http://www.startribune.co...=2&c=y

This summer, Stevie Nicks was invited to sing on TV's "America's Got Talent" and "The Voice." This month, she joined Jeff Bridges and John Fogerty at a benefit for wounded soldiers in Sturgis, S.D. In May, her Fleetwood Mac songs were featured on a "Glee" episode.

Why is the witchy woman so suddenly in demand?

It probably has a lot to do with "In Your Dreams," her first solo album in 10 years and her best since 1981's "Bella Donna."

"I have to tip my top hat to Dave Stewart" of Eurythmics, she said, who produced the album. "I think the seven songs that he and I wrote together mixed in with the five songs that I wrote by myself made for a much more interesting and diversified record," said Nicks, who performs Wednesday at Mystic Lake Casino amphitheater.

As a musician, Nicks, 63, knows she's limited. She didn't expect to be writing with Stewart but she sent him 40 pages of poetry. He came to her house and said, "Let's do this one."

Recalled Nicks: "In my head, I'm like, 'You don't think we're really going to sit in this room and write a song together, 'cause I don't do that.' But he was so kind and so sweet and no ego, and we just started playing, and in 15 minutes we finished 'You May Be the One.'

"Suddenly, I had an epiphany. Wow! That worked. And this is a really great song with no grief. I don't feel punished or like something was taken away from me. I don't miss spending two months sitting at my piano in tears."

One of her own songs on "In Your Dreams" actually dates back to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" days in the mid-1970s. She knew she had "Secret Love" on a cassette somewhere but couldn't find it. Then her assistant discovered it on YouTube. It turns out that Nicks had actually recorded it for "Bella Donna" but never released it. Keyboardist Benmont Tench, the musical director for that album, was the only person to remember it.

"Ben told me that the other day," Nicks said. "Now my whole story about having no idea [what happened to the song] has gone to hell in a handbag. I remember we recorded a lot of songs for 'Bella Donna'; I just did not remember that."

Another new song has an old connection. "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)" was inspired by Nicks seeing the movie "Twilight Saga: New Moon" in 2009. When she went to make a video of it this year, she grabbed a dress out of her closet that she'd worn to the 1984 premiere of Prince's "Purple Rain" in Hollywood.

"My friend's daughter is playing violin on that [video] and I pulled that dress out for her to wear. It's been hanging in my closet. It's like a year younger than the girl who wears it in the video."

Purple connection

Back in the early 1980s, Nicks and Prince were friends and musical collaborators. One day when she was driving in Los Angeles, she started humming along to his "Little Red Corvette" on the radio and pulled over to write down words she was composing. When she went to record the song a few hours later, she called Prince.

"Don't even ask me how I found his number but I did. I told him: 'I'm recording this song and I wrote it to "Little Red Corvette" and I'm giving you 50 percent of it and I want to know if you'd like to come play on it on one of the next three nights.' He was there in an hour, and he was there for about an hour and a half. And we became friends."

That song, "Stand Back," became a big hit in 1983. She asked Prince if they could someday write a song together. So he sent her a cassette of a long instrumental track and invited her to pen lyrics.

"It was so overwhelming, that 10-minute track, that I listened to it and I just got scared," Nicks remembered. "I called him back and said, 'I can't do it. I wish I could. It's too much for me.' I'm so glad that I didn't, because he wrote it, and it became 'Purple Rain.'"

Buckingham Nicks redux

Nicks is better known for her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham, her musical and romantic partner in the duo Buckingham Nicks since their college days at San Jose State. They joined Fleetwood Mac in late 1974 but split up romantically a couple years later. Of course, they've continued to work together on-and-off in that Rock Hall of Fame band. He joined her for one tune on the new album, "Soldier's Angel."

"It was as close to the Buckingham Nicks years as we have been since Buckingham Nicks," Nicks said. "For Lindsey and I, that opened up the possibility of a new chapter. We certainly can still do it. And we did it well and it wasn't a lot of work. Lindsey and I are very happy with each other right now."

Would they do a duo tour?

"It's an absolute possibility. A lot of wounds were healed with 'Soldier's Angel.' It's about the war and these injured kids. It was a very kind of spiritual and holy thing."

What's the status of Fleetwood Mac?

[Edited 8/22/11 7:15am]

interesting story

What????!!!???

I never knew this...

I never knew that either. Wow. I love how the sound of "Stand Back" was influenced by "Little Red Corvette".

Another purple connection in that story...

Nicks is working "In Your Dreams" with the help of her longtime keyboardist, Ricky Peterson of the Twin Cities. ("Ricky's really special," she says. "He's a lot of fun and he's very, very sweet and caring and he's an amazing player like Christine McVie or Benmont Tench.") She's playing six or seven numbers from the new album as well as Fleetwood Mac and solo favorites.

Ricky is St. Paul Peterson's brother.

You learn something new everyday, what this revelation brings up is what would have happened had she actually accepted it? A very interesting tale indeed, Mr. Nelson had his hands in more careers than we probably know.

Interesting.

UncleGrandpa said:

You learn something new everyday, what this revelation brings up is what would have happened had she actually accepted it? A very interesting tale indeed, Mr. Nelson had his hands in more careers than we probably know.

(cue in the Disneyland themesong, in 4,3,2,1..)

-It IS a small world, afterall.

asg said:

http://www.startribune.co...=2&c=y

This summer, Stevie Nicks was invited to sing on TV's "America's Got Talent" and "The Voice." This month, she joined Jeff Bridges and John Fogerty at a benefit for wounded soldiers in Sturgis, S.D. In May, her Fleetwood Mac songs were featured on a "Glee" episode.

Why is the witchy woman so suddenly in demand?

It probably has a lot to do with "In Your Dreams," her first solo album in 10 years and her best since 1981's "Bella Donna."

"I have to tip my top hat to Dave Stewart" of Eurythmics, she said, who produced the album. "I think the seven songs that he and I wrote together mixed in with the five songs that I wrote by myself made for a much more interesting and diversified record," said Nicks, who performs Wednesday at Mystic Lake Casino amphitheater.

As a musician, Nicks, 63, knows she's limited. She didn't expect to be writing with Stewart but she sent him 40 pages of poetry. He came to her house and said, "Let's do this one."

Recalled Nicks: "In my head, I'm like, 'You don't think we're really going to sit in this room and write a song together, 'cause I don't do that.' But he was so kind and so sweet and no ego, and we just started playing, and in 15 minutes we finished 'You May Be the One.'

"Suddenly, I had an epiphany. Wow! That worked. And this is a really great song with no grief. I don't feel punished or like something was taken away from me. I don't miss spending two months sitting at my piano in tears."

One of her own songs on "In Your Dreams" actually dates back to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" days in the mid-1970s. She knew she had "Secret Love" on a cassette somewhere but couldn't find it. Then her assistant discovered it on YouTube. It turns out that Nicks had actually recorded it for "Bella Donna" but never released it. Keyboardist Benmont Tench, the musical director for that album, was the only person to remember it.

"Ben told me that the other day," Nicks said. "Now my whole story about having no idea [what happened to the song] has gone to hell in a handbag. I remember we recorded a lot of songs for 'Bella Donna'; I just did not remember that."

Another new song has an old connection. "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)" was inspired by Nicks seeing the movie "Twilight Saga: New Moon" in 2009. When she went to make a video of it this year, she grabbed a dress out of her closet that she'd worn to the 1984 premiere of Prince's "Purple Rain" in Hollywood.

"My friend's daughter is playing violin on that [video] and I pulled that dress out for her to wear. It's been hanging in my closet. It's like a year younger than the girl who wears it in the video."

Purple connection

Back in the early 1980s, Nicks and Prince were friends and musical collaborators. One day when she was driving in Los Angeles, she started humming along to his "Little Red Corvette" on the radio and pulled over to write down words she was composing. When she went to record the song a few hours later, she called Prince.

"Don't even ask me how I found his number but I did. I told him: 'I'm recording this song and I wrote it to "Little Red Corvette" and I'm giving you 50 percent of it and I want to know if you'd like to come play on it on one of the next three nights.' He was there in an hour, and he was there for about an hour and a half. And we became friends."

That song, "Stand Back," became a big hit in 1983. She asked Prince if they could someday write a song together. So he sent her a cassette of a long instrumental track and invited her to pen lyrics.

"It was so overwhelming, that 10-minute track, that I listened to it and I just got scared," Nicks remembered. "I called him back and said, 'I can't do it. I wish I could. It's too much for me.' I'm so glad that I didn't, because he wrote it, and it became 'Purple Rain.'"

Buckingham Nicks redux

Nicks is better known for her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham, her musical and romantic partner in the duo Buckingham Nicks since their college days at San Jose State. They joined Fleetwood Mac in late 1974 but split up romantically a couple years later. Of course, they've continued to work together on-and-off in that Rock Hall of Fame band. He joined her for one tune on the new album, "Soldier's Angel."

"It was as close to the Buckingham Nicks years as we have been since Buckingham Nicks," Nicks said. "For Lindsey and I, that opened up the possibility of a new chapter. We certainly can still do it. And we did it well and it wasn't a lot of work. Lindsey and I are very happy with each other right now."

Would they do a duo tour?

"It's an absolute possibility. A lot of wounds were healed with 'Soldier's Angel.' It's about the war and these injured kids. It was a very kind of spiritual and holy thing."

What's the status of Fleetwood Mac?

[Edited 8/22/11 7:15am]

So this puts to rest, the over 25 year claim that Wendy & Lisa help write that song. Finally this discredits that The Revolution is responsible for Prince's crossover success & therefore wouldn't have been a superstar.......Thx Stevie.....Ok Wendy & Lisa groupies!

Did people think Wendy and Lisa helped write the song because of the script of the movie?

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

asg said:

http://www.startribune.co...=2&c=y

This summer, Stevie Nicks was invited to sing on TV's "America's Got Talent" and "The Voice." This month, she joined Jeff Bridges and John Fogerty at a benefit for wounded soldiers in Sturgis, S.D. In May, her Fleetwood Mac songs were featured on a "Glee" episode.

Why is the witchy woman so suddenly in demand?

It probably has a lot to do with "In Your Dreams," her first solo album in 10 years and her best since 1981's "Bella Donna."

"I have to tip my top hat to Dave Stewart" of Eurythmics, she said, who produced the album. "I think the seven songs that he and I wrote together mixed in with the five songs that I wrote by myself made for a much more interesting and diversified record," said Nicks, who performs Wednesday at Mystic Lake Casino amphitheater.

As a musician, Nicks, 63, knows she's limited. She didn't expect to be writing with Stewart but she sent him 40 pages of poetry. He came to her house and said, "Let's do this one."

Recalled Nicks: "In my head, I'm like, 'You don't think we're really going to sit in this room and write a song together, 'cause I don't do that.' But he was so kind and so sweet and no ego, and we just started playing, and in 15 minutes we finished 'You May Be the One.'

"Suddenly, I had an epiphany. Wow! That worked. And this is a really great song with no grief. I don't feel punished or like something was taken away from me. I don't miss spending two months sitting at my piano in tears."

One of her own songs on "In Your Dreams" actually dates back to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" days in the mid-1970s. She knew she had "Secret Love" on a cassette somewhere but couldn't find it. Then her assistant discovered it on YouTube. It turns out that Nicks had actually recorded it for "Bella Donna" but never released it. Keyboardist Benmont Tench, the musical director for that album, was the only person to remember it.

"Ben told me that the other day," Nicks said. "Now my whole story about having no idea [what happened to the song] has gone to hell in a handbag. I remember we recorded a lot of songs for 'Bella Donna'; I just did not remember that."

Another new song has an old connection. "Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream)" was inspired by Nicks seeing the movie "Twilight Saga: New Moon" in 2009. When she went to make a video of it this year, she grabbed a dress out of her closet that she'd worn to the 1984 premiere of Prince's "Purple Rain" in Hollywood.

"My friend's daughter is playing violin on that [video] and I pulled that dress out for her to wear. It's been hanging in my closet. It's like a year younger than the girl who wears it in the video."

Purple connection

Back in the early 1980s, Nicks and Prince were friends and musical collaborators. One day when she was driving in Los Angeles, she started humming along to his "Little Red Corvette" on the radio and pulled over to write down words she was composing. When she went to record the song a few hours later, she called Prince.

"Don't even ask me how I found his number but I did. I told him: 'I'm recording this song and I wrote it to "Little Red Corvette" and I'm giving you 50 percent of it and I want to know if you'd like to come play on it on one of the next three nights.' He was there in an hour, and he was there for about an hour and a half. And we became friends."

That song, "Stand Back," became a big hit in 1983. She asked Prince if they could someday write a song together. So he sent her a cassette of a long instrumental track and invited her to pen lyrics.

"It was so overwhelming, that 10-minute track, that I listened to it and I just got scared," Nicks remembered. "I called him back and said, 'I can't do it. I wish I could. It's too much for me.' I'm so glad that I didn't, because he wrote it, and it became 'Purple Rain.'"

Buckingham Nicks redux

Nicks is better known for her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham, her musical and romantic partner in the duo Buckingham Nicks since their college days at San Jose State. They joined Fleetwood Mac in late 1974 but split up romantically a couple years later. Of course, they've continued to work together on-and-off in that Rock Hall of Fame band. He joined her for one tune on the new album, "Soldier's Angel."

"It was as close to the Buckingham Nicks years as we have been since Buckingham Nicks," Nicks said. "For Lindsey and I, that opened up the possibility of a new chapter. We certainly can still do it. And we did it well and it wasn't a lot of work. Lindsey and I are very happy with each other right now."

Would they do a duo tour?

"It's an absolute possibility. A lot of wounds were healed with 'Soldier's Angel.' It's about the war and these injured kids. It was a very kind of spiritual and holy thing."

What's the status of Fleetwood Mac?

[Edited 8/22/11 7:15am]

So this puts to rest, the over 25 year claim that Wendy & Lisa help write that song. Finally this discredits that The Revolution is responsible for Prince's crossover success & therefore wouldn't have been a superstar.......Thx Stevie.....Ok Wendy & Lisa groupies!

Hold up, hold up. Someone was saying Wendy & Lisa co-wrote it?! HUH!?

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

So this puts to rest, the over 25 year claim that Wendy & Lisa help write that song.

I don't know who wrote what. But Stevie just says Prince gave her a tape with an instrumental. That doesn't prove anything either way. She doesn't say the music was written solo or in a collaboration and Stevie wouldn't know unless she was told.

MyJobIz2beCute said:

-Looking through my PR notes,

-I see here that Prince wrote like 100 songs or so for that movie's album.

-WB, rejected many good songs for it.

-I sometimes wonder also about the name of that movie, wasn't it suppose to be called:

-"The Dreams"?

No just "Dreams" if I remember correctly

http://books.google.com/b...mp;f=false

Efan said:

Another purple connection in that story...

Nicks is working "In Your Dreams" with the help of her longtime keyboardist, Ricky Peterson of the Twin Cities. ("Ricky's really special," she says. "He's a lot of fun and he's very, very sweet and caring and he's an amazing player like Christine McVie or Benmont Tench.") She's playing six or seven numbers from the new album as well as Fleetwood Mac and solo favorites.

Ricky is St. Paul Peterson's brother.

and practically the producer of the Gold Experience.

errant said:

Efan said:

Another purple connection in that story...

Ricky is St. Paul Peterson's brother.

and practically the producer of the Gold Experience.

Now I know who to blame. I hate that album with a passion only eclipsed by TRC

[Edited 8/23/11 21:07pm]

V10LETBLUES said:

errant said:

and practically the producer of the Gold Experience.

Now I know who to blame. I hate that album with a passion only eclipsed by TRC

[Edited 8/23/11 21:07pm]

...Whoa, seriously?

The Gold Experience?!! That's one of the most epic things Prince has ever done.

*clutches the pearls*

PippiL said:

V10LETBLUES said:

Now I know who to blame. I hate that album with a passion only eclipsed by TRC

[Edited 8/23/11 21:07pm]

...Whoa, seriously?

The Gold Experience?!! That's one of the most epic things Prince has ever done.

*clutches the pearls*

You gotta be Joking! Epicl Fail more like... hyped TGE about it never being released, with that much hype, it better be a banger of an album..

So he gives us the Beautiful Experience feature-length video which includes "Days Of Wild" and "acknowledge Me" - arguably the most powerful tracks from that feature - only for it to NOT be released on TGE - what a gyp, had to wait for his greatest misses (and to some, greatest fail) "Crystal Ball" for anything to surface....

Then we get a cut down version of "Billy Jack Bitch" and a track which was recorded for "showgirls" and probably one of his lamest album closures, which I felt considering the album was called "The Gold Experience", a closing song with the lyrics "All that glitters ain't Gold" may as well be saying the whole thing was an overhyped anti-climax!

However "Shhh" and "I Hate U" could be it's saving Grace....

but for me... this album is merely a contribution to the integration of "Come" and "Exodus", the former being the FAR superior and the most underrated...

Finally as for TRC, isn't that one big musical proverbial JW door-to-door watchtower pitch/appraisal, appealing primarily to Prince puritans and musicians as opposed to the general consumer (I think it's fantastic personally - thought for accessibility in the noughties, Musicology hands down!)

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Sorry for the off-tangent , we were talking about Stevie Nicks or something.....?

'dre

I wonder just how true this story or is Stevie getting high again?

It's Kiss all over again.

PositivityForever said:

I wonder just how true this story or is Stevie getting high again?

Yeah some people on here believe everything they read. I doubt this is true.

stupid little things...

Benmont Tench is/was with Tom Petty....with whom she recorder stop dragging my heart...

interesting about Stand Back, because Prince receives no album credit, if im not mistaken...is that prince playing guitar on the track, and/or synthesizer?...

V10LETBLUES said:

errant said:

and practically the producer of the Gold Experience.

Now I know who to blame. I hate that album with a passion only eclipsed by TRC

[Edited 8/23/11 21:07pm]

Absurd.

"So he sent her a cassette of a long instrumental track and invited her to pen lyrics."

How close to the final was it? And he hadn't written the lyrics so who contributed to that?We have no idea what the thing sounded like but jump to all kinds of conclusions.

"Kiss" started as a short acoustic demo, about a minute in length, with one verse and the chorus. Mazarati and produceDavid Z. drastically reworked the song, giving it its stripped-down sound. When Mazarati delivered the song to Prince, he decided to take back the song for himself. He replaced their lead vocal, added the guitar break in the chorus and edited the song to its present form."

Sounds like David Z. and Mazarati should have gotten writing credit too. Thats right- David Z and Mazarati fans comin' out tha woodwork...

PositivityForever said:

I wonder just how true this story or is Stevie getting high again?

It seems like there was another thread a few months ago about some claim she made that seemed to stretch things a bit.

I like Stevie Nicks and all but she does have a habit of, um, misremembering things...or at least making claims that people question. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

PippiL said:

V10LETBLUES said:

Now I know who to blame. I hate that album with a passion only eclipsed by TRC

[Edited 8/23/11 21:07pm]

...Whoa, seriously?

The Gold Experience?!! That's one of the most epic things Prince has ever done.

*clutches the pearls*

Any album where Prince makes any attempt to rap is absolutely atrocious. Just my opinion.

As for Stevie's recollection of "Purple Rain"...if it's true, AWESOME!!!!!

wow! I thought I was the only one who went through it, Prince sent me the instrumental ttoo, and I freaked out the same way. I was like I can't do it, this is too overwhelming! so he came up with the lyrics, little did I know that song would be "Purple and Gold" bummer, I should have co-wrote something

Stevie Nicks talks about the "standback" recording session. I believe you can get at VH1-Its the one where she talks about how she wrote each song and then performs it live. (Prince also does keyboards on the original track)

Here's the written transcript from storytellers vh1:

Thank you, Frank. Thank you very much. (Stevie puts her hands together and gives a little bow to the audience) All right, well, the story of "Stand Back." Uh, many years ago, like in the beginning of the 1980's , um I got married. And my husband Kim and I were driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara for like a honeymoon. (Stevie smiles then laughs)And we heard this incredible Prince song called "Little Red Corvette". And we were like so knocked out at this song. So, we were like (Stevie dances a little) all the way, so we pulled over and we got it. And I just kind of hummed this song along to it. It's very, very different, you'll, you'll try it, you'll all go home and try this. But it's, you'll have to find where it fits in, but it was very, it was perfectly in there and we got to the , to the, hotel or wherever we went and we recorded it, and like it was a song, it was done. And, also to add that when I went in to record it, we were in the middle of recording it and I thought well, you know what? I could just call Prince and tell him this. And somebody got me his number, and that's not an easy thing to do, (audience laughs) and, and we contacted him. I was at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. We contacted him and he called me back, he called me right back and I kinda told him the story. I said I kinda hummed along this song and I'm at Sunset Sound, and how do you feel about that. And twenty minutes later her roared into the parking lot (Stevie makes a little driving motion with her hands and audience laughs) and uh, came in, listened to the song you know, very cool, very quiet. And he said, "Okay", and I said, "Do you hate it?" , and he said "No, I, it's okay, it's cool" and he uh, they set up an OB8 for him and he played the doo doo doo doo doo the 1/16 note thing and then, he did it like one time. And then he went to the middle part where it goes deedat deedat deedat deedat, he did that, he finished it, he said good bye and he kinda walked out of my life. (audience laughs) So that's my Prince story and it's also my story of "Stand Back".(big smile)

The music starts and Stevie twirls around and sings "Stand Back"

Stevie still has the original cassette tape of music -That has the unfinished music piece for the song that eventually became Purple Rain. I wonder how much that tape is worth??

kewlschool said:

Stevie still has the original cassette tape of music -That has the unfinished music piece for the song that eventually became Purple Rain. I wonder how much that tape is worth??

a fortune!