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I read the name [Rhiannon] of it in a ~ in a ~ just
a novel and really liked it and thought, 'that's really a beautiful name." Sat
down, tap, tap, tap...about 10 minutes later wrote Rhiannon. We think that
she was, in fact, Queen and that her memory became the myth. I definitely feel
that there's a presence... |
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Lindsey, don't you think that Rhiannon is a beautiful name? |
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And, um, so I wrote this song and made her into what I thought was an old Welsh witch. And then I had just, just found out ~ because somebody from Phoenix found a whole trilogy of books written in 1972 on Welsh mythology ~ that Rhiannon was a Welsh witch.There's a whole ~ there's a trilogy of books written about her called the song of Rhiannon.Which is pretty weird because I never saw that. And yet the song is exactly about that. So it is ~ it's just about, it's just about a very mystical woman that is finds
it very, very hard to be tied down in any kind of way ~ and she's uplifting all
through the song. That's ~ that's what I wanted to get and that's what the band
got really well was that uplifting of wings kind of a feel, you know ~ when you
feel like you see a seagull and she's, she's like lifting up. Well, that's, that's
Rhiannon. Rhiannon ~ yeah ~ she's moving up. |
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Oh, I'm never tired of Rhiannon. It's a very ~ it's been a very heavy
thing in the whole Fleetwood Mac trip. You know it's a very heavy part of the
show. |
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[She pulls out a collection of photographs] This is Rhiannon, without a doubt. [The picture, of Nicks, does not look like her] Well, you see, it turns. It goes right into...[she pulls out another photograph, of herself on stage with Lindsey] This is the killer. And the pale shadow of Dragon Boy, always behind me, always behind me. [She is speaking almost to herself, in a hoarse whisper] You see, I just want to make you realize that when I get carried off, really carried off into Rhiannon, it doesn't necessarily mean I'm not carried off into Fleetwood Mac. 'Cause I'm just as carried off into them. Rhiannon has to wait. She just has to wait; that's all there is to it. [Answer to why she refers to Rhiannon as she]
Well, because...I don't know why. She is some sort of reality. If I didn't know
she was a mythical character, I would think she lived down the street. |
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This is a story about a Welsh witch. |
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Ah,
well, I got the name out of a, a book that I read last - let's see- not last -
it was it was written right around Halloween ~ not the last Halloween but the
Halloween before that ~ which was about two months before we joined Fleetwood
Mac [1974]. And it was just about a lady that had two ~ 
a
modern-day lady ~ who lived in Wales that had two personalities. One was called
Branwen ~ which is Welsh name also ~ her real name was Branwen ~ and this other
personality that came in and took over was Rhiannon.
Rhiannon
is the heavy-duty song to sing every night. On stage it's really a mind tripper.
Everybody, including me, is just blitzed by the end of it. And I put out so much
in that song that I'm nearly down. There's something to that song that touches
people. I don't know what it is but I'm really glad it happened.
This
legend of Rhiannon is about the song of the birds that take away pain and relieve
suffering. That's what music is to me. I don't want any pain....[Nicks' own
version of Rhiannon is softer, more emotional that Fleetwood Mac's]
It's not a rock & roll song.
