Stevie Nicks – “Edge Of Seventeen” Live (1982)

Just Like The White Winged Dove…

Watching Stevie Nicks perform is like being bewitched: you can’t take your eyes off of her for even a moment, because the energy of her performances definitely casts some sort of spell over you. This 1982 performance of the iconic ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ goes down as one of my absolute favorites because it’s Stevie at her best. She’s fresh-faced and excited about her career outside the realm of Fleetwood Mac, and the sheer power in her voice in this performance is something to be both envied and admired!

Stevie wrote ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ to channel her grief over the deaths of her uncle and John Lennon in the same week of December 1980.

Written about the tremendous losses she suffered in the span of two months, ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ allows Stevie to revisit that turbulent, tragic time in her life and through powerful performances like this, we’re allowed a glimpse into a very private, strong moment in Stevie’s life.

+ Edge Of Seventeen lyrics +

Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she’s singing
Ooh ooh ooh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she’s singing
Oh baby oh said oh

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
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she’s singing
Oh baby oh said oh

I went today maybe I will go again
Tomorrow
And the music there it was hauntingly
Familiar
When 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
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she’s singing
Oh baby oh said oh

The clouds never expect it
When it rains
But the sea changes colors
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
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she’s singing
Oh baby oh said oh

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
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
Oh baby oh said oh
Just like the white winged dove
Sings a song
Sounds like she’s singing
Oh baby oh said oh

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
Oh baby oh said oh