Goodbye Baby

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by On Ice

Listening to her voice on the demo of the Tower, is its own timestamp- definitely mid-70's voice, no way its from '82. That would mean the Robin- childbirth back story is not part of the song. What made her songs great in the era was her use of imagery with fewer words and brilliant melody- the hidden gem s"Foresaken/Mistaken Love is another good example of that. Capturing a moment or a mood is what she did best, literal interpretation is clunky and awkward for her.

Exactly. Although another poster hit the nail on the head when GypsySorcerer stated in her later years she did write literal meanings. I think klonopin clouded her brain and she was not able to weave those brilliant songs taking 3 or 4 events and writing a brilliant song about them which few understood what it meant. Songs like Escape from Berlin, Long Way To Go, Fire Burning (actually about escaping a real fire), Desert Angel, etc where literal meanings. A song like Welcome To The Room Sara was almost impossible to interpret until years later when it was explained.
Her best work is a song like Edge of 17. So much verse and so much intensity in those verses. OMG! Its pure poetry. And its incredible to know the song was about Jane meeting Tom, her grandfather's passing, John Lennon's death, and a few words written on an airplane menu created one of the best songs ever written. Post klonopin we do get a few other subtle interpreted songs like Illume. She had to explain parts to people so they knew what they meant: Shadow of a stranger = Osama Bin Ladin Smell of nag champra was to take away the smell of destruction and death in the hotel, etc
No doubt she is one of the best songwriters in history. I love Long Way To Go how its literally saying goodbye to Joe after a long car trip but its wrapped in battling drug addiciton which is the main concept of the song. Brilliant!

[David]

Originally Posted by OutsideTheRain

I always thought Stevie approached her lyrics like David Lynch approaches film making. It's more about capturing a mood than about literal interpretation. In fact, I doubt she even knows what her songs are about.

Very much in agreement here with you and On Ice and MacFan4Life. When I was a kid, I used to try to identify the real-world people and events in Stevie’s songs. After years of that nonsense, I figured it was a bum rump to always do that. It’s the mood in the song that points to its meaning.

About the “take my child away” line in this song if you want to try to identify it, remember that there’s a plot line in the Mabinogion concerning Rhiannon’s children being kidnapped and her being unjustly forced to do penance.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by David

Very much in agreement here with you and On Ice and MacFan4Life. When I was a kid, I used to try to identify the real-world people and events in Stevie’s songs. After years of that nonsense, I figured it was a bum rump to always do that. It’s the mood in the song that points to its meaning.

About the “take my child away” line in this song if you want to try to identify it, remember that there’s a plot line in the Mabinogion concerning Rhiannon’s children being kidnapped and her being unjustly forced to do penance.

Yep. It's about some myth or other....I can't find the old article...

[J.Miller]

The Tower is one of my favorite Stevie demos. It is so real and traumatic. What ever happened to Stevie that inspired this song we will probably never find out the whole story.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by David

About the “take my child away” line in this song if you want to try to identify it, remember that there’s a plot line in the Mabinogion concerning Rhiannon’s children being kidnapped and her being unjustly forced to do penance.

While I always believed The Tower was about her having an abortion what you say here makes perfect sense, considering this song was one of the Rhiannon demos for the soundtrack that never was nor will ever be.