Rhiannon Lyrics
Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night
And wouldn't you love to love her?
Takes to the sky like a bird in flight
And who will be her lover?
[Chorus]
All your life you've never seen
Woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
[Verse 2]
She is like a cat in the dark
And then she is the darkness
She rules her life like a fine skylark
And when the sky is starless
[Chorus]
All your life you've never seen
Woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
Will you ever win?
[Post-Chorus]
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
She rings like a bell through the night
And wouldn't you love to love her?
She rules her life like a bird in flight
And who will be her lover?
[Chorus]
All your life you've never seen
Woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
Will you ever win?
[Post-Chorus]
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
[Bridge]
Taken by, taken by the sky
(Ah-ah)
Taken by, taken by the sky
(Ah-ah)
Taken by, taken by the sky
(Ah-ah)
About
Fleetwood Mac’s singer Stevie Nicks' signature song, one of the many classic hits produced by the group in the mid ‘70s, constantly voted as one of the top all time 500. Based on the story of a legendary old Welsh witch, Goddess – Rhiannon.
Part of the group’s second best selling album, aptly named Fleetwood Mac.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Stevie Nicks told Rolling Stone:
I wrote this song and made [Rhiannon] into what I thought was an old Welsh witch. It’s just about a very mystical woman that finds it very, very hard to be tied down in any kind of way.
She also told The Guardian about comments that claimed she was a witch:
‘Rhiannon’ was the only song I ever wrote about a sort of celestial being, but that song and the fact I wore black, floaty clothes somehow became this witch thing. About three years into it, it actually started to scare me. People were writing me really weird letters that were scaring me. So I had [my stylist] make me up a bunch of outfits that were just horrible – I call them the Easter Egg outfits because they were peach, mint green and blue, not colors for me. And I wore them and so did my girl singers. I thought: ‘I’m going to put the top on the box of this one.’ After a while I said: ‘Screw that, I’m going back to black!’ And if they think I’m a witch I don’t care, because I’m not a witch.
Although Nicks took the name Rhiannon from an unrelated novel, the lyrics of the song accidentally resemble a goddess from a Welsh story collection. After learning about this, Nicks began incorporating the Welsh myth into the song’s aesthetics. Live performances were often faster, darker and more powerful than the studio version. Eventually, Nicks seemed to be embodying the goddess herself.
Rolling Stone named it the #2 greatest Fleetwood Mac song, saying:
Shortly before she and Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac, Nicks picked up a novel called Triad at an airport. The book told the story of a Welsh woman who believes she’s been possessed by another woman, named Rhiannon. ‘I wrote this song and made her into what I thought was an old Welsh witch,’ Nicks said. ‘It’s just about a very mystical woman that finds it very, very hard to be tied down in any kind of way.’ Envisioning a ‘Welsh country song,’ Nicks began with stark, autumnal piano chords, around which Buckingham built a guitar part. ‘My tendency is to want to add rhythm and to rock it up,’ he recalled. Nicks later learned that Rhiannon was a character from Welsh mythology, but the real myth she invented on Fleetwood Mac’s first American Top 10 hit was her own – the shawl-wearing California enchantress who left crowds stunned by her smoldering, trancelike performances. ‘She’s like your fairy-princess godmother,’ Courtney Love once said, ‘who lives in a magical kingdom somewhere and has, like, fabulous romances.’
- 2.Warm Ways
- 3.Blue Letter
- 4.Rhiannon
- 5.Over My Head
- 6.Crystal
- 8.Landslide
- 10.Sugar Daddy
- 11.I’m So Afraid