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TheWildHeart67 10-25-2017 04:39 PM

Book Review.“Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks” by Stephen Davis.
 
http://www.ocala.com/entertainment/2...ks-in-new-book

Stephen Davis has an unusual wish for a man prior to the release of his 18th rock book — a biography of Fleetwood Mac singer and solo artist and songwriter Stevie Nicks.

“The main thing is I want to be in the next issue of AARP,” said Davis, who wrote “Gold Dust Woman” out of his Milton, Massachusetts, home. “She’s almost 70 and I’m 70, and they send out something like 25 million copies (actually the magazine claims more than 47 million readers).”

Davis said he is fascinated by Nicks, who found stardom relatively late (for a rock star) in her 20′s and still fills an arena both solo and with Fleetwood Mac. She recently announced an 18-month tour starting in mid-2018 with Fleetwood Mac. Her 40 top-50 hits include “Don’t Stop,” the signature song of former President Bill Clinton’s campaign.

“The arc of the story is that initially she wasn’t really wanted in Fleetwood Mac and eventually she went out on her own and became a bigger star than Fleetwood Mac,” said Davis, who began researching “Gold Dust Woman” in 2012 and finished it in 2016. “When I started writing, I thought the book would be a valedictory thing about someone whose career is winding now. Now, I’m just trying to keep up with her and will need to update the book when the paperback comes out in a year.”

Best known for his best seller “Hammer of the Gods” about Led Zeppelin, Davis has written books about South Shore rockers Aerosmith, Carly Simon, Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Guns N’ Roses, Levon Helm and Bob Marley. “Gold Dust Woman” will be published by St. Martin’s Press in New York City on Nov. 21.

“I found my niche early and I’ve been doing it for almost 40 years,” said Davis who graduated from Boston University and wrote about music for the New York Times before publishing his first book, on Bob Marley. “I’m privileged to plug into this enormous audience for this artistic movement called rock. It has longevity, and these heritage bands keep going on.”

While many books, including this one, are unauthorized biographies, others are authorized, which meant he spent hours talking and traveling with the stars, including Aerosmith. Hardly what you’d expect from a Milton family man — recently widowed and the father of children ages 29 and 38.

“Back in the old days, I would get visited by these rock stars in stretch limousines,” he said.

Davis met Nicks briefly years ago when he accompanied Fleetwood Mac on tour, but he never spoke with her for “Gold Dust Woman,” relying instead on extensive research of published and taped interviews, books by other authors, and Nicks’s own writing.

“What I loved as a biographer is all of her tribulations,” he said. “The pages keep turning because every few pages some train wreck happens. Almost everyone she was involved with hurt or betrayed her. The amazing thing to me is she forgave almost all of them.”

She also had her own demons — became addicted to and collapsed from the anti-anxiety prescription drug Klonopin, spent 47 days in rehab, had multiple broken love affairs, and struggled with her voice. Tours with Fleetwood Mac have been exhausting and stressful, especially because she and ex-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham pretended to fans they were friends, walking offstage holding hands after performances of “Landslide.”

As the story of her life unfolds, the reader is likely to question why she kept going.

“She was so ambitious that she was determined to let nothing stop her,” Davis said. “She was on a mission to get up on a stage and sing and make people feel good. She has been on a mission since her grandfather taught her to sing harmony and her mother kept drumming into her that she needed to be an independent woman.”

Nicks’s distinctive voice, poetic lyrics, and costume style are unmistakable. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, her hits include “Rhiaanon,” “Landslide,” and “Go Your Own Way.”

Fans — who cover three generations — identify with Nick’s mystique as much as her music, Davis said.

“She represents something beyond what she is singing about,” he said. “There is something spiritual about her.”

Knowing such intimate details about rock stars, Davis said he is not surprised anymore by anything about their lives or the music industry.

But in recent years, Davis said he has allowed feelings of compassion into his books.

“About 10 years ago, I started to get old and think a little more about the passage of time and what people were going through, as opposed to just telling a neutral story,” he said.

In fact, in the final paragraph of “Gold Dust,” he makes clear his admiration: “Stevie Nicks, this self-described ‘old woman,’ had shouldered her burdens, met her responsibilities, and valorized her country in a way few other women have. No other rock star of her charmed generation could say as much.”
— Jody Feinberg may be reached at jfeinberg@ledger.com or follow on Twitter @JodyF_Ledger

TheWildHeart67 10-25-2017 04:44 PM

The person who reviewed this book must not know much about Fleetwood Mac, as Stevie didn't write some of the songs that are given credits to her.

bwboy 10-25-2017 09:01 PM

Thanks for posting this. I am curious about the book, because I feel like Fleetwood Mac is a band that there is little we don't already know about them. Same thing with Stevie Nicks. I really can't imagine there will be anything in this book that will surprise us. And the things I'm really interested in, such as more details about Stevie's recording process, successes and frustrations with certain albums, songs, or producers, etc, the author probably won't have any idea about.

I would love to read how the band (and Stevie in her solo work) decides which songs to perform live. Any rituals they perform before they go on stage? We know they like to tour, but why exactly? The money? The applause? How did they feel when they found out Bob Welch died? What was it like filming some of their videos? How did Stevie feel about recording Behind the Mask? Was she happy with the album? She supposedly didn't get along with the producer of Street Angel- why not? Why did she agree to work with him? Was it her decision and then did she come to regret it, or was it out of her hands in the first place?

That was something I really loved about Billy Burnette's autobiography- he wrote about little things FM did, like how much they spent on making albums, different parties at Stevie's house and the famous people who were there, and how the band used to jam in the hotel rooms after performing a concert- why do I have a feeling that NEVER happened until Billy and Rick Vito joined?! I would love it if this book had stories like that, but without input from Stevie, I don't see how it could.

iamnotafraid 10-26-2017 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWildHeart67 (Post 1217814)

Davis said he is fascinated by Nicks...

“What I loved as a biographer is all of her tribulations,” he said.

If that's the focus of this book, then you just
saved me some money.

Stevie should listen to Carly Simon's audio book
Boys In The Trees, A Memoir. That's how a book
should be written and told to you by the author.

I haven't finished it yet. But she makes you feel
like she's telling all of her secrets just to you.

Sanne2 10-26-2017 05:29 AM

After reading this earlier today I don't have any desire to read his book: http://www.closerweekly.com/posts/st...regrets-145065

Macfan4life 10-26-2017 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwboy (Post 1217818)
Thanks for posting this. I am curious about the book, because I feel like Fleetwood Mac is a band that there is little we don't already know about them. Same thing with Stevie Nicks. I really can't imagine there will be anything in this book that will surprise us. And the things I'm really interested in, such as more details about Stevie's recording process, successes and frustrations with certain albums, songs, or producers, etc, the author probably won't have any idea about.

I would love to read how the band (and Stevie in her solo work) decides which songs to perform live. Any rituals they perform before they go on stage? We know they like to tour, but why exactly? The money? The applause? How did they feel when they found out Bob Welch died? What was it like filming some of their videos? How did Stevie feel about recording Behind the Mask? Was she happy with the album? She supposedly didn't get along with the producer of Street Angel- why not? Why did she agree to work with him? Was it her decision and then did she come to regret it, or was it out of her hands in the first place?

That was something I really loved about Billy Burnette's autobiography- he wrote about little things FM did, like how much they spent on making albums, different parties at Stevie's house and the famous people who were there, and how the band used to jam in the hotel rooms after performing a concert- why do I have a feeling that NEVER happened until Billy and Rick Vito joined?! I would love it if this book had stories like that, but without input from Stevie, I don't see how it could.

Some of your questions have been answered. The band never liked making videos but like most bands were pretty much forced to do so in the video age. Both Chris and Stevie had said they missed the days when a song was a personal interpretation when you heard it on the radio instead of some slick movie style interpretation.
Stevie stated on her 1989 Rockline interview that she loved the "new" Mac and the recording of Behind The Mask was much more rock n roll compared to how it had been before.
They all expressed their condolences with the death of Bob Welch but the bigger question is why the band kept him from the Rock N Roll hall of fame. I know Bob sued but I cant believe royalties from these earlier albums would turn the band against him. If that is true, that is unbelievable. The Mac has more money than they know what to do with. Their relationship with Bob was so good until the last 15 years of his life.

Have you read Mick's first book? That book has amazing stories. He really tells lots of incredible stories like the time Stevie and someone else was supposed to pick him up at an airport in Hawaii but Stevie and this person (I forget who it was) took micro dot acid and they could not find their way to the airport and were laughing so hard. How the Australians thought the Mac were international drug dealers and would almost strip search the band at airports. But I really enjoyed him telling the story of his stalker would stalked him for years. One day she found him at some hotel somewhere. It was so funny. Also Lindsey and Mick share a joint and Lindsey tells Mick he knows he has been secretly seeing Stevie. Lots of juicy goodies like that and how out of control Stevie was on the RAL tour with her falling off the stage several times. The time in New Zealand where Lindsey attacked Stevie on stage. They all ran off stage to get to Lindsey and Christine got there first and gave Lindsey a big punch :eek:

bwboy 10-26-2017 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Macfan4life (Post 1217823)
Some of your questions have been answered. The band never liked making videos but like most bands were pretty much forced to do so in the video age. Both Chris and Stevie had said they missed the days when a song was a personal interpretation when you heard it on the radio instead of some slick movie style interpretation.
Stevie stated on her 1989 Rockline interview that she loved the "new" Mac and the recording of Behind The Mask was much more rock n roll compared to how it had been before.
They all expressed their condolences with the death of Bob Welch but the bigger question is why the band kept him from the Rock N Roll hall of fame. I know Bob sued but I cant believe royalties from these earlier albums would turn the band against him. If that is true, that is unbelievable. The Mac has more money than they know what to do with. Their relationship with Bob was so good until the last 15 years of his life.

Have you read Mick's first book? That book has amazing stories. He really tells lots of incredible stories like the time Stevie and someone else was supposed to pick him up at an airport in Hawaii but Stevie and this person (I forget who it was) took micro dot acid and they could not find their way to the airport and were laughing so hard. How the Australians thought the Mac were international drug dealers and would almost strip search the band at airports. But I really enjoyed him telling the story of his stalker would stalked him for years. One day she found him at some hotel somewhere. It was so funny. Also Lindsey and Mick share a joint and Lindsey tells Mick he knows he has been secretly seeing Stevie. Lots of juicy goodies like that and how out of control Stevie was on the RAL tour with her falling off the stage several times. The time in New Zealand where Lindsey attacked Stevie on stage. They all ran off stage to get to Lindsey and Christine got there first and gave Lindsey a big punch :eek:

Thanks. I read Mick's book and it was a fine read, but since he wasn't one of the song writers, I guess I'm more interested in rewarding about the creative process of the songs, etc. Which I got quite a bit of in the book by Ken Cailat, or whatever his name was :)

As for your other points, I know about some things the various band members said tat the time, but I'm interested in their thoughts after the passage of time. Of course Stevie said positive things about the Rick/Billy incarnation of the Mac in 1989- that was smack in the middle of the recording process. But upon reflection, does she still feel that way? I hope so, because I love that album, but Mick used to rave a out Rick and Billy and the band's return to their roots, then after the Dance he was like "well, it didn't really work, etc."

As for the videos, I've also read they didn't like to do them, but I suspect they were lazy and just didn't want to do them. Although in fairness, videos like Gypsy, which was a huge production, Hold Me, which must have been a hot and uncomfortable shoot, and Seven Wonders must have taken 2 days, with the band pretending to perform that song at least a dozen times in it's entirety because Stevie changed her dress that many times! But Little Lies looked fun, as did If Anyone Falls, so some stories about the choreography would have been interesting. Of course, those kinds of things might not be of interest to most people.

Steviegirl 10-26-2017 08:46 PM

Thank you for posting. I know I probably won't learn anything new either, but I'm reading Mick's second book now, Play On, and, of course it's stuff we all know, but I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. I guess I'm just in the mood for a good FM story. :) Even though most of us have nearly memorized their biographies.

bombaysaffires 10-27-2017 07:09 PM

looks like it's really just a re-hashing of the same old interviews and quotes, all of which he takes at face value. He doesn't appear to dig behind the public persona or have gotten any insights from anyone close to her (which Im sure he couldn't, because I think she clamps down pretty hard on anyone close to her telling any stories but the ones she wants to tell).

I think a good biography goes behind the mask and goes for more than just what the performer wants to portray. Not that it needs to be nasty or mean, but just honest. I love Stevie and she is more honest in a lot of her interviews than other celebrities, but she's very smart about her image and she's very controlling of her image. Getting a more realistic picture would be more interesting.

lilyfee 10-28-2017 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires (Post 1217867)
I love Stevie and she is more honest in a lot of her interviews than other celebrities, but she's very smart about her image and she's very controlling of her image. Getting a more realistic picture would be more interesting.

I agree. I think it would be very difficult to write a compelling book based entirely on already-published material. Fans of Stevie will already know most if not all of what is included.

PoetofRhiannon 11-01-2017 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheWildHeart67 (Post 1217814)
http://www.ocala.com/entertainment/2...ks-in-new-book


Davis said he is fascinated by Nicks, who found stardom relatively late (for a rock star) in her 20′s and still fills an arena both solo and with Fleetwood Mac. She recently announced an 18-month tour starting in mid-2018 with Fleetwood Mac. Her 40 top-50 hits include “Don’t Stop,” the signature song of former President Bill Clinton’s campaign.

What? Where? Tour?:eek:

SisterNightroad 11-12-2017 06:58 AM

Stevie Nicks biography bares all about the singer — drugs, love, failures and triumphs

Stevie Nicks' truth is somewhere behind the “Rumours.”

The 1977 Fleetwood Mac album yielded six No. 1 hits, becoming one of the best-selling records of all time. One of those songs was “Gold Dust Woman” — now the title of an unauthorized Nicks bio due out later this month.

Author Stephen Davis chronicles the airy-fairy goddess of rock from her childhood through her plans to go on tour with Fleetwood Mac in 2018.

“The fact is that nobody has a clue to what my life was really like,” Davis quotes the singer as saying.

Now 69, Nicks has inspired performers as disparate as Taylor Swift, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks. Even if you can’t quite place Nicks, her songs remain inescapable: “Landslide,” “Leather and Lace,” “Rhiannon.”

She's the blond, petite singer with the sultry voice whose duet with Tom Petty in “Stop Draggin' My Heart Around” is even more heartbreaking since his death.

"I fell in love with his music and his band," Nicks once said of Petty. "If I ever got to know Tom Petty and could worm my way into his good graces, if he asked me to leave my band and join his, I'd probably do it. And that was before I even met him."

Nicks shared her desire with her manager and Petty agreed to produce a track with her. He came away unimpressed — more so with her entourage than with Nicks.

Petty instead recommended she work with a producer who had helped him, Jimmy Iovine.

It was hardly a match made in heaven. Iovine was scheduled to work on the fourth Heartbreakers album, not to guide Nicks through her solo debut.

And, the author notes, the Brooklyn-born Iovine and the ethereal Nicks were mismatched in personality and style.

“He was like the anti-Nicks,” writes Davis. “Crystal visions were not for him.”

Despite the doubts, they moved quickly from studio cohorts to lovers. She confided in girlfriends how much she loved his “little Greek body,” and when Iovine wasn't around she called him “the little one.”

Davis tracks Nicks’ other lovers, beginning with Lindsey Buckingham. She was a senior and he was a junior at Menlo-Atherton High School in California when they met in a church where weekly music sessions were held.

Buckingham started playing “California Dreamin’” and she harmonized.

The two then went their separate ways. Three years later, he reached out, asking her to join a band.

She did, and the longtime couple struggled to make it as Buckingham Nicks. She worked hard outside the studio, too — cleaning houses, waiting tables.

Buckingham? Not so much.

Several stories recount Nicks coming home exhausted to find Buckingham and his friends, stoned. He landed some gigs playing guitar and she kept singing and writing.

It was during this period that Nicks read a novel about a Welsh witch and wrote the hit-single-in-waiting “Rhiannon.” And she penned another song, this one titled “Landslide.”

Even though their band failed to take off, people in the industry took notice. Fleetwood Mac, a bluesy British band, asked Nicks and Buckingham to join them.

The group’s new incarnation soon turned messy and complicated. It was the mid-’70s, and drug-fueled nights led to new relationships.

Eventually drummer Mick Fleetwood and Nicks became lovers.

She did get implants. Nicks, though, always had a distinct sense of style, going back to when she was a kid. For a fourth grade tap dance recital she wore a top hat, black vest and skirt, white top and heeled dance shoes.

That served as the foundation for the look she honed over the years. She became a fashion icon with her almost magical appearance: Swirling skirts, gossamer fabrics and shawls. Her look would inspire clothing lines, websites and generations of women in swirly skirts.

The genesis of her fashion sense was a mom who sewed her clothes, including a cowgirl outfit Nicks wore at age 5 while singing in saloons with her grandfather.

Her dad's dad was a singer who never made it. When he realized his little granddaughter could handle complex harmonies, he imagined taking her to the Grand Ole Opry. After decades of toiling in anonymity, he figured the gimmick he needed was singing with his adorable granddaughter.

Stevie’s mother nixed that idea.

Her parents encouraged her but became worried when Nicks, in her 20s, was broke, sick all the time and exhausted. Nicks considered becoming a speech therapist but stuck with singing and writing songs.

She kept filling journals as she went through romances and a brief marriage to her best friend's widower.

When Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles were touring, Nicks walked into her dressing room one night to find a huge bouquet of roses with a card: “To Stevie: The best of my love - tonight? Love, Don.”

Turns out the ham-handed move was a practical joke from her own bandmates, teasing her about Don Henley.

When she and Henley did hook up, he was far smoother and sent over a stereo, records and beautiful flowers.

Among her other lovers was record executive Paul Fishkin, who helped propel her career.

Fishkin considered Nicks the key to Fleetwood Mac. The band had been kicking around for years. They only hit it big once Nicks and Buckingham joined the band. Still, she held onto her waitressing job — just in case.

Though now the one bringing in the crowds, Nicks had no real sway in the band. Getting the songs that she wanted on the albums became a struggle, according to Davis.

Initially, Nicks lacked the courage that she could go it alone. Fishkin assured her she could.

Around this time, her New Agey side blossomed. Nicks had also started using a lot of cocaine, landing in rehab for the first time in 1982.

A few years later, when in Australia and unable to get her hands on any coke, she started drinking heavily and fell off stages. Her friends staged an intervention and Nicks went off to the Betty Ford Center.

Then, while on the anti-panic attack drug Klonopin, life turned really scary. Nicks began taking too much and often felt completely out of it. Always small at 5-foot-1 and very slight, Nicks ballooned up to 175 pounds and was smoking three packs of menthols a day.

She checked herself into a hospital and detoxed for 47 days. When clean, she went back to work, touring behind her 1994 “Street Angel” album. She was brutally honest about her own work.

"I listened to the record — I'm off all the drugs — and I knew it was terrible,” she said. “It had cost a fortune.”

Nicks finished the tour and took stock of herself. She had the breast implants removed, started exercising, quit smoking and worked hard to create music.

She tried collaborating again with Petty, who was going through a divorce. Ultimately she would sing again with her old pals in Fleetwood Mac and she kept moving forward.

Were Nicks to write an autobiography now, it could easily be called “Don't Stop.”



http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.3626288

bombaysaffires 11-12-2017 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwboy (Post 1217818)

That was something I really loved about Billy Burnette's autobiography- he wrote about little things FM did, like how much they spent on making albums, different parties at Stevie's house and the famous people who were there, and how the band used to jam in the hotel rooms after performing a concert- why do I have a feeling that NEVER happened until Billy and Rick Vito joined?! I would love it if this book had stories like that, but without input from Stevie, I don't see how it could.

are you kidding?? Fleetwood Mac had MEGA parties all through the seventies and were a magnet for the big stars of the era-- the Belushis and the Nicholsons and all the rest along with all the other major rock stars. I have no idea where people get this idea that Fleetwood Mac were little angels who sat together in a circle and never hung out with anyone else. They were all over the party scene, especially Stevie. And Fleetwood Mac recording sessions had famous people all the time hanging out which is part of the reason it took so long to make Tusk for example... nights would turn to parties. Lindsey would finally just leave when he realized nothing would get done. Just because all of that stuff was carefully edited out of the various documentaries doesn't mean it didn't happen. That was all marketing propaganda to entice people to buy the album. They weren't documentaries about the band's life. And they partied on the road a bunch too. One of the main reasons Lindsey left was due to the non stop party going on.

If you meant the jamming after shows.... I think that might have happened earlier but agree that would have stopped.

bombaysaffires 11-12-2017 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwboy (Post 1217818)
Thanks for posting this. I am curious about the book, because I feel like Fleetwood Mac is a band that there is little we don't already know about them. Same thing with Stevie Nicks. I really can't imagine there will be anything in this book that will surprise us..

Seriously?? We don't even know HALF of what went on with this band, nor Stevie, who is the most controlling of her image out of all of them. This is a woman who had the editors edit out her saying "F$%A^" in her documentary with Dave Stewart because she felt it didn't reflect the image she wanted of herself. :nod:

There is soooooooooooooo much to know about this band and what went on that we will likely never hear. I think the drugs issue and how messed up people were would yield some pretty gruesome stories. I think the politics and power plays within the band were and still are in some ways brutal. I think Carol's book was the one that came closest to pulling back the curtain on how bad it was, but she also had something of an agenda that clouds some of that. I found her story of the band's reaction to Lindsey's epileptic episode to be very telling as to how they treated each other.....I don't think Stevie got much sympathy during her drug issues either, no matter what they say now. And all the entourage and hangers-on butting in and adding to the politics. A big reason a lot of Stevie's relationships sputtered was due to the huge posse she surrounds herself with. Most of the guy couldn't take having twenty other people around all the time and having these people whispering in her ear about the relationship. Tom couldn't stand it, Jimmy, Lindsey, etc. I think there's a crap ton of stuff we don't know, and like I said, probably never will, because they, and especially Stevie, have that kind of control over their image and the people round them. I think when band members inevitably (as we all will ) pass away, some of the real dirt will come out as it has with all sorts of other celebrities.

SisterNightroad 11-12-2017 12:17 PM

I think a huge part of the reason why people think that FM was relatively less "social" than the other bands of the time is truly Carol Ann's where she said more than once that even when the band members participated in big parties they usually ended up retiring with their own entourage in one of the rooms and have their private little party there. However even if usually people seem to interpret that as a sign of introversion, I've always thought it was probably more an indication of presumptuousness.


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