"Stand Back" - Is this Stevie Nicks best solo song? Its an underrated GEM of a song

The 2019 Remaster

She looks gorgeous in that photo

The "Tracy Takes You Home Mixshow" is brilliantly fun

Love this song

Were the vocals toward the end hers? They sounded different.

I love this remix.

YES!! I remember buying the 45 vinyl single years ago when it came out and I loved it. Her best!

Yes, Stevie didn't have many good songs, this song, Enchanted and Edge of Seventeen were about it.

Best! The Prince-inspired synth still raises goosebumps.

God, I love this song. And yes, r8 - the Prince-synth is sublime. I never knew until a couple of years ago that he was in the studio with her and was the one who nailed that sound.

I love the Prince backstory and the fact that they were able to create spontaneous magic together that seems almost mythic the way Stevie describes it. It feels very much of its time, but still timeless. Wonderful song and a sad reminder of how bleak pop music is in 2019 by comparison.

I prefer If Anyone Falls- but Stand Back is great, too.

She had a lot of songs on movie soundtracks in the 80s that should have been hits.

Blue Lamp (Heavy Metal)

Battle Of The Dragon (American Anthem)

Violet and Blue (Against All Odds)

Sleeping Angel (Fast Times at Ridgemont High)

"a sad reminder of how bleak pop music is in 2019 by comparison."

dear lord, aint that the truth.

This could be a good song if it was given to a singer who didn't sound like she needed a hole to smoke out of her throat and that tacky two note synth arpeggio before the guitar solo was eviscerated. Sounds like a mediocre Siouxsie song actually.

This is one of my all-time favorite songs. This and “My Neck, My Back”.

This song was playing in Stevie's limo when she KICKED MY DAUGHTER IN HER POONANNY!!!!!!!

Rendering her BARREN and she is also now only 4 feet tall!!! (Her top half collapsed on her bottom half when her Vagina Bone was shattered)

FUCKING BITCH!!!!!

And those keyboards on this song are so hot and sleek. THAT makes the song. Stevie's vocal is -okay- and her goat voice fits the song very well..

I love this Instrumental version of the song. Again those first keyboards are just awesome.

Great song although Stop Draggin' My Heart Around was her biggest hit here, and I Can't Wait was more underrated.

My favourite solo of hers is “If You Ever Did Believe”.

And my FAVORITE part of this song is

YOU COULD BE STANDIN' IN!!!!

You could be standin in!!!!!!

The MOST NONSENSICAL lyric ever, that JUST WORKS!!!!

Its so fucking awesome. Especially live.

How many threads can be devoted to this old bag? She must be second only to Barbra Streisand among DL obsessives.

R21, After that Fleetwood Mac/ Lindsey shit, I think this had is a CUNT. However, I LOVE this song, and I LOVE Stevie circa 1977-1983. I own that.

But yes, I have criticized Stevie before, and this place WILL. NOT.HAVE. IT.

(Like her voice has been SHOT since 1989. Despite some on and off moments from 97-2011 or so)

SHOT!!!!! Streisand actually sounds WORSE than Stevie, which is amazing.

Sorry, fucking Mac. "I THINK THIS HAG IS A CUNT"..

On repeat

Brilliant song. Not underrated though.

This is my favorite of her solo efforts. I remember being entranced by the TV whenever it came on Night Flight, or later, MTV.

One of my favorites

The opening keyboard and the melody "la la la la la la la" is just so perfect and has never gotten old in 35 years. That synth is just perfection. THAT'S a HOOK.

Is it underrated? I remember it was played endlessly when it came out and the Prince connection has kept it on people’s radars more than most of her other solo hits.

YES. Totally. Music, lyrics, and her delivery are aces.

R21- Shaad Up. You cunts with the “old bag” shit. Barbara, Stevie Nicks, and a plethora of others greats are iconic, and earned their due. Yes, their old now; is that their fault? It’s going to happen to you Mary; hopefully sooner rather than later.

Go fuck yourself deeply, with a white hot poker, you shallow, insignificant, dweeb.

r 30

Saw her a few years ago. She starts on time. She opened with Stand Back and we missed it. She just stands there and sings. Fabulousity.

In my heart of hearts, this is favorite solo song of Stevie’s. I didn’t that Prince laid down the synthesizer tracks until reading this thread, but it makes perfect sense.

My sister caught me singing along to Stand Back at maximum volume in my bedroom, and has never let me forget it since.

Prince is a genius and is sorely missed. They made a hell of a song. Prince always worked well with female artists.

I think it's one of those songs that I loved from the first minute I heard it. It had such a cool, sleek vibe that was totally distinct from Fleetwood Mac. I played the 45 endlessly as a kid and tried to imitate Stevie's twirls when nobody was looking.

She sounds kind of like she has a stuffy nose, and also took a blast of helium.

I love Stand Back.

This song too, is fantastic.

It's my fave. Gives me goosebumps

[italic]In the middle of my room I did not hear from you.”[/italic]

Wut??

Would the acoustics have been better if she were standing in a corner?

Great song. But agree with others - it's not underrated. It was a big hit at the time and she still performs it in concert and I believe she sings it even when touring with Fleetwood Mac.

This song could come out today, right now, and be a hit.

Guys, good music knows no time. It doesn’t care if everyone is singing absolute shit pop.

If Stevie were a 19 or 20 yo ingenue TODAY, and came out on some stage, somewhere, or in some music video on YouTube, dressed in her flowing skirts and feather laden roach-clips attached to her hair, while twirling around, she once again, become a HUGE star.

The song is fantastic. It’s a hit, which is why we have yet another thread on Stevie’s work, which was created, because Stevie Nicks is a fucking STAR.

Props to F-Mac, particularly Buckingham, who in my estimation, is one of the BEST guitarists of the last century, and one of the most talented musicians to ever come out of the US.

There was always something kind of pugfaced and tacky about this singer - -

She seems messy but I love this song.

What R41 said. Truth!

r 30 & r 31

This is her best song

I swear this woman sounds like a bleating goat!

OP, just to be clear: would you characterize it as, say, an underrated GEM of a song?

Not only did Prince play the synth parts in one take live, Stevie wrote the song based on hearing Little Red Corvette for the first time.

The verse melody of Stand Back is basically the verse melody of LRC. you can sing either over either music.

She called him up and asked him if it's ok and she gave him 50% of the publishing

(for those who don't know the whole story)

Stand Back and If Anyone Falls are classic.

r46, that goat stole Stevie's hairdo.

Stevie and Whitney!

Her diction makes Patti LuPone sound like Julie Andrews.

Underrated? Hardly. It's a great song, but Talk To Me, If Anyone Falls, The Wild Heart and Gold & Braid are fantastic songs that barely get recognized.

The social distancing anthem.

R52 - Excuse me? I’m Juilliard trained, with 2 Tonys, motherfucker.

This is my fav song of hers

Supposedly she filmed two videos for it. She hated the first one and had it scrapped. Had a second video made from scratch.

Her singing this last year. The crowd was so thrilled when she came out

I love this song but I always think she is saying, "Like a weirdo, I can bend," when I know it is "willow."

But it was one of my first favorites when I was getting into Top 40 in the early 80s

The full Prince story as I've read it is: Stevie wrote this song after becoming enamored of Prince's "Little Red Corvette," especially its synthesizer sound. But she worried after writing "Stand Back" that it could be seen as a ripoff of Prince's song, so she got word to Prince that she planned to record a song that she considered to be inspired by "LRC."

He sent word back offering to play synthesizers on the song. And he showed up at her studio late one night, laid down the track in one take and disappeared. Stevie says no one has ever been able to exactly replicate what Prince did even though she's performed the song probably thousands of times.

I do like that song a lot

Addendum to the story at r60 -- the following year when Prince wrote and recorded "Purple Rain," he realized that the title song had the same chord progression and a similar sound to Journey's "Faithfully." So he called up Neal Schon from Journey and played "Purple Rain" and Schon was like, no problem man, it's great, go for it.

I love the song and I watched the video, but she didn't kick anyone in the cuntbone.

One of the worst songs ever recorded. She sounds like a goat, the lyrics are stupid, cheesy 80s synths, and it sounds like it was recorded in a tin can from across a stadium.

Take me home!

I also love Blue Lamp, someone mentioned it earlier up thread. Such an amazing guitar tone in the beginning. But Stand Back slaps. Wah-ah.

I Will Run to You is such a great underrated example of how great she was with Tom Petty. That he starts the song is startling. The amount of cocaine they must have enjoyed together.

Are you fucking kidding me?

What human did NOT twirl around in a black shawl or towel or blanket to this tune? I knocked over a candle and frightened my cat the first time I danced to this video. Plus, if you sang along, you just strummed your throat while you sang.

You people disgust me. Do better.

October 1985---Stevies Follow-Up---->>>Talk to Me.....Highest charted song from her "Rock a Little Album...

"I can't wait"---another gem from "Rock a Little".........Lyrics = "Am I wasting my time while you make up your mind"....Sounds like another Lindsay B. shout out song...

I'm old enough (47 years old) to remember hearing "Stand Back" on the radio back in 1983. It got a lot of fanfare at the time; single, video(s), album, tv appearances, live concerts etc. It is my all-time fave Stevie song.

Her backup dancers inspired my convulsive moves on the dance floor.

[quote] I'm old enough (47 years old) to remember hearing "Stand Back" on the radio back in 1983. It got a lot of fanfare at the time; single, video(s), album, tv appearances, live concerts etc. It is my all-time fave Stevie songm

Mine too. I’m ten years older and this is the song I always associate with the rise of MTV , since it was playing constantly when I got the channel. It’s not only my favorite Stevie song, but remains one of my all-time favorite songs period.

But as a HUGE Prince fan, how have I NEVER heard this story of his connection to the song? I soaked up everything Prince related at the time, but somehow missed this entirely.

You all have bad taste. Awful song.

Fun song!

Dreams, Landslide and Rhiannon are her gratetes achievements as a songwriter.

Unintentionally funny video. She does sound like a goat. And why is she on a treadmill?