STEVIE NICKS INFO

Tag: About the Song

  • How Still My Love: ‘One of my most romantic songs’

    How Still My Love: ‘One of my most romantic songs’

    “How Still My Love” is Track 7 on Bella Donna (1981), Stevie Nicks’ first solo album. Stevie describes it as her “sexiest song.”

    [“How Still My Love”] was really probably one of my most romantic songs. I was feeling really romantic at the time; it’s my sexiest song. I love to sit and play it. It’s the one song I said had to be on [Bella Donna], and it was the one that went in and out and in and out and off and on and off and on the album in the last four months, incredibly, until finally, I knew that it would come around to people realizing it’s really such a neat song even if it’s for yourself to enjoy it” (Nicks, 1981).

    “I really don’t write extremely sexual songs, never have. I’m always going to write about the bouquets and the flowers. But ‘How Still My Love’ really is a sexy song, and being that it’s one of my few sexy songs, when we do it onstage it’s fun. It’s kind of woozy and it’s slow, but it’s got a really great beat — kind of a strip-tease, a little burlesque, a little Dita Von Teese-y.

    “The title actually came from two different books I saw in some hotel, one was called How Still My Love and one was called In the Still of the Night, and I used both, but I never even opened up the books [laughs], so I have no idea what they were about. Whenever I come into a room with a library, in a hotel or whatever, I pull them all down and just sit — I get a lot of ideas that way” (Greenblatt, 2009).

    Lyrics

    Still the same old story
    What price glory
    You make it easy
    In the still of the night
    In the still of the night
    How still my love
    In the still of the night
    How still my

    Doing all you can for me
    They say you’re not the man for me
    Don’t make it easy
    In the still of the night
    In the still of the night
    How still my love
    In the still of the night
    How still my love

    Standing in the doorway
    Watching out to sea
    Calling out to me
    You go your way
    Go on go on
    But you don’t forget me
    Oh no you don’t forget me
    Oh no my lonely one
    You’re doing all you can for me
    They say you’re not the man for me
    Don’t I make it easy
    In the still of the night
    It’s me talking to you

    How still my love
    In the still of the night
    How still my love
    In the still of the night
    It’s me that’s talkin’ to you
    In the still of the night

    (Stevie Nicks) © 1979 Welsh Witch Music (BMI) admin. by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

    Reference

    Nicks, S. (1981). Breaking the chain

  • Kick It

    Kick It

    “Kick It” is a sleeper track from Street Angel (1994), Stevie Nicks‘ fifth solo album. Partly inspired by Oscar Wilde’s 1888 story “The Happy Prince.” Stevie had adapted lines from Wilde’s public-domain work for the song. It’s not surprising that Stevie’s has derived inspiration from classic literary works. In addition to Wilde, Stevie has paid homage to Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe, among others, in her songs.

    In “Kick It,” Stevie sings about “A strange kind of love affair / A symphony of sorts / A strange kind of love affair / A declaration of war,” which could be Fleewood Mac, drugs, fame, or all of the above. At the time, Stevie was at a crossroads in her life, having estranged herself from Fleetwood Mac and beaten a powerful addiction to Klonopin. Stevie was ready to kick both habits, so to speak, and focus again on making creating great music.

    Lyrics

    I’ll stay with you one more night
    I’ll bid you no goodbyes
    Not until tomorrow’s light
    Then I’ll say goodnight
    Well, I would really rather die
    Than make you stop
    I think that is the meaning of love

    I think that is the meaning of love
    And I prefer to kick it
    Yes, I think that is the meaning of love
    And I prefer to kick it
    Kick the habit

    Well I’m waited for in Egypt
    It’s just something I must do
    Yes, I can see you’re waited for all over you
    All day and all night
    All over the world
    It’s your world It’s your world

    I think that is the meaning of love
    And I’m prepared to kick it
    Yes, I think that is the meaning of love
    And I prefer to kick it

    So what is this (what is this)
    When you can (when you can)
    What is this
    What about me
    What is this (What is this)
    I understand (I understand)
    What is this I’m lonely I’m lonely (I’m lonely)

    It’s a strange kind of love affair
    A symphony of sorts
    Strange kind of love affair
    A declaration of war
    No, I won’t be here tomorrow night
    You won’t see me smiling
    Tomorrow when it’s very dark
    No crying

    I think that is the meaning of love
    And I prefer to kick it
    Yes, I think that is the meaning of love
    Surrender

    Well, I think that is the meaning of love (think that’s the meaning of love)
    I think that is the meaning of love (love, love)
    And I prefer to kick it
    Yes, I think that is the meaning of love (love, love)
    But, I prefer to kick it

    Well, I loved you more than life itself (love, love)
    (Nothing like forever more)
    But I’m prepared to kick it
    (Something like dying)
    Yes, I loved you more than life itself (love, love)
    But I’m prepared to kick it
    I think that is the meaning of love
    And I’m prepared to kick it

    (Stevie Nicks/Mike Campbell) © 1994 Welsh Witch Music (BMI)/Wild Gator Music (ASCAP) (Stevie Nicks/Mike Campbell) © 1994 Welsh Witch Music (BMI)/Wild Gator Music (ASCAP)

    Musicians

    Michael Campbell Electric Guitar
    Sharon Celani, Sara Fleetwood, Lori Nicks Vocal Harmonies
    Andy Fairweather Low Electric Guitar
    Cat Gray Synthesizer
    Ethan Johns Drums, Percussion, Slide Guitar
    Bernie Leadon Guitar
    John Pierce Bass

    Reference

    Wilde, Oscar (1888). The Happy Prince.