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Fleetwood Mac · S3 E7
The Chemistry
Five people, three songwriters, two couples. The formula that will produce the best-selling album of the 1970s
Spring 1976, backstage at a sold-out arena. Six months ago nobody in this room could have named all five members of Fleetwood Mac, and now every ticket for the next three months is gone.
Fleetwood Mac, "Go Your Own Way" (official music video, 1976). The first single from Rumours and the song that announces the chemistry has not just survived, it has weaponized. Buckingham wrote it about Nicks, and she hated every word of it.
The Formula
What makes this lineup work is not talent alone. It is the fact that three completely different songwriters are feeding material into the same band, and the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie is flexible enough to serve all of them.
Record Plant Studios, Sausalito
The studio where the five of them will spend the next year recording Rumours, the best-selling album of the 1970s.
Go Your Own Way
Buckingham wrote this as a direct response to his breakup with Nicks, and the anger is right there on the surface. The drums are almost punk rock: Fleetwood plays a tom-heavy pattern he initially resisted, but it gives the song its relentless forward drive. Nicks was furious about the lyrics, particularly the line about packing up and shacking up, which she felt was untrue and cruel. She sang backing vocals on it anyway, because that is what professionals do.
TAP TO REVEAL: What is the only song on Rumours credited to all five members of Fleetwood Mac?
“We were like a soap opera that just happened to make music. But the strange part was that the worse things got between us personally, the better the music became. I still can't explain that.”
— Mick Fleetwood, interview with Rolling Stone, 1997
Bonus Listening
"Silver Springs", recorded during the Rumours sessions but cut from the album because it was too long for vinyl. Nicks was devastated. She wrote it about Buckingham, and the title came from a road sign she saw driving through Maryland. It spent decades as a fan favorite before the legendary live version at The Dance reunion in 1997 brought it back into the spotlight.
Silver Springs, Fleetwood Mac (1977)
Read the lyrics while you listen. "You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you." Cut from Rumours for being too long. Stevie never forgave them.
How many songwriters does the classic Fleetwood Mac lineup have?
February 1977. A record called Rumours hits shelves, and within weeks it is clear that five people destroying each other have made something that will outlive all of them. Next: the album, track by track, and the pain behind every song.
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