Stevie Nicks’ song “Landslide,” recorded by Fleetwood Mac, has been a fan favorite since it appeared on the band’s breakthrough album in 1975. But it had been written two years before.

The first (and only) Buckingham Nicks album had come out and was met by massive indifference. The duo had been dropped by their label (Polydor) and had gone to Aspen so that Lindsey Buckingham could rehearse for a tour with Don Everly. This was during the time that the Everly Brothers had split up and Lindsey was recruited to take Phil’s place.

When Don and Lindsey hit the road, Stevie stayed behind to contemplate whether she wanted to continue with her music career. It was during this time that she wrote “Landslide” about her decision to stay with music.

As Stevie herself tells it: “So, during that two months, I made a decision to continue. ‘Landslide’ was the decision. ‘When you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills’—it’s the only time in my life that I’ve lived in the snow. But looking up at those Rocky Mountains and going, ‘Okay, we can do it. I’m sure we can do it.’”

And she was right. Within a year, Mick Fleetwood had heard their debut album and had called the pair with an invitation to join Fleetwood Mac. They were paid the princely sum of $800 a week, each. Within another year, their contributions would complete Mac’s evolution from British blues band to international pop sensations.

We've already got ours ordered for the school year. How 'bout you?

We’ve all heard about identity theft in regards to bank accounts and credit cards, but there is another kind of identity theft that can be even costlier to you!

It’s medical identity theft. That’s when someone steals you name and insurance information, then uses it to get treatments and drugs for themselves, sticking you with the bill. With most credit card fraud, the bank or the card company winds eating most of phony charges. With medical ID theft, you could be on the hook for the charges.

To protect yourself:

• Read those letters that say “THIS IS NOT A BILL” – Make sure you go over the medical services and drugs in those letters. If you notice a treatment or a doctor you don’t know (as well as medication you are not taking). Contact your insurance company immediately.
  
  
• Guard your health insurance cards and numbers – And remember that goes for dental and vision plans as well as your medical insurance. That also goes for your Medicare card (even though it no longer contains your SSN).
  
  
• When you visit a doctor, make sure you get a copy what transpired during that visit – Including treatments performed and medication prescribed.
  
  
• Be Careful of “Free Screenings” – While most are legit, avoid any “free screening” that requires you disclose insurance information.

One album from that great era of psychedelic rock is the self-titled album by a group that called itself The United States of America.

The group was led by an avant-garde composer intensely interested in the-then brand-new field of electronic music, Joseph Byrd. In addition to working with very early synthesizers, the band included an electric violinist and also processed the drums through electronic equipment. The result was an album that sounded like no other.

The album starts off by layering no less than 5 tunes from the 19^th century: a calliope playing "National Emblem", a ragtime piano playing "At a Georgia Camp Meeting", two marching bands playing "Marching Through Georgia" and "The Red, White and Blue" switching between left and right channels. Two other tracks of electronic sounds are also added to the mix. After just a few moments, all of this fades into the album’s first track, “The American Metaphysical Circus.” The lyrics take “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” several steps farther. In fact, many of the album’s tracks pushed the limits for rock at the time, including references to S&M and topless nightclubs as well as a little ditty called “I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife for You” and another dedicated to mentioning as many poisonous plants as possible in 2 minutes and 39 seconds.

The album’s second side opens with the group singing part of the Latin mass that fades into a very Twilight Zone-esque tune named “Where Is Yesterday.” The album finishes with a collage that brings back snippets of all that you’ve heard previously before fading out to the strains of some soft stringed instruments.

The highlight of the album (the band thought so, too) is a love ballad named “Love Song for the Dead Che.” Despite its title, it really isn’t a political song at all. It is the one track from the album that we feature here at Boomtown America.

The entire album has an ethereal, dream-like quality and tempos vary, from soft and romantic to some very hard-edged rock. Most of the songs feature Dorothy Moskowitz as lead vocalist with Byrd and violinist Gordon Marron singing lead on a few tunes.

The album was released in the spring of 1968 on Columbia Records. The label did launch an advertising campaign with the tagline: “There’s a United States of America That’s a Far Cry From Mom and Apple Pie.” (Truer words were never spoken.) Columbia also used the gimmick of enclosing some copies of the album in a plain brown wrapper. Although the LP’s actual cover was nothing shocking, the back cover contained the lyrics, some of which the label thought might be too much for smaller towns in America.

The album sold okay, but never broke into the Hot 100 and the band broke up soon after its release. It seems Byrd was a strident leftist who wanted the group to be more political, while all the other members all just wanted to be a rock band.

Over the years, the group’s only album has gained in stature incredibly. It has been re-issued multiple times and is still available on CD (with 10 bonus tracks and notes from Byrd and Moskowitz).

Richie Unterberger of Allmusic gave the album four and half stars out of five, referring to it as "one of the most exciting and experimental psychedelic albums of the late 1960s.”Music webzine Pitchfork Media gave the album a rating of 8.9 out of 10, claiming that "USA's self-titled album still stands above the work of most of their Monterey-era, psych-rock peers". The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Check it out, but be advised - it doesn’t sound like anything you’ve heard before.

I'm sure we all attended one of these, right? And with the football team too!

Who knew? Experts agree that some foot pain is caused by inflammation. Nuts, seeds, legumes, veggies, fruit, and fish are all rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that can reduce inflammation. Also cooking with olive oil may help.

Probably rock’s most famous muse, Pattie Boyd was the inspiration for 3 of the greatest love songs of the last half of the twentieth century: George Harrison’s “Something,” Eric Clapton’s “Layla” and Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.”

Pattie shot to fame in the early 1960s, becoming an international success as a model. Her work on a potato chip commercial (called “crisps” in the UK) led that commercial’s director, Richard Lester, to cast her as a schoolgirl in the first Beatles film, A Hard Day’s Night.

Boyd was 19, George Harrison was 20. He was instantly smitten and began pursuing Ms. Boyd – proposing to her before they even had their first date. The couple were wed in 1966.

In the course of things, George introduced her to his new best friend, Eric Clapton. Clapton also became infatuated with Boyd. The fact that she was married to his best friend only made things worse. Someone then gave Clapton a 12^th-century Persian poem called “The Story of Layla and Majnun.” (I bet you can guess where this story is going.) 

In the story, Majnun is desperately in love with Layla, but can’t have her. He eventually goes mad and wanders in the desert, never consummating his love. Obviously, this led Clapton to write his now-classic song “Layla.” In fact, his anguish about Pattie is all over his “Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs” album.

But the story of Pattie and Eric traveled a different route than that of Layla & Majnun.
 Infidelities on both George and Patti’s part had put stress on their marriage. Patti chose to resume her modeling career against the wishes of her husband. Then, Pattie discovered that George was having an affair with Ringo Starr’s wife, Maureen. That apparently was the last straw. The couple separated in 1974, eventually divorcing in 1977.

Boyd and Clapton quickly became a couple, eventually marrying in 1978. That there was no ill will between Eric & George is evident in the fact that George joined his old mates Paul McCartney & Ringo to play at Clapton’s wedding reception. (Apparently, no ill will between Ringo and George either.)

But there was no happily ever after here either. Pattie was unable to conceive and Eric ruled out adoption. This caused strain in the marriage. To make matters worse, Pattie found out that Clapton had actually fathered other children while he was married to Boyd. On top of that, Clapton’s alcoholism was out of control and he frequently beat her as well. The couple split in 1987 and were formally divorced in 1989.

Two years later, she met real estate developer Rod Weston. The two became a couple, but didn’t marry until 2015. After 24 years as a couple, Weston quipped, “It's almost our silver anniversary, so we thought we had better get on with it.”

Boyd has been active in addiction recovery work, co-founding SHARP (Self-Help Recovery Program) with Ringo’s second wife Barbara Bach.

She has also written her autobiography (with help from a professional writer), titled – what else? – Wonderful Tonight.