Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac Newsgroup Highlights

Wild Heart Cover Art

Many years ago, I visited Herbert Worthington at his photography studio. I asked him about the symbolism of this beautiful cover and this is what he told me. He and Stevie came up with the concept together.....it is to depict the different parts of Stevie herself. At the far left, the Stevie crouched on the floor shows the sadness she feels and the private side of her personality. At the far right, is the strong Stevie....the performer, the star, the public image. In the center, the ghostly figure represents the spirit of the late Robin Anderson, who Stevie carries inside her wild heart always.

It meant alot to me that Herbie shared Stevie's own feelings about what she wanted to convey through the cover art...."no one knows unless you read between the lines..."

Stevie Nicks Fantasy Tribute Album

Great thread! Some inclusions for my version of the ideal tribute album:

Thoughts on "Rose Garden"

On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Mike Sarzo wrote:
[Story of confusion about "Rose Garden"]

These are two different songs you're talking about. There's an old song called "Rose Garden" that goes "I beg your pardon/I never promised you a rose garden/Along with the sunshine/There's gonna be a little rain sometimes." Many people have covered this song -- the version I'm familiar with is from k.d. lang's first album *Angel With a Lariat*.

Stevie's song "Rose Garden" alludes to the older song but turns it around: "You never promised me a rose garden/You never said it would be easy/You never promised me a leisure lifestyle/You only said you'd never leave me." I think of the "promised a rose garden" metaphor as one of those fairly deeply rooted cultural tropes which Stevie is using for her own purposes. She is not singing the old song, and she definitely is not singing the lyric "I never promised you a rose garden." She's taking the other role, the one who expected everything to be fun and easy and ended up disappointed.

I love Stevie's "Rose Garden", by the way. I know some people on the list have mentioned that it's one of their least favorites, but I find it the most moving song on *Street Angel*. I love its simplicity, and the poignancy of "I've got all these things/All these things but a small gold band/On my finger/On my left hand." I get a lump in my throat every time I hear those lines. I think of Stevie as someone who as come to be at peace with many of the painful things in her life, but it wasn't always that way. "Rose Garden" conveys regret and loneliness in a way that I find deeply touching.

Paul O'Brian

Stevie's dislike for Street Angel

"Vanessa" wrote:
So what exactly did she say in this radio interview? I would be interested to know.

"Off the Record" radio interview, with Mary Turner, from December '94:

Announcer: "...Street Angel, the 1994 solo album that Stevie won't be putting in anyone's Christmas stocking"

SN: "No, I've really walked away from it. It's really over for me. It took...it was started in the summer of '92, I hope I get this right, and it went...um...we recorded through 'til after Christmas in '93, when the inauguration was, and then we went back and worked for like another six weeks on it, and then we finished it, basically. And then...all the English people that were involved went home to England and I listened to it for two months and I didn't like it.

And so I went back in, with Thom Panunzio, to try and fix what I was not happy with. And I didn't fix it while I was working with the person that I was working with [Glyn Johns]...who dosen't like to be talked about because he's not speaking to me, um...I didn't like it when he was there, and he knew it, and basically he told me to...like, in no uncertain english, very rough terms, to shut up and deal with it and this was the way it was going to be.

So I waited for him to not only leave, but be gone for two months, before I summoned up enough courage to say well, I know this isn't right, this is just not me. This is not my record. So I went back in for about eight weeks and I didn't mess with the vocals, which I should have. But I was so sort of overwhelmed with trying to fix the things that I didn't like about the music, which was like...there was no percussion, there was no Waddy Wachtel. Because I was told that the last thing that I would need was Waddy Wachtel. And I, you know...I mean, to that comment I was so speechless that I just didn't do anything, I said ok. So when I went back in, I had Waddy come in and play, and I had Peter Michael come in and put percusssion on, and Michael Campbell came back and put some more guitar on it, and we re-mixed everything, and we did a lot of other things besides that.

I should have gone back in and really worked with the album, with the vocals. Because that's something that...I guess that was the last thing that I knew was wrong with it, and after being in two months trying to fix everything that I thought was wrong about the music and the mixes, it was almost kind of like, you know, maybe you just need to let this go and go on. I mean, this is three years now. And this record should have been out a long time ago. It may be new for everybody else, but it's really old for me.

And, it's not my favorite record anyway, so, maybe it's just time to stop. So I did stop."

--
clmoon@pipeline.com

Docklands, Live Wishes, and Fossilization

So many topics going on -- have to condense all my thoughts into one post!

1) On Docklands: This wasn't one of my favorites from "Street Angel" at first, for reasons already cited by many of you (who can picture Stevie going to the Laudromat, etc.) However, as I listened to it more, I started to see the song from a different angle. It occurred to me, "Why does every song have to be about Stevie? Couldn't she sing about someone else's life?" After a while, I started to think that what's going on in the song is an *imagination* of this blue-collar family who lives on the docks -- it's not Stevie going to the Laundromat or having these family conversations, but she's narrating the story to us. The line "There are thousands of things that I can dream, gone in the daylight" to me evokes the fertile imagination of a fiction writer, constantly dreaming up characters, settings, and storylines, but only finding the time to commit a few of them to paper. I'm reminded of an interview I have somewhere -- Stevie talks about writing her first song when she was 16, "I've loved and I've lost"... all about a boy she had hardly even talked to! In the interview, she says something along the lines of: "That was when I knew I could write songs... because I could have experiences without even having them!"

2) On songs I'd love to hear live: Boy, there are so many. One of the most disappointing things about Stevie is that for an artist who has such an amazing body of work, she seems to always sing the same 8 or 9 songs in concert. I sure would love to hear some variety from her. I guess topping the list for me is "Sisters of the Moon" since I've never heard her do that one live. Many more album tracks would also be quite welcome. Some songs that come to mind: "Blue Lamp", "That's Alright", "Wild Heart", "Crystal", and "Ghosts."

3) On Fossilization: I was teaching a writing class for college freshmen in 1993, and wore a Stevie sweatshirt I'd gotten at the OSOTM tour. One of my students asked "Isn't that Stevie Nicks?" When I said yes, the student replied "She is so *80's*!" Aaagh! A fogey at 26! (22 at the time!)

Finally: Mike, sorry to see you go. I too respect and admire the work of the other members of Fleetwood Mac. Unfortunately, Lindsey-bashing seems to have been a factor in Stevie fandom as long as I've been a fan. Seems to me that if the two of them can work out their differences, maybe we should agree to forgive the guy for his trespasses, real or imagined. But I think there will always be those voices of negativity -- the thing to do is to rise above it... in whatever way suits you best. Goodbye Mike.

Paul O'Brian

Indigo Girls sing Stevie Nicks

I want to share with you something that I experienced on Friday night (7/18). I was at Red Rocks seeing the second of two Indigo Girls concerts (My wife and I are huge fans of theirs), and they were singing "Chickenman." Now, they had already been playing for about an hour and a half, and "Chickenman" isn't one of my favorite songs of theirs, so I was sitting down and taking a rest from dancing and cheering.

They came to the bridge of the song, and the band had slowed way down while Amy and Emily kept up the rhythm of the song on the guitar. Then Amy stopped playing as Emily began to do some fingerpicking, said "Here we go", and sang into the mike:

"Well I've been afraid of changing, cos I've built my life around you..."

I was *stunned*. I jumped up and started screaming and cheering as she continued to sing:

"But time makes you bolder, even children get older, and I'm getting older too..."

Then she beckoned to the audience to sing the rest of the chorus of "Landslide." Many people didn't know the song, and were looking quite confused, but there were enough of us in the audience who knew the words, and we made ourselves heard as Emily sang with us. It sounded so beautiful -- it was an absolutely exquisite moment. Then Amy's guitar came back in, and the band swung back to finish "Chickenman."

My heart was so full, I could hardly speak. I've loved the Indigos for so long, and loved Stevie for even longer -- it was a real thrill to hear them acknowledge her song. Also, it was such a *surprise*! I knew Tori Amos sings "Landslide" from time to time, so I wasn't surprised when I heard her sing it in concert (though of course I was pleased.) But I've never heard of the Indigo Girls singing any Stevie Nicks, so it was a wonderful shock to hear it, and to hear it at Red Rocks, of all settings!

Hope that other Indigo fans on the list are lucky enough to see them on the "Shaming of the Sun" tour, and to hear a little Stevie too!

Paul O'Brian

Thoughts on VH-1's Making of Rumours Special

I loved the special too. Stevie's comments were very illuminating -- actually, everyone's comments were very illuminating. It was so fascinating to hear the songs pulled apart into their individual strands -- especially all the wild instrumentation on "Gold Dust Woman." I've heard those songs a thousand times, but I don't know that I could have picked out the individual dobro, harpsichord, backup vocals, etc. How wild to hear those parts in isolation!

Also, I found it interesting that they covered every song on Rumours except two: "Never Going Back Again" and "I Don't Want To Know." I know there were time constraints, etc., but I'm wondering why these two were excluded. I would have loved to hear the different guitar parts for "Never Going Back Again" -- perhaps they left it out because Lindsey, after all this time, has gone back again after all.

Even more intriguing was the omission of "I Don't Want To Know." Seems to me that to talk about this song at all, the "Silver Springs" story would have to be told, and perhaps that's one that the band doesn't want to draw attention to right now. It only deepens the irony that "Silver Springs" is the first single from The Dance. It's true what they say about what goes around...

Paul O'Brian