"Leather and Lace" is my favorite track on Stevie Nicks’ solo debut.<\/p>\n
But it’s not the best.<\/p>\n
"Leather and Lace" has that vibe that’s fallen by the wayside, you know, the one where a woman in a long dress takes you into the dell and reveals her inner truth as you stare into her eyes and fall in love.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s female artists are in your face, competing with the men, kicking you to the curb, or so wimpy as to be disposable, completely irrelevant.<\/p>\n
But as much as I love "Leather and Lace"’s intimate feel, its circular nature, what puts it over the top comes halfway through, when Don Henley starts to sing: This is who we wanted to be.\u00c2\u00a0 A sweet man, with substance inside, a certain solid quality.\u00c2\u00a0 And you could infer a sexual meaning to what I just said, and maybe that’s just the point.\u00c2\u00a0 Sex today is portrayed as rough, you take your woman, or vice versa, but reality is more about those who are self-conscious, yet are finally honest with another human being and end up connecting, coming inside.<\/p>\n Take that either way you want to.\u00c2\u00a0 Metaphorically or sexually.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s just the point.\u00c2\u00a0 When done right, sex is an opening up, a connection.\u00c2\u00a0 But our society is too fearful to portray it that way.\u00c2\u00a0 Movies are laden with special effects, but sometimes songs get it right.\u00c2\u00a0 And "Leather and Lace" does.<\/p>\n The reason "Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around" triumphs is not because of Tom Petty’s vocal, however great it might be, but the riffs, the underlying song.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers backing Stevie Nicks, as she reveals her frustration with a certain intimacy, that doesn’t want for power. Truth.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s busting him.<\/p>\n But that’s not the complete story…<\/p>\n I had to go to the bathroom.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why I entered City Market solo.\u00c2\u00a0 Felice, her brother and my two college buddies were ensconced in the store, deep into the belly of the beast, long after dark, when the food emporium was almost empty, except for the catatonic cashiers up front.<\/p>\n And I hear something in the background, over the sound system, a record playing.<\/p>\n It’s like the song scooped me up and took me for a ride.<\/p>\n Suddenly, there was a bounce in my step.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d missed the explosive opening riff.\u00c2\u00a0 But that groove was so wide, it swallowed me whole, carried me away.<\/p>\n "Leather and Lace" is a great song.<\/p>\n "Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around" is a classic.<\/p>\n Not something they sing on "American Idol", not something that can be sanitized and sung at pep or political rallies.\u00c2\u00a0 It sits at the nexus of rock and roll and its audience.\u00c2\u00a0 When the most important item you owned wasn’t your cell phone, but your stereo.\u00c2\u00a0 You came home and CRANKED IT!<\/p>\n Yes, I turned up "Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around" so loud the neighbors freaked.\u00c2\u00a0 But who could resist?\u00c2\u00a0 You just wanted to get closer, you just wanted to be enveloped.<\/p>\n As necessary as Ms. Nicks is to this rendition, it’s Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers who shine.\u00c2\u00a0 What mutation happened on stage, in rehearsal, that made them come up with this sound?\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it’s uniquely theirs…\u00c2\u00a0 They listened to the same British Invasion tracks we did, but with these influences they created something unique.\u00c2\u00a0 That nestled perfectly alongside the rest of the FM hit parade.\u00c2\u00a0 Bands didn’t go to Timbaland to get the same sound as every other outfit, they crafted their own! You bet.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what I told Ron the night before.\u00c2\u00a0 Life was about closing doors.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, as you’re watching TV, as you’re wasting time, doors are shutting behind you like crazy.\u00c2\u00a0 There goes your chance to be a movie director, there goes your chance to be a famous author, there goes your chance to have kids.\u00c2\u00a0 They tell you life goes by fast, but they don’t tell you how hard it is to accomplish a single thing.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t tell you how hard it is to be a rock and roll star, one with a career, who lasts.<\/p>\n I don’t want to think about what I wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 It freaks me out to think about what I’ve lost.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I heard "Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around" in the supermarket Friday night my life worked.\u00c2\u00a0 By spending those endless hours listening to the radio, the stereo, digging ever deeper, I’d come across this great record, which I’d played so many times it was in my DNA, to the point when it came over the sound system the other night it was better than being greeted by an old friend, it was like being welcomed by God.<\/p>\n Yup, that’s what’s in those rock and roll records.<\/p>\n Don’t listen to the charlatans telling you to go to a house of worship, where you’ll be instructed what you can and cannot do.<\/p>\n Rock and roll is a big tent.\u00c2\u00a0 It allows all comers.\u00c2\u00a0 Any height, any skin color.\u00c2\u00a0 Just put on the record and turn it up.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll see something that eludes every edition of the Bible.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll see life itself, in all its glory, the warts and the inspiration.<\/p>\n Fuck instant stardom.\u00c2\u00a0 Tom Petty played more gigs in bars than most people in today’s hit parade have played in their entire lives.\u00c2\u00a0 Malcolm Gladwell said the Beatles were so good because of all that woodshedding in Hamburg?\u00c2\u00a0 Tom Petty and his band are so fucking great because of all those hours in Gainesville.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 Practicing. Gigging.<\/p>\n We baby boomers know the difference.\u00c2\u00a0 Because when the Fab Four hit, we all picked up instruments, formed bands. But we gave up when it got tough, we went to college, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers PERSISTED!<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" "Leather and Lace" is my favorite track on Stevie Nicks’ solo debut. But it’s not the best. "Leather and Lace" has that vibe that’s fallen by the wayside, you know, the one where a woman in a long dress takes you into the dell and reveals her inner truth as you stare into her eyes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-IG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
You in the moonlight<\/span>
With your sleepy eyes<\/span>
Could you ever love a man like me<\/span><\/p>\n
Baby you’ll come knocking on my front door<\/span>
Same old line you used to use before<\/span><\/p>\n
It’s hard to think about what you’ve wanted<\/span>
It’s hard to think about what you’ve lost<\/span><\/p>\n