San Francisco Chronicle Talks Stevie

[michelej1]

San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 2009, by Peter Hartlaub

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...entry_id=37513

Sunshine and Rainbows: Stevie Nicks edition
Apparently there are three things I can't write about on The Poop: Circumcisions, the Live 105 Morning Zoo and complimentary posts about cops. If it makes any difference, I was going to write about Stevie Nicks at some point anyway, even if the comments in yesterday's post didn't turn into a debate between Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Which brings us to last weekend's Spring Training baseball trip to Arizona. One of the traditions of this long-running bromance-heavy vacation involves me and my two college friends going to a used record store and purchasing several CDs to play in the convertible. All of this music has a heavy nostalgia factor, and we generally focus on underappreciated works by good bands. Our choices this year included Billy Squier's "Don't Say No" and lots of the Speedwagon, but the theme music for the weekend somehow turned out to be Stevie Nicks. This becomes much funnier when you see my friends, who are both considerably bigger than I am. Imagine a 6-foot-5, 300 pound guy cruising through Tempe behind the wheel of a Chrysler Sebring with the top down, blaring "Leather and Lace" and mouthing all the lyrics. (Are you going to tell him to turn it down?)

Can't say enough about Nicks. We intended to play one or two songs from her greatest hits album, and probably played it four or five times all the way through. Which makes it that much harder to choose the greatest Stevie Nicks song of all time. Anything from her solo years or the Fleetwood Mac catalogue qualifies. (Somebody should totally say "Gold Dust Woman," because I forgot about it when I wrote the post, and probably should have listed it as No. 3 or No. 2.)

My picks below. Yours in the comments ...

3. "Edge of Seventeen"/"Landslide": Both are outstanding songs that have small flaws from my perspective. "Seventeen" is so fantastic in the first 70 seconds that the rest can't possibly live up to it. Much like "Don't Stop Believin'," it collapses under the weight of its own awesomeness. ... I'm as devoid of a man card as anyone, but as much as "Landslide" is just too girly for me. I recognize the song's greatness, but I feel like it belongs to someone with more estrogen.

2. "Stop Dragging My Heart Around": I can name four artists -- Emmylou Harris, Aretha Franklin, Willie Nelson and Nicks -- who I'd actually rather hear doing covers, because they're capable of making other people's songs their own pretty much every time. It's like musical eminent domain. (Does "Respect" even belong to Otis Redding any more, or is it Aretha's now?) Even out of key, Nicks now owns this Tom Petty song, which I would have previously thought impossible.

1. "Silver Springs": This song is so powerful, that I often wonder if there's a way to use it as an alternative energy. Starting with an mellow opening and ending with what sounds like breakup-inspired rage, it's perfection. I'm guessing that 30 years later, Lindsey Buckingham still can't listen to the lyrics "You'll never get away from the sound of the woman who loves you" without shivering a little and curling into the fetal position. Seriously, that's some Edgar Allen Poe s---.