For The Talk’s fifth annual “Rocktober Lip Sync War,” Sharon Osbourne transformed into the legendary Stevie Nicks, performing “Stand Back” in a re-creation of Stevie’s 1983 music video.
After Sharon’s performance, guest host Kelly Osbourne asked her mum, “What made you want to be Stevie Nicks?” Mrs. O. responded, “Stevie is a phenomenal artist. I bow down to her. She has more than stood the test of time. She has an incredible career.” Kelly then asked, “Now that you’ve had an opportunity to live the life of Stevie Nicks, do you think maybe you could do a duet with dad [Ozzy]?” Sharon responded, “I would love your dad and Stevie Nicks to do a duet, why not?”
The producers of the US Festival have shared digitally-restored footage of Stevie Nicks performing at the 1983 US Festival. The clip would be gifted to Kickstarter donors pledging at the $55 level toward the development of The US Festival 1982: A Feature-Length Documentary, a reissue project currently underway.
STORY
ICON Television Music, the UNUSON (Unite Us In Song) Corporation and Plum Moving Media proudly present the definitive 1982 US Festival documentary. Regarded as the Woodstock of the 80s, the US Festival captured the mindset of a culture on the cusp of a technology transformation. The documentary reveals the bands, fans and organizers who brought Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s rock festival to life.
Genre
Music & Technology
Studio
ICON Television Music Inc., Unuson, Plum Moving Media
Plot Outline
Exclusive interviews with Steve Wozniak and UNUSON President Carlos Harvey reveal how Woz’s vision transformed 57 acres of desert park into the world’s largest outdoor amphitheater. With the enlistment of renowned concert promoter Bill Graham, the stage was set for a world-class event.
Participant and event organizer interviews uncover some of the behind-the-scenes stories and misconceptions that have become urban legend over the years.
Newly found and digitally re-mastered concert footage brings back to life memorable performances from the premier artists of the decade.
This 90-minute documentary will be an intermingling of history, unseen concert footage, and anecdotal stories as told by and seen through the eyes of the event participants.
Produced By
ICON Television Music Inc., UNUSON, Plum Moving Media
NEW YORK (AP) — Stevie Nicks is trying to whittle down the set list for her upcoming solo tour, but one song that definitely made the cut is her 1983 hit “Stand Back” with Prince. Originally written as a compliment, now it will be a tribute.
The Fleetwood Mac singer, who heard Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” on her car radio and loved it so much she decided to write an answer song, hasn’t played “Stand Back” since Prince died in April.
“I will be singing it for the first time without Prince being on the planet,” she said. “That is going to be horrible, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to pay homage to my ‘Little Red Corvette’ friend. I’ll sing it forever for him now.”
Nicks’ two-month tour with The Pretenders kicks off Oct. 25 in support of her 2014 album, “24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault.” She never got a chance to promote the CD since she spent most of the last three years on the road with Fleetwood Mac.
Nicks promises songs from “24 Karat Gold” as well as old favorites like “Dreams,” ”If Anyone Falls,” ”New Orleans,” ”Bella Donna,” ”Rooms on Fire” and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”
“Stand Back” will be there, fueled by the memory of her having lured Prince into the recording studio to play keyboards on the song he inspired. She said one of her deepest regrets is never getting him to join her onstage for a live version.
Though Nicks and Prince were friends, the two didn’t hang out much. One thing they disagreed on was drug use. “He hated them. And he hated that I did drugs and that’s probably why we didn’t hang out more,” she said.
“He was worried that I would die of an accidental drug overdose and my sadness is that he did die of an accidental drug overdose. He’s up there looking down, saying to me, ‘Sweetie, I can’t believe it happened either.’”
Nicks has no current record deal — “I’m free to do whatever I want” — after delivering “24 Karat Gold” to Warner Bros. It’s an album of orphan songs, demos mostly written between 1969-1987.
“These were written during the days when everybody was pretty high and crazy and there was a lot of love affairs going on and a lot of breakups going on and just a lot of emotion going on,” she said.
The 68-year-old singer-songwriter said that there were many reasons why the songs never got on any of her albums or those by Fleetwood Mac. In some cases, she didn’t like the arrangements and pulled them. Or they came out soulless.
So in 2014, she and producers Dave Stewart and Waddy Wachtel went to Nashville, Tennessee, and re-recorded the songs in a matter of weeks. When they were finished, she put one CD in a gold box, wrapped it in a red bow and delivered it to the front desk of Warner Bros. Then she rejoined the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour.
Now she’s getting ready to hit the road again, one of the few legendary acts like the Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen to be able to deliver a three- or four-hour set because they never stopped making music.
“I am very aware that artists over 50 don’t — and are never going to — sell a lot of albums any more. It took me years to accept that,” she said. “Now we can just pretend we’re like 15 and start over and make records just because we want to.”
Kicking off Side 2 of The Wild Heart is Stevie Nicks’ massive hit “Stand Back.” Though it’s not her highest charting single (that honor goes to “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which peaked at No. 3 in 1981), “Stand Back” is clearly one of her most recognizable solo hits, having been performed on every solo tour and most Fleetwood Mac tours (that Stevie has been a part of) since the song’s release in 1983. Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” is another song that has been performed on every tour since its release.
The story of “Stand Back” is now legendary among fans, but few know that, musically, the song was actually inspired by the opening chord progression of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.”
‘Little Red Corvette’
“Right after I got married, I heard this wonderful song Prince had done called ‘Little Red Corvette,’” Stevie said in 1983, “And as soon as I heard it I went, ‘Boy, I love that.’ And I just started humming to myself, and in a matter of minutes, I had hummed along a very different melody than what Prince had done. Anyway, me being one of the more honest people you’ll ever meet, I immediately call Prince and tell him what I had written and how and he, against everybody’s thinking he wouldn’t, came down and played on this song! My intuitions are usually right and since he told me he was doing the video of ‘Little Red Corvette’ that day, and since I know videos and films always take a lot longer than anybody thinks, I didn’t think he’d show up. But [songwriter/musician] Sandy [Stewart] and I rushed to the studio anyway, thinking ‘what if he comes, what are we going to show him. We’ll both get out there live and try to play the song for him and start to giggle,’ right? I mean, no chance. So under pressure of fire, we did it in one take, one time, and that’s what you hear; me singing live, Sandy on her synthesizer, Prince playing that dahdahdahdahdah, very kind of ‘Edge of Seventeen’ thing, and a drum machine.
Between then and now, Steve Lukather put an incredible guitar solo in the middle and David Williams, who played all over [Michael Jackson’s] ‘Billie Jean Is Not My Lover,’ played on this. Anyway, ‘Stand Back’ become a real anthem, a real ‘I’m tired of listening to all your great advice, ’cause it’s gotten me nowhere, so I’m listening to myself now kind of anthem.’ So it came slightly out of strength, slightly out of being in love, slightly out of being married, and ever so slightly out of hearing the first three chords of ‘Little Red Corvette!’”
‘My favorite song onstage’
“[‘Little Red Corvette’] just gave me an incredible idea,” Stevie said in 1991, “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 this 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.”
Musicians
OBX-A & DMX drum machine programming: David Bluefield
Drums: Marvin Caruso
Percussion: Bobbye Hall
Drum overdubs: Russ Kunkel
Guitar: Steve Lukather
Synthesizer, guitar: Prince (uncredited)
Synthesizer: Sandy Stewart
Guitar: Waddy Wachtel
Percussion: Ian Wallace
Guitar: David Williams
Background vocals: Sharon Celani & Lori Perry
Produced by Jimmy Iovine. Recorded at Studio 55, Los Angeles.
No one looked as I walked by
Just an invitation would have been just fine
Said no to him again and again
First he took my heart then he ran
No one knows how I feel
What I say unless you read between my lines
One man walked away from me
First he took my hand
Take me home
Stand back, stand back
In the middle of my room
I did not hear from you
It’s alright, it’s alright
To be standing in a line
(Standing in a line)
To be standing in a line
I would cry
Do not turn away my friend
Like a willow I can bend
No man called my name
No man came
So I walked slow down away from you
Maybe your attention was more than you could do
One man did not call
He asked me for my love
That was all
Stand back, stand back
In the middle of my room
I did not hear from you
It’s alright, it’s alright
To be standing in a line
(Standing in a line)
To be standing in a line
I would cry
So I walked on down the line away from you
Maybe your attention was more than I could do
One man did not fall
Well, he asked me for my love
That was all
Stand back, stand back
In the middle of my room
I did not hear from you
It’s alright, it’s alright
To be standing in a line
(Standing in a line)
To be standing in a line
I would cry
Feel I need a little sympathy
Well, I need a little sympathy
(Cry…)
Well, I need a little sympathy
Well, you could be standing in
(Stand back)
Well, you could be standing in
(Stand back)
Well, you could standing in
(Stand Back)
Take me home
Take home
(Stand back)
Why don’t you take me home
Well, I need a little sympathy
(Stand back)
Well, you could be standing in
(Stand back)
Why don’t you take…
(Me home)
Why don’t you take me home
(Stand back)
Take me home
(It’s alright)
Take me home
(It’s alright)
Oh, yeah…
Take me home
A CHOICE OF 10 SINGLES – THE BEST POP MUSIC OF 1983
In 1983, singles proved to be a much better vehicle for amusing, adventurous pop music than albums were. Whether we’re talking about the traditional 7-inch single or the expansive 12-inch configuration, singles have yielded a wide variety of pleasures over the last 12 months. The following is a list of 10 of the best of them.
Michael Jackson, “Beat It” (Epic): A toss-up with Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” I’m choosing “Beat It” for its impact as a crossover success and its extraordinary video. The song is a taut rocker featuring a wittily histrionic guitar solo from Eddie Van Halen, of the hard-rock band Van Halen. Crisp vocals and a terse melody combined to make it the most widely heard pop song of the year. And once you saw the video, you couldn’t hear the tune without thinking of Jackson’s slinky moves.
S.O.S. Band, “Just Be Good to Me” (Tabu, 12-inch): Immediately lovable in part because it was so completely disposable, this state-of-the-art rhythm & blues single was a substantial crossover hit on the pop charts, a healthy sign that barriers are breaking down in rock radio’s segregation of black and white artists. A dreamy love song featuring a sinuous instrumental hook, ”Just Be Good to Me” was the romantic dance song of the year from a group that always seems to come up with a hit just when you thought you’d heard the last of them.
The Police, “Every Breath You Take” (I.R.S.): Another dreamy love song, this one with a nasty edge. Lead singer Sting murmured the lyric with the intensity of an obsession: Despite the pulsing, minimalistic beauty of the melody, you could never be sure, when he sang “I’ll be watching you,” whether he was a doting lover or a peeping tom. All of which also helped to make it the most pleasingly ambiguous hit of the year as well.
Herbie Hancock, “Rockit” (Columbia, 12-inch): The jazz keyboardist teamed with two members of the avant-rock band Material and rap deejay Grandmaster D. St. to create an influential instrumental. The scratchy chorus riff, bolstered by Hancock’s dithering synthesizers, created a thick web of rhythm that ensnared every listener within hearing range. “Rockit” was probably the most popular bit of music in dance clubs across the nation.
P-Funk All-Stars, “Generator Pop” (Uncle Jam): It never became the major hit it deserved to be, but this latest incarnation of George Clinton and his usual gang of raucous collaborators was a bright, zippy pop song with funk rhythms undulating just below the surface of the melody. It is to Clinton’s credit that he didn’t try to copy his 1982 hit “Atomic Dog” – he waited to do that on the new P-Funk All-Stars album, with a tune shamelessly entitled “Copy Cat.” Good fun all around.
Stevie Nicks, “Stand Back” (Modern): Call me sentimental, call me a sucker for singers in platform boots (I always kind of liked Kiss, too), but I found the pounding intensity of this moody rock tune irresistible, and Nicks’ throaty vocal the height of pop sexiness. After listening to it countless times, I still have utterly no idea what it’s about, but that’s part of its allure. Nutty and sensual at the same time.
Run-D.M.C., “It’s Like That” (Profile, 12-inch): This rap tune featured harsh, angry vocals, as Run and D.M.C., two New York rappers, traded vehemences back and forth with increasing rancor, excoriating Reaganomics in the bluntest terms. When combined with a sharp, percussive rhythm track, it was a scary, compelling performance.
Grandmaster and Melle Mel, “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” (Sugarhill, 12- inch): Another rap screed, but one that gives the lie to the charge that rap is a limited genre. This ferocious condemnation of cocaine utilized smooth harmonies and coursing synthesizer lines to create a streamlined song whose accusations stung. The biggest disappointment in pop music this year was the fact that Grandmaster didn’t release a new album, but this single was as good as substitutes get.
Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force, “Searching for the Perfect Beat” (Tommy Boy, 12-inch): Working in collaboration with producer Arthur Baker, Bambaataa came up with sounds that have never been heard on record before, a wildly original combination of rap sound effects and synthesizer noises that formed a dense thicket of melody. Searching for the perfect beat, Bambaataa and Baker found a series of fascinating ones.
Gladys Knight and the Pips, “Save the Overtime for Me” (Columbia): Knight’s first pop hit in years was a well-deserved success. This was a rich, complex ballad with a novel organizing metaphor in the title. Knight’s voice has never sounded stronger or more supple, and the melody was both lush and inviting, never merely sentimental. It inspired one of the year’s most charming videos as well.
Ken Tucker / Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) / December 25, 1983
