STEVIE NICKS INFO

Category: Street Angel (1994)

  • VINTAGE VIDEO: ‘Blue Denim’ from Late Night with David Letterman

    VINTAGE VIDEO: ‘Blue Denim’ from Late Night with David Letterman

    Stevie’s performance of “Blue Denim” on Late Night with David Letterman (and her entire Street Angel saga) is memorable for a number of reasons. Stevie had recently completed treatment for a debilitating addiction to prescription medication and finally released her fifth solo recording Street Angel after several delays and attempts to “fix” the album.

    Despite the tepid critical response to the album, Stevie forged on with the necessary promotion, which included a national tour and requisite TV appearances, such as the Letterman performance. Rather than sulk or go through the motions, Stevie gave it her all — busting out the bold costumes, whimsical set designs, and powerhouse vocals that longtime fans wanted her to unleash once again. Not all of the transformations worked out, but her gallant efforts proved to the world, and most importantly to her fans, that Stevie Nicks was a rock and roll survivor, crimped hair and all! Perhaps she was channeling the look of future drummer Jimmy Paxson…?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3n_4x4Jbk

  • Dear Superstar: Stevie Nicks

    Dear Superstar: Stevie Nicks

    1977-stevieTuesday, May 1, 2007
    Blender
    www.blender.com

    A pineapple scent wafts through Stevie Nicks’s Maui house. Outside, the Pacific Ocean laps at volcanic rocks, and inside, New Age music fills the air. Just when you get the feeling a unicorn is about to saunter into view, Nicks opens her mouth and starts talking about menopause. “It drives people crazy when I bring it up, but I think it’s important,” she says.

    The 58-year-old Fleetwood Mac star has always been more candid than your average witchy woman. The singer of such stone classics as “Dreams,” “Rhiannon” and “Edge of Seventeen,” she doesn’t mind answering questions about her past vices (coke: yes; heroin: hell no) and her past consorts (including bandmates Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, who owns the house across the street). During rock’s golden age of excess, she was a top-ranking diva, demanding the presidential suites at hotels and traveling by private train. She’s even been the star of two episodes of Behind the Music, but curled up on the sofa today, the ethereal one seems more or less at peace.

    “This is my vacation time,” she says with a laugh. Some vacation — she’s been assembling Crystal Visions … The Very Best of Stevie Nicks, a CD/DVD solo-career retrospective. In May, she’ll head out on tour. Perhaps, we ask hopefully, there’s one last Fleetwood Mac reunion in the works? “I can’t tell you that,” she demurs. “But the doors are never closed … ”

    It’s July 1977. Describe your average day.
    Russian.Bear, Lexington, VA

    We would have been working on Rumours in Los Angeles. An average day would have been getting up and going to the studio, pretty much six days a week. It was fun. I enjoy the process of recording. I’d have my special chair, my special coffee cup — I’m very at home there. And every day somebody brings something: Somebody brings fishnets and puts them over the lamps, somebody brings pillows, and then Mick Fleetwood brings a statue and pretty soon there’s a pair of giant African elephant tusks bracketing the soundboard.

    What is “Gold Dust Woman” really about?
    Aronowizz, Kingston, NY

    The “Gold Dust” thing came from a street in Phoenix, where I grew up, which is called Gold Dust Lane or Avenue or something. “Gold Dust Woman” was kind of a premonition of the beginning of the drug world. When I say, “take your silver spoon and dig your grave” it sounds like I was right in the middle of the drugs, but I really wasn’t; there weren’t any drugs around Fleetwood Mac for quite a while. But it was a premonition of getting famous really fast and being thrown into a whole culture. “Gold Dust Woman” was just me looking around and going, This is a pretty scary society down here, and boy, I hope we make it.

    Have you ever watched the Fleetwood Mac Behind the Music? Is there any part of it that just makes you cringe?
    VanMan1969, Reading, MA

    I think both of the Behind the Musics — the Stevie Nicks and the Fleetwood Mac one — are really good. I’m proud of those shows. And today, if they’re on, I’ll watch them and I’ll cry! They should be shown to all the girls going into rehab — just watch my Behind the Music episodes and learn what not to do!

    Was Lindsey Buckingham the great love of your life?
    Epress3x, Amarillo, TX

    “Great love” connotes a lot of things. He was the great musical love of my life. I can compare it to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in that movie — they loved each other for two reasons. You can love somebody because you fall in love with them, but you also love what they do. And that’s a double whammy.

    Do you have any tips on conducting an office romance?
    Illisimo5673, Altamonte Springs, FL

    Your office is my road; it’s all the same thing. And I think that it never works and will always, always backfire. Those relationships are over once the intensity of the moment is over. And then somebody gets hurt. It never works.

    Which lyric are you most proud of?
    Lbubbrs, Los Angeles

    That’s hard. Any song of mine that goes out into the world I’m pretty proud of. Hmmm … I’m thinking about a song called “Storms,” off Tusk. “Every night that goes between/I feel a little less/As you slowly go away from me/This is only another test/Every hour of fear I spend/My body tries to cry/Living through each empty night/A deadly call inside.” Those lyrics came out when I was really hurting.

    Is it true that Lindsay Lohan is going to play you in a movie?
    Empier81, Lompoc, CA

    Lindsay Lohan thinks she is going to play me! But what the hell movie does she think she’s talking about? There is no book, there is no screenplay, there is no movie. There is never going to be a movie made without me, because it’s never going to be the story of me. Even though a lot has been written about me, the fact is nobody actually has a clue to what my life was really like. So good luck, Lindsay.

    What’s the worst rumor you’ve ever heard about yourself?
    Julian.George, Madison, WI

    Probably it would be from the drug years, when people thought I was doing heroin. I never did. You can do a lot simpler drugs than heroin and still get in trouble.

    What was the high point of Fleetwood Mac on-the-road excess?
    Ayteemit, Manchester, NH

    The way we traveled. We had a big 737 commuter jet done up beautifully on the inside — it’s what professional basketball players rent. We had that for a year and a half. I still fly on a jet, but my jet is way littler these days. With Fleetwood Mac everything was huge, and it still is today. We always stay in the best hotels. I get the presidential suite over everybody, because I demand it.

    Is it true your performance of “Don’t Stop” made Bill Clinton cry at the 1993 presidential inauguration?
    Nilespine, Tripp, SD

    Well, if it did, I don’t know about it, because I’m as blind as a bat and he was far enough away from me that I doubt I could have seen it. However, I do know that he loved “Don’t Stop,” and he dreamed of using it in a campaign long before he ran for president. He was riding in a cab somewhere — this is the story that we got — and he heard that song and he said, “If I ever run for something big I’m going to use that as my song.”

    Do you still have a ballet studio in your house? When was the last time you did the splits?
    Perry.Gold, Tucson, AZ

    In my house in Phoenix, I do maintain the ballet room that I’ve had since 1981. I can still do a split, not a problem, because I’m limber. People who can do the splits can always do the splits.

    Have you ever attended the drag tribute Night of a Thousand Stevies? and When did you realize you had become a drag icon?
    Nandoor1, Jackson, OH

    I was on a plane coming from the Super Bowl, and one of the stewards was telling me that he was a big fan and that he went to Night of a Thousand Stevies every year. He was six-foot-five and telling me all about his dress and his fantastic boots. Whoa! I still haven’t gone, but I’ve seen footage, and I have to say, I couldn’t be more flattered!

    Have you ever been tempted by Scientology?
    Lenhub88, Bucks County, PA

    I have never been approached. I don’t really get it. I think it’s a little weird.

    You recorded 1994’s Street Angel when you were addicted to Klonopin. What did you think when you first heard it after you got out of rehab?
    Pillowpop4, Gaithersburg, MD

    I went back in and tried to fix it! It wasn’t that it wasn’t good, it was just, if you’re taking a lot of tranquilizers everyday, it only makes sense that the music will be verrry tranquil. So I tried to fix it, which is kind of like trying to redo a house: You end up spending way more money than if you had just burned it to the ground and started over. It wasn’t fixable.

    What advice would you offer to Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan as they go through rehab?
    Starz431, Providence, RI

    I’m more worried about Britney than Lindsay, because I think Lindsay is a serious actress, and that is going to be her saving grace. The only thing I could ever say is — I look over film footage and interviews for the Crystal Visions DVD, and I can totally tell when I’m high. There are a couple of videos that are really good — except that I was high. I’m sorry I let that happen. I ask myself, “Stevie, could you have just, while you were filming that video, not done any cocaine and not drank and not smoked pot? For those three days, could you have laid off of it so you could have looked great?” But I didn’t, and now I’m very sorry. If I could have gotten it together a little more I would have had a better career. I would have made a couple more great albums, I would have painted more pictures. You are sorry later … that’s what I would tell them.

    What happens to us when we die?
    Ulee43, Port St. Lucie, FL

    I absolutely believe that there is an afterlife. I’ve had one afterlife experience where I did go to that other place. I fell off a horse. I was riding with a bunch of people — I didn’t even hit the ground, really; my brother jumped off his horse and caught me mid-flight but it scared me so bad that I lost consciousness. And I felt myself go up into this really light place. I could see the horses around me and hear the riders’ voices. I felt like I was rolling down a mountain, starting to go really fast … Then I opened my eyes. But for a minute I felt like I really had a choice to make, to come back. So I think there is an afterlife, and it’s a good place.

    Do you have any vices these days?
    Alex.neric, Lincoln, NE

    Since I got out of rehab in 1994, I’ve stopped doing serious drugs. And then as menopause touched my life, I stopped even having a glass of wine. I don’t drink at all. I find that I’m spacey enough on my own that I don’t need to be drinking or smoking; it just doesn’t fit into my life anymore. I’m very glad, because it’s not like I’m fighting every day to not do drugs. They’re just gone.

    Is it true you keep your feathers and lace in a climate-controlled facility?
    Stagehanddan, Fenton, MS

    I keep all my stage clothes in cases, and they go into storage in temperature-controlled rooms. Chiffon lasts forever if you take good care of it!

  • For Greta

    For Greta

    Stevie Nicks has often felt that Greta Garbo desire to be alone. On her latest album, Nicks wrote the song “Greta” just for her.

    ”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,” said Nicks, who made her name with Fleetwood Mac.

    ”So I’ve always been fascinated to know why. What drove her away?”

    The song is on the album Street Angel.

    Associated Press / September 28, 1994

  • Stevie Nicks, now a solo act

    Stevie Nicks, now a solo act

    Thinking about tomorrow Stevie Nicks, now a solo act, sees her music as her life

    Stevie Nicks can’t stop thinking about the things she’s given up to make music. Because she stayed in Fleetwood Mac for 18 years, she feels she compromised her career as a solo artist. And because she sustained both the band’s and her own careers, Nicks says, she lost the opportunity to develop relationships and have children.

    These are not complaints, mind you. Having just released her sixth solo album, Street Angel — Nicks’ first since leaving Fleetwood Mac in 1993 — she’s resigned to being a willing slave to her muse.

    “The fact is, this is my first love,” the 46-year-old songstress says. “I’ve pretty much given my life up for it — my relationships, my friends, my parents in a lot of ways.

    “It’s my life. I’m probably not going to settle down and have children now; I gave that all up. So what else do I have to do but this? I’ll probably go on doing this until I’m 70 or 80 years old.”

    If that’s the case, Street Angel is the beginning of the rest of Nicks’ career. And it does sound like a new beginning. Straightforward and rocking — with songs about Greta Garbo, Jane Goodall and a guest appearance by Bob Dylan on Nicks’ remake of his “Just Like a Woman” — it’s reminiscent of her first solo album, 1981’s Bella Donna. And it’s hard not to hear the spirit of liberation in the 11 songs on Street Angel.

    “I wanted out of Fleetwood Mac for a long time,” says Nicks, who quit after the group performed at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration celebration in 1993. “But I am a chump, the one who — when it came down to ‘If you leave, you’ll ruin the band, ruin our lives’ — just couldn’t leave.”

    Not that her 18 years in Fleetwood Mac was a bad run. More so than Lindsey Buckingham, her then-boyfriend with whom Nicks joined the band in 1974, Fleetwood Mac made her a star, a bona fide rock sex symbol.

    She still has fond feelings for the Mac. “They were my family for all those years,” she says. But she adds, “We all sacrificed an awful lot to be that band everyone remembers as a good rock ‘n’ roll band. Hopefully, the world got a lot out of it, because everybody got hurt by it. My parents would call, or someone else in my family, or anyone else who needed me, and I wasn’t available; Fleetwood Mac came first, no questions asked.”

    Some of this rubs former band mates the wrong way. “I was never horribly aware she was that unhappy,” says Mick Fleetwood, who insists he’s remained on good terms with Nicks. “To hear things that are slightly on the down side from her doesn’t make any sense; she never had any trouble being in Fleetwood Mac when she became incredibly successful.”

    But Fleetwood does understand the pull of Nicks’ solo career.

    “She was really running out of gas to run her career and Fleetwood Mac’s and try to keep us happy in terms of what we needed out of our singer,” Fleetwood says. Or, as Nicks elaborates, “I had to think of me a little bit.”

    But even with Street Angel out, Nicks still thinks of other aspects of her life. Children are one. She did “give up” several children over the years — Nicks doesn’t elaborate on exactly what that means — and a few years back she talked about wanting to adopt.

    “I’ve already been so disappointed about not having the children I wanted,” explains Nicks, who dotes on her 2-year-old niece. “If I went and searched and did all the work that’s entailed and was then turned down or something, I don’t think I could have handled that. I probably could have been the best mom around . . . so I try not to think about it. If I do, I get upset.”

    Nicks hasn’t given up the idea of having a child, but once again the career rears its head. “I don’t have time to meet anybody or go anywhere or do anything except work,” she says.

    So she bears her desires and buries them in the work — not just music but also painting and handicrafts.

    “My whole thing is getting better, whether it’s writing or painting or hand-knitting or photographs or writing songs for other people,” Nicks says. “My life is made up of staying up all night and doing that stuff. It’s not for the money. I can always make money — I can go get a job if I have to.”

    ON STAGE: Stevie Nicks and Darden Smith perform at 7:30 tonight at Pine Knob, Sashabaw Road at I-75, Clarkston. Tickets are $22.50 pavilion, $12.50 lawn. Call 1-810-377-0100 anytime. 

    Gary Graff / Free Press Music Writer / August 19, 1994

  • ALBUM REVIEW: Help instrumental on Nicks’s Angel

    ALBUM REVIEW: Help instrumental on Nicks’s Angel

     

     

    (Photo: Herbert W. Worthington)
    (Photo: Herbert W. Worthington)

     

    STEVIE NICKS has been an easy target for critics in recent years, what with her dreamy schoolgirl poetry and sprawling, tuneless songs. If you go back and listen to her songs on the Buckingham Nicks album and the first two Fleetwood Mac albums, though, you’d be surprised how well they hold up. She has a thrilling mezzo-soprano voice and given a sturdy musical structure she can really shine. Providing the guitar riffs and arrangements in those early days was Lindsey Buckingham, and on her new solo album, Street Angel, Nicks gets similar help from guitarists Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers), Bernie Leadon (of the Eagles) and Andy Fairweather Low.

    The results aren’t as strong as her 1973-’77 efforts, but they’re better than anything since. Nicks’s songs no longer float in like the mist but now boast actual hooks and beats. The three best originals were co-written with Campbell, who keeps pushing the songs ever forward with punchy, pithy guitar figures. When Nicks wails that she’s addicted to love and wants to “Kick It,” Campbell puts the kick into the chorus. “Greta,” her tribute to Garbo, starts out like one of her blob-songs, but Campbell and drummer Kenny Aronoff give it a spine. “Blue Denim,” a surprisingly earthy meditation on an old lover’s jeans, boasts the best Buckingham-esque guitar riff Nicks has enjoyed in years.

    Most of the other songs are less memorable; the title track is an especially glacial, ripe-for-parody number about “walking under rainbows.” Nicks finally recorded two songs she wrote more than 20 years ago, but they should have stayed in her trunk. The album’s highlights are Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman” (with the author himself on guitar and harmonica) and Trevor Horn & Betsy Cook’s “Docklands.” Nicks’s ability to inhabit these stories with her moody voice suggests that she’d be better off as an interpretive singer than as a songwriter.

    STEVIE NICKS — Street Angel (Modern). Appearing with Darden Smith Friday at Merriweather Post Pavilion. To hear free Sound Bite from this album, call 202/334-9000 and press 8102.

    Geoffrey Himes / Washington Post / August 5, 1994

  • Q&A: Stevie Nicks

    Sitting comfortably in her Tucson, Ariz., house with a stunning view of the mountains in the distance, we talked to ’70s rock icon Stevie Nicks, who’s back in the public eye with her new album, Street Angel.

    So, do you still leave the house wearing platform boots?

    Heck, yeah. It’s no act. I wear the ones with six-inch heels, in every color. I have them all handmade. I wear the shawls and the boots to the grocery store, and people trip out. They look at me like I’m from outer space, and I know they’re thinking, Well, it’s really her.

    How many shawls do you own?

    Around 30. They’re piano shawls. Many go up on the ceiling — I have an artist friend who drapes them up there for me and makes French canopies out of them.

    What do you miss most about the ’70s?

    The music. There were all those rock greats, like Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Rolling Stones. I loved listening to the radio then. Now I turn it on, and I spend all my time zipping down the dial trying to find something decent.

    I thought for sure you’d say you miss lava lamps most of all.

    I can’t say I miss those because I still have them. Actually, they’re wave lamps. Remember them? Mine are still functional.

    I’ve heard that you have a hard time tilting your head back because you believe you’re the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette. Is this true?

    When I was little, my ballet teacher brought this to my attention — that I could not put my head back — and we came to the conclusion that I must have been put to death in a previous life, like Marie Antoinette. It’s weird, this reflex. Like when I go into the beauty parlor, I can’t put my head back in the sink for a shampoo.

    But on the cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage, you are shown with your head thrown back.

    I hated posing for that more than life. And then, when I shot the video for “If Anyone Falls,” the director wanted me to dance with this guy and throw my head back, and I couldn’t do it. We had to call in a backup singer to do it. I called her my stunt neck.

    I see that you’ve lost a lot of weight. Does that mean we can look forward to commercials that begin, “Hi, I’m Stevie Nicks for Slim-Fast”?

    No. I really didn’t do anything special. I’m just careful now with what I eat. My main problem used to be that I’d wake up in the middle of the night, and this voice would go off in my head that would order me to the refrigerator. Now I just swim regularly and eat healthily before turning in.

    I also notice that your hair is straight.

    I stopped perming it. [Laughs] So the secret is out: All these years I’ve been a Lilt addict.

    What is the most personal song you have ever written?

    Probably “Sara.” It’s about myself, and what all of us in Fleetwood Mac were going through at that time. The true version of that song is 16 minutes long. It’s a saga with many verses people haven’t heard.

    There is a line in that song, “When you build your house, I’ll come by.” Is that about Don Henley, whom you were dating at the time?

    [Laughs] That is true.

    Did he ever build the house, and did you ever drop by?

    He did. And I was in it before he finished it.

    What’s the worst rumor you ever heard about yourself?

    That I was a wild and crazy black-magic witch. And that I was flying around my house on a broom. When I first heard this, I was touring and wearing black stage outfits, and I immediately mothballed them. I had two dresses made up, in pink and in blue. I called them my Easter-egg dresses. The truth is, I believe in good spirits, not bad.

    A couple of years ago, David Letterman mercilessly tormented you by showing clips from your “Stand Back” video, where you appear to be walking backward on a treadmill. Did this upset you?

    No, I loved it. People think I don’t have a sense of humor about myself, but I’m here to tell you that I do. A friend of mine made a compilation tape of all the shows Dave spoofed me on, and I watched it in hysterics. You couldn’t pay for that amount of publicity.

    Fleetwood Mac reunited to perform at the Clinton inaugural, where you sang his campaign theme song, “Don’t Stop.” Do you have a favorite Bill Clinton moment?

    One thing that sticks out about that performance is something nobody saw, because it was edited out. We were playing the song, and Mr. Clinton walked up on the stage to join us. I started to move toward him, and he got this terrified look on his face like, “Oh my God, Stevie Nicks is coming toward me, and this is being watched by 18 million people.” He looked so terrified and uncomfortable that I just handed him my tambourine and said, “Go to it, Mr. President.” And he did — he rocked out.

    Why’d you give him the tambourine?

    Well, for me, when I was standing onstage with nothing to do and feeling strange, I’d always grab one and start slapping it. When your hands are empty, a tambourine can make you feel very worthwhile.

    Ryan Murphy / Us / August 1994

  • ALBUM REVIEW: Nicks' hip return

    ALBUM REVIEW: Nicks' hip return

    Stevie Nicks Street Angel 1994
    (Stevie Nicks’ fifth solo album, Street Angel)

    STREET ANGEL
    Stevie Nicks
    Modern/Atlantic Records

    Stevie Nicks has been in rock so long, she’s due for a kitschy comeback of backhanded hipness. With all the ethereal females fronting rock bands these days, the woman behind the twirling veils with Fleetwood Mac must be something of a spiritual godmother. Sandra Bernhard did a famous routine involving a Stevie fantasy. Even currently hot chanteuse Tori Amos closes her shows with a cover by Nicks instead of Nirvana. Hey, even platform shoes are back.

    All of this may make Street Angel, Nicks’ first solo album in six years, more welcome than her work has been in some time.

    Who’s to deny, for example, the opening “Blue Denim” — rocking, simple with her pinched voice lending authority? And what a band she amasses here — Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, L.A. session leaders Bernie Leadon and Waddy Wachtel, Kenny Aronoff on drums, David Crosby singing harmonies and Roy Bittan playing piano. Even Bob Dylan is persuaded to lend almost inaudible guitar and harmonica on Nicks’ loopy treatment of “Just Like a Woman” (which changes from first to third person at will).

    Some of these things, of course, are messes — a wrongheaded disco beat to “Greta,” a revival of a song she wrote in 1965 (that’s not so far removed from a lot of these lyrics). [Editor’s note: The writer is confusing “Greta” with another song on the album, “Rose Garden,” which Nicks wrote in 1965].

    Yet throughout, you’re pulling for her, making her local live show (Friday at Great Woods in Mansfield, Mass.) sound interesting at least.

    Roger Catlin / Hartford Courant / July 21, 1994

  • Raves

    Raves

    ROCK & ROLL

    Sarah McLachlan Her music reminds me of old San Francisco stuff — of bands that played the Fillmore, Winterland and Avalon Ballroom. She also reminds me of Janis Joplin, though she doesn’t sing anything like her.

    “Crosby, Stills and Nash” (ATLANTIC) The album with the three of them on the cover. It’s very romantic for me. I was in college, and you could hear it for days out of all the sororities and fraternities at San Jose State.

    “Vindication” Frances Sherwood (FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX) It’s about Mary Shelley. She had a wild affair with Lord Byron, a very strange man. I’m fascinated how she stayed sane and did such beautiful writing, though her mind was wrapped up in a totally crazy guy.

    “Where the Streets Have No Name” U2 (ISLAND) That’s how touring is. You go up and down a thousand streets, and you have no idea where you are.

    The Wave (KTWV LOS ANGELES) I listen to alternative instrumental jazz. I have trouble getting to sleep, so I listen for hours before finally falling off.

    “I Can’t Make You Love Me” Candy Dulfer (RCA RECORDS) Really beautiful because it’s just like Bonnie Raitt singing, except it’s a saxophone.

    “Diary of a Drug Fiend” Aleister Crowley (BUCCANEER BOOKS) He weaves a story that nearly becomes a film. And you have to figure out why you use drugs. And the reasons the reasons that come up are so lame.

    “Court and Spark” Joni Mitchell (ASYLUM) A very big influence. My relationship with Lindsey [Buckingham] was coming to an end. Not only was it music I loved to listen to, but she really helped me put everything into perspective. She wrote songs that were perfect for me while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do.

    Arizona I was born there. There’s something about the desert that’s very healing for me. You have to slow down and take better care of yourself.

    Stevie Nicks / Rolling Stone / July 14, 1994 – July 28, 1994 (Issue 686/687, p32)

  • ALBUM REVIEW: Stevie Nicks, Street Angel

    ALBUM REVIEW: Stevie Nicks, Street Angel

    Stevie Nicks Street Angel 1994★★★
    Street Angel – Stevie Nicks
    Modern Records/Atlantic
    Running time: 57:34, 13 tracks

    If Steve Nicks’ new album is an indication, she made a good move severing her ties with Fleetwood Mac. Street Angel is Nicks’ best solo album in a decade.

    For starters, she’s abandoned the mystical lyrics that often made interpreting her work, both as a soloist and as a member of Fleetwood Mac, a maddening, often fruitless effort. She’s also ditched the intense seriousness that made her 1989 album The Other Side of the Mirror such a depressing listen.

    On Street Angel, Nicks is clear about what she’s singing about, and that’s love. And often, it’s not the unrequited type. Why, Nicks sounds downright cheerful singing such upbeat lyrics as those in the tuneful “Blue Denim” and “Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind.”

    Even when a certain sadness creeps into the lyrics, as it does on the country-tinged “Rose Garden” and the more rocking “Kick It,” the power and conviction in Nicks’ voice tells you she’s not going to be a victim any longer.

    On Street Angel, Nicks also has abandoned the cheesy synthesizers that filled her recent solo efforts and replaced them with guitars. They perfectly complement Nicks’ dusky voice, which is at home on both the rockers and the ballads, particularly the stand-out title track.

    Nicks’ only misstep is an utterly soulless rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.” Rather than slavishly repeat Dylan’s version, she would have done better to bring her own style to the song. Dylan also appears on the track, but his guitar and harmonica are not distinguished.

    New Jersey Record / July 10, 1994

  • ALBUM REVIEW: Stevie Nicks – Street Angel

    ALBUM REVIEW: Stevie Nicks – Street Angel

    Stevie Nicks Street Angel 1994★★★½
    Stevie Nicks
    STREET ANGEL (Modern)

    In a year marked by lackluster comeback efforts of ’70s mainstays like Boston, Jackson Browne and Traffic, Stevie Nicks brings polish and spunk to her first release in six years, and scores the solid hit that has eluded her aging compatriots.

    Nicks has avoided the trap of depending on her name to sell the music. That’s probably because her name wasn’t worth much, with bad performances, bad press and personal problems tarnishing the most recognizable voice of the quintessential ’70s supergroup, Fleetwood Mac.

    That group collapsed when Lindsey Buckingham took his immense talent and even greater contempt for Nicks and went his own way. But Nicks obviously knows the key to success as practiced by Buckingham: taking her time to work for quality. And if Lindsey wasn’t going to be around anymore, well, she’d just find some friends to help out.

    She got some of the best. On guitar, she’s supported by two studio legends, Andy Fairweather Low and Waddy Watchel. David Crosby sings harmony on the title track, and for a solid pop cover of Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman,” who better to play guitar and harmonica than Dylan himself?

    But Nicks does more than just rely on significant others. Besides co-producing the disc, she wrote or co-wrote nine of the 13 songs, all of which shine — from the Mac-ish pop of “Blue Denim” to the anthemic “Destiny” to the rocking “Love Is Like a River.” She even tosses in the country-sounding “Rose Garden,” which she wrote almost 30 years ago. It’s a terrific collection that shows off her range.

    Finally, we cannot ignore the most important instrument of any Nicks effort — that smoky-bar-at-3-in-the-morning voice. It proves itself again a formidable weapon, glorious in its inability to hit all of the notes, and captivating in the feeling it conveys.

    Stevie Nicks — one of the most-dissed performers of our time — shows there’s no better way to shut up one’s detractors than through a dynamite effort.

    Tracy Collins / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / July 8, 1994