Stevie Nicks’ three favourite solo songs
Few artists can claim a discography as impressive as Stevie Nicks‘. From her early days in Buckingham Nicks to her pivotal role in Fleetwood Mac and her powerful solo career that continues to thrive, Nicks has solidified her place as one of the most cherished voices in rock. Among her many incredible tracks, only three stand out as personal favourites from her solo career.
Most of Nicks’ fans might struggle to pick three top tracks from across her eight solo records. It’s a testament to her power as a musician that her individual works ever came about. Launched during one of Fleetwood Mac’s most tumultuous periods, her decision to release her own music appeared to be something of a life raft for the artist while the group went on hiatus. Giving her a channel to continue to create incredible cathartic and moving music that helped her and only boosted her connection to her fans, her solo albums feel like a chance to get right to the heart of Nicks’ musical and emotional world.
They also beautifully track her evolution as an artist in a more concentrated way. While Fleetwood Mac obviously developed too, the solo albums are free from any outsider input or band politics, allowing them to exist as beautiful time capsules of Nicks during that period. Bella Donna captures whimsical yet rocky best, while The Other Side Of The Mirror evolved into more of a pop sound as she embraced the 1980s.
Each song represents a significant moment in time for Nicks, making it undoubtedly difficult to choose favorites from her vast body of work. However, three tracks stand out as especially meaningful or important, holding a unique place in her heart and career.
The first choice is one that plenty of fans would agree with as she picked out her huge, timeless hit, ‘Edge of Seventeen’. But for Nicks, her love for this song connects to its darker origins as a track of remembrance and resilience in the face of a scary world. “This was written right after John Lennon was assassinated,” she said. “That was a very scary and sad moment for all of us in the rock and roll business, it scared us all to death that some idiot could be so deranged that he would wait outside your apartment building, never having known you, and shoot you dead,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
“So the white dove was John Lennon, and peace,” she said, seeing his memory in the lyrics.
Her second selection also comes from that debut solo album but represents a musical challenge for Nicks. “I really don’t write extremely sexual songs, never have. I’m always going to write about the bouquets and the flowers,” she said, but for ‘How Still My Love’, she embraced seduction. “It’s kind of woozy and it’s slow, but it’s got a really great beat—kind of a strip-tease, a little burlesque, a little Dita Von Teese-y,” she added.
Her third choice, one of her favourite tracks from her solo career, acts as a kind of time capsule for one of the most dramatic moments in her personal life. After the chaos of the breakup between herself and Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac’s emotional tumult got even worse when Nicks and drummer Mick Fleetwood began an affair. She captured the tale in her 1983 The Wild Heart song, ‘Beauty And The Beast’.
“It was definitely about Mick, but it’s also based on the 1946 Jean Cocteau movie. I first saw it on TV one night when Mick and I were first together,” she explained of the title. “I always thought of Mick as being sort of Beauty and the Beast-esque, because he’s so tall and he had beautiful coats down to here, and clothes made by little fairies up in the attic,” she added.
But more so than Fleetwood’s appearance, Nicks related to the doomed love story held in the classic fairy tale. “It matched our story because Mick and I could never be,” she said. But with hindsight, and after writing the beautiful ode to forbidden love, Nicks offered some sage advice as she said, “The moral is, Don’t go out with a gorgeous rock star who goes on the road, just don’t! Because it will never, ever work out”.
