Henley songs about Stevie...

[littlecricket2]

Originally Posted by catinthedark

And Life in the Fast Lane I maintain has got to be about Stevie and Lindsey...

Cat, do you really believe that Stevie and Lindsey were the only attractive, intense couple Don Henley knew who lived life "in the fast lane" in the 70's, when everyone was doing drugs and making and/or listening to rock and roll?

[catinthedark]

Originally Posted by littlecricket2

Cat, do you really believe that Stevie and Lindsey were the only attractive, intense couple Don Henley knew who lived life "in the fast lane" in the 70's, when everyone was doing drugs and making and/or listening to rock and roll?

Uh... no. But there are a whole lot of other lyrics in it that make for the argument that it's about them. And I'm certainly far from the first person who has ever suggested it.

-----------------------------------------------------
He was a hard-headed man he was brutally handsome
And she was terminally pretty

They knew all the right people
They took all the right pills
They threw outrageous parties
They paid heavenly bills
There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face
She pretended not to notice she was caught up in the race
Out every evening until it was light
He was too tired to make it she was too tired to fight about it
------------------------------------------------------------

Like I said... just asking why some people are so sure it's not about them. As a matter of fact, it's the first time I've ever heard anyone say LITFL isn't about them... But I don't purport to be a die hard Eagles fan. That's why I'm askin'!

[HenleyFan]

First of all, you misunderstood what Stevie meant about Hotel California. She didn't mean that the song was about her...but they lived the life. Hotel California is about life in the 70s. Stevie lived during the heady days of the 70s. That doesn't mean the song was written for her.

I'm not trying to be snarky either. Maybe this is the way that Stevie writes songs, but I've noticed that here everyone believes that every song Stevie wrote is about someone famous...someone specific. Why do the people in Life in the Fastlane have to be real? If you've listened to anything Don and Glenn (who also wrote the song and who didn't have a thing with Stevie) have said, the song is partially autobiographical and was partially written to work into the theme of the album. Sometimes they make people up to fit the frame of the song. Why would Don and Glenn decide to write a song about Stevie and Lindsey? That's not giving them a lot of credit as songwriters. Glenn even says that they wanted to write a song about rich people who were miserable...not about Stevie and Lindsey.

The Eagles are very forthcoming about what their songs are about. There's no mystery and they aren't all about the members of Fleetwood Mac.

The

Originally Posted by catinthedark

Uh... no. But there are a whole lot of other lyrics in it that make for the argument that it's about them. And I'm certainly far from the first person who has ever suggested it.

-----------------------------------------------------
He was a hard-headed man he was brutally handsome
And she was terminally pretty

They knew all the right people
They took all the right pills
They threw outrageous parties
They paid heavenly bills
There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face
She pretended not to notice she was caught up in the race
Out every evening until it was light
He was too tired to make it she was too tired to fight about it
------------------------------------------------------------

Like I said... just asking why some people are so sure it's not about them. As a matter of fact, it's the first time I've ever heard anyone say LITFL isn't about them... But I don't purport to be a die hard Eagles fan. That's why I'm askin'!

[catinthedark]

Originally Posted by HenleyFan

The Eagles are very forthcoming about what their songs are about. There's no mystery and they aren't all about the members of Fleetwood Mac.

Groovy. Thanks. Never thought they were.

[EnchantedSLN]

Originally Posted by HenleyFan

The Eagles are very forthcoming about what their songs are about. There's no mystery and they aren't all about the members of Fleetwood Mac.

I've never heard of LITFL being about Stevie and Lindsey until I read it on this board, and I personally don't think there's much in the song to lend that theory credence as opposed to the song being about any other couple the writers knew in the '70s, or about a completely imaginary couple. But considering Don & Stevie had a relationship (short-lived as it may have been), and people often write about what they know (i.e. people and relationships in their lives), it's not completely unreasonable to wonder if she might have inspired or come up as a character in one of his songs at some point . That's not to say every song is about her, or that any given song is literally or exclusively about her.

[sparky]

Originally Posted by HenleyFan

I'm not trying to be snarky either. Maybe this is the way that Stevie writes songs, but I've noticed that here everyone believes that every song Stevie wrote is about someone famous...someone specific.

You got THAT right !

But, Stevie hoots and hollers all the time about writing about people she knows, so it fuels the speculation over who the subjects might be.
That is assuming you're a person who thinks she has ever written a song about anyone other than Lindsey...

[David]

Originally Posted by catinthedark

Uh... no. But there are a whole lot of other lyrics in it that make for the argument that it's about them.

I don't see how those lyrics you posted apply any more specifically to Stevie & Lindsey than they do to hundreds of other power couples doing cocaine & partying in the 1970s. Actually, I think they apply less: Lindsey is on record as having not enjoyed the party scene & mostly having not participated in it, & even Stevie always used to say that she generally preferred not hanging around with the Hollywood crowd at the fancy nightclubs. Certainly she did her fair share of partying, but I think in general she did less than people seem to imagine -- at least in the 1970s. I think she partied more in the 1980s.

And I'm certainly far from the first person who has ever suggested it.

Right. But I had never heard it mentioned before the whole Internet thing started, & once something is posted on the Net, it spreads like wildfire & people encounter it & often assume it's a decades'-old opinion or explanation.

As a matter of fact, it's the first time I've ever heard anyone say LITFL isn't about them.

Are you exaggerating? do you only talk to Stevie fans?

Bottom line is probably that we all carry around these wonderful fictions in our minds about who wrote about what, & we taylor those fictions to suit our desires. We create Grand Narratives -- we all do. I think there's a little bit of Stevie Nicks in Elvis Costello's "The Loved Ones." So much of it is an interpretive gesture, even if it comes out of Stevie's mouth or Don's mouth or Christine's mouth.

I first saw the "Little Lies" video the night MTV announced Lindsey had left the band, & I was hit powerfully by the idea that it was about his growing distance & eventual departure. When Chris was asked about that at the time, she said it wasn't written with that in mind but that the whole developing situation with Lindsey could apply (whatever that meant).

[David]

Originally Posted by HenleyFan

I'm not trying to be snarky either. Maybe this is the way that Stevie writes songs, but I've noticed that here everyone believes that every song Stevie wrote is about someone famous...someone specific.

I think that's a situation that Stevie herself has cultivated over the decades. She has always said, "I don't make up songs" & "All my songs are real," which is Stevie's way of saying that she doesn't typically concoct characters or even situations in song form (the way that Christine, for example, says she does). According to Stevie, there is usually a very specific correlation between a character or a situation in a song of hers & an actual person or people & related situation in her life or in the life of someone she knows (usually pretty closely). The puzzle is in identifying the correlation itself rather than the nature of the correlation.

[glitter_fades]

Originally Posted by David

I first saw the "Little Lies" video the night MTV announced Lindsey had left the band, & I was hit powerfully by the idea that it was about his growing distance & eventual departure. When Chris was asked about that at the time, she said it wasn't written with that in mind but that the whole developing situation with Lindsey could apply (whatever that meant).

Yeah, whatever that meant.

[glitter_fades]

Originally Posted by David

I think that's a situation that Stevie herself has cultivated over the decades. She has always said, "I don't make up songs" & "All my songs are real," which is Stevie's way of saying that she doesn't typically concoct characters or even situations in song form (the way that Christine, for example, says she does). According to Stevie, there is usually a very specific correlation between a character or a situation in a song of hers & an actual person or people & related situation in her life or in the life of someone she knows (usually pretty closely). The puzzle is in identifying the correlation itself rather than the nature of the correlation.

Unless she's telling little lies along the way.

[Johnny Stew]

I think Stevie does write about specific people, but I'm one who feels that the vast majority of her songs are not about ONE specific person, but rather about relationship patterns and men with similar qualities, temperments, etc.

I tend to think she writes about an amalgamation of men. In that way, I guess one could say that she does write about a "character." But she still writes what she knows, so that "everyman" character has his basis in fact.

Funny thing is, while most people are trying to relate these songs to Lindsey or Don or Mick or whomever, I usually relate them to the men in my life.
I don't know what that says about me, but it's probably not flattering!

[ontheEdgeof17]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

Funny thing is, while most people are trying to relate these songs to Lindsey or Don or Mick or whomever, I usually relate them to the men in my life.
I don't know what that says about me, but it's probably not flattering!

I do, too.

TISL is totally about this one f**ktard who ruined my outlook on love. I got over it.

[pattymarkle]

Originally Posted by David

I think that's a situation that Stevie herself has cultivated over the decades. She has always said, "I don't make up songs" & "All my songs are real," which is Stevie's way of saying that she doesn't typically concoct characters or even situations in song form (the way that Christine, for example, says she does). According to Stevie, there is usually a very specific correlation between a character or a situation in a song of hers & an actual person or people & related situation in her life or in the life of someone she knows (usually pretty closely). The puzzle is in identifying the correlation itself rather than the nature of the correlation.

THANK YOU FOR THAT DAVID! It is Stevie who has cultivated this way of thinking over the decades and it is true, all her songs are real and some elements of one story are told this way in one song and this way in another song. That is why we pour over the lyrics and try to put the pieces together and we try to understand what she says because we read between her lines. She taught us to do that.

The perfect example of this is "Sara". A little bit of this story, a little bit of that story and a whole lot of truth burried deep inside. Do you see where some of us are coming from Henley Fan? I know you know the truth in the song "Sara" and have published confirmation of it from Mr. Henley himself.

Patty

[HenleyFan]

I understand what you are saying. My point, though, was that the Eagles songwriting process is the opposite of this and if people are pouring over lyrics trying to specifically find Stevie, they aren't going to find her. Like the people who still say that Witchy Woman is about her....

While Stevie's songs may be full of real characters, the Eagles songs really aren't.

L&M

Originally Posted by pattymarkle

THANK YOU FOR THAT DAVID! It is Stevie who has cultivated this way of thinking over the decades and it is true, all her songs are real and some elements of one story are told this way in one song and this way in another song. That is why we pour over the lyrics and try to put the pieces together and we try to understand what she says because we read between her lines. She taught us to do that.

The perfect example of this is "Sara". A little bit of this story, a little bit of that story and a whole lot of truth burried deep inside. Do you see where some of us are coming from Henley Fan? I know you know the truth in the song "Sara" and have published confirmation of it from Mr. Henley himself.

Patty

[witchy_woman13]

look at my name , there was a rumor go'in round .............and i do believe that song was written about her she said of don henley "he taught me how to shop"