The best song Stevie Nicks wrote for Fleetwood Mac, according to Mick Fleetwood
Despite what we’re told, it is hard to truly know what makes a hit. Sure, in the glossy world of bubblegum pop, you can put together pieces of an attractive puzzle to the soundtrack of a four-chord song with a catchy hook, but in more alternative circles, it’s more feeling-led. And by the time 1977 rolled around, Fleetwood Mac had been through various lineup changes and genres, never really knowing where their hit was hiding.
In the early 1970s, they had a compelling frontman in Peter Green, who with hits like ‘Oh Well’ proved he could thrust the band’s blues iconography worthy of the late-night London bars they were playing. Despite the general appetite for blues in that decade, the band were by no means chart toppers and may have secretly resigned to the fact they may never be when Green eventually left the band.
Lindsey Buckingham was targeted as his replacement, and the band reluctantly granted his request to allow Nicks to join. Little did they know that the dangling commercial carrot that had eluded them for so long would be hiding in her pocket, somewhere alongside her tambourine and mythical trinkets.
The then 29-year-old was a battered and bruised artist, beaten up by the continued rejection of the music industry while navigating the murky waters of heartbreak at the hands of her collaborator Buckingham. And so out of the darkness came genius, in the form of ‘Dreams’. Laced into her captivating vocal take that borders on the sultry before bursting into chorus catharsis are profound metaphors questioning the nature of love, loss and its aftermath.
How Fleetwood Mac turned heartbreak into a timeless hit
It was a perfect storm of a song, combining genuine artistic merit with an infectious groove, making a hit for all the right reasons and has since become the band’s most iconic song. So there’s no doubt that the band’s leader, Mick Fleetwood, feels indebted to it and views it as one of his favourite Mac songs of all time.
“’Dreams’ is a given,” Fleetwood says. “I think it’s the most famous song that Stevie ever wrote.”
But beneath Nicks’ iconic vocals is one of Fleetwood’s most iconic performances himself, carrying the etherealness of melody into groovier realms with a drum beat his ‘70s soul counterparts would have been proud of.
He admitted: “The intro, I think is one of those stupidly simple things that came from the drummer who played with Al Green and The Staple Singers, so it’s from my love of what I call ‘greasy music.’ It has a real feel, and it’s lazy, behind the beat – stupidly simple but well-thought-out”.
He added, “The tempo of the song, I’ve been finding out, is something that really appeals to drummers, so I take that as a compliment. It’s something I took from great players who I love so much: Keep it greasy and stay in the slot. Gotta be in the slot!”
If you track the entire life of Fleetwood Mac from their genesis to their latest gig with a full lineup, they were at their undeniable best during Rumours and their imperious peak on ‘Dreams’. The fractious relationships, the heady recording sessions and the wealth of talent all forged together to make a dramatic body of artistic greatness.
