Sunday, October 23, 2022

Halloween Song: “Rhiannon”


Another repost from the Broken Hearted Toy haunted vault.

Stevie Nicks has explained that her melodic and haunting composition “Rhiannon,” a Top 40 hit from Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 self-titled LP, was about a Welsh witch. Rhiannon was also a goddess in Welsh mythology who wore a gold dress and rode a white horse. Some sources claim Nicks based her “Rhiannon” on Mary Leader’s supernatural novel Triad, and discovered the mythological connection later.


Actually, the song’s mysterious lyrics such as, “Would you stay if she promised you heaven” and “She is like a cat in the dark/And then she is the darkness,” could refer to either the deity or the sorceress. Fleetwood Mac, having already recorded scary songs like “Hypnotized” and “Black Magic Woman,” knew how to bring “Rhiannon” to life with a classic rock arrangement. And Nicks was certainly able to make it mesmerizing in live performances.

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