BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1983

Originally posted May 10, 2012

“Stand Back” is a song by Stevie Nicks from her 1983 album The Wild Heart. It was released as the first single for the album on May 19, 1983, and went to number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the U.S. Top Rock Tracks chart in August of that year. It was a major success and still receives substantial airplay to this day.

The song has been a staple in Nicks’ live shows since its pre-album debut at the US Festival in May 1983, and it has also been included in Fleetwood Mac tour setlists since 1987.

The main intro of the song features an Oberheim OB-Xa synthesizer. The synth-bass is played on a Roland Jupiter 8. On the Rock A Little tour, the Oberheim is replaced with a Yamaha DX7. There were two mixes prepared for the song; the generally more well known Album Version (4:49) and the edited Single Version (4:20). Differences between the two are somewhat subtle, but the Single Mix tends to have more of a “collapsed” or “mono” sound to it and the electronic drum programs are mixed, rather dry and flattened, especially in the song’s intro bars; whereas the drum tracks on the Album mix are accentuated by a generous amount of reverb effect and harder compression. Acoustic drums were given a more backseat role on Stand Back. There is a further ‘polished’ version of the track, with crisper percussion and louder foreground synth featured on Nicks’ 1991 best of compilation Timespace, remixed by Chris Lord-Alge, and running at 4:59.

Nicks has often told the story of how she wrote the song. She wrote it shortly after she was married to Kim Anderson. The newlyweds were driving up to San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara when Prince’s song “Little Red Corvette” came on the radio. Nicks started humming along to the melody, especially inspired by the lush synthesizers of the song, and “Stand Back” was born. They stopped and got a tape recorder and she recorded the demo in the honeymoon suite that night. Later, when Nicks went into the studio to record the song, she called Prince and told him the story of how she wrote the song to his melody. He came to the studio that night and played synthesizers on it, although his contribution is uncredited on the album. Then, she says, “he just got up and left as if the whole thing happened in a dream.” Prince is occasionally listed as the song’s co-writer, especially on mainland European releases.

“Stand Back” never really received an official extended remix however several remix services did remix the track in 1986. Including Prime Cuts and Discotech. The song was also later remixed and released again as a single on August 28, 2007, to promote the compilation album Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks.

SIDE A:
Stand Back (Long Version) 4:49

SIDE B:
Stand Back (Short Version) 4:20

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Modern Records – PR 507
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1983
Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
Style: Pop Rock, Synth-pop

CREDITS:
Art Direction, Design, Photography – Herbert Wheeler Worthington III
Engineer – Shelly Yakus
Producer – Jimmy Iovine
Synthesizer [Uncredited] – Prince
Written-By – Stevie Nicks

NOTES:
Note: the sleeve incorrectly lists the A-side as being the “Edited Version” at 4:18 and the B-side as being the “Album Version” at 4:47. The label correctly lists the A-side as the longer of the two and the B-side as shorter, as shown in the tracklisting above.

Promtional Copy Not For Sale

Find the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL RESTORATION BY:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut Carbon (DC)
Cartridge: Ortofon 2M
Stylus: Ortofon 2M Bronze
Isolation: Auralex Acoustics ISO-Tone Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck 
Phono Pre-amp: Schiit Mani
Soundcard: ESI Juli@ XTe Audio Interface
Monitiring: Novation Audiohub 2×4 Audio Interface
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2, ocenaudio
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

Username: btg
Password: burningtheground

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