My friend Court hearts Stevie Nicks and sent me this below clip with a note that “…this is one of my faves, watching it I always have this dual elation and sadness.” And now I can’t get the song out of my head.

I find this duality true in many songs that I love, be it Luna, Ghostface or Fleetwood Mac – the tracks often evoke both emotions during a 3 minute spell. I wonder if that’s what nostalgia might be constructed of too?

Even if authorial intent is one thing, audience interpretation can remix and recontextualize the meaning. One man’s song of joy is another’s sorrow song. It reminds me of painter Robert Motherwell, who once recounted that he “respected a collector who returned one of my “abstract” pictures to the gallery, saying it was too tragic in feeling for her to be able to look at it every day.”