Wednesday, July 27, 2011

bella donna










Thirty years ago Stephanie Lynn Nicks came out of the darkness and made her solo debut with the bewitching 'Bella Donna'. After working with Tom Petty on his 'Hard Promises' album she became involved with producer Jimmy Iovine, who became her manager and boyfriend. Nicks had a number of demos that she had recorded over the years while recording and touring with Fleetwood Mac. Armed with these songs, she went into the studio with Iovine and Petty to record new versions of the songs with session veterans and famous friends. It was the first time she recorded with vocalists Sharon Celani and Lori Perry, who still work with her. 'Bella Donna' went to number one on the album chart and yielded four hit singles.







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'Edge Of Seventeen' hit number eleven on the pop chart and number four on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Nicks wrote the song after the deaths of John Lennon and her uncle: "I was in Australia when John Lennon was shot. Everybody was devastated. I didn't know John Lennon, but I knew Jimmy Iovine, who worked with John quite a bit in the '70s, and heard all the loving stories that Jimmy told about him. When I came back to Phoenix I started to write this song. Right when I got to Phoenix, my uncle Bill got cancer, got very sick very fast, and died in a couple of weeks. My cousin John Nicks and I were in the room when he died. There was just John and I there. That was part of the song when I went running down the hallways looking for somebody - I thought where's my mom? Where's his wife and the rest of the family? At that point I went back to the piano and finished the song...It became a song about violent death, which was very scary to me because at that point no one in my family had died. To me, the white-winged dove was for John Lennon the dove of peace, and for my uncle it was the white-winged dove who lives in the saguaro cactus - that's how I found out about the white-winged dove, and it does make a sound like whooo, whooo, whooo. I read that somewhere in Phoenix and thought I would use that in this song. The dove became exciting and sad and tragic and incredibly dramatic. Every time I sing this song I have that ability to go back to that two month period where it all came down. I've never changed it, and I can't imagine ending my show with any other song. It's such a strong, private moment that I share in this song."

"The clouds...never expect it...
When it rains
But the sea changes colours...
But the sea...
Does not change
And so...with the slow...graceful flow..
Of age
I went forth...with an age old...
Desire...to please
'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around' made it to number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number two on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell. She sang it with Petty as a duet over the Heartbreakers' demo track. Stevie says: "Jimmy (Iovine) played this song to me while he was still finishing Tom's album; it was one of those songs that Tom was not going to do, and he told Jim that I could do it. I wasn't used to doing other people's songs, so I didn't really like the idea at first, but I loved Tom Petty, so I agreed to try. So we went into the studio and sang it live, together. I was completely entranced, and I instantly fell into love with the song. Duets were the things I loved the most... maybe this was a second beginning. And we would sing like no one else, and nobody else would ever sing like us."

"It's hard to think about
What you've wanted
It's hard to think about what you've lost
This doesn't have to be the big get even
This doesn't have to be anything at all"

The duet with Don Henley 'Leather And Lace' made it to number six on the Billboard pop chart. Stevie recalls: "I wrote this song because Waylon Jennings called me up and asked me to write a song called 'Leather and Lace.' It was to be a duet for him and his wife (Jessi Colter), and I worked very hard trying to explain what it was like to be in love with someone in the same business, and how to approach dealing with each other. It's probably the hardest thing in the world to do because it falls out of your hands and into the hands of the world, which tends to want you to not be able to handle it. I have to tell you now that Mr. Don Henley was pretty much responsible for this song because he came over every day and told me to either start over, or that I was on the right track, and he made me finish it (because I almost gave up many times). When it was finally finished, Don and I made a very simple demo of it - he sang it with me, and it was truly wonderful. And then I found out that Waylon and Jessi were breaking up, and Waylon wanted to just sing it by himself. After all the work I had put into the philosophy of two people dealing with this problem, I told Waylon that only four people in this world could sing this song: he and his wife, or myself and Don Henley. Don and I had been going out for quite awhile, and, bless his heart, he did sing it with me, and again, as fate would have it, it became one of the most special love songs that I would ever write... and remains that, even today, after all these years. All in all, it was an unforgettable experience, as was he. Blame it on my wild heart."

"Is love so fragile...
And the heart so hollow
Shatter with words...
Impossible to follow
You're saying I'm fragile...I try not to be
I search only...for something I can't see
I have my own life...and I am stronger
Than you know
But I carry this feeling
When you walked into my house
That you won't be walking out the door
Still I carry this feeling
When you walked into my house
That you won't be walking out the door"





'After The Glitter Fades' was composed by Nicks back in 1975. The single peaked at number thirty two on the Hot 100. It features Roy Bittan on piano.

"For me... it's the only life
That I've ever known
And love is only one fine star away
Even though the living
Is sometimes laced with lies
It's alright...
The feeling remains
Even after the glitter fades"


'Bella Donna'
full album:

All songs written by Stevie Nicks except where noted.


1. "Bella Donna"   5:21
2. "Kind of Woman"   (Stevie Nicks, Benmont Tench) 3:12
3. "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) (Tom Petty, Michael Campbell) 4:06
4. "Think About It"   (Stevie Nicks, Roy Bittan) 3:35
5. "After the Glitter Fades" 3:31
6. "Edge of Seventeen"  5:28
7. "How Still My Love" 3:54
8. "Leather and Lace" (with Don Henley) 3:44
9. "Outside the Rain" 4:18
10. "The Highwayman" 4:48


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