← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
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- [00:02]
Janda
Welcome to the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda.
- [00:17]
Stevie Nicks
Sometimes songs can serve as time machines, taking us back to places, people and scenes in the blink of an eye. That can also be true for the songwriters who wrote them. When Stevie Nicks wrote Gypsy, she was remembering a time before Fleetwood Mac became the ultra famous, mega successful band that we know today. It's a song rooted in nostalgia, her memories of being a broke musician in a room with paper flowers instead of real ones, trying to make it all work with Lindsey Buckingham on both a personal and a professional level before they joined Fleetwood Mac. And it evolved into a song about remembering a friend, her closest confidant, Robin Snyder Anderson, who passed away way too soon. There's a lot to unpack in this unforgettable hit, so let's get to it in this episode of the behind the Song podcast. If you like it, give it a thumbs up and hit. Subscribe and let us know in the comments. Gypsy was the second single released from Fleetwood Mac's Mirage album, which hit stores in July of 1982 and went to number one. The song peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 where it stayed for three weeks. This was an interesting time for Fleetwood Mac as a band. Their previous album, 1979's Tusk, was an experimental affair that cost tons of money, over a million dollars to produce. The most expensive rock album ever made up to that point. A world tour followed and then each of the members of Fleetwood Mac took time off to pursue their own solo projects and in the summer of 1981, Stevie Nicks released the wildly successful Belladonna album which went to the top of the charts that September. Stevie Nicks was suddenly a solo star in a big way. When you think about how successful Fleetwood Mac had become so quickly after Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined in 1975 with the release of the Rumors album in 1977, the platinum sales, the sold out world tours, the breaking up and making up between member of the band romantically between themselves, the sheer soap opera of being a member of this band. It's easy to see why Stevie Nicks would write a song about yearning for a simpler time. Gypsy. Is that a reflection on the free spirited life she had before Fleetwood Mac blew up? Nicks has said that way before she and Buckingham joined the band that would alter the course of their lives, they were just two broke musicians trying to get by, living in San Francisco with Stevie Nicks doing day jobs to make rent they had no money to speak of, with a king sized mattress that they kept on the floor. Too poor to afford a bed frame, lace covers, a lamp by the bed on the floor. In her memory, this room was a calming space, a symbol of simpler times, when everything was still a hopeful dream and a nostalgic acceptance of the sacrifices she'd made to make it as a rock star. She and Lindsey Buckingham were barely speaking by the time the Mirage album was recorded, but their histories, their destinies, were so entwined. This is another song of many Fleetwood Mac hits with its roots in the fact that Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham wrote songs about each other. In fact, Nicks told rolling stone in 2014 that they will probably keep writing about each other until they're dead. The song Gypsy actually could have been included on the Belladonna album because it was written years earlier, between 1978 and 1979. It was ultimately held back from Belladonna. And the song took on a whole new meaning when Stevie Nicks got a phone call from her friend, Robin Snyder Anderson, the day before the Belladonna album was released. Anderson and Nix had been friends since they were teenagers in high school. She was Nick's confidant in every way, as close as two friends could possibly be. And so Nix was devastated when Anderson told her that she'd been diagnosed with terminal leukemia, with the expectation that she would only have a few months to live and that she was also pregnant. About the baby, Anderson said that she wanted to leave her husband, Kim Anderson, with something after she had gone. So it was all incredibly heartbreaking any way you looked at it. After hearing this news, Stevie Nicks said that she started to look at her song Gypsy in a completely different way, knowing that her best friend would be leaving her. Robin Snyder Anderson passed away In October of 1982, three months after the release of the Mirage album. Her son Matthew was born just then, days before she passed, three months premature. Stevie Nicks was on tour at the time of her death, unable to be present and to cope properly with that loss. Because of this tragedy, Nicks fell into a relationship with her friend's widower, Kim Anderson, a relationship fueled by mutual grief and concern for raising the child. And the two were married in January of 1983. They divorced three months later. An impossible relationship from start to finish, not built on love, but a kind of insanity sprung from a very real human loss. After they divorced, Nix continued to provide care and support for Matthew, putting him through college. Her marriage to Kim Anderson was the one and only time she ever got married. Nix has said that Gypsy isn't really a happy story and that she finds it difficult to pull off in concert. To this day, it is forever linked with the loss of her friend, the person who knew her before she got famous, the person who knew her best. The lyrics go like this, so I'm back to the Velvet Underground Back to the floor that I love To a room with some lace and paper flowers Back to the gypsy that I was so it opens with that reflective memory, back to the old days in San Francisco, broke but hopeful, trying to get by before everything changed. The Velvet Underground was an actual vintage store in the Haight Ashbury district, where Janis Joplin and Grace Slick shopped and where a young Stevie Nicks would go to daydream about being able to afford the clothes she saw there. Then back to the room with the bed on the floor as the song goes on and it all comes down to you well, you know that it does Lightning strikes maybe once, maybe twice and it lights up the night and you see your gypsy People, connections, chances some as rare as lightning Striking the same spot twice an era from the past held close as a reminder the song goes on to the gypsy that remains Faces freedom with a little fear I have no fear I have only love and if I was a child and the child was enough Enough for me to love enough to love these lines take on a whole new meaning in light of what was happening with Stevie Nick's friend Robin, especially when she sings this next verse. She is dancing away from me now she was just a wish and a memory is all that's left for you now you see your gypsy Nix has said many times that dealing with her friend dying was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. When she sings I still see your bright eyes at the end of the song, she said that it was about the fact that her friend wasn't going to see the rest of life, she wasn't going to make it, and that Nicks was the lone gypsy now very sad. And that sometimes that's when she writes her best songs to further give this period some color. Not only was Stevie Nicks coming off of an enormously successful solo debut, but she was recording this song and others for Fleetwood Mac's Mirage album at the famed Chateau d' Uraville in France, where Elton John, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and many others had recorded since Mick Fleetwood wanted to flee from the distractions of Los Angeles to make the album. And this was during a period when she was not at all getting along with Buckingham, making the recording difficult. It was eventually finished in several studios back in la. The gypsy that Nicks embraced in this song has become a symbol of resilience, a part of her identity that persists despite all the changes, the ups and downs with relationships and the heartbreak of letting go. It suggests that even when external circumstances shift dramatically, the core essence of who she is remains. Stevie Nicks said in the late 80s that if you can't believe in dreams, then you can't believe that things will work out. So what are you going to write about? Gypsy is that sparkling sonic reminder that a fantasy world where beds on the floor and paper flowers that aren't real aren't symbols of harder times, but warm places that really matter in our minds and our hearts. Part of the journey. And it's a tribute to the bright eyes of a friend who shared that journey up until it was time to say goodbye. So what other songs sound upbeat and happy but really deal with tough subjects like this? Something to think about until next time. I'm Janda and this has been behind the song. If you like this episode, give it a like and subscribe to the channel. Special thanks as always to Christian Lane for the music you hear on these podcast episodes. You can find me on the air at 97.1 FM the Drive in Chicago and at wdrv.com on the way. Much more Classic rock and roll.