"Beauty And The Beast" ~ Tusk Outtake

[mikebise]

One thing I really love about Stevie is how her songs can be interpreted in so many different ways through the years. Like "If You Were My Love" and "Smile At You" through the years, all so different and yet I love them all!

So, while the version of "Beauty And The Beast" on The Wild Heart remains one of my favourite Stevie performances of all time, I was just listening to the unreleased version which was axed from Tusk, and I have chills afterwards!

Written in 1978 about her failed secret romance with Mick (and demoed for the first time here in Dallas, along with "Sara"), listening to this version from 1978/1979 just makes me want to cry, it's so raw and chilling. When Stevie's voice catches as she sings:

"Two children much too blind
To see...
Oh, well, I would fall in your shadow...
I believe..."

Followed by a Stevie Moment. You know those, when Stevie's voice connects with the words she's lived and written down in her pain. I just die on this version when Stevie goes:

"We come from different worlds
But we are the same!
I never doubted your beauty ~ I've changed!
I never doubted your beauty
I've changed!
I've... I've...
I've changed...
I've changed...
I've changed..."

As amazed as I was when I first heard the album version of "Beauty And The Beast" in June 1983, I got that same feeling when I heard the Tusk outtake in September 1998 for the first time. Stevie is so incredible, and I'm so glad I discovered her music so long ago, and that I still get as much pleasure from listening to her now.

I love Stevie's music so much!