the wild heart

 Stevie Nicks expanded her country rock sound with the synthesized pop sheen of this daring and dramatic declaration.  In the wake of the massive success of her solo debut 'Bella Donna' she recorded the blockbuster album 'Mirage' with Fleetwood Mac.  She started recording 'The Wild Heart' when the tour for 'Mirage' was finished.  

The sessions were produced by Jimmy Iovine, Gordon Perry, and Tom Petty and featured Stevie Nicks on vocals; and Sharon Celani and Lori Perry on backup vocals;    with guest musicians Sandy Stewart on keyboards, synthesizer, backup vocals, and piano; Tom Petty on guitar and vocals; Mike Campbell, Steve Lukather, and Don Felder on guitar; Benmont Tench on organ and keyboards; Howie Epstein on bass; Stan Lynch and Mick Fleetwood on drums; and Prince on synthesizer;    plus session musicians David Monday, Dean Parks, Waddy Wachtel, and David Williams on guitar; Roger Tausz, Bob Glaub, Kenny Edwards, and John Beal on bass; Roy Bittan on synthesizer and piano; David Foster on piano; Brad Smith on drums and percussion; Russ Kunkel on drums and drum overdubs; Bobbye Hall on percussion; Chet McCracken on drum overdubs; Marvin Caruso on drums; Ian Wallace on percussion; David Bluefield on OBX-A programming and DMX drum machine; Phil Kenzie on saxophone; Carolyn Brooks on background vocals; and Kenneth Whitfield and Paul Buckmaster on string arrangement.

Nicks says:   "Sharon, Lori and I have a special thing that we have perfected. And we have really perfected it from sitting around the piano and, like I said, 'Hey Crosby Stills and Nash did not sing Sweet Judy Blue Eyes by walking in together one night. They must have practiced. They had to have.' And that's what I wanted. I wanted a sound of vocals and I wanted Sharon to be Sharon and Lori to be Lori and me to be me and I wanted , because I told you this before, I don't think that anybody is that cute. On my gravestone it's going to say 'Nobody is that cute.' Because I don't think anybody is cute enough to carry a two hour show. I don't think anybody is cute enough to keep everybody interested for that long. I think that everybody needs help. I'm not going to go sing on stage alone. I don't want to. I want to be able to walk away and let them take it. Because there is nothing in the world that I would rather hear than beautiful singing. And so I have worked and worked to get a sound that is not like anybody else. That is really beautiful. That is strong. That is dedicated and devoted...Certainly you've been in the wildest darkest places of your mind...When I say wild in the darkest places of your mind, I mean the things that you think about in the wildest places of your mind that you don't ever tell anybody about. Only the children lie hopelessly enchanted. That's the way we are hopeless ly enchanted. Wild in the darkest places of your mind. Don't blame it on me, blame it on my wild heart. Yeah. That's those places that many people don't even have but you see my audience has it...Fleetwood Mac is as elusive as a butterfly. Fleetwood Mac is not dependable. Fleetwood Mac is not predictable. One day I can walk in and I can dislike everyone of them intensely . The next day I can walk in and if anybody even says a word to one of them I'll kill him. It's like the love affair between me and Fleetwood Mac is so deep that I don't know really if anybody can really rip us apart. In Wild Heart it says 'Not even you can tear us apart you say you don't even know how to start.' You know what that means? That means when someone looks at you and kind of pushes you up against the wall and says 'You say you're leaving me?'Well I'm telling you, you don't even know how to start to leave me. And that's kind of how Fleetwood Mac is.  It's like you know I quit every day, I join back up every day. It's one more link in the chain ...  It's like Bella Donna's heart is wild all of a sudden. It has that James Dean/Natalie Wood feeling to it. It's just Bella Donna a little more reckless. She's just more sure of herself now, so she's taking a few more chances. I'm very pleased with the album because there are no holds barred on it. It's real strong and emotional." 

'The Wild Heart' went to twenty-eight in the UK, eight in Australia, seven in Canada, and number five in the US.  It sold a million copies in the first three months and was eventually certified double-platinum.  







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'Stand Back' pushed its way to number five in the US.  Nicks reveals:    "I got married the day I wrote this song. We were driving to Santa Barbara and a new song by Prince came on, so we pulled over somewhere and got the tape. It just gave me an incredible idea, so I spent many hours that night writing a song about some kind of crazy argument, and it was to become one of the most important of my songs. I've been doing this song for years, Fleetwood Mac does it also, and I never get tired of it. 'Stand Back' has always been my favorite song onstage, because...when it starts, it has an energy that comes from somewhere unknown...and it seems to have no timespace. I've never quite understood this sound....but I have never questioned it.  I become a different person, and I like that, because usually I make up my own characters...but the lady in 'Stand Back' was not my idea. By the way, Prince did come into the studio the night I called him and told him about the song, and he played incredible synthesizer on it...and then he just walked out of my life, and I didn't see him for a long time.  It was extraordinary..."








'If Anyone Falls' hit number fourteen in the US.




'Nightbird' flew to number thirty-three in the US.









'The Wild Heart' 
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e47tdoYD33c



00:00  "Wild Heart" – 6:11
06:10  "If Anyone Falls" (Nicks, Sandy Stewart) – 4:09
10:19  "Gate and Garden" – 4:06
14:29  "Enchanted" – 3:06
17:40  "Nightbird" (Nicks, Stewart) – 5:00
22:33  "Stand Back" – 4:51
27:21  "I Will Run to You" (Tom Petty) – 3:22
performed by Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty
30:46  "Nothing Ever Changes" (Nicks, Stewart) – 4:09
35:00  "Sable on Blond" – 4:15
39:20  "Beauty and the Beast" – 6:02

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.







http://stevienicksofficial.com/



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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

On the edge of...seventeen"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8-4tjPxD8



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyTBBbJ4GOo



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1h99XYvLsc

'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