“Landslide” Country Style By The Petersens

While “Landslide” might seem to be a Fleetwood Mac song about a lover, the band is notorious for writing songs about relationships and what makes them tick. This cut from the eponymous 1975 album that introduced the Stevie Nicks-Lindsey Buckingham tandem is nowhere near the grasp of romance, at least that’s what the song’s writer says.

Nicks says it was her claiming a life of success in the music industry, writing it from a perspective where she thought it was impossible to reach such heights. In a 2013 conversation with Peforming Songwriter, she said: “It was written in 1973 at a point where Lindsey [Buckingham] and I had driven to Aspen for him to rehearse for two weeks with Don Everly. Lindsey was going to take Phil’s place. So they rehearsed and left, and I made a choice to stay in Aspen.”

Continuing, she said: “I figured I’d stay there and one of my girlfriends was there. We stayed there for almost three months while Lindsey was on the road, and this is right after the Buckingham Nicks record had been dropped. And it was horrifying to Lindsey and I because we had a taste of the big time, we recorded in a big studio, we met famous people, we made what we consider to be a brilliant record and nobody liked it (laughs).”

“I had been a waitress and a cleaning lady, and I didn’t mind any of this. I was perfectly delighted to work and support us so that Lindsey could produce and work and fix our songs and make our music. But I had gotten to a point where it was like, “I’m not happy. I am tired. But I don’t know if we can do any better than this. If nobody likes this, then what are we going to do?”

But she finally did it, Lindsey Buckingham included. “In one of my journal entries, it says, ‘I took Lindsey and said, We’re going to the top!’ And that’s what we did. Within a year, Mick Fleetwood called us, and we were in Fleetwood Mac making $800 a week apiece (laughs). Washing $100 bills through the laundry. It was hysterical. It was like we were rich overnight.”

Watch the Nicks/Fleetwood Mac classic in a pleasing bluegrass rendition by The Petersens.