For songwriters and musicians, using their craft to communicate their feelings and bond with their partners is common. Though most people now think of Taylor Swift as a confessional songwriter (I disagree, but that's an entirely different story), that type of songwriting was never so profound as in the 1970s, when some of rock and roll's most tragic couples reigned. Though neither of these relationships were destined to last, their love stories continue to live on through the music they created, both separately and together.

The couple who first forced me to take note of this were Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. Before joining the band, they were in a couple of Bay area bands as well as recorded one album as a duo, the now-sought-after "Buckingham Nicks." They joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, and despite creating incredible music together, fame took a toll on their relationship. Their break-up was volatile, and the recording of the "Rumours" album is filled with tales of arguing and vehement songwriting. It resulted in songs like the blunt "Go Your Own Way" and the reflective, somber "Dreams," which expressed in music what they could not say to one another. For another decade, the relationship between Buckingham and Nicks continued to be hot-and-cold, culminating in a reported violent incident in 1987 that led to Buckingham leaving the band just before the planned tour for the album Tango in the Night. Perhaps the saddest part of the story is that Nicks still writes about Buckingham, despite their relationship still showing much strain. Since the end of their relationship forty years ago, Buckingham has consistently been a subject in her music. Though he has since married and had children, it is obvious that chemistry still exists between them. One only has to go to a Fleetwood Mac show to see it, particularly in the passion of the two of them singing to one another during the Nicks gem "Silver Springs." Buckingham may have been too perfectionistic, and Nicks perhaps too independent, but it is no doubt that the music lives far beyond their romantic relationship.

In the 1970s, there was perhaps no cooler singer-songwriter couple than James Taylor and Carly Simon. Both were superstars in their own right: Taylor, the sensitive/pondering writer and voice behind the legendary "Fire and Rain," and Simon, whose confessional songwriting had resulted in one of the most popular songs of the decade, "You're So Vain." Taylor and Simon married in 1972, and over the next decade, created incredible music both together and as solo artists, including a rollicking version of "Mockingbird" that was most famously performed at the No Nukes concert in 1979. The couple had two children, Ben and Sally, but Taylor's addiction to various substances and infidelities by both of them tore the couple apart, and their marriage ended in 1983. Despite the relationship being over for over three decades, Simon still proclaims her love for him, though they do not have a relationship.

Both of these couples have been the subject of fascination for me in the midst of my research for my upcoming novel "Dreams," perhaps because both couples showcase the fate of several couples in my novel. The industry itself gets in the way, as do all of the temptations that come with it. No matter if the personalities of the two people are strong, pressures and temptations can lead two even two people who love each other to break each other's hearts. It is a sad thing to see, especially when the love is obvious decades later. However, the music these songwriters created allows those feelings to live on, never truly allowing the love to leave, no matter how long it has been.