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- [00:00]
Christian Lane
97.1Fm the drive presents the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes.
- [00:09]
Janda
Here's your host, Janda Workplace romances can be challenging, especially when your job is being part of a rock band. That was certainly the case with the band Heart. In fact, their first top 10 hit in the US was written about the beginnings of what would become an intra band relationship. Get into the story of Magic man in this episode of the behind behind the Song podcast. If you like it, give it a thumbs up and hit. Subscribe and let us know in the comments. Magic man really kickstarted Hart's career. It was written by Anne and Nancy Wilson from their debut album Dreamboat Annie, and it got on the charts in the States during the summer of 1976. Songs from Dreamboat Annie were already a few singles deep in Canada, where the band were based at the time. How they got there is where the love story starts. The core group, the Hart lineup that was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame founding members Roger Fisher on guitar and Steve Fossett on bass, along with Ann Wilson on lead vocals and flute, Nancy Wilson on rhythm and acoustic guitar, Michael derozier on drums and Howard Leese on keyboards. Fisher and Fossen had been in other bands in their native Seattle and initially formed the nucleus of the band there. Rogers brother Mike Fisher took off to Canada after the Vietnam War draft In the early 70s, just over the border from Seattle in Vancouver. He recrossed the border to visit home one Star Crossed day, went to a show and met Ann Wilson. The two fell in love right then and there by all accounts, and she followed him back to Canada. Anne's sister Nancy also packed up and left home to join the band. When Ann Wilson met Mike Fisher, it was fate, but her parents did not like it one bit. For one thing, her father was a military officer who once served as the director of the Marine Corps Band, so explaining her new boyfriend's escape from the draft must have been sticky to say the least. Plus, she was still living at home, going to art school and existing in what she called a very suburban state of being. She left all that to join up with Mike Fisher and to try her hand at music in a band with his brother Roger. She says her mother in particular was a formidable opponent when it came to her decision to move to Canada, spending many hours on the phone with her, begging her to come home, fearing the worst. But Anne prevailed, and when her younger sister Nancy dropped out of college and moved to Vancouver to join Hart, she didn't just join the band. She eventually became romantically linked with Roger Fisher. Two brothers dating two sisters. With Mike managing the band, what could go wrong? The Wilson sisters wrote Magic man based on the true story of Ann's early days with Mike Fisher, with all those phone calls from mom trying her best to get her daughter to come home. It's totally autobiographical and it goes like. Cold late night, so long ago when I was not so strong, you know A pretty man came to me. Never seen eyes so blue I could not run away. It seemed we'd seen each other in a dream. It seemed like he knew me. He looked right through me. That's Ann Wilson meeting Mike Fisher one night, the man who would go on to become what he described as less of a typical music business manager and more like an architect or a master chef. Seeing the early potential in the combined talents of the band and being totally passionate about their success. And the song goes on. Come on homegirl, he said with a smile. You don't have to love me yet. Let's get high a while but try to understand I'm a magic man. She was a total goner. I really like this next verse with all its poetry and just a few lines about how the first part of a head over heels romance feels. Winter nights we sang in tune played inside the months of moon Never think of never let this spell last forever. Summer lover passed a fall tried to realize it all. Mama says she's worried growing up in a hurry. And then all those phone calls from home come into play in the song. Come on home girl. Mama cried on the phone Too soon to lose my baby yet my girl should be at home but try to understand, he's a magic man. Only she's pulled in the other direction in the song's ending when he says to her, come on home girl. He said with a smile, I cast my spell of love on you A woman from a child. But try to understand, I'm a magic man. Now I have to note here that Ann Wilson has described herself as being young for her age at the time, which was around 21, when she linked up with Fisher. From her parents point of view, she was a sheltered, artistic girl who had overcome a considerable stammer in her teen years by turning to singing, for which she had an incredible natural talent, but not very much experience at that point. And really, who could blame a girl's mother for being concerned, burning up the phone lines to try and persuade the kid to come home. In the early 70s, there weren't that many Girls in rock bands period, much less female fronted hard rock bands. Although Hart certainly didn't start out that way. Hart was an all male affair until Anne joined with her amazing voice and her flute, followed by Nancy. The sisters were moved at the forefront of the band and they became the focus for better or for worse. It was a spectacle that was often difficult to navigate in those very male dominated years on the rock timeline they got attention, but sometimes that attention was hurtful, especially in the press, and it overshadowed the very sizable talents of the other members of the band, including Roger Fisher. He created such downright genius lead guitar parts for Hart's hits in those chart topping early years that are often unsung. It was Roger Fisher who came up with the idea of doing a special tuning on his guitar for Magic Man. Tuning the high E and B strings up to the point that there's a real risk of them breaking. And the mood setting opening riff of the song is actually recorded with the tape flipped backwards in the studio to achieve the sound. A difficult approach that he said he had to learn how to pull off when the band performed it live. When the song was released, the edit for the single cut out most of the deeply funky and almost otherworldly instrumental break in the middle. A wild ride with a guitar solo and a mini Moogs synthesizer played by Howard Lease. That cuts out almost two minutes of glorious 70s studio rock and roll badassery, which was par for the course in those days when song length sometimes became prioritized over the more artistic offering. On the full album, Magic man went to number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and Dreamboat Annie went to number seven on the album chart. By 1979, the Wilson Fisher era of Hart ended when Roger and Nancy broke up after alleged cheating by Roger and Nancy then began dating Michael derozier, the drummer that created Fleetwood Mac level tensions within the band and soon Roger was voted out. After that, brother Mike also broke up with Ann and he left Hart behind as their manager as well, effectively ending an era for the band. Hart continued of course with lineup changes and more albums, record label woes and a renewed success in the mid-80s. Their contribution to rock and roll is really immense from a band who never made a big deal themselves about the whole girls in the band thing. It was in those early years that the sound of Hart was made and then embraced by fans. Acoustic meets electric guitarmany, powerful singing and a deep rhythm section could handle it. All the love stories within the band that blossomed and then faded within those years are a part of that history, a necessary chapter in one of the most unique tales lived by any rock band, then or now. Magic man isn't the whole story of the band by any means, but it is the autobiographical start to everything that would come after Ann Wilson has said that it's her Leaving Home song, a classic story that became one of the mainstays of classic rock. So what other songs about leaving home come to mind? 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 and check it out on TikTok too. 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@wdrv.com on the way. Much more classic rock and roll.