Landslide by Fleetwood Mac: For the Woman in Her Late Twenties

Landslide by Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks) is one of the most well known songs of the rock band and I can honestly not remember a time in my life when I didn’t know and love this song. Although this song has been a pivotal song for me throughout many stages in life, I am finding myself truly grasping the depth of it as I settle into my mid-twenties.

For some background on the song itself, Stevie Nicks wrote Landslide in one sitting back in 1973 at the age of 25 shortly before her and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac. Stevie recalls in various interviews that she wrote this song while in Aspen, Colorado after her and Lindsey put out their record Buckingham Nicks and didn’t receive the praise they thought the record deserved. Stevie claims that at this time she felt tired, broke, and just unhappy after pursuing her music career and nothing really taking off. She claims in an interview on Oprah’s Master Class that the landslide represents the fear of everything crashing down and not being sure how you are going to hold things together in pursuit of your dreams. The song represents her internal struggle at the time contemplating which direction to go with her life and deciding what was worth it and what wasn’t, while understanding these decisions could alter her life significantly. 

Something very special about this song is how the lyrics can mean different things to different people in various stages of life. However, as I have grown and evolved as a person, I have considered this song to be one of my “security blanket” songs but something about being 27 now and around the age Stevie was when she wrote this masterpiece, I can really feel the deeper emotions in the lyrics.

To explain further, there have been many scientific studies that claim the human brain isn’t fully developed until age 25. So once you hit age 25, you start to really get to know and understand yourself while beginning a different period of self-love and acceptance. At this point you may also start to better understand why you are the way you are, how certain things in your life have affected you, and better understand your core values. So while 25 is when you are considered fully developed, the years following 25 are where the real journey begins as you navigate who you are and what you want. I have even heard people refer to the years after age 25 as the “landslide years” because of this effect in reference to the song. From my experience, and I know others feel the same way, your mid to late twenties is when you do start to really think long term and truly consider what you want out of life. The lyrics “can I handle the seasons of my life” is the perfect example of self-reflection and acceptance that life will have ups and downs and how intimidating it can be to manage those moments.

The reason that I think this song hits a sweet spot for the late twenties crowd versus being more of a “coming of age” song is that I don’t think you start to genuinely feel that “oh shit, I am getting old” feeling until you are closer to thirty. I think when you are in your late teens and early twenties you acknowledge that you are growing up and settling into adulthood but the feeling of getting old isn’t as prevalent. For example, the lyric “time makes you bolder, children get older and I’m getting older too” hits a lot different now than it did when I was in college. I didn’t fully consider myself as older until I noticed the kids I used to babysit go off to college or realize that the decisions I make in my career now have higher stakes than they did when I first graduated college. It also seems like at this age you have to hone in a bit more on the plans you have for yourself in terms of whether or not to start a family, taking on different responsibilities as your parents get older, what you want out of your career, and whether or not you want to settle down in a specific area and what implications come with that. My intention isn’t to sound depressing or to stress anyone out, but in short, it just seems like your late twenties are where your decisions on the direction of your life hold a little more weight and are harder to come back from than when you are fresh out into the real world.

I also find it special that although my life is vastly different than Stevie’s, I do experience a similar weight of emotions for this period in my life of accepting things about who I am while trying my best to navigate the future to ensure I am happy with how things end up. I know others can attest to that as well and I think that is what makes this song so special. This song is so raw and real that it truly sheds light on the human experience for this period of our lives and the thought process many of us experience.

Of course, the wonderful thing about music and especially a song as well written as Landslide, is that the song is totally up to the listener’s interpretation. Others may feel that this song means more to them at different ages and I could easily double back twenty years from now and feel that the song resonates with me even more at that point. All of this to be said, it is no secret that Stevie Nicks is a phenomenal song writer, but we can also revel in this shared experience of navigating life in our late twenties despite how different our lives may be and find comfort that we are not alone in these feelings.

As a woman who is currently 27 myself, I feel the most comfortable with who I am but at the same time have my mind filled with so many different decisions for future me and my future family. So if you are feeling conflicted or overwhelmed with not knowing the right direction you want your life to go, I encourage you to give Landslide a listen and just allow yourself to really feel the lyrics. I also want to add that although there are multiple versions of Landslide, my personal favorite is the live performance from The Dance Tour in 1997, mainly due to the unspoken words exchanged between Stevie and Lindsey during the performance after all the history between them (see below). You can also read more about Stevie and Lindsey’s relationship history on a previous post I did here.

Please feel free to share with me what Landslide means to you and if you feel these lyrics resonate with a certain point in your life. My favorite thing about music is that we all can hold certain songs so dearly while they simultaneously can have a unique meaning for each individual.

Thanks for reading!