have the demo too. we'll always have that.

i felt that way with smile at you too, though. if i looked at it as a totally new song, not compared to the demos, i liked it a lot. and we still have the demos.

i'm loving moonlight.

I absolutely love "Moonlight"!~ I think how she morphed "Lady from the Mountain" with it made the lady more alive and brought new life in a crazy intense way ~ from the day the trailer came out I was In Love with" Moonlight"..and immediately loved the "Strange" part....and the "They dropped to the forest floor..frozen" part...it has 'hit' written all over it in a typical Stevie mysterious way,,kinda like a new millenium" Rhiannon" or "Sister of the Moon"..its very catchy and I think it does sound like a theme song..like it could be on the Soundtrack of 'Breaking Dawn' or something..I don't know how I feel about that but it would fit the Saga of the 'Twilight' movies..:nod:

After listening to the demo for many years,
I'm so excited to hear this on disc! I love this song. I can't stop hitting the back button~the melody and the lyric is so sweet, so Stevie & Lindsey/FM..."She couldn't do it anyway"

and then I hear "Highway Man"...ok, need to sleep, just really happy to hear this:)

In the case of LFTM, for me at least, I want a cleaner version than what's come down to us through bootlegs. My favorite version of LFTM - which is probably my favorite Stevie song - is pretty muffled. Same is true for many other demos.

As for "Moonlight" itself, I am glad I don't hate it, given my love of the demo. "Moonlight" is my favorite song on the album. That having been said, I do prefer the raspy vocal on the one demo, but there is no way she could replicate it today. Given her current voice, I am thrilled by the vocal on "Moonlight".
But as with POTU on the last album, I'd still prefer she left more of my favorite lyrics in. (I love the "burning...hopefully learning" part.) Yes, I still have the demo - this is just a matter of wanting the released song to be as good as possible.:shrug:

- Jake

For me, the best part of "Moonlight" is the LFTM part. It's hard for me to explain in English, but I think the song has lost something, some kind of feeling. Yes, the beginning is great, the way she sings the very first verses is really something, but for me it all ends when she gets to the chorus, the "...strange" part.
Well, I can listen to the old demos... or the Black Heart cover, to get that feeling back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hkBgqty47E

My absolute FAVE from the new album. :thumbsup:

Now I even want to rent 'New Moon'! (I only saw the first one, 'Twilight').

Okayyyy, this is my favorite song on the album - as of now - after 3 listens to the entire album behind me.

I don't care if it's about Twilight....actually, considering I didn't see any of the movies (not cause I was anti- twilight - just didn't take the time to watch them) I think I will go rent them.

Personally, I don't get why there are so many complaints about Stevie being inspired by Twilight...I mean, why did yall even watch the movie to begin with? Stevie's not the only one to get inspirations from little random things - like a look - in a movie now is she?

I've seen the first Twilight movie, when my boyfriend got it on DVD...and despite every effort to ...resist... my ass was on the couch in less than 10 minutes after it started playing. :laugh:

No resisting for me...I'm doing it. The worst that can happen is I will get a nap out of it. Anyways, it's not like it's a Lifetime network movie, not that I watch those or anything. ;)

My favorite version of Lady From the Mountain is the Rock a Little demo. It's so powerful. But I couldn't see that being made into a full song because as artsy and delicious as it is, it kind of meanders and would kind of drag an album down. Then again, Red Rover kind of did that on Say You Will and it's one of my favorite songs from that album. But I did notice something. The line from Moonlight "they dropped to the forest floor... frozen" did you guys notice it has the same feeling as when she repeats "burning out" at the end of LFTM. So it's not really just a matter of adding new parts to an older song, it really is like the original song grew up and matured a bit. But the feeling and meaning is still there. It's like looking at a portrait of an old woman and seeing the eyes of the young girl she once was, and in a lot of ways still is. You can look fondly at the photos of the young girl but you can love the woman she's become.

Yah I said it before and I read it also, Moonlight is really the finalization of a song that took 35 years to GET IT RIGHT (or just finished if you are a hater). It was great for the Rock A Little Demo, but not quite DONE. I would say this is the BEST we can hope for. Her voice has never been closer to how it sounded in the RAL demo and until someone invents a time machine and forces 1986 SN to record the completed version of LFTM this is all we are gonna ever get.

A fan edit/mix...
 

Hey everyone... with the talk about the loss of lyrics from her demo for "Lady from the Mountain", I thought I would try a bit of a mash-up with her RAL era demo & the new chorus of "Moonlight". I think it makes for a fun listen... although I realize the flow isn't terrific (the tempos are noticeably different, but thankfully they are in the same key). I know the lyrical flow is odd as well in this edit... but this doesn't bother me much as I always pay more attention to the music than lyrics. This isn't meant to be taken seriously or ruin either version (I do adore both)... just to exist more as a curiosity for anyone that might like to hear it! For anyone wondering, I intentionally shortened the first chorus to reflect what I heard in the "sizzle reel"... I got so used to hearing "They dropped..." following the first two lines. The second chorus and subsequent vamp have been left alone... I overlayed the last bar from the demo on the final chord/fade-out. I hope you guys will enjoy it!

"Lady From The Mountain (Moonlight fan mix)":
http://www.mediafire.com/?gvcxa7rsu2d2552

:woohoo:

cool. you stole me idea! hehe. I like it.

Haha... great minds do think alike! :p Glad you like it though... I don't think it's too bad considering how different the mix/production is between the two.

Moonlight... in the next Twilight movie?
 

I often wonder if Stevie wrote this song with intention to "sell" it to the film... I'm inclined to think it was genuine and the film actually inspired her.

And, not that I'm hung up on sales either, but if they were to use Moonlight as part of the soundtrack for the next Twilight film... that could mean a good boost for her among the tweenie crowd. Thoughts?

Of course she tied it into the film because it was the big trend. She's really smart. She keeps things going. However, I don't care. It's the best thing on the album. She wants that song heard. She's been trying to put on an album for years. She obviously cares about it.

I was just looking over the lyrics for this song in the CD sleeve and noticed what could be a typo.

I thought the lyrics were, "SHE sat in the chair for months just staring", but the lyrics in the CD sleeve say, "HE sat in the chair for months just staring". I swear she's saying "she", plus "she" makes more sense to the story in New Moon. It was Bella who sat staring out the window, not Edward. Also- this is the scene that inspired Stevie to write the song in the first place.

Anyone else notice this? :shrug:


Jamie

Good job on the mashup. It's a cool idea.

Can you post the original LFTM you used for your mashup? That version is way better than the one I have, and that's my favorite one out of all her demos. Thank you. :)

Thanks! And sure, no problem... you can find it in this mediafire folder along with some other rarities:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gur55z4tdofma

Jamie, maybe it's just a typo in the booklet?