Like or Dislike: Sable on Blond

[skcin]

I'm baaaaaaaaack. Sorry to disappoint those of you who thought I'd finally stopped posting these threads.

So. I never liked this song very much until several months ago. It suddenly hit me, and hit me hard. I now love it, it's one of my favorites on The Wild Heart. It is quiet, yet so powerful - her vocal is really quite stellar on this one. Do I know what the hell she's talking about? No, of course not. I won't even try to speculate.

I do, however, still snicker and/or roll my eyes at this line:

In silence she says..."excalibur"

Can't help it. Sounds silly to me. Don't know why.

BUT the rest - wow.

"Was it a thorn in your side
Something that you hide
Something you don't touch
Because it hurts too much
Ooo...

Well...have you come to see
That my face is not seen
Ooo...outside my frost covered windows
Oh and just how deep...
Do you hold that dream
In your hands each night...this time
In your hands each night...this time"

That last "In your hands each night" is spectacular. I love (attempting to) belt it out along with her.

Live - I think this would have been really awesome to hear on the 1983 tour. I do think she could still pull it off today, but it would have to be in place of Circle Dance or B&tB - she really pours everything she has into those two & she'd have to do the same for Sable on Blond.

[Dreammms]

LOVE LOVE LOVE this song. My favorite song on Wild Heart and in my top five. Has a total Fleetwood Mac feel. Beautiful vocals. Also love Sharon and Lori's backing vocals. Would be so great to hear live.

[ontheEdgeof17]

5 Stars.

It's perfection. 'Nuff said.



It should have taken the place of HSML at the Vegas shows.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by ontheEdgeof17

5 Stars.

It's perfection. 'Nuff said.



It should have taken the place of HSML at the Vegas shows.

I agree, but she'd NEVER, and I mean NEVER, be able to pull it off nowadays. I'd like to hear her do it once and then never again because it's one of my favorite Stevie songs ever and I don't want it ruined.

[GypsySorcerer]

Five stars. Love it -- the vocal is heavenly. "Just how deep do you hold that dream in your hands each night" is one of my favorite Stevie lines ever.

[amber]

I'm sure it's very gorgeous, and I always try to listen to it, but it's so dull that my attention wanders, and then I forget how it goes and everything else about it. It's like....the "black hole" of WH to me. In all fairness, I've really only "heard" it about 10 times...maybe I'll like it more, or remember it, later. I only got WH last year, and it's definitely my least listened to album.

[wolfontherun]

OMG cant say enough how much I love this song. Always has been a top 5. I cant believe more people arent responding to this post.

The way her voice soars over Micks drums is perfection!

Love the openning drums too , the whole song to me sounds like an amped up solo tribute to Dreams.

Has anyone heard the demo? Its very cool, very different though, it sounds kinda punkish to me, the rolling drums remind me of Dreaming by Blondie. Its a real rough cut of the song and her vocals arent nearly as polished and it ends abruptly but still cool fpr any fans of the song.

[KateTheCursed]

Has anyone heard the demo? Its very cool, very different though, it sounds kinda punkish to me, the rolling drums remind me of Dreaming by Blondie. Its a real rough cut of the song and her vocals arent nearly as polished and it ends abruptly but still cool fpr any fans of the song.

There's a demo? I guess I should have known that. There's a demo floating around of almost every Stevie song. Would love to hear this one though.

Anyway, I always liked Sable On Blond. But in the last couple of years it's really become crystalized in my mind just how very perfect it is. Sure it's one of those songs that doesn't have linear thread of meaning, but the emotion and the vocal is sweeping and so perfect that it's really irrelevant. Stevie conveys all that needs to be conveyed while still maintaining a wonderful mystery and aura open-ended interpretation. Five stars all the way.

[GateandGarden]

Originally Posted by skcin

So. I never liked this song very much until several months ago. It suddenly hit me, and hit me hard. I now love it, it's one of my favorites on The Wild Heart.

Same here. I wasn't into it at all at first. I was craaazy for that. Now it's my favorite song on WH. It's one of my favorite Stevie songs, period.

[golden braid]

I absolutely love this song too. It's one of my favorites on the Wild Heart. The vocals are awesome and the song just has a neat vibe to it. I would love to hear it live but I know that will never happen.

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by amber

I'm sure it's very gorgeous, and I always try to listen to it, but it's so dull that my attention wanders, and then I forget how it goes and everything else about it. It's like....the "black hole" of WH to me. In all fairness, I've really only "heard" it about 10 times...maybe I'll like it more, or remember it, later. I only got WH last year, and it's definitely my least listened to album.

"I think you may need to relax." Turn down the lights, light a candle, simma down, and put it on... I love Mick's drumming on this too. He's a hard hitter.

[rbs3676]

A gem of a tune. One of the highlights of WILD HEART and certainly in my top 5 favorite Stevie songs. Pure perfection..."in your hands each night..."

LOVE IT!

rbs

[Ghost_Tracker]

I could go on and on about this song . . . .

So I WILL! . . .


I think this song is literally genius.

NOT, "OMG Stevie's so great holy cow gosh we all just LOVE her

so let's exaggerate and call her songs 'genius!'"

I literally for real think this song is Genius.

"LEARN to be a stranger" - she's so used to being close to Our

Mystery Man, who ever could it possibly be, that it's hard to accept that

things have changed. She has to learn to be "distant" and "uncaring"

with someone who she still feels a lot of love for.

"Blonde on Blonde" - STILL working on this line!

But maybe, "the outside may look like just an act to you, but it's

only covering up something which is actually pretty similar - and not

really all that bad a person, if I do say so myself!. . . "

"In silence she says, 'Excaliber.'"

OMG. THIS IS GENIUS!!!

Obviously this is a reference to "The Sword in the Stone" - but -

there's SO many attractive, aggressive, A-list guys courting her -

but who is the ONE who can pull that sword out??? Everyone's so

selfish and preoccupied with partying and the fast lane that they don't

even hear her crying out, "Where ARE you, Mr. Right!???"

This is hard-core 80s Stevie to the bone, i m o.

"What was it that fell? Was it:

One fallen leaf -

like the feather that it was -

was it freedom by choice -

or baby, WAS it love."

W T F just HAPPENED to me!??? Was it really love??? The feather -

something really fragile - was that what fell? Or was it different than

she thought. Why did we break up? To be "free to see others?"

WAS it REALLY love???

"Was it a thorn in your side
Something that you hide
Something you don't touch
Because it hurts too much."

Is it his pain that f'd up what seemed so perfect?
Why can't she GO there?
This hurts him SO much,
that he won't even let HER go there.
Perhaps she can relate. . . .

"Well...have you come to see
That my face is not seen
Ooo...outside my frost covered windows
Oh and just how deep...
Do you hold that dream
In your hands each night...this time..."

Has he learned that the coldness is just an exterior one?
She's HIDING - who she really is, how she really feels -
But who can break through all the b.s.?
Somebody who TRULY loves her.
Okay, so he CLAIMS he loves her - but so did Mr. X.
Does he love her THAT much???
Reminds me of "Jesus Christ Superstar," where they suddenly go
"HEY hey, J. C., would you DIE for me!?" and suddenly He's
like "hey WAIT a minute now!!!..." Again - who can pull that sword out?
I think the "this time" is a reference to "cycles" - reincarnation, etc -
a feeling of deja vu - this uhhh, seems FAMILIAR, "pal!"
The "in your hands each night line" - well,
either you get it or you don't
Okay it FEELS great - but IS it Love?

"Did I force you to remember
In the sacred name of love...
To be brave save the stranger
Sable on blond...
Dark upon light..."

I always hear this as "AND i force you to remember."

But anyway, maybe she's saying, "this love is SACRED to me -

and so BECAUSE I love you - i'm going to FORCE you to face this pain -

CAN you handle that? WILL our Big Love survive?

'cause "You SAID that you LOVED me," babe, and that you "ALWAYS will."

SABLE
on
BLONDE

DARK
UPON
LIGHT

Because it HURTS to much."

Sable is black - Stevie's hair color is uhhh - blonde! YEAH,
BLONDE!

Just as she wears black on top of her blonde self,
hiding the beauty underneath,
she has a very dark, gloomy exterior - some ignoramuses used the
word "evil" back in the 80s -
covering up the brightness, the light, that childlike wonder -
because when she wrote the song she felt that she had been hurt
SO badly that it just hurt too much to take a chance any more and
reveal her true self to the world - to the people in the environment
she was in.

And then perhaps a final, petulant slap across the face -
"Well, maybe it was YOU who fell in love (BABE) -
This time."

Back to the toughness - a brief glimpse of how she was really feeling,
and then back to the Life in the Fast Lane Rock Star.
Cause that's how she feels -
this time. . . . .

Anyway those are my thoughts, personally - I've thought about this
song more than any other Stevie song because I think it's HUGELY
underestimated and contains much more depth than first meets the
eye - and, of course, it's BEAUTIFUL!

By the way, another part to the "Excaliber" legend is that the Sword
was presented to Mr. All That by the Lady of the Lake, who
selected him personally.
For those of you who may not know,
"Lynn" means "by the lake."

in my opinion?

This song is absolute proof-positive that Stevie's a genius.

And I haven't even mentioned the music itself, just the lyrics.

[nickslover2071]

I love sable on blonde..wish there was "full" alternate version out there...but anywho...great WH era song...

[amber]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

"I think you may need to relax." Turn down the lights, light a candle, simma down, and put it on... I love Mick's drumming on this too. He's a hard hitter.

Okay. I tried, but then...my mind just blanks out, it's really weird. It's...tooo bland... Like I tell myself.."okay, pay attention, a bunch of people like this song" and then i'll space out anyway, and then I'll come back, and listen, and I'll be like "why does everyone like this song?"
so....it may be a hard sell. I'll give it another go, though, for you....and me...