For an upcoming gig at a private party at IUP we were asked to preform Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac. While looking into finding the music for it, I came across the interesting story behind the song. Rhiannon is doubtless Stevie Nicks signature song. When she performs it live, she IS Rhiannon up there on the stage, in her own world, really. She was basically possessed, Mick Fleetwood said. Rhiannon is also the song that threw Fleetwood Mac into the stratosphere as a band. The songs popularity became more like a cult following. Thousands and thousands of young women wanting to be like Stevie, dressed like her, singing along with her. Each performance we drain Stevie, as she completely gave herself to the song. This became the mystical attraction that drew people to Stevie Nicks. Live performances of the song were sometimes prefaced with Nicks saying, This is a song about an old Welsh witch. During 1975–1980, Fleetwood Macs live performances of Rhiannon took on a theatrical intensity not present on the FM-radio single. The song built to a climax in which Nicks vocals were so impassioned that, as drummer and band co-founder Mick Fleetwood said, her Rhiannon in those days was like an exorcism. She later became fascinated by the story of the Welsh goddess Rhiannon. She is the maker of birds, the goddess of steeds, and the protector of horses. Her music has the effect of a pain pill. A person wakes up and hears the birds singing her song and the danger has passed. Stevie has said that she always thinks of that when she sings the song. Stevie wrote her song without prior knowledge of legend. You cannot catch Rhiannon, no matter how close she appears to be wandering. Only when you cry out to her does she respond. Stevie often changes the lyrics. As one person said, perhaps this is because she herself has changed. Stevie began to sing the version with the piano intro a number of years later. She did not want Rhiannon to be one of the singles from the Fleetwood Mac album because she was afraid that Rhiannon might not make it. Her Rhiannon is a song that is never left out of any Fleetwood Mac or Stevie Nicks concert. Most recently Stevie preformed Rhiannon on American Horror Story: Coven and even gave a few lessons in shawl twirling. youtu.be/2b9BpunsVmo
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 00:30:18 +0000
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