Stevie Nicks solo - Classic or Dud?

http://i.imgur.com/LpBt87i.jpg

You look perfectly fine. Lose the dumb hats, Dave.

Ha, Edge looks so much better without the hat!

I need you to hate me, I need you todaaaaayyy.

“And sometimes <sniff> I cry” always made me chuckle a little.

*sniff* is coke obv

Her best Mac and solo stuff.

Either this is an in-joke or that’s the wrong link, Alfred.

Ha! It's the wrong link.

For someone who spent the good part of a decade+ of her peak gacked out, she recorded a remarkable number of great songs. But wow, no Silver Springs, which has sort of become the definitive Nicks Mac song. (Storms may be the prettiest.)

I'll tell you what, I forgot "Nightbird"!

I feel like “Stand Back” deserves the Lindstrom and Prins treatment.

Rooms on fire slays, the drums are A+

Could be Jerry Marotta ...

That vaporous Rupert Hine production, also used to splendid effect on Rush's Poppy Bush Interzone hits.

I don't know how many times I've listened to Rooms on Fire today and I don't want to know

She's great in Fleetwood Mac, but I'm not a fan of her solo records. She seems to be at the complete mercy of her collaborators, but seeing as she's choosing most of them, it's probably more of a reflection of poor choices. Iovine's okay but he's generally less interesting than what Nicks had with Buckingham et al. Things get better when Tom Petty and/or the Heartbreakers are involved, or with Prince in "Stand Back"'s case. The one unqualified triumph that belongs to her is "Edge of Seventeen," and as much as I prefer Buckingham's solo career, I don't think he's ever quite matched it on his own.

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