Sure, it has been the case on some occasions. But don’t get it twisted, greatness isn’t stumbled upon by chance. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was forged in the fires of growing intra-band toxicity, while Rumours is the literal sound of a band, pushing through the palpable discontent that existed between them, to search for a higher musical truth. These ideas were laboured over and had to overcome a constant barrage of interventions from whatever form. 

So, being a part of the latter-mentioned album, Stevie Nicks was no stranger to this. Despite the natural charisma with which she performed music and the fact that ‘Dreams’ bucks the trend I am so passionately trying to dispel, given that it was written in a reported ten minutes, she is an artist willing to go to the very depths of artistry and work for it. 

It made her a natural choice when Prince was looking for a collaborator on one of his most epic projects. He invited Stevie Nicks to a songwriting session, and when she showed interest, sent her a cassette of a long instrumental country track that would ultimately be the making of the song. But Nicks’ spiritual guidance told her instantly that something was off, that this song would be too dense for her to tackle. But for once in her artistic life, Nicks had missed out on a hit. 

“It was so overwhelming, that 10-minute track, that I listened to it and I just got scared,” Nicks said. “I called him back and said, ‘I can’t do it. I wish I could. It’s too much for me.’ I’m so glad that I didn’t, because he wrote it, and it became ‘Purple Rain.’”

“I’ve still got it [the demo cassette] – with the whole instrumental track and a little bit of Prince singing, ‘Can’t get over that feeling,’ or something,” the Fleetwood Mac singer recalled. “I told him, ‘Prince, I’ve listened to this a hundred times but I wouldn’t know where to start. It’s a movie, it’s epic.”

But Prince clearly went to Nicks for a bit of support, as he was becoming burdened by the heavy weight of this song’s promise. In fact, it still lives with him to this day. He explained to The Observer, “In some ways Purple Rain scared me,” adding, “It’s my albatross and it’ll be hanging around my neck as long as I’m making music.”

It seemed as though this song had a predestined. It was going to be made one way or another, but it would always come at the painful cost of Prince, who, despite trying to deflect it to Nicks, had to push on and achieve greatness. Remember that, when you think all great musicians bear a natural gift that we simply couldn’t comprehend.

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