The Fleetwood Mac song Mick Fleetwood couldn’t figure out: “Capitalising on my ineptness”
The classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac was always a beautiful contradiction. For all of the emotional trainwrecks going on behind the scenes throughout their glory years, they would always find a way to put down their pent-up animosities and translate them into beautiful music across the late 1970s and into the 1980s. Although Mick Fleetwood may have been the beating heart during every iteration of the band, he admitted that one song showcased his musical incompetence.
For the first years of the group’s formation, they were in a much different place than the act we know today. Starting with blues guitar legend Peter Green behind the microphone, the first version of the band was known as one of the most promising acts coming out of the British blues scene, creating unique tracks like ‘Albatross’ and the non-Santana version of ‘Black Magic Woman’.
After Green left the band and failed stint with guitarist Bob Welch, the band would bring in Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham as a songwriting duo. Joining the likes of Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie, it looked like the band had achieved perfection on their self-titled White Album, only for everything to implode once they got on the road.
Once Christine and John separated, Nicks and Buckingham began having their struggles, leading to an estranged relationship for most of the recording of the next album, Rumours. Although the group may have been hammering at each other emotionally behind the scenes, the songs would become the biggest highlights of their career, from Christine’s ‘Songbird’ to Nicks’s brilliant ballad ‘Dreams’.
Although Buckingham had a few melodic aces, ‘Go Your Own Way’ would never be easy to record. Known for being a perfectionist whenever he got to the studio, Buckingham had a clear idea of what the drums should sound like, only for Fleetwood to misunderstand what he wanted throughout the recording process.
When discussing the song later, Fleetwood remembered how tough it was settling on the groove Buckingham was aiming for, telling Classic Albums, “I never quite got to grips with what he wanted, so the result was my mutated interpretation. It became a major part of the song, a completely back-to-front approach that came, and I’m ashamed to say, from capitalising on my ineptness”.
Relying heavily on the tom-toms for most of the verses, what Fleetwood ended up with was the perfect foil to Buckingham’s rhythm guitar. Since the song had to do with the various struggles that he had with Nicks during the sour sides of their relationship, the rhythm maintains a nervy energy, almost like an emotional bomb that explodes once the chorus kicks in.
While the frayed emotions may have lingered for long after the sessions were over, ‘Go Your Own Way’ would become one of the most celebrated songs in the band’s catalogue, while Fleetwood steered the song into new and adventurous places every time he took to the stage. Buckingham may have been particular about what he wanted, but there was nothing that Fleetwood took on that he couldn’t turn into brilliance.
