The Fleetwood Mac song that would have been perfect for Christine McVie
Despite most associations with Fleetwood Mac centring around the tumultuous relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, one component supercharged the entire operation: Christine McVie. Without her, the sound of the Mac would have been far less dynamic, and her soulful voice and expert keyboard playing would have left their sound without their signature depth and texture.
The beauty of Fleetwood Mac is that there’s something for everybody: while Lindsey Buckingham leaned into his guitar-rockin’ edge, Stevie Nicks adopted a more whimsical approach. Meanwhile, McVie wrote and sang with a more pop sensibility and emotional depth, which worked well with the accompanying rock and folk-oriented material.
Although she encountered her own personal and professional challenges, McVie was also a stable driving force within the band, acting as the glue that kept everyone together and focused during their most fiery moments. Without her, albums like Rumours would have likely disintegrated into mere arguments and endless discussions rather than controlled passion channelled into art.
Along with Nicks, McVie was undeniably one of the band’s best songwriters, and the others knew it, too. Mick Fleetwood, in particular, saw something in her he rarely saw in anybody, and what made her even more sought-after was the fact she seemed to have a penchant for musical creativity from a young age. Even within her blues band, Chicken Shack, she honed her skills as a classically-trained pianist, ripping off “a lot of licks” from greats she had heard before.
One of their songs, ‘When The Train Comes Back’, made Fleetwood jealous, but not because he wished to have had a part in Chicken Shack. He felt slightly bitter because he wished McVie had written the song for Fleetwood Mac.
“Oh, ‘When The Train Comes Back’. Mick loves that song,” the musician told Uncut. “He used to say, ‘I wish you’d written that when you were with us.'”
Fleetwood also became enamoured with McVie’s words on ‘Songbird’, once admitting he wants the song played at his funeral. In his words, this song is the only one perfectly emotive and “maudlin” enough to “send me off fluttering”. It’s easy to understand why. With McVie’s voice crooning over heartfelt musings like, “Here’ll be no more crying for you, the sun will be shining because I feel that when I’m with you,” nothing seems more fitting for a personal swan song.
Following McVie’s tragic passing in 2022, it became more apparent than ever before that the nucleus of the singer’s legacy remains attached to her artistic prowess, both in her unrivalled ability to capture the most profound aspects of the heart and soul and the most complicated parts of human existence. McVie’s contributions to Fleetwood Mac might have been crucial to their commercial successes, but her musicianship and vocal talents made her an irreplaceable figure in music.
