"The Dealer" is a 2014 song by the American singer/songwriter

Stevie Nicks Stephanie Lynn Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. After starting her career as a duo with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, releasing the album ...

. It was the first single from her solo album, '' 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault''. The song was a minor hit in Belgium, where it peaked at No. 72 on the Wallonia Tip chart.

Background

The song was written in 1979 for

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

's "

Tusk Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canine tooth, canine teeth, as with Narwhal, narwhals, chevrotains, musk deer, water deer, muntjac, pigs, ...

" album but it was left unreleased. It was presented to engineer Hernán Rojas around the time Fleetwood Mac was recording the demo for "

Sara Sara may refer to: People * Sara (given name), a feminine given name People with the given name * Sara Aboobacker (1936–2023), Indian writer and translator * Sara Ahmed (born 1969), British-Australian writer * Sara Allgood (1880–1950), Ir ...

", but was not recorded by the full band until several months later. The other members of

, particularly

Lindsey Buckingham Lindsey Adams Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American musician, record producer, and the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 and 1997 to 2018. In addition to his tenure with ...

, were lukewarm about the song in spent comparatively less time working on the song compared to other material on the ''Tusk'' album. For the recording sessions, John McVie's bass guitar was sent directly to the

mixing console A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for Audio mixing (recorded music), mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals fro ...

Mick Fleetwood Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and actor. He is the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of the group's bassist John Mc ...

was on drums, Buckingham played an electric guitar through a

Mesa/Boogie Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969. Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a sm ...

Christine McVie Christine Anne McVie (; Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician. She was the keyboardist and one of the vocalists and songwriters of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. McVie was a member of several bands, notably Chic ...

used her Yamaha

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

, and Nicks was situated in an isolation booth with an additional keyboard to help with chord changes. Rojas commented that the chord progression was more advanced than what Nicks was used to writing and that her lack of conventional music training prevented her from providing the band proper guidance on how to approach the song. He further reckoned that the song could have been huge hit for ''Tusk'' if enough attention was given to it. The song was attempted again for Nicks's '' Bella Donna'' album in 1981, although these efforts were also unsuccessful. A bootleg recording of the song was found on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

by Nicks' manager, which inspired Nicks to re-record the song. The song's release was accompanied by a lyric video.

Charts

References

External links

stevienicksofficial.com
*http://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/p/stevie-nicks_10.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Dealer Stevie Nicks songs 2014 singles Songs written by Stevie Nicks 1979 songs