The misheard Fleetwood Mac lyric that endeared itself to Stevie Nicks
When Lindsey Buckingham specified that he would only join Fleetwood Mac if he could bring his songwriting and romantic partner Stevie Nicks along for the ride, too, it was perhaps the best decision the band could have made. The witchy, wondrous frontwoman would go on to pen some of the greatest songs not only in Fleetwood Mac’s soft rock catalogue but in the genre as a whole.
Her lyrical style saw her borrowing from tales of her tumultuous love life, from her interest in witchcraft, and even from Stephanie Meyer’s vampiric teen romance, Twilight. But Nicks was also open to the influence of others when it came to songwriting. Alongside penning future all-time greats like ‘The Chain’ with her fellow Fleetwood Mac members, Nicks enjoyed co-writing with keyboard player Sandy Stewart.
Stewart was the driving force behind one of the biggest hits to come from the soft rock band’s 14th record, Tango in the Night, which was released in 1987. The record spawned a number of iconic Fleetwood Mac numbers, including the otherworldly ‘Everywhere’ and the glistening ‘Little Lies’, but Stewart’s contribution came in the form of the second single, ‘Seven Wonders’.
Twinkling synthesisers and soft rock drums swirl around one another while Nicks remembers a lost love. Even as she longs to live to see the seven wonders, to make a path to the rainbow’s end, she maintains that the beauty of those marvels could never match the love they shared. Spiritual and full of longing, they’re lyrics that Nicks could have easily penned, but the song was initially Stewart’s doing.
After penning the track, Stewart gifted it to Nicks in demo form, but did not provide her with a written format of the lyrics. As a result, the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman learned the song by ear, leading to some misheard lyrics. In the opening, Nicks sings, “So long ago, certain place, certain time, you touched my hand on the way, on the way down to Emmeline.” Though beautiful, the lyrics make little sense, which might be because they aren’t the words Stewart initially intended.
Stewart’s original lyrics for the opening verse described holding hands down the “end of the line,” but Nicks, without a lyric sheet to hand, misheard the lyrics as “Emmeline.” Still, even when she was made aware of the lyrical change, the new line had endeared itself to Nicks, and she kept it in the song.
Though it makes much less sense to hold someone’s hand on the way down to Emmeline than it does to the end of the line, the lyric does add to the song’s mystical quality. The name fits gorgeously into the lyrics, but leaves listeners wondering what “Emmeline” alludes to – perhaps a person or a place? Either way, it fits into the imagery of wonders and rainbows and lost love beautifully.
Though the line change may have spawned from an accidental mishearing, it only added to the feeling of the song and added even more originality and mystique to the lyrics. Stewart’s words were already perfect for the soft rock hit, but they were further enhanced by this tiny change. Even unintentionally, it seems, Nicks is a lyrical genius.
Decades later, ‘Seven Wonders’ still remains one of Fleetwood Mac’s most well-loved songs, a shimmering example of their magical hold on soft rock.
