Birthday 1977 & Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (nme.com)

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

Preface

2017 is the year that Rumours, arguably the ultimate poprecord, turns 40. What’s left to be said about that album? All has been said already: the divorces, the emotional rollercoaster, the songs written to each other, the gentlemen living and sleeping in a communal space, the ladies in an apartment by the sea, the mountains of cocaine, the recording tape growing thinner and thinner, and yet this incredible music. And so, this is not a story about Rumours.

Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way (45cat.com)

Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way

11 years

On March 14th 1977, 40 years ago today, I turned 11 years old. Later on in the year I would buy the album, using my own saved up money, at Diskoland at the (at the time still new) indoor shopping mall Middenwaard. On my birthday I got the single Go Your Own Way. This was great! And, also, Stevie Nicks was stunningly beautiful! I suspect that Stevie Nicks was the first woman I really thought was beautiful/sexy. Later on I learned that almost everybody in the (Western) world thought so.

Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way videoclip (youtube.com)

Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way videoclip

Videoclip

I can still visualize the videoclip vividly. Ignorant to the fact that the song was written by Lindsey Buckingham and aimed toward Stevie Nicks, I enjoyed the drumming, the community singing, the guitar playing by the fabulous Lindsey Buckingham and of course Stevie Nicks: everything was fantastic!

Stevie Nicks 1977 (goldduststevie.tumblr.com)

Stevie Nicks 1977

Go Your Own Way

To this day, shivers go down my spine, every time I hear the song. Buckingham’s second guitarsolo in particular is terrific. I must have heard it thousands of times by now, but it still remains beautiful! The packaging was great also: the cover itself, but also the single, with that beautiful Warner Bros. logo from that period on the single’s label.

Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way (label) (45cat.com)

Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way (label)

Lyrics

The lyrics of the song are about the decline of the relationship between Buckingham and Nicks. Stevie Nicks has stated that Buckingham’s lyrics were more hostile and aggressive than hers, which rings true. According to Nicks, the part Shacking up’s all you wanna do was an unnecessary snub, within which she didn’t see herself at all.

Fleetwood Mac 1977 (writeonmusic.com)

Fleetwood Mac 1977

B-side

The single’s B-side contains the beautiful Silver Springs. I don’t remember playing that a lot when I was young, but since the re-release of Rumours, wherein the song was incorporated, I listen to it regularly. A shame this didn’t fit on the original Rumours, for it is a top song, which would have fit the album perfectly.

Diskoland old logo (leiden.courant.nu)

Diskoland old logo

Rumours

Of course I got the album too. After weeks and weeks of not being available (the album was out of stock everywhere), and cycling full of hope to Diskoland every week, it had finally arrived.

But… it was a misprint. The record (vinyl) was full of ticking and noise. I clearly remember being really pissed (and frustrated)…

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours advert (superseventies.com)

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours advert

In closing

In the end all turned out well. Rumours comes by a couple of times every year: top album!

What do you think of Rumours, and Go Your Own Way in particular? Let me know!

 

Compliments/remarks? Yes, please!