A Landslide and the Pursuit of Dreams

I turned a year older on the first of this month. The soundtrack to most of my birthdays is always the same— a timeless song with a powerful message that will outlive us all.

Time makes you bolder.

You’ve heard it, everyone has. Landslide by Fleetwood Mac.

I had a chance to see Stevie Nicks sing it live in my 20s. Her voice was as rich and soulful as it was in 1975 when the song was first recorded.

You don't make music like that without story, and there's a beautiful tale behind the vulnerability you hear in her voice. 

Listeners often mistake Landslide for a love song. It is in a way but not in the way you might think. 

Landslide is not an ode to a lover. Stevie wrote the lyrics to her past and future self.

She sings about the heartbreak and pining for the person we wish to be. 

Landslide is a song about allowing the identity you build your life around to evolve.

Nicks wrote Landslide in 1973 while she was a waitress and a cleaning lady. She was supporting herself and Lindsey Buckingham while trying to write and record music. She was often forced to choose between groceries or rent.

Her art took time, energy and vulnerability. The lyrics were born when Stevie was faced with the fear of losing everything for her dream.

Nicks describes writing the song like making a decision to push through the fear. 

She wanted a successful music career more than anything. She identified as a musician and chose to manifest a life that matched her identity.

Stevie once said, “Landslide is about the fear of everything coming crashing down and not knowing how you’re going to hold things together in pursuit of a dream.”

Two years after writing Landslide, she joined the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac and went on to sell 120 million records.

Stevie Nicks has been named one of The Greatest Songwriters of All Time by Rolling Stone.

Do you ever look back on a previous decade and wish for a do-over? "If I knew what I know now, I would have been fearless."

What if you told your future self to be braver right now?

If you feel like you're just sailing through the seasons, just remember Stevie's lyric:“Time makes you bolder."

Celebrate Stevie with the Gypsy graphic tee or onesie from the Lady Rockers Collection.

“It was my 16th birthday—my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote a song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do—write songs and sing them to people.”

— STEVIE NICKS