Rocktober 8, 2014 Stevie Nicks

Continuing this week's theme of  Women in Rock 

"Edge of Seventeen", is a song written and recorded by Stevie Nicks. It was the third single from her 1981 solo debut album, Bella Donna.

According to Nicks, the title came from a conversation she had with Tom Petty's first wife, Jane, about the couple's first meeting. Jane said they met "at the age of seventeen", but her strong Southern accent made it sound like "edge of seventeen" to Nicks. The singer liked the sound of the phrase so much that she told Jane she would write a song for it and give her credit for the inspiration. Although Nicks had originally planned to use the title for a song about Tom and Jane Petty, the deaths of both her uncle Jonathan and John Lennon during the same week of December 1980 inspired a new song for which Nicks used the title. Nicks's producer and friend, Jimmy Iovine, was a close friend of Lennon, and Nicks felt helpless to comfort him. Soon after, she flew home to Phoenix, Arizona, to be with her uncle Jonathan, who was dying of cancer.

Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Whoo... whoo... whoo...
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

And the days go by...
Like a strand in the wind...
In the web that is my own...
I begin again
Said to my friend, baby...
Nothin' else mattered

He was no more... than a baby then
Well he... seemed broken hearted...
Something within him
But the moment... that I first laid...
Eyes... on... him... all alone...
On the edge of... seventeen

Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
ooo baby... ooo... said ooo...
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

I went today... maybe I will go again...
Tomorrow
And the music there it was hauntingly...
Familiar
And I see you doing...
What I try to do for me
With the words from a poet...
And the voice from a choir
And a melody... nothing else mattered

Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
ooo baby... ooo... said ooo
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

The clouds... never expect it...
When it rains
But the sea changes colours...
But the sea...
Does not change
And so... with the slow... graceful flow...
Of age
I went forth... with an age old...
Desire... to please
On the edge of... seventeen

Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

Well then suddenly...
There was no one... left standing
In the hall... yeah yeah...
In a flood of tears
That no one really ever heard fall at all
Oh I went searchin' for an answer...
Up the stairs... and down the hall
Not to find an answer...
Just to hear the call
Of a nightbird... singing...
Come away... come away...

Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo... baby ooo... said ooo
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo... baby ooo... said ooo

Well I hear you in the morning...
And I hear you...
At nightfall...
Sometime to be near you...
Is to be unable... to hear you...
My love...
I'm a few years older than you...

Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo