[imagesource: Herbert Worthington]
Stevie Nicks is a genius, but you knew that already if you’re a Fleetwood Mac fan.
Where my Fleetwood Mac fans at? I hear you, going wild.
It’s no mean feat going through the band’s entire catalogue and picking just 10 songs. Rolling Stone actually picked 50 but we’re going to focus on the top 10.
Bonus – we’ll chuck in the music video for the top five so you can get your groove on.
Let’s get 10 through six out of the way:
- “Gypsy”
- “Oh Well”
- “Gold Dust Woman”
- “Landslide”
- “Rhiannon”
It’s disappointing to see ‘Landslide’ not cracking a spot in the top five but competition is fierce.
Numero cinco (that’s Spanish for number five) is ‘Everywhere’:
Released as the fourth single from Tango, the airy Christine McVie tune “Everywhere” was Fleetwood Mac’s final single to break the American Top 20. The song’s recording was fraught with tension thanks to an argument that took place after Nicks heard an early version without her harmonies.
So very 1980s:
Number four is ‘The Chain’:
Side Two of Rumours opens with a tortuously pastiched collaboration that remains the only song in the band’s history on which all five members of Fleetwood Mac are credited as songwriters…
They settled on an ominous 10-note bass passage played by John McVie over Fleetwood’s ascending drum pattern.
Hit play. You know it:
Number three is ‘Silver Springs’:
Inspired by a road sign she spotted on tour, Nicks intended this simmering requiem for her romance with Buckingham to be her crowning moment on Rumours…
A live version on 1997’s The Dance was nominated for a Grammy – belated recognition for one of Nicks’ masterworks.
I’ll excuse you if this one doesn’t ring a bell:
Into the final two and some serious power hitters.
Second place goes to ‘Go Your Own Way’:
“‘Go Your Own Way’ was filled with anger, it was filled with angst,” [Buckingham] recalled. With an inverted stomping drumbeat and a taut, aggressive guitar part, it was also a hard-driving departure from the “light rock” with which Fleetwood Mac were being grouped.
One to get the old folks ‘turnt’, as the kids say:
Drum roll.
It can only be ‘Dreams’ atop the list:
One afternoon during the recording of Rumours, Nicks disappeared into a small studio in the Record Plant, which belonged to Sly Stone. “It was a black-and-red room with a sunken pit in the middle where there was a piano, and a big, black-velvet bed,” she said. “I sat down on the bed with my keyboard in front of me … and wrote ‘Dreams’ in about 10 minutes.”
“Dreams” became Fleetwood Mac’s only Number One single, Nicks’ mystical assessment of her dying relationship with Buckingham.
At least the band go a number of world-class tunes out of that messy, protracted breakup:
You may recall the song had a return to the charts after this video went viral:
So ends our Friday Fleetwood deep dive.
You can see the full Rolling Stone list here.
[source:rollingstone]
