STEVIE NICKS – BELLA DONNA (2016 REMASTER GOLD VINYL)
Release Date: 1/17/2020
The first solo album from two-time Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductee, Stevie Nicks. The timeless album features the hit songs: “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Leather and Lace,” and “Edge of Seventeen”.
DISC 1
1. Bella Donna (2016 Remaster) 5.18
2. Kind of Woman (2016 Remaster) 3.08
3. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers) [2016 Remaster] 4.02
4. Think About It (2016 Remaster) 3.33
5. After the Glitter Fades (2016 Remaster) 3.27
DISC 2
1. Edge of Seventeen (2016 Remaster) 5.28
2. How Still My Love (2016 Remaster) 3.51
3. Leather and Lace (2016 Remaster) Stevie Nicks & Don Henley 3.55
By Ryan Reed
Rolling Stone Online
October 11, 2019
How an in-studio bathroom replica, juvenile dick jokes, and a Peter Green guitar cameo informed the band’s sprawling, experimental follow-up to Rumours
BOSTON, MA – NOVEMBER 17: Stevie Nicks performs with Fleetwood Mac at the Boston Garden on Nov. 17, 1979. (Photo by Janet Knott/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Fleetwood Mac’s 12th album is both demented and debonair, familiar and foreign — a sprawling double LP that, like the Beatles’ White Album before it, reveled in its own messiness, jumbling together the work of three distinct songwriters. Singer Stevie Nicks and keyboardist Christine McVie carried the commercial weight on Tusk, penning playful pop grooves (the latter’s “Think About Me”) and stormy rockers (the former’s “Sisters of the Moon”) that massaged the same sweet spot as their previous record, the mega-platinum 1977 masterwork Rumours.
But Lindsey Buckingham was unwilling to repeat himself. Savoring the edgier modern sounds of New Wave and punk, the singer-guitarist prepared to march into the unknown — whether or not his bandmates were interested in the journey. That friction ultimately defines Tusk, the band’s fractured masterpiece.
“The explosion of the punk movement had changed the musical landscape, and the popular conception was that bands like ours, Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Elton John and everyone else from our era, were a bunch of dinosaurs who’d lost touch with the real world,” drummer Mick Fleetwood wrote in his 2014 autobiography, Then Play On. “That wasn’t true, of course — we were in touch and aware of all those changes in culture, Lindsey most of all. He was intrigued by punk bands like the Clash and lots of New Wave artists such as Talking Heads and Laurie Anderson, and he wanted to follow that muse creatively. The issue for him was whether or not he was going to be able to do that with the rest of us.”Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’: 10 Things You Didn’t Know | Rolling Stone→
Deep cut from 1989’s ‘The Other Side of the Mirror’ summed up what Nicks called a “magical time” in her career
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Ian Dickson/REX/Shutterstock (8289678b) Stevie Nicks in concert, 28 November 1989 Stevie Nicks in concert, Wembley Arena, London, UK – 1980s
Happy birthday to Stevie Nicks’ best song ever, “Ooh My Love.” It’s a buried treasure in her legendary career — never a hit, not even a single. She’s never sung it live. Just a deep cut from her most tragically underrated solo album, The Other Side of the Mirror, released 30 years ago, in the last days of May 1989. The album fell through the cracks — nobody was really checking for solo Stevie in the late Eighties. But it’s prized by hardcore Stevie freaks, especially “Ooh My Love.” For some of us, it sums up everything that makes her the ultimate rock queen — her most soulful moment ever, with or without Fleetwood Mac. If I had five minutes to convince a jury she’s a genius, “Ooh My Love” is what I would play. When my time comes, bury me with this song in Stevie’s shawl vault.
When I interviewed her in 2014, I confessed “Ooh My Love” was my favorite. “That’s one of my favorites too,” she said. “In fact, The Other Side of the Mirror is probably my favorite album. Those songs were written right before the Klonopin kicked in. ‘In the shadow of the castle walls’ — that song was very important to me. I was lucky those songs were written when they were, before that nasty tranquilizer. It was a really intense record. People don’t talk about that record much, but it was different from all the others. It was a moment in time. I had gotten away from the cocaine in 1986. I spent a year writing those songs. I was drug-free and I was happy.” Continue reading How Stevie Nicks’ Lost Masterpiece ‘Ooh My Love’ Became a Cult Fan Favorite | Rolling Stone→
A career-spanning box set documents the Fleetwood Mac singer’s influence as a solo artist, starting with her 1981 debut Bella Donna and its beguilingly witchy, feminine energy
The original vinyl insert of Bella Donna features just one photo of Stevie Nicks. Wearing a black dress with sheer lace sleeves, she peers over her right shoulder squarely at the camera, with a look that’s defiant yet a tad bashful. Next to Nicks are her two co-vocalists on the album, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry. The former sits stiffly on a formal antique couch, studiously looking at the floor; the latter perches on piece of ridiculously ornate wooden furniture, her arm slung over one knee.
The sisterhood evident in the photo and on the sleeve info (the vocalists are prominently credited, directly below Nicks) isn’t merely an aesthetic choice. It’s a reflection of the striking feminine energy underpinning the music on the 1981 disc, which topped the US and Australian album charts and launched the Fleetwood Mac member’s solo career. In the liner notes of a deluxe 2016 reissue, Nicks recalled that the Bella Donna sessions started with her, Celani and Perry in the living room of a rented oceanside home, working out harmonies and singing together while the album’s musical director, Benmont Tench (keyboardist with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), added accompaniment.
Once these sessions moved into the studio, this carefree camaraderie continued. The women sang together live and recorded live with the other musicians, leading to harmonies that pop out of the mix: a twangy chorus on the title track; R&B coos on the anxious Edge of Seventeen; soulful rock’n’roll oohs on How Still My Love. Unlike other rock albums of the early 80s, Bella Donna doesn’t overdo it with synthesisers or production gloss, which gives space for Nicks to bloom as a lead vocalist. She belts out the title track with passionate vibrato, matches Tom Petty’s ragged, wary tone on Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around and provides a tender, open-hearted foil to Don Henley on Leather and Lace.
Stevie Nicks being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in March. Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Producer Jimmy Iovine recruited a gaggle of hotshot male musicians for the studio sessions, including members of the Heartbreakers, the E Street Band and Eagles. Waddy Wachtel (and, on occasion, Mike Campbell) tosses off searing guitar licks, while Russ Kunkel’s reassuring drums, Tench’s lush organ and Roy Bittan’s introspective piano adds depth. The pedal steel-dipped After the Glitter Fades hints at the country music Nicks grew up on, thanks to her grandfather. On How Still My Love and Outside the Rain, the music channels the easygoing blues rock of her beloved Heartbreakers. Bella Donna is decidedly a separate entity from Fleetwood Mac, free of that band’s musical tension and sonic restlessness.
Nicks and Jackson are among the seven acts honoured this year
Harry Styles presents Stevie Nicks onstage at the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in Brooklyn on 29 March, 2019 in New York City. ( (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images For The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) )
Stevie Nicks, Janet Jackson and The Cure lead this year’s class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, which includes seven acts in total.
All were honoured during a five-hour ceremony in Brooklyn’s Barclays Centre on Friday. Radiohead, Def Leppard, Roxy Music and The Zombies are also among the seven singers and bands getting recognised this year for having contributed “over 25 years of musical excellence”.
Nicks, who was previously inducted into the hall of fame along with the rest of Fleetwood Mac, became the first woman to receive the distinction twice. She and Jackson called for other women to join them in music immortality, as they were honoured at the same time as five all-male British bands.
In their first interview since firing their longtime guitarist, the group discusses balancing lingering tensions with an expanded live palette
Fleetwood Mac discuss life after Lindsey Buckingham and plans for their massive, upcoming tour. Randee St Nicholas
A little over a month ago, the majority of Fleetwood Mac – Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood – quietly gathered at a little theater in Maui with their future in doubt. The band had secretly parted ways with Lindsey Buckingham, the longtime guitarist and voice behind many of their most enduring songs. According to the group, the split came down to a scheduling conflict surrounding a world tour. “We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June and he wanted to put it off until November [2019],” says Nicks. “That’s a long time. I just did 70 shows [on a solo tour]. As soon as I finish one thing, I dive back into another. Why would we stop? We don’t want to stop playing music. We don’t have anything else to do. This is what we do.”
So instead, they invited Mike Campbell, the former guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and spent a few days workshopping tunes from their vast catalog to see if this new lineup had the right chemistry. “I immediately felt like I’d known them for years,” says Christine McVie, “even though we’d only just met.”
The new lineup will embark on a massive 52-date tour beginning October 3rd in Tulsa and criss-crossing the country before wrapping up in Philadelphia in April 2019. Tickets for the tour go on sale Friday, May 4th at 10 a.m. local time. (A complete itinerary is listed below.) The group also announced the launch of a SiriusXM channel devoted to the band beginning Tuesday, May 1st. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac Detail New Tour and Talk Life After Lindsey Buckingham | Rolling Stone→
Just three years ago, when Fleetwood Mac was awash in good vibes after the return of Christine McVie, MOJO Magazine asked Mick Fleetwood if it was the classic lineup or nothing. The drummer, who has anchored the British band with bassist John McVie since 1967, responded: “This is it, to me. Emotionally, if you think of the enormity of what has happened, the surprise of what has happened, the doors that have opened to be walked through…if you were writing a book, you’d go, ‘Isn’t it a shame I can’t end it like this?’ We’ve had the chance to end it like that and I wouldn’t dream of it any other way.”
Dreams never last. It was only a matter of time before Fleetwood’s rosy summary of the future of rock’s most mercurial band shattered, and April 9, 2018 brought the news. Lindsey Buckingham–the guitarist/singer/producer/songwriter who sat at the foundation of Fleetwood Mac since 1975–would not joining the band on its farewell tour later this year. Shortly after the story broke in Variety, it was reported by Rolling Stonethat Buckingham was fired over disagreements concerning this tour.
Details remain sketchy but as its surprise reveal fades, Buckingham’s departure seems like the inevitable end to his time in Fleetwood Mac. After all, the group had eight guitarists before he joined and, with this year’s addition of Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, there have been six other members that have played with the group once Lindsey left them high and dry. Buckingham may have played a pivotal part of Fleetwood Mac’s story but it was only a part–one that was fraught with so much creative tension, it’s a wonder either of his tenures lasted as long as they did. Here we’ve created a brief history of Buckingham’s time with the band.
***
1973: As Fleetwood Mac release Mystery To Me, their fifth album to feature Christine McVie and guitarist Bob Welch, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks debut with Buckingham Nicks, a sweet, hazy collection of folky Southern Californian soft-rock produced by Ken Olsen. Buckingham Nicks sinks without a trace, leaving the duo nearly destitute and looking for a break. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham Goes His Own Way (Again): A Timeline | Spin→
Will Fleetwood Mac release a new studio album? Will Stevie Nicks join the band in recording the album? Will Stevie Nicks tour again with Fleetwood Mac? Is there a future for Fleetwood Mac?
So many questions, all without any real answers from the band, other than that Stevie Nicks is touring her 2014 album “24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault” making up time she gave to Fleetwood Mac for the “On With The Show” that brought Christine McVie back into Fleetwood Mac.
However, the rest of the band (well that is not technically accurate as John McVie does not generally say anything to the press) have been talking about recording new music for a new potential Fleetwood Mac studio album and the possibility of another worldwide tour that is likely to be scheduled to co-incide with the 40th anniversary of Rumours, as well as the 50th anniversary of the band being formed and the 30th anniversary of Tango In The Night and 20th anniversary of The Dance (Fleetwood Mac seems to have a thing for years with seven in them!!)
But, Stevie Nicks appears not to be committing to the band, is she about to splinter the group and force a Fleetwood, McVie, McVie and Buckingham version of the band to cement their legacy and exploit the huge commercial opening that will begin next year when the anniversary year for Fleetwood Mac commences, this will likely be the last hurrah for the band before old father time chimes in. Continue reading UPDATED: Is Stevie Nicks damaging the Fleetwood Mac legacy?→
Classic Rock Magazine (Issue 246)
By Gary Graff
4th Feb 2018
After going from small fry to big Mac, now she balances the band and a solo career.
Stevie Nicks may appear to have a complicated and ambivalent relationship with Fleetwood Mac, but you’d be bard-premed to find a greater public proponent for the band. Since 1981 the writer and singer of Rhiannon, Dreams, Sara and many more has juggled a successful solo career alongside being in the group and has sometimes frustrated her bandmates with her priorities. But Nicks still swears allegiance to the Mac and is always ready to add a new chapter to the saga – when it fits.
You maintain an active and successful solo career, as well as membership in Fleetwood Mac. What’s the agar of doing both?
Solo work and Fleetwood Mac is a really great thing to be able to go back and forth to. You can do your own thing until you get bored and then you can go to the other thing and do that until you start to get bored, and then you can go back to the other thing. It helps you stay more excited and uplifted for what you do so you’re not just doing one thing year after year.
It keeps it fresh, in other words.
Basically, what we are is entertainers. When we go on stage we’re performers. That’s what we do. Even if this band had never made it big, we’d be playing all the dubs. So it isn’t a question of keeping it fresh, it’s that were doing what we love and we don’t have anything else, basically, to do.
What’s the most difficult adjustment when you move between the two?
From the very beginning, when I was seventeen, I wanted to be in a band. When you’re in a band you’re a team. When I’m in solo work, I’m the boss. I have gone back and forth about it in my head. I’ve decided I do like being the boss, but I’ve been in Fleetwood Mac for so long I understand how to not be the boss and be part of a team and a team player and it’s okay. Part of it knocks your ego down, makes you humble. So there’s a lot of good things about being in a band. Continue reading Stevie Nicks Interview | Classic Rock Magazine→
Stevie Nicks has paid an emotional tribute to her friend Tom Petty.
The singer was close to tears as she spoke about the Free Fallin’ star, who died last year from an accidental overdose.
Speaking at the MusiCares Person of the Year event in New York honouring her band Fleetwood Mac, she said: “The loss of Tom Petty has just about broken my heart.”
She added: “He was not only a good man to go down the river with, as Johnny Cash said, he was a great father and he was a great friend.
“He was one of my best friends. My heart will never get over this.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.