'Rolling Stone Magazine' review of 'The Wild Heart' (July 7, 1983)

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

I don't think it was because they were old farts. They never took her serious and viewed her of an airy fairy performer with shtick. They were probably licking their lips when Bella Donna came out but shrugged and gave it a fairly decent review. Because she was a woman that did not play an instrument that sort of dominated the fans of Fleetwood Mac made her an easy punchline. There is a little sexism mixed in there.
Does anyone have the Rolling Stone review of Fleetwood Mac (1975). Stevie spoke ill of the reviewer for calling her singing "callow."

Originally Posted by David

The Seventies rock press was a little sexist, yes, but that wasn’t the reason they didn’t gush over Stevie Nicks. She was a narcissist without self-awareness and they immediately saw right through her. She was dead earnest with all her mock-profound poetry and adolescent imagery, and you couldn’t expect Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh and Bob Christgau to fall for any of it. Even Stevie’s bandmates in Fleetwood Mac didn’t fall for it.

Yep, she got very self-conscious about that, but her singing on that album was callow — her two lead vocals sound like a small parcel of air that her diaphragm can’t quite push all the way up and out. Her songs are super-strong on that album, but her vocals only shine on the chorus/pre-chorus of “Rhiannon.”

I think the first great vocal she provides on an album was her harmony on “Mohammed’s Radio” for Warren Zevon in 1976. I think that’s when John Rockwell at the New York Times first turned on to Stevie as a singer. He wrote an essay about the song, giving Stevie probably her first great review in a major setting. (Probably also the first time that a backup vocal track earned Stevie plaudits and not Lindsey.)

far more than a little sexism.

I don't think she was any more narcissistic than any other popular singer/performer during the white album times or even the early Rumours era. After the mega success of Rumours she started spiraling out of reality. In the earlier FM days she was very insecure about her performances (her voice gave out far too often) and she hadn't developed a strong live voice. She was firm that her words weren't stupid (and they mostly weren't in those early FM songs) but she did have anxiety about whether she was worthy of being in the band with those talented musicians.

Once the band had a #1 album/grammy/best-selling album of all time (up to that point) and she had written the #1 single.... watch out. And she had become the absolute "it-girl" with EVERYONE wanting to work with her because of her ability to harmonize, and because she brought fans.... Kenny Loggins, John Stewart, Walter Egan, Waylon Jennings (who requested her to write him a song, and then covered GDW), people even went back into her catalog (such as it was) to cover stuff (Firefall doing Crying in the Night, anyone?) The crusty chauvinist snobs at RS did NOT give her the respect she deserved at that time, in part because she was female, cute and she was popular... not some underground cult phenom.

"Old farts" is a state of mind, not necessarily their literal ages.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by David

The Seventies rock press was a little sexist, yes, but that wasn’t the reason they didn’t gush over Stevie Nicks. She was a narcissist without self-awareness and they immediately saw right through her. She was dead earnest with all her mock-profound poetry and adolescent imagery, and you couldn’t expect Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh and Bob Christgau to fall for any of it. Even Stevie’s bandmates in Fleetwood Mac didn’t fall for it.

Yep, she got very self-conscious about that, but her singing on that album was callow — her two lead vocals sound like a small parcel of air that her diaphragm can’t quite push all the way up and out. Her songs are super-strong on that album, but her vocals only shine on the chorus/pre-chorus of “Rhiannon.”

I think the first great vocal she provides on an album was her harmony on “Mohammed’s Radio” for Warren Zevon in 1976. I think that’s when John Rockwell at the New York Times first turned on to Stevie as a singer. He wrote an essay about the song, giving Stevie probably her first great review in a major setting. (Probably also the first time that a backup vocal track earned Stevie plaudits and not Lindsey.)

I agree. We all heard Landslide a million times but if you pretend you never heard it before and are reviewing a new and unknown Mac album I think "callow" would be an appropriate adjective. Its not that she could not sing but there is sort of an amateur quality to it. The live performances took the song to a different level. The same with Rhiannon.