Past Lives

[rubylounge]

I think if Stevie had a past life one was in the Victorian age. The capes and dresses that she wears and the fact that she never really smiles in pictures. In the 1800's people did not smile in photographs. During this time photographs replaced portrait painting, and for early photographs and portrait paintings both you didn't want to smile because you were going to be sitting there for a loooooooong time. You wanted a nice relaxed expression so that your muscles wouldn't get tired. Eventually photographic film got fast enough that you didn't need to sit there for a long time, but by then the standard was in place. You smile because you were brought up that people should smile in photographs. They didn't smile because they were brought up that people didn't smile in photographs.Photos way back when were often formal things, for which social norms considered smiling to be inappropriate.

Stevie on her past lives:
I think I spent a lot of time in old churches, like a monk. I'm very comfortable around that kind of music, with that kind of creeping around, with being very quiet. My ballet teacher believes that my head was cut off in another life, too. I totally give with my body except for my neck. Even if I go to the beauty salon, I can't put my head back. They have to hold it or it will drop. The same thing happens when I dance or get a massage. It's very weird.
~Stevie Nicks, Playboy, July 1982

[On why she doesn't like to talk about her past lives] I think that side of your consciousness is sort of its own thing, and I don't want to bring that too much into this life. It's like a quiet inspiration.
~Stevie Nicks, Creem Magazine, 1982