Stevie Nicks solo - Classic or Dud?

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

Happy birthday, girl

https://i.imgur.com/kvPyPCA.gif

Aw hell yeah

STEVIE NICKS ON SNL WHAT A FUCKING LEGEND pic.twitter.com/c8uGAnh0cM

— stevie nicks manager (@kajolswife) October 13, 2024

She was pretty awesome.

I was skeptical but she brought it.

Although as it went on I was more and more distracted by the backing vocal track, clearly her, as pre recorded harmonies. It was like a wall of Stevies.

awesome

Still kind of ick to see Waddy up there

she's never ditching waddy.

Waddy looks like a skeleton dressed up as Bob Weir for Halloween

Official upload of full performance (much better sound):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1PpthYqJks

It's a big improvement on the record they actually released simply because Nicks is openly pissed off and lets it rip - a much better job of nailing the spirit of the song.

I was kinda underwhelmed

Extraordinary interview:

Is there internet on your iPhone

It isn’t connected, it’s just a camera.

I’m envious of that.

I hate it. About 10 years ago, Katy Perry was talking to me about the internet armies of all the girl singers, and how cruel and rancid they were. I said, “Well, I wouldn’t know because I’m not on the internet.” She said, “So, who are your rivals?” I just looked at her. It was my steely look. I said, “Katy, I don’t have rivals. I have friends. All the other women singers that I know are friends. Nobody’s competing. Get off the internet and you won’t have rivals either.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/stevie-nicks-fleetwood-mac-kamala-harris-new-music-1235140437/

the best <3

I love reading interviews with her. She's a very interesting person. Every time, I come away wishing I liked her music.

the best <3