“Ghosts” is Track 5 on The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), Stevie Nicks‘ fourth solo album. It follows “Ooh My Love” and precedes “Whole Lotta Trouble” in the album track order.
About the Song
Stevie Nicks wrote “Ghosts” about the need to live more in the present, while still appreciating things that occurred in the past and will happen in the future. In the song, she described this as turning to a guardian angel for spiritual guidance.
“‘Ghosts’ is about…a lot of people tell me that I live too much in the past,” Stevie said in 1989. “And maybe I guess I do in a lot of ways because, in 1975 when I joined Fleetwood, I mean my life seemed to begin then even though for many, many years before that Lindsey (Buckingham) and I had fought hard to break into the music business. But with the beginning of Fleetwood Mac, it really started and so even to this very moment right now there are thousand stories, you know, there are a thousand things I could tell you about living in the past. And probably this record, The Other Side of the Mirror, is the most up-to-date work I have done, not just because I just did it but because it’s the only record I’ve ever done where I did not really completely live in the past.
“And when it says ‘It’s just a ghost of the things that you want / It’s the ghost of what you want to be / It’s the ghost of the future you’re so frightened of / So you turn to your guardian angel.’ We all turn to our guardian angels at some point because I truly believe that guardian angels are out there, and I believe that we’ve all got one sitting on our shoulder, and so ‘Ghosts’ for me, as you have said for you also, almost at the end of it becomes somewhat almost…I don’t want even to use the word holy, but there is certainly a spiritual thing about it, you know, and you turn to your guardian angel, and you realize that the ghost of the past and the present and the future all are a part of you and that you have to dig the past and the future and what you’re living day to day and you have to stop for a second and check out how cool today is and how cool yesterday was and also hopefully how cool tomorrow’s gonna be. And that’s really what ‘Ghosts’ is about” (Nicks, 1989).
Lyrics
And the rain was there
There were many nights
And a few of them
Were all that you had dreamed of
Love was the thing
And you feel as if
Someone was following you
Ooh, but you know you are wrong
It’s just the ghost of what you want to be
And the ghost of the past that you live in
It’s just the ghost of what you really want
And it’s the ghost of the past that you live in
And it’s the ghost of the future you are frightened of
So you look to your guardian angel
So long ago I was an innocent
It had nothing to do with age
One day they were lovers
One day they were friends
There was nothing else to say
Well it’s just the ghost of what you want to be
And the ghost of the past that you live in
It’s the ghost of the future that you’re so frightened of
So you turn to your guardian angel
And a few of them
Were all that you really dreamed of
Love was the thing
So the silver-haired girl looks for escapism
To feel the empty spaces she’s feeling
She depends on her music like a husband
And she knows it’s no good to fall in love again
One day they were lovers
One day they were friends
There was nothing else to say
It’s just the ghost of the past of what you want to be
And the ghost of the past that you live in
Ghost of the future that you’re so frightened of
So you look to your guardian
So you look to your guardian angel
Some of them are here on earth
Well, some of them are way up there in heaven
So you look to your guardian
Some of them are here on earth
Some of them are
Way up there in heaven
Heaven
(Stevie Nicks) © 1989 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Reference
Nicks, S. (1989). Rockline [radio interview].
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR: Rooms on Fire | Long Way to Go | Two Kinds of Love (Duet with Bruce Hornsby) | Ooh My Love | Ghosts | Whole Lotta Trouble | Fire Burning | Cry Wolf | Cry Wolf | Alice | Juliet | Doing the Best I Can (Escape from Berlin) | I Still Miss Someone (Blue Eyes)