Stevie Nicks on Rolling Stone "100 greatest songwriters of all time" list
 

See if your favorite songwriters made the list http://t.co/JFDnvQAqwZ pic.twitter.com/OzamAWOMMU

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 13, 2015

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Fleetwood Mac blew up in the Seventies thanks to three top-notch singer-songwriters — guitarist/producer/mastermind Lindsey Buckingham, bluesy songbird Christine McVie and the gypsy queen herself, Stevie Nicks. Her "Rhiannon," "Sara" and "Gold Dust Woman" were full of post-hippie witchy imagery, but under the gossamer surface, they were deceptively tough-minded accounts of heartbreak and betrayal in the L.A. heyday of free love and hard drugs. She and Buckingham were a couple when they joined Fleetwood Mac, but some of her greatest songs came out of the wreckage of their relationship — including the Number One "Dreams." "We write about each other, we have continually written about each other, and we'll probably keep writing about each other until we're dead," she told Rolling Stone last year. She remains undiminished as a writer, as she proved on her 2011 gem In Your Dreams. But her most famous song is still "Landslide," her acoustic lament for children growing older, written before she'd even turned 30. "I was only 27," she said. "It was 1973 when I wrote it, about a year before I joined Fleetwood Mac. You can feel really old at 27."

So Stevie made #53 but where are the others from FM past & present???

53 is a good number but I think she should have cracked the top 50. To leave Christine McVie off this list is insulting. Chris had most of the Mac's hits. But consider the source. Rolling Stone put Lindsey Buckingham at #100 for guitarists. Insane!

She should have been higher than that.

She might have done better if she would've released more of her backlog when people were still paying attention. Also she is a great lyricist but not an amazing composer, while there are those who are both. I was expecting worse TBH; #53 is not bad at all.

Does it really matter much? Rolling Stone's selective list is only slightly more valid than any of the numerous lists we make in this forum, but only because it's an established publication. It's all subjective. That said, on this list, Stevie has a very respectable standing at 53. That feels right to me.

As much as I love the distinct world she created with her songs, I have some reservation regarding her idiosyncrasies. Her literacy acumen has its limits, yet that is part of the essence of her mystique and uniqueness. Her conventions are peculiarity unconventional. Her moments of brilliant achievement have sustained her cultural status. With an earnest belief in her music, she has naturally attracted a legion of believers -- both heavyweight fans, and lightweight admirers.

Seeing as Taylor Swift (who wrote a song that contains the lyrics "We are never ever ever getting back together,We are never ever ever getting back together,You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me, But we are never ever ever ever getting back together, Like, ever.." made the top 100 and someone like Patty Griffin, who is widely lauded as one of the US's best songwriters and who gets covered all the time, didn't, you have to take this with a grain of salt. Great for Stevie, though I have the unpopular opinion that a lot of her songwriting credit should be given to other people (Lindsey, mostly) for arranging her songs. And interestingly enough, none of the song that were mentioned in the little write up were solo songs. I also agree that Christine should be there.

Kevin

I'm glad to see the bulk of the great oldies songwriter are in the top 40 without any of the newer writers in top slots.

Yes Stevie should of gotten better numbers .Lindsey and Chris got hosed off the chart for some reason.That sucks for them.Plus some dont deserve to be be on the chart.

Its nice to see some of my favorite classic country writers are mentioned on the list.

You've got to take these lists with a grain of salt - they're generationally slanted, and intended for the under-30 crowd, which is the largest music buying demographic.

That's really good for her considering the number of god awful song she written.

I guess they didn't listen to the same album as me. :confused: I dig the album as a whole, but the lyrics on several of the songs are... uninspired.

Totally! Although I enjoy about 80% of the record, I really don't think it's her best, lyrically speaking.

^Totally what I'm sayin. :laugh:

Stevie, I love you, but you were not 27 in 1973, lol.

"Ooh it's so romantic...hey, it's so soulful..."

"I wanna dress up, I wanna wear beads, I wanna wear feathers and lace, I wanna brush by Anne Rice..."

"The only thing that they did together was TO make love..."

"It could not have been worse...you forgot yourself...it could not have been worse..."

...and don't even get me started on "Cheaper Than Pee"! I mean, come on now, Stevie!

The music on 80% of the album is not hers. Mostly just lyrics from her. 24KG is so much richer and satisfying.

I agree.Back in the 1970's and 1980's RS was focused under 30 something which I fall in and they were not or little bit of talking about musicians from my parents s generation which was Benny Goodman ,Jacky Gleason, Lawrence Welk,Tony Bennett and others.

Madonna? She has written precisely seven songs single-handedly in 32 years. It should read: "Madonna and all the other people who have helped her out." The last time she wrote a song by herself was the mid-1980s (Gambler). There are songs on her last three albums written by seven and eight different people. Overrated hack.

Stevie's devotion to her craft and love are so deserving of being on this list. Timeless and ageless.

Stevie has written about seven iconic songs. The rest of her songs are passable-to-very good. That's not bad at all.

Christine is one of rock's sturdiest, cleverest songwriters. She should be on this list.

If Christine would have had a Barry in her life, I'm sure she
would be on that list.

Stevie is ahead of Tom Petty. Bet he loves that. 😆

I bet it means absolutely nothing to him.

tough to argue with Christine's tunes being "sturdy" but that's not great... probably the ONLY iconic track she wrote was Don't Stop, and that's primarily due to the Clinton revival.. her songs are catchy, "sturdy" and consistently good, but none have gotten into the zeitgeist like Landslide, Rhiannon, Gypsy, Edge.
I haven't seen the list and might consider CM better than many... but there's been little cultural impact from her songs

Stevie has about an albums worth of excellent songs, and another albums worth of pretty good stuff, all before 1982. But I think 53 is a bit high.

I don't entirely disagree. But as songs in themselves, very few of Stevie's tunes would make any impact on the "Zeitgeist" if she weren't singing them. It's her voice and how she sells those songs that make them spark. Anyone else singing Rhiannon, Edge, Stand Back, or Gypsy sounds lame. Only Landslide and some of her country-inflected tunes translate to other singers.

I would argue that Little Lies, Hold Me, and--as you mention--Don't Stop are iconic in a different way, as pop anthems. And Clinton's theme song would not have blown up the way it did if it wasn't already a major song. Oh Daddy is iconic in its own way as much as Rhiannon. Just because there aren't a gazillion women dressed as Christine in the front rows of her concerts or drag queens holding a night of a thousand Christines doesn't mean at least five of her songs aren't deserving of being on the list: they have a strong cultural impact on a lot of people.

There is also the little matter of Songbird being pretty damn iconic.

And a pop tune like Say You Love Me is like a Cole Porter tune, so excellent because of the way it balances wry humor with genuine feeling.

Lets give a shout out to Dolly Parton for making it so high on the list. Well-deserved. But what about Loretta Lynn?