Rock A Little - 25 Years!
 

Wow! Can you believe it?! Rock A Little is 25 years old this month! It was a long 2 year & 5 month wait since The Wild Heart. We only had "Violet And Blue", "Sorcerer", Westwood One radio concerts, uncredited backing vocals on "Don't Come Around Here No More" and endless re-listenings to Stevie's previous recordings to get us through that long gap.

As I noted in my "Rock A Little - November 1984 Track Listing" thread, there were 21 songs fully recorded and ready in November 1984 for release for Rock A Little, with "Mirror, Mirror" as the lead single to be released in December. Then, in August 1985, Ginny Kamano announced that 25 songs were now recorded for the album's consideration.

I had two thoughts. First, can we come up with a pretty definitive list of the 25 that were fully recorded. And second, maybe we can do an UPGRADE Thread for the unreleased Outtakes & Demos from the Rock A Little era. Most of us had to suffer through horrible sound quality of most of those songs, but several much better sounding versions have surfaced in recent years. Maybe we could post and try to find the perfect versions?

Anyway, for the RAL 25, we can start with the 11 songs on the album:

1. I Can't Wait
2. Rock A Little
3. Sister Honey
4. I Sing For The Things
5. Imperial Hotel
6. Some Become Strangers
7. Talk To Me
8. The Nightmare
9. If I Were You
10. No Spoken Word
11. Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You?

Then we have the official b-sides, soundtrack songs and other confirmed Rock A Little recordings:
12. One More Big Time Rock And Roll Star
13. Mirror, Mirror
14. Battle Of The Dragon
15. Are You Mine?
16. Reconsider Me

Next, I'll use songs from the track listing from November 1984:
17. Lady From The Mountains
18. Chanel, Chanel
19. The Dealer
20. Thousand Days

In August 1985, another song was added to the fully-recorded listing:
21. She Still Loves Him

So, that leaves 4 empty slots:
22.
23.
24.
25.

I'm gonna make my own guesses:
22. I Call You Missing
23. Rose Garden
24. Jimmy Come On Back
25. Running Through The Garden

Just guesses, of course. "Something Exquisite" definitely is in the running, and so is "Tied Up (In Promises)", but it's so hard to narrow down. Stevie surely recorded more than 25. Anyway, I was just trying to celebrate Rock A Little and its place in Stevie History.

Love! Love! Love! me some Rock A Little! the Wild Heart era was kinda wild but nothing compared to the Rock A Little era! my first Stevie concert was RAL tour. June 14, 1986. It was my first Stevie record i got to buy the day it was released.

my guesses for the other songs recorded during that time...(since i have demos for all these labeled as being from RAL)
Running Through The Garden
All The Beautiful Worlds (this was recorded for BD, WH and RAL right?)
Greta
and
Love Is Like A River

I Call You Missing and Jimmy Come On Back was WH era, i think. and I Call You Missing wasnt recorded again til OSOTM?
Rose Garden ...idk??
Tied Up ...WH?
Something Exquisite...not sure.

Well, since Marilyn Martin sings on "Jimmy Come On Back", and Stevie didn't meet her until The Wild Heart tour in Summer 1983, "Jimmy Come On Back" can't be from The Wild Heart. And Rock A Little is the only Stevie album that Marilyn sang on.

I forgot about "All The Beautiful Worlds". Although it sounds very The Wild Heart, evidence points to it actually being a very early song from Rock A Little. I have percussion guides dated October 1983 for Bobbye Hall to put overdubs onto "All The Beautiful Worlds" that month. That's why I think "All The Beautiful Worlds" truly is an early Rock A Little recording, much like "One More Big Time Rock And Roll Star", which was recorded in July 1983.

Rock A Little is so special to me! I still remember hearing "Talk To Me" on the radio for the first time in October 1985, on a dark and rainy night. I thought Stevie's newest voice was just incredible, all raspy and wild! Then, when I got the 45, I was in heaven with the glorious epic, "One More Big time Rock And Roll Star".

To this day, Rock A Little is Stevie's most listenable album for me in terms of variety and flow. So many different sounds and emotions... epic!

This era through Street Angel always makes me sad. You can hear the deterioration of the songwriting and vocals through this period. I Can't Wait is probably the last great rocker (with the Bella Donna/Wild Heart vocal) we will ever get.

Weren't "These Dreams" and "Don't Come Around Here No More" meant for this album? So many missed opportunities on this record. :distress:

maybe im remembering wrong...but wasnt TTM released to radio way before the actual 45 was released, like in early Sept?? idk...but everytime i heard it on the radio i always caught it half way through...around the 2 verse. and the "ive shown you all my cards" part, we thought she was saying "ive shown you...oh my god!" lol! i still sing it that way.

my first listen to OMBTRARS when the 45 came out, was thru huge stereo speakers...those opening chords and Stevies voice echoing was amazing. those same emotions come back everytime i listen to that song.
"Undah-covaaaaaaaaaaah" and the guitar behind her...i cant put it into words

the radio stations in Ohio never played the album version of ICW on the radio that i can recall, but i do remember hearing the extended remix on the radio once when the 12" was released in early summer of 86.

aah such sweet memories. can't believe its been 25 years!

What about What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You? And I know Joan of Arc was Tango, but I heard it was originally written for RAL??? And Ooh Ooh Baby? I always thought that was RAL too.

It's interesting... I used to really hate Rock A Little. I thought it was extremely dated and cheesy, and that Stevie's performances from that era were just total train wrecks lol. As time has passed though, I've come to just adore everything Rock A Little. There was so much passion in that era. Stevie didn't hold back, and wasn't afraid of musical and vocal experimentation. The album itself is just pure fun to me now... dated in the GOOD way. And Rock A Little was the last tour we saw Stevie's passionate side. Rock A Little seems to be the only Stevie album I've been playing this year in fact. Happy Birthday Rock A Little!!! :D

I effing LOVE Rock A Little! Just yesterday I was going through my unsorted files of mp3's and found 3 discs of RAL outtakes & demos (tho I think some of em are actually Wild Heart), there were a bunch I already had but some of em were "new", it made my day.
On those discs were also Rock-A-Bye Baby, All These Years, Night Gallery, Mabel Normand, City Of Hope and Gypsy Beggars.

I remembering the raw emotion in Stevie's voice and wondering what her pain was. I supposed it could have still been Robin's 1982 death, but Stevie sounded so heartbroken.

We wouldn't learn until 1989, in the Refelctions From The Other Side Of The Mirror interview, that some man had dumped Stevie in 1984, sending her into a huge writing spur. Two years later, in 1991, Stevie even revealed that man's name: Joe Walsh, surprising Stevie fans everywhere. (She sorta revealed it in the liner notes to TimeSpace, but not completely).

On Rock A Little, it sounds to me like Stevie is trying to laugh through her pain sometimes, and then cry some more.

And the song "Rock A Little"... Wow. Well, I love the long version, but, honestly, the album version is the killer, with that opening rasp: "Sometimes it rages... rock a little..." Stevie is SO intense! "Rock A Little" remains on of my favourite songs of all time.

Oh, Mike!!! That's exactly the chills I got hearing the parts you're describing of "One More Big Time Rock And Roll Star"~~!!!!! Just Stevie and Joe's guitar the first time, and the the second time with Stevie overdubbing herself and with the girls... That was SO totally different for Stevie!!! Just an incredible epic song! Oh, where "music lover" rolls right into the second "Undercover......"

When I make my own Rock A Little CDs, I always put "One More Big Time Rock And Roll Star" after "Some Become Strangers" and right before "Talk To Me". It fits SO perfectly!

Here's one of the track listings when I make an extended Rock A Little CD, using official releases.

1. I Can't Wait
2. Mirror, Mirror
3. Rock A Little
4. Sister Honey
5. Reconsider Me
6. I Sing For The Things
7. Imperial Hotel
8. Some Become Strangers
9. One More Big Time Rock And Roll Star
10. Talk To Me
11. The Nightmare
12. Battle Of The Dragon
13. If I Were You
14. Are You Mine?
15. No Spoken Word
16. Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You?

Rock a Little will always be special to me because it was the album where I first started liking Stevie. "I Can't Wait' was the first song I liked by her. I was 11 when I first heard it. Of course, later, I realized I'd heard other songs by Stevie and liked them, but with ICW, I knew who she was. I didn't know she was in Fleetwood Mac until TITN. Lucky for me, the band she was in included my very favorite musician...Lindsey Buckingham!!!

oh yes yes yes!
music lovaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhooooooohhhhhhhundaaahhhhhcovaaaaaahh
and what is the line after all that??
ooh owww heey kaaay mhaaay?
i have no idea what shes saying but i love it!

sounds like a good track list...which Are You Mine? are you using?

That's just about exactly how I'd translate it!!! :)

"Are You Mine?" ~ I usually use the version from the August 1987 Rock Stars radio interview, even if the intro is shortened. Mainly I use it since that version is a duet and there are no duets on Rock A Little. Also, Billy is listed in the credits for Rock A Little, so it's kinda keeping with the liner notes. In the interview, Stevie makes it seem as if this was the version she wanted on Rock A Little. Also, I'm trying to use only official releases for this version of Rock A Little.

Other times I'll use the solo Stevie version from the Masters. Billy plays guitar still, but doesn't sing. The intro is complete and Stevie's a little raspier, which I love.

But... since Stevie didn't write it, I'm thinking she wanted "Are You Mine?" to be the duet version, since it was a shout-out to her grandfather, Jess, whom she used to sing the song with when she was young.