50 Essential Women in Music (#21 SN)
 

http://flavorwire.com/38199/the-50-e...-albums-part-5

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Bella Donna (1981)
Stevie Nicks

In between the sessions for Fleetwood Mac’s third album, Stevie Nicks began writing and recording demos for what would become her breakthrough debut solo project, Bella Donna. The album reached number one, with singles like “Edge Of Seventeen” and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” helping to propel the disc to the top spot — and, in the process, proving that Stevie was a marketable solo star in her own right. Like much of what she wrote for Fleetwood Mac, Bella Donna’s collection of folk-influence rock song succeed largely thanks to Stevie’s poignant and reflective lyrics. For sure, the singles are strong. But the undiscovered gems like the title track and “The Highwayman” are what make the album worth listening to again and again. On the latter, she mournfully sings, “Alas he was the highwayman, the one that comes and goes. And only the highway-woman keeps up with the likes of those.” Stevie may be a rock artist, but her narrative songwriting (a style mostly associated with country music) is what sets her apart and makes Bella Donna her masterpiece.

Interesting stuff. Thanks Michele for posting. Personally, I think The Wild Heart is her masterpiece and perfer it to Bella Donna but that's just me. I've been playing WH lately and have really been connecting with the raw emotion on that record. Good Stuff!

Cool read- thank you for posting!

I agree with this. "Bella Donna" is a consistently amazing album, but "The Wild Heart" has all of the heartache of Robin's passing, aswell as the sublime "Beauty and the Beast".

Bella Donna is more consistent IMHO. The Wild Heart could have been it's equal if she had simply kept 2 tracks that were going to be on the album "Violet and Blue" and "Garbo" and switched them out for the inferior "Nothing Ever Changes" and "Gate and Garden".

:shocked:
I love "Nothing Ever Changes", it's easily one of my favourite songs on the album. I think I probably agree with you about "Bella Donna" being more consistent overall, but I think "The Wild Heart" has better songs on as a whole. When it's good, it's perfection. Not that there are any bad songs on it, just some slightly weaker than the rest - "Gate And Garden" springs to mind, as does "Sable On Blond". However, they don't get skipped when I listen to the album.

This just proves you can't satisfy everyone! Sable On Blond and Gate And Garden are two of my favourite tracks on the album! Sable On Blond has a kind of Tuskish feel with Mick's drums I think. I love Nothing Ever Changes too. I do think Violet And Blue should have been on there though, it's one of her best solo songs for sure. It's a shame it couldn't have been a 12 track album. The same with Bella Donna, the additional tracks being Julia and Gold And Braid.

I am with trackaghost. Sable on Blond and Gate and Garden are also some of my favorite songs on the album. SOB always sounded like a FM song to me even before I knew Mick played drums on it.

"Gate and Garden" is my probably favorite Stevie solo song. I've always loved it.

I think Stevie's more like Top 10-15. I also think it's criminal that she, along with the likes of Carole King, Carly Simon, Heart, Linda Ronstadt and Pat Benatar, has once again not even gotten a nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, yet Donna Summer and LL COOL J did!!!!!!

I too like Nothing Ever Changes! It has a good beat also. I too think that I prefer WH to BD, although I think the album is really good.