Thrown Down

[sparky]

Hi Everybody

Sparky here. I just joined after reading furiously for the past few days. The SYW frenzy has caught me up and here I am knee deep in the hoopla.

I hope it's okay to start a thread on a "file shared" song. At the risk of public evisceration I am going ahead. I have listened to Thrown Down a number of times and my head is about to explode if I don't comment about it.

First off, I was quite surprised to see that this song was included on the record. After hearing the demos from TISL, I was not inspired. IMO, every other song was stronger. Space Needle, in particular, sends chills up my spine. That is one of the most direct, brutally honest Stevie songs I have ever heard. (Even though the reference to The Space Needle still doesn't completely make sense to me yet, but I digress...)

Thrown Down, to me, just didn't go anywhere musically. Or lyrically. I didn't see what could be done with it.

Lindsey did an amazing job on this song. The music is rich in texture, and the tempo has got a great gallop to it. The minute the vocals start and the guitar picking starts, I was filled with a deja vu of Heart's Dreamboat Annie. The picking is very similar. The filler riffs in between vocals lines are genius. Lindsey's sense of melody and ability to link sections of a song are about unparalleled in producers. Only John Leventhal (who has produced Shawn Colvin and Rosanne Cash) comes close. Lindsey is a master in creating the glue that can hold a song together and enrich the atmosphere. He has a magic touch in decorating a song with these beautiful guitar flourishes that not only accent a song but help weld it together. His work on this song really transformed it from the demo version.

It is a fascinating and illuminating thing to watch and experience.
Even though the demos are not complete - and not really meant for public consumption - I love them. As someone who writes and records they have taught me volumes about writing and production. Comparing demos and final versions is like studying for a PhD in production.

Back to the song.

The guitar solo is powerful and works as a great bridge. The great extra drumming from Mick is a fantastic touch.

I have to say that the backup vocals at the end are suspect. It will be interesting to find out who they are. They don't really blend. They're innocuous, but are out of left field. Perhaps they'll grow on me.

As much as I like it, I don't think this is a great song. I just don't think it is Stevie's best work. It almost redeems itself in the end. But I wanted it to say more. My favorite Stevie songs possess an almost cinematic, epic quality. Their subject matter is intimate and emotional, then they are framed in grandeur and myth.....and BOOM, a classic. This song doesn't seem high stakes, and somehow misses the mark. Especially in the chorus. But, time may change my opinion. Her songs, and delivery, are frequently so flat out beautiful that with time they become as important to me as they probably were to her when they were written.

My jury isn't quite back.

I am dying to know what others think.

Sparky

p.s. Forgive me, I don't always go on this long.