“Storms” is Track 7 on Tusk (1979), Fleetwood Mac‘s 12th studio album.
About the Song
About: Mick Fleetwood
A perfect example of the tastefulness and delicacy of Fleetwood Mac’s playing: everybody contributes just enough to one of Stevie’s most finely poised compositions.
Lindsey: “This album is a study in contrasts. It’s a very different mood from the previous song and a very strong song in terms of its form. It has its own folky, country thing going on. The recording speaks of it being cut fairly live. I love this song” (Buckingham, 2015).
Stevie: “Another tragedy. It has so many layers of telling the world what was happening to me without actually saying what was happening! It was really about Mick. That’s Stevie not happy with the way that relationship ended. That relationship destroyed Mick’s marriage to Jenny, who was the sweetest person in the world. So did we really think that we were going to come out of it unscathed? So then what happened to me, my best friend falling in love with him and moving into his house and neither of them telling me? It could not have been worse. Payback is a bitch. Bad karma all around. Here’s that song in a nutshell: Don’t break up other people’s marriages. It will never work and will haunt you for the rest of your miserable days” (Nicks, 2015).
“[‘Storms’] was a – excuse my language – fuck-you to Mick. I sat at my piano, a feminist woman, and I wrote it, to say that nothing you or anybody else can do to me can change the fact that, as the opening line goes: ‘Every night that goes between / I feel a little less.’ Freedom. I am a totally free woman, and I am independent, and that’s exactly what I always wanted to be” (Stevens, 2020).
Lyrics
Every night that goes between
I feel a little less
As you slowly go away from me
This is only another test
Every night you do not come
Your softness fades away
Did I ever really care that much
Is there anything left to say
Every hour of fear I spend
My body tries to cry
Living through each empty night
A deadly call inside
I haven’t felt this way I feel
Since many a years ago
But in those years and the lifetime’s past
I did not deal with the road
And I did not deal with you, I know
Though the love has always been
So I search to find an answer there
So I can truly win
Every hour of fear I spend
My body tries to cry
Living through each empty night
A deadly call inside
So I try to say goodbye, my friend
I’d like to leave you with something warm
But never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm
Always been a storm
Ooh, always been a storm
I have always been a storm
We were frail
She said
“Every night he will break your heart”
I should have known from the first
I’d be the brokenhearted
I loved you from the start
Save us
And not all the prayers in the world
Could save us
(Stevie Nicks) © 1979 Welsh Witch Music admin. Sony/ATV Music Publishing (BMI)
References
Buckingham, L. (2015). Storms. Tusk deluxe edition [liner notes].
Nicks, S. (2015). Storms. Tusk deluxe edition [liner notes].
Stevens, J. (2020, October 14). Stevie on art, aging, attraction. The Guardian.
