Stevie Inspiration

[UndoingTheLaces]

There's another thread where we're talking about our favorite words and phrases that Stevie has used and it made me think of a particular bit of inspiration that I wanted to share. I didn't want to hijack that thread so I figured I'd tell it here.

I so loved the line in Storms, "and not all the prayers in the world could save us" that it inspired a line in a song I once wrote myself. The song was called Blue Calm and it was about losing a friend to AIDS. I wish I could say it was about one specific friend but it was really about a lot of people, but using one close friend as the embodiment of that pain and experience. This was back in the early 90's when things were much worse (not that they're a whole hell of a lot better now), and we didn't know much about the disease. Anyway, there's a part where I flash back to being in the hospital, yelling at the doctor to do something and the verse goes...

save him, I cried, save him
and not all the symbols and words in the world
could save him

The idea came from the fact that everywhere you looked people were wearing red ribbons on their lapels in support of AIDS research and there were many people speaking out about it, but when you were there looking at it, face to face, watching someone go through it... well, the "symbols and words" didn't seem to help much.

That band didn't go very far and I only performed the song a few times. Looking back, the song as whole is very wordy and I guess, by now, a bit dated. But there were some really good lines in it. I may take a page from Stevie's book and use some parts of it in another song.

Okay, that's my tale of Stevie inspiration. Anyone else?