Gold Dust Woman

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"Gold Dust Woman"
Song by Fleetwood Mac
From the album Rumours
Album released 1977
Genre Rock
Song Length 4:55
Record label Reprise
Producers Fleetwood Mac
Track Number Track 11


"Gold Dust Woman"
"Gold Dust Woman" cover
Single by Hole
Released 1996
Format CD-Single
Recorded 1995
Genre Rock music
Label Geffen
Chart positions
Hole singles chronology
Softer, Softest
(1995)
Gold Dust Woman Celebrity Skin
(1998)

Gold Dust Woman is a song from the best-selling Fleetwood Mac album Rumours. It was written and sung by Stevie Nicks and released as a b-side to the "You Make Loving Fun" single. It is regarded as a signature song of Stevie Nicks during her tenure with Fleetwood Mac.

[edit] Interpretations

Many regard the lyrics as to having references to drug use:

Rock on, gold dust woman,
Take your silver spoon,
And dig your grave

These opening lines are seen by many as a drug statement. The image of almost killing oneself with cocaine would in a few short years describe the band in general, and Nicks in particular. Some also see some of the lyrics as an attack on Lindsey Buckingham, with whom she was breaking up with at the time:

Rulers make bad lovers,
You'd better put your kingdom up for sale

Buckingham is regarded as the creative driving force behind the band at this time so these lyrics could be said to be an attack at him.

When asked about the song in an interview with Courtney Love for SPIN magazine in (October, 1997), Nicks said:

   
Gold Dust Woman
You know what, Courtney? I don't really know what ‘Gold Dust Woman’ is about. I know there was cocaine there and that I fancied it gold dust, somehow. I'm going to have to go back to my journals and see if I can pull something out about ‘Gold Dust Woman.’ Because I don't really know. It's weird that I'm not quite sure. It can't be all about cocaine.
   
Gold Dust Woman

This only adds to the obscurity of the lyrics.

[edit] Cover versions

[edit] External link

  • The Penguin: GDW Lyric Interpretations [1]
Hole
Courtney Love | Eric Erlandson | Patty Schemel | Melissa Auf der Maur
Jill Emery | Leslie Hardy | Samantha Maloney | Kristen Pfaff | Lisa Roberts | Caroline Rue | Errol Stewert
Discography
Studio albums and EPs: Pretty on the Inside | Live Through This | Ask for It | The First Session | My Body, the Hand Grenade | Celebrity Skin
Singles: "Retard Girl" | "Dicknail" | "Teenage Whore" | "Beautiful Son" | "Miss World" | "Doll Parts" | "Violet" | "Softer, Softest" | "Gold Dust Woman" | "Celebrity Skin" | "Malibu" | "Awful" | "Be a Man"
Related articles
Sympathy for the Record Industry | Kurt Cobain | Nirvana | Billy Corgan | Kat Bjelland | "Asking for It" | "Old Age"
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