(Source: Far Out / YouTube Still / Raph Pour-Hashemi)
No band is required to be a united front on every recording. It’s hard to get anyone on the same page for more than a few seconds in the studio when everyone has different opinions about how the song should sound. So capturing that lightning in a bottle was a miracle. And while Fleetwood Mac performed several miracles on the recording, Rumors, Stevie Nicks was not ready to simply forgive Mick Fleetwood when recording her song “Storms”.
On the other hand, the real problem with the record has nothing to do with Nicks, but everything to do with Lindsey Buckingham. He has already become dominant in terms of his work on Rumors, But when the album became one of the most successful albums in the world, the guitarist was convinced that he could only record a new record if he realized his own vision and made wild, crazy experiments that no one had thought of.
So when Buckingham wasn’t trying her hand at being a new wave artist, Nicks was writing some of her most personal music. “Sara” was already a gripping story about her unborn child with Don Henley, but “Storms” reflected on her time with Fleetwood. In the midst of the out-of-control relationships between the bands, Nicks and Fleetwood were having an affair. Rumors as well as.
While Nicks opened up about her issues with Buckingham on “Dreams,” she wasn’t willing to let the drummer treat her like a lesser member of the band after they called it all off. After all, she was the one who launched their career as rustic rock legends, and even if his name was on the stage, she knew she held the audience in the palm of her hand when she walked onstage.
When Nicks wrote the first lines, he wanted each word to sound like it penetrated Fleetwood’s soul and told The Guardian“Oh, that was a – excuse my language – fuck you to Mick. I was sitting at my piano, a feminist, and I wrote it to say that nothing you or anyone else can do to me can change the fact that, as the opening line says, ‘Every night that passes between / I feel a little less.'”
On the other hand, Fleetwood was already battling his own demons at the time. Everyone was on drugs during their last record, but Fleetwood had to deal with Nick leaving him, while his wife and children also disappeared from his life because he seemed so absent.
As biting as the lyrics are, it’s hard to see “Storms” as a pure response to Fleetwood. This is about Nicks staking her claim as one of the best in her field, and even if the rest of the world didn’t accept her as a songwriter, she would continue to release music that established her as the greatest among her peers.
And considering how good Bella Donna It’s not that, even though she was on form, she couldn’t find melodies. Nicks always had a tough time in Fleetwood Mac, as she was one of three experienced songwriters, but even when she was just singing a cappella, she dominated every concert the group ever played.
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