thjimmy
04-03-2009, 01:08 PM
I just read this piece from Stevie Nicks and thought it was interesting.
And not just for the "Edge of Seventeen" insight, but her feelings on her place in the industry.
Stevie Nicks shed light on some of her favorite songs and revealed that one of her earliest and most beloved hits "Edge Of Seventeen" was directly inspired by John Lennon. Nicks, who released the track on her 1981 solo debut Bella Donna, explained to EW.com, "This was written right after John Lennon was assassinated. That was a very scary and sad moment for all of us in the rock n' roll business, it scared us all to death that some idiot could be so deranged that he would wait outside your apartment building, never having known you, and shoot you dead."
She went on to try and make sense of Lennon's 1980 murder, adding, "If you were the president of the United States, maybe, but to just be a music person, albeit a Beatle? And to be shot and killed in front of your apartment, when you had a wife and two kids? That was so unacceptable to all of us in our community. So the white dove was John Lennon, and peace."
Nicks added that the song now has new meaning after her work with wounded U.S. veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan: "Now, for me, it has taken on something else. I feel like I hear war, because I go to visit soldiers in Bethesda and at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center), and when I hear their stories... We can't even imagine what they're going through, the violence. . . It's very foreboding, ominous."
After six years of massive hits with Fleetwood Mac, 1981's Bella Donna solidified her position as a major mover in '80s rock. Nicks says that she hopes that her decades of singing, writing and performing have helped inspire future generations of women to do the same: "I hope that I'm a part of the reason why they make music, you know? I always wanted to be inspirational to other singers, and I wanted to be a success story for women where they could say, 'Well, she made it. I could make it, too.' It seems that somehow I've managed to do that. I never really tried to do that, but it seems that that has happened."
And not just for the "Edge of Seventeen" insight, but her feelings on her place in the industry.
Stevie Nicks shed light on some of her favorite songs and revealed that one of her earliest and most beloved hits "Edge Of Seventeen" was directly inspired by John Lennon. Nicks, who released the track on her 1981 solo debut Bella Donna, explained to EW.com, "This was written right after John Lennon was assassinated. That was a very scary and sad moment for all of us in the rock n' roll business, it scared us all to death that some idiot could be so deranged that he would wait outside your apartment building, never having known you, and shoot you dead."
She went on to try and make sense of Lennon's 1980 murder, adding, "If you were the president of the United States, maybe, but to just be a music person, albeit a Beatle? And to be shot and killed in front of your apartment, when you had a wife and two kids? That was so unacceptable to all of us in our community. So the white dove was John Lennon, and peace."
Nicks added that the song now has new meaning after her work with wounded U.S. veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan: "Now, for me, it has taken on something else. I feel like I hear war, because I go to visit soldiers in Bethesda and at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center), and when I hear their stories... We can't even imagine what they're going through, the violence. . . It's very foreboding, ominous."
After six years of massive hits with Fleetwood Mac, 1981's Bella Donna solidified her position as a major mover in '80s rock. Nicks says that she hopes that her decades of singing, writing and performing have helped inspire future generations of women to do the same: "I hope that I'm a part of the reason why they make music, you know? I always wanted to be inspirational to other singers, and I wanted to be a success story for women where they could say, 'Well, she made it. I could make it, too.' It seems that somehow I've managed to do that. I never really tried to do that, but it seems that that has happened."
