When “Rumours” and “Tusk” were popular in the late Seventies,I don’t think anyone imagined Stevie Nicks hitting the dance floor, but 1983’s sizzling “Stand Back” did just that, with the help of a little man dressed in purple whose name you might know: Prince.
So, here’s the deal. Stevie wrote the song, whose tempo and overall sound were influenced by the then-new sounds of “1999” and “Little Red Corvette”. At some point during the recording of the song, Prince magically appeared in the studio, improvised and recorded the song’s memorable keyboard part (allegedly only with two fingers), then with a click of his Cuban heels, magically exited the studio. Do I buy that? I’m not sure. (according to wikipedia, Stevie called Prince the night she wrote the song and that’s how Prince ended up in the studio). Either way, the song has a heavy Purple influence and was one of the best dance/rock tracks in an era of many, many great dance rock tracks.
And like all the rest of you, i assume, I have no idea what the hell Stevie’s singing about either.