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Live Version Appears on "25 Years - The Chain" (1992)
WEBMISTRESS speculates:
In the liner notes for TimeSpace, Stevie writes that "I got married [to her best friend Robin's widower Kim] the day I wrote this song...a new song by Prince ["Little Red Corvette"]...gave me an incredible idea, so I spent many hours that night writing a song about some kind of crazy argument...I became a different person, and I like that, because I usually make up my OWN characters...but the lady in 'Stand Back' was not my idea." The whole story behind this song is so strange because Stevie's marriage to Kim was very ill-advised - born out of grief and a desire to care for Robin's children, the union lasted a mere three months and ended with the two no longer on good terms. The fact that she wrote this song on her wedding night is a sign of the fundamental problem of their marriage - no love. When they should have been together, she was writing a song about an argument!
About the song itself, Stevie calls it a character that wasn't even her idea, but as I look at the song I have always seen a connection to it and her wedding to Kim in more than just the way it was written. She knew she wasn't marrying Kim for love, and I think this song expresses regret that the one that she truly wanted - Lindsey - didn't come and get her, didn't marry her. He "took [her] heart and he ran". She feels deserted by Lindsey - he "walked away", but only after he had taken her hand and asked her to "take [him] home." His love was there once, but it has faded. Now she doesn't hear from him, not even as she's about to get married to someone else. So, she's got to walk away from him, since she couldn't get his "attention." She's lost her chance at love...and she needs "a little sympathy." You have mine, Stevie!
SHARON speculates:
Here's my take on it........
No one looked as I walked by
Just an invitation would have been just fineThe wedding was in her parent's backyard from what I understand, and you know the whole thing had to be bizzarre and surreal, especially to Steive. Most of the people there I'm sure knew it was all going to be disaster, and you could probably cut the tension in the air with a knife that day. She's walking down the aisle, no one is looking at her, they can't, it's just too awful seeing Stevie marry this man. The "invitation" part refers to inviting people to come, and then having to explain what is going on. I'm sure the families were like "What? They're doing what!?" I wonder if she invited Lindsey.
Said No to him again and again
First he took my heart then he ranThis part is definitely about Lindsey. I think Lindsey asked Stevie to marry him on more than one occaision, and Stevie said no. That is what the whole "I'd give you my world, but you won't take it from me" lines are about from GYOW. She is regretting turning down those proposals now, because even though Stevie didn't want to get married at that time, I'm sure she always thought that IF she were ever planning a wedding, it would be hers and Lindsey's. She has always made it clear that she and LB didn't break up because they didn't love each other, there was always this THING what ever it was, that we fans have never really been told about, that was keeping them apart. Stevie's feels abandoned by LB for some reason. It may be his temper and jealously, it may their competiveness, it may be her selfishness, we don't know.
No one knows how I feel
What I say unless you read between my linesShe is feeling like no one understands the emotions she is feeling. The loss of Robin, the urge to do something to help Robin's loved ones. She is trying desperately to get a message through to someone - of course you know I think it's LB.
One man walked away from me
First he took my hand
Take me homeHere again, it seems she is referring to LB "leaving her". It was probably one of those times he had reached his limit with her and walked out "forever". Of course forever is never very long with those two!
The part where she says "First he took my hand" I think that is also some kind of reference to a proposal from Lindsey, or at least him being the "first" to ask for her "hand" as in marriage.
Stand Back, Stand Back
In the middle of my room I did not hear from youI can just see Stevie all ready to go down the aisle, and she's pacing and waiting, looking out the window, thinking "Where is he? Give him 10 more minutes." Stevie, in her drama queen mind, probably thought that LB was going to come rushing in there and stop her from doing this. She felt powerless to stop it, so she NEEDED him to, and when he didn't, I think there was a major rip in the trust they had once had. He couldn't believe she was doing it, and she couldn't believe he let her do it! She really is crying out to him to help her.
It's alright, it's alright
To be standing in a line
I would cry.....
Do not turn away my friend
Like a willow I can bendHere she is trying to console herself. After the ceremony, you have to stand there and let everyone come by and kiss you, and wish you well. Stevie most likely felt like "Well... I've really done it this time!" I'm sure she wanted to cry. Her close friends could not look her in the face. They knew how ill-fated the whole thing was, and she is trying to convince them, as well as herself - "It's ok, I can do this, I really can."
No man called my name
No man cameShe is sad Lindsey didn't come and get her and whisk her away from all of this sorrow and pain. Remember, Stevie believes in fairy tales, and she thought one was going to come true for her on that day. She was always testing Lindsey, pushing his affection to the breaking point. She thought he would be too jealous to ever let that wedding go on, after all the times he had asked her himself to marry him.
So I walked on down away from you
Maybe your attention was more than you could do
One man did not callShe feels obligated to go through with it. She said she would do it, and now she has to. Every step down that aisle is one step further away from Lindsey. As she began to realize he wasn't coming, she got a sinking feeling in her chest, and she also became a bit angry. "So Lindsey can't trouble himself to come and get me!" She was waiting until the last minute. I'm sure that wedding was late getting started, because she was waiting...........
He asked me for my love and
That was allThis is a message to LB. She's trying to reassure him it is only a marriage "in name only". Kim needs her right now, and she feels this is the right thing.
Well I need a little sympathy
It's alright, alright
Well you could be standing in a lineLB is famous for being emotionally distant at the worst times. Stevie felt he was not there for her to comfort her when she lost Robin. She needed him to tell her it was ok, and to give her a hug, and I bet she got neither from him. That contributed to the overall feeling of being abandoned by Lindsey during that time. She turns on him and says "That's alright, you'll be standing in a line behind all the other men for my affection!" And that's exactly what she proceeded to do as soon as the "marriage" was over, and probably during it, too. She really went crazy with the men in the mid- to late 80's. Always looking to find what she had all along. It's sad and tragic for Stevie, who is not a big fan of marriage anyway, to have her one trip down the aisle be to a man she did not love, and to have it turn out so bad!
I wonder if Linsey ever "got it" about this song. It is obvious to me, and always has been!
CLAIRE speculates:
This song has always been really empowering to me. It has this really tribal, wild, hear-me-roar type of thing going on, in a way that seems really geared towards female empowerment.
Basically it appears to me to be a really simple scenario that can be played out in many different ways. "No one looked, I walked by, just an invitation would have been just fine" reminds me of a girl walking by a group of guys and basically being ignored. The singer in this song appears to be blown off by whoever her lover is.
Then there is a change, in that the man turns around and falls for Stevie. But by this time she has moved on. The chorus is a retort, like, "Woah there, cowboy, stand back, give me some space." She's moved on to bigger and better things, and she's not going to wait around for him any more. By the end of the song she alludes to him standing in a line. I interperet this as, "Take a number, mister." Now he has to wait his turn like everyone else and she's never ever going to dish it out for free.
ANNE speculates:
"Lindsey was pretty down about [Stevie's relationships with other men] for a while, then he just woke up one morning... and started getting some girlfriends together. Then Stevie was the one who couldn't
handle it." - Christine McVie in Rolling StoneMuch speculation has been given to the importance of Stevie's odd, "ill-advised" wedding in this song, however I believe that the song is less site-specific than many believe it to be. I definitely think the
wedding inspired the theme of the song, and that subsequently wedding imagery did work its way into the lyrics, but I don't believe that Stevie was trying to describe the wedding in any kind of linear fashion, as others have suggested.Much more simply, I believe this song is a manifestation of a familiar internal argument. Stevie is revisiting this internal argument on the eve of her strange decision to marry a man she did not love. I think she had been having this argument ever since she and Lindsey broke up. And the argument is essentially this: She loved Lindsey, but she knew she could not be with Lindsey at this point in their lives and careers. And so she had broken up with him, but never really stopped loving him or wanting his attention, his love. As Chris's quote above illustrates, Stevie didn't want to be with Lindsey, but she didn't want anyone else to be with him either.
So this song, then, is about that personal conflict. (With Stevie's odd habit of mixing pronouns, I believe she inserts "no one" and "nobody" in this song when she really means "Lindsey.")
She starts out by bemoaning the fact that
"No one looked as I walked by
Just an invitation would have been just fine"So in essence, she is hurt by the fact that Lindsey is no longer paying attention to her. Outwardly, he is no longer in love with her.
"Said no to him again and again
First he took my heart then he ran"In this first line, she acknowledges that she was the one who instigated this distance, but then quickly qualifies that she is still in love with him.
"No one knows how I feel
What I say unless you read between my lines"These lines admit her duplicity - she recognizes that she is saying one thing (that she doesn't want to be with Lindsey) and feeling the opposite. The only people who would understand this, she alleges, are
those who look very closely or "read between her lines.""One man walked away from me
First he took my hand...take me home"I believe she uses this "home" imagery to represent her relationship with Lindsey - familiar and safe. He is walking away from her, moving on to other girlfriends, but she wants him to take her back ("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"The chorus highlights the fact that this is an internal argument she is having with herself. "Stand back" is her own advice to herself - stand back from the situation, don't get emotionally involved. She
uses her familiar "room" imagery here as well - building on Carl Jung's theory of archetypes, I believe Stevie uses "room" imagery in her songs to represent souls (see "Rooms on Fire", "Smile at You",
"Something Exquisite", etc.) So in her soul, she thought she and Lindsey would get back together, but instead he has moved on. She consoles herself by reminding herself that even if Lindsey did want to
come back for her, he'd be standing in a long line of admirers. But this does not make her feel better ("I would cry.")"Do not turn away, my friend
Like a willow, I can bend"Here she begs him not to stop loving her. She argues that although it may appear that she doesn't care about him anymore, that appearance can change with the wind.
"No man calls my name
No man came"Again, "no man" meaning Lindsey - he doesn't appear to love her anymore.
"So I walked on down away from you
Maybe your attention was more than you could do"Here she justifies her decision to leave him and start dating again. The lyric change from the recorded version ("Maybe YOUR attention was more than YOU could do") to the more recent live version ("Maybe MY attention was more than I could do") is very telling. At the time this song was written, with her anger still newly fresh, she blamed Lindsey for not pursuing her after she has broken up with him. However now, many years later, with their new friendship softening the memory, she changes the line to accept some of the fault herself, acknowledging that she did not actively pursue him either.
"One man did not call
He asked me for my love
And that was all"In these lines, she seems to be regretting her decision to break up with him. He may be gone forever, and all he had asked of her was that she love him. In the repeat of this phrase, she replaces "call" with "fall"- even more important. In her now rose-colored memory, she has broken up with a man who did nothing wrong ("did not fall.")
"Stand back, stand back..."
"I need a lot of, need a little sympathy
Well, I need a little sympathy
Well, I need a little sympathy"Again, these lines highlight the fact that she feels she has made a mistake and therefore "needs a little sympathy" and kindness from Lindsey, something she is clearly not getting.
"Well, you could be standin' in
(Stand back)
Well you could be standin' in
(Stand back)
Well, you could be standin' in
(Stand back)
Take me home
Take me home
(Stand back)
Won't you take me home?"Here is the internal conflict at its most obvious. She wavers between feeling like she wants to be with Lindsey ("standin' in" at "home") and wanting to distance herself ("Stand back").
She ends by deciding she wants him to take her back ("won't you take me home?") I think this is a fairly significant resolution, given the conflicting nature of the song.
One of my favorite Stevie songs!
This is way out in left field so to speak but I have Darcy on the brain. Lit people will understand (I hope). Listening to Stand Back I noticed how it very loosely resembles the romance of the main characters in Pride and Prejudice. I know the story of how she wrote it on her honeymoon after being inspired by Little Red Corvette but the romance in the song has a hint of P&P. When it says
"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"In P&P Darcy at first takes no notice of Elizabeth which is fine with her but as the book progresses he takes notice and falls hard for her. He asked her to marry him once and almost twice but the second was interrupted by family problems.
"Do not turn away, my friend
Like a willow, I can bend
No man calls my name
No man came
So I walked on down away from you
Maybe your attention was more than you could do
One man did not call
He asked me for my love
And that was all"Darcy was a very prideful man and did not give attention freely because of issues with people that made him feel they where below him so Elizabeth moved until fate brought them back together and she saw him differently and realized that all he wanted was her love. Just like the line above mentions.
Again this is way left field but I do see similarities and I know Stevie reads and may have at one time read P&P who knows maybe subconsciously Elizabeth and Darcy where lurking in her pen.