After the Glitter Fades

Album: Bella Donna (1981)
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Songfacts®:

  • It's natural to assume that "After the Glitter Fades" is Nicks' way of using archetypal Hollywood to explore her own well-known show-business malaise, but according to Zoë Howe's Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams, and Rumors, Nicks wrote the song in 1972. This was before there was any music-industry glitter at all for Nicks. A fateful call from Mick Fleetwood on New Year's Eve, 1974, was still a couple of years away, and Nicks was still trying to make it in music.
  • The song was originally written with Dolly Parton in mind as the singer, but Nicks couldn't locate her to pitch it.
  • Nicks wrote this in the same time period as "Landslide," which was the "Buckingham-Nicks Era," as she and Lindsey Buckingham were trying to build a career together. They recorded an album titled Buckingham Nicks that had little success and got them dropped from the label.

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