Stevie Nicks might best be known for her captivating stage presence and gorgeous vocal abilities, but she should be known best for her songwriting talents. Nicks wrote countless songs for both Fleetwood Mac and her own solo albums, and a few lines still stick out decades later. Let’s take a look at a few beautiful Stevie Nicks lyrics that have stood the test of time!
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1. “Landslide”
“I took my love, I took it down / I climbed a mountain and I turned around / And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills / ‘Til the landslide brought me down.”
Few of Stevie Nicks’ songs are as big of a punch to the gut as this 1975 hit. “Landslide” is one of the most relatable songs about aging ever written, and it’s still wild to think that Nicks was only a 20-something when she wrote it. Now that’s talent.
2. “Edge Of Seventeen”
“And the days go by, like a strand in the wind / In the web that is my own, I begin again / Said to my friend, baby, everything stopped / Nothin’ else mattered.”
The very best Stevie Nicks lyrics have come from the early years of her solo career, and nothing gets “newer” than Nicks’ early-career single, “Edge Of Seventeen”. What a stunning preview of what was to come from Nicks’ solo career.
3. “Stand Back”
“Do not turn away my friend / Like a willow, I can bend / No man calls my name / No man came / So, I walked on down, away from you.”
This song from the 1983 album The Wild Heart is a bit on the underrated side of Nicks’ discography. According to lore, Nicks hummed the melody of “Stand Back” while driving with Kim Anderson to their honeymoon destination. The melody was so good that he hit the breaks and started recording her on a tape recorder.
4. “Sara”
“Drowning in the sea of love / Where everyone would love to drown / But now it’s gone / It doesn’t matter what for / When you build your house / Then call me home.”
Nicks wrote this Tusk track about her doomed affair with bandmate Mick Fleetwood. Few of her songs are quite as personal as this one, which says a lot considering she has written a lot of music about former lovers.
5. “When I See You Again”
“So she walks slowly down the hall / There are many doors in the hallway / And she stares at the stairs / Oh there are many things to stare at these days / If she sees him again / Will your very best friend / Oh, have been replaced by some other.”
Stevie Nicks lyrics often teeter between vulnerability and vitrol, especially during her days with Fleetwood Mac. “When I See You Again” is a later-years track that Nicks wrote for the Fleetwood Mac album Tango In The Night, and it definitely has that going-through-a-breakup vibe, just with a bit more emotional maturity than the angrier songs she wrote for Rumours.
Photo by Chris Walter/Getty Images
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