The Stevie Nicks song influenced by Greta Garbo
Stevie Nicks always seemed to have a certain kind of old Hollywood glamour to her. With flowing scarves and dramatic dresses, the Fleetwood Mac singer is a strange mix of 1930s starlet, pagan witch, and new-age hippie. But that embrace of the bright lights had a stark contrast in her music that often yearned for home. Songs like ‘Landslide’ and ‘Gypsy’ were odes to simpler lives, the kind that Nicks was far too famous to actually manage.
Every once in a while, though, Nicks would get a sign from the world outside. In 1994, the Northridge Earthquake demolished parts of Los Angeles. The 6.7 magnitude earthquake caused 57 deaths and at least $25 billion in damage. For Nicks, it was a sign to get away. “There was no possible way I was going to wait around for another earthquake,” she told The Boston Globe that year.
Nicks decided to abscond to Phoenix, Arizona. The decision also came after Nicks left Fleetwood Mac for good and was taking her first steps toward getting free from her addiction to the prescription drug Klonopin. During the sessions for Street Angel, Nicks leaned on the assistance of some famous friends, including guitarist Mike Campbell, pianist Roy Bittain, and even Bob Dylan. Campbell helped Nicks write her ode to escape, ‘Greta’.
“I have often thought, maybe I’ll just go paint, or maybe I’ll go and write that book that everybody wants me to write about my life, or maybe I’ll just go do something else really creative for a while, and I have never been able to quite do that,” Nicks told the Associated Press in 1994. “So I’ve always been fascinated to know why. What drove [Greta Garbo] away?”
The song’s title refers to the famous actress of the same name, who abruptly retired from acting at the age of 35 after appearing in just 28 films across two decades. Garbo gave no interviews, no public appearances, and no apologies or reasoning for her decision to leave the limelight. For Nicks, the parallels she found in her escape to Phoenix made Garbo the perfect avatar for herself.
“After the earthquake, I went to Phoenix, and I’ve been there ever since until I went back for [the Street Angel tour] rehearsal. And I’m giving up my house in Los Angeles,” Nicks told WMMR in 1994. “Yeah, I’m gonna move all my breakable objects back to Phoenix because it’s really, you know, it’s kind of a war zone there. Even though it didn’t scare me that bad, the earthquake, I have lots of friends, Liza [Jane Edwards] for one, who literally just moved out of town the next couple of months.”
Check out ‘Greta’ down below.
