Annabell Lee by Stevie Nicks

[3113]

"Annabell Lee" is off the "In Your Dreams" album and not new, but I hadn't heard it till recently. It is as advertised, formulated when Nicks was 17 and in love with the Poe Poem. Hence, it is the Poe Poem put to music.

I bring it up for a couple of reasons:
(1) 8 Weeks to Halloween so it seems apt
(2) The interesting idea of a writer's poetry put to music by someone else (do you like this idea, poets?)
(3) How certain works can affect us at certain ages, come, go, last, etc.
(4) It struck me as a very different poem when sung by a woman rather than imagining it being written by a man. It's less morbid. It seems much more daring and glorious as a kind of lesbian anthem. (Just IMHO there).

Nice song, all in all. Good lyrics

 

[lovecraft68]

Nick has the perfect voice for it. Fantastic song.

 

[emap]

There's not a whole lot she couldn't sing beautifully. Well perhaps Motorhead, Lemmy has a manly voice while singing. Quite nice when he isn't as well.

Course there are songs for just about everything. Honest, if you are stuck on an idea and want to write something, turn the radio and just listen, chances are pretty darn good there will be something about sex, along with most everything else. Especially if you listen to the teen pop stuff.

 

[jehoram]

Older version?

Didn't Judy Collins or Joan Baez do a version of this song about forty years ago? I think I saw it in one of their songbooks. Is it the same version that Stevie uses?

 

[3113]

Your right!

Didn't Judy Collins or Joan Baez do a version of this song about forty years ago? I think I saw it in one of their songbooks. Is it the same version that Stevie uses?

You're right! Good catch there. Joan Baez did the same thing back when. Took the poem and put it to music. But it's a very different tune. Slower, more haunting and, of course, more folky and reverent for that matter.

I wonder if Stevie got the idea independent of Joan, or thought it ought to be done differently.

Of course, I suspect that quite a few singers have put the poem to music. I haven't heard others, but I like Stevie's version as it gives the poem a very different feel. It's more defiant, like the lovers went against everyone to be together and no matter how it ended, they had each other for a while. Poe's version (and Joan's there) is all about the tragedy, the poet/singer gazing back on the terrible beauty of this doomed love.