What are your unpopular Stevie opinions

[sasja]

Stevie nicks lost what melodic and lyric ability she did have around 1981-1982.
Her range in the 70's and the first few years of the 80's made her flaky lyrics palatable and some of her songs even charming.

Since then, her songs' lyrics have become ever more nonsensical, and, with her voice turning more and more into a gravely drone every subsequent year, her music became grating like a dentist drill instead of charming, no matter what producers and arrangers tried to do to salvage it. Even LB.

Brrr.
JMHOO.

[Netter75]

I don't get the love for The Wild Heart album...

1. Stand Back is a good song but I haven't listened to the album version in years since almost every live version is superior in every way.

2. I Will Run to You has good atmosphere but Stevie doesn't sound great here, doesn't harmonize well with Tom Petty, and it doesn't fit with the rest of the songs on the album.

3. I'm actually a fan of the wannabe-Heartbreaker/E Street thing Stevie was trying to do for a while (Gold & Braid, SDMHA, BL) but I can't jam with Enchanted. Her voice sounds so rough and uninvested, and the lyrics aren't engaging for me. I like the piano but it also doesn't fit with the rest of the album for me. I like some live cuts from around the turn of the millenium though!

4. I love the sentiment of Nightbird... and actually like some of the spacey lyrics.... but I don't think it's executed very well. The drums are lame and it sounds like someone is falling on a keyboard the whole time. Don't care for the vocals either, her voice sounds like it's about to shatter into a million pieces and not in an emotional way. Her vocal when performing the song on Solid Gold is better though! Horrible choice for a third single.

5. If Anyone Falls is a decent song with good lyrics (unfortunate that she didn't write it), a catchy chorus, and a fine vocal delivery but it's got the same problem as Nightbird with the keyboards. I think I may hate Sandy Stewarts playing

6. Gate and Garden has great music but cringey lyrics and I don't personally connect with it. I'm glad for the people that do, but it feels like filler. It reminds me of a much inferior Think About It from the previous album, which skirted that same line but came out on the right side where G&G did not.

7. Sable on Blonde is a bright spot on the album for me, even if I always forget about it. It's got a WONDERFUL mood to it, 80s keyboards done RIGHT, and good drumming. I can connect with her vocal a bit better here than on most of the albums songs, even if the lyrics are a bit thick. The vocal blend with the backing singers is absolutely luscious. The alternate version is good too!

8. I love a good Stevie ballad but man I do not get the deal with Beauty and the Beast. The music is pretty if unmemorable and, like many songs on the album, the lyrics are THICK to the point of being impenetrable and impenetrable. She is singing with definite emotion ("Where is my beast?"), but compare this to the similar Storms (very personal lyrics, slow pace, fragile vocals) and it can't stack up. It's okay background music but I can't actively listen to this one.

9. I like Nothing Ever Changes. Her rough vocals go well with a song where she sounds so pissed off and she really brings the anger. Keyboards are cheesy but they go with the heated vibe of the song so they work better for me here. The saxophone is also an odd but welcome addition. Surprised this wasn't the third single and never done live, seems like it'd be fun.

10. The Wild Heart is okay. Decent music, okay vocal, okay lyrics, meandering structure. I could take it or leave it. I'd like it better if Bella Donna and it's title song didn't exist (like a lot of this album). I actually enjoy the session take more by far.

I'd like the album better if I could cut I Will Run to You for Sorcerer and Gate & Garden for Violet & Blue (an amazing song that doesn't get its due credit). I'd also boot Sandy Steward from the studio after nabbing the lyrics to If Anyone Falls and have the music rewritten and played with a different keyboard by a different Keyboardist for both it and Nightbird. I'd also yell at Stevie to get invested in Enchanted and send back for another draft of a couple songs.

[Fiver]

Originally Posted by Netter75

5. If Anyone Falls is a decent song with good lyrics (unfortunate that she didn't write it), a catchy chorus, and a fine vocal delivery but it's got the same problem as Nightbird with the keyboards. I think I may hate Sandy Stewarts playing

I'd also boot Sandy Steward from the studio after nabbing the lyrics to If Anyone Falls and have the music rewritten and played with a different keyboard by a different Keyboardist for both it and Nightbird.

IIRC If Anyone Falls is a true co-write with Sandy Stewart. Stevie's lyrics, music by Sandy.

[Storms123]

If I never hear "Gypsy", "Rhiannon" and "Landslide" live again....I'd be okay. I don't think she's secure enough in herself to ever remove ALL of them.

[Netter75]

Originally Posted by Storms123

If I never hear "Gypsy", "Rhiannon" and "Landslide" live again....I'd be okay. I don't think she's secure enough in herself to ever remove ALL of them.

Except for the '87 Mac tour! Rhiannon and Gypsy were dropped after the first show or two and Landslide didn't appear at all... actually kind of amazing. Her only mainstays were Dreams and Gold Dust Woman.

Probably the most novel post-Rumours setlist, with her only doing one new song (Seven Wonders), two solo carryovers (Stand Back, HAEWAFY), and a co-lead on one oldie (Don't Let Me Down Again).

[Storms123]

Originally Posted by Netter75

Except for the '87 Mac tour! Rhiannon and Gypsy were dropped after the first show or two and Landslide didn't appear at all... actually kind of amazing. Her only mainstays were Dreams and Gold Dust Woman.

Probably the most novel post-Rumours setlist, with her only doing one new song (Seven Wonders), two solo carryovers (Stand Back, HAEWAFY), and a co-lead on one oldie (Don't Let Me Down Again).

Totally fair point and thank you for flagging. I totally forgot about "that era" LOL. I don't know she would do it again though. I was kind of psyched "Gypsy" wasn't in this initial set list for the tour.....thought there might be "hope" to leave it out and maybe drop one of the other 2...but alas!

[TheWILDheart]

Originally Posted by Netter75

Except for the '87 Mac tour! Rhiannon and Gypsy were dropped after the first show or two and Landslide didn't appear at all... actually kind of amazing. Her only mainstays were Dreams and Gold Dust Woman.

Probably the most novel post-Rumours setlist, with her only doing one new song (Seven Wonders), two solo carryovers (Stand Back, HAEWAFY), and a co-lead on one oldie (Don't Let Me Down Again).

Also worth mentioning that Gold Dust Woman's apperance in the 87-88 setlist was the first time the Mac had performed it in a decade. They did it on the Rumours tour but not at all on the Tusk or Mirage tours.

[sodascouts]

I love "Mirror Mirror" and "Real Tears" and think they are better than much of the material on Other Side of the Mirror and Street Angel, respectively.

I think "Dreams" and "Rhiannon" are good songs, but not great ones, and that many of her other songs are far superior.

Everybody around these parts seems to hate on "Talk to Me" and "Stand Back" but I think they rock! "Talk to Me" is what got me into Stevie Nicks back when I was just a kid and didn't have a clue who Fleetwood Mac was.

I love "Paper Doll" (I found out this was unpopular a few months ago).

I liked hearing Stevie talk before "Without You" on the 2013 tour, even if she did go on a bit. I wanted to hear her stories about her life with Lindsey pre-fame.

I don't think anyone else cares about this, but it drives me freaking crazy when Stevie has nonsensical similes, metaphors, and clumsy grammar like "When you lose your sight, love is like a river." What the heck?? And "I think that is the meaning of love, and I'm prepared to kick it." So you're kicking the meaning of love? I call this an unpopular opinion because it's nitpicking - I get that - and most people don't nitpick like this and even condemn it. However, I can't help it!

Just a few off of the top of my head.

[David]

Originally Posted by TheWILDheart

Also worth mentioning that Gold Dust Woman's apperance in the 87-88 setlist was the first time the Mac had performed it in a decade. They did it on the Rumours tour but not at all on the Tusk or Mirage tours.

Yes, it was great hearing it again in the Fleetwood Mac set for us old-timers. And it was well done in those months—with Mick Fleetwood back on the kick drum and cowbell pattern (missing conspicuously from Stevie's solo performances) and Rick Vito adding weird and eerie guitar gunfire during the outro. I think by 1990, it was already starting to get stale in the Mac set, although the different solo bands from 1998 on still gave it energy.

To appeal to me, the song has to go through a slow burn and reach its crescendo, almost like climbing an elaborate staircase. That's my problem with the 1994 performance by her band—the way they played it, it's no more powerful at the end than at the beginning.

My favorite is still the album track. It's amazing, a great work of pop art and a mirror of the soul of Fleetwood Mac, part Appalachian mountain music and part psychedelic folk. It's one of the best album enders of all time. It leaves listeners feeling as if they just heard an album that's even more amazing and uncanny than it is, taken piece by piece, and I think it's one of the unsung reasons why Rumours sold so many gazillions.

[petep9000]

Stevie's one chance to live immortally was if she had died on the Rock a Little tour. It would have been a Joplin/Morrison/Hendrix-esque rock and roll event for history. She would be more legendary today, she'd be mythical! Of course, she's mythical and legendary in her own eyes, even as one of the living. But you know what I mean, girls would have shaved their heads in despair and made pilgrimages to Paradise Valley to try to commune with Stevie's energy. But instead of infamy, we got The Other Side of The Mirror.

Thanks a lot, Stevie.

[TheWildHeart67]

Stevie's one chance to live immortally was if she had died on the Rock a Little tour. It would have been a Joplin/Morrison/Hendrix-esque rock and roll event for history. She would be more legendary today, she'd be mythical! I mean, she's mythical and legendary in her own eyes as one of the living. But you know what I mean, girls would have shaved their heads in despair and made pilgrimages to Paradise Valley to try to commune with Stevie's energy. So instead of infamy, we got The Other Side of The Mirror.

Thanks a lot, Stevie

Gee, Pete(POS),
So you'd rather Stevie died of an overdose in 1986?
Congrats for hitting a new LOW on this board.
Wishing death is disgusting

[David]

Originally Posted by petep9000

Stevie's one chance to live immortally was if she had died on the Rock a Little tour. It would have been a Joplin/Morrison/Hendrix-esque rock and roll event for history. She would be more legendary today, she'd be mythical! Of course, she's mythical and legendary in her own eyes, even as one of the living. But you know what I mean, girls would have shaved their heads in despair and made pilgrimages to Paradise Valley to try to commune with Stevie's energy.

I'm getting mental images of Valentino's death and Bette Midler's death in The Rose.

Originally Posted by petep9000

But instead of infamy, we got The Other Side of The Mirror.

Bummer, that. I hate that psychiatrist almost as much as Stevie does.

[NurseDJackson]

Originally Posted by Fiver

IIRC If Anyone Falls is a true co-write with Sandy Stewart. Stevie's lyrics, music by Sandy.

That's what I was thinking. I'd love to know if it's not the case because it'd be very interesting... like Sheryl Crow's Only Love being a mix of Stevie-like lyrics.

The lyrics to IAF are SO Stevie Nicks it's hard to imagine she didn't write them. It's easy to do with Docklands, for example (LOL), but not IAF...