Stevie Nicks’ struggles with fame and the song that helped her fight back
Some of the best music in history was inspired by moments of intense heartache and pain. Just ask Stevie Nicks, who understands better than anybody what it’s like to have her heart broken for all to see.
That said, Nicks also understands that these moments and experiences often breed the best kinds of art. Take Rumours as an example: every single member of Fleetwood Mac understands that, had everything been great between each other at the time, the record would have turned out completely different, and probably wouldn’t have been as successful or iconic in the long run.
As Nicks once said, “There wouldn’t have been a Rumours if everything had been fabulous.”
Hence, many of Nicks’ best songs are about her perils in love and relationships, centring on the stories that most of us know well – from her tumultuous journey with Lindsey Buckingham to the fleeting but passionate romance she shared with Don Henley. Many of these dynamics also played out in the spotlight, a challenge that often made it difficult for Nicks to process and heal from her own experiences.
In the past, Nicks has mainly discussed how fame made her feel pressured for different reasons, one of which was her changing appearance as she got older. The hardest part was when she would come out on stage to an audience who expected her to look how she did at the start of her career, and when she didn’t, they couldn’t comprehend it. In her own words, “I could see the disappointment in people’s faces when they’d see me walk in, and I would go, ‘I’m so sorry I’m not the Stevie you used to love.’”
At the same time, constantly navigating strain in her personal life and the fast-paced nature of being a rock star took its toll, and what started as having fun with her peers eventually blossomed into a full-blown cocaine addiction. By which point, relationships became virtually impossible, as she was not only distracted by the job but was also working hard to survive at the same time.
When Nicks released 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, with songs recorded in 1969 and 1987, many of the tracks revealed how she was feeling during the most intense moments in her career. ‘Belle Fleur’, for instance, tackled the challenge of starting and maintaining relationships at the peak of fame, with lyrics that include Nicks’ familiar whimsy, starting as an ode to witch-like figures who are sworn to a life of solitude: “Mountain women / Living in the canyon / Canyon dancin’ / All night long / They form a circle / Hand in hand / Are you with me lady stranger / Her voice rings / Are you lookin’ for a man.”
In 2015, Nicks was asked by Maclean’s whether there was any connection between the song and Joni Mitchell’s ‘Ladies of the Canyon’, to which she said that it means something completely different. “This song wasn’t about that,” she said, explaining that ‘Belle Fleur’ was about “not being able to have a relationship because you were a rock ’n’ roll star.” She claimed the women in the song to all be her and friends she had from 1975 to 1978, and that the lyric about coming to the “door of a long black car” was the limousine that came to take her away.
She also recalled moments when partners would ask her when she would be returning from the road, and she wouldn’t be able to give them a straight answer. She “lived that song so many times”, she explained, because she’d have to commit to her music over any brewing love affair. As such, the witches in the mountains were a metaphor she used to depict her “coming back from shows and taking polaroids all night long”.
In spite of all of that, the song also has a sense of liberation and beauty, suggesting Nicks’ desire to fight back and take ownership of something she couldn’t always control. Just as many of her best songs gave her own perspectives on things she no doubt found difficult to talk about, much less navigate on her own, ‘Belle Fleur’ seems to be some kind of ritualistic means of giving something troubling a firm sense of resolve.
