Behind Stevie Nicks’ Unexpected Interpretation of “Edge of Seventeen”: “I Feel Like I Hear War”

The meanings of songs generally change depending on the listener. That is the beauty of music, literature, poetry, and art in general. However, sometimes, people pull a meaning out of a song that is just seemingly not there in the slightest. But, hey, who are we to tell one that they are wrong in a completely subjective context? And that goes for Stevie Nicks when it comes to her iconic single “Edge Of Seventeen”.

Stevie Nicks’ 1981 single is a song that tells a tale about grief, loss, and the process of understanding such feelings. Famously, the inspiration for this song comes from two things: the death of Nicks’ uncle and the death of John Lennon.

Concerning the latter inspiration, Nicks said, “This was written right after John Lennon was assassinated. That was a very scary and sad moment for all of us in the rock and roll business…That was so unacceptable to all of us in our community. So the white dove was John Lennon, and peace,” per Entertainment Weekly.

While the underlying meaning of death stayed true in Nicks’ interpretation of her own song, as the years rolled by, she started to think of some different stories within the story. Stories of war…

Why Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” Has Become a Military Lamentation

In that interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2009, Nick divulged how and why “Edge Of Seventeen” took on a new meaning for her. Again, the themes of grief, loss, and death remained. However, the vehicle for them, at least in Nicks’ head, had changed entirely.

Concerning the interpretive change, Nicks divulged, “Now, for me, it has taken on something else. I feel like I hear war, because I go to visit soldiers in Bethesda and at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center], and when I hear their stories.”

“We can’t even imagine what they’re going through, the violence. So when I sing, “Flood of tears that no one ever really heard fall at all / Oh I went searching for an answer, up the stairs and down the hall.” The “call of the nightbird” is death, and I think of them in the desert, coming around corners, the fear, waiting to be ambushed. It’s very foreboding, ominous,” added Nicks.

The intriguing element of this story is, of course, how Nicks’ life changed the meaning of this tale. This change is a testament to the fact that no piece of art is stagnant. Rather, all pieces of art are fluid, ever-changing, and appropriately adapt to the times.

Photo by Pete Still/Redferns