Walter Egan turned his crush on Stevie Nicks into a hit
Two things you may not know about Walter Egan's 1978 hit, "Magnet and Steel." Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks sing background vocals on the song and were co-producers. Also, the song's kind of about Nicks.
As Egan recalled to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International, he had just finished singing in the studio with Nicks and found himself "smitten." On the drive home, a license plate caught his eye, and the rest is rock history.
What was your thought when you started this song?
WE: My thought was to revive the great sounds of the fifties. I’m old enough to have remembered American Bandstand when it was in Philadelphia, and then as it progressed, but doo-wop music meant a lot to me in my early days…
As we had the deal in hand, we were looking for producers. I thought, “How about Todd Rundgren? How about Brian Wilson?” and they were going, “Well, how about Buckingham-Nicks?” I didn’t know who Buckingham-Nicks was at the time. I thought it was Don Nix who was doing southern rock, and I thought, “No, that doesn’t sound right,” and they gave me (their) album to listen to and I thought, “Oh my goodness, this is really close to what I think I’ve been doing.” In fact, as I got to know Lindsey and Stevie more, we were seemingly in the same crevice.
So, they were my producers on the first album, and it was a wonderful time to get to know them because Fleetwood Mac was just recording Rumours at that point, and just sort of on that launching pad that set them off in the late 70s as the biggest group in the world. So, I just happened to tag along on that as the recording progressed. One night as I was recording my first album, Fundamental Roll, one of my producers, Miss Stevie Nicks, was singing backgrounds on a song of mine called ‘Tunnel of Love’ which was the most salacious song I could do.
I just love the way you said this, so I want to quote “you” to “you”.
“On the night when Stevie did the background vocals for my song, ‘Tunnel of Love,’ my nascent, amorous feelings toward her came into sharper focus. I was smitten by the kitten, as they say.”
WE: Well, I couldn’t say it better than that. That was very true, that’s how it all happened...I love Stevie, obviously. So, it was 3 or 4 in the morning when that session broke up and that was in Van Nuys and I was living in Pomona at the time. I got on the freeway, the 101, and noticed the car in front of me, which was what they used to lovingly refer to as a “pimp mobile.” It was lowered, and it had the lights underneath it, and the had fringes around the window, and the diamond window in the back. The license plate said “NOT SHY,” and I’ve always been open to messages from the universe as a songwriter. So, I sort of mulled over that as I drove home, and this song that I had been working on which was my throwback to the fifties, to the stroll, it just seemed to work quite well for that.
I think it’s important to describe the car; metal flake blue paint. So, there’s this metal/steel image in there.
WE: Maybe that’s how it came in. You know, it’s been pointed out to me that there’s something wrong with this metaphor of magnet attracting steel because it’s iron that a magnet really attracts, I believe. They want to debunk my song.
So, I’ve got to ask: nascent, amorous feelings….unrequited?
WE: Semi-requited, actually.
We’ll leave it at that. I just had to get that in there because I think it’s part of the journey of that song.
WE: You know, I just saw Stevie… She had other things going on that year, but for the month of December 1976 I think I had her attention.
About the series
In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, we will release a video interview with a songwriter about his or her work each week.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/ente...hit/100651564/