The drumbeat may have been nicked from the Stones’ Street Fighting Man, but this tune is the very essence of Fleetwood Mac.It’s difficult to blame Lindsey Buckingham for having a chip on his shoulder. “Packing up/Shacking up is all you want to do.” Nicks flatly denies this was ever the case and resented the world being told so in a song, presumably even more so in a song that was so perfect for American radio. Go Your Own WayĪ bitter and somewhat self-pitying lyric from Buckingham has a very direct pop at Nicks. What’s so good about it is that it does it so seamlessly and convincingly 1. It makes sense that this song is in fact a composite of a number of different pieces of music from all the band members, given how it moves from eerie vocal atmospherics to seventies rock workout in the space of four and a half minutes. Fleetwood gives the number a certain driving intensity with that quasi-marching beat he does so well, and the shared vocals – one part Buckingham, one part McVie – adds another delightful musical colour. Written by Christine McVie as a positive, uplifting, ‘moving on’ song, the jaunty, barrelhouse feel of the piano riff helps to confirm the positive mood at the song’s core. The scatty vocals sound ridiculously carefree for a song about playing second fiddle in the love stakes. Yet while the song acknowledges the guitarist’s sense of loss after another breakup with Stevie Nicks, its feel is entirely valedictory – a jaunty, sparkly army of guitars banishes any traces of maudlin emotion. “I know there’s nothing to say/Someone has taken my place,” he says, unflinchingly.
Lindsay Buckingham stakes out the album’s emotional territory on the album’s opener.
Buckingham pulls out a number of interesting guitar textures here, which only adds to the tune’s undeniable charm. But this is ultimately a perfect example of why Rumours is so strong, as disparate elements mould into a coherent whole.
0 kommentar(er)
