‘Rhiannon’: Stevie Nicks’ most witchy and mystical song
Granted, music lends itself to the exploration of all things esoteric, given its transcendental nature. Nevertheless, such pursuits have to be treated with some level of creative accuracy, especially the worlds of witchcraft and voodooism, which, if done wrong, are just a soundtrack to Hocus Pocus. Nobody took on the challenge like Stevie Nicks, and frankly, nobody has done it well since.
When Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, she brought a softer, more insightful storytelling style to the band’s discography. On the stunning stripped-back ballad ‘Landslide’, she introduced the world to her deeply introspective style, which muses on the passage of time and motherhood with profound nuance. But, at that point, listeners were already eight tracks into the album and had rocked through ‘Rhiannon’, a song in which Nicks makes no bones about her penchant for the supernatural.
When I sat and thought about Nicks’ ‘witchiest’ musical moment to date, my mind played tricks on itself. I couldn’t help but think of ‘Sisters of the Moon’, ‘Leather and Lace‘, and ‘Enchanted’ as examples of her touching upon her supernatural affinities to explore deeply personal subjects. But, tried as I did to avoid the standout song that, in many ways, acts as her career calling card, I couldn’t. ‘Rhiannon’ oozes the cosmic spirit we all love about Nicks, not only with the most razor-sharp precision and songwriting nous she’s showcased to date, but they are on display in the most forthright way.
Drawing the name as part of Welsh folklore, Rhiannon is said to be the goddess of the moon, rebirth, and fertility; a goddess whose power is coined as the “divine feminine”, earning her the moniker ‘Night Queen’. Yeah, so you see what I mean? I simply could not ignore ‘Rhiannon’.
While you’d be forgiven for thinking Nicks was born with this tale embedded into her memory, her discovery of the topic came from a book she found. “It was called Triad [written by Mary Leader], and it was all about this girl who becomes possessed by a spirit named Rhiannon,” she explained. “I read the book, but I was so taken with that name that I thought: ‘I’ve got to write something about this.’ So I sat down at the piano and started this song about a woman that was all involved with these birds and magic.”
As Nicks sings, “She rules her life like a fine skylark / And when the sky is starless”, we are introduced to a character who exudes all of the attributes celebrated in this historic Welsh tale and enchants all those she encounters with her enigmatic qualities.
Whereas some of Nicks’ later discography showcases her penchant for the supernatural with a little too much transparency, delivered on album artwork draped in black cloaks and dimly lit by a full moon, ‘Rhiannon’ cleverly uses mythology to raise questions about modern femininity and how it fed into her identity at that time. It told a story of a charismatic and enigmatic enchantress whose cosmic powers could charm you in the night, which, for the most part of her live career, Nicks herself did.
