Lets Talk About Space Needle
 

I feel like discussing my very favorite Stevie demo of all time well at least of all her demos that are just that at least for now. Im not counting any demos that would eventually be released, in that case Smile At You would be my favorite. But as far as songs that are unreleased, Space Needle is by far my favorite. I listen to it so much, and its just perfect, i almost dont care if it ever gets released because i don't see it being improved although I still would like to hear an official studio versuon someday. It would be a great Fleetwood Mac song with just Stevie and Lindsey, and if they had the balls it could replace Landslide live.


I love everything from that little haunting gasp in the first 10 seconds to the simple guitar into to every incredible verse to the ending where she yells about standing at the crossroads and being faithful and saying Now 20 times all sexy at the very end. If the songs length were ever to be an issue in the future I couldn't see any part of it being cut, except maybe singing the chorus: Beautiful Faces Not so beautiful anymore part a few less times.

One thing I've wondered about Space Needle is when she wrote it. We know it was recorded during the TISL sessions, but was it written around that time, too? Anyone know?

I like it a lot. Come to think of it, it is probably one of my favourite Stevie demos. I like the lyrics more than the actual song, tbh, but with a bit of polishing, it could have been a great song.

Have not listened to this classic demo in quite some time, but it really is a stellar piece. Now that it's been brought up, I know what's next on the Stevie playlist.

But this thing is so deep on many levels, and it's so beautiful in it's simplicity- musically anyway. It would sound goofy if it were doe any differently I think.

Most definitely one of my favorite demos. It's absolutely beautiful. I guess that it was written either after her Betty Ford rehab, either after the klonopin rehab. Just as Battle Of The Dragon, this song is "heavy". You can simply sense that she was going through a very hard period. Other things that make me think it was written after one of her rehabs is mentioning of the tar people, and the lyrics "Beautiful faces - not so beautiful anymore". This song gave me a lump in my throat quite a few times.

So I absolutely adore this song. I think its about the disillusionment (with her environment and also herself) that came with fame and, to an extent, drugs. I've broken it down here, but I feel like there are many different ways to reach the same general conclusion that I have reached with this song-- my specific comments are just one way of finding that. That's why I think its so interesting.

I remember the long, cold winter
I remember being hot all the time
I remember the black space needle
Casting its black shadow down through time

That sense of contradiction (hot in winter) is automatically jarring. She lives her life in constant contrast-- of the "normal" world and also the world she comes from. She doesn't react normally to many situations because her life isn't normal. Obviously, the needle "casting its black shadow" indicates that she blames drugs for this to some extent.

I remember the loss of enchantment
In everyone one I'd see
Seeing my own face in each one of their faces
Looking back at me

First, she started to see the people around her differently. While once captivated by the individuals she knew and loved (evident in her writing, that's for sure), they are not enchanting now, almost disheartening.... kinda like you'd feel if you had lived in a bubble of romantic and musical entanglements for 35 years and anyone outside the bubble only loved you for what you created and not who you are. :D The real disheartening thing, though, is that she can't tell herself from these people anymore.

Beautiful faces
Not so beautiful anymore
When it began, I was standing at the crossroads
That was then
This is now

Her loss of enchantment. She had a choice-- she had a crossroad-- and she made that choice. It has passed. This reminds me of all that talk about choosing music over a family and emotional security.



The next two verses are very similar to the first two.

One day comes, and then it goes
It's all the same to me now
Another day here is like another day closer
To getting out of this town

One thing I said I would never do
Was come from a place of fear
Fear is nothing, nothing to me now
I no longer care
Fear is nothing to me now
I no longer care

She needs to escape but she can't. The routine of it all is suffocating. I especially love the "fear is nothing, nothing to me now/I no longer care". This reminds me of the point where she was on the verge of understanding that she couldn't live how she was living pre-Betty Ford... she spent years detached from the physical and emotional repercussions of both working within that toxic group of five and also using as much blow as they were. It was a survivalist mechanism, and she finally sees its wrong.




Get out while you still can.



And, my favorite line of the entire song:

Sometimes the sun shines behind the black needle
But it is never sunny

As far as "direct" interpretations, it's about heroin addiction.
The "clue," I believe, is the line about tar babies.
I'm sure somebody else can "back me up" on this but it's pretty much been established in earlier discussions both in here and on Seven Wonders.

Did Stevie do heroin?

I love this demo!
I don't mind a bit The Who song lines she uses briefly, it doesn't take away from what an achievement this song is. We all have called it 'Space Needle' but I wonder if it might be called 'That Was Then, This Is Now'. Who knows. I don't think anyone thought 'Nomad' would ever wind up being called 'Candlebright'.
I'd love for 'Space Needle' to be a Fleetwood Mac song- soon- rather than a solo song. But, whichever, I hope it gets a formal release. Great song.

I firmly believe that she hasn't. Knowing Stevie, she could very well use such a strong heroin image as a bigger image for hard drugs in general-- especially when the image is as abstract and poetic as the tar babies/needle. There's not really anything quite that distinct to use for her own substance of choice.

:shrug: That's what the writer in me would assume.

I don't think she did heroin either - although the line could refer to the heroin addicts that were around and her crossroad may have just been one drug (cocaine) or another (heroin). I definitely think her drug addiction is prevalent in these lyrics.

My nephew was doing heroin for a while - he became skin and bones. You could literally see his ribs. It was so awful - he ended up living in the woods during this period. He would mix heroin and meth and did cocaine for several years.

I believe Stevie on this - cocaine was her drug. And, I believe she's right - if she had ever gotten into heroin she wouldn't be here.

Dear Dani,

Reading your post with your comments on this song was thoroughly lovely!
You're awesome, for realz.

P.S.
Yeah, I have no doubt in my mind that Stevie only did cocaine and pot. I just sense that she wouldn't touch heroin -- plus, she said she never did so that's gotta count for something, right?! :p

See what I mean about this song having so many different possible avenues to reach the same conclusion?!

I love what you have to say about it, too.



Oh and Alexa.... I'm glad it made sense to you :) You flatter me.

I had read somewhere that someone slipped Stevie heroin at a party and she said she was really mad because it was the one drug she had vowed to stay away from. I'm trying to find the article.

Ah, ty, Blue Letter Archives.

But back to Nicks. She sits on a huge sofa and is almost swallowed up by it. She doesn't look anything like her publicity photos; she's smaller, fatter and older. She sips iced tea and tells me she's no great fan of LSD. Or heroin.

"A guy once slipped it to me, I was so angry that I threw him out of the house and never saw him again."

Cocaine? Well that's another story altogether.

"Let me tell you something about cocaine, it's not a creative drug. It will not help you paint a masterpiece or write a symphony. What it does is to give you energy to do something. People forget that people in pop music tend to work very hard. If you've been working for 18 hours for six days straight, you loose all your energy, and you fall back on something that will give you the energy to keep going.

"I wasn't 29 until I first tried coke. Let me tell you something about heroin and Fleetwood Mac. We never dabbled with it. We didn't wanna commit suicide."

I'm cracking up. So funny.

I think the song is definitely about heroin, just because Stevie didn't do it herself doesn't mean she didn't witness others doing it and going by what she said here she knew how bad it could be.

I always thought it was partially about Kurt Kobain ..the '"tar people" and the Space Needle is in Seattle.:shrug: