S1 E4 – Stevie Nicks gives BD Energy – The Generic, Non Specific Stevie Nicks Podcast

This week, Randy and Anthony discuss Stevie’s 1981 solo debut, Bella Donna, as we work through The Complete Studio Albums and Rarities on vinyl.

In 1976, Stevie Nicks attended a Warner Records sales conference in Mexico, where she met Paul Fishkin. Still stinging from the exclusion of ‘Silver Springs,’ from Fleetwood Mac’s (still unreleased) Rumours album, Stevie and Paul spent the weekend discussing her music, and the limitations of being in a band with two other songwriters. Stevie played him some of her demos. By the end of the weekend, Fishkin was selling her on the idea of a solo record deal.

Over the next year, while Fleetwood Mac toured and began recording Tusk, Fishkin and his friend Danny Goldberg (in the episode, Randy mis-identifies Goldberg as Doug Morris), work on securing a solo deal for Stevie. The result is Modern Records, with a distribution deal through Atlantic Records. Goldberg gives a very detailed and revealing look at the genesis of Stevie’s solo deal (with a detour around the proposed ‘Rhiannon,’ film) is his book ‘Bumping Into Geniuses,’ (it’s out of print, but you can find a used copy at Better World Books).

As the Tusk recording wound down, Stevie began a relationship with Hernan Rojas, who worked as an engineer on Tusk. Rojas worked with Stevie on several demos that would eventually make it onto Bella Donna, including ‘How Still My Love,’ and ‘Outside The Rain.’ He was also responsible for helping Stevie shape the opus that was ‘Sara.’ Before the band began rehearsals for the tour, Rojas took Stevie to his native Chile for six weeks. It was there that she met Rojas’ mother, whom Stevie would nickname ‘Belladonna’…

Stevie began recording what would become Bella Donna in the studio with producer Jimmy Iovine, who was also producing Tom Petty. According to Tom Petty (as recounted in the book, Conversations with Tom Petty), Jimmy Iovine asked Petty to write a song for her album. ‘Insider,’ was written in about a day. When Petty presented it, Iovine was extremely impressed. However, as Petty and Stevie recorded the vocals, Petty knew he wanted to keep it for his own album. As a fellow songwriter, Stevie understood and opted to take another song instead. The song she ended up with was ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.‘

‘Edge of Seventeen,’ is still the most recognized song off of the album, and has gone on to have a Life outside of the recorded version. When it was released as a single, the b-side was the live version from the White Winged Dove tour. It is still hands down, the best live version of the song captured on film (but Red Rocks and Live in Chicago are also amazing). The song went on to inspire ‘Bootylicious,’ by Destiny’s Child and ‘Midnight Sky,’ by Miley Cyrus (an exceptional mashup ‘Edge of Midnight‘ followed). Listen to the Lindsey Lohan and Jonas covers at your own peril.

Released on July 27, 1981, Bella Donna remains Stevie’s only #1 album to date.

Where’s Raven?

At the same time, Raven, along with her New Teen Titans teammates is battling The Puppeteer in The New Teen Titans #9. Changeling asks Robin to help investigate the murders of several Dayton Industries executives, which are traced to Green Lantern’s old foe, the Puppeteer, now in league with the H.I.V.E. Meanwhile, through his robot puppets, Puppeteer takes control of Cyborg, Kid Flash, Starfire, and Wonder Girl, and turns them against their teammates. Eventually, Kid Flash can breaks his trance and then frees Starfire. Robin does some ‘dirty tricks’ to get Cyborg down. And finally, after Raven’s soul-self breaks Wondergirl’s trance, the Titans then unite to battle Puppeteer and his toy robotic army. When the villain is defeated, the H.I.V.E attempts to destroy him for his failure.

Dig Deeper

Additional tracks from the Bella Donna recording sessions:

Julia – This song was so close to being released, it even ended up on VERY RARE test pressings before ultimately being replaced with ‘Outside the Rain.’ It’s Randy’s favorite unreleased Stevie track.
Blue Lamp – This song ended up on the Heavy Metal soundtrack
Sleeping Angel – Fleetwood Mac recorded a version during the Rumours sessions, but this Bella Donna version was released on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, and was very prominent in the film as well. Anthony thinks this is one of Stevie’s best vocals.
The Dealer – Recorded during Tusk and Bella Donna, it finally saw the light of day on 2016’s 24 Karat Gold (along with If You Were My Love).
Gold and Braid – We’re putting the live version on here, because Anthony and Randy both love the Hee Haw Dance Stevie does!
Listen to Randy’s ‘Earth 2 Bella Donna‘ playlist

The Generic, Non Specific Stevie Nicks Podcast

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