Desert Angel appreciation thread

[Mokona]

Oh my gosh - where have I been? Hiding under a rock? I just started listening to this song (sometimes I tend to ignore all of my other Stevie songs in iTunes and just go right to my favorites), and I am IN LOVE with Desert Angel!

When did she write this? It's so powerful it sends chills down your spine.

Just when you think her music can't get any better...

[Dreammms]

lol i feel like we have this thread every week...

i love it too!

[LiquidBlue5000]

Originally Posted by Mokona

Oh my gosh - where have I been? Hiding under a rock? I just started listening to this song (sometimes I tend to ignore all of my other Stevie songs in iTunes and just go right to my favorites), and I am IN LOVE with Desert Angel!

When did she write this? It's so powerful it sends chills down your spine.

Just when you think her music can't get any better...

and to think the consesus is that most people hate that song.. i'm with you though Mokona.. i love that song too

[diamondsnake]

Where is my husband and where is my son?
Where is my father, where has he gone?
What is it that's happened here?
Is this real? This war... it can't be happening

Those lines are some of the best chill-inducing lyrics Stevie has ever written. No mystical, cryptic crap. Just heartbreaking lyrics about something we can unfortunately all relate to these days- war.

[SapphireSister]

I love this song more than you could possibly know and it makes me sad that a lot of people dislike it a lot and not just a litte, A LOT. I've gone on and on about how beautiful and powerful I think this song is, not to mention the message behind it. She sings it with such passion, intensity, and conviction and the piano is simply gorgeous it gives me chills. Here is the story behind it in her words:

"I returned to Phoenix late last night for a few days... today is May 28th. I have been in Los Angeles since March 3rd, but I was here from December 23rd for a little over two months–the two months the Persian Gulf war began and ended. My friend who takes care of my fan mail, Ginny, began calling me at the end of December telling me that she had already sent a lot of tapes, cd's and autographed pictures for these guys who were writing to me from the Gulf. Then at the beginning of January, Ginny suggested I write these people a serious letter about how I was feeling about their participation in the Gulf War. Of course, I had been watching nothing else on TV except CNN, and was totally overwhelmed that they cared about what I thought. So the days went slowly by, all of us thinking that it would never happen, as January 15 loomed ahead of us. So I thought about this letter I would write every day for fourteen days. While all this was going on, there was something the city was doing called "Operation Desert Angel." It meant that you could go down to the shopping centers or malls and get a little dog tag in the shape of an angel with the name of someone from Arizona who was in the Gulf... and it became a very important and personal way to get to them. It was on TV and radio constantly; all this time I was still trying to figure out what I could write to the ones in the Gulf who were alone and scared... and I also knew I would write a song called "Desert Angel," and suddenly I knew exactly what to say in the letter to the troops. I would tell them about Rhiannon, and about my treasured gold cross, and I would send them my feeling of sanctuary. I would do what I do when I sing... I would try to make them forget, even if for a moment, and they could come into my world. I finally wrote the letter, the night before the first shot was fired... and everyone thought I should send it to Stars and Stripes. I mailed it off and four days later, I wrote "Desert Angel," in my house, here in Paradise Valley. My letter did make it to Stars and Stripes, which I never, ever expected. On February 17, 1991, I went into Vintage Recorders and sang to a track that Michael Campbell had given me a few days after I had sent the letter. There were five songs on it, and as I listened, the second one came on, and I knew without going any further, that I had found my "Desert Angel." From the beginning, all the people who were around me really loved this song, because it meant so much more to all of us than it did to just me. We had lived through it, we had prayed, and my song would make at least all of us... never forget this war. So, "Desert Angel" is coming out on the "B" side of the first single of my "Best Of" album. I am doing this because I wanted you to have it as quickly as possible. I hope that for all of you that were there, it will always be a lullaby that will remind you that everything will be fine, it is over, you can sleep now. And for here who felt helpless and scared, a lot of things really do work out for the best in the end... I can only write songs when I am totally inspired... and the flag that you, Sgt. Robert M. Garcia, sent me is something that makes me feel something that I wish I could explain to you, but I can't. Yes, when you washed it out for me, the colors did ring true.
"Operation Desert Shield,
Operation Desert Storm
Operation Desert Angels
In waiting."

Edit: I just got tears in my eyes reading this.

[DrummerDeanna]

Hmm - interesting - thanks for posting the article - I'd never read that.

Now - Desert Angel isn't my favorite Stevie song - but I've grown to not hate it in recent years

I do like the

"look up...it's a shooting star, but it's black as night no stars..." Don't know why - I just really like that line

[Mokona]

Reading SapphireSister's post reminds me of just how kind Stevie is as well. She really does care about our troops and our country. I'm not sure how anyone could dislike the song. Sure, it may not be everyone's favorite, but the words are so moving and emotional that's it's difficult to dislike it. Of course that's JMO.

[Livia]

*raises hand* I love Desert Angel - I wept the first time I heard it...my brother was in the Air Force at that time and was on standby...he was a pilot/navigator. They told him if was sent overseas, he would go as mortuary officer. He never got deployed, but the waiting was the hardest part...

That song is also what enabled me to get my Grandma to understand my love for Stevie's music...She just came out and asked me one day, "What is it about Stevie Nicks?" I sat her down, handed her the lyrics and cranked it up. By the end of the song, she had tears in her eyes, looked at me, and just nodded. She got it!

[catinthedark]

Originally Posted by diamondsnake

Where is my husband and where is my son?
Where is my father, where has he gone?
What is it that's happened here?
Is this real? This war... it can't be happening

Those lines are some of the best chill-inducing lyrics Stevie has ever written. No mystical, cryptic crap. Just heartbreaking lyrics about something we can unfortunately all relate to these days- war.

Isn't that funny? That's the part of this song that I dislike most. I don't hate Desert Angel by any means, but there are words in it that I feel are cringeworthy. These bother me especially because there are a number of wives and sisters and mothers serving. (Man, listen to me - I'm not even American). That always just bugged me about it.

[paperflowers]

Originally Posted by catinthedark

Isn't that funny? That's the part of this song that I dislike most. I don't hate Desert Angel by any means, but there are words in it that I feel are cringeworthy. These bother me especially because there are a number of wives and sisters and mothers serving. (Man, listen to me - I'm not even American). That always just bugged me about it.

Ita about Stevie forgetting about the many women serving our country in her lyrics but I still love the song, especially given time in her life that she wrote it.

[StreetAngel86]

u've JUST discovered Desert Angel?
SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!
I think it's one of Stevie's best songs
and those people who say Stevie is being condescending and wotever and how could she even THINK to compare her desert to iraq....that is such bull***** that is NOT what the song is about and just because she mentions Phoenix does not mean for a second that she equates her living there to what the soldiers endured in Iraq. People who said all that really #$#&)ed me off GRRRRRRRRRR

I think this song should be an anthem ho hum........it rocks

My favorite line besides the shooting star line is the way she yells out


OPERATION DESERT SHIELD
OPERATION DESERT STORM
Operation desert angel


gah i got chills

[Stephanie]

It's not my favorite song, but I have a UK collectible fold out 45 with pictures inside and it is very cool. So it is one of my favorite collectibles.

[ontheEdgeof17]

I was waiting to find the perfect thread for this, and here it is....


I like Desert Angel now.


I pulled it out a few days ago (the song, not a body part) and it finally clicked in my head. I don't hate it with a passion now. I think it's kinda pretty.


Now, you all go listen to Street Angel and maybe you will have the same response.

[darklinensuit]

Originally Posted by ontheEdgeof17

I pulled it out a few days ago (the song, not a body part)

My condolences to your neglected body part.

- Jake

[darklinensuit]

I like DA, but it has always seemed to be two songs to me, the first and second parts. Friends who have heard it like the first part more; I prefer the second.

- Jake