Slimeball wheels1/29/2024 We were in the position in that part of the ’80s where all of the wrong bands were almost being forced to hire outsider songwriters from the Los Angeles songwriting stable, so they could have bigger hits and make more corporate money. This sounds weird to say, but it has to be “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You.” It was a Robert Lange song, and he had a lot of big hits with Def Leppard and Shania Twain. But I love that people like to say, “I love that song even if I don’t know why!” It narrows it down into an understandable context. You might be the dog trying to catch a butterfly, and you have to keep trying even if you don’t catch it. Ann’s taken to the idea that it’s a song about if you keep trying for your dream, don’t stop trying. Over the years as we played the song live, people have always told us things like, “Oh, I cry when I hear this song every time, but what does it mean?” It’s got a beautiful, romantic, spiritual statement to it. “Dog & Butterfly” has a lovely structure, and having composed the music to it, it really spoke to a lot of people. I think that’s exactly who Ann was and still is. A humanitarian spiritual guide in your life. She’s always had this propensity, I guess, to look for the wise old man or the wisdom of the elderly man. Song that reminds you most of your sister, AnnĪnn came up with those words to “Dog & Butterfly,” and it really represents her curiosity with all things spiritual - in the Yoda sort of way. Maybe even bird’s-eye-view in certain ways, not just on the ground singing about boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. We’ve always tried to be heavier and more poetic and life-affirming. “Mistral Wind” represents all cylinders of Heart. You’ll never look at life the same way again. It describes the journey of waiting for the wind to kick up in your life, and then it does, and then it takes you on more of a wild ride than you ever expected to be on - a life-threatening wild ride. I realize that’s a lot of highfalutin imagery, but I do think that’s what the song achieves. It’s also got this dissonance of a guitar intro, which gives way to a big storm that sweeps you through the song and leaves you out the other side of the song as if your life has changed. There’s a sweeping philosophical symbolism to it. There’s a few songs that I think are Heart’s best songs, but if I had to narrow it all the way down to one, I think there’s a special iconography about “Mistral Wind.” It really paints the whole picture of what Heart’s capable of doing, because there’s storytelling and poetry to it. During a recent conversation, she walked us through what she considers to be the best, most underrated, and ballsiest of Heart’s history. Nancy, the band’s guitarist, backing vocalist, and frequent songwriter, is now embarking on a new musical journey: On May 7, she’ll release her very first solo album, You and Me, which she wrote during her pandemic quarantine. (With other hits, of course, celebrating the complex art of female desire.) Beginning with 1975’s Dreamboat Annie, crescendoing with 1977’s Little Queen, and skillfully reinventing themselves with 1985’s Heart, the band not only proved that hard- and glam-infused rock had a place for mainstream stardom, but that the success could be accomplished with women - gloriously permed and eyeshadowed - at the helm. “Teachers, mothers, nurses, or waitresses.” But the industry’s sexism wound up being an irreverent source of inspiration for the Wilsons, with some of Heart’s best-known songs serving as a big, threatening fuck-you to the men lurking in the studio shadows. “There were mainly four jobs for us to choose from then,” Nancy explained at the band’s 2013 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. Heart, fronted by the bewitchingly powerful sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson, ascended during an era where women were still outliers in rock - and sure as hell weren’t expected to be leading their own band. Photo-Illustration: by Vulture Photo by Mark Sullivan/Contour by Getty Images We weren’t there for the salacious slimeball mentality of the industry.”
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