It's natural to assume that "After the Glitter Fades" is Nicks' way of using archetypal Hollywood to explore her own well-known show-business malaise, but according to Zoë Howe's Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams, and Rumors, Nicks wrote the song in 1972. This was before there was any music-industry glitter at all for Nicks. A fateful call from Mick Fleetwood on New Year's Eve, 1974, was still a couple of years away, and Nicks was still trying to make it in music.
The song was originally written with Dolly Parton in mind as the singer, but Nicks couldn't locate her to pitch it.
Nicks wrote this in the same time period as "Landslide," which was the "Buckingham-Nicks Era," as she and Lindsey Buckingham were trying to build a career together. They recorded an album titled Buckingham Nicks that had little success and got them dropped from the label.
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