TISL, Abuse and Mackenzie Phillips

[vivfox]

Ty: Mackenzie Phillips' new book is entitled High on Arrival and is out now. Reader Leslie e-mails to ask about C.I.'s thoughts on the book and also notes Stevie Nicks' "I Miss You" is mentioned in it and any comment on Nicks' music.

Jim: To clarify, Leslie was just wanting C.I.'s responses?

Ty: Correct.

C.I.: Mackenzie was always a sweet girl and she remains that as an adult. Rebecca's written about this at least three times at her site. In one of her posts, Rebecca noted I first heard about the book's big revelation in 1997. Mackenzie's not lying and part of her healing is talking about what happened. I haven't read the book. I probably won't unless I learn it has a section on Iraq in it. But she's not lying and best of luck to her with her journey. Not said in a kiss off manner, it's just not a topic I want to discuss, the revelation. I will repeat: She is not lying.

Ty: Stevie Nicks' song?

C.I.: "I Miss You" is a song Stevie wrote with Rick Nowels that appears on Trouble In Shangri-La. I have no idea how Mackenzie references it in the book but I'm sure it's done movingly. It's a wonderful song. I've often thought we should have a roundtable here on just that album -- released in 2001 -- because so much of the album was lost on reviewers.

Jim: In what way?

C.I.: It's a strong album and a new generation of music critics had come up, ones who had seen Stevie repeatedly and unfairly attacked. Add in that the space available for reviews in many outlets had shrunk. So reviewers had to telegraph in a limited space that it was an album worth getting but they didn't have time to explore it. "I Miss You" is a wonderful song. "Love Changes," the song right before it on that album, if I remember correctly, is also a very strong song and it's a song that sailed over many people's heads apparently. If you pay attention, Stevie's sketched out the story of an abused woman rejecting that life.

Dona: I'm jumping in because I didn't know that. Where?

C.I.: The chorus is another voice in the song. A younger voice. The verse is the narrator after she's leaving and has left the abusive relationship. The chorus is the woman in the relationship.

Dona: "I only say what you want to hear, When there is conflict, I stay clear, When he was loving I was in tears, He knows my fears."

C.I.: Right. That's during the abuse.

Elaine: "When love changes in the flash of an eye, it leaves people burnin' by the side of the road." Hmm. I hadn't thought about it but, yes, it's right there. "It wasn't that I didn't love you, I just couldn't make you see, That as hard as I tried, To make it better, It was not better for me."

Dona: I wish I had caught that. I sing along with that song constantly and have it my iPod.

Jim: Dona will hate me, but what's the chorus of "I Miss You," just to have that out there since Leslie mentioned the song.

C.I.: "Well I miss you now, I have so many questions, About love and about pain, about strained relationships, About fame as only he could explain it to me." Again, that song and "Love Changes" are on Stevie's Trouble In Shangri-La.

http://thirdestatesundayreview.blogs...oundtable.html