New Stevie bio book [Archive]

greendaze5

10-11-2022, 05:32 PM

David

10-11-2022, 06:52 PM

Thanks for the alert. I’ll definitely order it. The author is a wacky academic, and I have a feeling that the book is filled with wacky academic twaddle about Stevie — elevating her into some sort of proto-feminist in rock (“One of the advance reviewers of the book pointed out that Stevie Nicks had to be better than the men around her, which is something I certainly wanted to demonstrate,” for example, or “Nicks is now as iconic [as] the heroines of historical legend, Hollywood film and gothic literature whose imaginings she channels”).

But in this face-to-face interview on the Princeton UP page, the author says that the Everly tour Lindsey joined was a miserable experience. Not only did I not remember Lindsey saying that the tour was miserable for him, I also wondered what the Everly article on Wiki actually said about the details of the tour.

First off, Lindsey actually said in 1977 that the tour (with Don Everly) was one of his biggest professional thrills, so I don’t know where this academic got the idea that the tour was so miserable. Second, and unrelated to this book, Lindsey has only ever said that he toured with Don in 1974, after the brothers had split up. That was when Stevie stayed in Aspen, writing “Landslide” and “Rhiannon.” But the Wiki entry says that Lindsey toured with both brothers in 1972 — without supplying a source!

So did Lindsey tour with the Everly Brothers in 1972 and tour again with Don in 1974 (singing Phil’s part on a song or two)? An academic devoted to genuine research and scholarship — instead of collating all the crap we already know about and buttering it with lit-crit language — would have at least identified riddles like this one and tried to solve them. There never was a great book about Fleetwood Mac and there probably never will be. Something about the subject just draws the buzzards and the fast-buck grifters.

vivfox

10-11-2022, 11:33 PM

So did Lindsey tour with the Everly Brothers in 1972 and tour again with Don in 1974 (singing Phil’s part on a song or two)?
In 1974 don't you think he would have told the Everly Brothers, "you have to take my girlfriend too?" :laugh: Therefore it probably was 1972.

HomerMcvie

10-12-2022, 12:13 AM

In 1974 don't you think he would have told the Everly Brothers, "you have to take my girlfriend too?" :laugh: Therefore it probably was 1972.

I'm guessing it wasn't a permanent job, just a tour.

DownOnRodeo

10-12-2022, 01:22 AM

I do remember from an interview or elsewhere that Lindsey said of the Everly experience that although it was an honor he realized then that he did not want to be doing other people's songs for the rest of his career.

After some buzzardly scavenging I found this bit from one interview, which perhaps corroborates the biography's statement:

Q: Prior to joining Fleetwood Mac, you got to work with Don Everly.
LB: Economics entered into the situation, and Stevie (Nicks) and I were trying to do whatever we could to pay our rent. We had not made any substantial money from [1973’s] Buckingham Nicks album. Our management company had the Carpenters and Jim Croce; they had some pretty big acts and weren’t too interested in us. [Laughs] I knew Warren Zevon, who had been playing with Don. There was an opening for a guitar player, and I got the gig. But the problem with that situation was that Don was wrestling with this idea of wanting to be Don Everly on his own, which is understandable. We were playing clubs, and everywhere we would go it was heartbreaking. All we would get was people yelling, “Play ‘Bye Bye Love,’ ‘Wake Up Little Susie.’” He was coming right out of being [in the Everly Brothers] and couldn’t take it. After about three cities, he pulled the plug on the tour. He said, “I can’t do this.”
https://magnetmagazine.com/2008/09/07/qa-with-lindsey-buckingham/

StevieandChris

10-12-2022, 03:20 AM

blinker12

10-12-2022, 07:43 AM

I bought and have been reading the book - about halfway through. Like David, I was excited about the prospect of reading some high-falutin’ academic blather about one of my favorite artists 😂… and also for a book that focuses on music more than personal biography. The book delivers in both departments, though honestly the writing is not quite as fun as I’d hoped and there’s actually more biography than musical analysis. Still worth the read for fans, and there are some interesting new tidbits from interviews the author conducted with folks who’ve been in Stevie’s life over the years, including the likes of Rick Nowels and Danny Goldberg.

sleepless child

10-12-2022, 01:40 PM

I also bought it, but haven't read it yet.