Bella Donna 40th anniversary
 

In the studio with Redbeard. I love how she always exaggerates and says she only got 2 songs for Tango In The Night. In any event, this thread is to celebrate its 40th anniversary for Bella Donna. IMHO, its one of the best albums of the 80's decade. Come in......out of the darkness

https://www.inthestudio.net/online-o...la-donna-40th/

One of the greatest albums of all time!

July 27, 1981 is the official release date. A horrific incident happened that day and Adam Walsh was kidnapped outside Sears in Hollywood, FL.
The summer of 1981 had incredible music. I remember Styx dominating the charts and also REO Speedwagon.

Bella Donna would stay on the charts for years and the singles would be on the charts until Mirage was issued the following year. It sold so well that in 1983, according to Billboard it sold more copies than The Wild Heart. In 1983 Bella Donna finished the year at #61 and The Wild Heart at #80. That is an incredible statistic since The Wild Heart peaked at #5 with huge sellers Thriller and Flashdance just above it.

https://www.billboard.com/charts/yea...ard-200-albums

Because Bella Donna is a perfect album(as is Rumours). The Wild Heart isn't.

Oddly enough, I bought Bella Donna before Wild Heart during the summer of 1983 even though Wild Heart was on the charts and I was going to Stevie's solo concert that summer. I did not buy Wild Heart until Dec 1983.
It really is a brilliant album and flawless. The writing, the singing, the music.

As I've said a thousand times, it sounds like The Eagles are her backing band.

Too bad $he strayed from that sound. :lol:

The last great California rock album of the classic era. She would hold it together for Mirage and then the slide would begin.:distress:

I love that album. Her voice now is so bad compared to this style of singing. Even the song writing is a disaster compared to her early work.

Bella Donna set the bar so high on quality- it got everything right although so many other great songs of the era went into the vault. An amazing album start to finish. Her solo career careened off a cliff 2 or so odd years later when she became overwhelmed with her worst excesses. As with many devoted fans she lost me several times over the years and I haven't seen her live solo since 1991. But I remain a fan because of this album and some of the highlights on the others. The Wild Heart features some of her very best vocals, oddly enough with Gate and Garden a solo career highpoint.

You know you have a great album when gems like Gold and Braid are on the cutting room floor as left overs. She could have put Sleeping Angel, Smile At You and even Gypsy on the album. Good grief, could you imagine if she made a double album at this time with all the left overs? She was on top of her game vocally and also in physical looks.
Another group that reminds me of the summer of 1981 is Foreigner with 2 monster hits Urgent and Waiting For A Girl Like You. Bella Donna would have stayed at #1 longer but there just was too much good music that everyone needed a time at #1.

and yet none of those surfaced on Wild Heart, Rock A Little, Other Side of the Mirror.......

That and she has become so detached from reality that she can't distinguish if something is good or not. Show Them the Way is dreadful and she thinks it is great. She really should just retire.

I agree that Wild Heart has the best vocals. She absolutely soars. If you’d just asked me, I would not have said that Gate and Garden was the high point. But now that you said it I cannot deny the perfection of the “do I love you” segments. I just don’t think of them first. I think of the title track first.

I hate the song Gate and Garden. IMHO it always ruined the flow of the album. However I see why it made the album. Her vocal is incredible and Roy's playing makes it a bouncy cute song. Its arranged pretty well too. I just never could get into it. I still hate it though and would have put 10 other songs in its place.

Gate and Garden sneaks up on you. Not my "go to", but I really appreciate how good it is now.

I see why it’s widely regarded her best solo album. I’ve never been a huge fan of it as a sequence of songs but certain songs on it blow me away.

Still, I suppose my ambiguity about the record comes from my having bought it after Mirage and TWH. By around early 1984, I was pretty much over my Stevie obsession and had thrown myself into early Mac records—and anything featuring Christine.

My biggest complaint about BD is the decision to leave “Gold and Braid” off of it because it’s such a great song and vocal. Not a bad complaint to have!

Also, “How Still My Love” (along with “Trouble”) is the best non-Mac Fleetwood Mac song of the eighties.

And Got A Hold On Me is nothing to sneeze at! :D

Interesting. There are only 2 songs from Bella Donna that were never played in concert.
Kind of Woman and The Highway Man.

Kind of Woman would make an excellent choice in any set esp with Stevie's limited vocal range these days. After the title track, it really kept the momentum going on the album. Very haunting song about worrying about Lindsey straying on the road. Epic. So very Stevie. I love how she almost whispers.....unless she matters to you
I think the Highwayman has a really good chorus and I always love a song that tells a story. Its a great closer. Another song that should have been played somewhere down the line on a tour.

I think Stevie has been kinda haunting Lindsey his whole life :eek:

Okay, I'm dating myself(I still date myself daily!:eek::lol:), but Bella Donna is literally the LAST 8 track I ever purchased. And, the sequencing was different than the album. It STILL throws me off when I listen to it, because it's not the song order I learned.

I could have sworn I've heard Kind Of Woman before live....:confused:

Almost any time I sit down at a piano, I play KOW. That riff sounds so ~classical~, and someone always axes me what it is.

I freaking LOVE The Highwayman!

Lindsey said he thought $tevie was just gassy, not actually haunting him.

Yes, I love that one too, Dave. It’s a great sing-along song. It’s really quite moving. Pure romance.

In fact, I wish Stevie had sung it on the Wild Heart tour. Would have been one of the highlights.

I should have added “Smile I Live For,” which is a pretty amazing non-Mac Mac song.

And it's easier to sing, at her age.

Interesting. Now I am curious. What was the song sequence?

If Stevie ever tours again and plays Kind of Woman, maybe you can be her piano player. How about a dueling piano tour. You on Kind of Woman and Stevie on Rhiannon and you guys battle away in front of the audience.

:)

I don't remember, other than Kind of Woman wasn't second. I think Stop Dragging was. As we don't miss dated technology the minute it's dated, we give sh*t away. I gave all my 8 tracks away a 100 years ago. And always regretted giving them away. As I'm sure you know, 8 tracks often had a different song order, as the songs had to fit into 4 "programs". In other words, you couldn't have more than one $tevie song per program.:p

I did manage to buy a Rumours 8 track in a thrift store a couple years ago. I don't have a way of playing it, but I like having it. I actually saw another one this past Saturday, but didn't buy it.

Now that might be the RUDEST thing anyone has ever said to me!!!!:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:





:lol::lol::lol:

Going back to Kind of Woman. I remember listening to Bella Donna (album) the first time. The title track is such a strong song but then you never know what to expect second track. Kind of Woman kept the momentum going. Its a fantastic musical track but very bewitching and a classic Stevie song. Then SDMHA, Think About It...... the great songs just kept coming.
Edge of 17 has been played the most in concert. But SDMHA and How Still My Love could be tied for second.
Have you ever heard the How Still My Love outtake. Its incredible and I'm sure it was a tough decision to decide which version to put on the album. Similar situation with Sable On Blonde. So powerful. They probably made the right decision but I love this version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSlTlHhWP30

I have never heard that outtake. I like it! So funky!
I can picture Bob Glaub's head jerking around like a chicken during the entire thing. Sorry, he almost ruins watching the White Winged Dove tour DVD for me, with his constant head movement. He looks ridiculous.

You're not alone. Even in my Stevie Nicks fandom heyday, I always thought the hype around Bella Donna was a little overblown. The second half of that record drags a$$ IMO. Kind of Woman, Think About It, and The Highwayman are all run-of-the-mill, not standout tracks IMO. Sleeping Angel and Golden Braid would have improved the album immensely. Even the studio version of Outside The Rain seems really lacking compared to what it became live.

The fact that she had such immense help from the heartbreakers, jimmy, and Don Henley is what really elevated the material on that record. The lack of their involvement is really evident when listening to Wild Heart.

YOU KNOCK IT OFF!! :lol: I'll defend STEVIE NICKS til the day I die!!!
(As you may have learned, I'm not really good at it)

But I do love Think About It, Kind Of Woman. Would have loved Golden Braid. I think Jimmy Iovine felt it was a bit boring, too. That's why he added some of the Heartbreakers stuff.

Never been a huge “Think About It” fan. Though I dig the vibe of the run-through of it on the RUMOURS DELUXE reissue. And the line “Heartbreak of the moment is not endless” is so silly I love to quote it.

Because you've never woke up in the velvet of the morning. And then stared at the stairs wondering where the hell you were!!

We are Flintstones kids — ten million strong . . . and growing.

I love Think About It. Stevie rarely writes such uplifting songs and I relish in it. The line that always got me was "Even when you think your life is fading, I know that you'll go on forever.... your're that good."
OMG that line stayed with me through lots of tough times. Equally cool is the official dedication to Christine on the liner notes.
But to tell the truth, I've always wanted to step out into the velvet of the morning. That sounds too good to be true. My mornings are never velvet. They are more leather and lace.

Instead, I was crying’ in the morning, tryna’ be strong. I had to learn to be a stranger.

Ok the "I had to learn to be a stranger" made me scream!!!

That's really funny. Why the f(** does one need to learn to be a stranger??? hahahahahahah. Are there classes for that?

I know, right? Maybe Bob Dylan teaches such classes.

I wonder if $he regrets making the Bob Dylan comment?

Does $he realize that $he's not even a pimple on Bob Dylan's ass?

Nope. I'm sure $he doesn't.

It is unlikely she regrets that or anything else, really. She is extremely wealthy and has had remarkable fame, pulling others along in her wake.

Go throw some darts at your Lindsey dart board.




:wavey::lol::wavey::lol::wavey:

Or he could have accepted the offer to join Fleetwood Mas as first offered on his own and left her to the waitressing job at Clementine's .At best she would be a retired grade school teacher now living on her Calpers pension and playing bingo at the local senior center.