“Landslide” is about change.

But the change wasn’t abstract.

Stevie Nicks wrote it while seriously considering whether to abandon her dream of becoming a professional musician.

Her album with Lindsey Buckingham had failed commercially.

Money was tight.

Nicks was working ordinary jobs to support them.

She went to Aspen, Colorado.

Looked out at the mountains.

And wondered whether the entire life she had built was about to collapse.

When did Stevie Nicks write “Landslide”?

Importantly, that was before she and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac.

Their Buckingham Nicks album had failed to become commercially successful.

Nicks was working as a waitress and cleaner.

The glamorous rock-star life had not arrived.

She had to make a decision:

keep going.

Or return to school and choose another life.

Why is it called “Landslide”?

Because the mountains surrounding Nicks became a metaphor for everything happening in her life.

A landslide is a sudden collapse of something that appeared solid.

Career.

Relationship.

Identity.

Future.

Any of those can feel stable until suddenly they aren’t.

Nicks has described looking at the mountains while feeling that everything around her might come crashing down.

Is “Landslide” about Lindsey Buckingham?

Partly.

Their personal and musical relationship was under pressure.

But reducing the song to Buckingham misses the larger question.

Nicks was thinking about her entire life.

Her age.

Career.

Future.

Relationship.

Whether she had chosen the wrong path.

That’s why the song works at weddings, funerals, graduations and breakups.

It isn’t tied to one event.

It is about realising that life changes whether you’re ready or not.

Did Stevie Nicks almost quit music?

Yes.

That’s one of the most extraordinary details.

Imagine Nicks deciding:

This isn’t working.

I’m going back to school.

No Fleetwood Mac version of Stevie Nicks.

No Rumours as we know it.

No solo career.

No “Edge of Seventeen”.

She continued.

Soon afterwards, Mick Fleetwood invited Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac.

Buckingham insisted Nicks came too.

Music history changed.

Why is the song suddenly particularly timely again?

Practical Magic 2, released in cinemas this month, uses Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” on its soundtrack.

That gives the song another cultural moment nearly five decades after its original Fleetwood Mac release.

There is also a neat connection with Olivia Rodrigo, who recently performed “Landslide” with Nicks at Rodrigo’s Daisy Chain Fields festival before both artists appeared separately on the Practical Magic 2 soundtrack.

Why have so many artists covered it?

Because the composition survives almost any voice.

The Smashing Pumpkins covered it.

The Chicks covered it.

Countless singers perform it live.

The arrangement can change enormously while the emotional core remains intact.

That is usually a sign of excellent songwriting.

What genre is “Landslide”?

Folk rock.

Soft rock.

Singer-songwriter.

The recording is extremely simple compared with many Fleetwood Mac classics.

Voice.

Acoustic guitar.

Very little distraction.

That simplicity makes the words impossible to hide from.

Songs like “Landslide”

Try:

Fleetwood Mac – Silver Springs

Joni Mitchell – Both Sides, Now

James Taylor – Fire and Rain

Cat Stevens – Father and Son

Carole King – So Far Away

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

Billy Joel – Vienna

Brandi Carlile – The Story

Taylor Swift – Nothing New

The Chicks – Travelin’ Soldier

What does “Landslide” really mean?

What happens when the life you planned no longer feels certain?

Nicks asked herself that question in Aspen.

Then she kept going.

Which makes “Landslide” unusually hopeful.

The song sounds frightened.

The story after the song isn’t.