Stevie Nicks Beautiful Child Article

[kak125]

Stevie Nicks has spent years sorting through the tangled history of her affairs with bandmates Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood. With “Beautiful Child,” however, she was talking about someone else.
The coming-of-age song, part of Fleetwood Mac’s sprawling 1979 effort Tusk, actually focuses on a brief fling that Nicks says she had with Derek Taylor, the late road manager and press officer for the Beatles.

“It didn’t last very long, because he was married,” Nicks says in a newly posted Q&A video, “but it affected me very much, because he told me so many stories about the Beatles.”

Taylor, formerly a journalist, also worked with the Byrds, Harry Nilsson, the Monterey Pop Festival, the Beach Boys and WEA Records over the years. But he will always be best known for his time with the Fab Four, eventually showing up in two of their songs: “Blue Jay Way” finds George Harrison awaiting for Taylor to visit on a foggy night, while John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” also name checks Taylor.

Everybody has your road manager,” Nicks adds. “We had J.C., crazy J.C. (John Courage, who also worked with Savoy Brown.) Led Zeppelin had Peter Grant. The road managers are the ones who know everything. And so I learned so much about him about the whole world of the Beatles that it was stunning.”

Nicks continues her on-going U.S. tour with Fleetwood Mac, stopping tonight in Tacoma, Washington. Concerts continue through next month in California.

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2013/05/20/it-affected-me-very-much-stevie-nicks-outlines-the-beatles-connection-in-fleetwood-macs-beautiful-child/

[WatchChain]

Stevie, darling, I LOVE YOU UNCONDITIONALLY. You are my #1 Rock N Rock High Priestess. But, you sure had a habit of going after married men. Remember the sister code of hands off? Somebody needs to play Loretta Lynn's "The Home You're Tearing Down" for you.

[AnthonyMI]

if a man is a pig then he is not worth hanging onto. If he cheated with Stevie, he either cheated before, or cheated after. I don't know any guys who cheated once and never did again. Maybe there is one or two, but once a pig always a pig. Stevie was just the woman that helped some other woman find out her man was a pig.

[MikeInNV]

if a man is a pig then he is not worth hanging onto. If he cheated with Stevie, he either cheated before, or cheated after. I don't know any guys who cheated once and never did again. Maybe there is one or two, but once a pig always a pig. Stevie was just the woman that helped some other woman find out her man was a pig.

Plus I also forget how much "looser" the 70s were. Those were the days of wife-swapping parties and whatnot. Sex was free and easy and everywhere. There's a tendency to assume that society just gets more liberal as time goes on, and in many ways it does, but in some ways the pendulum has swung back the other way.

[WildHearted]

I've said it before but I"ll say it again:

I'm shocked at the straight-forward, honest response she gave. I was fully expecting the typical "I had a very special relationship with a beautiful man but it could never be" evasion.

I'm also quite amused that after all of the Mick vs Lindsey debates, it ends up being someone none of us even knew about :lol:

[CADreaming]

^For real! There's a new one. :shrug:

[Phil]

Jesus, she really was a slattern back in the day! Probably still is...

[AnthonyMI]

I was just out running and this song came on my random mix. I was about to turn it, because it is NOT a good running song... and decided to listen to the lyrics with a new perspective...

Steve... girl... you are NUTS.

"I wish that you were mine?!" WTF Stevie!? You want a man, who currently "belongs" to someone else, so that he can be "Yours" and he will be out with other women letting them think he could be theirs also? Uhg. NEEDY!?

Oh Stevie.... you should have just been a lesbian the way you fall in love in one encounter and are ready to call the Uhaul the next day.

[vivfox]

Oh Stevie.... you should have just been a lesbian the way you fall in love in one encounter and are ready to call the Uhaul the next day.


ROTFL:laugh:

[bombaysaffires]

I'm also quite amused that after all of the Mick vs Lindsey debates, it ends up being someone none of us even knew about :lol:

I'm betting quite a few other songs fall into the same category....

[sodascouts]

"There is so little time" (Because you told your wife you'd be home for dinner)
"Too trusting, yes" (can't believe she bought that you were working late again)

Definitely gives me a new perspective! No wonder Stevie likes to keep it vague. Her "sleepless child" was a shameless cheat. Not exactly romantic.

[Jondalar]

Jesus, she really was a slattern back in the day! Probably still is...

Blame it on her Wild Heart...

[Lilyfan]

Blame it on her Wild Heart...

:D :nod: :laugh:

[sleepless child]

The drug and alcohol use probably didn't help matters much. I am surprised at how often Stevie got involved with married men or men who had girlfriends. Nothing beats Mick being married, sleeping with Stevie and then Mick cheating on both his wife and Stevie with Stevie's friend Sara. Twisted!

[WildHearted]

I'm betting quite a few other songs fall into the same category....

Has she ever come out and said who Storms was about? I can't recall.

*wow I don't know what happened with my grammar there..

[vivfox]

Have she ever came out and said who Storms was about? I can't recall.


Mr. Michael Fleetwood, come on down!!!

[AnthonyMI]

ROTFL:laugh:

Lindz said it best

"Packin up, shakn ups all you wanna d0-oo"

[Dex]

Jesus, she really was a slattern back in the day! Probably still is...

I think it's fair to say that almost any pop/rock star in the 70s (or any era, for that matter) was having a fair amount of sex from a variety of sources. And probably still are.

I'm with WildHearted. I really find her straightforward honesty about this quite refreshing, especially how she doesn't get moralistic about it and just says what happened matter-of-factly. It all seems very grown-up for her. Perhaps an autopbiography of hers would be worthwhile.

[michelej1]

Have she ever came out and said who Storms was about? I can't recall.

People ought to throw out old song names to her more often and ask who they are about. The answer might be surprising. Like If You Ever Did Believe. Of course, we've talked about it on here (and Sheryl Crow said it was Mick too), but we could easily be wrong .

Well, try to make sure Stevie has had a long day and is kind of tired, before you ask her. That might help to make her just throw down.

Courtney Love proved that you can just wear Stevie out after awhile. She'll just give in, after a certain point. She'll tell you the whole Rupert Hines story, if she's weary enough, I bet.

Michele

[rhiannondontgo]

But, you sure had a habit of going after married men.
In the grand scheme of things, she's had a lot of boyfriends and flings and one night stands. Like alot. We only know a fraction and it's still a whole freakin' lot. And I think we only know of like 4 that were married? Or at least I only know of 4. And i'm sure some had girlfriends, (FWIW for example, makes it sound like Dallas Taylor did.) But I don't think she purposely went out looking for the married guys. I think she's very dramatic and very passionate and very impulsive, and that lead to her falling in love at the drop at a hat with many, many men that she was around, married or not. It doesn't help that she was a stunningly gorgeous sex symbol either. Kinda hard to show restraint with that.

Definitely gives me a new perspective! No wonder Stevie likes to keep it vague. Her "sleepless child" was a shameless cheat. Not exactly romantic.
Finding out the real story behind Derek made it even better for me. I always thought the "You fell in love when I was only 10" was some stupid symbolic lyric. Turns out it makes perfect sense because Derek got married in 1958 when Stevie was 10. And finding out it was an extramarital affair made it even more tragically beautiful to me. It's not your average sad break-up song. It's so much more than that. Because she obviously loved this man so so much. Listen to how gut-wrenching and heart-breaking those lyrics are, and how they're delivered. And then remember that as much as she obviously loved this guy, it was completely doomed and she couldn't have him because he had a wife and 5 children at home. That's the worst in a relationship. When you both loe eachother and neither actually did anything wrong, but you still can't be together. Made the song way more intense to me. :shrug:

[sodascouts]

I see your point.

[SaidSomething]

Stevie, darling, I LOVE YOU UNCONDITIONALLY. You are my #1 Rock N Rock High Priestess. But, you sure had a habit of going after married men. Remember the sister code of hands off? Somebody needs to play Loretta Lynn's "The Home You're Tearing Down" for you.

Loretta Lynn made a cool, cool record with The White Stripes....AND remains true to her simple pickers and strummers of true Country.
In Leroy Brown her husband has been having a thing with the local gin mill hussy...and she has the driver blow all the way to the back of the bar in her new pink limousine ...right to the bleach blond that thinks she's a movie star...Im going to grab her by her phony pony tail and sling her round and round....I can picture Stevie and her black and gold shawl spinning 40lb boots in the air...and losing the last extension from the Mirror Tour

[rhiannondontgo]

Loretta Lynn made a cool, cool record with The White Stripes....AND remains true to her simple pickers and strummers of true Country.
In Leroy Brown her husband has been having a thing with the local gin mill hussy...and she has the driver blow all the way to the back of the bar in her new pink limousine ...right to the bleach blond that thinks she's a movie star...Im going to grab her by her phony pony tail and sling her round and round....I can picture Stevie and her black and gold shawl spinning 40lb boots in the air...and losing the last extension from the Mirror Tour

I love Loretta. I think the coolest thing about country music is the way that a lot of them primarily sing songs that apply to their own lives. Loretta's hits are like You Ain't Woman Enough, Fist City, The Home You're Tearin' Down, etc. And all seem to be about a cheatin' husband, which she did indeed have (I'm talking to you Doolittle Lynn :nod:). Then there's Tammy Wynette singing D-I-V-O-R-C-E and Kids Say The Darndest Things and I Don't Want To Play House, with a lot of her songs having that divorced-mother theme. And she did indeed have 4 kids and 5 different marriages.

I think Stevie's very alike in the way that her songs are like chapters of her life. When you listen to a song that she wrote, you're hearing who she was at that moment and what's going on in her life. You can document the entire relationship with Lindsey just through those songs. I mean it goes from Without You where they're so in love, to Landslide where she's not so sure, to Dreams where she knows it needs to end, all the way up to Fall From Grace when she's still passionate and angry, and then to You May Be The One where she's calmer and reflecting back on what could've been. A lot of artists just sing songs that other people wrote, or that are nonsense pop tunes with no meaning. Stevie's are like chapters in the story of her life. I think that's pretty cool.

[SaidSomething]

I love Loretta. I think the coolest thing about country music is the way that a lot of them primarily sing songs that apply to their own lives. Loretta's hits are like You Ain't Woman Enough, Fist City, The Home You're Tearin' Down, etc. And all seem to be about a cheatin' husband, which she did indeed have (I'm talking to you Doolittle Lynn :nod:). Then there's Tammy Wynette singing D-I-V-O-R-C-E and Kids Say The Darndest Things and I Don't Want To Play House, with a lot of her songs having that divorced-mother theme. And she did indeed have 4 kids and 5 different marriages.

I think Stevie's very alike in the way that her songs are like chapters of her life. When you listen to a song that she wrote, you're hearing who she was at that moment and what's going on in her life. You can document the entire relationship with Lindsey just through those songs. I mean it goes from Without You where they're so in love, to Landslide where she's not so sure, to Dreams where she knows it needs to end, all the way up to Fall From Grace when she's still passionate and angry, and then to You May Be The One where she's calmer and reflecting back on what could've been. A lot of artists just sing songs that other people wrote, or that are nonsense pop tunes with no meaning. Stevie's are like chapters in the story of her life. I think that's pretty cool.
I loved Loretta work with Conway Twitty...the melancholy duets...I said...so long country bumpkin...I have seen some sights and lives been something...see you later, Country Bumpkin...The Loretta singing about Liz Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, Raquel Welch...all of them could be about Stevie Nicks if you're in Topeka, they say to have her hair done Liz flies all the way to France, Debbie out in Vegas working her brand new act...Im glad Raquel just signed a million dollar contact...the pill may change the world one day but here today, the flies are a buzzing, the door is a slamming, one needs a hugging and one needs a spanking...and ones on the way. can you believe that PILL was so hardcore, hell bound, horror term that must never be whispered, let alone sung. Loretta pushed them envelopes...

[becca]

I liked Stevie lots better before I knew what I know, it seems like she's decided to have it come from her rather than various people she's been associated with. I respect that, but it's hard not to have it effect my appreciation of her music.

I don't know, how do you idolize a person who is just not terribly admirable outside of their music? Is it that she is a survivor? I can't hold it against her that she has the cult audience, I neither envy nor understand it, but sometimes have wondered if it actually does the object of the affection some harm. Did it make Janis Joplin feel she had to live up/down to her image? :distress:

Clara Bow was kind of like this, perhaps it seems more acceptable to me that she was like that in the roaring '20s and kind of went off into hiding after the bad press began rolling in? I wish Stevie well, I expect I'd have become a complete mess having gone through half of it. If she'd died while in the midst of studio dates like Janis Joplin, or have fallen down some stairs intoxicated 1978 like Sandy Denny, we'd all be feeling sorry for a troubled artist lost so young.

[rhiannondontgo]

I don't know, how do you idolize a person who is just not terribly admirable outside of their music?

I think it all depends on you and your own experiences. Maybe to the girls who had straight A's and have always been perfect angels, Stevie seems like an awful role model. Maybe they idolize the women who've done everything right. But i'm not like that. I was a troubled teenage girl. I had 2 different addictions, 3 bad OD's, 2 trips to rehab, etc etc. I made awful choices. I dropped out of highschool. I spent all of my teen years partying and getting hammered and going home with random guys. To a girl like that, the angelic little role models don't mean a thing. They're just a reminder of everything you've done wrong. But somebody like Stevie, who has been there and lived through it and moved on, that's just what I needed to tell myself I could make it through rehab and I could stay clean and get better. She was a fantastic inspiration through the hardest time of my life, and she's a large part of what inspired me to get my life on track. I think we need to not look at that fact that she's slept around and had drug issues and made some not-so-wise choices, and I think we need to look at the fact that she got her sh*t together and got passed all that and made a conscious decision to change her life.
Just my opinion....

[PenguinHead]

I think it's fair to say that almost any pop/rock star in the 70s (or any era, for that matter) was having a fair amount of sex from a variety of sources. And probably still are.

I'm with WildHearted. I really find her straightforward honesty about this quite refreshing, especially how she doesn't get moralistic about it and just says what happened matter-of-factly. It all seems very grown-up for her. Perhaps an autopbiography of hers would be worthwhile.

I agree with you agreeing with WildHeart. I love when Stevie is candid and very matter-of-fact, sans the platitudes and over-reaching drama. It reveals just how bold and blunt she can be. It doesn't surprise me that she displays almost no concern for the emotional damage she left behind her in her quests for married men. In her world, "What Stevie wants, Stevie gets" and it matters very little who might stand in her way. I'm sure there were many wives who loathed the presence of Stevie, profiling her as a known high-security risk to their relationships!

[Dex]

It doesn't surprise me that she displays almost no concern for the emotional damage she left behind her in her quests for married men. In her world, "What Stevie wants, Stevie gets" and it matters very little who might stand in her way. I'm sure there were many wives who loathed the presence of Stevie, profiling her as a known high-security risk to their relationships!

I don't think this is entirely fair. She wasn't asked about how her affairs affected other people. She was asked what the song was about, so that's the only thing she answered. It doesn't mean that the feelings of others weren't something she's ever thought about. Sex and lust make people do crazy/stupid things sometimes, but it doesn't mean there isn't a feeling of guilt in the mix. Humans are complicated creatures. And we really don't know what the nature of a lot of these marriages were. I highly doubt that these men who had affairs with Stevie were otherwise completely monogamous to their wives, if indeed they even had fully monogamous agreements in their marriages.

[becca]

I had 2 different addictions, 3 bad OD's, 2 trips to rehab, etc etc. I made awful choices. I dropped out of highschool. I spent all of my teen years partying and getting hammered and going home with random guys. To a girl like that, the angelic little role models don't mean a thing. They're just a reminder of everything you've done wrong. But somebody like Stevie, who has been there and lived through it and moved on, that's just what I needed to tell myself I could make it through rehab and I could stay clean and get better. She was a fantastic inspiration through the hardest time of my life, and she's a large part of what inspired me to get my life on track. I think we need to not look at that fact that she's slept around and had drug issues and made some not-so-wise choices, and I think we need to look at the fact that she got her sh*t together and got passed all that and made a conscious decision to change her life.
Just my opinion....

Thanks for this.

I was a screw-up for ages, I'm afraid that I still am. I also dropped out, went to a school for drop outs, then a junior high in the worst area called pregnant hill because of the daycare in the basement, then a religious nut school where I and others were told we were possessed (and I still loved the Rhiannon song from when it was new, it along with Heart was empowering). I was a courier for illegal things and used some of them. I remember hearing stories of millions in cocaine being consumed by these specific people and kind of hating them for it while I was sleeping on sofas with no security. I knew people doing lines and thought they were a-holes on it and always hated cocaine, maybe that's a lot of it for me. A brother falling down stairs and always talking big and lying a lot. Then there's the multiple abortions where I knew women who carried a heavy load for keeping the results of what they did, because they had no access being poor or whatever, but maybe for other reasons.

I hope Stevie Nicks is getting better, that would be good to hear. Sometimes it seems like her fans are glamourizing all that negative stuff and it's a central part of promoting her. I suppose that's kind of residue from the whole singer-songwriter confessional thing of the '70s. Not that I'm against music being self-absorbed or self-referential, maybe it's more the celebrity business beyond that.

Saw a great doc recently about '70s singer-songwriter-celebrity Paul Williams and it was very positive ultimately. I'll try to see that in Stevie Nicks' story. Her music really doesn't need all the drama or Fleetwood Mac connection to make it important, and I guess for me all that stuff gets in the way. Whitney Houston gets trashed by a lot of people but her death was a wake-up call to use an overused expression. No glamour ultimately in being that, it's certainly not positive.

I don't think this is entirely fair. She wasn't asked about how her affairs affected other people. She was asked what the song was about, so that's the only thing she answered.

A good point. She's in a position few can really understand like the Beatles were and some others. At least she didn't say anything honest about Jesus I suppose... Lennon seemed to regret when he did (and a religious fan-atic still caught up with him).

[DeeGeMe]

Honestly--was Stevie doing anything that the male rock stars--her peers--weren't doing? Yet she gets called out for "bad" behavior and they don't? :shrug:

[Dex]

Honestly--was Stevie doing anything that the male rock stars--her peers--weren't doing? Yet she gets called out for "bad" behavior and they don't? :shrug:

Yep. Misogynistic western world is misogynistic. Some of these male rockers are called on their behaviour, but it rarely goes further than that, and is almost always met with a "Well of course they did that! They're rock stars!" and the entire discussion then shifts into more celebratory territory. Nice, huh?

The slut-shaming Stevie receives compared to many of her male peers is undeniable. And it's about 10x worse for her successors these days.

[becca]

The differences are the married status of some of the men (and Bob Weston was thrown out of Fleetwood Mac for getting it on with Mrs. Mick Fleetwood while Stevie getting it on with Mick became just part of their glamorous lore). Also the abortions from apparently not taking precautions (again and again). That's just basic biology, nobody said that was fair but you'd think one or two would be enough to make sure at least that didn't happen again no matter how high you are. I really can't understand that in the numbers I've been told. Refreshingly honest or not it does effect how many people think of someone who valued their career and fans to about as extreme a degree as you can go.

[Dex]

The differences are the married status of some of the men (and Bob Weston was thrown out of Fleetwood Mac for getting it on with Mrs. Mick Fleetwood while Stevie getting it on with Mick became just part of their glamorous lore). Also the abortions from apparently not taking precautions (again and again). That's just basic biology, nobody said that was fair but you'd think one or two would be enough to make sure at least that didn't happen again no matter how high you are. I really can't understand that in the numbers I've been told. Refreshingly honest or not it does effect how many people think of someone who valued their career and fans to about as extreme a degree as you can go.

Sorry, Becca. I just can't buy that. There are many male celebrities who are married and have had well-publicized affairs and they simply don't face the same scrutiny. People just shrug their shoulders and give it all a rock-boys-will-be-boys dismissal. Bob Weston's affair vs. Mick/Stevie's being a discrepancy has more to do with Mick's status within the band than anything else. And I doubt very much Bob was ever labelled a "slut" and really shamed for it the way a woman would have been. It was just thought of as an uncomfortable reality that people wanted to go away. Do fans of Bob's ever feel this struggle of needing to separate art from artist, as many Stevie fans describe? I doubt it. Maybe I'm wrong.

The abortion thing is a hot button issue that people feel very passionately about, so I won't court an argument. Personally I don't consider abortions immoral, and I think when you take that stance you can't then follow it up with saying it does become immoral after some specific number. I'm willing to bet most rockers of that age made some pretty consistently stupid reproductive choices, they just aren't documented in the form of abortions because those people are men. You're right though, that is the luck of biology. But it bothers me that a man who may have impregnated four women who then each individually had abortions at his behest would not face near the scrutiny that a woman who has four abortions faces.