It is easy to get lost in Joni Mitchell’s sonic world. For nearly six decades, the folk songwriter has accompanied women’s triumphs and tragedies. She writes with unflinching vulnerability and poetic flair in equal measure, with a composition to suit almost any emotion or experience. She has become a big sisterly voice to lean on, even for Stevie Nicks.
Before becoming a formidable Fleetwood Mac frontwoman, Nicks struggled to make her mark in the music industry in the early 1970s. She had a romantic and professional relationship with fellow Fleetwood Mac member Lindsey Buckingham. They released music together as Buckingham Nicks.
The pair released their debut album in 1973. But their label did not renew their contract, and Nicks found herself struggling in both her personal and professional life. The promise of Fleetwood Mac was just around the corner. The duo would join the band in late 1974 – but Nicks found comfort in Mitchell’s words.
Mitchell’s sixth studio album, Court and Spark, was released in early 1974. It was also a stunning collection of tracks, filled with jazzy soundscapes about love and freedom, that immediately won Stevie Nicks over. “[Court and Spark] was one of those albums that I lay on the floor and listened to for three days straight,” she told The Guardian.
Nicks and Buckingham’s relationship was deteriorating, as was their relationship with their label. So the future frontwoman found comfort in the title track in particular. “Lindsey and I were coming to the end of our relationship, and I’d met someone else,” she says. “So I latched on to the title track, which is about a new relationship that doesn’t last.”
The track easily drew Nicks in. Bold pianos and chimes underscore Mitchell’s lyrics as she sings. “The more he talked to me, you know, the more he reached me. But I couldn’t let go of LA, the city of the fallen angels.” In contrast, ‘The Same Situation’ reflected Nicks’s previous experiences in the music industry.
The record assisted Nicks in overcoming the difficulties in their relationship and career at the time, declaring it “the only time I ever felt music might not work out.” Fortunately, it worked out. And the future Fleetwood Mac singer became a source of inspiration and a voice for other aspiring female musicians.
Nicks and Mitchell were both pioneering women in their respective fields, with voices that are as revered and reliable today as they were then.
