Buckingham Nicks A/U Series Part 2: Dreams

In The Stillness Of Remembering

Wally Heider Studios
Los Angeles, California
Tuesday, September 23, 1976
(9:00 pm)
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"I'm not having this argument again with you, Stevie. It's a non-issue."

Stevie was doing her best not to want to rip Richard Daschut in half. She was trying her best to see a grown man, a professional, a producer in front of her, but all she could see was the man who'd spent the better part of three years in her living room, calling his pot dealer and asking Lindsey for his money - her money - to pay for it while they sat at home and fiddled with a tape recorder as dealt with the lunch rush at Clementine's in an uncomfortable flapper dress. All could see was a representative from the boys club, telling her to give up pushing for "Silver Springs" to be the last track on the album.

"It's the song that completes the story, Richard!" Stevie had long since given up on keeping her voice down, and she could see the crowd gathering around them. "You can't have Lindsey telling me to shack up somewhere with someone or whatever the fuck he sang about me when he was angry...and me telling him to go take his freedom if he wants it! That's incomplete! It's not what we're trying to accomplish here!"

"This isn't The Stevie Nicks Variety hour, okay, this is a group effort," Richard reminded her. "If you don't think you've got enough with three songs on the album...not to mention you wrote the lyrics to the damn chain song...go make a solo album and leave the rest of us team players the fuck alone!" Richard turned to storm out of the room.

"Maybe I will!" she shouted after him, but it was too late. Richard was gone, and she was left surrounded by Christine, Mick and Ken, all staring at her like she was the bad guy. She looked from face to face until she finally threw her hands in the air and shouted, "What?!"

"Come with me," Mick said, holding out his hand to her. Stevie looked at him as though his request was more odd than it was; he'd pulled he aside many a day in Sausalito earlier that year when things got rough in the studio, and took her out back for a sympathetic ear and a few bumps of cocaine from his breast pocket. When she flinched at the touch of his hand, he said, "You need a breather, Stevie. Come on. Let's go for a walk."

For Stevie, who stood at just over five feet tall and was wearing high-heeled boots, walking with six-foot-six Mick Fleetwood was more of a challenge that she'd anticipated. She told him to slow down twice before she found herself being let into a room she'd never seen at the studio before with red velvet couches and glass tables. She immediately flopped down onto one of them, still physically demonstrating her anger towards everyone about "Silver Springs".

"You must learn to pick your battles, Stevie." Mick sat down beside her and pulled a vial of cocaine out of his breast pocket as always. "Here...even yourself out a bit, love. You need a reason to smile."

"I have reasons to smile, Mick...just not about this." But she did take the vial from him and unscrewed the top to use the spoon on the inside for a bump in each nostril. "Thank you." She closed the vial and returned it to him.

"Think about those things then, love. Anything to keep you from coming unhinged about something that you can't do anything about." He let a sympathetic hand drop to her knee. "What's making you smile these days, Stevie? Tell me." He sat back against the corner of the couch and began using his own cocaine.

"Mick." She looked back at him, folding her arms. "Did you seriously invite me in here for a catch-up-on-life conversation?"

"No...I brought you in here to offer you coke," he clarified with a sly grin. "Then I decided we should catch up. How are you, Stevie? Really."