Fleetwood Mac ~ Fireflies/ The Farmers Daughter

Fleetwood Mac ~ Fireflies/ The Farmer’s Daughter

Hello! I'm really curious to know something more about "Fireflies"! It was recorded especially for the Live album, right? And these lines "and you believe in the five/to survive the distance" I think they were written about the band... That's all I know! Anyways, thank you so much for this wonderful blog! :D

Fireflies was a leftover from the Tusk sessions, the version from the Live album was recorded at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for crew and friends. In my opinion the song is about the band and how they stick together through all the drama. It’s a great song and they should bring it back for the next tour with Christine!

Janey Don't You Lose Heart

I have heard of a story that Bruce Springsteen wrote Janey Don’t You Lose Heart about and/or for Stevie and that they recorded a demo of it around 1984. As a huge fan of both artists I’d love this story to be true but is there any evidence of any kind that supports it?

I don’t have much info, here’s a tidbit from the old Ivory Keys blog:

“ One of the first songs recorded for Rock A Little in Dallas was a cover of a then-unreleased Bruce Springsteen song, “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart,” leftover from his Born In The U.S.A. sessions. Bruce had been in the audience at the Grand Opening of the Starck Club on May 12, 1984, and perhaps that is when he gave Stevie the song to record.   Stevie recorded the song in May of 1984 at Goodnight Dallas, but she changed the title to “Baby Don’t Lose Your Heart,” which, reportedly, Springsteen was not pleased with.  He allegedly asked Stevie not to release her version of the song to which she complied. To this day, Stevie’s recording of “Baby Don’t Lose Your Heart” remains unheard and unreleased.

There is no recording, it’s one of those Stevie recording mysteries, like Stevie apparently working with Foreigner’s Mick Jones in the 80′s or recording demos with Billy Corgan in the 90’s, there are stories but nobody ever heard anything.

Rewind: Buckingham Nicks - Buckingham Nicks (1973)

A long, long time ago, back when Fleetwood Mac was still a (mostly) all-British, blues-based band struggling to find an audience, there was an all-American duo named Buckingham Nicks also struggling to find an audience.

There was no chiffon and there was no Welsh witch called “Rhiannon.” There was no half-twisted, proto-punk rock and a “Blue Letter” had yet to be written.

(Lindsey) Buckingham (and Stevie) Nicks were life and musical partners in 1973 when they released their eponymous debut record that almost no one heard. One guy who did hear - and love - Buckingham Nicks was a fellow by the name of Mick Fleetwood who was looking to plug a hole in his band created by the departure of Bob Welch.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Buckingham Nicks is a country-rock record featuring 10 songs - nine originals and the John Lewis instrumental “Django” - that finds the future mad producer and his soon-to-be ex-partner and spinning gypsy-in-waiting groping their way toward a career they probably never imagined.

It’s dedicated to A.J. Nicks - “the grandfather of country music” - and includes an impressive number of bold-face names in the credits. These include producer Keith Olsen, who went on to work with Mac and the Grateful Dead among others; drummers Jim Keltner and Ronnie Tutt (Elvis Presley, Jerry Garcia Band); bassist Jerry Scheff (Presley and father of Chicago bassist Jason); and mononym guitarist “Waddy” (Wachtel), who co-wrote “Werewolves of London” with Warren Zevon and still works with Nicks today. And of course, the multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and the singer Stevie Nicks.

Forty-seven years after its initial release, Buckingham Nicks still hasn’t been issued on CD or been made available for streaming. This is inexplicable, not least because Buckingham and Nicks are among the most successful and popular songwriters of the 1970s and the album has a built-in audience.

But beyond that, the album stands the test of time and would be worth seeking out even if the namesake artists hadn’t gone on to join one of rock’s all-time most successful bands, which made two BN songs, “Crystal,” and “Don’t Let Me Down Again” their own by re-recording and re-releasing them on Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Live (1980), respectively. Buckingham performed his lovely instrumental “Stephanie” on his solo-acoustic tour in 2012, and “Without You,” an oft-bootlegged outtake from the sessions, was finally released on FM’s digital-only Extended Play in 2013.

But most of the songs are known only to super-Fleetwood Mac freaks and those of us who still have turntables, which is a musical sin.

To this day, “Long Distance Winner” is among Sound Bites’ favorite Nicks compositions, and tracks such as “Without a Leg to Stand On,” “Races are Run” and “Frozen Love” reveal a vocal blend that she and Buckingham never fully recaptured in Fleetwood Mac.

Had Fleetwood not come calling, Buckingham Nicks would be even more of a curiosity than it is and would have left listeners to wonder what happened to the duo with the boy named for a girl and the girl named for a boy who happened to be lovers.

As it goes, Buckingham Nicks is a curiosity that leaves listeners to wonder what might have become of their musical and personal partnership if the whole mega-stardom thing hadn’t worked out. And more than that - it’s 36 minutes of finely composed and constructed, acoustic-based music.

Grade card: Buckingham Nicks - Buckingham Nicks - B+

10/11/20

I can’t embed and I think you need a CuriosityStream account to watch the full video, but the preview is free and Stevie looks stunning.

In the famous Wild Heart video, do you know why she's singing along to an instrumental extremely similar to what ended up on Can't Go Back? Was it originally one of her demos and then she gave it to the band and Lindsey ended up using it? If so why doesn't she have credit for it?

No I believe it was always Lindsey’s demo. They had started work on Mirage, this was after the recording sessions in France. I guess they exchanged tapes with some demos. But Stevie was also already working on some songs for The Wild Heart album, I assume she had the lyrics for Wild Heart and was just messing around a bit with the melody and used Lindsey’s demo. During the photoshoot from that same video she sings along to demos for That’s Alright, Only Over You, but also Enchanted., you can watch the videos here.