Put simply, Stevie Nicks has done it all. With a string of hugely
successful albums to her credit 1 as a solo artist and as a member of the
legendary Fleetwood Mac, plus countless SRO concert tours around the world,
Stevie has remained one of rock music's most compelling and beloved voices.
The fact that she has nothing to prove certainly doesn't mean she takes her work
any less seriously, or approaches it with any less passion than she ever did.
For evidence of that, one need look no further than "STREET ANGEL," Stevie's
sixth solo album.
"l feel excited every time l do a new project," Stevie says. "l look forward to
doing something different, meeting new people, making new music." As for "STREET
ANGEL," she adds, "I'm totally excited about this new record, l can't wait for
people to hear it. l sit in my living room and crank up the old surround sound,
and it instantly gets me on my feet."
That's not surprising, considering the quality of Stevie's own
writing and vocal performances on the album, as well as the tasty contributions
of her collaborators. Produced by Stevie and Thom Panunzio (who has worked with
the likes of U2, Bob Seger, and Joan Jeff), "STREET ANGEL" features such stellar
players as keyboardist Benmont Tench (from Tom Perry's Heartbreakers) and
guitarists Mike Campbell (another Heartbreaker), Andy Fairweather Low, former
Eagle Bernie Leadon, and Waddy Wachtel; not to mention special guest stars Bob
Dylan and David Crosby. All in all, "STREET ANGEL" was well worth the wait.
In the two plus years since the release of 'TIMESPACE: THE BEST OF STEVIE
NICKS," she has kept busy with various projects: writing, painting, and taking
photographs; participating in the compilation of "25 YEARS THE CHAIN" (the 1992 Fleetwood Mac four CD set that included the new Stevie
Nicks song, "Paper Doll"); and preparing for her final appearance with Fleetwood
Mac a performance of "Don't Stop" at President Clinton's January 1993
Inauguration. During all of that time, Stevie recalls, "l was thinking about
'STREET ANGEL.' l already had the title song in mind, for instance; l wanted it
to be about people whose dreams have gone bad. l had an idea of a Charles
Dickens style character, a homeless woman who doesn't want to leave the streets,
and the rich man who loves her."
If 'TIMESPACE," a compilation album with three new songs, marked what Stevie
calls "the end of an era," then it follows that "STREET ANGEL" is the beginning
of a new one. And it is... but with a twist. "In a lot of ways, l think this
record goes back to 'BELLA DONNA,' she notes. "There's much more emphasis on
guitar than on synthesizers."
Two songs on "STREET ANGEL" a eliminating the ones that we thought are actually
among Stevie's oldest; 'Destiny" and "Rose Garden" were written well over twenty
years ago. "Actually, I've tried to record those songs a few times over the
years," she explains. "l knew they were good songs; songs that people would be
able to relate to. But there would always be a little voice that told me it
wasn't the right time. So this time l just said, 'Let's try again -- let's see
if this group of musicians can do it.' And they did."
'I started with over 40 songs," says Stevie about the genesis of "STREET ANGEL."
"We cut it down to about 17, all of which we actually recorded before going
through that inevitable, painful process of didn't fit." The 13 songs finally
chosen for the album tend to fit Stevie's "back to the basics" idea for this
outing: straight forward verse chorus verse structures, as opposed to the more
open style of many of her earlier songs, both solo and with Fleetwood Mac.
"We spent a lot of time on the arrangements," notes Stevie. "We spent a good
six, seven weeks sitting together in a room in my house before we ever went into
the studio. There were times when I'd be going, 'But why does it need a chorus?
Why can't it be like a Bob Dylan song?' In the end, we came up with arrangements
that l liked."
Appropriately, there actually is a Bob Dylan song on "STREET ANGEL" Nicks's
interpretation of "Just Like A Woman," with the man himself appearing on guitar
and harmonica. "He didn't want to do anything on it... until l begged him,"
Stevie laughs. 'I told him, 'There's got to be some sort of spiritual
connection. A lot of people will have never heard this song, and it's got to
have you on it."
"STREET ANGEL" is a collection not just of songs but of experiences. "l don't
just make up stories and turn them into songs," Stevie explains. Whether it's
something like "Greta," a tribute to the late Greta Garbo; "Blue Denim,"
inspired by "that colour of blue denim that your favourite jeans have, that kind
of grey blue; or "Jane," a song written for the legendary Jane Goodall, whose
enlightening and compassionate studies have shown the similarities between
humans and chimpanzees -- Nicks's songs "are all about something l feel or
someone l know. I've always looked at my albums as little movies."
In the more than twenty years since the release of 'BUCKINGHAM NICKS," the album
with Lindsey Buckingham that marked her recording debut, Stevie Nicks has
evolved, very simply, into "a better writer not just a songwriter, but a writer,
period." Indeed, she is in the process of putting together a book entitled
"DREAMS, STORIES, and POEMS," culled largely from the journals she's kept over
the years; aside from her writings, it will also include some of her drawings
and photographs.
It will come as good news to Stevie Nicks fans everywhere that she has no plans
to stop making the kind of music that has brought her international stardom.
"you know," she says, "sometimes I'll be sitting in an airport or someplace,
waiting, absolutely exhausted; maybe I'm late for a rehearsal or something, and
all l really want to do is be alone at home reading in a bubble bath. I'll be
just about to completely lose it when some shy person will carefully approach me
and tell me about how much a certain song of mine helped them through a crisis
or a time in their own life...
'That's exactly what makes it all worth it. What l get back from those who
listen to my music cannot ever be measured. It's all about love, and trust, and
acceptance, and it is completely priceless."
6/94
STEVIE
NICKS: THE SOLO ALBUMS
1981
BELLA DONNA
1983
THE WILD HEART
1985
ROCK A LITTLE
1989
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR
1991
TIMESPACE: THE BEST OF STEVIE NICKS
1994
STREET ANGEL
Modern Records
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