Rank Stevie’s voice Eras

[Hawkeye]

I don’t think we’ve ever did this ranking in the 22 years I’ve been on this board which is crazy considering the 100s of different ways we’ve discussed Stevie.

I can’t think of any other vocalist who has had so many different sounding voices. And as you can see by my list, in way is the quality level ever a straight line at least in my opinion.

I know some say things like Stevie was one way before …. Pick a year…. 1979,1986, 1977 and divide her voice into 2 eras. For me sometimes I feel she stays consistent for 10 years, and then I have 4 different eras in 8 years :laugh:


Everyone can pick their own breakdown. There can be less eras or even more if you find your own differences No one is tied to my 13 rankings.


1. White Album/Rumours/ late 70s duets 75-78) *
2. Wild Heart album and tour
3. Street Angel Tour **
4. Dance/Enchanted Era
5. Tusk/Bella Donna/Mirage
6. Rock a Little
7. Tango
8. 2003-2015 ****
9. Street Angel Album **
10. 2017-2019 ****
11. 1989-1991
12. Post Covid/current voice ****
13. Trouble in Shangri La album/tour and Say You Will Album ****

[Hawkeye]

* including the duets here was key to cementing it as number 1. Crazy that I feel the peak of Stevie’s recorded studio vocals has to be everything she did with John
Stewart etc.

**just have to point out how bizarre I find it that I have the same album and tour so far apart. How did this anomaly in voice physics happen Stevie?

***I feel Edge peaked live on the Enchanted tour, unpopular opinion but I’ll take storytellers version over HBO 81 everytime

**** this is where I disagree with most of the popular opinions I’ve read over the years here. People usually just lump most of post 2000 together and I think that’s dead wrong.

I didn’t realize it at the time but the 2001-2002 timeframe was unbelievably bad vocally for Stevie. I think we all were just greatful at the time for the new music and tons of activity at what “we thought” at the time was the very tail end of her career. I don’t think all of us music fans in general not just specific to Fleetwood Mac world would have guessed so many bands/artists would be performing in their 70s.

But in hindsight that drop in vocal quality from Storytellers being filmed until the Trouble in Shangri La tour is mind boggling bad. And that extends to her recorded vocals on Say You Will. How the hell did they spend so much time working on this and she couldn’t muster better vocals? I mean I love a large majority of her songs here regardless, but it’s in spite of the vocals (destiny rules and Illume are best examples) if she provided vocals like the entire IYD album or even many of her recent one offs, say you will could’ve been so much better!

But I feel she really started to turn it around again starting in the Say You Will Tour. Not every song every tour was perfect, but every tour in the timeframe I selected tended to have at least 1-2 sometimes more excellent vocal moments. I even REALLY liked her sisters of the moon especially the tour with Christine.

And songs like edge and stand back regained a lot of their fire I felt. Not to mention I think the IYD album couldn’t be more perfect, and every single song performed live from that album was perfection. And I feel like every single tour this timeframe I would tell myself (wow gold dust woman keeps getting better)


I seperate eras after the 2015 max because as much as I loved the 24KG tour for its adventurous set list and lack of dreams, the noticeable drop in vocal quality in more then half the songs is impossible not to notice. It’s still ahead of her actual current voice and early 2000s for 3-4 shining moments (new orleans, moonlight and yes gold dust woman got even better again) I’d throw in I really loved her black magic woman on the FM tour.

And now with the extended Covid break and to no fault of her own being nearly seventy freaking five I feel she’s lost many more vocal steps. Stand back and edge have been kind of painful to watch on the few shows she got off this year and all of last.

Why she is deciding to do stadiums NOW is insane. She could’ve maybe pulled that off on the 2005-15 timeframe possibly with last gasp being 24 KG tour, but she really needs to suck up her pride and abandon thoughts of touring stadiums. Despite the decline she can still sound great with the right song and arrangement but she Needs to be in theaters right now.

Only reason I put current voice ahead of Early 2000 is because of her recorded vocals on show them the way, for what it’s worth and remedy)

[UnwindedDreams]

I seperate eras after the 2015 max because as much as I loved the 24KG tour for its adventurous set list and lack of dreams, the noticeable drop in vocal quality in more then half the songs is impossible not to notice. It’s still ahead of her actual current voice and early 2000s for 3-4 shining moments (new orleans, moonlight and yes gold dust woman got even better again) I’d throw in I really loved her black magic woman on the FM tour.

Interesting because I found Black Magic Woman as more talk singing. The one thing I liked was when she'd growl during the song.
The problem i had with her dropping Outside The Rain, Dreams, and Annabel Lee was that the only changed she made after those 3 drops was Gypsy (which was played 200 times from 2013 to 2015). So it went from a 20 song setlist to an 18 song one.:(
I think her current voice is good. She goes for some high notes. The first show she did at Jazz Fest was really bad, but now she's found her voice again.
Best Stevie voice is 1977 - 1979.

[blinker12]

I would agree with a lot of your rankings, but would put the TISL album voice higher. It was inconsistent, but the high points were very high: ItS Only Love recalled 70s Stevie, and of course there was the falsetto on Sorcerer and I thought Love Changes had some fine, non-forced vocals as well.

1991 was her absolute nadir for me. Not only had she lost her high end but she was pitchy - which she had never been before or has been since. The reason for the marked improvement on the SA tour (and I agree she was stellar) was that she completed Klonopin rehab toward the end of recording the album and shortly thereafter - plus she actually had something to prove at that point in her career, being at the lowest point of popularity. She had to try harder.

[Japhry]

Hard to choose an era. Probably White Album/Rumours, just because of her youth and those intense performances of Rhiannon.

I feel she has high and low points in quite a few eras. I did think her vocals on "Storms" for the Unleashed tour in 2009 were insanely good. And just last month I thought the vocals she did for "Sara" at this age were amazing. Her low points to me were absolutely the Timespace tour and The TISL tour. I remember her cancelling a lot of shows on TISL due to Asthma or breathing issues or something. Not sure if she was still smoking cigarettes then. As far as vocals went for the actual Trouble in Shangri-La album though, I liked a lot of them, especially "Candlebright", "Sorcerer" "Every Day" and Fall From Grace". Something seemed to happen between the recording of the album which I know was recorded over a 3-5 year period and the time she toured it.

Also I loved the Crystal Visions/Soundstage Sessions era. Her Stand Back's were on fire then.

My two cents..

[Macfan4life]

Best voice is Bella Donna era - both album and tour. Strong, confident, best of her career

She still had it during Mirage. She still could hit the highest oooooo ooooo's during Sara on some nights of the Mirage tour. Her Mirage album songs are very strong vocally.

Wild Heart recordings she still had a powerful voice. Songs like Gate and Garden and Beauty and the Beast show its power fragility and songs like Nothing Ever Changes and Sable on Blonde showed she could still throw her voice and land a punch.

Her live voice started decline during the Wild Heart tour. She was spacey and her range was more limited mostly due to the insane amount of coke she did with Joe.

RAL era - Her voice was fried from years of drugs and smoking. Most of her live singing was shrieks and screams. Probably the worst. Tango was a bit better.

Post rehab her voice rebounded for OSOTM. Not fried and had some of the rasp left. But the klonopin years she lost energy and spunk in her voice.

Post klonopin - I think her Street Angel vocals are actually really good. She is not flat, has some rasp, and her voice had spunk again.

Dance - post smoking - her voice started to get flat

TISRL - flat and her range was almost gone completely


She is older now and anyone especially a woman in her 70s is not fair. Its amazing she is still at it.

Although her singing is fine on the early Mac albums. I much prefer her voice in her early solo career. When her voice changed, I think its the best thing that happened. I am probably in the minority with that opinion.

[On Ice]

Great thread Hawkeye, thanks for putting this together. Her recorded vocals during the early years are far and away her very best. Aside from those classic Fleetwood Mac albums, the ventures on John Stewart, and especially Walter Egan and Kenny Loggins are just perfect, she has never sounded better. Live though, she could be hit and miss and there were many cancelled shows and bad reviews in the classic era, that we tend to forget. The early solo career Bella Donna, through Mirage and recorded Wild Heart is the second best and sadly, the last we heard of the classic Stevie Nicks. I agree with MacFan around her Mirage vocals, they were just perfect and too bad they didn't give her a couple more tracks on the album and push aside some of the weaker Lindsey tracks that prevented Mirage from fitting into the classic album tier. Come Rock a Little and Tango in the Night, she had taken a huge fall from grace (pun intended) and rested completely on her laurels, anyone else it would've been game over. A rebound during OSOTM helped but wasn't enough to push her back into the level she once enjoyed. This is where it gets interesting. Up and down like a yo yo, some high points where she almost gets her mojo back only to have some cringy moments that take it away. Some wonderful vocals on both TISL and In Your Dreams, but inconsistent writing. More than vocally, it's the songwriting that has taken the biggest hit. Once able to write like there's no tomorrow, she suffers from a complete inability to edit and write a hook that is long lasting. The great thing for her though, is that really, she has never been more popular, had better reviews and been more consistent that the last decade or so. I don't really agree with that, but nonetheless, the pubic and rock establishment do, and it doesn't really matter what a 45 year plus fan thinks at this point. :eek:

[bombaysaffires]

Great thread Hawkeye, thanks for putting this together. Her recorded vocals during the early years are far and away her very best. Aside from those classic Fleetwood Mac albums, the ventures on John Stewart, and especially Walter Egan and Kenny Loggins are just perfect, she has never sounded better. Live though, she could be hit and miss and there were many cancelled shows and bad reviews in the classic era, that we tend to forget. The early solo career Bella Donna, through Mirage and recorded Wild Heart is the second best and sadly, the last we heard of the classic Stevie Nicks. I agree with MacFan around her Mirage vocals, they were just perfect and too bad they didn't give her a couple more tracks on the album and push aside some of the weaker Lindsey tracks that prevented Mirage from fitting into the classic album tier. Come Rock a Little and Tango in the Night, she had taken a huge fall from grace (pun intended) and rested completely on her laurels, anyone else it would've been game over. A rebound during OSOTM helped but wasn't enough to push her back into the level she once enjoyed. This is where it gets interesting. Up and down like a yo yo, some high points where she almost gets her mojo back only to have some cringy moments that take it away. Some wonderful vocals on both TISL and In Your Dreams, but inconsistent writing. More than vocally, it's the songwriting that has taken the biggest hit. Once able to write like there's no tomorrow, she suffers from a complete inability to edit and write a hook that is long lasting. The great thing for her though, is that really, she has never been more popular, had better reviews and been more consistent that the last decade or so. I don't really agree with that, but nonetheless, the pubic and rock establishment do, and it doesn't really matter what a 45 year plus fan thinks at this point. :eek:


Totally agree that her earliest recordings were her best. She literally could put her voice wherever she wanted it in that era...she had the reedy low notes and the gorgeous warbling high notes. I will never, ever forgive her for not respecting her gift and protecting it, preferring instead to focus on partying and being FAMOUS. You are so right her live performances in the earliest of FM days were really erratic... and it wasn't being drunk onstage on those first one or two tours (that came shortly though). She just didn't know how to manage her voice over the long-haul of touring and how to sing to a large room/arena. She tried to sing like she was in the studio, and it just didn't carry in big venues. She eventually learned how to have a really powerful stage voice.... but that soon took its toll on her vocal cords and really wore off all the nuance she used to have in the studio... her cords just couldn't flex like that anymore. She lost a whole lot of her high end on the road with Rumours... listen to the shows on that tour and she couldn't hit the high notes on Dreams (it's only RIIIGHT") she would "hooo-hoooo" those lyrics or for a while even WHISTLE them because she could.not.sing.them that high. (forever now she's let the backing singers take those notes). You can totally hear the effect of all the touring on her vocals on Tusk. Some of her songs recorded earlier in those sessions still have traces of her previous studio voice, but it disappears after this album.

After Tusk, super noticeably on Bella Donna, her studio voice is much more the same as her touring/onstage voice-- louder, more forceful and less nuanced. Her voice from Tusk through to Mirage I would sort of put as this next whole era. Her live vocals on the BD tour were to me the best of this voice. I know a lot of people actually think Wild Heart --album and tour-- were her best of this era... but WH vocals are different because they are so coked-out and crazy, raspy, wild... not in a bad way at that time, but just so much further "out there" than BD. WH is it's own whole bubble in her voice timeline. So to me it's 1975-1977/8 (FM, Rumours, John Stewart, Kenny Loggins etc) era best; 1978/9-1982 (Tusk, BD, Mirage) next; 1983-1984/5 I think of as the WH era (crazy coke Stevie), though it ends by RAL which gets into incoherent drug Stevie and I think the era that had the "near overdoses on the road" and she was just super unpredictable on the road and in the studio, her writing faltered a lot here as people said, and her producers started bringing in far more songs by other writers.

Her voice got a bit better by the time she sobered up getting into the 90s and the thing I loved about The Dance was that some of the early 70s bits surfaced here and there... TISL as people noted had a few of those moments too- the falsetto on Sorcerer etc. But it truly and really died after that. I thought she was not bad on the SYW album.. the scene in the doc where she's rehearsing the vocal for Thrown Down in the studio with Lindsey and we hear her acapella on "you can sit outside his door and wait/wellll you can dedicate your pain to him" was fantastic.. From then on she's been sooo hit and miss....

[bombaysaffires]

* including the duets here was key to cementing it as number 1. Crazy that I feel the peak of Stevie’s recorded studio vocals has to be everything she did with John
Stewart etc.

**just have to point out how bizarre I find it that I have the same album and tour so far apart. How did this anomaly in voice physics happen Stevie?

***I feel Edge peaked live on the Enchanted tour, unpopular opinion but I’ll take storytellers version over HBO 81 everytime

**** this is where I disagree with most of the popular opinions I’ve read over the years here. People usually just lump most of post 2000 together and I think that’s dead wrong.

I didn’t realize it at the time but the 2001-2002 timeframe was unbelievably bad vocally for Stevie. I think we all were just greatful at the time for the new music and tons of activity at what “we thought” at the time was the very tail end of her career. I don’t think all of us music fans in general not just specific to Fleetwood Mac world would have guessed so many bands/artists would be performing in their 70s.

But in hindsight that drop in vocal quality from Storytellers being filmed until the Trouble in Shangri La tour is mind boggling bad. And that extends to her recorded vocals on Say You Will. How the hell did they spend so much time working on this and she couldn’t muster better vocals? I mean I love a large majority of her songs here regardless, but it’s in spite of the vocals (destiny rules and Illume are best examples) if she provided vocals like the entire IYD album or even many of her recent one offs, say you will could’ve been so much better!

But I feel she really started to turn it around again starting in the Say You Will Tour. Not every song every tour was perfect, but every tour in the timeframe I selected tended to have at least 1-2 sometimes more excellent vocal moments. I even REALLY liked her sisters of the moon especially the tour with Christine.

And songs like edge and stand back regained a lot of their fire I felt. Not to mention I think the IYD album couldn’t be more perfect, and every single song performed live from that album was perfection. And I feel like every single tour this timeframe I would tell myself (wow gold dust woman keeps getting better)


I seperate eras after the 2015 max because as much as I loved the 24KG tour for its adventurous set list and lack of dreams, the noticeable drop in vocal quality in more then half the songs is impossible not to notice. It’s still ahead of her actual current voice and early 2000s for 3-4 shining moments (new orleans, moonlight and yes gold dust woman got even better again) I’d throw in I really loved her black magic woman on the FM tour.

And now with the extended Covid break and to no fault of her own being nearly seventy freaking five I feel she’s lost many more vocal steps. Stand back and edge have been kind of painful to watch on the few shows she got off this year and all of last.

Why she is deciding to do stadiums NOW is insane. She could’ve maybe pulled that off on the 2005-15 timeframe possibly with last gasp being 24 KG tour, but she really needs to suck up her pride and abandon thoughts of touring stadiums. Despite the decline she can still sound great with the right song and arrangement but she Needs to be in theaters right now.

Only reason I put current voice ahead of Early 2000 is because of her recorded vocals on show them the way, for what it’s worth and remedy)

Really well-said on so many points!

I will, however, have to respectfully disagree on GDW getting better and better...:eek:
Crack-head Stevie is cringey on sooo many levels...

[David]

I’m going to split this between studio and live, studio first.

1. 1976 (including Zevon, Rumours, and Egan)
2. 1978 (Loggins, Tusk, Rundgren, “Rhiannon” demos)
3. 1981 (Mirage, demos like “That’s Alright”)
4. 1982 (The Wild Heart, Fast Times)
5. 1994 (Street Angel, radio appearances)
6. 2010 (Parts of In Your Dreams)
7. 1971 (“In the Dawn”)

Touring and live
1. 1983 (September to November)
2. 1980 (August and September)
3. 1975 (July to December)
4. 1982 (six weeks)
5. 1994 (August and September)
6. 1986 (July and August)

[cbBen]

The earlier the better, with the possible exception of "Dreams" from Rumours and "Landslide" from the Tusk tour. Note: I'm talking voice, not singing.

[aleuzzi]

1. 1975-1978

2. 1979-1983

3. 1996-2000

4. 2003-2005

5. 1990-1995

..........

the rest

[On Ice]

Aleuzzi, thanks for mentioning 1990-1995- these were very good voice years for Stevie, she was singing clearly, coherently and sounded as strong as ever. The BTM show I saw, she sang well through the whole show and one of the best landslide's since the 70's. I also thought the Street Angel years were strong, (listen to her on Desiree on Rick Vito's solo albums, she's one fire there) and the shows were great vocally as well. All in all, while not her most popular period, she was singing well consistently.

[Macfan4life]

I’m going to split this between studio and live, studio first.

1. 1976 (including Zevon, Rumours, and Egan)
2. 1978 (Loggins, Tusk, Rundgren, “Rhiannon” demos)
3. 1981 (Mirage, demos like “That’s Alright”)
4. 1982 (The Wild Heart, Fast Times)
5. 1994 (Street Angel, radio appearances)
6. 2010 (Parts of In Your Dreams)
7. 1971 (“In the Dawn”)

Touring and live
1. 1983 (September to November)
2. 1980 (August and September)
3. 1975 (July to December)
4. 1982 (six weeks)
5. 1994 (August and September)
6. 1986 (July and August)
David
I am a bit jealous of these late Wild Heart shows you got to see. What do you think was the problem early in the tour? We know drugs were rampant but maybe she was really sick. There was an interview around the RAL era where Stevie said one night she said she was too sick to go on stage and her Dad told her she needed to go on stage and not disappoint her fans. Her dad was on the early part of the Wild Heart tour so I wonder if this is what she was referring to. At the US Festival in late May 1983 she was full of fun on stage. I saw her 30 days later and she was spacey with a very rough voice. In early July the famous Largo show was recorded where you can see a little what I am talking about. Although I have listened to the Philly show which was one night before me and she was excellent. But something was not quite right early on. The local radio station called her "dazed" on stage and one review called her "confused." But very low and rough vocals. No doubt she still nailed many songs but cokey vocals were coming to the front.

[On Ice]

Hi Macfan- re the Wild Heart shows and the June/July period- my show as the Toronto CNE bandshell was cancelled. Excuse given low ticket sales but definitely something else was up- could've been when she was "sick" or the two of them were dazed due to the non stop drugging. Nonetheless, it wasn't the last time I was left due to a cancelled concert lol years later waiting to go into the Vancouver Dance show there was a cancellation due to a rumoured fight between Stevie and Lindsey :xoxo:

[BigAl84]

I'm biased because of when I was introduced to the band (1997) - for me, I loved her voice between '97-'98. Some of her vocals on Gold and Braid and Outside the Rain on the Enchanted tour were incredible. I agree that the difference between '98 and '01/'02 is pretty remarkable.

Somebody asked if she was still smoking in '01 - there are photos of her at soundcheck with curlers in her hair and holding a cigarette. There were also several fan reports of seeing her behind the scenes holding a cigarette.

[aleuzzi]

Aleuzzi, thanks for mentioning 1990-1995- these were very good voice years for Stevie, she was singing clearly, coherently and sounded as strong as ever. The BTM show I saw, she sang well through the whole show and one of the best landslide's since the 70's. I also thought the Street Angel years were strong, (listen to her on Desiree on Rick Vito's solo albums, she's one fire there) and the shows were great vocally as well. All in all, while not her most popular period, she was singing well consistently.

Agreed. Her voice on “Blue Denim” alone was incredibly strong. I remember being really impressed with her vocals during this era.

Btw: I had to edit my list. #3 was supposed to be 1996-2000, not 1978-1982.

[vivfox]

Touring and live
1980 (August and September)

May & June of 1980 IMO, though the Rhiannon from Tuscon in August 1980 is phenomenal.

[David]

May & June of 1980 IMO, though the Rhiannon from Tuscon in August 1980 is phenomenal.

Did you ever hear that tape of Cologne Germany in June? Either the tape or the band was very slow, but the intensity was all there — unmatched mid-tour power on all the songs, really, like “The Chain.” No one unfortunately talks about that one from that night.

[David]

David
I am a bit jealous of these late Wild Heart shows you got to see. I’m angry that they weren’t captured for posterity. There was a Phoenix news camera at the September 25 Compton Terrace show because it was an all-star night, but nobody seems to have leaked the rest of that film in forty years.

What do you think was the problem early in the tour?I’m not sure but many of those earlier shows sound like a sinus problem or a drinking problem. The last month must have been just the right amount of flake to send her into the stratosphere with a strong voice that got up there HIGH, very high. She was like the character in Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

[Macfan4life]

I’m angry that they weren’t captured for posterity. There was a Phoenix news camera at the September 25 Compton Terrace show because it was an all-star night, but nobody seems to have leaked the rest of that film in forty years.

I’m not sure but many of those earlier shows sound like a sinus problem or a drinking problem. The last month must have been just the right amount of flake to send her into the stratosphere with a strong voice that got up there HIGH, very high. She was like the character in Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”
Really cool to hear and for you to share your experience decades later. I saw a very confused show. You would have thought the US Festival show and the show I saw 30 days later were years apart. I remember the bootleg from one of the the later shows in Iowa where Stevie comments on the air there. She says something really funny like she does not know where she is at but loves the air. The Largo show was professionally recorded and even staged (my opinion) with the little girl Elaine. Stevie still seems a bit out of it but not as bad as the week prior that I saw her. Video concerts sold like crazy back then. Clearly with the success of her 1981 recorded concert they wanted to do it again. Once they saw that footage, those plans changed really fast. As you said, too bad one of the later shows was not recorded. I think she was sick and maybe Kim phoned in on the road asking for a divorce. By her Chicago concert she was featured on Entertainment Tonight and it mentioned her marriage was over. After Gold Dust Woman in Pittsburgh she said something like "Nothing can make me feel this much better than I did just a few minutes ago" But she was so high you need a decoder ring to figure things out. Was she sick or did she get bad news or both?

[WalkAThinLine.]

Nearly everything she sang on pre-Wild Heart was great, with her 1975 vocals blending seamlessly with Christine and Lindsey. By 1983, her vocals had become rougher and grittier, although they were mostly salvageable. Her drugged out Tango years were rough, but she eventually rebounded by the time Street Angel was released. Her relatively strong vocals continued through The Dance era but plummeted in quality soon afterwards. Since then, her voice has deteriorated considerably.

[Villavic]

At mid/late 80s, I used to long for her late 70s voice, but actually I loved her during Bella Donna/Mirage years.

Then I loved how she partially recovered his voice in The Dance, from what I understand with the help of a voice therapist.