“Ooh My Love” is Track 4 on The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), Stevie Nicks’ fourth solo album. It follows “Two Kinds of Love” and precedes “Ghosts” in the running order.
About ‘Ooh My Love’
In the 2012 In Your Dreams documentary, Stevie revealed that she inadvertently “stole” an instrumental track composed by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ guitarist Michael Campbell. Petty intended to use the track for “Runaway Trains” from his 1987 album Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough). Stevie took a cassette tape labeled “24 Demos from Mike Campbell” from Petty’s house, thinking they were for her because he had often sent her instrumental tracks.
Stevie paired her lyrics for “Ooh My Love” with Petty’s “Running Trains” backing track, which Fleetwood Mac rehearsed during the Tango in the Night recording sessions, unaware she had used Petty’s track. When Stevie later played Fleetwood Mac’s version for Petty, he was furious and refused to let her use the track.” It was my biggest bust of my entire life,” she said in the documentary (Stewart & Nicks, 2012).
In 2019, Stevie elaborated on this story in a Rolling Stone interview.
“I stole [the backing track] from Tom Petty — accidentally! I picked up the wrong cassette at Tom’s one night, a tape of Mike Campbell’s instrumental demos. Tom would get them first, and then the ones he didn’t want, Mike sent them to me. I accidentally arrived home one night with a cassette — I thought it was mine, but it was Tom’s. It just said, “24 Demos from Mike Campbell.” It had the song that inspired “Ooh My Love,” which became “Runaway Trains” for Tom. I took it into Fleetwood Mac and sang my lyrics over it. We started to record. I loved it so much, I called Tom and said, “Listen to this!” What an idiot, right? Let’s play him the song you stole over the phone! Tom just starts screaming at me on the other end of the phone. I’m realizing, “How stupid are you, Stevie?” So I had to go in the next day and tell Fleetwood Mac, “Guess what, we can’t do this song. ” “Why can’t we do it? ” “Because I stole it from Tom Petty, and I’m absolutely a total criminal and a thief” (Sheffield, 2019).
The elusive Fleetwood Mac demo of “Ooh My Love” appears on the Deluxe Edition (2017) of Tango in the Night.
“These are the ups and downs of being friends with other songwriters,” Stevie explained. “Way later, years down the road, I sat down at the piano and tried to recall it. I wrote ‘Ooh My Love’ on the piano: ‘In the shadow of the castle walls …’ Of course, I don’t know near as many chords as Mike Campbell does. All I remembered was that distant enchanted melody.” (Sheffield, 2019).
In 2019, Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield wrote about “Stevie Nicks’ lost masterpiece ‘Ooh My Love.'”
Lyrics
In the shadow of the castle walls
Wherever those walls were
Well you used to love to be behind those walls with her
Within these walls
Well he watched from the corridor
Watched from the corner of his eyes
Seemingly waiting for the time
When the castle walls would all fall down
Yes it was a strain on her
Watching her castles fall down
Oh but there was a time when he called her angel
Where in the world did you come from?
In the shadow of the castle walls
Wherever those walls were
In this land or in that land
Well the castles all seem to belong to her
And all this talk about love and hate
And our separation way on down the line
Well they just can’t wait, can they?
No they just can’t wait
Yes it was a strain on her
Watching her castles fall down
Oh but there was a time when he called her angel
Where in the world did you come from?
Yes it was a strain on her
Watching her castles fall down
Oh but there was a time when he called her angel
Where in the world did you come from?
There was a light that lighted the way to the chamber
Where they spent all their time, well
There was a light that lighted the way to the chamber door where
They seemed to spend all their time
Ooh my love Ooh my love Ooh my love
Yes it was a strain on her
Watching her castles fall down
Oh but there was a time when he called her angel
Where in the world did you come from?
Yes it was a strain on her
Watching her castles fall down
Oh but there was a time when he called her angel
Where in the world did you come from?
Yeah it was a strain on her
Watching her castles fall down
Hey, hey, baby No one can take you away from me no no one
In the shadow of the castle walls
(Stevie Nicks) © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Spirit Music Group
References
Stewart, D. & Nicks, S. (Directors) (2012). Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams [film]. Weapons of Mass Entertainment.
Sheffield, R. (2019, February 28). Stevie Nicks on Tom Petty, drag queens, GAME OF THRONES and missing Prince. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/stevie-nicks-interview-tom-petty-drag-queens-game-of-thrones-prince-801112.
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)