Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stevie Nicks - Rock A Little

 

Stevie Nicks - Rock A Little
Modern Records 90479-1 (1985)




Track Listing:

 

Side One:

A1. I Can't Wait
A2. Rock A Little (Go Ahead Lily)
A3. Sister Honey
A4. I Sing For The Things
A5. Imperial Hotel
A6. Some Become Strangers

Side Two:

B1. Talk To Me
B2. The Nightmare
B3. If I Were You
B4. No Spoken Word
B5. Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You






Personnel:
Jim Keltner, Andy Newmark, Steve Jordan, Russ Kunkel, Denny Carmasi - Drums
Stevie Nicks - Producer, Vocals
Lori Perry, Maria Vidal, Marilyn Martin, Sharon Celani, Carol Brooks - Backing Vocals
Bob Glaub, Kenny Edwards, Michael Porcaro - Bass
George Black - Bass, Guitar
Waddy Wachtel, Danny Kortchmar, Mike Campbell - Guitar
Mike Landau - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Greg Phillinganes - Keyboards, Synthesizer, Timpani
Benmont Tench - Piano, Organ
Jimmy Iovine - Producer
Rick Nowels - Producer, Keyboards
Jamie Sheriff - Programmed By, Synthesizer
Charles Judge - Synthesizer, Piano
David Kemper - Tambourine, Percussion
Billy Payne - Synthesizer
Bobbye Hall - Percussion
Chas Sandford - Guitar, Synthesizer, Bass, Producer
Barney Wilens - Saxophone
Bill Cuomo - Keyboards
Keith Olsen - Producer

 

Why Stevie Nicks couldn’t finish ‘Talk to Me’ until Jim Keltner walked in

 

Sometimes, it takes a good collaborator to push an artist to their full potential. Even Stevie Nicks, someone you’d expect to have very few issues achieving greatness, needs that one magical push from time to time.

But then again, Nicks has understood the power of collaboration since day one. Even when she and Lindsey Buckingham struggled to make ends meet, and she stayed home to write her own stories and build her own worlds, Nicks appreciated having someone else to bounce ideas off of, even if that someone was also informing her own words, her own approach to art, for better or worse.

After all, Nicks and Buckingham’s story is well-documented, and so are the ongoing fallings-out, make-ups, and explosive disagreements they each painted on the walls of their own soundscapes. One of the reasons Rumours remains one of the greatest rock records ever is its raw honesty and the raw heartache the pair poured into their work, often collaborating to create such authenticity despite being each other’s main subject.

But that’s because Nicks has always truly understood the realities of creating good art through collaboration. In the rock space, especially, it can be easy for musicians to get their backs up and choose to work solo because they believe it brings out the best in them. Sometimes, this rings true, especially when an artist has a specific or distinctive vision that only they can pull off.

However, others might have that same sense of individualism with their artistic vision but understand that it flourishes even further whenever they open it up to the ideas and opinions of others. There have been several times in Nicks’ career where other artists have pushed her to greatness or shaped her sound or stylistic direction, and each time, she proves that working with others isn’t something to avoid; often, it simply enhances what’s already there.

This was the case with ‘Talk To Me’, from her 1985 record, Rock a Little. While working on material for the album, producer Jimmy Iovine brought her the Chas Sandford-penned song, feeling that it’d be an instant hit – something he was constantly on the lookout for.

At first, Nicks wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t that she felt the song was bad. In fact, she actually thought it was herself getting in the way of a good tune, and the fact that she struggled to deliver a good enough vocal to get it to sound good enough. Iovine pushed her to keep going, and she did, but it wasn’t until some divine intervention in the form of Jim Keltner that something finally shifted.

“[It] was a hard song to sing, but I had loved ‘Missing You’ [co-written by Sandford], and I loved the words to ‘Talk to Me’,” said Nicks. “It took a long time to finish it, though, because I couldn’t quite get the right feeling on it…until one night. Jim Keltner came in to do some drum overdubs, and then he stayed to be an audience to push me a little, to make me get a great vocal. So I had someone to sing to, and I got the vocal.”

It’s easy to interpret many of Nicks’ best performances and arrangements the same way. A lot of the time, she’ll recall having specific ideas but not feeling confident enough to execute them alone, or facing the kinds of challenges that usually require only a few words of wisdom to overcome. By which point, the magic is fully there, waiting to be shared with the rest of the world.



Taken from Far Out Magazine By Kelly Murphy