Hard Advice
 

You can imagine my surprise when I discovered this song and loved it. It's really good. One of my favorite on the album. I wasn't expecting another lesson from Tom to turn into this. You all are going to like this one.

Agreed!!! I do believe this might be my favorite track off this record. Too soon to judge though, but it is an amazing track.

Said I was going to sleep, but have to keep listening to this song on repeat. Ugh so good!

Hard Advice is a definite single!

Can't wait to hear it. The snippet on Instagram even gets stuck in my head...

Re
 

Can you send me a message too?! 😜

Hard Advice is probably the most unexpected surprise of the album..It is a great song with a strong and memorable melody..How did this get passed over for the much weaker TMMS on TISL:shrug:Awesome that it has found a home.

This is one of the songs I am most excited to hear! I can't wait!

I love this song

Found this on the copyright site

Type of Work: Music
Registration Number / Date: PAu002213942 / 1997-05-21
Title: Hard advice.
Description: Sound cassette + lyrics sheets.
Notes: Words & music.
Copyright Claimant: Stephanie Nicks
Date of Creation: 1995
Names: Nicks, Stephanie

The song is beautiful and the most humbling song she would write that tells the story of writer's block. Can only imagine what it felt like for her to feel that she'd lost her touch. I think she has a real winner on her hands here and mainstream radio would be truly amiss if they don't pick this tune up and play it often.

Meh.
My least favorite track so far.
Sounds like mainstream "country" to me.

But Mabel makes up for it.
Looking forward to hearing the whole album!

I think it is a pretty great track...but I also think that Mabel Normand is WOOOOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

I LOVE this song, in my head it replaces That Made Me Stronger - "this is all wrong / go write some real songs" is such a better lyric than TMMS. And only Stevie Nicks could sing "don't buy that doll" so passionately :laugh:

I always wonder wtf ...who pics the lead singles? They must think its okay to push nice but bland tracks like Every Day and The Dealer and in doing so will reach the widest audience. Starshine and Lady are good lead tracks, but Hard Advice as a mid temp single track is great... so catchy!

I agree. "Hard Advice" should have been the first taste of 24 Karat Gold, instead of "The Dealer" But hey, what do we know. :shrug:
This song makes me wonder about the quirky line "Don't buy that doll" and Stevie's recent comment from her interview in Uncut Magazine

"Somebody said at one point, "If you took the last line out of this chorus it would be so much more of a hit record," and I just flat out said in front of the record company and everybody else: "I'm not trying to make a hit record here, I"m trying to make a great record." Hit records don't even sell anymore, anyway. Records don't sell anymore." ;)

I'm beginning to believe she is referring to "Hard Advice." I love that kooky lyric. I think it hammers the nail to the bone of the song. And only Stevie. Right! :thumbsup:

Actually I was thinking that the "take the last line out of the chorus" remark might refer to "Starshine" and the line being "playing with fire was..."

yep. Kooky Stevie, and not in a good way "don't buy that doll" is just…. wtf. Hilarious.

But that is what I love about Stevie... She doesn't give a ****. Neither song should be altered in any way!

So, what guy is so famous that there are life size paper dolls (or posters) of him in music stores? I can think of three.

Elvis
Michael Jackson
Justin Bieber

Which one of those three guys do you think Stevie is in love with?

Also, Tom's advice is crummy. "I can't forget my old love. I can't move on emotionally, even though I've tried. What can I do, Tom?"

"Turn off the radio and stay out of record stores."

Uh, ok.

Michele

hahahahaa that's funny!!

I was wondering too…. I thought Lindsey? Nope, don't think so at that point in time. Joe? Don't think so. Then I thought…. Tom?? And listened to it again… and wondered if it was about her being stuck on Tom still… but, wtf knows:shrug:

Is that a reference to drugs? Valley of the Dolls was about pill popping hoes. Dolls in that movie were pills.

Right, the contenders are Joe and Tom and I think it is Tom. Tom is the friend giving hard advice, but it may have been about her feelings for him.

Regarding Joe, I shouldn't take the song so literally, not every word has to be based on real life, but she says neither she nor her girlfriends can give the guy up. So, I'm thinking it would be someone that not only has a certain level of fame, but is also widely thought of as being attractive.

Michele

great minds think alike ;)

Interestingly, she’s only talked about this song regarding WHO gave her hard advice (Tom Petty) not what the hard advice was about. Or rather, WHO the hard advice was about.

"Your music fills the room
I just can’t seem to get away from you”

So, the person she can’t get away from is a musician. The next stanza tells us there’s a cut-out of him in a record store, and that her friends can’t let him go either, even thought ‘it’ was over ages ago. I don’t exactly think this musician is going to be someone like Joe; I really can’t imagine her friends in 1995 or so still having any emotional investment in that and him, lol. The next stanza is crucial because in her commentary she claims this is about Tom…

"Sometimes he’s my best friend
Even when he’s not around
But the sound of his voice
Follows me down
And reminds me”

Okay, I can see how this can be interpreted as being as Tom. After all, she’s swapped from ‘you’ to ‘him. HOWEVER, the sound of his voice follows her down!? I’m sorry but that’s a blatant callback to Silver Springs and there’s no chance it isn’t deliberate. I seriously doubt she’s talking about Tom here. Especially as the very next stanza, discussing the man who is GIVING the advice, begins “ANOTHER FAMOUS FRIEND TOLD ME”. Unless my grasp of basic comprehension is completely gone or Stevie’s REALLY thrown out the logical narrative structure, that would suggest she’s talking about two different famous friends in those two stanzas. For those people who use Stevie’s oft-used ‘Lindsey’s not my friend!’ as a reason for the above stanza not being about him, that’s rubbish. In 2011 she thanked him for his years of friendship and in 2011 she even called him her ‘oldest, dearest friend’.

Anyway, Tom is telling her to let ‘him’ go. I really do think there’s no one else this ‘him’ could be bar Lindsey, tbh. “The pain’s gone on too long”?! No kidding…

I find the NEW lyrics to I Don't Care even more interesting, to be fair. There's lyrical repetition from Sara AND Without You in that one...

I don't see any cardboard cutouts of Lindsey being in stores in 1995.

so you think the second 'famous friend' is….who exactly? I got lost there.

Yeah, I don't see there being any card out cutouts of Lindsey being in stores EVER.

But that's okay, Linds, because there are a thousand paper dolls of you in my heart.

I definitely do not think the "follow you down" is related to Silver Springs. I think she's just re-using words, especially since the twist is her words were going to follow Lindsey down in SS. In Hard Advice, the singer's words are following HER down. I know Lindsey's songs are played on the radio (as he says in the beautiful Gone Too Far), but I don't think his songs haunt Stevie the way the man in Hard Advice's do.

However, in Starshine, I do think the price they have to pay is the same price they are paying in Secret Love, I do find that re-use of lyrics to be about the same relationship.

Michele

My initial reaction to the song was that is was about Joe… about Tom telling her look, it was over long ago and you need to let him go, this has dragged on too long. But the cardboard cutout thing, the songs always on the radio, the "Sometime's Tom's my best friend/even when he's not around" which is according her video what her lyrics originally were followed immediately by "the sound of his voice follows me down and reminds me". The line aobut him telling her "this is wrong"… I dunno. It just all starts sounding to me like she was still hung up on Tom.:shrug:

Yes. I think so. I mean, she's never acknowledged a romantic relationship with Tom, but I think there was one, more serious on her part than on his, of course.

The main clue about the guy in this song is that he is famous. He's an icon. He's someone that females swoon over. That's one thing that makes it harder for Stevie to get over him, because she sees him everywhere. It's someone with a Bruce Springsteen status and Tom has had that at a point in his career.

Michele

I don't think Tom had an affair with Stevie . I think he loves his wife and has high morals. I think she is like a sister to him. They are a little alike -- they fight hard for themselves. I don't think he probably met a woman quite like her. He said she is the only person who ever fought her way into his life.

"She does still hear him
All night long
The same song over and over
It heals her heart
No voice of a stranger
Could play that part
It broke her heart"

Oh, they both talk about a price on a quite regular basis, really. And obviously, saving, which is also in Starshine.

And the price that we paid for a love we couldn’t hold (Say Goodbye)

Everyone pays a price for these dreams (Say We’ll Meet Again)

And every life has its price (Shut Us Down)

Sometimes the price is a little too much (Down On Rodeo)

Someone’s going to have to pay the price (Wait For You)

What price glory (How Still My Love)

But I paid a price for it… (Doing The Best I Can)

We’re already paying the price (Secret Love)

No matter what the price, I knew I’d found the prize (Impossible Task)

If it is ALL about Tom, if he is giving her advice about giving him (Tom) up? Yeah, it doesn't quite work for me. And if it's the case, her narrative structure seriously is WAY worse than I thought it was. One verse she's talking about a man's voice following her down and the very next verse is about 'another famous friend' giving her advice about having to give someone up who she's hearing on the radio, etc. The 'another' would strongly suggest the person giving advice and the person about whom the advice is about are different. *shrugs*

See I hear that as another famous friend telling her she needs to give Tom up. Love ends. Get over it.

And Tom elsewhere is telling her he's over it, she needs to get over it.

I don;t think every time she says "paying a price" it's about Lindsey. I don't think Starshine is about him. I don't think Secret Love is about him. And the price she paid in Doing the Best That I Can… well that whole song has always seemed about drugs to me and the price she paid for doing them.:shrug:

As for Tom's wife, (I think someone else brought that up) he divorced her. He's onto a new wife these days.

Yes, I can see that view. I just really don't think her relationship with Tom was ever a romantic one, to be honest, and the relationship she has to give up seems to be of that nature. Was she, in 1995, still in actual pain, unable to let go of, trying but unable to get away from Tom and her love for him? I don't know. It doesn't quite gel with how I view them. I mean, I easily could be wrong. Voting for an amalgam song here, lol.

Oh, I don't either! Just listing some examples of the 'price' repetition. I think Lindsey uses it more in that context than she does. I DO think Starshine is about him but I don't think Secret Love is.

just highlights part of the allure of her lyrics…. she leaves them (intentionally or not, I tend to think not) ambiguous enough that you can't really be sure what the heck they mean and that leads to endless hours of fun trying to decipher them. :shocked:

I think Secret Love is confirmed as not being about him, but I think Secret Love and Starshine are about the same person and no I don't think every song with the word "price" in it is about that relationship. I just think that Secret Love and Starshine go together.

Michele

So, who's the other famous friend?

Michele

I don't think Tom was faithful to Jane. I think he was with other people, Stevie just being one of them.

Michele

I don't think every price song is about Tom Petty.

Now, of course The Star is a tabloid full of lies (used to get me pretty excited as a kid to read all of the times that Sonny and Cher were supposedly going to remarry, before I learned that The Star had little truth in it!), but I think this article is funny from October 1996.



Singer Stevie Nicks has shed a massive 60 pounds and landed rocker Tom Petty --- for the second time.

Petty --- who's riding high on the charts again with his new album She's the One, the sound track from the hit movie --- filed for divorce on September 9 from wife of 21 years, Linda, citing irreconcilable differences.

Now he's back with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie --- and they're finding love is definitely better the second time around. The pair were first linked in the early '80s, shortly after Nicks divorced her second husband.

Now, Petty has been separated from his wife Linda since January and, according to friends, he and Stevie have been burning up the phone lines ever since and getting together whenever they can. "Stevie and Tom collaborated on several of her solo albums and that's how they became so close," says a source.

Now, more than 10 years on, Nicks has slimmed down and sobered up and the rock couple is making beautiful music together. "Stevie has lost a lot of weight and she looks really terrific," says a source. "She's feeling good about herself and it shows."

According to sources close to the couple, one of the reasons Nicks and Petty have rekindled their love is their similar life experiences. "Both Tom and Stevie have been in the music business forever so they know the perils of being on the road constantly," says a source. And Nicks and Petty have something else in common as well --- they've both kicked longtime addictions.

"Stevie had been in rehab for alcohol and cocaine addiction and Tom kicked his booze habit in 1987 for good."

The rocking duo recently went public with their relationship at a Hollywood bash close pal Ringo Starr threw for his wife Barbara Bach's birthday.

Phoenix-born Nicks has even put her Paradise Valley, Ariz., home up for sale and decided to settle in a spacious Los Angeles mansion where she can be closer to her rocker lover.

Petty's marital split and his romantic reunion with blonde-haired beauty Nicks comes as no surprise to those who know the couple. "Tom and his wife Jane had a really tough go of it. They've separated a couple of times over the years but they always got it back together. I guess that things just couldn't be repaired this time." Petty himself is brutally honest when he talks about the state of his 21-year marriage (the couple have two daughters, Adria, 21, and 14-year-old Anna).

"We have taken some shrapnel," he said. "We do walk with a slight limp."

I dunno, I was wondering that myself. Reminds me of her line in Two Kinds of Love "well I talked to my famous friend last night". She has so many……

But, who would know about her hang up over Tom and tell her to give it up already? Well, partly depends on how you define "famous". Famous as in famous musicians? Mike Campbell? Benmont Tench?

If "famous" means like headliners, dunno.. who are her headliner superstar friends… Don? Bob Dylan? Rod Stewart? Joe? Anyone else in the Eagles? Sheryl Crow?

Other famous female friends…. Courtney Love? Bonnie Raitt? Tai Babilonia?

Does she know other famous people? Politicians? Actors? Nobel laureats??

Dunno. None of those really seem to fit, to me. Maybe Don??

that's hilarious! They have a freaking quote of from someone who "knows" them getting Jane's name right, but then keep calling her Linda. That's the best!