Song of the Day 9/28: Stevie Nicks, “The Lighthouse”

Stevie Nicks has never been a topical songwriter. Almost all her songs are personal and emotional, which makes the single she released Friday, her first new song in years, all the more powerful. It’s plenty emotional, but it’s a straight-up protest song, an outright feminist battle cry.

[E]arly one morning I was watching the news on TV and a certain newscaster said something that felt like she was talking to me, explaining what the loss of Roe v. Wade would come to mean. I wrote the song the next morning and recorded it that night.

That was September 6, 2022. I have been working on it ever since. I have often said to myself, “This may be the most important thing I ever do. To stand up for the women of the United States and their daughters and granddaughters – and the men that love them.” This is an anthem.

They’ll take your soul, take your power, unless you stand up, take it back
Try to see the future and get mad
It’s slipping through your fingers, you don’t have what you had
And you don’t have much time to get it back.