Sailing through the night

Rhiannon

Rhiannon rings like a bell thru the night
And wouldn't you love to love her

I accelerate as I merge into traffic, a Jamocha shake oozing through my straw. Its almost-nine-o'clock, and the sunset is past, but the light lingers. THIS is the reason I love to drive, warm June nights when the sky is so many blues that all you can think is a gasp and a sigh.

She rules her life like a bird in flight
And who will be her lover...

Who indeed? Crosses my mind, and just as quickly the answer - none. This song has been part of the soundtrack of my life since it was released when I was Scarlett's age. So many happier times, but this moment will do for now. No reminiscing, I'm too full of thought of the present.

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...

No, Stevie, I won't. But I'll play, just the same, take my points and take my losses, for the sake of the game. A brief, imagined conversation crosses my mind - who would I call before I pulled the trigger? The answer disgusts me, because all I would do is force a gun-point apology from him. I don't want that. I don't want anything like that.

She is like a cat in the dark
And then she is the darkness

Someone once asked me what animal I am. And I am a cat, no question there. I love to be touched, rubbed, stroked, I eat up attention like a half-starved thing, and wither far too soon when its taken away. Why is it always taken away?

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

I can't help but think again of a certain dark-haired man at this point, and almost wish I'd never sent him that curious email on a fateful August afternoon. I never dreamed Brent would become a regret, but he's sliding toward that end as the realization dawns on me that the friendship ended long ago. I'm just another member of the admiration society, and I'm not buying into that any more. It was more fun when he wondered about me, too. As I pass his exit, I dismiss him, knowing that actually getting him out of my heart can never be that simple.

Would you stay if she promised you heaven
Will you ever win...

There's so much more I could think about...

Dreams unwind.
Love's a state of mind.

I love the interpretation of the song written here. Its eerily familiar. I've always jealously admired Stevie Nicks, she's all the things I never was, even when I was thin. Blonde, ethereal, coveted, revered. The implication that I was never good enough because I wasn't blonde is something I will likely never shake - even for all that I know that I'm better because I'm NOT blonde. I think perhaps Stevie and I are similar in some ways - I know that Rhiannon and I share a lot of similarities.    http://discog.fleetwoodmac.net/songs.php?sid=23&j=lyrics

The song changes, and changes again. I go from bopping along to Stray Cat Strut, to a sweet sentimentality as Seven Bridges Road forces me to sing along. As I stop at a light before heading across a winding hill road, THIS comes on, and my heart begins to ache.

Count On Me
Precious love
I'll give it to you
blue as the sky and deep in the
eyes of a love so true

I don't know why this song affects me like it does. It immediately brings to mind a long-legged, dark haired man I've never met - who knows the inside of my soul. No one in this world knows me like that panther-like creature who once stalked the streets of Houston....

beautiful face
you make me feel
lite on the stairs and lost in the
air of a love so real

"Why? WHY?" My head demands a reason - we never discussed this song, though we discussed music until I should have been ill with it; but my heart knows why - Jefferson Airplane will forever be inexorably linked because of Miracles. For all that he was/is a music affectionado, he had bypassed the eroticism in the song until one day when I pointed it out to him. I had only truly discovered it myself a few weeks before - during another beautiful drive. It became a song I associated with him sexually, until the sound of the introduction made my knees quiver, and the beginnings of dampness would creep through me.

And you can count on me girl
you can count on my love woman
you can count on me baby
you can count on my love to see you through

This song, its different. Its longing and love that someone needs to feel for me, not him. Somebody real. I only associate it with him because of who sings it. Someone else could easily take this song as their own.

Emerald eyes and china perfume
caught in the wheel and lost in
the feel of a love so soon
ruby lips
you make my song
into the night and saved by the lite
of a love so strong

This part is me - ME - I can feel the words caress my skin, I can almost SEE a man looking into my eyes, and it breaks my heart into a million tiny pieces. Tears start, but I fight it. This is my favorite part of the drive, and I won't let it be ruined by a memory that doesn't exist.

And you can count on me girl
you can count on my love woman
you can count on me baby
you can count on my love to see you through

See you thru
....oooh
you can count on me girl
you can count on my love

Instead I roll down the window, and take a deep breath of the piney tang and heady sweetness of honeysuckle as it fills the car. This, yes this is what driving is all about - warm June nights full of scent, gentle sound, and vivid color. Oh! I wish you could come here NOW - smell the honeysuckle and multiflora rose as we cruise the hills that surround me. I wish I could share this with someone.

 

(Jess Barish) © 1977 Bright moments music/Diamondback music co. -- (BMI)