Stevie Nicks solo - Classic or Dud?

This song would have greatly benefitted from a Bonnie Tyler and Eddie Money treatment rather than Don Henley mewling "Sometimes I'm a strong man/Sometimes cold and scared/And sometimes I cry." Yeah sometimes I cry too Don, usually when I'm listening to one of your solo tunes.

Plus I think it's quite ironic that she was never all that popular in the UK, which is essentially where Fleetwood Mac come from.

But *every* Stevie Nicks song involves a delusional girl. Her songs are nothing if not full of uncertainty and self-doubt.

We're all allowed to flub lines in the midst of cocaine psychosis.

also, "i can't wait" video had some serious mid-80's sizzle to it.

Brian, it's not really fair to tease us like that. Esp. since my first thought was OMG I MUST HAVE THIS.

'Far as poetry goes, all props to Alfred for the thread. We haven't actually mentioned "After The Glitter Fades" by name, but it stands for me among the best of all singer-songwriter SoCaliana*, from "Late For The Sky" through "A Long December."

*A genre defined by the hoovering of rails in an elegiac mode.

Edge of Seventeen is a stone classic. But not as stone classic as "Stone in Love" by Journey which is a double-stone classic for use of the word "stone" in the title.*

*Also, I noticed the other day that the main riff from Stone in Love is totally ripped off by "Drown" by Son Volt, which was by far their best song. Huh.

Suspect the collective might throw a lot of "Windfall" and "Tear Stained Eye" at that Son Volt POO, but "Stone In Love" was WITHOUT QUESTION Journey's finest hour. I love it without irony. Deserves its own thread.

"Edge of Seventeen" was what Destiny's Child sampled for "Bootylicious," right?

Not sure which I like more: "Seventeen" or "Bootylicious."

Hilarious!

"Edge of Seventeen" is fucking immense.

Get ahold of yourself, man, for God's sake.

Yeah, you know it, Bitch.

"Stand Back". I saw this video before I could even GET fucking MTV. You know it fucking rules. And look at her fucking hair. Is it not perfect hair??? How many hairdressers were responsible for that?

This one goes out to Alfred Soto - "I Can't Wait":

And by the way, Edge of Seventeen...

Get ahold of yourself, man, for God's sake.

Hahaha. Why?

She's the goddess. Get on the train now. She's the Queen, man. She's even going to outdo Nico as Queen of Goth if I'm not careful here.

Anyway I don't want to talk to people who haven't heard Kate Bush's The Dreaming album just yet. Just sayin'.

Leather & Lace, live 1981

How Still My Love, live 1983

"This is a song about an old Welsh witch" LOL

haven't read any of this, but its obviously not even an issue, stevie has held her own.

I know I have resurrected this thread about a zillion times, but I want to know if anyone knows this song "Gold & Braid" which didn't appear on either of her first two albums for some weird reason. I'm not even positive that she wrote it, but it's become a big fave of mine.

It's on the box set; before then it was only found on that live show VHS to which you linked.

Yeah! Thanks for responding. I knew it was on the Enchanted thing, that was it. Allmusic says it's indeed her song, but I suppose allmusic could be wrong.

I mean can someone please look at their CD or whatever and confirm that she has the writing credits on this one? Or someone else? Thanks.

Also, I'm determined to keep calm tonight about the music I love, but I just want to say that her song "Outside The Rain", I heard that on my iPod while running through this HUGE graveyard near my house a couple months ago with my friend, and I can't now divorce that feeling from the song itself. I felt like a child, and its a reminder that this gorgeous HUGE graveyard is near my house and I have only to walk a few blocks and I'm in that place again in my mind. There's something incredible about a child running through the greenery of nature, and she summed up that whole feeling for me.

Depends how you define 'collaboration,' for Prince just played on "Stand Back."

"Rooms on Fire" is lovely, and it took years to notice it doesn't rhyme! And how many top twenty hits have lines like "She dreamed of a wanton luxury"?

When Rooms on Fire hits at the bar the place goes up in flames 🔥

Depends how you define 'collaboration,' for Prince just played on "Stand Back."

I didn't want to drown the post in details, but generally the point is that the track owed a lot to Prince:

She wrote it on the day of her marriage to Kim Anderson on January 29, 1983. 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. He and Nicks did agree however to split the publishing royalties on the song 50-50. Then, she says, "he just got up and left as if the whole thing happened in a dream."

oh I'm well aware of it -- I own Timespace and the story's been passed down for years -- but his influence on the track is overstated, especially when "Nightbird" and (especially!) "If Anyone Falls" boast similar synthesized arrangements. Her awarding him some publishing dough was a gesture of generosity. The track was already awesome.

“Blue Lamp” is phenomenal. I can’t believe it was relegated to a b-side/soundtrack cut

I want to resist this notion of Nicks as "at the complete mercy of her collaborators," which may have been true in 1985-1996 but was certainly not true in Fleetwood Mac (as her demos show) or her solo work from 1989 onward.

Also, most singer-songwriters are at the mercy of collaborators, "complete" or otherwise.

They need bands to flesh out their crystal visions. I suspect a Nicks-at-the-piano album at her peak would've been special, though.

"Blue Lamp" is a catchy motherfucker.

stand back would be a great song without the synths

so she “stole” a bit from little red corvette

it’s a stretch to call prince a “collaborator” there

I think she’s a really underrated songwriter and singer and all this surgical picking apart what she “really” did is weird.

otm

Some great comments on here, just for one example: Hell yeah. Hell yeah to the LA session players. Hell yeah to Don Henley knowing that with Stevie to light his nights, somehow he'd get by. Hell yeah to Alfred Soto correctly observing that when you didn't plan to hear it just then, "Stand Back" is in fact the best song ever written. Along with "Edge Of Seventeen" or "If Anyone Falls." Hell yeah to doing fat rails at some record producer's party up the canyon in Studio City, or maybe it was a real estate guy, and finding yourself alone on a balcony at four in the morning, the has-beens long retired to the bedrooms with the wannabes, and maybe a few stragglers sprawled on living room shag, too wasted or too desperate to know that for them the party ended weeks ago, with the Valley twinkling everywhere below, and knowing that love is only one fine star away. Hell yeah.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, July 5, 2005
And the one already in italics, apparently from somewhere else, re the Frank Kogan of Mac collectors, the beneath-the-hierarchy of fans, young women who wanted to talk about young woman things, and what in Stevie songs of and to such want, despite any degree in songs or fans of accepted sexism, and "there was a culture beyond that'---who wrote this, Alfred?

meant to refer to "what in Stevie songs *spoke* of and to such want"

stand back would be a great song without the synths
so she “stole” a bit from little red corvette
it’s a stretch to call prince a “collaborator” there
I think she’s a really underrated songwriter and singer and all this surgical picking apart what she “really” did is weird.
I like the record more than the song - I've never been especially bowled over by any covers or live performances to really think it was the other way around, and I definitely like it more than the remixed version on Timespace, so I can't agree there.

I think we already covered this in the previous posts, but 1) I didn't want to spend too much time discussing details, so "collaborator" shouldn't be taken that literally, "influence" probably would've been better and 2) Alfred already said he thought that influence was overstated, even if it's been stated by Nicks herself, and that's fine if we disagree

Anyway, I'm not sure I'd call her underrated as a songwriter given how massively popular her songs are - her songs with Fleetwood Mac are probably heard and covered more than the others by her bandmates, and they are great songs so they seem rated just fine.

I was going to suggest "influence" as a substitute because no question Prince influenced the writing of "Stand Back."

And lol I prefer the remixed "Stand Back" on Timespace -- punchier, longer, with the extended coda of Nicksbabble.

I don't like any of the CLA remixes on that compilation, I never kept it for that reason.

Sometimes it's a bitch!

LOL

I rarely like remixes like this, unless it was a record that was seriously compromised, remixing at best feels pointless, but it could be a lot worse.

wow 18 new answers and none of them are about “Show Them The Way”? It’s good. It didn’t blow me away or anything but it’s staying on my 2020 playlist.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U74L8TbHsoY

Never forget

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AjarDaringAsiaticmouflon-small.gif

the live “stand back” on the chain box is hurried and thin but I kinda like it

Sorry Jeff -- that's what started my solo Stevie binge, I got distracted by Rooms on Fire.

The new song's okay. Too many JFK references instead of JFK references.

the live “stand back” on the chain box is hurried and thin but I kinda like it

It's not bad. I don't think that was a balanced collection - they really shortchanged the pre-Buckingham/Nicks era - but that track was a good pick to represent the post-Buckingham lineup, which wasn't exactly rich with gems.

Blue Lamp is all time

if you wiser you would get out

otm

You GO, girl

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/AjarDaringAsiaticmouflon-max-1mb.gif

Happy birthday, fellow sister of the moon

https://giphy.com/gifs/abedder-gypsy-stevie-nicks-fleetwood-mac-buLmE2bSbOkEoC1zO

https://media.giphy.com/media/buLmE2bSbOkEoC1zO/giphy.gif

blame it on my wild heart

^^^ best fucking album ever, as I discovered about a month ago

I remember reading Details Magazine when it was still around and they did a Q&A with Stevie and the writer had the audacity to ask her about a rather explicit rumor (rumour?) that was going around at the time. I will paraphrase:

Interviewer: There's a rumor going around that you did so much coke that your nostrils are wrecked and you have an assistant blow coke into your asshole. (Yes, they came right out and asked her about this).

Nicks: (no response)

Interviewer: It must suck having those kinds of rumors about you.

I remember at the time finding it unreal they even asked, and more surprised she didn't storm out of the inteview.

well the magazine was called details

lol I remember it

My Stevie @Barbie has been with me now for several months. When Mattel came to me asking if I would like to have a Barbie made in the “Rumours” cover style I was very overwhelmed. Of course I questioned “would she look like me? Would she have my spirit? Would she have my heart…”… pic.twitter.com/JQXjF7XSMK

— Stevie Nicks (@StevieNicks) October 2, 2023

I guess there have been a few of these random Music Series Barbies, including Bowie:

https://www.billboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/David-Bowie-Barbie-hero.jpg?w=942&h=623&crop=1

Mid 70s yellow teeth coked up Bowie would have made a great Joker