The song Stevie Nicks wrote to spite Mick Fleetwood: “It was a fuck-you to Mick”
No band is obligated to be a united front every time they make a record. It’s hard to get anyone on the same page for more than a few seconds in the studio when they all have different opinions about the tune should go, so capturing that lightning in a bottle was bound to be a miracle. And while Fleetwood Mac managed to pull off multiple miracles when recording Rumours, Stevie Nicks wasn’t willing to just forgive Mick Fleetwood when recording her song, ‘Storms’.
Then again, the real problem with the record has nothing to do with Nicks and everything to do with Lindsey Buckingham. He was already becoming domineering about his work on Rumours, but when it became one of the most profitable albums on Earth, the guitarist was convinced that the only way to make a new record would be to embrace his own vision and make wild off-the-wall experiments no one had thought of.
So when Buckingham wasn’t trying his hand at becoming a new wave artist, Nicks was writing some of her most personal tracks. ‘Sara’ had already been a gripping tale to her unborn child with Don Henley, but ‘Storms’ reflected on her time with Fleetwood. In between the interband relationships running amok, Nicks and Fleetwood ended up having an affair midway through Rumours as well.
Whereas Nicks took the high road when talking about her struggles with Buckingham on ‘Dreams’, she wasn’t willing to be treated like less of a band member by the drummer once they called everything off. After all, she was the one who helped launch their career as rustic rock legends, and even if his name was on the front of the marquee, she knew she held that audience in the palm of her hand when she got onstage.
So when writing the first lines, Nicks wanted each word to sound like it was cutting into Fleetwood’s soul, telling The Guardian, “Oh, that one was a – excuse my language – fuck-you to Mick. I sat at my piano, a feminist woman, and I wrote it, to say that nothing you or anybody else can do to me can change the fact that, as the opening line goes: ‘Every night that goes between / I feel a little less.’”
Then again, Fleetwood was already dealing with his own demons at the time as well. Everyone had been strung out on drugs throughout their last record, but Fleetwood had to deal with Nick walking away from him, all while his wife and children were also walking out of his life because of how absent he was facing.
For as biting as the words are, though, it’s hard to look at ‘Storms’ as strictly a response to Fleetwood. This is about Nicks staking her claim as one of the best in her field, and even if the rest of the world didn’t accept her as a songwriter, she was going to keep releasing music that built herself up as the greatest of her peers.
And given how well Bella Donna shaped up, it’s not like she couldn’t find the tunes. Nicks always had an uphill battle in Fleetwood Mac by being one of three seasoned songwriters, but even if she was just singing acapella, she was going to dominate any concert the group ever played.
