Beauty And The Beast

Many years ago...I'll just share this little tiny story with you. I know I'll be shot down in flames, but I want to tell you this so I don't care. Many years ago we came and played Dallas... Fleetwood Mac. Mick's dad was dying of cancer and he had to fly there ~ get there right after the Dallas show within 45 minutes before Mike died.. and so I went to Gordon's studio and I recorded Beauty and the Beast here. And this song kind of went down in the history of the scheme of my life.. and when I die there will be a few moments that I will remember and that was one of them in this little church recording studio where we recorded Beauty and the Beast. Everybody has to remember how special everybody is... and this is the story of Beauty and the Beast... how special we are to each other... You let me into your life here. Thank you very much. Read the story of Beauty and the Beast if you can. ~Stevie Nicks, Wild Heart concert Dallas, September 5, 1983

Besides the fact that Beauty and The Beast to me is a story of desperation (see the Jean Cocteau film) and besides the fact that Beauty and The Beast surrounds me everywhere ~ everybody I know is either being the Beauty or the Beast ~ the experience of recording this song was so special.

It began as a piano demo done in Lori's husband, Gordon Perry's studio in Dallas; the room is just magical, a church. Lori later sent me a tape with beautiful voices on it, and Sharon and I tried to duplicate it but we couldn't. So we got all the original vocalists together in New York and recorded it live.

We brought the orchestra in for a three-hour live session ~ and I'm someone who's oblivious to being able to do anything in the studio in a mere three hours! I knew they were gonna pack their little violin cases and walk away from me in no time; meanwhile Roy Bittan's playing piano just like I do, real simple, and that's hard for a good pianist to do, and everybody's watching me ~ nobody has done a live session in years, no Stevie Nicks has walked in in a long black dress to sing Beauty and the Beast with champagne for all these men in probably as long as they can remember, even 30 years ago.

I wanted them to feel like they were the most special orchestra that ever existed, for that night. They walked in, played, and left, and it's like they don't even have any idea what they gave me, how precious it is. ~Stevie Nicks, Wild Heart Press Kit Notes, 1983

My favorite old movie is Beauty and the Beast, the 1946 one, and I love Mary, Queen of Scots. I love those kinds of movies. I can watch these movies over and over again. I love anything that is wonderful, and it can have some sadness. I don't mind that, but like evil, bad things, I don't like them in my life. ~Stevie Nicks, High Times Magazine March 1982 Interview by Liz Derringer

This is the story of a man who is a prince who gets turned into a beast, and in order to be turned back into the prince…into the man…he has to find somebody that likes him because he's just wonderful not because he's really kind of unattractive and a beast. So this is the story of the beast and his search for his beauty. ~Stevie Nicks, September 25, 1983 ~ The City of Hope Benefit in Tempe, Arizona

We video'd Beauty and the Beast. It's a live take. The voice and the orchestra ...is live. The girls went in right after we finished, three hours later and put their beautiful harmonies on it and we were done. ~Stevie Nicks, Jim Ladd Innerview, 1983

Beauty and the Beast written for Mick Fleetwood inspired by the Jean Cocteau and his early French film about Beauty and the Beast dedicated to Vincent and Katherine

We recorded this live in New York, with Roy Bittan playing grand piano, and Paul Buckmaster doing the strings and conducting the orchestra, and me and the background singers, all at the same time. It was like we had gone back in time; we all wore long black dresses, and served champagne, and recorded it all in one room...When it was over, I walked out with this elderly gentleman who played violin...and the generation gap ceased to exist.

I also remember Mick and I years later at the Red Rocks Rock A Little video. He had come by himself to play, and he stayed there with me all night (in the rain) to do close-ups...everyone else had left.

Who is the beauty, and who is the beast...? Which one of you? Have you ever really been able to answer that? I have, it took a long time, but I finally did... find the answer. ~Stevie Nicks,Timespace Liner Notes, 1991

She wrote this song about Mick Fleetwood...and their past relationship..it's an incredible song...

This is the most beautiful compositon of my life. It means so much to me. Shortly after this song came out on the Wild Heart album, my beautiful mother, Adella, passed away. This number helped me so much get through my grieving period and I dedicate this arrangement to my Beauty, Adella.

Such a beautiful song. The lyrics weave such a tale and portray the sadness and the love so perfectly. The chorus's harmony is sublime. Truly a masterpiece.

As Stevie once said this song is about how special we all are whether our bad or good sides. And this song is fully about the movie "Beauty and the Beast" from 1946 and those actors who played Beauty and Beast. And another inspiration was also Micks Fleetwood (her then-lover) because of his clothes and apearence - he just looked like that Beast". And he was also both the "beauty" and "beast".

[Edit: Grammar]