(Image credit: Far Out / Alamy)
Fleetwood Mac were at their best. When they weren’t arguing, fighting, or having major disagreements, they were writing songs about it all in record time. Stevie Nicks wrote “Dreams” in about ten minutes, while many other songs seemed to bubble out of each member in a time that can only be associated with anything other than creativity.
But the band members weren’t just creative in a short period of time; they were industry leaders who achieved unprecedented levels of excellence. “Dreams” may have been created in a short amount of time, but it was also an exercise in “less is more,” and its simplicity effectively redefined what it meant to feature minimalist instrumentation in the pop-rock renaissance.
Despite the tensions that often arose between Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, they managed to make their partnership work. Both have spoken openly about how their conflicts were not related to the deep mutual respect they felt for each other. This unique dynamic allowed them to channel their emotions into writing some of the fiercest lyrics possible, knowing they would be met with professional support rather than personal backlash. Their ability to balance personal discord with artistic collaboration is a testament to their enduring creative chemistry.
Christine McVie also faced some challenges behind the scenes, most notably the breakdown of her marriage, but she too found a way to channel these into musical excellence. There’s a reason “Songbird” remains one of the band’s biggest and most enduring hits, and that’s largely because it eschews excess in favor of a more intimate offering.
Even more fascinating is the fact that the musician wrote the song in less than half an hour. In a way, McVie learned through this exercise that music can become second nature when it is felt in the depths of the soul. As she said in an interview with People: “For some strange reason, I wrote ‘Songbird’ in half an hour. I never figured out how I did it. I woke up in the middle of the night and the song was there in my head, chords, lyrics, melody, everything.”
Recalling her desire to keep the song before she forgot it, she added, “I played it in my bedroom and had nothing to record it on. So I had to stay up all night so I wouldn’t forget it, and the next morning I came into the studio and had (producer) Ken Callait record it on a two-track. That’s how the song ended up. I don’t know where that came from. I wish it happened more often, but it doesn’t.”
While McVie never realised that such an approach was rare, its natural genesis probably appealed to the band in more ways than one, most notably Mick Fleetwood, who loved the song so much he once said he wished it was his funeral song. In his words, it’s the only song that’s entirely emotional and “sentimental” enough to “make me swoon”. That makes perfect sense – with McVie’s lyricism and lyrics like “The sun will shine, ’cause that’s what I feel when I’m with you”, nothing seems more fitting for a personal swan song.
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