Stand Back

Album

Wild Heart, The

Label

Modern Records

Genre

New wave

Composer(s)

Stevie Nicks

Entered Chart

Jun 4, 1983

Peak Date

Aug 20, 1983

Released

May 19, 1983

Recorded

February 1983[1] Studio Studio 55 (Los Angeles, California)

Catalog #

Modern 7-99863

B-Side

"Garbo"

In the liner notes to her TimeSpace album, Nicks explained: "I got married the day I wrote this song. We were driving to Santa Barbara and a new song by Prince came on, so we pulled over somewhere and got the tape. It just gave me an incredible idea, so I spent many hours that night writing a song about some kind of a crazy argument, and it was to become one of the most important of my songs. I've been doing this song for years, Fleetwood Mac does it also, and I never get tired of it. 'Stand Back' has always been my favorite song onstage because when it starts, it has an energy that comes from somewhere unknown and it seems to have no timespace. I've never quite understood this sound, but I have NEVER questioned it. I become a different person, and I like that, because usually I make up my OWN characters, but the lady in Stand Back was not my idea. By the way, Prince did come into the studio the night I called him and told him about the song, and he played incredible synthesizer on it. And then he just walked out of my life, and I didn't see him for a long time. It was extraordinary." The Prince song that inspired this tune was "Little Red Corvette." Nicks shot an elaborate concept video for this song with the director Brian Grant, who did many of Queen's early '80s videos. They shot the video, which had a Gone With The Wind/Civil War theme, but Nicks hated the result and shot a simple performance video to replace it. In the book I Want My MTV, she said of the failed video: "It didn't go with the song at all. It was so bad, it was almost good. I tried to act, which was horrific. We used a house in Beverly Hills that we accidentally set on fire. I almost got killed riding a horse." Though Stevie Nicks is the sole credited writer, she later said the song "belongs" to Prince because he wrote and recorded the synth parts that make it so memorable. Along with "Edge Of Seventeen," this is one of Nicks' most popular songs as a solo artist, played at most of her concerts. In 2019, when she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist (she was already in with Fleetwood Mac), she opened the ceremony with a performance of "Stand Back." She explained that the shawl she was wearing was the same one she used when she started performing the song in 1983; when she bought it, her mother was horrified by how much it cost, but it was clearly built to last. Speaking with Billboard magazine after Prince's death, Nicks said that she is "brokenhearted" that the pair never got to perform the song together while he was alive. "Had I ever in a million years thought that we would lose him, I would have made sure that that would have happened," she said. "And it didn't. So that's just one of those things in your life where you so say, 'I really missed out.' Because he should have. That should have happened." "So whenever I play 'Stand Back' from this day forward, Prince will be standing next to me," Nicks added. That is always going to be a joy."

No one looked, 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
No one knows how I feel
What I say unless you read between my lines
One man walked away from me
First he took my hand
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

La-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la, la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la

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
But one man did not call
He asked me for my love and that was all

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

La-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la, la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la
Doo-doo, doo-doo, oh
La-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la, da-da-da-da
La-la-la-la-la, whoa-oh

So I walked, walked down the line away from you
Maybe your attention was more than I could do
One man did not fall
Well, he asked me for my love, that was all

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 could cry

Need a little, need a little sympathy
Well, I need a little sympathy (cry)
Well, I need a little sympathy
Well, you could be standing in (stand back)
Well, you could be standing in (stand back)
Well, you could be standing in (stand back)
Take me home
Take me home (stand back)
Won't you take me home?
Well, I need a little sympathy (stand back)
Well, you could be standing in (stand back)
Why don't you take me home?
Why don't you take me home? (Stand back)
Take me home (alright)
Take me (alright) home