Quote:
Originally Posted by On Ice
This is a great thread, I think the success of the Wild Heart comes off Bella Donna's coattails and Stand Back, without those, it would not have reached what it did. That said, so much potential and there was absolutely no reason at the time to abandon that great Bella Donna sound that defined her as a solo artist. It needed about three older songs to balance out the new writing which had noticeably changed in style, quality and interest. One track that rarely get s mentioned but are great songs are You Like Me, which the Some Become Strangers Brothers recorded. Also a reworked Baby Doll was also good. Gate and Garden is notable for the beautiful vocal and Bittan piano work, for that, it deserves a spot, but needed better lyrics. Would love to include Sorcerer as recorded on the reissue, not sure where it would fit, but it's an all time favourite of mine. Also, the title track would be better as a tighter song coming in at under 4 minutes, it doesn't have the sprawling Sara quality to make it a long song. With that my Wild Heart is an 11 song album:
Side One:
Stand Back
If Anyone Falls
Violet and Blue
Gate and Garden
Enchanted (with a slower Destiny start)
Sleeping Angel
Wild Heart. (3:47 )
You Like Me
Sable on Blond (reissue version, shorten about 45 sec-1 Minute)
Nothing Ever Changes
All the Beautiful Worlds
Potentially unpopular opinion: Besides her writing credits, no Sandy Stewart keyboard spots.
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She and Jimmy were mostly broken up..... after his disastrous trip to France with her when she joined up with FM at the chateau to record Mirage.. and he and LB fought and Jimmy left.... their relationship was never the same, and then she was gone for months on the road with FM... and her drugs and ego.... she fought with him a LOT on WH and wasn't as willing to listen to his advice like she had on BD. She was very nervous making BD and knew if it wasn't a success it would be a very public failure. Once it was so successful, she got more self-confident to the point of stubborn and cocky. She didn't take advice so well, and she didn't want to listen to him. Stevie is generally, sadly, NOT the best producer of her own material and part of the decline of each of her albums after BD is her having too much clout and ability to override producers who knew better.
WH was the start of this downward trend.
Agree totally about Sandy Stewart's playing.