Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night and
Wouldn't you love to love her?
Takes to the sky like a bird in flight and
Who will be her lover?
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
She is like a cat in the dark and then
She is the darkness
She rules her life like a fine skylark and when
The sky is starless
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
Will you ever win?
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
She rings like a bell through the night and
Wouldn't you love to love her?
She rules her life like a bird in flight and
Who will be her lover?
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
Will you ever win?
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Taken by
Taken by the sky
Taken by
Taken by the sky
Taken by
Taken by the sky
Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind
Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind
Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind
Wouldn't you love to love her?
Takes to the sky like a bird in flight and
Who will be her lover?
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
She is like a cat in the dark and then
She is the darkness
She rules her life like a fine skylark and when
The sky is starless
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
Will you ever win?
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
She rings like a bell through the night and
Wouldn't you love to love her?
She rules her life like a bird in flight and
Who will be her lover?
All your life you've never seen
A woman taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven?
Will you ever win?
Will you ever win?
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Rhiannon
Taken by
Taken by the sky
Taken by
Taken by the sky
Taken by
Taken by the sky
Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind
Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind
Dreams unwind
Love's a state of mind
Lyrics submitted by oofus, edited by MinisterOTruth
"Rhiannon" as written by Stephanie Nicks
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night and Wouldn't you love to love her? Takes to the sky like a bird in flight and Who will be her lover? All your life you've never seen A woman taken by the wind. Would you stay if she promised you heaven? Will you ever win?"
This is saying that she got close to him and then decided to leave the relationship before he would have a chance to hurt her. He'd love to love her but she isn't letting him-trust issues or fears keep getting in her way of fully showing her full love to him and letting him do that to her. She "takes off" like a bird (leaving the relationship) and the boy is wondering if she's ever going to let anyone love her. He's never seen someone before who just leaves like that and he sees her as a challenge. He wonders if he will ever win her love and be able to get her to open up and break down her walls.
"She is like a cat in the dark and then She is the darkness. She rules her life like a fine skylark and when The sky is starless"
Either they are comparing her to a cat because cats are mysterious, or they are saying that you never thought you would love this girl but then her love just creeps up on you and you end up loving her and finding out that she's better than you ever thought she would be. On the "skylark" part, I'm a bit confused. Skylark has two meanings. One is like a songbird-the other is someone who plays practical jokes on someone. I think in this context it's referring to the previous lyric "takes off like a bird in flight," it's saying that she never stays in a relationship too long and she flees before she can be hurt. It could also mean that she plays with people's minds just to see how many people can fall in love with her and then she leaves them heartbroken??
I could be wrong but that's my interpretation.
Always there.
What was wrong with me? Sooner? Why didn't I see it?
This song is about nothing. Pure emotion. No explanation needed, just our calling - however we see that for how it is.
Sometimes we think it's for a singular purpose, sometimes we see it as limitless. Regardless, when it creeps up on us, we know. You can't help but know.
Rhiannon. Rhiannon.
And she has these birds that sing and that is the legend of the song of the birds of Rhiannon. And they sing this song that is uh, said takes away pain and suffering and if you hear the song you just sort of blank out and go away and then when you wake up everthing's all right. And it is a wonderful, wonderful story which I use a lot, because there's a lot of ~ there seems to be a lot of need for the story of Rhiannon around lately, because if people are sad or have lost anybody or something the story really makes a lot of sense.
~Stevie Nicks, Starsound Special RKO Radio, December 21, 1981
I didn't want them to release Rhiannon as a single [in 1975] because I thought, 'What if she doesn't make it? What if my Rhiannon falls flat on her face? Then, it's not my choice to release her as a single, she is a mythological goddess of horses and steeds and maker of birds and she's a brilliant, brilliant character...what if she falls flat on her face?'
I didn't write Rhiannon for commerciality. I wrote Rhiannon because I loved her name and I loved her story. I didn't write her to be sold, she simply is not for sale and has never been.
~Stevie Nicks, BBC One to One, 1989
That song [Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)] is really straight out of the old Welsh mythology. Rhiannon is the Goddess of Steeds and the Maker of Birds, and her song is a song that takes away pain. When you hear her song, you close your eyes and fall asleep, and when you wake up the pain is gone or the danger is gone and you'll see her three birds flying away. That's the legend. So, whenever I sing the song, I always think of that...
~Stevie Nicks, Music Connection, 1994
I got the name from a novel, I think I bought in an airport just before a long flight; it was called Triad, and it was about a girl named Rhiannon and her sister and mother, or something like that. I just thought the name was so pretty that I wanted to write something about a girl named Rhiannon. I wrote it about three months before I joined Fleetwood Mac, in about 1974. And then to find out that Rhiannon was a real mythical character! I went and read the four books of Rhiannon, and visited the lady who'd translated them.
Rhiannon is the maker of birds, and the goddess of steeds; she's the protector of horses. Her music is like a pain pill. When you wake up and hear her birds singing her little song, the danger will have passed. I realized that somehow I had managed to pen a song that went very much along with the mythical tale of Rhiannon. That's when everybody started saying Stevie must be a black witch or something.
~Stevie Nicks, Songs in the Rough by Stephen Bishop, 1996
There is one more thing I can send you [the Gulf War troops], and that is the story of a Welsh mythological goddess, named RHIANNON. I once, a very long time ago, wrote a song about her. It is called 'the legend of the song of the birds of Rhiannon.'
Rhiannon was a queen in a world far above us called the bright world, where all the colors were brighter, and everyone had a special sort of glow around them. It was a beautiful world, and she loved her world, but she fell in love with a mortal king from OUR world...and she left her world to come to ours to be with him. Rhiannon had three birds, one white, one emerald green, and one golden. It is said that in time of war, or strife, or pain, that her song can be heard.
"And down the glorious pathway, came the three singing birds, straight into the middle of the trouble and hardship ..." but that when you heard her song, your eyes would softly close and you would slip away. When you awoke the trouble would be gone, the sky would be the most wondrous blue, and far in the back of your mind you would hear that little song,, like a delicate little music box. If you were lucky, you might even see the three beautiful birds slowly flying away from you, and if you were very very lucky, you might even see Rhiannon .... slowly turning around to you to say, everything is fine,- She is smiling, and you see her disappear into the fine white clouds.
It is said that the legend is true...so I send you the energy from my golden cross and the three singing birds of Rhiannon to comfort you and to keep you safe. .
~Stevie Nicks, in a letter to the Gulf War Troops, Stars & Stripes, 1991
You should see the most amazing performance of Rhiannon, go to YouTube and type in "Rhiannon - ( Awesome performance ) 1976" (it's from The Old Grey Whistle Test), this tiny little woman explodes on stage at the end, and she even out sings the Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo! It's the most amazing thing to see and hear, check it out.