“Annabel Lee” is Track 7 on In Your Dreams (2011), Stevie Nicks‘ seventh solo album. It follows “Moonlight (A Vampire’s Dream)” and precedes “Solider’s Angel” (“My Heart” on the U.S. Barnes & Noble and international versions) in the running order.
About the Song
Stevie adapted the words from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee.” Guitarist Waddy Wachtel created the song’s musical interlude and Mick Fleetwood played drums on the track.
Stevie wrote “Annibel Lee” during her high school years. “‘Annabel Lee’ was written when I was about 17. I think it was required reading that you read Edgar Allan Poe, and I just fell in love with that poem. It’s like, who writes words like that, you know: ‘Can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee.’ I think this poem must have been many people’s favorite poem, but when I was 17, I read all of his poems and I just sat down with my guitar and I started going in more of the ‘Landslide’ kind of…(style): this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me. Very simple guitar song, and I just put it away for a future time. And there’s a reason why I didn’t change any of the words. If I’m going to do an Edgar Allan Poe poem and put it to music, I’m going to stay totally loyal to him as a writer.
“I think it’s amazing and great that it is ancient because Edgar Allan Poe is ancient. Taking old poems like that, if you have a great love for them, putting them to music, is like a great idea because little 14-year-old kids are gonna hear this and go like, Who’s this Edgar Allan Poe guy? So it’s maybe gonna lead, you know, to kids into reading some serious poetry, which is wonderful too. Let’s get off the video games and go back to some real serious, beautiful writing” (Stewart & Nicks, 2013).
In 2019, Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield ranked “Annabel Lee” at No. 39 on his “Top 50 Songs of the 2010s,” writing “The gypsy queen comes back to tell the world who the eff she is, with a lyric by one of her hot dead rock & roll boyfriends, Edgar Allan Poe.”
Lyrics
It was many and many a year ago
In a kingdom by the sea
That a maiden lived
Whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee
This maiden, she lived
With no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me
She was a child and I was a child
In this kingdom by the sea
We loved with a love
That was more than a love
I and my Annabel Lee
With a love that the winged
Angels of heaven
They coveted her and me
And the moon never beams
Without bringing me dreams
And the sun never shines
But I see the bright eyes
I lie down by the side
The angels not half
So happy in heaven
Went envying her and me
That was the reason as all men know
In this kingdom by the sea
That the wind came out
Of the cloud that night
Killing my, my Annabel Lee
And the moon never beams
Without bringing me dreams
And the sun never shines
But I see the bright eyes
I lie down by the side
But our love was stronger
By far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Many far wiser than we
Neither the angels in heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
And the moon never beams
Without bringing me dreams
And the sun never shines
But I see the bright eyes
I lie down by the side
Oh, I lie down by the side of my darling
My life, my life and my bride
I lie down by her side
I lie down by her side, my darling
My life, my life and my bride
I lie down by her side
I lie down by her side
I lie down by the side
Oh, I lie down by the side of my darling
My life, my life and my bride
I lie down
Oh, I lie down by the side of my darling
My life, my life
I lie down by the side of my darling
My life, my life and my bride
I lie down
Ooh…
I lie down
I lie down
Ooh, by the side
(Stevie Nicks) © 2011 Welsh Witch Music (BMI) Admin. by Sony/ATV Songs LLC (BMI)
Reference
Sheffield, R. (2019). Rob Sheffield’s best songs of 2010s. Rolling Stone. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/rob-sheffield-best-songs-2010s-930083/van-halen-stay-frosty-2013-930227
Stewart, D. & Nicks, S. (2013). Stevie Nicks: In your dreams [documentary film]. Weapons of Mass Entertainment.