(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 7 November 2025 21:00, UK
Perhaps stemming from her penchant for witchcraft and mysticism, though the crux of her allure is found in her vulnerability, but between her legendary tenures in Fleetwood Mac and her subsequent, illustrious solo career, Stevie Nicks stands as one of the most important, timeless voices in rock history.
Her songs operate more like spells, captivating the listener and transporting them through time into a moment where Nicks was enraptured, herself. Whether that be a heartbreak she endured, a folktale she fell in love with, or a personal demon she needed to exorcise, her stories become worlds of their own that we, her humble followers, are invited into.
After cutting her teeth with her then-partner Lindsey Buckingham as the duo Buckingham Nicks, the pair joined the British rock band Fleetwood Mac in 1975, their talents taking the band from little-known fame to international acclaim.
The band’s first eponymous album with Nicks and Buckingham on guitar features the former’s song ‘Rhiannon’, often introduced by the singer as “a song about an old Welsh witch”. Leaning into the esoteric introduced Nicks as a new kind of rock ‘n’ roll woman, one who could sing with gentility and passion but, when scorned, could become a woman possessed, turning her songs into curses.
Nicks began work on her first solo project in between sessions for Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk in 1979, her solo sessions offering a much-needed reprieve from the dramatics and the constant reminders of heartbreak that continued to unfold in her band that had given birth to Rumours, and yielded a deeper exploration of her individual creativity. She was slowly returning to the witch within, allowing her spirituality to guide her to new depths, arriving at the studio armed with songs old and new, and of the former ones that could not find a home in Fleetwood Mac, but were ready to be told, was ‘Kind of Woman’.
In 1973, Nicks was living in Aspen, Colorado, a year before joining Fleetwood Mac, where she wrote ‘Landslide’, a gorgeous, sorrowful song of growing older and leaving your loved ones behind. She began to envision another song, one that told of her conflicting emotions at the time, recalling, “‘Kind of Woman’ I wrote about Lindsey when he went on the road with the Everly Brothers, and I was sure he was gonna meet somebody because it says, ‘Temptation falls in your path / No hesitation, why?, you ask / You have another waiting at home / And yes, she matters to you. That was me, right?”
Never one to be caught frozen in sadness, Nicks continued to write ‘Kind of Woman’ as a personal reckoning, a vengeful promise to her lover and anyone who would dare to cross her. On the final version of the song, she sings the chorus with an emotional swell of her voice: “She came to you and you were alone / And yes, she matters to you / Kind of woman that’ll haunt you”. The ballad is performed with a delicate piano and quiet guitar chords, allowing Nicks’ voice to reverberate across the song.
Nicks reasoned further with how ‘Kind of Woman’ came to be, saying, “So it’s like, which is the kind of woman? Was it me, or was it the woman that he would meet? I didn’t know. And then I’d never been on the road, or I had no idea. I mean, I had the same thoughts that probably every little girl in the world thinks when a rock and roll band comes into town. As Joni Mitchell would say, ‘Don’t count on your plans with a rock and roll man’.”
The song would find its home on her debut solo album, 1981’s Bella Donna, its name a dual-meaning of the Italian translation ‘beautiful woman’ and the poisonous herb often used in witchcraft. It is the perfect name to encapsulate her songs: stunning on the surface, but threatening with a dangerous twist.
Listening to ‘Kind of Woman’, one can envision Nicks sitting all alone in Aspen, lamenting the loss of her partner to the touring life as she is left to spiral into her own thoughts. You feel her despair as it creeps upon her, distorting reality and, as its lyrics promise, begins to haunt every listener for an unforgettable experience.
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