Fleetwood Mac – Sisters Of The Moon

Song

"Sisters of the Moon" is a song by British-American rock group Fleetwood Mac. It was written and sung by band-member Stevie Nicks and was released in the US as the fourth single from the 1979 album Tusk. The song peaked at No. 86 on the Billboard Hot 100, although it was not released in the UK.

The single version of "Sisters of the Moon" is included on the compilation The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac and both the 2004 and 2015 remasters of 'Tusk'.

When performed live, the song would usually go for over eight minutes in length, most notably the Mirage Tour version in 1982. The song did not appear on any subsequent tour until their 2013 Tour. "Sisters of the Moon" was also played on the North American and European legs of the On with the Show tour, but with an abbreviated guitar solo.

Cash Box said that the song is "mysterious and marvelous" and particularly praised Lindsey Buckingham's guitar playing, saying that the "notes cry out like a banshee in the night."

"Sisters of the Moon" was written a few years before the making of Tusk. Nicks said in an interview with Jim Ladd in the 1970s that the song was written about her deteriorating health while she was on tour with Fleetwood Mac.

"I walked out in front of the mirror and looked at myself and I was sick...so [the lyric]  intense silence as she walked in the room was me looking at myself. And the people they love her, that's after the gigs; they're a million people and you're being pulled every way."

Walter Egan, who worked with both Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on his Not Shy solo album (1978), performed the song live in 1977 and 1978. Egan recorded a demo of the song and intended to include it on Not Shy, although Buckingham convinced him to abandon the idea. Buckingham's decision stemmed from personal issues with Nicks rather than the merits of the song.

Starting in July 1978, Fleetwood Mac embarked on their Penguin Country Summer Safari Tour, where they included "Sister of the Moon" in the setlist, their only representative from Tusk, which at that point was only a month in development.

Deluxe edition

In the liner notes for the 2015 deluxe edition of Tusk, Nicks described the song as her "putting up an alter-ego or something, the dark lady in the corner, and there's this Gemini twin-thing. It wasn't a love song; it wasn't written about a man, or anything precious. It was just about a feeling I might have had over a couple days, going inward in my gnarly trollness".

However, producer Ken Caillat commented that the song "meant a great deal to Stevie" at the time and "represented an anthem of friendship for her sorority of girlfriends". Engineer Hernan Rojas recalled that Nicks dubbed her friend group of Sara Recor, Sharon Celani, and Robin Anderson as "members of the sisterhood", all of whom were bestowed golden half-moon pendants.

Fleetwood Mac rehearsed the song in the summer, but returned to the song in October 1978 after the conclusion of their Penguin Country Summer Safari Tour. The band assembled for conference to determine which verses to retain from Nicks' demo, ultimately opting to record a six minute version. They also reserved the option to edit the song further if they felt it had "single potential".

For the October tracking session, Mick Fleetwood was on drum kit that included a 26-inch kick drum, John McVie used a Fender Precision Bass, Buckingham played a distorted Fender Stratocaster plugged into a Marshall stack, Nicks sang her parts in a stained-glass vocal booth, and Christine McVie used a Yamaha electric piano, having recently received an endorsement deal from the company.

John McVie swapped out the Fender bass for his new Alembic soon after. After several hours, the band still lacked a satisfactory take, so they took a break to perform poetry, including Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". During this break, members of the rhythm section convened in the control room to listen to the soloed kick drum and snare drum tracks to detect any deviations in the song's tempo.

After dinner, the band decided to increase the song's tempo by two beats per minute and resumed work at take 30. They recorded seven more passes, eventually settling on take 35 as the master.

Nicks wanted the backing vocals to be all female, so she and Christine McVie recorded some harmonies during the original tracking sessions. These vocals, which Nicks belted in her head voice, were combined with additional vocals recorded at a later date. Over the next few months, Buckingham overdubbed two tracks of "electric volume swells" and reverbed arpeggio guitars, three tracks of "grungy" Stratocasters, and two acoustic guitars.

Album

Tusk è il dodicesimo album del gruppo rock dei Fleetwood Mac, pubblicato nel 1979. In origine era un doppio album con numerosi brani sperimentali e brevi scritti da Lindsey Buckingham.

Artist

I Fleetwood Mac sono un gruppo musicale rock anglo-statunitense, che ha goduto di grande successo in tutto il mondo, vendendo più di 100 milioni di album. Nel 1998 sono stati inseriti nella Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Intense silence
As she walked in the room
Her black robes trailing
Sister of the moon

And a black widow spider makes
More sound than she
And black moons in those eyes of hers
Made more sense to me

Heavy persuasion
It was hard to breathe
She was dark at the top of the stairs
And she called to me
(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)

And so I followed as friends often do
I cared not for love nor money
And I think she knew
Well, the people, they love her
And still they are the most cruel

She asked me, "Be my sister
Sister, sister of the moon"
(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)
(Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh)

Some call her sister of the moon
Some say, illusions are her game
They like to wrap her in velvet
Does anyone, ooh, know her name?

Silenzio intenso
Mentre entrava nella stanza
Le sue vesti nere strascicavano
Sorella della luna

E una vedova nera fa
Più rumore di lei
E lune nere in quegli occhi suoi
Mi davano più senso

Persuasione pesante
Era difficile respirare
Era scura in cima alle scale
E mi chiamò
(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)

E così la seguii come spesso fanno gli amici
Non mi importava né dell'amore né del denaro
E penso che lei lo sapesse
Beh, le persone, la amano
E tuttavia sono le più crudeli

Mi chiese, "Sii mia sorella
Sorella, sorella della luna"
(Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)
(Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh)

Alcuni la chiamano sorella della luna
Alcuni dicono che le illusioni sono sue gioco
A loro piace avvolgerla nel velluto
Qualcuno, ooh, sa il suo nome?