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Most hits penned by Stevie Nicks were conceived during moments when she wasn’t trying to write any hits at all.
From her first taste of the music industry to today, Nicks shines the most when she lets her creativity pour out of her organically, which isn’t that difficult when you have a mind filled with the memories of a thousand lives. David Bowie said, “Never play to the gallery”. Well, Nicks has sold hundreds of millions of records, and she’s written nearly all of them with only her sense of self-expression in mind.
Understanding the burden that comes with time and memory, Nicks has always had a diary, which she uses to document her everyday musings, which, more often than not, come out in the form of poetry. Some of these have eventually transitioned into songs, but most of them capture the thoughts and feelings she was experiencing at one specific time without ever venturing into other creative territory.
While this could make certain aspects of her songwriting process overwhelming, especially during moments when she isn’t sure which poem or piece of prose to mould into a song, it mainly allows her to maintain a connection between her emotional expression and her continual creativity. Most musicians write consistently, which helps to tick projects over and into the next one without the hindrance of the inevitable writer’s block.
However, Nicks always has instant access to her heart, with pages filled with musings of a person she once was, still is, and will never part ways with. During Rumours, Nicks lived her emotions with wreckless abandon, allowing her fiery explosiveness to guide her writing, particularly when it came to knee-jerk reactions to her main source of anger at the time, Lindsey Buckingham.
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One such composition was ‘Dreams’, her softer, albeit no less biting response to Buckingham’s ‘Go Your Own Way’. Famously written in about ten minutes on Sly Stone’s bed. the song first emerged with a straightforward melody and three chords, which didn’t immediately excite the rest of the band members, particularly Buckingham, who admitted that his first impression was that it was “boring”.
A song with just two primary notes wasn’t quite their speed. After all, Nicks and Buckingham were new to the outfit, and in the past, Peter Green had brought a level of virtuosity to the group. This minimalism was new to them. It was even knew to Buckingham, in truth. So, ‘Dreams’ seemed set to join ‘Silver Springs’ on the ash heap of history.
However, Nicks eventually encouraged them to give it a chance, pushing them to record the song and see how it sounded after adding extra embellishments to enhance its appeal without losing its original simplicity. Then, it stuck. As she recalled: “They weren’t nuts about it. But I said, ‘Please! Please record this song, at least try it.’ Because the way I play things sometimes, you really have to listen.”
Interestingly, it ended up being Buckingham who rearranged the song to make it sound better, creating “three sections out of identical chords” and “making each section sound completely different.”
According to Nicks, this gave the song its consistent weight, giving “the impression that there’s a thread running through the whole thing.”
Either way, she was glad she did push on with it. ”’Dreams’ was about Lindsey and I,” she later said. “It was me trying to be philosophic once again, whether or not I succeeded I don’t know. I love the song ‘Dreams’. I never get tired of singing it.”
‘Dreams’ incidentally ended up being Fleetwood Mac’s only number-one in America, making it not only a gorgeously timeless song but one of their most important tracks ever. Still racking up covers and airtime, the song is also the band’s highest earner by far – not that that was ever the motivation.
Thanks to Nicks’ seamless ability to consistently listen to her heart and push for what she feels is right, the song became one of their biggest legacy hits, ensuring their place as a cornerstone of rock music history.
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