Midweek, and another entry from my earlier journals, espousing the praise of TV biography shows, and in particular, VH1's Behind the Music and a profile of rocker Stevie Nicks:
As with the Arts & Entertainment
network’s Biography series, VH1’s Behind the Music was very fascinating,
depending upon who they profiled. I saw profiles on both Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks that were both
intriguing, especially the one on Stevie!
As the Biography show and
magazine tagline states, “Every life tells a story,” and it is sometimes
fascinating finding out the stories BEHIND the hype and celebrity, to see the
real person who lives inside the flash and the famous skin.
For instance, with the Stevie Nicks
story, I can recall seeing a video of the Fleetwood Mac Mirage tour, and thinking that Stevie didn’t seem to be at her
best, and thinking she was just allowing herself and her career to slip into
the world of drugs – this despite the beautiful and creative video for
“Gypsy.” In later years, it was obvious
that she was deteriorating, both her voice and her songs (Street Angel is not one of her best albums). Yet I had never stopped to ponder why any of
this happened. This Behind the Music show clued me in.
 |
| Stevie Nicks: The "Bella Donna" Album, with Robin Anderson, and Fleetwood Mac's "Mirage" |
Immediately after releasing her
first solo album Bella Donna – in
fact, at the height of that album’s popularity, on the very day the album
reached the Number 1 position on Billboard’s album chart – Stevie received a
phone call from not just a close and personal friend, but her very best friend
in all the world, Robin Anderson. Robin
had been diagnosed with leukemia, and was given only three months to live. Even worse, Robin was pregnant, but according
to the doctors, she would die long before the baby was due. Stevie, who was at once elated over the news
about Bella Donna reaching Number
One, was suddenly devastated, and other than a few short hours before Robin’s
call, never got to enjoy the success of Bella
Donna. Instead, she took her dying
friend on an all expense paid trip to Hawaii, trying to ease her pain and
suffering, if only for a little bit. The
baby was born three months premature and Robin died five days later. Stevie was heartbroken and distraught, yet at
the same time, her band Fleetwood Mac had the new album Mirage released, and were being pressured to tour to help promote
it. Stevie reluctantly agreed to an
expensive Fleetwood Mac world tour, but had no time to grieve because of
it. According to this documentary, that’s
when she began to really loose focus, and all these experiences only helped to
send Stevie spiraling out of control with a devastating cocaine addiction that
wouldn’t end until years later, when her doctor scared the hell out of her by
telling her if she kept it up, she wouldn’t have a nose left, perhaps inside of
a year. Here I was, just a kid who liked
some of her tunes, and thought she was pretty, but a show like this makes me
begin to realize the true story, and the power of reality. Shows like this make me gain a new respect
for one of the most publicly disrespected film genres: The documentary. People may not be following critical advice
to flock to theaters to watch real life in the form of documentaries, but shows
like this are thriving on TV. I guess
the documentary just needed the right setting to appeal to the masses.
From my Journal, July, 1999
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