The Fleetwood Mac album Stevie Nicks had little to do with: “It was very frustrating”
When most people think of Fleetwood Mac, they think of Stevie Nicks, and for good reason. Though she wasn’t part of the original lineup, Nicks and her partner in songwriting and romance, Lindsey Buckingham, were recruited to join the soft-rock band in the winter of 1974. They would quickly become indispensable to the group’s sound and success, contributing drama and hits in equal measure.
By 1977, the band were ready to unveil their magnum opus, Rumours. It was a record that showed off the tension between the band, with many songs spawning from the relationship troubles and substance abuse issues brewing behind the scenes. But it was also a record that showed off the songwriting prowess of Nicks.
Nicks contributed her penmanship to four stellar tracks, or five if you count the later addition of ‘Silver Springs’, which cemented her as one of the band’s primary songwriters. From the hazy ‘Dreams’ to the sprawling ‘The Chain’, her gorgeous melodies and musings proved to be instant hits. In fact, ‘Dreams’ was Fleetwood Mac’s only single to reach number one in the United States.
Nicks’ voice was to the success of Rumours, so it would make sense that she was just as involved in the band’s follow-up record. However, this was not the case. When Tusk arrived two years later, it was Buckingham’s brainchild. Nicks had very little involvement in the process, and she hadn’t even agreed with the title of the record.
A slightly more experimental work than its wildly successful predecessor, Tusk took Fleetwood Mac in a new direction. Buckingham was pulling from post-punk and more experimental realms, looking to create something new. It took him over a year to do so – 13 months to be exact – a timespan that Nicks considered to be “ridiculous”.
Speaking with BAM Magazine, Nicks remembered, “I was there in the studio every day – or almost every day – but I probably only worked for two months. The other 11 months, I did nothing, and you start to lose it after a while if you’re inactive.” Nicks spent most of her time watching her bandmates from the other side of the studio.
“After four or five hours, they’d forget I was even there,” she remembered, “they’d be so wrapped up in little details. It was very frustrating”. Nicks did contribute her songwriting powers to several songs on Tusk, including the wistful second single, ‘Sara’, and the gorgeous ‘Storms’. Still, she didn’t feel like she was reaching her full potential creatively.
Though Nicks divulged that she loved the songs, she didn’t love how inactive she was during this period and believed that the record could have been completed much quicker. “I’m being totally truthful,” Nicks concluded, “I had very little to do with that record.” Despite her contributions to some of the best songs on Tusk, her absence in the direction of the record can certainly be felt.
It made sense, then, that Nicks jumped at the opportunity to go solo in the early 1980s. She shrugged off the creative drought of Tusk and immersed herself in the making of Bella Donna, her debut offering as a solo artist. It was witchy and wonderful and written almost entirely by Nicks, proving that she was severely underused on Tusk.
