Re: Stevie Nicks
The Hamptons Film Festival was a very cool experience overall, and I'm very glad I went!
It was truly a whirlwind trip, with a brutal schedule.
I flew in to LaGuardia from Memphis Friday afternoon, and got there about 6:30. I met one friend there, but we had another friend coming who wasn't getting in until 10:30 and who we had to wait around for before making the hour-long drive to our hotel (halfway between LaGuardia and the Hamptons. Long Island sure is LONG!)
We rented a car and decided to drive into the city for dinner. BIG mistake. Driving was very tense! I have driven in Chicago and Los Angeles with some stress but I never felt like I was constantly in danger of having an accident. In New York City, I did feel that way, and it was awful! We survived, though, and wound up at a Bistro in SoHo. Then, it was back to the airport. We picked up my friend and got to our hotel about midnight.
Next night, it was up early to drive for the next hour-long drive to the Hamptons! Unlike last night, this drive was super-easy and the weather was beautiful. We got there at 10:00 for a noon event - another mistake. Stevie hardcores are famous for getting in line EARLY, and we must have had 100 people ahead of us. (We were planning to get there at 9:00, but one of my friends was dragging her feet a bit.)
Still, this wasn't a concert; this was Stevie's Q&A. We were seated about halfway up the center section and had a great view. Stevie came in wearing tight black pants, a flowing long black top, black ankle boots, and sunglasses (yes, we were indoors, but I guess she thought it looked cool). She sat down and talked with an enthusiastic interviewer for about 45 minutes, then spent the last 15 minutes answering fan questions.
In her talk, she discussed working with her latest album In Your Dreams producer and collaborator Dave Stewart (formerly of the Eurythmics) and how great it was. She talked about their process and recording in her mansion in Southern California, and all the fun they had. She joked about never intending to write with him, but after he read her poetry and actually seemed to appreciate it, she decided to try co-writing with him - which she had never done before in that style - and it worked wonderfully.
I say "joked" but it wasn't really that she was joking per se, it's that she tells her stories in a way that make you laugh. She's just so... Stevie. lol
She said she wrote in a very free style without caring about "rules" of what is considered traditionally structured music - that she didn't even know those rules and other than some rudimentary guitar lessons to help her know how to play enough to write on guitar, she'd had no training.
BTW, she said she was actually told NOT to make new music because her manager and label didn't think it would make money. Oh my gosh. See, THIS is what the problem with the music industry is, folks. Not downloading or YouTube. The fact that musicians are told "Hey, you're not going to make a bunch of money off of this, people will just steal it, don't make new music, just tour" by their management and label. Those greedy b@$t@rds, how dare they tell Stevie not to make new music! They blame the fact that it will be stolen but really they just know that classic rockers' new albums NEVER sold as well as their old stuff and they are actively discouraging them from making it. It pisses me off so bad when I hear stuff like that! And Stevie went along with it for a while!! Then, Stevie said that she finally decided it wouldn't matter if she didn't make money, that she was going to make the music for the sake of it. I'm sitting there thinking "Well, That's how it's supposed to be, folks." And guess what? People DID buy it. People DO appreciate it. Maybe when more classic rock acts start doing it for the love of it instead of for the bottom line, they'd have the same positive results.
Unfortunately, there was a bit too much Lindsey-dissing for my taste. She told us that Lindsey was controlling in the studio and they were always fighting even to this day, because they are still not over each other. In fact, she asserts that Lindsey still is bitter that they didn't get married back in the Buckingham Nicks days and thus don't have a family of their own. Still, she asked him to play on her song "Soldier's Angel" because she felt "he was the only one who could do it" and "I needed him." So, despite everything, the connection is still there and, according to both of them, always will be.
The few questions she took included whether she planned on continuing making music and performing for the foreseeable future - she said YES! It was Fleetwood Mac's year next year, then she'd be doing more solo stuff after that.
Another question: Would she ever write an "tell-all"? What did she think of her mention in the recent book by the Wilson sisters? She said if she ever did one, it wouldn't be a "tell all" but a series of vignettes about the special moments in her life. She said everyone already knows about her drug abuse and addictions, so she wouldn't put anything about that in there, and she was disappointed that the Wilson sisters did - although she said she didn't hate them or anything, she just wasn't happy about it.
Note: I wish she would talk about overcoming her addictions - not to hear the dirt, but because I think that could help people who are trapped in addiction to hear about her recovery. But hey, it's her life.
Another question: Would she consider doing R&B? She said she had already collaborated with Babyface and she would consider it.
Another question: Would she consider doing an acoustic tour playing rarities? To my astonishment, she said yes, because she wanted to do the songs she'd never had a chance to do live - that it makes her sad to think of all the beautiful songs she's written that no one's gotten to hear live. She said it might be something to do when she stops doing big tours and tones it down. She then - to our delight - sang impromptu snippets of "Belladonna", "The Wild Heart", and "Rock a Little." OH MY FREAKING GOSH, she has NEVER done those live in any form before! Thinking of her making those part of an acoustic tour of songs that hadn't been performed live before almost made my head explode! AWESOMENESS!!!
That was about it. Time to head over to the theater for the premiere! Once again, we had to wait in line, and once again we weren't at the front, but since it was just a movie theater and not a concert venue, it wasn't a problem. What was a problem was that it started to rain on us - hard - but I had had the foresight to bring a raincoat. My poor friends just got wet.
Stevie was in the theater with us, in the back. I wish we'd have gotten to sit near her but then again, what would be doing, just staring at her instead of the screen, lol.
The movie consisted of her going song-by-song for her album In Your Dreams, talking about what inspired each song and the process of writing and recording them. It gave me such insight into how she works. She gets a reputation for writing really unstructured ramblings and having producers make them into viable songs. However, as I saw her talk about her vision for songs and the way she wanted them to sound, I realized she has a lot more going on with the production side than she gets credit for.
They filmed a lot of "fantasy" type sequences with Stevie dressed in gorgeous clothes to do mini-video segments for the songs. The one for "Italian Summer" was especially wonderful, with her in a beautiful flowing red gown, standing on her balcony over the Hollywood Hills, singing this magnificent song about a romantic summer in Italy. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.
For one song, "Secret Love," Stevie couldn't find her old demo for it to give to Dave Stewart so they got it OFF OF YOUTUBE (Stevie's demos have been circulating amongst the fan community for years and she's complained about it before as well as complained about them being uploaded to YouTube, so I find this irony to be absolutely delicious.)
Dave Stewart even filmed his computer playing the YouTube video, so we know the exact one. This is it:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OltUuI0kv38[/ame]
To be frank, though, I think only hardcores would be interested in this movie. There wasn't hardly anything about her music before the In Your Dreams album - there were a few very brief clips when she referenced the seventies in connection with what she's doing now, but that was it. You basically already had to know the Story of Stevie going in to get a lot of the context. We all knew it, but a regular audience wouldn't.
More Lindsey-dissing took place as she emphasized how much better Dave Stewart was to work with than Lindsey because Dave let her do whatever she wanted and Lindsey was always trying to tell her what to do. They even showed a clip from a Fleetwood Mac documentary made back in 2003 where Lindsey tried to make a suggestion about her lyrics and she shot him down with "Would you say that to Bob Dylan?" C'mon Stevie, give the man a break, he was just trying to help!
I thought briefly about how very, very different the Mac dynamic is than that of the Eagles, when Glenn and Don seem to have pretty much free reign in tweaking the songs of the others.
At the end, she gave another brief Q&A, both those questions were lame because one guy kept going on and on with something that wasn't really a question but rather him talking about how much her music meant to him, which is nice and all, but other folks want to ask real questions! Instead of being moved by how her music had helped him, I was like "Either ask her a question or give someone else the microphone! We've ALL had our lives made better by Stevie's music, that's why we're freaking here!"
Afterwards, we went back to LaGuardia and flew out the next morning (Monday) at 6:00 am, and I actually summoned the energy somehow to go back to work that same day. I've made it a priority not to miss any work for my trips, so that when I do have to miss a day out of necessity, it will be a rarity and thus acceptable.
One more thing: I heard about how swanky and special the Hamptons were, but while the place was pretty, I really didn't see why it was supposed to be such a mecca. I guess the appeal is more that you're surrounded by rich people than that the beach or the area is all that great.
Thus ended my adventures!
And if you'd like to watch the beautiful and magnificent Stevie Nicks' Q&A yourself, the Film Festival has put it online!
http://vimeo.com/50972516
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Originally Posted by EaglesKiwi
for your summary. Sounds like a weekend to Stevie mecca for her hardcores. 
Stevie!
That's what I love about her---she says it how she feels!! More power to her for staying true to herself! I have nothing but respect for her and people like that. 
