Having my iPhone means that I have my music back again (it was too hard to get it onto my Huawei from a MacBook, and I refuse to do streaming services), and as I was organizing everything into updated playlists to go back on my phone, I stumbled across something I had totally forgotten.
Now, I’ve posted (way back in 2016, if anyone even remembers that far back) about my favorite song, Destiny Rules. But that’s kind of a misnomer because in truth I have three favorite songs, Destiny Rules just happens to be the one I have tattooed on me… for the moment.
Another one of my favorite songs is actually another Stevie Nicks song (Destiny Rules is actually Fleetwood Mac and something new she wrote around 2003) but this song is different. The song is Planets of the Universe. I’m sure I’ve written about it, because it’s message is just as poignant to me as Destiny Rules’, even if it’s a lot more nihilist than the other song’s hopeful message.
Planets of the Universe was actually written for Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album, but she could never finish it. She would always pull it back out every time she went to record, but no one could ever help her figure out how to finish the song, so it always sat on the back-burner.
They released the demo from the 1970’s on the Deluxe Edition of Rumours.
After Fleetwood Mac reunited in the 1990’s, Stevie started recording a new album with Sheryl Crow and she told Sheryl about the song that she’d been trying to finish for 20 years. Sheryl encouraged Stevie to bring it to producer John Shanks, and he helped her finish. Even Lindsey Buckingham, her one-time lover and the subject of the angry message of the song, was impressed that someone finally helped her finish the song.
When the time came for the album, Trouble in Shangri-La, to be released, she released Planets of the Universe as a single, and it did fairly well and got nominated for her eighth Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance (a record of nominations with no wins)… However, the version she released was edited, most of that demo was left off the album version because she felt it was too mean, a generosity of spirit I’m not sure she feels any longer.
The single release included the full-length extended version… it’s the only version I listen to and is the fourth most-played song on my playcounter that dates back to 2004.
The biggest impact the song had was actually in the clubs… it was remixed and became a number one dance hit. It even knocked Madonna off the top spot during her Music era.
Now this is where we get back to the beginning… I came upon a mash-up in my library that they played that merged Stevie Nicks & Madonna into one song and I forgot how much I loved it.
As I listened to this mash-up, I thought of how prescient this mix was…
Planets of the Universe is about a break-up that feels world-ending, but nobody else cares, the planets keep spinning and though time has stopped for us only, we must continue without any care from anyone else. Then I thought of Madonna’s near-neanderthal lyrics to Music, that it makes people come together, and I realized that this is actually the perfect song to mix with Planets.
I can’t tell you how many countless bursts of emotion I’ve cast into the ether by singing, crying or dancing to Planets of the Universe. If any piece of music made me feel more human and together, it’s probably this one.
Well-played whichever dj had the bright idea to throw these two disparate, oddly-paired songs together because 25 years later, they’re actually wholly perfect and totally true.
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