Mike Campbell Interview

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

I'll go even further and say Stevie only had a decade of consistently great songs (1973-83). After that, it was hit or miss.


Be that as it may, the others have backlogs of *completed* songs. Neil alone probably has a few albums worth of unreleased songs.

Stevie's record with Mike is a little spotty. There have been some great songs (Blue Denim), mediocre songs (Freedom), and some terrible songs (Desert Angel).

The biggest issue I see with Stevie is that she insists that songs be recorded just like her demos, which is a crappy way to go about being in a band, especially one full of critically acclaimed musicians. The collaborative spirit in the making of an album is half the reason to be in a band.

and if you listen to her demos of songs like Silver Springs, it is NOTHING remotely as good as the finished produced version. Same for Dreams (though we've never actually heard her demo she says she wrote on her little electric keyboard in Sly Stone's bed) and Rhiannon was a bit thin with the same verse repeated and no chorus. So her best songs are her best songs because the band, and especially Lindsey, PRODUCED them ie turned them from some nice raw ideas into actual songs that could get played on the radio. She's on drugs if she thinks her raw demos would have made her famous. People like them now because they're neat "behind the curtain" peeks at her creative process, and because she's STEVIE NICKS. She would not, however, have become STEVIE NICKS off of those demos themselves. She might have had a small cult following, but that's it. (Same can be said for the work people like Jimmy, Belmont, Roy and the rest put into her solo stuff).