Magic Man

from the LP Dreamboat Annie, Mushroom Records, 1976



This song has got it all: monster guitar riffs for days, lock tight drumming, references to marijuana and the occult, a hazy interlude with earthy percussion, a grandiose Moog synthesizer, and some spooky chanting, not to mention Ann fucking Wilson bitches (that’s the banshee-like brunette older sister on the left, for all those uninitiated in the Heart-ness)!!! Ann actually penned this as a quasi-biopic tale, the “Magic Man” being her boyfriend & the band’s manager Michael Fisher, who barely escaped jail for dodging the draft, which is why Heart really came together up in Vancouver instead of their home, Seattle. Fisher’s brother, guitarist Roger, lifted that slowly strummed, atonal chord heard in the verses from Dark Side of the Moon to great effect here, but also turns in some absolutely stunning solo work. The lyrics unfold like a dream, “…winter nights we sang in tune, played inside the months of moon; never think of never, let this spell last forever…‘come on home, girl’ he said with a smile, ‘you don't have to love me yet, let's get high awhile, but try to understand, try to understand, try, try, try to understand--- I'm a magic man’…” Taking a page from heroes like Zeppelin, Sabbath & Blue Oyster Cult, Heart understood one of the greatest keys to rock stardom, which is, be mystical.