The Fleetwood Mac song that ended with Stevie Nicks in a fight: “The song grew more evil”
A producer’s job is to often ask uncomfortable questions, to occasionally fight back against the unrealistic demands of an artist, and to steer the ship in a direction that can result in the best possible creation. If a producer isn’t reigning back the artist they are working alongside, the final product will likely become too self-important and not fulfil its potential. The best producers are those who aren’t afraid to challenge their collaborators, even if it means they risk the breakdown of a relationship, like in the case of Ken Caillat and Stevie Nicks.
The name Fleetwood Mac is likely enough to shock studio owners. The group was famous not only for its inter-band love triangles but also for its wild partying, which routinely spilled into the studio space. Therefore, it was a producer’s job to keep the band on the straight and narrow without dulling their creative intentions.
Along with the band and Richard Dashut, Ken Caillat was a co-producer on the now-iconic album Rumours — helping to create perhaps the most defining LP of the age. The experience was an intense one and his first exposure to working with Fleetwood Mac would certainly be eventful. It started a fruitful long-term partnership. While the album quickly descended into chaos behind the scenes, the group somehow found a way to make a timeless record despite the odds being stacked against them.
Famously, the album was shaped by relationship problems and break-ups among members of the group. Additionally, cocaine was a crucial part of their daily routine, which only added to the mayhem and hostility between the band.
Caillat’s job was almost impossible, but they managed to restrain Fleetwood Mac and capture the magic of those sessions. Initially, he wasn’t convinced by the album’s closing track ‘Gold Dust Woman’, describing it as a “weird song” during an interview with Music Radar in 2012. While he wasn’t originally interested in the creation, the producer challenged Nicks, and after a brief argument, they crafted a classic.
“It was a weird song, and truthfully, I wasn’t very excited about it. I couldn’t tell where it was going. It was typical Stevie – most of her songs, in their inception, are close to 10 or 12 minutes long, with endless verses and epic stories,” he explained to the publication.
Caillat continued: “My job became one of editing, taking all of these sections and making them flow, cutting out the fat. Stevie would go crazy – ‘Oh, that verse was about my mother! That part was about my dog!’ [laughs] These things would mean something to her, but they had to work for the listener.”
This is the delicate balancing act of a producer. Nurturing creativity while avoiding the pitfalls of over-production, allowing the artist to talk about their most personal moments throughout their work while still making the end-product feel universal and connected to the world around it.
Although Nicks was furious about Caillat deleting lyrics from the track, which had a poignant meaning to her, it was necessary for the success of ‘Gold Dust Woman’. The track’s title is a metaphor for cocaine, which stimulated her throughout the song’s development and explains why it was originally over ten minutes long. Caillat claimed Nicks adopted the protagonist’s persona in ‘Gold Dust Woman’ as the recording process went on, and she became “this witch she was always writing about”.
“The song grew more evil as we built it,” Caillat recalled. “Stevie had a lot of Courvoisier in her, and she did this incredible coyote-like howling at the end. She had become this witch she was always writing about. To accentuate her vocals, Mick went into this room we had miked up, and he broke sheets of glass. He was wearing goggles and coveralls – it was pretty funny. He just went mad, bashing glass with this big hammer. He tried to do it on cue, but it was difficult. Eventually, we said, ‘Just break the glass,’ and we fit it all in.”
While Nicks was initially hesitant about Caillat’s ideas and went “crazy” when he made suggestions, ultimately, she listened. The Fleetwood Mac singer was almost untouchable at the height of her powers. However, she was helped greatly by the people she surrounded herself with, such as Caillat, who doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his contribution to Rumours.
