About Me…

I have a confession to make – I’ve called myself a Fleetwood Mac fan for longer than I can remember, but I had only really listened to Rumours and their Greatest Hits. My mom actually asked me the other day when exactly I started following them and I couldn’t remember. I think it was in high school at some point, which would have been about ten years ago. Despite only listening to a small sampling of their music, it was enough for me to fall absolutely in love with them, their sound, and their history. So, when I decided to write this, I also decided to listen to their entire catalogue, so that I could say with full honesty that I’m a fan of them for everything they’ve done. And I’m so glad I did. I found songs that weren’t on their greatest hits album, were a little newer and also found the lives shows. They may have not been at studio album quality while singing live, but their voices together were so raw and beautiful. I’m so glad I listened to everything. Now, when I say I’m a fan of Fleetwood Mac, I mean I’m a fan of the Nicks/Buckingham and onwards band. They had quite a different beginning sound and vibe from what we know them as now.

First a little history….

Fleetwood Mac was started in the 1960’s as a blues band in London by Peter Green, with Mick Fleetwood as on drums and John McVie on bass guitar. Green even named the band ‘Fleetwood Mac’ after the two of them to entice them away from their current band, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers. McVie didn’t even join at first, not wanting to take a risk but joining after the band, with some temporary members, made their debut at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival in 1967. Their first and second albums were strictly blues, featuring the single ‘Black Magic Woman,’ which would later become a huge hit for Santana when he covered it. On the second album, they were joined by Christine McVie, when she was still Christine Perfect, as a keyboardist. This was the start of the lineup we know now.

The band went through a lot of line up changes and sound changes and a label change. *FUN FACT* George Harrison of the Beatles was once Mick Fleetwood’s brother-in-law through marriage (they were married to sisters Pattie & Jenny Boyd) and Harrison had wanted FM on The Beatles’ Apple label. They ended up signing with Warner Bros. Records, which the parent company of Frank Sinatra’s Reprise Records (aside: everyone is connected in the music industry). This was to get away from their former label, which only had Blues acts signed to it, so that they could have a bit more creative freedom in their changing sound. There was also a mess of a time when their manager claimed he owned the name “Fleetwood Mac” and recruited a whole new lineup of musicians to tour under that name, while the real Fleetwood Mac were taking a break. Their history is SO bizarre. It resulted in the real Fleetwood Mac separating from their scumbag manager, managing themselves and moving their home base from England to Los Angeles.

In the fall of 1975, Mick Fleetwood was introduced to the band Buckingham Nicks, which consisted of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. In July 1975, the band released Fleetwood Mac, which sold over 5 million copies and hit No. 1 in the U.S. What followed was a period of serious turmoil for the newly formed lineup, that has since endured the test of time. John and Christine McVie split, Buckingham and Nicks split, and Fleetwood was going through a divorce from his wife Jenny Boyd. High off the success of Fleetwood Mac and newfound riches from the album doing well, the band had some serious emotional issues.

The result of this whole mess was the absolutely gorgeous album, Rumours. I still say that it is the best album ever written, because of the absolute bare and raw emotion of it, because of what everyone was going through. It’s honest, it’s painful, and it’s beautiful. It was released in July 1977 and subsequently won the Album of the Year at the Grammy’s. The album generated multiple Top Ten hits. It also stood the test of time, because in by 2003, it had sold 40 million copies worldwide, making it the second biggest selling album of all time worldwide. And thus ends my history lesson.

Expressing my LOVE

I LOVE this band. Their music makes me FEEL and I can put it on in my car and crank it up and sing and car dance to my heart’s delight. I also do this with my headphones while doing household chores…well I should be doing chores, but really I’m singing to myself and dancing around my room. The words haunt me, as good music is supposed to. I’m just going to run through each song on Rumours and tell you why I love it, ok? Ok.

Second Hand News

This is Lindsey Buckingham’s breakup song to Stevie Nicks and acknowledging that she’s moved on, but with a hint of “hey if you ever want to mess around again, I’m game.” I get that from the lines “When times go bad/When times go rough/Won’t you lay me down in tall grass/And let me do my stuff.” It’s a really upbeat song, so you get confused when you really listen in on the lyrics and realize it’s a bit sad too. I love it and always rock out to it.

Full lyrics here.

Dreams

“Now here you go again/You say you want your freedom/Well, who am I to keep you down?/It’s only right that you should/Play the way you feel it/But listen carefully to the sound/Of your loneliness/Like a heartbeat… drives you mad/In the stillness of remembering what you had/And what you lost…/And what you had…/And what you lost”

I could really quote this entire song. My god, the words. This was written by Stevie Nicks and she’s my queen. I’ve had a few discussions on her and I’ve now said several times that I would walk past Harry Styles to talk to Stevie Nicks first. YES, that serious.

Anyways, again, this song is haunting. I’ll probably use that word too much, but it’s perfect.

Full lyrics here.

Never Going Back

This isn’t one of my favorite songs on the album, because it has such a calm melody throughout the entire song. But if I want to sit quietly and work, I’ll keep this on and listen in. It’s a beautiful beat, guitar strings sounding strong throughout. Lyrics here.

Don’t Stop

Everyone loves this song, even if you don’t love Fleetwood Mac. Same with the next song. However, I fell victim to hearing the words wrong. I always thought the line that says “Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here” went “Don’t stop using mee-heee.” I actually thought that up until I was writing this article, so yay! Another to add to the “wrong lyrics” trope.

This is a song that you can sing in the karaoke bar with your friends but it’s also such a good song lyrically. It’s quick and not complicated, but thoughtful. Full lyrics here.

Go Your Own Way

This song is about letting a love go, knowing that that love is wrong but it feels so right.

“Loving you/Isn’t the right thing to do/How can I ever change things that I feel?/If I could/Baby I’d give you my world/How can I/When you won’t take it from me?”

There are wailing harmonies and so many layers, that the song is just beautiful, but rocking the hell out. The guitar solo at the end right before the last stanza is just magic, and one of the reasonsthat I fell in love with the sound of the electric guitar – the other song that led to this was Layla by Eric Clapton, who was a member of the band that Fleetwood and McVie left before forming Fleetwood Mac.

Full lyrics here.

Songbird

I know I’ve probably used this word too much already, but this song is just beautiful. It’s mainly Christine McVie on vocals and piano throughout. This seems like a good-bye song to her ex-husband and bandbate, John. About loving your partner through a split and wishing them love, but also wishing love for herself as well. full lyrics here.

The Chain

This song… THIS. SONG. Oh my lord, I can’t describe it. Everytime it comes on, I have to stop what I’m doing and give it my full attention. I was listening to Rumours as I wrote this and had to stop typing in order to fully immerse myself. The one line that sticks with me forever is “If you don’t love me now/You will never love me again/I can still hear you saying/You would never break the chain.” Also, “Damn your love/Damn your lies” which mirrors with “Damn the dark/damn the light”

It starts out so slow, with a bit of guitar and a heavy drumbeat and then just takes off at the end. The harmonies between male and female voices also just sound so crazy good, that I get so into it.

Full lyrics here.

You Make Loving Fun

This song is pure fun for me. It’s a lighter song on the album, its got a funky sound to it, great to sing along to and it’s sexy. The sexy is right there in the song title and in the lines “I never did believe in miracles,/But I’ve a feeling it’s time to try./I never did believe in the ways of magic,/But I’m beginning to wonder why.” The lyrics aren’t plentiful, but this band is so talented with their instruments that there doesn’t have to be a lot of lyrics.

Full lyrics here.

I Don’t Want To Know

Another crazy good breakup song, this song is an upbeat tempo, with a lot of twangy guitar bits. I love the lyrics, since they convey a “oh finally, we’re talking about our problems” tone. I remember seeing this performed on Glee when they did their Fleetwood Mac tribute episode and I was pleasantly surprised by their cover. My favorite line is “The truth has been told/Now you tell me that I’m crazy/That’s nothing that I didn’t know.”

Full lyrics here.

Oh Daddy

This song is by Christine McVie and I’m still not sure who it’s about. It could be about her ex-husband John, or even about Mick Fleetwood, as a father/older friend figure in her life. Regardless of who it’s about, the song is a child/parent analogy about a codependent relationship. C. McVie’s voice is best suited on these slower paced, haunting songs. She has a gorgeous voice and it’s best when it’s appreciated like this.

Gold Dust Woman

In an interview with VH1 for a feature on Rumors for Classic Albums, Nicks gave an insight to this song saying “Gold Dust Woman’ was my kind of symbolic look at somebody going through a bad relationship, doing a lot of drugs, and trying to make it. Trying to live. Trying to get through it.” What gets me the most out of this song is the line by her that says “Rulers make bad lovers.” She also said in another interview with Courtney Love that there was cocaine present when they wrote and recorded this song, so it was a song big on tapping into her emotions and laying it bare. It’s no secret that a lot of big (and small) bands did drugs and have done drugs, but Fleetwood Mac has been frank about the issues they went to. It added to the absolute turmoil of the time that Rumours was written. This song is also probably the most wordy song on the album.

Full lyrics here

Other Favorite Songs

Rhiannon (Fleetwood Mac)

This song is the epitome of a haunting song. Steve Nicks wrote this before she had joined Fleetwood Mac and was inspired to write it after reading a novel called Triad, by Mary Leader. She thought that the name was pretty and wrote the song. Later, she found out that there is a legend about a Welsh goddess named Rhiannon and that her lyrics matched up with the description in the stories of the goddess. She is described as “a strong minded Otherworld woman….Rhiannon is highly intelligent, politically strategic, and famed for her wealth and generosity.” The song’s lyrics are beautiful and my favorite line is probably “Would you stay if she promised you heaven?/Will you ever win?”

This song has a family connection for me as well. My older cousin was named for this song, and she perfectly embodies the spirit of the Welsh goddess and, in some ways, the song lyrics. She’s one of my role models and it seems fitting that she’s named after a legend.

Full lyrics here

Say You Love Me (Fleetwood Mac)

This song is so fun and sexy to me. My favorite line in it is “Cause when the loving starts, and the lights go down/And there’s not another living soul around/Then you woo me until the sun comes up/And you say that you love me.” However, it is another case of me mishearing lyrics. I always thought “then you woo me until the sun comes up” actually said “then you MOVE me until the sun comes up.” I like it either way. This was written by C. McVie for the 1975 album and before she and John went through their divorce, so it’s an ode to their love and their sex life.

I love to dance to this song, because the melody just makes me want to sway. It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting or standing.

Full lyrics here .

Little Lies (Tango in the Night)

Lying always comes up in songs about love. This song even has the line “tell me lies/tell me sweet little lies.” I interpret it as not wanting to see the truth in your partner and wanting to keep up the facade of a wonderful relationship. We’ve seen it in other bands, including a certain song from a certain British boyband (ahem, Tell Me A Lie by One Direction).

Full lyrics here.

What I really love about this band is the fact that the two female members were just as respected in their talents as the three male members. Nicks and C. McVie wrote a lot on each of the albums they were in the band for. Another interesting aspect is that if someone wrote a song, they usually sung it. As I mentioned earlier, C. McVie sung mostly by herself on “Songbird” and “Oh Daddy,” while Nicks sang “Rhiannon” mostly by herself, with backing vocals from the rest of the band throughout.

Influence

Now, because our audience here at Trendom is mostly One Direction fans, I’ll discuss the fact that the fandom went into an absolute tizzy when Harry went to the first of their two concerts with his sister and a friend, with Niall and his cousin going the next night. Both appropriately fanboy’d over them and it just warms my heart to see that my new faves love my classic faves as much as I do. We know through One Direction’s producer Julian Bonetta that “Fireproof” is Fleetwood Mac-inspired. When I heard that, it all made sense.

They’ve obviously had a huge influence on music all over the place. I found a great article explaining just this, so I’ll link it here, instead of wanting to re-write everything and using far too many quotes. Basically, Haim, Ladies in the Canyon (a Canadian act), and Beck all credit them with intense inspiration on their most recent albums and dozens of artists have officially and unofficially covered their songs and drawn inspiration. The list would be way too long. Probably the most prominent is the Dixie Chicks cover of “Landslide.”

In conclusion

Find music that you love, no matter the genre, era, whatever. If it makes you feel, then it’s good for your soul. I will never stop loving classic rock and I get absolutely giddy when my new faves come out with music with strong influences from the good old days.

I originally wrote this post for an online magazine called Trendom in June 2015 and I wanted to revisit and expand on it a bit.