‘Everywhere’’s blissed out vocals, perky bass line, and shimmering middle eight all combine to make a magical track about the joy of the first moments of a relationship. Sometimes a song becomes so familiar that what makes it special is nudged into the background, like a favourite dress worn too many times. Which we’re sure ex-husband John McVie enjoyed hearing, while playing the bass groove that runs through the track. Inspired by an affair McVie had with the group’s lighting director Curry Grant, she sings “sweet, wonderful you, you make me happy with the things you do”. Nicks sings of “drowning in a sea of love, where everyone would love to drown”, over Mick Fleetwood’s brush drum-work, the harsh mixing with the mellow.Īnother Christine McVie ‘Rumours’ track, ‘You Make Loving Fun’ came from a typically ‘Rumours’ background. Silvery strings echo around a slide guitar, as the harmonies rise, as Nicks leaves the past behind.Īn attempt to chronicle the relationships and ups and downs in the band during the ‘Rumours’ years, this single from 1979’s ‘Tusk’ exists in several different lengths and edits, but each is just as forlorn as the other.
With an Appalachian bent, Nicks sings, “I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me”. A relentlessly positive piano riff opens the track, and a trotting drum fill urges the listener- and the singer to remember that ‘it’ll be better than before, yesterday’s gone’.Ī ‘Rumours’ off-cut, ‘Silver Springs’ was the B-Side to ‘Go Your Own Way’, and only made it onto a Fleetwood Mac album almost twenty years after it was written – on 1997’s ‘The Dance’. Thematically, it’s not classic Mac – more hard rock than blues- but it’s worth it for the lengths the group take it to.Ī happier spin on a ‘Rumour’s break-up, vocalist Christine McVie committed to looking forward, rather than backward after eight years of marriage with bass guitarist John McVie. Originally a B-Side to ‘Over My Head’, the track quickly became a live staple, closing nearly every Mac gig, and appearing on each Fleetwood Mac live album (including an almost 10-minute version on 2004’s ‘Live: In Boston’). Fleetwood Mac’s final top ten in the US, 1987’s ‘Little Lies’ has a similar haunting hook to ‘Everywhere’, coupled with the surreptitious guitar lines of ‘Dreams’, making it mathematically at least 10% better than anything else.Ī Fleetwood Mac concert without ‘I’m So Afraid’ would be like a Bruce Springsteen concert without ‘Thunder Road’. We’re not sure why the video for this track is set on an abandoned farm, but we’ll try and put that in the past. Opening with a chanted “Why don’t you ask him if he’s going to stay?” before moving into a shriek of “Just tell me that you want me”, it’s paranoid, aggressive, and totally brilliant.
The track set the record for the highest number of musicians performing on a single, and considering that it came in the wake of ‘Rumours’, still went to #6 in the UK. That drum tattoo you hear at the start of ‘Tusk’? It’s actually the University of Southern California’s Trojan Marching Band. “I’m not a child any more, I’m tall enough to reach for the stars.” It’s not easy, it’s always complicated, but that’s how life is sometimes, they sing. Melancholic harmonies between Nicks and McVie lament the loss of innocence, but also look forward to change and growth. Out of kilter with ‘Tusk’s mainly new-wave vibe, ‘Beautiful Child’ is a sweet respite towards the end of the album.