Greetings,
Last year, I had the pleasure of reviewing an album called In Your Dreams by the wonderful Stevie Nicks. If you read that, thank you. If you didn't, spoilers. I thought it was amazing. Now in that review, I mentioned that you could find a two part, ten minute short film of sorts about the making of the album online. I enjoyed that very much, but, at the time, I wished it was longer. Surprise! I finally get something I want. As it happens, what I thought was just a long promotional trailer for the album is actually part of a documentary, also entitled In Your Dreams. So was the two year wait between album and documentary worth it? Let's find out. But, seriously, what do you think I'm going to say?
As I hinted, the In Your Dreams documentary is, for the most part, a behind the scenes look at the making of the album of the same name. I'm going to start by getting the negativity out of the way. I have read some other reviews of this film, and one of the major complaints is that this thing isn't interesting. I disagree, heartily, but I do see from where they are coming. If you're a person who does not enjoy behind the scenes type things, you may not be willing to give it a chance and, therefore, you won't get into this so much. I, personally, love seeing the process of music being made, as you may recall from my post about the Bravo show, Platinum Hit. It also seems to me that these critics were misinformed about the documentary's content, complaining that all Stevie did was talk about making the album. Well, duh! That was the whole point. Despite what they must have been told, this was not a documentary about her life, though she does talk about her life experiences somewhat. After all, the things that have happened to her are still inspiring her music to this day. Finally, I heard one critic say that this was 'a vanity project'. Maybe, under different circumstances, it could be called that, but I don't think Stevie made this for the public at large so much as she made it for her fans. I mean, it's not like this got some major, widespread release with her trying to shove it in everyone's face. It was an extremely limited release. This brings me to the conclusion that a big reason Stevie did this was probably as a gift to her fans. To be honest, if you aren't into her music, I'm not saying this can't be enjoyable, but it does help to be a fan. So, speaking as one of those myself, let's move on from the other critics and see what I have to say.
So the structure of the In Your Dreams documentary is this. We go through the album, song by song, learning the back story and creative process of each of them, and that is interspersed with stories of Stevie's life, as I mentioned. Actually, I've found that I enjoy both aspects of the film quite equally. Even though I have heard many of these stories from Stevie in the past, I still like hearing her tell them. And, of course, I am a self proclaimed 'behind the scenes voyeur', so I did like watching and listening to all the great music being made. And Stevie did bring in a lot of fantastic people to help her with In Your Dreams. Her main collaborator is Dave Stewart, who, until this project, I had no idea was such an incredibly fun guy. For real, I would like for him to be one of my friends. We also get to see Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood. There's a nice little reunion. Oh, and hey, Glen Ballard, are you helping out, too? Well, you've certainly improved a lot since the last time I mentioned you on my blog . . . which was like last week. But still, thumbs up on this one, my friend. And let us not forget the time we get to spend with Sharon Celani and Lori Perry-Nicks, the backup singers that have been with Stevie for over thirty years. Now that's loyalty.
Now I don't know what more I can say about the music that I didn't already say in my previous review, other than it's still amazing. I certainly enjoyed the way that they visually presented the songs, many as very cinematic looking videos. It didn't hurt that they filmed a lot of this in Stevie's house, which is phenomenally beautiful. And yet again, I absolutely love hearing about how these songs came to be written and what inspired them. Well, with the exception of one, maybe. Yeah, I didn't need to go any deeper into the fact that one of the songs was heavily inspired by one of the Twilight movies. Keep in mind, this is the same album wherein she wrote a song based on an Edgar Allen Poe poem. So, Stephenie Meyer, Edgar Allen Poe. Yeah. It's not that I'm judging, since I have written more than a few songs where I would rather not reveal what triggered the ideas. I suppose it proves what a gifted writer Stevie is if she can write this beautiful and interesting song based on, who some have called, the most boring and nondescript couple in literary and cinematic history. I'm mean, sometimes. Seriously, though, she should really never watch anything having to do with Buffy and Angel because THAT couple's story might inspire her so much that she'll lock herself away for a year due to an overwhelming attack of ideas. I mean, she could, literally, write an entire new album just based on the "Becoming" episode. Anywho, back to the other thing. Look, it's Stevie, and it's her album, so we're going to let her get away with it. We've certainly done it before. And since there are so many other great stories, I can let this slide. I'm sure she's grateful. Indeed.
Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get very personal for a minute and admit that there is something about this documentary that makes me a little sad, but for myself. At present time, I do not have a musical collaborator, and seeing people working together on a such a great project, making all of this wonderful music, makes me wish quite a bit that I could have that. Sure, I relish the time I spend alone with my work, but I long to occasionally be able to share that with someone else, someone to create with and come up with ideas alongside at all hours of the day and night. As I once even expressed in a song of my own "Can I have a midnight conversation that lasts until tiger lilies bloom in the sky?" Boom! Yeah, I am that good, and even that pretentious. But I digress. The good news about all this is that the whole film and Stevie herself are so uplifting here that I can actually believe that it will happen for me someday. Yes, if nothing else, she is a person who can definitely inspire you to dream, and, despite what people may say, that is not a bad thing.
And so, if I haven't made this clear yet, I do really love this documentary. If you are a fan of Stevie's or you are a process watcher, as it were, you should absolutely check this out. It is currently available for downloading, and it will probably get a DVD release as well. If you're neither of those things I previously mentioned, I won't try to push this on you, but if you happen upon it someday, I say take a look. If anything, you'll get to witness the life of someone who is an absolute survivor, and that's always good. Plus, you'll get to hear some stellar music along the way. So why not?
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
