Men in Stevie's song

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by EveryHour

I completely agree and Stevie certainly implied at the time it was about this. "This could be a whole lotta trouble for you!" Look out Lindsey.....

I always thought she said it was about being on tour with Bob Dylan/Tom Petty in Australia?

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by Kelly

Ok. another one. Stand Back. We have all heard the Prince speech fifty bajillion times but who is the MAN she is writing about...the man she is waiting to come to her? "No man came"...No way is it Kim Anderson. You do not write a song like that on a happy wedding night! It sounds like she is waiting for some specific man to come and prevent this disastrous event to me but I may be way off.

Mick Fleetwood.

[Merf]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

Mick Fleetwood.

I think she was talking about Lindsey. I think she honestly thought Lindsey was going to swoop in at the last minute and change her mind and make her not go through with the wedding. But obviously, their relationship was very strained at this time and that was probably only a pipe dream.

When we get this DVD, watch how she watches him during "Stand Back," I've noticed it at every show I've been to.

"I said 'no' to him again and again...."

Again, just one girl's opinion.

[Kelly]

The problem I see with Mick is he was at her wedding. He "did come" and she seems to be talking about someone who did not. Maybe I hear the lyrics differently. I guess Joe Walsh came after the wedding during the tour, so I dunno who it could be. I do not know if she was still that deeply in love with Mick five or six years later..I sort of doubt it. I think Stand Back is an interesting song lyrically and I think there is some reason she has never spoken about its meaning...only shallow mentions about how she made the song and who helped her.

That is the reason I asked about Whole Lotta Trouble..I am not sure I buy what she said in the linear notes. Unless something did happen in Australia that could be a "whole lotta trouble" between her and Petty or Dylan.

[Mari]

Whole Lotta Trouble & Lindsey: it's not just speculation, I'm pretty sure I read it *somewhere*

[Sorcerer386]

Honestly, I never felt Stand Back really related to very much of anything. It just sounds like a crazy argument-type of song, although I do admit a lot of the wedding relationships with the song make sense. But I just felt that if she recorded the song the night she was married, would she have had time to think of the lyrics, as personal as they would be if she meant them to be about the doomed wedding. Then again, she supposedly wrote HAEWAFY in "five minutes," so it is possible. But I just never made much out of Stand Back...I'd think that if it was that deeply involved, she wouldn't be so energized by the song. We'd see more of an angry Stevie a la Gold Dust Woman.

And by the way, any who CAN tell me what Whole Lotta Trouble is about, I'll give you a cookie. Not just what it's about, but sort of a line by line type of thing. This song baffles me more than any other I think.

[Les]

There are some good quotes on SaraRhiannon's site and the In Her Own Words site from Stevie about Stand Back (and lots of other songs).

From In Her Own Words site:

"I got married the day I wrote this song. We were driving to Santa Barbara and a new song by Prince came on, so we pulled over somewhere and got the tape. It just gave me an incredible idea, so I spent many hours that night writing a song about some kind of crazy argument, and it was to become one of the most important of my songs. I've been doing this song for years, Fleetwood Mac does it also, and I never get tired of it. 'Stand Back' has always been my favorite song onstage, because...when it starts, it has an energy that comes from somewhere unknown...and it seems to have no timespace. I've never quite understood this sound....but I have NEVER questioned it. I become a different person, and I like that, because usually I make up my OWN characters...but the lady in 'Stand Back' was not my idea."
-Timespace liner notes

From SaraRhiannon's site:

"'Stand Back' became a real anthem, a real 'I'm tired of listening to all your great advice, 'cause it's gotten me nowhere, so I'm listening to myself now' kind of anthem. So it came slightly out of strength, slightly out of being in love, slightly out of being married, and ever so slightly out of hearing the first three chords of "Little Red Corvette."
~Stevie Nicks, Wild Heart press release, 1983

[darklinensuit]

Originally Posted by chiliD

I recall it wasn't really ABOUT Waylon and Jesse, more that she wrote it FOR Waylon & Jesse...but, by the time she'd finished the song, they'd gotten divorced or were in mid-divorce proceedings. She said that the only other people who could sing it besides Waylon & Jesse would be her & Henley.

It was about two people working in the same business and trying to maintain a relationship, such as Waylon & Jessi and Lindsey and Stevie. She wrote it with them in mind and brought what was familiar to her to the song.
BTW, based on Stevie's comments about the meaning of the song Every Day, it seems to be akin to Leather and Lace even though she didn't write it.

- Jake

[darklinensuit]

RE: Whole Lotta Trouble - I say it's about Lindsey. As I recall, that book Rock Lives features an (original??) interview in which she talks about both the possibility that Lindsey might soon leave FM within days (1987) and the possibility of calling her next album Whole Lotta Trouble (TOSOTM), as if this song was foremost on her mind in those days.

I think Stevie had a blast with Bob & Tom, particularly Bob's meaningful bow to her. Her only hassles were her drugs, her Visa, and, eventually (and supposedly) her management's handling of Letterman's jokes.

RE: Stand Back - There was a great thread last year. I forget who gave a good argument it's Lindsey (though I wonder, could it be Jimmy?) and that the first line is about people not wanting to look at her as she came down the aisle because they hated the idea of the marriage.

- Jake

[EveryHour]

Originally Posted by darklinensuit

RE: Whole Lotta Trouble - I say it's about Lindsey. As I recall, that book Rock Lives features an (original??) interview in which she talks about both the possibility that Lindsey might soon leave FM within days (1987) and the possibility of calling her next album Whole Lotta Trouble (TOSOTM), as if this song was foremost on her mind in those days.

This was the exact interview (I also believe it to have been "original") I was thinking of when I said Stevie strongly implied this song is about LB.

[Kelly]

I think there is definately more to STand Back. I feel her energy is there because the emotional pain is long since over. The marriage ended and today she and Kim are friends, so the turmoil and confusion she felt at the time has faded. Its a bit different from a song like SS where the emotion is still "raw".
Do any of you guys have an opinion on Beautiful Child? I have long wondered if ATBW could be somehow connected to BC because of the line "beautiful childlike victim" in All the Beautiful Worlds. The "fell in love when I was only ten" line in BC confused me for a long time but I have since come to the conclusion that I think she means he fell in love with her when they were very young? Maybe? To keep it on topic, who is the man in BC? I looked at some of her quotes about BC and she said in 1979 that she wrote it "about three years ago" so that would be 76 or 77. Last summer when Stevie did that radio interview in Atlanta she said it was "about a relationship that could never be" and mentioned the year 1979. Confusing.
It is one of my favorite songs but I have no idea who or what she wrote it about.
As far as Whole lotta Trouble...it makes perfect sense that it would be about LB leaving the band. Her use of the word "trouble" is very clever.

[Sorcerer386]

YES! Now the lines of Whole Lotta Trouble are FINALLY starting to make sense to me! Thanks a lot everyone!

[Merf]

Originally Posted by Sorcerer386

YES! Now the lines of Whole Lotta Trouble are FINALLY starting to make sense to me! Thanks a lot everyone!

The lines "You're not my friend/you're not my love/and this is something that we really don't discuss" lead me to believe that both "Whole Lotta Trouble" and "Thousand Days" are about Lindsey. (Though I believe the first verse in Thousand Days is about Prince.)

[EveryHour]

Originally Posted by Kelly

As far as Whole lotta Trouble...it makes perfect sense that it would be about LB leaving the band. Her use of the word "trouble" is very clever.

Interesting point. I wonder if she realized that as a "bonus jab" at LB.