The Story of Silver Springs - The Best Song I've Ever Written
 

I think I saw an interview where she said it was just Mick at the parking lot who told her SS was cut from Rumours. Not Mick and Lindsey.

And thought it could help, I don't think that SS exactly kicked The Dance into the universe. It was the reunion itself that did it.

I have never heard this version. Like Villavic, I thought they were in the studio and made a point of moving out to the parking lot to have the discussion, because they knew it would be bad vibes. Also that it was just Mick. IF Stevie's latest retelling is accurate, though, it's telling that Mick and Lindsey were at the studio while Stevie was rocking up late. Seems unlikely they would know the exact time to be in the parking lot for her arrival, so I doubt this version. The fact Stevie can't even say whether she stayed on or took the day off suggests her testimony is shaky.

The reunion was a big deal, but it was Silver Springs and Landslide that wound up being played on MTV/VH1 around the clock for almost that entire year.

HOWEVER, I really dislike how she stated it in this interview. Another classic bitter Stevie comment where she attempts to take credit for something much larger than herself.

It's almost as if....

If someone dies, it's about her... and how close they were, and how they were incredible, and how she can't get over it.

Her best friend Tom Petty? Her best friend Prince? Her best friend Christine?

The revision of her relationship with Christine has become beyond tiresome. She is exhausting.

If Lindsey goes before her, its going to be such nauseating, duplicitous speak from Stevie.

Silver Springs and Sweet Girl are my favorite tracks from The Dance. The way she speaks about her role in the album’s success is painful.

And what’s the “strong woman” comment? I thought only in 2018 she became a “strong woman.” Story always changes.

IDWK was the right song to include on Rumours. It’s up, balances the running order, and provides an opportunity to immortalize the Appalachian folk harmonies LB/SN did so well.

Silver Springs in its original form was underwhelming. Her vocal doesn’t provide the gravitas and dynamics the song deserves. Her voice would grow into the song. I hate that it’s now included in the running order on Rumours rereleases and her fans talk of it as if it were part of the original album. It wasn’t.

But it is THE highlight—or one of the main highlights—of The Dance, and her performance reestablished her celebrity in the public eye. She used it to build a whole new empire for herself. And while I hate the emperor she became, she knew enough to seize the moment and not let go.

Hoping that if that order does happen, it’s a LONG time in the future. That said, I’d imagine some nasty ass fireworks would come from his wife and daughters in response. Not that it would matter - Stevie would just continue to use that as another way to promote herself and all the horrible hardships she endured throughout her life.

The poor waitress that she was. Living with the mattress on the floor because she was so poor. Except that her Dad was a successful executive and she lived a rather privileged life from day one. But let’s not let facts get in the way of her sob story.

100%. And if there was another single on Rumours, IDWK was likely the right choice with SHN being the other option. It just fits on Rumours perfectly. Now Silver Springs is the best song she ever wrote? Of course she has to (as always, late) jump on the trend of that Dance performance gaining TikTok popularity. Is it better than Show Them The Way?

Keeping track of Stevie’s self-proclaimed best songs:
1. Edge Of Seventeen
2. Show Them The Way
3. Stand Back (says she stole it from Prince)
4. The Vampire’s Wife which she has not released (New Yorker Interview in 2022)
5. Touched By An Angel
6. Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)
7. Dreams (because it was the band’s only Billboard number one)
8. Silver Springs

She’s also claimed HAEWAFY is her greatest, most intense song.

Coming up... she claims Silent Night is the best song she has ever written.

Does she realize that she comes across as completely insane to normal people?

Well of course the Silent Night comment was sarcasm ;) . But seriously, if I had to defend her, which is becoming more difficult every day, and I have no interest in doing so, I would say that the years of substance abuse have seriously affected her memory and judgment. I wouldn't say she's insane but yes her mind could be seriously affected. It would be a very sad case.

Definitely a possibility but I’m more inclined to think she’s been a spoiled and entitled brat her entire life. A rich kid who got everything they wanted and then found celebrity status and wealth unimaginable to 99.999% of people. She lives in a fantasy world where nobody ever dares put her in her place or knock her down a peg or two and call her BS out. I’ve found most senior citizens tend to have their worst attributes amplified as they age and become incredibly self serving/selfish. She had a major head start long before her 60’s and 70’s so it was inevitable.

Add in a decade or two of heavy drug (prescription and otherwise) use and it’s not too surprising she is how she is.

You know, I could almost see this given the story she surrounds the song with about Joe’s daughter. Her greatest? No. A song that brings up memories of a tragically sad story, definitely could evoke intense feelings.

OH, I agree that is nowhere near her best song, but she has claimed it was, especially around 1998 when she did the Storytellers thing on VH1...

Oh 1998…when she felt self conscious talking on the Enchanted tour because she usually doesn’t talk that much….hahahah you just wait 25 years and see what happens!!!!

While I agree with most of what you say.
I find your statement about older people a bit sweeping…I am a mature person and I think I’ve improved with age like fine wine, mellowed and well rounded.

However, what you think of Stevie is pretty much my opinion.
A spoilt little girl, who was used to getting her own way.
And when she doesn’t she takes her ball and bat home.

I concur that some people improve with age, that their perspectives are enriched by experience and self stock-taking, though only those willing to grow will grow.

Regarding Stevie, I’m assuming she grew up with a good deal privilege, though her tireless work ethic, which admittedly persists today as self-promotion and touring, had to have been instilled in her from a very young age. Her parents wouldn’t financially support her when she dropped out of school to pursue music. But she persisted. She could have crumbled but did not. So, while I consider her a spoiled, delusional, and self-centered woman whose lost perspective, there was a set of core values around hard work that she never abandoned. If she wants something, she angles for it—and not always in above-board ways. But she still angles, plays the game, works to stay on top.

And THAT’S why she became the power broker in Fleetwood Mac. Lindsey did 88 tour dates in 21 years. Aside from the nine months for The Dance and the Inauguration and Super Bowl, Christine was largely out of the public eye for 23 years.

But not out of the public ear.

Doesn’t matter. Out of sight, out of mind. I’m going to be 50. My mom though I was slightly too young to go to a big concert in 1987, so I only got to see her twice in the first 27 years of fandom.

I was never into Stevie (only went to see her solo in 2001), but I could have seen her fifteen times going to one show per tour in that same timeframe.

There were generations really didn’t get the opportunity to know Christine McVie the way they did Stevie because she was retired. Sure, her songs got played on classic rock and lite rock stations.

Of course, it's not a secret who's put in the most work for her career. Perhaps, that's why she turned into such an awful person. It's a lot of work. Fame is something not everyone can handle graciously.

I see her in 1985. Horrible shape she was in! But I had tickets to see her in her renaissance in 2001–on September 12. So, that never happened. She got stuck in NYC for a few weeks, canceled the tour, and wrote Illume.

A certain type of work, I would agree. She spends all her energies mounting big tours, interacting flashily with other acts in the studio and onstage (it’s always an “event” that seems designed for paparazzi), presenting herself in a certain light and look, and getting her name in the newspapers. She’s great at all that. The public definitely responds.

I just wish she had put half that energy into honing her craft: writing better and more varied songs, stretching herself artistically, improving her piano and guitar, incorporating more of a vision into her work besides just the chiffon faerie girl. As an artist, she is a reactionary.

I also wish she’d be more honest about her artistry. She doesn’t follow her muse so much as cater to a rather shallow audience. The only other explanation is that her muse just isn’t worth following.

Blue Cross Arena 9/12 in Rochester, NY? I had third row seats for that! Still have my unused ticket stubs.

God, the lucidity of this post really moves me. I feel so much the same way. We are in complete agreement. Especially, the craft part. After Wild Heart, I dreamed of getting more albums that evolved from there. Not de-volved.

She does a lot of work that create nice headlines...clickbait. A Gorillaz song, a duet with Dolly, sang with Lana Del Rey when she was all over the place, a song with Elton during his last tour/album hype, a song with Don Henley. She completely distanced herself from Sheryl Crow when she was no longer all over the radio. One might ask why invest all the energy in these one-off collaborations, it's done strictly for the press. Has nothing to do with the actual music or collaboration. Additionally, when you clearly have nothing left to offer as a writer, it's a win-win because the material is already provided for her. Even going back to 24K Gold - the polaroids made a bigger splash than the album.

Joni Mitchell. You want her to be like Joni Mitchell.

Good point, but she could LEAAANNNNNN LIL' in that direction.

Would you imagine Stephanie Nicks with Charles Mingus? :lol:
I have a chiffon friend who told me that stevie is 10 times more talented than Joni Michell.

Joni had Wayne Shorter
Stevie and Kenny G.

So there's your spectrum..

I had row 5!!!!!! I no longer have my stub.

That's because she always needed good producers to pull it all together (like Buckingham, like Olsen, like Iovine). But she couldn't handle it when the producers became what she deemed too controlling. Or, alternately, when she felt she couldn't control the process enough. Rock a Little suffered greatly because of her deteriorating voice, but equally so because of the inconsistent production. She couldn't keep a producer around. By the time we get to OSOTM, she was already straying from the sound that made her famous and letting industry trends dictate what she sounded like. Until In Your Dreams, none of her solo albums approached the consistency of the first two.

But then, I'll go out on a limb here: even at its best, her solo work is a bit generic and comparatively uninteresting to her best Mac work. I was never a huge fan of Bella Donna (though I can see why it is huge) and while I loved The Wild Heart at 13, I no longer am bewitched. It's just a pretty good 80s record with a truly distinctive single: "Stand Back," which is, IMO, more original than anything of her solo work before or since.

That's because her best friend in the whole world, Prince, wrote it.

Point taken. And in my defense, I reread my post and thought, “That could describe Christine, too.”

If I had to sum up Stevie just for myself, I would say she made the smashing best of her skills and sensibilities, and I applaud. She was never a complete piddler or a face in the crowd (the list of piddlers in pop music in my lifetime is hundreds of miles long — people who never gave a damn about anything they were doing). As I noted elsewhere, Stevie is a model of complete self-fulfillment. She was superb at being Stevie, and in fact her more embarrassing moments were when she may have thought she was Joni Mitchell or Don Henley or Bob Dylan. Would I say that to Bob Dylan?

I think you just did. (if he ever reads TL)

I’ve heard that Dylan is an avid ledgie and frequent lurker. He’s even memorized his sign-on password.

Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran also lurk. Hi, Ariana! :wavey:

You can still make me chuckle after all these years, David O! :lol: