“The people I learned from”: The albums Stevie Nicks listened to over a hundred times
Every great artist is normally focused on pushing their craft forward whenever they play. As fun as it is trying to rest on your laurels, it gets to be just a little bit boring when all you have to worry about is making the same tired schlock that everyone is doing and just watching all the fans gobble it up like it’s nothing. On the other hand, being a legend is about taking risks, and Stevie Nicks knew that.
Whether it was writing off school and working with Lindsey Buckingham or agreeing to be a part of Fleetwood Mac with very little experience, Nicks has rarely let herself settle for the safe road. However, that doesn’t mean she didn’t find inspiration elsewhere, and when looking for an idol, she couldn’t go wrong following her own heart when she started listening to Joni Mitchell’s classic records.
Then again, it would be a bit reductive to say that Nicks copied Mitchell’s sound wholesale or anything. Some of her best moments came from when she embraced a little bit more, and when she was with Fleetwood Mac, no one could argue that she transformed into the personification of ‘Rhiannon’ every time she got onstage to sing.
And whereas Mitchell was well-versed in the world of jazz and rock, Nicks always had a bluesier side to her that no one else had seen before. There were still pieces of sophistication to her sound, but looking through her collaborations with Tom Petty on ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, she could do those kinds of down-and-out love songs better than pretty much any other songwriter in her field.
But if Nicks had a full-frontal assault whenever she sang, Mitchell was comfortable with having a slow burn throughout her career. Not every one of her songs was meant to become anthems in the same way that Bob Dylan or Neil Young were doing, but when listening to them long enough, albums like Blue and Court and Spark burrow their way into your heart without you really noticing it on a few instances. One day, it’ll sound like nothing, and the next, it will be like Mitchell had acquired a map of your emotional spectrum.
And that’s without cowering to the traditional pop song formula, either. Looking at albums like Hejira, the thought of having a pop song with such advanced jazz chords would have seemed unthinkable, but leave it to Mitchell to create something with the purest words possible, along with a jazz-fusion chord progression that could come from a Steely Dan record.
Style is one thing, but Nicks was after the heart of every song, and she knew Mitchell’s first few albums had a certain magic to them, saying, “I don’t, usually. In the beginning, I was inspired by songwriters like Jackson Browne, David Crosby, the Eagles, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield – those are the people I learned from. And I probably listened to Joni Mitchell’s For the Roses, Blue and Court and Spark a hundred million times.”
Although Nicks was a lot more identifiable as a rock star, it’s not like she cowered to a certain formula, either. Her songs on Rumors and Tusk take time to sprawl out a lot more than Linsey Buckingham’s, and even if she didn’t have as much instrumental prowess, each of her hits sounds like she’s inviting the listener into this sonic world.
Most people can look to their favourite artists for guidance on how to play certain melodies, but Nicks was interested in Mitchell for more than just the tunes. Anyone can teach someone how to play music, but Mitchell helped teach every one of her successors how to play people’s emotions.
