(Credits: Far Out / Spotify)

Stevie Nicks has lived a thousand lives. From looking up to icons in the beginning to becoming one herself, Nicks’ storied career is filled with tumultuous ups and downs, fallouts and falling in love, drug addiction, and battles with fame, all while continuously churning out world-class music. Getting under the skin of the singer’s journey takes time and understanding, just as she experienced in real life, as often it’s challenging to put yourself in her shoes.

However, that’s where the music comes in. Nicks is a skilled wordsmith with the unique ability to transform pain and suffering into artistic creativity. She can also take the more difficult-to-pinpoint emotions, like despair and confusion, and wrap meaning around them in a way that no other musician could. Her experiences became dreams shared with all, little sprinklings of gold dust waiting to be discovered by those who identify with her mystical stories.

Although Nicks’ talent extends far beyond her personal relationships, her breakups and breakdowns became a significant source of inspiration for the singer, who managed to channel the fear, betrayal, and anguish into poetic fragments of beauty. Even some of her most vicious tracks, like ‘Dreams’ and ‘Silver Springs’, are gorgeous and even ethereal as she navigates other-worldly realms to articulate her strength and resilience.

Within her band, Fleetwood Mac, Nicks undoubtedly led the charge towards a more eclectic musical sound, often fighting for her position and what she felt was right for the band. The result was a sound that reflected each member, with Nicks’ choices contributing significantly to their enduring success. As a solo artist, she stayed true to herself, detailing her journey through the power of music.

Stevie Nicks’ most iconic lyrics:

“I’ve been afraid of changin’ ’cause I’ve built my life around you”

Quite possibly one of Nicks’ most misunderstood songs, ‘Landslide’, has a slow and pining melody and poignant, thought-provoking lyrics that point towards it being a quintessential love song. But this isn’t a love song in the traditional sense. It’s actually about Nicks’ career slipping through her fingers and her overwhelming sense of failure and inability to regain control of the situation.

When she wrote this song, her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham was in question after deciding to stay put while he went on tour, and they no longer knew if they would make it. The album they created together, Buckingham Nicks, had just been released, but all things pointed towards anything but success.

“We had a taste of the big time, we recorded in a big studio, we met famous people, we made what we consider to be a brilliant record, and nobody liked it,” Nicks recalled. However, she pinpointed ‘Landslide’ as the song that represented her decision to stay and give it all a go. As she mentions in the song, she built her life around her dreams, so she wasn’t going to give up any time soon.

“You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you”

‘Silver Springs’ is an entirely unforgettable song. It might slip through the cracks at first, becoming a sleeper hit that grabs you when you least expect it, but once it’s inside you, its lyrics will stay with you forever. Written as a direct attack on Buckingham, the song is as poetic as it is chilling as Nicks promises to put an everlasting spell on her former lover.

“Time casts a spell on you, but you won’t forget me,” Nicks sings, promising to haunt Buckingham with “the sound of my voice” because he wouldn’t let her love him. This is one of those moments where you realise Nicks has put into words feelings that are almost impossible to describe: we all know what jealousy and bitterness feel like, but how do you explain the mindset that those experiences force you into? ‘Silver Springs’ is an example of Nicks’ unrivalled prowess as a songwriter as she navigates a fairy-tale ending that never was.

“It’s only me who wants to wrap around your dreams. Have you any dreams you’d like to sell?”

Choosing just one lyric from ‘Dreams’ is difficult because the whole song is nearly perfect. Nicks wrote this song in a room with velvet walls and a semi-circular bed, the ideal environment for writing a poignant song about the implications of a relationship gone awry. At this point, all members of Fleetwood Mac were going through significant relationship turmoil. Buckingham had irked Nicks when he came out with ‘Go Your Own Way’, which showcased his anger at their situation. In response, ‘Dreams’ was Nicks’ way of shooting back with a song that was less filled with rage and more calm and reflective.

“It was the fairy and the gnome. I was trying to be all philosophical. And he was just mad,” Nicks explained in 2009, perfectly summarising the difference between Buckingham and Nicks’ fighting styles in their writing. Buckingham liked to be blunt and to the point, while Nicks, as evidenced by ‘Dreams’, tended to apply more consideration, resulting in equally hard-hitting songs.

“She is like a cat in the dark, and then she is the darkness”

‘Rhiannon’ was initially written when Nicks and Buckingham worked on Buckingham Nicks. Inspired by Triad by Mary Leader, Nicks wrote the song about a “celestial being” who was “not of this world”. How she constructs the Rhiannon character could parallel her life and personality as Rhiannon takes her path, choosing freedom over stability and dabbling in romantic liaisons as she figures out what’s meaningful and what’s not.

Rhiannon is a figure of divine femininity, which also becomes her ultimate strength. This visceral matriarch could symbolise Nicks’ life and career in many ways: firstly, her resilience as she navigated an almost completely male-dominated environment. Nicks was often faced with personal and creative blockers, which she either had to overcome with persuasion or perseverance. Much like Rhiannon, “she rules her life like a fine skylark” no matter what setbacks she may experience.

“In the web that is my own, I begin again”

When Nicks wrote ‘Edge of Seventeen’, she experienced two significant life changes: John Lennon had just been murdered in New York, and her uncle died after a long-term battle with cancer. “It became a song about violent death, which was very scary to me because at that point no one in my family had died,” Nicks explained, stating that the “white-winged dove” was representative of Lennon and peace, but also for her uncle as a reference to the ones which live “in the saguaro cactus”.

Bella Donna was Nicks’ first solo album, allowing her to explore more of her own thoughts and experiences. “In the web that is my own, I begin again” could be interpreted as a new chapter for the singer, whose struggles with grief and acceptance played a big part in her writing during such a pivotal moment in her career.

“Like a charmed hour and a haunted song, and the angel of my dreams”

Written about her brief romance with Mick Fleetwood, ‘Angel’ is one of Fleetwood Mac’s more understated songs, mainly because it found its home on the eclipsed album Tusk. It became subject to the unfortunate hands of Rumours, but this was a deliberate choice to avoid repetitiveness. Buckingham wanted to create an album that sounded different from their magnum opus, and Tusk became their most experimental yet.

Amid the change in direction, ‘Angel’ was Nicks staying true to herself. The poetic lyricism and familiar vocal delivery made the song feel timeless, almost as if it could fit perfectly onto any of their albums, as she addressed the bittersweet fleeting love story she embarked on with Fleetwood.

“You’re the poet in my heart, never change”

‘Sara’ might be Nicks’ most personal song in her discography. She continuously filters in a part of herself in her writing, but ‘Sara’ details her experiences with her friend, her relationship with Fleetwood, and her aborted child with Don Henley. As a result, Nicks drew inspiration from her alter ego, Sara, which was also the name she gave to her unborn child.

The song also likely refers to some of Nicks’ other relationships, like hers with Buckingham, which probably explains why it was initially 16 minutes long. She also made it difficult to apply any arrangements after she wrote it on a piano: Fleetwood had to use brushes to create an accompanying drum track. Nonetheless, it became a small autobiography of Nicks’ loves and losses, culminating in one of her most heartfelt tracks.

“Dreams unwind, love’s a state of mind”

Despite ‘Rhiannon’ essentially being about a magical other-worldly figure, this lyric captures Nicks’ attitude towards love and romance. This line could have several connotations, including the fact that love is a choice, one that, once it’s made, everything you’ve ever wanted will come to you.

On the other hand, it could also mean that love is easier to get out of than you may have thought. The natural implication of the unwinding could be both good and bad, especially considering the ways in which earlier stages of relationships may seem smooth sailing, but after a certain period of time, everything is doomed to fall apart.

“Take your silver spoon, dig your grave”

Nicks’ unrelenting cocaine addiction almost robbed everything from her. “All of us were drug addicts,” she once admitted, adding that she was “the worst drug addict”, and she would also later recall: “I was a girl, I was fragile, and I was doing a lot of coke. And I had that hole in my nose. So it was dangerous.” After gaining advice from her bandmates and being warned, “the next time you do cocaine, it won’t be pretty,” Nicks got clean but channelled her thoughts into ‘Gold Dust Woman’.

Nicks always claims to have secrets, stating that “nobody knows what really happened in my life until I tell them,” but the answers are all there in her songs. ‘Gold Dust Woman’ didn’t just showcase her reliance on drugs; it also demonstrated her unwavering dedication to music and commitment as a creator. “Recording ‘Gold Dust Woman’ was one of the great moments because Stevie was very passionate about getting that vocal right,” recalled Chris Morris, a recording assistant at the time.

He continued, adding that “it seemed like it was directed straight at Lindsey and she was letting it all out”. This is likely why the sound appears so raw and emotional – she apparently “worked right through the night on it, and finally did it after loads of takes”. Buckingham would later give it texture by adding guitar parts, but Nicks delivered its foundational authenticity.

“She is dancing away from you now, she was just a wish”

In this song, Nicks provides an ode to her free-spiritedness through a character that embarks on whatever journey her soul desires, even if it has negative consequences. This was also shockingly present in Nicks’ real life after the song became an unexpected tribute to her friend who died of leukaemia, leaving her husband with a small child.

As a result of their shared grief, Nicks and her friend’s husband decided to get married three months after her death in an attempt at feeling “like we were doing anything”, but ended up divorcing three months later after realising their terrible mistake.

Aside from the mishaps in her personal life, ‘Gypsy’ represented a desire that would always be there: liberation from restrictions and expectations. It’s the perfect song for soundtracking the bittersweet feeling of loss and longing and the overwhelming grief for who you know you are and who you used to be.

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