The Fleetwood Mac song Stevie Nicks “directed straight at Lindsey”
While music does different things for different people, and the reasons that individuals make music tend to vary, generally speaking, you can bet that expressionism plays an important part in the decision-making process. People are able to convey their emotions very effectively when they make music, and subsequently, it has been used as a means to facilitate love, loss, and desperation ever since the romantic movement.
There was no band out there who had more to say than Fleetwood Mac, and all they did to find inspiration was look within the confines of their own band. There was a lot of drama going on, which was the result of the pressures of touring, extensive substance abuse, and complicated relationships within the band. It meant that whenever one of them wanted to write a song, all they had to do was reflect on the past couple of days, and the subject matter would present itself.
Of course, the downside is that, as listeners, it can be hard for us to pinpoint directly what a song is about. This is the case with the 1977 hit ‘Gold Dust Woman’. The song was released on the album Rumours, which came out when the band was taking a lot of cocaine. Subsequently, many people think the class A substance is the inspiration for the song; however, others believe it has a second meaning.
Stevie Nicks’ relationship with Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham may well have played a big part in the song as well, given that they had just broken up following a difficult period at the time of writing. The recording assistant, Cris Morris, seems to think so as he reflects on the session when the song was made.
“Recording ‘Gold Dust Woman’ was one of the great moments because Stevie was passionate about getting the vocal right. It seemed like it was directed straight at Lindsey and she was letting it all out,” he said, “She worked right through the night on it, and finally did it after loads of takes. The wailing, the animal sounds and the breaking glass were all added later.”
Another part of the recording process that implies Stevie Nicks was writing about something she held close to her heart was her commitment to the recording process. She wouldn’t leave the studio until the vocals were perfect and her emotion rang out with every passing second.
Mick Fleetwood remembers seeing her during the recording process, describing her as “Hunched over in a chair, alternately choosing from her supply of tissues, a Vicks inhaler, a box of lozenges for her sore throat and a bottle of mineral water.”
Ironically, in the song, which was likely aimed at Buckingham, he was required to elevate the track to the heights it eventually reached. Cris Morris remembers, “Five or six months into it, once John had got his parts down, Lindsey spent weeks in the studio adding guitar parts, and that’s what really gave the album its texture.”
