Five Reasons to Love Stevie (MTV)

[michelej1]

Five Reasons You Should Love Stevie Nicks
http://www.mtvhive.com/2012/12/05/fi...-stevie-nicks/

12.05.12, Jim Allen, MTV Hive

Classic-rock fans and lace-shawl aficionados alike rejoiced yesterday at the announcement that Fleetwood Mac will be hitting the road next spring for their first tour since 2009. Hell, why not? They’re younger than the Rolling Stones, right? This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Mac’s mega-Platinum monster Rumours, and it’s certain there’ll be no shortage of songs from that one on the setlist, plus the band is said to have a couple of new tunes in rotation too. Though Fleetwood Mac is famous for having a frontline full of talented singer/songwriters, Stevie Nicks’ theatricality has always supplied a huge portion of the onstage starpower. So she’ll have a lot to do with putting posteriors in the seats for the shows, especially with the absence of retiree Christine McVie. Let’s focus on some of the little, less obvious things that make Stevie “Stevie” and keep the crowds coming back to bask in her presence.

1. The Buckingham/Nicks Days

Even before they joined Fleetwood Mac and sold kajillions of records, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were already making music equally as intriguing in their incarnation as folk-rock duo Buckingham/Nicks. Their lone album, released in 1973, was full of killer cuts but didn’t make much commercial headway, and remains woefully out of print. Hey Polydor – 40th anniversary reissue?

2. She Jams With Tom Petty

Lindsey Buckingham isn’t the only singer/songwriter with whom Stevie’s ever enjoyed an artistic kinship outside of Fleetwood Mac. She’s had a history of partnering up with Tom Petty. The two teamed most famously on Stevie’s first solo single (and her biggest hit ever), 1981’s “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” and have popped up to sing at each other’s shows over the years. She also sang a stirring, Everly Brothers-esque harmony with Petty in ’81 on his “Insider,” and she can still give you shivers when she sidles up to him onstage to deliver it.

3. Her Fashion Sense Rules

An integral part of the Fleetwood Mac experience is the visual element provided by Stevie’s dramatic duds and constant costume changes. Those who love her look will eat up this guided tour of her wardrobe, in which she explains that her initial agenda was to look like “a character from Great Expectations or Tale of Two Cities,” displays various versions of “the ‘Gold Dust Woman’ cape” and “the ‘Stand Back’ cape,” and reveals that she tends towards black attire not because she fancies herself some sort of sexy witch, but simply “because black makes you look skinny.”

4. She Participates in Night of a Thousand Stevies

Such is the adulation heaped upon the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman that Stevie obsessives have been gathering for the last 22 years at the annual Night of a Thousand Stevies, in which Nicks wannabes of both sexes dress to impress in the Stevie stage outfits of their choosing. For last year’s event, the lady herself taped a video greeting to all the Stevies manqué, in which she pledged to turn up one day in disguise and sing “Edge of Seventeen,” and encouraged everyone to turn out in their best hoop skirts and petticoats.

5. Prince Wanted Her

Stevie was inspired to write her huge 1983 hit “Stand Back” by hearing Prince’s “Little Red Corvette,” so she called His Purpleness about it and he showed up to play (uncredited) synthesizer on the song. This, as they say, was the beginning of a beautiful friendship — many years later, Nicks revealed that Prince wanted more than a musical relationship, but unlike most other females on the planet, Stevie resisted his charms. Nevertheless, there was a period when the pair was pretty chummy: he invited her to write lyrics to “Purple Rain” (she was too intimidated), and they knocked around some other ideas together in a recording studio, including this intriguing, embryonic tune.

[michelej1]

NME, Why Stevie Nicks is the Ultimate Rock Goddess, December 6, 2012
By Leonie Cooper

http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?bl...&c=1&tb=1&pb=1


The world is not short of rock goddesses. You’ve Joan Jett, Grace Slick, Patti Smith, Beth Ditto and Karen O for starters, but Stevie Nicks stands head and shoulders above them all. Well, not literally, seeing as she’s only 5’1”, but you catch my drift. An unparalleled songwriter, and the only woman left in Fleetwood Mac since the 1998 departure of Christine McVie, she has also proven her rock chops by Hoovering up enough drugs to shame Jim Morrison – she’s admitted to spending “millions” on cocaine – and diving headfirst into music’s barmy auntie dressing up box. When Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 tour rolls around, we’ll certainly be checking out Lindsay Buckingham’s licks and Mick Fleetwood’s drum rolls, but for the most part, all eyes will be on Stevie. Here’s why:

Style

Rock’n’roll and fashion go hand in hand, and anyone who doesn’t think so should bugger off, buy some Crocs and listen to Nickelback. Stevie Nicks singlehandedly created a style sub-genre all of her very own, otherwise known as the unicorn-catching Victorian princess look. Topshop and Florence Welch are still ripping it off to this day.

Lindsay Lohan

When it was first rumoured that Lindsay Lohan would be playing Stevie in a film of her life, she sassed back: “Over my dead body. She needs to stop doing drugs and get a grip. Then maybe we’ll talk.”

Landslide

One of the most gorgeous, heartbreaking three minutes ever committed to vinyl. Stevie Nicks wrote it.

Angel

It’s not all downbeat doomed romance with Stevie. She also penned this AOR funk gem, which can be found amidst the cocaine blizzard of ‘Tusk’.

Wind Machine

It takes a lot to not look like a prat whilst performing in front of a wind machine. Yet during this performance of ‘Sara’ Stevie seems like she’s calmly being buffeted by a soft beachside breeze in Malibu. Mega skills.

Pink Rooms And White Pianos

During Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’ tour, Stevie’s low-key rider request was for every hotel room she stayed in to be painted pink. Oh and to also house a white piano. Puts Mariah Carey and her kittens to shame, doesn’t it?

Spinning

One of the best gigs I have ever been to was Fleetwood Mac at Wembley Arena in 2009, and not just because I touched Lindsay Buckingham’s shoes (true story). Here I got to witness first hand Stevie’s failsafe ‘spinning around on the spot and not getting dizzy’ dance move. Comes in a variety of shawls.

Beyonce

Beyonce owes at least 37% of her fabulousness to Stevie Nicks, having sampled her 1981 solo single ‘Edge of Seventeen’ for Destiny’s Child’s 2001 smash hit ‘Bootylicious’.

Buckingham Nicks

Before they joined Fleetwood Mac – turning the band into a transatlantic soft rock colossus - Stevie Nicks and then partner Lindsay Buckingham recorded together as the mighty Buckingham Nicks. Their only album still hasn’t been released on CD, but Stevie says 2013 might see a 40th anniversary outing for the LP.

Fritz

Stevie and Lindsay’s first band, Fritz, opened for Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Which is, we think you’ll agree, a huge, massive, gigantic deal. Talk about learning from the masters.

Wild Heart Backstage

This belting backstage version of ‘Wild Heart’ pretty much sums up everything that is sublime about Stevie – from her powerhouse vocals to that cheeky, trouble-making glint in the eye.

Warren Zevon

Stevie and Lindsay sang back-up vocals on one of the greatest albums of the 1970s, Warren Zevon’s self-titled 1976 margarita-fuelled homage to Hollywood. Go buy it now if you don’t have it already. You won’t be sorry.

Free Fallin’

Stevie ain’t too proud to bust out a stonking cover version every now and then. Here’s her husky take on her old chum Tom Petty’s ‘Free Fallin’’.

[michelej1]

From the NME article

[Macfanforever]

Thanks.I"m glad that MTV still thinking of music then being a crap reality TV channel.