This song was originally written about a father-daughter relationship. The original singer songwriter wrote it on the guitar in about five minutes in Aspen, Colorado. She was surrounded by mountains and thinking, "Wow, all this snow could just come tumbling down around me and there is nothing I can do about it."
She wrote this the night before her dad, who, FUN FACT, was the president of Greyhound Bus Lines, was operated on at the Mayo Clinic.
She recently told the New York Times: "I wrote [this song] in 1973, when I was 27, and I did already feel old in a lot of ways. I'd been working as a waitress and a cleaning lady for years. I was tired."
The song picked up steam in the '90s with a number of notable cover versions in that decade and stretching into the '00s. These include versions by:
Smashing Pumpkins, Tori Amos, and Former New Kid On The Block Joey McIntyre.
Today’s group put this song on the country chart with their enormously successful version. They took the song in a new direction by adding a mandolin to the mix on their 2002 album Home.
They also made it more about a romantic relationship coming to an end, rather than about the original father daughter relationship.
They had a huge hit with the song, taking it to #7 US. As a token of appreciation from the country trio to the originator of the song, they gave her a bowl decorated with the lyrics to the song, Landslide! You might say it was a thank you from the Chicks to Nicks.
I find it so interesting that the song's been interpreted in so many ways. Stevie wrote it about her dad, The Dixie Chicks made it about a romantic relationship. Edie called us to share that it was the song that got her through a miscarriage. What do the lyrics mean to you? ~ Stacey Lynn
Lyrics:
I took my love, I took it down
I climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills
'Til the landslide brought me down
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?
Well, I've been afraid of changin'
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older too
Well, I've been afraid of changin'
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I'm getting older too
Oh! I'm getting older too
Oh-oh, take my love, take it down
Oh-oh, climb a mountain and you turn around
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well, the landslide bring it down
Oh-ohh, the landslide bring it down