With its strolling beat that leads into an urgent chorus and its clever titular metaphor, “Magnet and Steel” caught the public’s imagination and gave Walter Egan a massive hit in 1978. The song has since become a favorite of yacht rock audiences, as it features both the smoothness and the passion that characterizes the genre.
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You might know the song was inspired by one of rock’s biggest stars, and the star in question actually helped out in the recording. Here’s how Walter Egan created “Magnet and Steel.”
A Slow Build
Like many aspiring singer/songwriters, Walter Egan eventually made his way to Southern California in the ’70s. That was the epicenter for that movement, although Egan didn’t quite hit it big in the first part of the decade, when it seemed live every other troubadour on the chart was coming from the LA area.
He was born in Queens, New York, and received his college education in Washington, D.C. When he joined a band called Sageworth, they located themselves in the Boston area. Sageworth eventually disbanded, and that’s when Egan crossed the country to try his luck.
He earned a co-writing credit on the song “Hearts on Fire,” which Gram Parsons recorded on his classic 1974 solo album Grievous Angel. But the big break for Egan came when he made the acquaintance of the songwriting duo known as Buckingham Nicks, a pair who would be instrumental in both the inspiration and realization of his biggest hit.
“Steel” Wheels
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks co-produced Egan’s solo debut Fundamental Roll in 1977. By that time, of course, they had helped transform Fleetwood Mac into megastars. In an interview with Songfacts, Egan explained how “Magnet and Steel” came from that experience:
“On the night when Stevie did the background vocals for my song ‘Tunnel O’Love,’ my nascent amorous feelings toward her came into a sharper focus—I was smitten by the kitten, as they say. It was on my drive home at 3 a.m. from Van Nuys to Pomona that I happened to be behind a metal-flake-blue Continental with ground effects and a diamond window in back. I was inspired by the car’s license plate: ‘Not Shy.’”
Egan wrote “Magnet and Steel” based on the sudden surge in his affection for Nicks. Although their actual romance was short-lived (a matter of weeks, according to Egan), it at least gave him a massive hit, one that was embellished when Nicks and Buckingham added backing vocals to the song.
Behind the Lyrics of “Magnet and Steel”
“Magnet and Steel” captures the nervous excitement that accompanies telling someone that you’re crushing on them for the first time. But you’re so close now, I can’t let you go, Egan sings. He also references Nicks’ career and the likelihood that not much might come of his admission: I can’t hope that I’ll hold you for long / You’re a woman who’s lost to your song.
In the chorus, he decides that he’ll throw caution to the wind anyway: With you I’m not shy to show the way I feel / With you I might try my secrets to reveal. (There’s the not shy reference, which is also what Egan titled the album that included the song.) With that, he delivers one of the coolest lines about attraction in the pop canon: For you are a magnet and I am steel.
“Magnet and Steel” has proved as durable as any song that’s considered yacht rock, especially when it comes to usage in movies and television. Even if Walter Egan never quite delivered a song as successful afterward, he certainly got it right on that one, with a little help from his talented crush.
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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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