The song Stevie Nicks has listened to 100 times: “I was overwhelmed”
It was going to be difficult for any song to come easy for Stevie Nicks in Fleetwood Mac.
No one would have ever wanted to continue going to work with one of their exes, but the thought of having to stand next to someone while they’re singing a song about how you broke their heart and how you were sleeping around meant having nerves of steel every time she performed live. Anyone else would have gladly walked out if they had the chance, but the music is what always kept Nicks coming back for more.
After all, Nicks said that nothing was going to make her break up Fleetwood Mac by any stretch. She wanted the chance to make the best music that she could with the best musicians in the world, and no matter how many times she had fights with Lindsey Buckingham, the lyrics in ‘The Chain’ weren’t filler words. They were a mantra for how the band was going to stick through any setback that came their way. Then again, it’s not like Nicks couldn’t get her ideas out somewhere else, either.
Tusk was far from the band’s favourite album to work on, and since Nicks only had a few songs to contribute to the record with Buckingham’s help, she needed another outlet to express herself. The thought of anyone having a solo career in the band would have been the kiss of death in any other outfit, but Nicks managed to toe that line perfectly when she released Bella Donna. The band didn’t need to love tunes like ‘The Edge of Seventeen’, but she could still be around for songs like ‘Gypsy’ in the 1980s.
And when you look at it closely, Nicks’s solo career isn’t necessarily stepping on ‘The Mac’s toes, either. There’s a good chance that the band couldn’t have made ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ like she and Tom Petty could, but if the heartland rocker helped her get her foot in the door, Prince was transfixed by what she could do from the minute that she took the stage for the first time.
Both ‘The Purple One’ and ‘The Gold Dust Woman’ each had their own mystique about them whenever they performed, but Prince wanted to have the chance to bring his musical flavour into the mix on some of her records. Nicks was certainly open to collaborating with him on some level, but for as great as a song like ‘Purple Rain’ was, it was hard for Nicks to think of anything that she could have contributed to it.
Even in its demo form, Nicks felt that the whole thing was almost too perfect, saying, “It was a cassette – and I’ve still got it – with the whole instrumental track and a little bit of Prince singing, ‘Can’t get over that feeling,’ or something. But it was 10 minutes long with the big guitar solo and I was overwhelmed. I told him, ‘Prince, I’ve listened to this a hundred times but I wouldn’t know where to start. It’s a movie, it’s epic.’ It was epic.”
But do you really need me to tell you that ‘Purple Rain’ is a perfect song? Even though the basis of the movie may have been happening around the time that Prince shared the song with Nicks, only a few songs that decade were about to match this tune’s size and scope, down to that final guitar solo, which feels like excitement, love, and heartache all at the same time when he hits those first bends.
It was a thoughtful gesture for Prince to even entertain the idea of giving it away, but leaving this song for Nicks to finish off would have never worked. Nicks was capable of many great tunes and has gone above and beyond most female songwriters, but when you have a masterpiece on your hands like this, it’s best not to tamper with it too much.
