PRIME STEVIE IN 5 LUSH TAKES
FO R T Y- T H R E E years after Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” topped the Billboard Hot 100, the soft-rock staple written and sung by Stevie Nicks took over pop culture again last week thanks to a viral video showing a dude on a skateboard lip-syncing to the song. We should never be too surprised when Nicks sneaks back up to remind us she’s still a whole vibe. Here are five of her Stevieest moments of all time.
1 REINVENTING FLEETWOOD MAC
Some musicians approach a new gig timidly. Not Nicks: When she and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, nearly a decade after the band had established itself as a crusty British blues-revival outfit, she immediately set about remaking the group’s sound, contributing the lush and spooky “Rhiannon” and the wistful “Landslide” — two instant classics still among the band’s signature tunes — to that year’s hit self-titled LP.
2 GOING HER OWN WAY
Nicks was just as gutsy when she launched her solo career just six years later with 1981’s chart-topping “Bella Donna.” What stands out now is the album’s variety as it moves directly from “After the Glitter Fades,” a country-ish ballad subsequently covered by Glen Campbell, to “Edge of Seventeen,” the pumping rock anthem that Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child later turned into “Bootylicious.”
3
Given their shared love of frilly fabrics, it makes sense that Nicks befriended Prince, with whom she says she speaks today, years after his death, when she’s nervous. But which of Prince’s famous chums ever came as close to one-upping him as Nicks did with the soulful, synthed-out “Stand Back,” which she wrote after hearing “Little Red Corvette” on a drive to Santa Barbara?
LACE AND LACE 4 CRYSTAL REVISION
Mythologized for years as having been unjustly cut from “Rumours,” Nicks’ breakup song “Silver Springs” finally got its due on Fleetwood Mac’s 1997 concert special “The Dance” — and in a bonechilling live rendition, no less, that has her and Buckingham (about whom she wrote it) staring each other down as though each is trying to haunt the other.
5
Nicks has become a beloved mentor to musicians — including Harry Styles, Lana Del Rey and the sisters of Haim — in thrall to her sharp songwriting and her gold-dust chic. In 2017 she turned up at Styles’ Troubadour show and let the kid sing Don Henley’s part in “Leather and Lace.”
MUSE, MENTOR