At Home in Hespeler

Like most guys my age, I had a crush on Stevie Nicks back in the 70’s and early bit of the 80’s. Besides being gorgeous, there’s a real sexiness to her, the long flowing dresses being far more intriguing than the more usual attempts to stimulate through under-dressing.

Reading Zoë Howe’s Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumors, it’s clear I was not alone. As Nicks’ friend Sara Recor comments, “Jim (Recor, Sara’s then husband) had a crush on her (Stevie), but who wouldn’t?”

The thing that comes across in Visions Dreams & Rumours is outside of the rock star adoration young adolescents like I gave Nicks, she was worthy of those attentions and crushes. She was, is, what she seems to be, an entirely likeable, classy, and classic, lady.

Howe balances the writing of a biography very well between not hiding the foibles of the subject, and presenting her as a likeable human. Nicks comes across as very much a real person, not some caricature or over the top personality. In fact, what becomes clear is that what you see with Nicks, is pretty much the real thing. Her onstage persona is not a character so much as an exaggeration of her true self. Nicks really does dress like that. Nicks really does talk like a dreamy hippy. She carries around notebooks of poetry and will stop what she’s doing to write down a line she heard or thought of.

On top of presenting a likeable Nicks, reading Visions Dreams & Rumours has made me go back and re-examine Nicks’ catalogue. I had forgotten how good a singer she is, and the great songs she writes. Her first solo effort, Bella Donna, is a revelation, although there was a time when I gave it a lot of airplay. It is better than I remembered.

It’s nice when you read a biography and come away liking the subject more than when you went in, and get a chance to rediscover a forgotten artist. Visions Dreams & Rumours did exactly that. It is a well written enjoyable read, which makes Stevie Nicks seem a vivid and real person. It presents her life in the context of her work, without belabouring the salacious details inevitable in a 70’s rock star biography. And it reintroduced me to some great music.

 

For certified professional guitar repair in Cambridge Ontario: Brian Gardiner Guitar Repair

Book Review Bella Donna, Stevie Nicks, Zoë Howe

All the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities

In season three of Californication Rick Springfield had a brilliant part, playing… Rick Springfield. The fictoional Rick Springfield was a hard partying, cocaine snorting, hard drinking, over sexed celebrity, living hard off his former glory.

Rick Springfield the real guy was pulled over this week, and after smelling alcohol, had to submit to a field sobriety test, which he failed.

Talk about taking your work home with you.

Lindsay Lohan can’t catch a break. After expressing an interest in playing Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks in a biopic, Nicks has nixed the idea, at least until Lohan pass a field sobriety test. said Nicks:

I was completely messed up for a long time and I got it together… If she could get it together, she could have a really big career and she could do great things.

Fall Out Boy’s (they’re a band) Patrick Stump has spoken up about the reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden:

The thing that’s hard for me as an American is that… obviously it’s a symbolic victory for the War on Terror but at the end of the day I don’t think it’s cool to celebrate any one’s death. I just don’t believe in that.

I’m guessing they should just change the name of the band now to Fall Out, Boy!

Other celebrity reactions to bin Ladens death:

• “I guess I won’t be invited to any more bin Laden weddings.” – Elton John
• “The death of Osama bin Laden is a prediction of the Global Warming models.” – Al Gore
• “Why didn’t they call the Vatican Ninja Assassins if they had a job to do.” – Charlie Sheen
• “I want to play him in the movie.” – Lindsay Lohan

Ricardo Chavira, who plays Carlos on Desperate Housewives, was arrested Tuesday Night for “suspicion of driving under the influence.”

Chavira was being held on $25,000 bail after, “failing a field sobriety test.”

Fluffernutter Californication, Fall Out Boy, Fleetwood Mac, Lindsay Lohan, Osama Bin Laden, Patrick Stump, Ricardo Chavira, Rick Springfield, Stevie Nicks