Funniest Verse in One of Stevie's Songs

[RockALittle250]

Have you ever heard Stevie sing a verse in one of her songs that kinda made you lol? Well the other day I was listening to No Spoken Word, which I haven't heard in a while, and as soon as she sang "I was just that old" I began to laugh a bit. I just found it funny how she was referring to herself as being old in this song. A little weird...yes ...but i also thought some of you guys may have had the same lol moment during Stevie singing a verse in one of her songs.

[AliceLover]

"She awakens things, that she said she thought were dead"

[amber]

I have so many of those moments. Especially the first time I heard lots of her songs. Like, Bella donna - "you can fly, swinging from your trapeze, scarin all the world - but you'll nevah scaehe me."
and "rock and roll, ballerina, where else will she go?"
actually, most Stevie songs have a part where I laugh....Especially RAL, which I love, but which also provides an endless source of amusement...

[SapphireSister]

Is this going to turn into another "Stevie's sexual inuendos" thread? If so that's fine with me .

[David]

Originally Posted by amber

I have so many of those moments. Especially the first time I heard lots of her songs. Like, Bella donna - "you can fly, swinging from your trapeze, scarin all the world - but you'll nevah scaehe me."

I can't believe you don't like that opening stanza. To me, it's one of Stevie's deepest, darkest, most serious lines -- & it accomplishes its effects without lapsing into the typically abstruse personal symbolism & mystic mumbo-jumbo found in a lot of her work. I just get the chills when I hear it or listen to her sing it. It takes me right back to the time she released it & her explanations (to Waddy & others) about just what it meant.

In fact, now that I think about it, I would say that the whole stanza:

You can ride high atop your pony
I know you won't fall
Because the whole thing's phony
You can fly swinging from your trapeze
Scaring all the people
But you'll never scare me

is just about Stevie's most brilliant lyrical moment throughout her entire career. Usually, her words don't evoke in me anything more than a reserved, distanced aesthetic appreciation of a particular image or phrase. But this stanza resonates with me emotionally. As I stare at it now, it's as if it were the final summation of the mysterious animus at the heart of Stevie's personality. It has everything: it has the shadow, the double, found in much of her writing (& even on album covers like "The Wild Heart"), in which one part of her is warning the other in dire but understanding words; it has a self-awareness of the inconsistency & superficiality of her trappings, which is often absent in her other songs, & a mature recognition that those trappings may fool others but not Stevie herself; & has a beautiful, rhythmic verbal deportment & melding with those ascending, alternating major & minor 7th chords, so stately & majestic (probably Roy Bittan's contribution); & it has a simplicity & forthrightness that Stevie is, I think, often given unmerited credit for. It also, thanks to hindsight, has the eerie taint of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I can't help thinking that if Stevie herself had kept these words more sharply in her mind over the past twenty years, she may not have had many of the troubles she ultimately did. If Stevie sang this song nowadays, I wonder what would go through her mind as she sang it. I'd love to hear her talk about it.

I don't think any solo career ever began on such a nervewracking tightrope, hanging precipitately between fatalism on the one side & a nervous sense of liberation on the other.

[BlackWidow]

Originally Posted by AliceLover

"She awakens things, that she said she thought were dead"

The line is actually..
"She awakens things, that he said he thought were dead"
not too funny huh?

[AliceLover]

Originally Posted by BlackWidow

The line is actually..
"She awakens things, that he said he thought were dead"
not too funny huh?

Cool it! TISL is nto my fav album. I still think its funny so

[BlackWidow]

Originally Posted by David

I can't believe you don't like that opening stanza. To me, it's one of Stevie's deepest, darkest, most serious lines -- & it accomplishes its effects without lapsing into the typically abstruse personal symbolism & mystic mumbo-jumbo found in a lot of her work. I just get the chills when I hear it or listen to her sing it. It takes me right back to the time she released it & her explanations (to Waddy & others) about just what it meant.

In fact, now that I think about it, I would say that the whole stanza:

You can ride high atop your pony
I know you won't fall
Because the whole thing's phony
You can fly swinging from your trapeze
Scaring all the people
But you'll never scare me

is just about Stevie's most brilliant lyrical moment throughout her entire career. Usually, her words don't evoke in me anything more than a reserved, distanced aesthetic appreciation of a particular image or phrase. But this stanza resonates with me emotionally. As I stare at it now, it's as if it were the final summation of the mysterious animus at the heart of Stevie's personality. It has everything: it has the shadow, the double, found in much of her writing (& even on album covers like "The Wild Heart"), in which one part of her is warning the other in dire but understanding words; it has a self-awareness of the inconsistency & superficiality of her trappings, which is often absent in her other songs, & a mature recognition that those trappings may fool others but not Stevie herself; & has a beautiful, rhythmic verbal deportment & melding with those ascending, alternating major & minor 7th chords, so stately & majestic (probably Roy Bittan's contribution); & it has a simplicity & forthrightness that Stevie is, I think, often given unmerited credit for. It also, thanks to hindsight, has the eerie taint of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I can't help thinking that if Stevie herself had kept these words more sharply in her mind over the past twenty years, she may not have had many of the troubles she ultimately did. If Stevie sang this song nowadays, I wonder what would go through her mind as she sang it. I'd love to hear her talk about it.

I don't think any solo career ever began on such a nervewracking tightrope, hanging precipitately between fatalism on the one side & a nervous sense of liberation on the other.

We must all forgive Amber for being so uneducated on this subject.
It takes a more seasoned fan to be able to interpret and understand Stevie's metaphors and profound meanings in her lyrics...

[Rox A Little]

And she'll go fast like a jet plane
And then fast like a star stream

Kinda somes up the dumbest line she's ever written for me!

Rox

[BlackWidow]

Originally Posted by RockALittle250

Have you ever heard Stevie sing a verse in one of her songs that kinda made you lol? Well the other day I was listening to No Spoken Word, which I haven't heard in a while, and as soon as she sang "I was just that old" I began to laugh a bit. I just found it funny how she was referring to herself as being old in this song. A little weird...yes ...but i also thought some of you guys may have had the same lol moment during Stevie singing a verse in one of her songs.

"I was just that old..that August dark, dark day"...
Is a reference to when Robin died...real funny huh?
It carries over from Edge Of 17..."I'm a few years older than you"

[nickslover2071]

Originally Posted by David

I can't believe you don't like that opening stanza. To me, it's one of Stevie's deepest, darkest, most serious lines -- & it accomplishes its effects without lapsing into the typically abstruse personal symbolism & mystic mumbo-jumbo found in a lot of her work. I just get the chills when I hear it or listen to her sing it. It takes me right back to the time she released it & her explanations (to Waddy & others) about just what it meant.

In fact, now that I think about it, I would say that the whole stanza:

You can ride high atop your pony
I know you won't fall
Because the whole thing's phony
You can fly swinging from your trapeze
Scaring all the people
But you'll never scare me

is just about Stevie's most brilliant lyrical moment throughout her entire career. Usually, her words don't evoke in me anything more than a reserved, distanced aesthetic appreciation of a particular image or phrase. But this stanza resonates with me emotionally. As I stare at it now, it's as if it were the final summation of the mysterious animus at the heart of Stevie's personality. It has everything: it has the shadow, the double, found in much of her writing (& even on album covers like "The Wild Heart"), in which one part of her is warning the other in dire but understanding words; it has a self-awareness of the inconsistency & superficiality of her trappings, which is often absent in her other songs, & a mature recognition that those trappings may fool others but not Stevie herself; & has a beautiful, rhythmic verbal deportment & melding with those ascending, alternating major & minor 7th chords, so stately & majestic (probably Roy Bittan's contribution); & it has a simplicity & forthrightness that Stevie is, I think, often given unmerited credit for. It also, thanks to hindsight, has the eerie taint of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I can't help thinking that if Stevie herself had kept these words more sharply in her mind over the past twenty years, she may not have had many of the troubles she ultimately did. If Stevie sang this song nowadays, I wonder what would go through her mind as she sang it. I'd love to hear her talk about it.

I don't think any solo career ever began on such a nervewracking tightrope, hanging precipitately between fatalism on the one side & a nervous sense of liberation on the other.

OMG David, I couldnt have said it better...I loved the beginning of Bella Donna..I remeber when I bought the album..I was in love with it as soon as I heard her sing those words...

[amber]

Originally Posted by David

I can't believe you don't like that opening stanza. To me, it's one of Stevie's deepest, darkest, most serious lines -- & it accomplishes its effects without lapsing into the typically abstruse personal symbolism & mystic mumbo-jumbo found in a lot of her work. I just get the chills when I hear it or listen to her sing it. It takes me right back to the time she released it & her explanations (to Waddy & others) about just what it meant.

In fact, now that I think about it, I would say that the whole stanza:

You can ride high atop your pony
I know you won't fall
Because the whole thing's phony
You can fly swinging from your trapeze
Scaring all the people
But you'll never scare me

is just about Stevie's most brilliant lyrical moment throughout her entire career. Usually, her words don't evoke in me anything more than a reserved, distanced aesthetic appreciation of a particular image or phrase. But this stanza resonates with me emotionally. As I stare at it now, it's as if it were the final summation of the mysterious animus at the heart of Stevie's personality. It has everything: it has the shadow, the double, found in much of her writing (& even on album covers like "The Wild Heart"), in which one part of her is warning the other in dire but understanding words; it has a self-awareness of the inconsistency & superficiality of her trappings, which is often absent in her other songs, & a mature recognition that those trappings may fool others but not Stevie herself; & has a beautiful, rhythmic verbal deportment & melding with those ascending, alternating major & minor 7th chords, so stately & majestic (probably Roy Bittan's contribution); & it has a simplicity & forthrightness that Stevie is, I think, often given unmerited credit for. It also, thanks to hindsight, has the eerie taint of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I can't help thinking that if Stevie herself had kept these words more sharply in her mind over the past twenty years, she may not have had many of the troubles she ultimately did. If Stevie sang this song nowadays, I wonder what would go through her mind as she sang it. I'd love to hear her talk about it.

I don't think any solo career ever began on such a nervewracking tightrope, hanging precipitately between fatalism on the one side & a nervous sense of liberation on the other.

I know, David. Just because something is serious and deep, doesn't mean it also doesn't have a funny part. I love those lyrics. I always catch the shadow and the double in Stevie's lyrics. I intrinsically understand.

Originally Posted by david

it accomplishes its effects without lapsing into the typically abstruse personal symbolism & mystic mumbo-jumbo found in a lot of her work.

Well....it lapses into something, though....this is the only statement I slightly disagree with. Your point is true, but I still think it's "clunky". And, uh, swinging from your trapeze? High atop your pony? I think Stevie's "abstruse personal symbolism" is alive and well in this verse.

Originally Posted by david

But this stanza resonates with me emotionally. As I stare at it now, it's as if it were the final summation of the mysterious animus at the heart of Stevie's personality. It has everything: it has the shadow, the double, found in much of her writing (& even on album covers like "The Wild Heart"), in which one part of her is warning the other in dire but understanding words; it has a self-awareness of the inconsistency & superficiality of her trappings, which is often absent in her other songs, & a mature recognition that those trappings may fool others but not Stevie herself; & has a beautiful, rhythmic verbal deportment & melding with those ascending, alternating major & minor 7th chords, so stately & majestic (probably Roy Bittan's contribution); & it has a simplicity & forthrightness that Stevie is, I think, often given unmerited credit for. It also, thanks to hindsight, has the eerie taint of self-fulfilling prophecy.

I completely agree. This is everything I love about stevie, and never have I seen it expressed so well. Except occasionally in flashes in my head.

Originally Posted by David

I can't help thinking that if Stevie herself had kept these words more sharply in her mind over the past twenty years, she may not have had many of the troubles she ultimately did. If Stevie sang this song nowadays, I wonder what would go through her mind as she sang it. I'd love to hear her talk about it.

I'd love for her to talk about it as well. It's the heartbreak of stevie, the essence of Stevie, this quality. She's always predicted, she's always known, hasn't she? And yet...she did it anyway. And now look at her.

Originally Posted by david

I don't think any solo career ever began on such a nervewracking tightrope, hanging precipitately between fatalism on the one side & a nervous sense of liberation on the other.

has it ever been better? Could it ever have been different?
No. Thank goodness...


those words still make me giggle.
Oh, and I think Stevie often talks about the inconsistency & superficiality of her trappings...in some way or another. I actually find it a constant theme.

[GypsyNomad]

That "undercover music lover" line always made me crack up for some reason... Then there's the infamous, "Children of the world...the forgotten chimpanzee" line But I think that line from WLT......"Oh yeah, oh yeah...Not guilty...Have mercy!" is the killer. Its not really lyrically stupid, its that "Have Mercy!" part that i hate.... it reminds me of 'Uncle Jesse' from Full House, which I also dispised growing up (but don't get me started on that one!).... picturing his face on her body ~shudder~

~Carei

[nickslover2071]

[/QUOTE]Oh, and I think Stevie often talks about the inconsistency & superficiality of her trappings...in some way or another. I actually find it a constant theme.[/QUOTE]

Thats why were are all here...Its the essence of Stevie...

[nickslover2071]

Originally Posted by GypsyNomad

That "undercover music lover" line always made me crack up for some reason... Then there's the infamous, "Children of the world...the forgotten chimpanzee" line But I think that line from WLT......"Oh yeah, oh yeah...Not guilty...Have mercy!" is the killer. Its not really lyrically stupid, its that "Have Mercy!" part that i hate.... it reminds me of 'Uncle Jesse' from Full House, which I also dispised growing up (but don't get me started on that one!).... picturing his face on her body ~shudder~

~Carei

Now Im gonna have nightmares...LOL