Clips & Pix: Stevie Nicks/Landslide

Stevie Nicks, one of the distinct voices in pop rock and a great songwriter, turned 72 years old today. To celebrate the happy occasion, here’s one of my favorite tunes written by her: Landslide. According to Songfacts, Nicks wrote that song about a father-daughter relationship on the guitar in about five minutes in Aspen, Colo.

“My dad did have something to do with it, but he absolutely thinks that he was the whole complete reason it was ever written,” Nicks stated. “I guess it was about September 1974, I was home at my dad and Mom’s house in Phoenix, and my father said, ‘You know, you really put a lot of time into this [her singing career], maybe you should give this six more months, and if you want to go back to school, we’ll pay for it. Basically you can do whatever you want and we’ll pay for it – I have wonderful parents, and I went, ‘cool, I can do that.'”

She went on, “Lindsey and I went up to Aspen, and we went to somebody’s incredible house, and they had a piano, and I had my guitar with me, and I went into their living room, looking out over the incredible Aspen skyway, and I wrote ‘Landslide.’ Three months later, Mick Fleetwood called. On New Year’s Eve, 1974, called and asked us to join Fleetwood Mac. So it was three months, I still had three more months to go to beat my six month goal that my dad gave me.”

Landslide was first recorded for Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 10th studio album released in July 1975. Nicks also included a live version performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on her compilations Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks and Stand Back from March 2007 and March 2019, respectively.

The above live version appears to have been captured in Chicago in 2008. I believe the musician backing Nicks is well known session guitarist Waddy Wachtel.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube