The Fleetwood Mac riff that happened by magic: “It just came to him”
Despite his very name being in the band name, John McVie is a relatively underappreciated member of Fleetwood Mac. Like most bass players, his contribution is relegated to the background, supporting the ambitions of the more gregarious members who garner the critical acclaim.
In the case of Fleetwood Mac, McVie’s ex-wife Christine, along with fellow vocalists Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, were credited for adding the colour to the band’s magnum opus, Rumours, for their varied vocals, which joined together for luscious harmonies and formed the compelling orator of the album’s dramatic storytelling.
But behind it were the band’s founders, the beating heart of the record, McVie and Mick Fleetwood, who created the bedrock for their world of experimental dream-rock. From a musical perspective, they weren’t just there to keep time, and from a storytelling standpoint, they were as involved in the drama as all three vocalists.
McVie didn’t have the opportunity to express his side of the experiences through song; instead, he had to provide the basslines to his soon-to-be ex-wife’s tracks of heartbreak and newfound lust. But he never faltered from his job, providing his signature mid-tempo groove that acted as a steady cliff for the record’s fluttering melodies to glide off.
For most of the record, his performance typified that of an underappreciated bassist, and many part-time fans would be quick to overlook his influence. But any such idea is quickly squashed by the performance of not just the album’s greatest bassline, but one of music’s most iconic.
Rumours’ epic track ‘The Chain’ served as a mission statement for the band. Bound together by the greatness within their musicianship, the track served as an intra-band pact to swallow their quarrels and step forward into their path of greatness. So it was somewhat fitting that, in the bridge, the member whose participation in the soap opera had remained largely silent throughout the record enters to play a standalone bassline that rouses its surrounding bandmates into a state of musical unison.
The genesis of that iconic part proved to the band that they were linked by some form of higher musical force. It wasn’t laboured over for weeks, as the band desperately searched for a kernel of greatness between their squabbling. Instead, it came naturally, proving that they were indelibly connected to one another in the studio.
“They ran through it one day and John McVie did that incredible bassline—just like that, it just came to him,” co-producer Ken Caillat told us in 2012. “What a part! Next, the band began playing the tag at the end, that big rocking section. Amazing. Then, out of nowhere, Lindsey played a screaming guitar solo. Really exciting stuff.”
The song was used as a set opener for the band in the decades that followed the release of Rumours, providing the perfect backdrop of drama and tension which the later songs would contextualise. But, moreover, it introduced crowd members to the individual assets of this great band and how none of their individual greatness would be achieved without those five particular members sharing a soul in the song.
