By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! (@AKessaris)
“Frankly, Stevie didn’t care what anyone else thought. It was her album, and she wasn’t interested in being trendy. This is one of the reasons Stevie Nicks has endued as an icon over the decades. She has always stayed true to her own heart; a strength necessary in the music industry where one often finds oneself very much alone in various ways.”
-Zoë Howe
I have always had a strong attraction to rock ’n’ roll goddesses. There is something about a gutsy, independent woman who, rather than timidly crooning “please don’t hurt my gentle heart” (or something equally sappy) with all the courage of a scared rabbit, stands firmly centre stage fronting a band, confidently belting out lines like “Hit me with your best shot! Fire away!” or “Stand back, stand back!” that I cannot resist. One such sorceress, the singer, songwriter, chiffon and lace clad diva with the haunting voice responsible for the latter lyrics, is the subject of the new book Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumours by British music journalist Zoë Howe.
Stevie Nicks delves deeper than an Oklahoma oil well into the personal and professional life of the American music icon, from her childhood, through her lean years as a struggling young singer, to her time with Fleetwood Mac and her solo career, recounting the interesting, and at times shocking origins of song lyrics, album covers, publicity photos, and the all too often heartbreaking moments of Nicks’ personal life, in stark detail. Howe has no doubt done her homework, with the material drawn almost exclusively from books, magazine articles, and broadcast interviews written and/or conducted by others. In fact, I don’t believe the author spoke to anyone herself in relation to the book.
Each of the 33 chapters has an italicized teaser previewing what we are about to read and tag summarizing what we should have picked up. Please don’t. We are adults. We can do it on our own thank you very much. Trust us. And don’t telegraph your punches. We would rather not know what is about to transpire, even if it is old news. Although some of those sections also contain trivia that is for the most part interesting, overall the book would be just as good if not better if said parts were excluded.
Otherwise Stevie Nicks is well-written, informative and smartly crafted. It has a good sense of humour (with numerous witty asides, observations, and digressions), and never drags or fails to keep the reader’s attention.
Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumours is more than a portrait of a great artist and unique, eccentric personality; it is also a fascinating glimpse into the bygone golden era of album oriented rock. You know a biography is exceptional when you walk away feeling as though you have gotten to know the subject on an almost personal level. Reading the book made me fall in love with Stevie all over again.
