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Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks Wrote a Song Even More Heartbreaking Than “Dreams” or “Silver Springs”
Few people are as good as Stevie Nicks at writing songs that pierce right through your soul. Both in her solo work and with Fleetwood Mac, she has written the best songs about love, heartbreak, and loss. Ever since she was very young, she has known how to capture the rawest feelings in her songs. In fact, she wrote her most heartbreaking song when she was just 25. This track went on to become one of Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits, and it’s hard to believe it was written by a person in her 20s.
Stevie Nicks Wrote This Song About a Difficult Time in Her Life
Stevie Nicks is the mastermind behind several hits about heartbreak and love. “Silver Springs” is the perfect example. In it, Nicks expresses raw anger, pain, love, and revenge. But while this song might be more aggressive in its heartbreak, there is another song that will quietly devastate the listener, and might be the best Fleetwood Mac song. That song is “Landslide.”
In 1973, Stevie Nicks was dating bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. The couple had recently released their album, the first and only one the duo put out, and their future was uncertain. Nicks was accompanying her partner on a trip to Aspen, Colorado, to a rehearsal, because Buckingham had joined Don Everly’s band as a touring musician. It was a difficult time for the couple. Their album, “Buckingham Nicks,” hadn’t done so well, and they were questioning what their next step should be. “It was horrifying to Lindsey and I because we had a taste of the big time, we recorded in a big studio, we met famous people, we made what we consider to be a brilliant record and nobody liked it,” Stevie Nicks explained.
Buckingham had joined Don Everly’s band not because he wanted to be a touring musician, but because they were struggling financially. Meanwhile, Stevie Nicks was working odd jobs. “I had been a waitress and a cleaning lady, and I didn’t mind any of this. I was perfectly delighted to work and support us so that Lindsey could produce and work and fix our songs and make our music.” However, after having had their chance with “Buckingham Nicks,” the prospect of going back to what they used to do felt wrong. “I had gotten to a point where it was like, ‘I’m not happy. I am tired. But I don’t know if we can do any better than this. If nobody likes this, then what are we going to do?’”
Fleetwood Mac Rejected This Hit Song Written by Stevie Nicks Twice Causing Her to Quit the Band
A classic almost went unheard.
“Landslide” Represents Stevie Nicks’ Decision Not to Give Up
“Landslide” is not only a solid track and a moving song; it’s, in a way, the reason why Fleetwood Mac exists. Nicks spent two weeks with Lindsey Buckingham in Aspen while he was rehearsing, and she wrote “Landslide” while they were there. She was reflecting on their future, and the lyrics, while they are now seen as a beautiful metaphor, were very literal at the time.
“I made a decision to continue. “Landslide” was the decision,” Stevie Nicks explained. “‘When you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills’—it’s the only time in my life that I’ve lived in the snow,” she revealed. In Aspen, she was “looking up at those Rocky Mountains and going, ‘Okay, we can do it. I’m sure we can do it.’ In one of my journal entries, it says, ‘I took Lindsey and said, We’re going to the top!’ And that’s what we did. Within a year, Mick Fleetwood called us, and we were in Fleetwood Mac.”
Stevie Nicks was only 25 years old when she wrote this song, which makes it even more impressive. The lyrics, and particularly the chorus, make it seem like it was written by an older person looking back on their life. “Time makes you bolder / Even children get older / And I’m gettin’ older, too,” she sings longingly. She might have been young, but she had lived a lot of life in those short 25 years. She had fallen in love with the man who would become her songwriting partner long after the relationship was over. She had tried and failed at music, and was still about to make a huge impact in the music world. She just didn’t know it. The commercial failure of “Buckingham Nicks” was a low blow for both of them, but Stevie Nicks was wise enough to reflect on the ups and downs in life, putting it into words in a way that shows that even then, she was wise beyond her years. And just like that, she turned her uncertainty and fear into one of the greatest songs ever written.