Leather and lace: how Stevie Nicks created a new musical language

[michelej1]

This is the quote re the title:

“I had already decided that the record was going to be called Bella Donna. With my previous boyfriend, who was an engineer on Tusk, I had gone to Chile for six weeks after finishing recording Tusk. I met his mother, who was just a marvelous lady; she became like Bella Donna to me. She’d been around when the military coup happened, and had been in love with a man who, when the government fell, was banished to France or face life in prison. She told me this story one night, and I just decided right there that my first solo record was going to be called Bella Donna.

I knew it meant ‘beautiful woman’, but also that it’s a poisonous root. People use it for healing, but if you take too much, you can die. So I thought: This is the perfect double-edged sword title for the record. So the idea was handed to me on a little silver tray with some toast and blackberry jam by the sweetest lady.”