Great Musicians: Stevie Nicks

Sara Anderson. Stevie Nicks. Not two women, but one. Front Line Management. Front Line, baby. Welcome to the Room. Once you know this, you understand that overlooked 9th track from Tango In The Night, Fleetwood Mac’s biggest album since Rumours. It was 30 years ago, in 1987. I still cannot listen without goosebumps. And I have cause. I have the new Deluxe edition, with its roughs and remasters.

If you know anything about Fleetwood Mac, you will know Tango. It was the final album masterminded by Lindsey Buckingham before he, well, lost it. The album was so hard for him that he stormed out and refused to tour it. The band then lost its way until 1997 when they reunited for The Dance tour. A studio album was delayed until 2003, and Say You Will remains their last studio offering. Tango is still the last studio album featuring both Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie.

What singles out Welcome to the Room… Sara (WttRS) is its autobiographical nature. One of the reasons it was such a troubling album is that it was essentially a solo Lindsey Buckingham album for a long time. In a pattern copied later for Say You Will, Lindsey and Mick did a lot of the legwork before allowing the rest of the band, without Stevie, to contribute. Stevie was unwell. Due to alcohol and cocaine abuse, she was admitted to the Betty Ford clinic, and the choice was not hers.

Whatever the truth about what happened before Betty Ford, the whole band was in a mess. Mirage was recorded in France so that Mick could fix his tax affairs. It was an attempt to recapture the forgotten glory of Rumours after the Lindsey-fest which was Tusk. They succeeded, but their health was failing. It would be another five years before they could face each other, sans Stevie, again.

The out-takes on Tango Deluxe are mainly Lindsey songs. They sound exactly like his solo work from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Poppy, lots of treble and synth, and very slick. Too slick for modern ears, of course. Down Endless Street is a hallmark track. It’s not bad at all, such is the talent of the man. But it’s not up to the standard of Tango.

So by the end of the Tango sessions, we had a Lindsey Buckingham album featuring Mick, John and some Christine songs. It was not, and never would be, a Mac album. Not without Stephanie Lynn. When she emerged from the haze, forced on her by Front Line management, she was aghast. This was not her band. This was not her work. Listen to this, she said. I’ve been writing. And she had.

Seven Wonders, Welcome to the Room, When I See You Again. They all stack up. And with their new remastered edge, they sound better than ever. An early version of Seven Wonders beats the original by a mile. With an alternate vocal and pared-back musical treatment, it is one of her best songs of the 80s bar none, including her solo work.

Surprisingly, Tango was much bigger in the UK than in the US. Not only 1987’s 5th biggest album, but 1988’s 7th biggest and the 7th best-selling album in the UK of the entire decade. Tango In The Night was my first Fleetwood Mac album, and I can listen to it again now.

The most famous track is of course Christine’s Everywhere, which is still played massively. As is her Little Lies. Lindsey’s Big Love is disowned by him in favour of a new, haunting acoustic version that he plays on every tour now.

But for me, Fleetwood Mac is Stevie Nicks. Seven Wonders, while musically adept, is too catchy and too literal for me. Welcome to the Room is the masterpiece of Tango, apart from the title track itself. It is haunting because it reflects a mental and physical breakdown. It shows how the rich and famous cope, or not. It shows what drugs do to you. It shows what too much money, too young, does to you. It is uniquely honest and brutal, once you unlock the code. It shows what happens when a waitress and cleaner from Phoenix records the biggest vinyl album, of them all. Fleetwood Mac bankrolled Warner Music through the entire 1970s. They were treated, and mistreated, like royalty. Their excess is still, even today, mythical. Pianos on cranes? One limo per band member? There are many, many other examples. Welcome to the Room is the answer to all that, and it’s not nice. There is always a reckoning, and for Stevie Nicks, she went from one crisis in 1986 to another: Klonopin, which took out most of the 90s. More on that next time.

One thing I did not know: the references to Tara and Scarlett are from Gone With The Wind.