Dissecting Stevie Nicks’ greatest opening line: “A story about an old Welsh witch”
In her decades as the reigning high priestess of rock ‘n’ roll, Stevie Nicks has been adorned with many titles.
She has been a presumed witch, casting supposed spells and hexes alike with her pen, as well as a maternal figure for those who see themselves reflected in her songwriting, whether that be on account of her heartbreak, scorn or power. Nicks represents someone both mystical and real, occupying a sort of in-between for people to aspire towards.
Above all, Nicks is a natural storyteller. On-stage, she is known for telling delightfully long-winded stories before each song she sings, recounting its origins with an uncanny eye for detail. Plenty of artists subscribe to the idea that their songs are like their children, in a way, born from a purging of emotions that forms a unique bond. Nicks is no different, though her songs take on lives of their own and they, too, exist between myth and reality. Few songwriters have achieved what Nicks consistently does: writing songs that are continually resonant, harnessing hope even in moments of sadness.
“When I’m into a song, I’m elated. It’s the very best thing for me,” Nicks told Scottsdale Daily Progress back in 1977. “My songs are a matter of circumstances, but there also is a natural progression.” By this period, Nicks had performed with her one-time partner Lindsey Buckingham as the duo Buckingham Nicks and later joined Fleetwood Mac alongside Buckingham, her songwriting never faltering even as she continued to find her musical footing.
During the interim between Buckingham Nicks being dropped from their label, Polydor, and their eventual joining with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks wrote countless songs, two in particular being placed on hold to find a new home in the future. ‘Landslide’ was written about the demise of her and Buckingham’s relationship, set in the scenery of Aspen, Colorado, while ‘Rhiannon’ was inspired by a Welsh legend.
The latter opens with one of Nicks’ greatest opening lines: “Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night, and wouldn’t you love to love her?” Nicks wrote the song after reading Mary Bartlet Leader’s 1973 novel Trial: A Novel of the Supernatural, featuring the character of Rhiannon that Nicks was so enamoured with, she felt immediately compelled to write something about her.
She composed the song on a piano in just 20 minutes and recorded a demo on a cassette tape. Nicks did not know about the name Rhiannon’s origins (outside of a mention of such in the novel) until after she wrote the song, learning that Rhiannon was the Welsh horse goddess in Celtic mythology.
“It sounded so free, with personality traits of my own, about a woman who is into her own trip,” Nicks said of the name Rhiannon, and her embrace of the name revived its spirit, subconsciously channelling the energy of the folklore into her lyrics… By opening the song with a question amplifies the mystery – ‘Who is this woman, and why are we compelled to love her?’, and in Nicks’ vision, Rhiannon becomes a woman clouded in mystique: “She is like a cat in the dark,” Nicks warns, “And then, she is the darkness.” This is a woman who “takes to the sky like a bird in flight,” in pursuit of something greater beyond the mundane. She is somehow both frightening and enticing, a woman to both admire and be wary of.
Nicks often introduces ‘Rhiannon’ with the phrase, “This is a story about an old Welsh witch,” before launching into a raucous rendition that Mick Fleetwood once likened to “an exorcism”. The power behind the song is one that Nicks herself has recognised.
“‘Rhiannon’ is a heavy-duty song to sing every night,” she said in 1976. “On stage, it’s really a mind tripper. Everybody, including me, is just blitzed by the end of it. And I put out so much in that song that I’m nearly down. There’s something to that song that touches people. I don’t know what it is, but I’m really glad it happened.”
Nicks’ introduction to the story of Rhiannon, and, in turn, her continuation of the name’s legacy, pushes forward the power harnessed in the mystical, an example of a higher power coming into play to inspire Nicks and, certainly, change the course of her songwriting forever.
