The Dealer a/k/a Mistress Of My Fate

[gldstwmn]

A lot of the interviews seem to focus on drugs because the short sighted interviewers (Matt Lauer comes to mind) keep asking about it over and over.

[darklinensuit]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
A lot of the interviews seem to focus on drugs because the short sighted interviewers (Matt Lauer comes to mind) keep asking about it over and over.

Exactly. Stevie is such a lady not to roll her eyes and say, You know I AM past those days by quite a bit! Would you mind asking me about my songs?

- Jake

[Johnny Stew]

Originally posted by darklinensuit
Exactly. Stevie is such a lady not to roll her eyes and say, You know I AM past those days by quite a bit! Would you mind asking me about my songs?

Ooh, but that reminds me of her MTV interview with Chris Connelly, right before 'The Dance' aired.
He was asking her about her drug problems, and she had an annoyed tone in her voice when she said, "Well, it wasn't just my problem."

Typically though, she talks about it with complete candor and without even a hint of annoyance in her voice.

[darklinensuit]

Originally posted by trackaghost
LOL! David, when I first read that I thought "C3-PO, what the hell has Star Wars got to do with this?" Blame my lack of knowledge of musical instruments.

Anyway, do we all agree this is not Tom Petty but Walter Egan on the demo? I think it's Walter for sure.

And PenguinHead, my jaw dropped at your remarks. You make some valid points, afterall I never thought we'd see The Tower/Goodbye Baby on a record but "silly, simplistic and short-sighted"? I personally think it's fair to say that Stevie cares very much about what people think. For years she claimed Gold Dust Woman was about groupies and Lindsey has said himself that she's very conservative about certain things.
I couldn't tell you why The Dealer has never been released but I wouldn't be surprised if the lyrics did have something to do with it. When The Other Side Of The Mirror was released for example, the only things Stevie seemed to be asked about was her drug addiction and regrets about not having a child. I'm sure she wants to put that all behind her now.
Stevie can be quite cagey about certain things as well as surprisingly honest about other things.
This is all speculation anyway but I hope that one day, like The Tower, The Dealer will turn up on a Stevie or Mac album.

Trackaghost, you are now my official speech writer. Thanks for writing what I meant.

- Jake

[Johnny Stew]

I don't think Stevie is ever dishonest about the meanings behind her songs, I think that it's just a matter of them being about so many different things (Lindsey: "I often think she's writing about me at first, but then I'm not sure."), that she sometimes chooses to discuss only one side of it.

I'll bet there ARE reference to groupies in "Gold Dust Woman," alongside those cocaine references. But in the '70s she chose to only discuss the groupie aspect.
She even alludes to that herself, in the 'Making of Rumours' documentary... "I stopped doing cocaine 10 years ago, so I can talk about this now."

She seemed to like "The Dealer" quite a bit, having recorded it for more than one album... so it probably didn't get released simply because she wrote something newer and wanted to include that instead, or because she and/or her producers felt that another song added the texture they were looking for, better than "The Dealer" could.

[goldie]

Can someone point me in the direction of the Rumours version? I've heard the Tusk version and the Belladonna version - but I'm not sure if I've heard the Rumours one!

[dissention]

Originally posted by trackaghost
Lindsey has said himself that she's very conservative about certain things.

But Stevie has gone on record as saying that she is incredibly radical about lots of things, too!

[snwriter]

I just listened to The Master of My Fate demo. I think it's Walter Egan--not TP.

[PenguinHead]

Another thing...how do we even know for sure that the song was officially entitled "The Dealer?" It is possible that years ago some collecter labelled it as such, and it became the title that was passed down and generally accepted as official. My bet is that it is probably "Mistress of My Fate" or "Mistress of My Faith" or "Master of My Fate," or something similar. Makes more sense and sounds a hell of a lot better.