Interesting Interview with Word Magazine

[fumidesigns]

Originally Posted by glamorousnymph

"I lost my 60s to the iPad... it would have been most fertile time as a recording artist. The Apple store just kept upping my collection."

___________________ I'm done! Lmbao!

[LilyRose]

Originally Posted by glamorousnymph

"Everyone said it wasn't like a REAL computer baby, it wasn't addictive, so I just used it whenever I needed a boost."

"I lost my 60s to the iPad... it would have been most fertile time as a recording artist. The Apple store just kept upping my collection."

"If you want to get an iPad, you'd better start putting some money in an account now for the repairs. Because AppleCare will NOT want to pay for your repairs when the thing ruptures in a few years.

I can just hear it now.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by glamorousnymph

I just listened to Calumny again and you are right, the way she sings that part makes it sound like it really comes from her heart... and, you know, maybe it does. After all, she's known heartache and men like that, and her own nephew wrote the song. Maybe it's an adopted song she loves like one of her own. I know what you mean about that disappointment, though. Felt it many times, but I usually try to rationalize it as I did above.

Funny how Christine co-wrote songs with others, but after the Legendary album, she didn't do many covers for most of her career. With Calumny and Northern Star, even as I love them I am thinking, "Dan, I didn't want that to be yours!"

Some people are great at interpreting songs. Elvis was. Tim McGraw is. But there's something about a songwriter who sings his/her own stuff that really pulls me in.

And I do think that many times the writer wants you to know what inspired the song. They had something they wanted to say and they wanted you to hear it. It's great if you get something personal out of the Dixie Chicks Taking the Long Way album, but I think they wanted you to hear their story about censorship, blacklisting, blackballing and cruelty when you listened to the music. Natalie said she got choked up almost every time she sang Not Ready to Make Nice and I really think she wanted the audience to reflect on 9/11 , the war, the First Amendment and what she perceives as her struggle when she belted out those words and not their own disappointing prom dates.

With Stevie, she has been focusing on the personal meanings of her songs since the seventies. Even those songs with universal implications like Illume are described in personal terms, her being on tour, waking up, smelling the smoke. She occasionally steps back and allows you to apply your own meaning to her words, saying, "Everyone thinks the song is about them (Sara) and I just let them think it." Once in awhile, she'll say she doesn't remember what it means or it means nothing (GDW, GDW, IDWTK), but most of the time she'll tell you exactly what it means to her and she's been doing that for 30 years. I do think she intends for her songs to offer insight into her soul, her thoughts and the meaning between her lines. I don't think she'd feel that the constant analysis of her love life, even if way off the mark, is a bastardization of her art. Christine might feel that way, but not Stevie.

When Stevie introduced FWIW at the Wiltern and talked about traveling with the Heartbreakers, said she had the time of her life and we should make of that what we would, I am certain that she wanted the audience to wonder if it was about Tom Petty when she sang that song. I think she put it out there deliberately.

On the other hand, when songs are less subjective and give us more general reflections on human nature, I think we talk about them accordingly.

When we have discussed lines like, "you can consume all the beauty in the room. I know you can. I've seen you do it," on these boards, it's in terms of people we know who have done that. Heartbreakers. Manipulators. People who deny that they're enticing you. Actually, for me the line reminds me of a Henry James story The Sacred Fount about people at a party who sap energy and confidence from each other, in some paranormal way. But TISL invites that kind of open-ended conversation because it is quite generic. Most of Stevie's songs are more specific. It's no surprise that they generate questions about the writer herself.

Michele

[GoldDustWoman22]

Originally Posted by michelej1

For me, it's rarely just a song all the way through that speaks to me. It's usually a line and the way that it's sung that gets me going. For instance, I was listening to Stumbling In the other day and just the way Quatro sings, "I may have been young, but honey that's not what I wanted to be," sets me off on a tangent about feeling like the naive one in the relationship; being discounted; possessing adult emotions without the experience needed to control them; perceived sexual immaturity. All those things start racing through my mind, memories from my youth, and they probably wouldn't have, if the singer had delivered the line differently.

That's how it is with Stevie's songs. There's a certain passion or catch in her voice the way she sings a line or a chorus that kind of elevates the whole song and makes a simple sentence take on the meaning of a book. And I guess the more I know about the creation of a song, the more certain I become that the little catch I thought I heard in the delivery was not my imagination and really had the same meaning for the singer as it did for me.

I don't know why this should matter, but it does. For instance, I was so taken by Calumny and when I grabbed the liner notes and saw that Christine didn't write it, but her nephew did, I admit it bothered me. That pain in her voice when he tore the petals one by one, testing their love to prove that it's done . . . I somehow wanted to think that that pain was real, not just the work of a skilled vocalist. When you think the ache you hear is genuine, it changes the music. Makes it a story, not just a song.

Michele

This exactly. There are times when I am listening to a song, seemingly not worried about anything and when someone sings a certain phrase or line of a song, all of the sudden I'm choked up. This happened when I was listening to "Storms" the other day. I had heard the song quite a few times before and thought I was totally fine. All of the sudden when she got to line "So I try to say goodbye my friend. I'd like to leave you with something warm. But never have I been a blue calm at sea; I've always been a storm." I lost it. All emotional control was gone and today I still can't figure out why I lost it...just the emotion in her voice and the way she sounded almost in tears just made me super emotional.

As for the personal stories with the song I think knowing that the artist went through something personal and that this song was truly from their heart. I believe hearing what they went through in order to make this piece of art almost makes it easier to be more vulnerable and emotional when listening to their songs.

[glamorousnymph]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Funny how Christine co-wrote songs with others, but after the Legendary album, she didn't do many covers for most of her career. With Calumny and Northern Star, even as I love them I am thinking, "Dan, I didn't want that to be yours!"

Some people are great at interpreting songs. Elvis was. Tim McGraw is. But there's something about a songwriter who sings his/her own stuff that really pulls me in.

-snip-

When Stevie introduced FWIW at the Wiltern and talked about traveling with the Heartbreakers, said she had the time of her life and we should make of that what we would, I am certain that she wanted the audience to wonder if it was about Tom Petty when she sang that song. I think she put it out there deliberately.

On the other hand, when songs are less subjective and give us more general reflections on human nature, I think we talk about them accordingly.

Northern Star was his, too? Talented writer; after checking out the album on YouTube yesterday, that and Calumny were my favorite tracks.

I agree, there's something about hearing the songs directly from the songwriter. Example: Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty" was covered by people with much better voices (Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, and Emmylou Harris, another great interpreter) but I prefer listening to Townes sing it himself, because he wrote it, and because of the lifestyle he led, his mental illness and alcoholism, I think he sang about "down and out" lives in very knowing and touching way.

Was Stevie referring to the tour w/The Heartbreakers around 1981, or later? Hmm! The is very interesting. Maybe she was trying to throw people off the Dallas scent, although she has said in interviews, "Dallas Taylor was there the whole time."

[LilyRose]

Originally Posted by michelej1

When Stevie introduced FWIW at the Wiltern and talked about traveling with the Heartbreakers, said she had the time of her life and we should make of that what we would, I am certain that she wanted the audience to wonder if it was about Tom Petty when she sang that song. I think she put it out there deliberately.

Michele

I haven't watched the Wiltern video in a while, so I may be wrong, but I think the story about being on the road with the Heartbreakers had more to do with her introduction of Mike Campbell than the song FWIW.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by LilyRose

I haven't watched the Wiltern video in a while, so I may be wrong, but I think the story about being on the road with the Heartbreakers had more to do with her introduction of Mike Campbell than the song FWIW.

Yes, she was introducing Mike Campbell, after talking about the badge Tom gave her and how he made her an honorary Heartbreaker. Combined with the fond reference to Tom Petty, her bus trip with the Heartbreakers and the words of the song, I got the Tom Petty suggestive vibe.

Michele

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by glamorousnymph

Northern Star was his, too? Talented writer; after checking out the album on YouTube yesterday, that and Calumny were my favorite tracks.

They are my 2 favorites on the album as well. Michele

[glamorousnymph]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yes, she was introducing Mike Campbell, after talking about the badge Tom gave her and how he made her an honorary Heartbreaker. Combined with the fond reference to Tom Petty, her bus trip with the Heartbreakers and the words of the song, I got the Tom Petty suggestive vibe.

Michele

This link says FWIW was inspired by the tour with Petty, and tells the story of the introduction basically the way you did, Michele.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/stevi...ith-tom-petty/

[LilyRose]

Originally Posted by glamorousnymph

This link says FWIW was inspired by the tour with Petty, and tells the story of the introduction basically the way you did, Michele.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/stevi...ith-tom-petty/

Again, they got that quote from The Wiltern when she was introducing Mike. FWIW is definitely about the Street Angel tour love affair.

[glamorousnymph]

Originally Posted by LilyRose

Again, they got that quote from The Wiltern when she was introducing Mike. FWIW is definitely about the Street Angel tour love affair.

Ah, so the song wasn't really inspired by the Petty tour, then, as the headline suggested. Sheesh!

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yes, she was introducing Mike Campbell, after talking about the badge Tom gave her and how he made her an honorary Heartbreaker. Combined with the fond reference to Tom Petty, her bus trip with the Heartbreakers and the words of the song, I got the Tom Petty suggestive vibe.

Michele

For the record, Stevie never said she went on a bus tour with Tom Petty. That is very leading. At the Wiltern show, she made a separate comment about spending the "best summer" of her life on a bus and told the audience to interpret that however they wanted. Of course, she knew everyone would jump to conclusions after her intro of Mike Campbell. She certainly didn't tour on a bus with Tom Petty in 1981 -- and even if she did ride on a bus in 2006 (which I doubt - *see below*) we already know FWIW was written about the tour she did right after rehab and the title is a nod to Dallas Taylor (former CSN drummer), her drug counselor during that time - a time when she said she was not in any condition to be performing sober in front of thousands of people.
_____________

*Tom Petty & Heartbreakers tour info:
Ben gave me a little insight into how a modern-day Heartbreakers tour happens, and it’s quite an amazing production. Instead of traveling across the country in a luxurious tour bus, Tom and the boys stake out in one city and “set up camp” in a hotel. Everyday they board the private Heartbreaker’s jet and fly from their home base to wherever that night’s show is. Immediately after the show the band boards the plane again and they head back to their hotel (currently in Washington DC), get up and do it all over again the next day.

[1sttimelongtime]

Originally Posted by glamorousnymph

"Everyone said it wasn't like a REAL computer baby, it wasn't addictive, so I just used it whenever I needed a boost."

"I lost my 60s to the iPad... it would have been most fertile time as a recording artist. The Apple store just kept upping my collection."

"If you want to get an iPad, you'd better start putting some money in an account now for the repairs. Because AppleCare will NOT want to pay for your repairs when the thing ruptures in a few years."

I can just hear it now.

This is too funny!! Where is it said that she owns an ipad!? I'd love to read about it!

[glamorousnymph]

So, when was this best summer, then, I wonder? She couldn't really be talking about the SA tour, could she? I mean, Dallas aside, she was just out of rehab, overweight, insecure...

1sttimelongago, the iPad info was given earlier in this thread. I don't think there has been a story about it.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by glamorousnymph

So, when was this best summer, then, I wonder? She couldn't really be talking about the SA tour, could she? I mean, Dallas aside, she was just out of rehab, overweight, insecure...

See, to me the song encompasses her entire career. So, who knows when that "best summer" was? Didn't they tour on a bus the first year 1975 in Fleetwood Mac? Could be that. Could be her Enchanted tour was her "best summer" on a bus...