Stevie Nicks wrote this song about the death of her uncle and the death of John Lennon. The line about the "Words from a poet and a voice from a choir" refers to Lennon. Speaking about the song in commentary for her Live In Concert video recorded on her Bella Donna tour, she explained: "I was in Australia when John Lennon was shot. Everybody was devastated. I didn't know John Lennon, but I knew Jimmy Iovine, who worked with John quite a bit in the '70s, and heard all the loving stories that Jimmy told about him. When I came back to Phoenix I started to write this song. Right when I got to Phoenix, my uncle Bill got cancer, got very sick very fast, and died in a couple of weeks. My cousin John Nicks and I were in the room when he died. There was just John and I there. That was part of the song when I went running down the hallways looking for somebody - I thought where's my mom? Where's his wife and the rest of the family? At that point I went back to the piano and finished the song."
Lyrics
Just like the white winged dove Sings a song Sounds like she's singing Whoo whoo whoo Just like the white winged dove Sings a song Sounds like she's singing Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh
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 Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh Just like the white winged dove Sings a song Sounds like she's singing Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh
I went today, maybe I will go again Tomorrow And the music there it was hauntingly Familiar And 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 Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh Just like the white winged dove Sings a song Sounds like she's singing Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh
The clouds never expect it When it rains But the sea changes colours 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 Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh Just like the white winged dove Sings a song Sounds like she's singing Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh
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 Oh 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 Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh Just like the white winged dove Sings a song Sounds like she's singing Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh
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 Ooh baby, ooh, said ooh
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