The Ghosts are Gone

[David]

I didn't take much to this song, musically. The riff does remind me of '70s hard rock, but I never much liked that, either.

The vocal line needs more movement across the staff. Something ....

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by David

I didn't take much to this song, musically. The riff does remind me of '70s hard rock, but I never much liked that, either.

The vocal line needs more movement across the staff. Something ....

Yeah, I love me some rockin' Stevie that's for sure but at first I thought the riff was unoriginal as well - an underwhelming throw back. But I've come to appreciate the riff much more 4 months into the record, especially the ending (and Stevie does not have many songs with a signature guitar riff that really stand out outside FM (i.e., Rhiannon, Gold Dust Woman) besides "Edge" , so GAG is refreshing just in that fact. But also the riff is raw and has an alternative reminiscence of something between The Cult meets The Smiths and some of Morrissey's latest solo works over the last 5 years. I do love the song & she needed a decent rocker on the record ala "Fall From Grace", but my only complaint about GAG is that I have a hard time connecting to the lyrics They're not horrible, just not very original or special as her kiss-off songs usually are i.e., Long Way To Go, Fall From Grace.

As an aside, I too think this song is about her coming to terms & peace about her relationship with Joe, putting it squarely in sober perspective and releasing the ghosts of that relationship for good! That's a really long way to go to say goodbye and good riddance just 2 years after outing him as the love of her life in 05'-09'

[darklinensuit]

Originally Posted by tabruns

The intro and outro guitar part just throws me off the song. I just can't get into that part. I like the long drawl on "heerrrrre" and such...that gives the song some character.

Interesting. I like the sound of the riff, but not the long drawl that you describe.
But my big problem with the song is that the riff needs Stevie singing along to it. I make up lyrics whenever I hear it. A Stevie solo song should emphasize Stevie, not a guitar. Even the great guitar parts on "Edge" & "I Can't Wait" don't pull focus from Stevie.

I think GAG is no better or worse than her rockers on the Street Angel album. It fits well with "Love is Like a River" and "Listen to the Rain".

- Jake

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Christopher

I do love the song & she needed a decent rocker on the record ala "Fall From Grace", but my only complaint about GAG is that I have a hard time connecting to the lyrics They're not horrible, just not very original or special as her kiss-off songs usually are i.e., Long Way To Go, Fall From Grace.

One thing that I love about GAG is that it usurps FFG as a concert number. I'm so glad to see Fall gone. I appreciated Stevie wanting to keep something edgy in her setlist, whether the audience knew it or not. I was proud of her for that, but Fall did nothing for me. I feel that Ghosts Are Gone is more unique and its sound more catchy, distinct and diverse. To me, with Fall, Stevie tried to create with voice and emotion, the spark that a rock song should have built into its music.

Michele

[BallerinaAngel]

I LOVE this song!!!! One of my favorites from this CD! Even my 5 year old daughter loves it....it's her favorite new Stevie song. She's partial to the rocking Stevie songs since Edge is her absolute fav. I think I raised her right!

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by michelej1

One thing that I love about GAG is that it usurps FFG as a concert number. I'm so glad to see Fall gone. I appreciated Stevie wanting to keep something edgy in her setlist, whether the audience knew it or not. I was proud of her for that, but Fall did nothing for me. I feel that Ghosts Are Gone is more unique and its sound more catchy, distinct and diverse. To me, with Fall, Stevie tried to create with voice and emotion, the spark that a rock song should have built into its music.

Michele

Yeah, GAG does usurp FFG as a concert number. These songs are pretty opposite, too. FFG has way too many lyrics and GAG has just enough. You get to enjoy the music and let it carry you. One of the best rockers she has ever done. Such a Godsend on this album.

P.S. She doesn't have anything from TISL she should play. This album usurps that album just about completely.

[ontheEdgeof17]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

P.S. She doesn't have anything from TISL she should play. This album usurps that album just about completely.

Oh really?

There is a thing known as a remix or an rearrangement. Something Stevie has never heard of. A lot of artists do it. It makes a song fresh and new. I wish she would do something like that.

[jannieC]

Originally Posted by David

I didn't take much to this song, musically. The riff does remind me of '70s hard rock, but I never much liked that, either.

The vocal line needs more movement across the staff. Something ....

I didn't care for it at all until I saw her perform live- love it now.

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by michelej1

One thing that I love about GAG is that it usurps FFG as a concert number. I'm so glad to see Fall gone. I appreciated Stevie wanting to keep something edgy in her setlist, whether the audience knew it or not. I was proud of her for that, but Fall did nothing for me. I feel that Ghosts Are Gone is more unique and its sound more catchy, distinct and diverse. To me, with Fall, Stevie tried to create with voice and emotion, the spark that a rock song should have built into its music.

Michele

I'm the opposite. I love "Fall From Grace". The speed of its rock really takes you to the edge in the opening, and I love it that the song ends with a whole new verse. The lyrical allusions to being on stage and the still tense relationship with Lindsey - even during their rekindling - make for a great song.

I like "Ghosts Are Gone" a lot lyrically. I can't agree with whoever it was that said that the lyrics aren't imaginative. I actually think the lyrics of "Ghosts Are Gone" are better than the lyrics to "Fall From Grace". I like the rocking sound. I just can't get used to the loud guitar at the beginning and especially at the end of the song: For one thing, its not that catchy to me. For another, it sounds totally added on over the song, especially at the end. I find myself constantly trying to hear the song under the riff at the end. If there's one song on this album that needed an edit, IMO, this is it.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

P.S. She doesn't have anything from TISL she should play. This album usurps that album just about completely.

I think Love Is fits into the set pretty nicely. And I'm actually sorry that Sorcerer is gone.

Michele

[Hawkeye]

Originally Posted by fumidesigns

Helllllloooooooooo! This song rooooooooocks! I told yall this from day one!

Yall will learn to listen to MiMi!!! Lol!

I don't know. I think I "May" have told yall this first. It's in the Initial reactions to IYD thread and I call GAG possibly her best song ever. Just saying.

That being said, this song has fallen a bit for me. Now that I step back and have had time to let it sink in, Fall From Grace is still the most rocking Stevie song of this century and it is FAR better live. The ideal situation is the wiltern where she did them both. And I do think shes doing the right thing by playing GAG instead of FFG on this tour and hope she continues to do so, so as many people as possible can hear GAG live, since we have ALL heard FFG pretty much. But if she ever does one of her random tours down the road (not saying I want her do but "if" ) FFG should come back and GAG should leave. It's not an In Your Dreams lifer song like Sorcerer and FFG have become for TISL.

And then Love Is should be removed and For What Its Worth could be the new closing song.

[LikeAWillow]

Hands down my least favorite song on the album. The reviewer who said that it sounded like a ZZ Top cast off had it right, and I can't say I have a high opinion of "good" ZZ Top songs. The track sounds...forced...to me somehow, and the lyrics aren't just uninspired, they're completely unevocative and impossible to either listen to or remember.

[WildHearted]

The end of the song kind of redeems it for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't really like it much at all. The guitar is nice but doesn't affect me greatly or anything.

With Stevie's lyrics, because they are oftentimes so... abstract? (I guess.. you guys know what I mean), it usually doesn't matter if some of the words themselves aren't exactly clear, because I can hear the meaning through them, if that makes sense. Or at least, what I interpret to be the meaning, what it means to be, etc. However, I just don't understand this song, at all, aside from the ghosts being gone, hah. Ultimately the verses just confuse me. I don't dislike the lyrics, but the fact that they still don't make much sense even after being repeated in some variation throughout the whole song.. LikeAWillow is right in that it makes it hard to remember them, and for me, hard to relate to them or attribute a meaning to them.

However, sometimes I have fun sitting in my car trying to figure out what in the world she means. So it's not all bad.

It's one of my least favorites on the album, but I still like harmonizing to it, and like I said, the end redeems it for me. The ending lyrics as it trails off evoke more of a feeling for me than the entire rest of the song.

[chele_belle]

I thought Jim Ladd might be on to something with the meaning of the lyrics to this song when he asked Stevie if it was in response to a song from one of her ex-lovers. He didn't actually come out and state who, and when she didn't catch his draft he said he was maybe reading too much into it, but I think you could read it as a response to Don Henley's "Miss Ghost", from his 2000 album, Inside Job:

On a misbegotten, moonless night
I stumbled in my door
Disgusted with my circumstance
Soaked to every pore
When floating from my bedroom
Came a moaning and a sigh
“Oh, I've had one too many
It's just the wind,” says I

I lit up a cigarette
And I poured a good, stiff drink
You see, I needed to compose myself
I needed time to think
No sooner had I settled down
The moaning came again
Drifting through the silence
Like some otherworldly violin

I bounded up the staircase
I went slippin' and slidin' down the hall
You know, I've been around the whole, wide world
But I was not prepared at all
Uninvited visitor, unsuspecting host
“Well, I see you've made yourself at home.
Good evening, Miss Ghost.”

You're more beautiful than ever
I feel just like a kid
And I commence to trembling
When I think of all the things we did
Skin as pale as marble; lips as red as blood
Imagine my surprise, my dear
I thought that you were gone for good

You look so lovely lying there
All stretched out on your back
But I'm the one who's strung up here
On old temptation's rusty rack
And in the wee small hours
Is when I miss you the most
And I confess it, I have missed you
Miss Ghost

I threw open the window
And I howled at the rain
And I cursed the weakness of the flesh
This breath and bone—and this brute, reptilian brain

What dirty tricks the mind can play
In the lonely dead of night
When you bump into the shadow
Of a faded love that wasn't right

Way down beneath the surface
Far beyond the light of day
So many things lie buried deep
And baby, they should stay that way

Oh, my wicked, little habit
We've really made a mess
Everything's been trivialized
In our vain pursuit of happiness

And even though you've come for me
I won't go back with you
To some temporary heaven
Down some empty, dead-end avenue
But it's been so good to have you here
And I propose a toast
“Here's to seeing through you—
Miss Ghost.”

Or maybe I'm like Jim Ladd and reading too much into it??

[BrownEyedGirl26]

Originally Posted by chele_belle

I thought Jim Ladd might be on to something with the meaning of the lyrics to this song when he asked Stevie if it was in response to a song from one of her ex-lovers. He didn't actually come out and state who, and when she didn't catch his draft he said he was maybe reading too much into it, but I think you could read it as a response to Don Henley's "Miss Ghost", from his 2000 album, Inside Job:

On a misbegotten, moonless night
I stumbled in my door
Disgusted with my circumstance
Soaked to every pore
When floating from my bedroom
Came a moaning and a sigh
“Oh, I've had one too many
It's just the wind,” says I

I lit up a cigarette
And I poured a good, stiff drink
You see, I needed to compose myself
I needed time to think
No sooner had I settled down
The moaning came again
Drifting through the silence
Like some otherworldly violin

I bounded up the staircase
I went slippin' and slidin' down the hall
You know, I've been around the whole, wide world
But I was not prepared at all
Uninvited visitor, unsuspecting host
“Well, I see you've made yourself at home.
Good evening, Miss Ghost.”

You're more beautiful than ever
I feel just like a kid
And I commence to trembling
When I think of all the things we did
Skin as pale as marble; lips as red as blood
Imagine my surprise, my dear
I thought that you were gone for good

You look so lovely lying there
All stretched out on your back
But I'm the one who's strung up here
On old temptation's rusty rack
And in the wee small hours
Is when I miss you the most
And I confess it, I have missed you
Miss Ghost

I threw open the window
And I howled at the rain
And I cursed the weakness of the flesh
This breath and bone—and this brute, reptilian brain

What dirty tricks the mind can play
In the lonely dead of night
When you bump into the shadow
Of a faded love that wasn't right

Way down beneath the surface
Far beyond the light of day
So many things lie buried deep
And baby, they should stay that way

Oh, my wicked, little habit
We've really made a mess
Everything's been trivialized
In our vain pursuit of happiness

And even though you've come for me
I won't go back with you
To some temporary heaven
Down some empty, dead-end avenue
But it's been so good to have you here
And I propose a toast
“Here's to seeing through you—
Miss Ghost.”

Or maybe I'm like Jim Ladd and reading too much into it??

Don really knows how to articulate his feelings through his words! What a great songwriter he is!