Yes, I know it makes you want to reach for the grapefruit spoon. It smacked me between the eyes, too. The idea for this one came to me while I was walking to the drugstore and thinking of the different archetypes in the song. It is loaded with mythic imagery; there are so many layers here, I hope I get them all. Of course, the “gold dust” refers to what is left of the flower after Rogue touches it, but it can also mean real gold dust, which washes down river from the source. It’s like a phantom, hinting at the mother lode, just as this one little action hints at Rogue’s powers. She can see herself in the flower as well, dead from touch, or the lack thereof in her case. She has become a “black widow” or a “dragon” in that she is a killer by nature. Rogue is only a “pale shadow of a woman” because she has no hope of generating the cycle of life – she cannot comfort through touch, breastfeed, or give birth because her skin would rip the life from her child. Life is her “prey” to her even though she wishes it were otherwise. “Ancient queen” I interpreted as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, who was once a flower maiden. Hades, god of death, kidnaps her to be his wife, thus robbing her of her innocence and transforming her from young and life-giving to old and life-taking in the space of a heartbeat. Rogue is like the transformed Persephone, taking life with her touch. Nicks wrote “Gold Dust Woman” for the Rumours album and has been quoted as saying, "Devastation leads to writing very good things." Making Rumours was probably one huge melodramatic meltdown, start to finish, with the break-up of the McVie’s marriage, Mick Fleetwood’s marriage and Stevie putting an end to her relationship with Lindsey. Sucked into cocaine abuse and getting thinner every day, she wrote this haunting, acrid song that features howling vocals, a mystical guitar and the sound of glass breaking. Mick Fleetwood had this anecdote about the recording of the song that makes me think of Nick’s isolation and pain: "She did her first take of 'Gold Dust Woman' in a fully lit studio, and as take followed take, she began withdrawing into herself. So we dimmed the lights, brought her a chair, a supply of tissues, a Vicks inhaler, a box of lozenges for her sore throat, and a bottle of mineral water. And on the eighth take, at four in the morning, she sang the lyric straight through to perfection."

Copyrighted © 2003 Silver Thistle Publishing.