This is Stevie Nicks, the singer-songwriter made famous as a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. My stepdaughter Emma is a huge fan of Stevie, and I did this painting for her as a Christmas gift – finished it a lot sooner than expected!

Why “One-Winged Dove”?

In 1981, Stevie’s first solo album Bella Donna featured the now iconic song “Edge of Seventeen.” It instantly became a long-time favorite of mine. The lyrics suggested overcoming adversity or disability, or enjoying life despite such hardships, because “just like the one-winged dove, sings a song, sounds like she’s singing.” Perhaps she can even fly on that one wing, at least in her dreams. The other doves fly about while she’s “left standing in the hall.”

It wasn’t until a few years ago that Emma and my wife Lisa laughed and said “no, it’s white-winged dove.” My long-held teenage interpretation of the lyrics was shattered. The correct wording seems so blasé, because of course a dove will sing, and what does it matter if it’s white or black winged?

I’m not alone in having this mondegreen – that’s the word meaning misheard lyrics in a song or poem – because if you start to google “one winged” or “one winged dove” it autocompletes to “one winged dove lyrics” or “one winged dove Fleetwood Mac lyrics,” and the links take you to the song “Edge of Seventeen.” The AI overview declares it’s a common mishearing of the lyric.

We heard Stevie Nicks perform this song live in Nashville in 2023 – in a double-concert that featured Billy Joel as well – and it still sounded like “one-winged dove” to me. Plus, I swear that people around me were singing “one-winged” too. It wasn’t just Lisa and Emma humoring me.

I based this watercolor painting on reference photographs that depict Stevie performing with Fleetwood Mac in Glasgow in 2009 and 2013. One is by Sam Kovak and the other by Pauline Keightley; both photos come from Alamy, using a license that permits use as reference material by an artist.