The song that gave Stevie Nicks her laugh back
Professionally, the 1990s were a great time for Stevie Nicks, a decade in which she released a solo compilation album and her band, Fleetwood Mac, released a highly-anticipated four-disk box set.
However, things were a little more complicated in her personal life. A few years prior, she had suffered a bout of chronic fatigue syndrome, something that meant Fleetwood Mac was forced to suspend their Shake the Cage tour. Before the run of live dates, esteemed member of the group Lindsey Buckingham had quit – a decision that, according to John McVie, resulted in a “physically ugly” confrontation between Nicks and Buckingham.
Nicks later said that she had “no memory” of the tour due to her addiction to Klonopin, which was prescribed in an attempt to keep Nicks from returning to her previous addiction to cocaine. Nicks’ escapades with cocaine robbed a lot from her, including the desire to have a baby, but those years weren’t all doom and gloom for the singer. Things would momentarily change in 1991 when Nicks released Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks to mark the 10th anniversary of her career debut.
One of the songs on the album, ‘Love’s A Hard Game To Play’, gave Nicks an experience that she would still remember and cherish for years to come. The song was written by Poison’s Bret Michaels, who Nicks recalls as “an extraordinary man”.
Detailing further, Nicks commented: “[He is] one of those men who has everything – beauty, sensitivity, warmth, and a love for life that I had not seen in a long time”.
Nicks also discussed what it was like writing this song, feeling the urge to be on her best form for Michaels: “I recorded his song, singing it for him to the best of my ability, hoping that the people would love the song as much as we loved doing it,” she said. “A new friend, in this business, who asks for nothing but for me to be happy is a very rare thing”.
Nicks didn’t often let people in from outside of her immediate circle, so finding someone with whom she could collaborate professionally as well as build a friendship was something she admired. “I hope he will remain my friend for a long time,” she admitted, “Because finding someone like him seldom happens in one’s lifetime. But when it does there is nothing like it. He was happy because I believed in him. And he has brought something back to me that I thought I had lost… my laughter.”
A year later, in 1992, Nicks released a six-track compilation “mini album” exclusively in Japan titled Love’s A Hard Game To Play. It included remixes, movie soundtrack cuts, a special live version of ‘Edge Of Seventeen’, and a special message to fans that read: “Thank you for your continued support over the years and I hope that you enjoy this album which has been specially compiled for you in Japan. Much love – Stevie Nicks”.
Lyrically, the song is just as bittersweet as you’d imagine. It tells the story of appreciating one moment of romantic bliss and forgetting the troubles that may have appeared before. Perhaps within a mantra most of us can relate to, Nicks sings: “Just when I feel like I’m losin’ you /I hear the voices call /They say it’s better to have lost at love /Than never to have loved at all”.
