Stevie and Landslide
 

I thought of y'all today. I was in gym today and Landslide came on the radio. I overheard the people next to me saying that she wrote that song when she divorced her husband. I then went into a five minute explanation of the band. Does this happen often to people like us?

Well I hope the first thing you did was correct them and say that the song had nothing to do with her husband at all and was written years before! Hahaha!

The biggest pet peeve OF MY LIFE:

"Oh, that Landslide song? Did Fleetwood Mac cover it?"


akldfhjaklhkljdahklaklhakla! I will forever hold a grudge against the Dixie Chicks for that reason alone.

I don't bother correcting people anymore. In fact I'll agree with them now when they say she's a witch. Vruja!!! Basicly IDGAF.

I used to do that, but now I like to make up crazy stories & relate them. "This was written after Stevie Nicks was stranded at sea when the yacht sank."

Or, "This song was inspired by Stevie's summer with the Reagans in 1980."

Most people I know don't even care about the stories behind the songs, so it's a total moot point....:rolleyes:

I'm dedicated long time big fan (circa 1975), but I don't take much stock in the stories -- especially Stevie's stories. She often doesn't speak about what inspired a song, but rather the context of where it was written, and usually in strangely vague terms. It's very perculiar and pedestrian if you compare it other (slightly more) accomplished artists. Also, being that she has a selective memory - if any memory at all - her stories/explanations change throughout the years.

I find it rather funny when people attempt a deep analysis of every word and stanza of her lyrics, as if to uncover some elaborate story. I consider her writing more impressionistic than literate. She has a very distinct talent in a limited capacity, but she's not as high-minded and sophisticated as some would like to think she is. However she has her "thing," and she's done very well with it. It's just my take.

ITA. But, I do think she sometimes talks in circles about her songs in an effort to keep the main heart of it private and to herself. That's not to say I think all her songs fall into that category, because I think your take on her writing style is definitely a probability.

Great post.

I take stock in some of the stories - but but you're absolutely right that she talks process and not inspiration. And yes, the memory may all but be gone - sometimes I suspect that Norma Desmond and Stevie are close cousins.

In any case - no, not high-minded and sophisticated ALL the time, but I'd say more often than not. The analysis' of all the bits and pieces of the songs may not reveal a story, but it does create narratives that chronicle the goings on in her life. Sara would be the example I'd cite. Lots of small pieces that create a larger picture, fragmented, maybe.

Some of her solo work, which were the only albums we ever found filler material on, could be used as examples of her just doing "her thing".

Hope that makes sense, I'm getting ripped.

Agreed. I think her writing is typically supported by the emotive power of her images, even when those images make little to no sense. However, I do think that she has her moments when she writes a precise, meritable metaphor or image and when does, she totally runs with it. Take 90% of "Angel" versus "Gold Dust Woman", "Trouble in Shangri-La" versus "Landslide", "Blue Lamp" versus "Beauty and the Beast". I adore all of these songs, but there's quite the difference between the styles of writing in terms of the foundation of thought.

Great post-- I love looking more closely at how she writes, especially since I'm a writer myself.

I've done some writing myself, and I understand when Stevie says she could be inspired by someone's smile, or a sunset, etc. and build a song around that inspiration. Many times I've used something that inspired me and then wrote lyrics based on my feelings about a specific event in my life and how it made me feel. So, I may wrap a fictional character or story in a set of non-fictional emotions or events.

Sometimes I think Stevie does the exact same thing whenever she's asked a question about anything...I'd get so tired of that I'd start making things up too just to amuse myself :lol:

When i first heard Stevie sing it i was shocked because i thought that the Dixie Chicks wrote it. Btw one day i was in the PX our "mall" on base and Leather and Lace came on.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

My thoughts exactly :shrug: